2020 Reading Review

  1. Shelter Mountain by Robyn Carr

  2. Pont Neuf by Max Byrd

  3. The Martian by Andy Weir

  4. The Proposal by Mary Balogh

  5. The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean

  6. Forward Collection: Stories of Tomorrow by Blake Crouch

  7. The Sentient Machine: The Coming Age of Artificial Intelligence by Amir Husain

  8. The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

  9. When Women Ruled the World: Six Queens of Egypt by Kara Cooney

  10. Someone to Love (Westcott #1) by Mary Balogh

  11. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

  12. Eye of the Beholder: Johannes Vermeer, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, & the Reinvention of Seeing by Laura J. Snyder

  13. A History of the World in Six Glasses by Tom Standage

  14. Napoleon's Buttons: How 17 Molecules Changed History by Penny Le Couteur

  15. The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women by Kate Moore

  16. Rosalind (The Four Sisters Series, Book 1) by Audrey Harrison

  17. Annabelle (The Four Sisters Series, Book 2) by Audrey Harrison

  18. The Captain’s Wallflower by Audrey Harrison

  19. The Work of Art by Mimi Matthews

  20. The Real Sherlock by Lucinda Hawksley

  21. Half a Soul (Regency Faerie Tales, Book 1) by Olivia Atwater

  22. A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

  23. The Golden Thread: How Fabric Changed History by Kassia St Clair

  24. The Drunken Botanist: The Plants That Create the World's Great Drinks by Amy Stewart

  25. The Genius of Birds by Jennifer Ackerman

  26. The Matrimonial Advertisement (Parish Orphans of Devon, Book 1 ) by Mimi Matthews

  27. An Arrangement of Sorts (Arrangements, Book 1) by Rebecca Connolly

  28. Married to the Marquess (Arrangements, Book 2) by Rebecca Connolly

  29. Secrets of a Spinster (Arrangements, Book 3) by Rebecca Connolly

  30. Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

  31. Someone to Watch Over Me (Bow Street Runners #1) by Lisa Kleypas

  32. The Jamestown Brides by Jennifer Potter

  33. 1984 by George Orwell

  34. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

  35. The Christmas Hirelings by Mary Elizabeth Braddon

  36. Stealing the Show: A History of Art and Crime in Six Thefts by John Barelli and Zachary Schisgal

  37. Wild Swan: A Story of Florence Nightingale by Patti Callahan

  38. Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich by Normal Ohler

  39. Fentanyl, Inc: How Rogue Chemists Are Creating the Deadliest Wave of the Opioid Epidemic by Ben Westhoff

Goals? What Goals?

I set a goal last year to read more fantasy in 2020 and largely failed. Spurred on by my exploration of the romance genre, I wanted to explore other genres I hadn’t had much exposure to and chose fantasy as my target. I did read three fantasy titles this year, and they were among my favorite titles I read, though three is a very small percentage of my overall book consumption this year. I’ll be deferring this goal to 2021 . But I was able to meet my Goodreads goal of reading 24 books!

Focus Issues

For a significant span of this year, I found focusing enough to read to be a challenge. Pandemic stress was definitely a contributing factor, but I also have some issues with my thyroid that impacts focus and cognition, chronic cognitive symptoms from an autoimmune condition, tinnitus that makes focus difficult, and I contacted COVID-19 in October and that can carry cognitive impairment symptoms as well. So, you know, my brain is not performing optimally. Audiobooks help, and I read several titles this year by listening to the audiobook and following along in the physical text with a highlighter to pick out critical sections as a tool to improve my focus and recall.

Fun With Friends

Early in the year (pre-pandemic even!) I participated in a virtual book club with some Twitter friends. We read The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie together and discussed it in a mass DM thread. For many of us, it was the first time we’d read any Agatha Christie at all, so it was an interesting experience. I enjoyed getting an insight into the OG cozy mystery writer. I don’t read many mysteries, but I totally get their appeal. Many in our group weren’t surprised by the twist ending in the book, but I have to admit that I did not see the twist coming! I may read some more Agatha Christie in the future. Maybe I’ll start at the first Poirot book and read through the series since I have just read #4 randomly now!

Books I Read in 2020.jpg

A Different Mix

Changes in my reading habits will likely be impacted by the shift in Audible’s package offerings. The “Escapes Package” that offered a large library of romance titles is no longer available, but it’s been replaced by the Audible Plus catalog which offers unlimited titles in multiple genres. I did enjoy reading romance novels as a balm to pandemic stress because there of the promise of having guaranteed happy endings, though I found I couldn’t really get into a series and read it straight through. I started a few series that I thought I’d like, and ended up not continuing in them.

Podcasting

2020 was the year that I finally launched a literary podcast! I have been interested in podcasting for a number of years, but even though I’ve attended conference sessions that laid out the basics of how to get started podcasting, I hadn’t ever landed on a concept that I was excited about to sustain the level of effort it takes to bring a podcast to live and continue the grind. Podcasting is a LOT of work! In 2020, I landed on that magical concept that I felt uniquely qualified to bring to life. That’s ProbLITmatic focuses on discussing problematic relationships and themes in literature. It’s been driving my reading habits a lot this year. Because of the podcast, I’ve picked up some classics like 1984 by Orson Welles and The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner that I’ve always wanted to read, but never got around to making myself do it. I’m glad now to have an excuse to finally check some of these “required reading” titles off of my TBR list.

I recorded a preview episode for the podcast and recorded the first episode on the book Frankenstein…then that very day started feeling under the weather. Turns out I had Covid-19! I was sick for weeks and am still having some cognitive function disruption that keeps me from being able to concentrate on complicated tasks, so that pushed back my timeline for launching that episode and subsequent ones. I took time over the holidays to regroup and recover, and I’ve been reading and making notes and communicating with people who I’m having as guests in the future, so 2021 is poised to be an exciting year for this project.

Much Needed Humor

This year I keenly felt the need for a little levity, so I ended up buying books from two different humorous Twitter accounts I follow. The first is Men to Avoid in Art and Life that was born as a twitter thread wherein Nicole Tersigni combines witty feminist captions with images of Renaissance paintings featuring women looking supremely unimpressed by the men around them. It is the perfect summation of my humor and I immediately ordered it when I first learned it was published, unfortunately it was so popular that the first printing was sold out and I had to wait for AGES for my copy to arrive in the mail. Totally worth it. If your humor aligns in any way with the tweet embedded below, I recommend you pick up a copy of the book ASAP.

Men to Avoid in Art and Life by Nicole Tersigni

This is the book of my heart. Not only does it combined two of my chief joys in life - European paintings and gender equality - but it is beautifully designed. And Tersigni's humor, of course, is sharp and all-too-familiar to every woman. We've all dealt with mansplainers, concern trolls, patronizers, and those who get mortally offended when we don't find their sad attempts at humor funny in the least. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The second humor book I picked up this year to have as a handy reference for when I need a laugh is A Field Guide to Identification of Effin’ Birds which pairs gorgeously detailed illustrations of birds with profane captions. It’s the type of subversive humor I enjoy most and I find myself regularly re-tweeting my favorite Effin’ Birds images at people who piss me off on Twitter. My favorites are below:

The Year in Non-Fiction

It was another memorable year for reading in non-fiction. This year I went on a bit of a history of science kick, which isn’t surprising considering that on of my best friends is a medievalist specializing in the history of science. I like to keep up with the headlines that relate to his research just so I can hold my own in conversations with him, and when a book written for laypeople comes on the market, I like to make sure it gets slipped into my TBR pile.

I had the best discussions about Eye of the Beholder with the aforementioned friend! It was the perfect conjunction of our two areas of interest - early modern science for him and 16th century Baroque art for me. This is one that I will probably end up re-reading at some point because it was so interesting and went into great depth that I’m sure I didn’t fully absorb the first time around.

Eye of the Beholder: Johannes Vermeer, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, and the Reinvention of Seeing by Laura J. Snyder

I cannot say enough good things about how well-researched and engaging this book is. It was everything I hoped it would be and more. It's definitely going to be a contender for my favorite non-fiction read this year.

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The Disappearing Spoon definitely gave me a taste for Sam Kean’s writing and I was thrilled to learn he has several history and science non-fiction titles on the market. I’m sure I’ll be reading more of his work in future.

The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements by Sam Kean

Accessible for someone who not only is not a scientist, but also came close to failing chemistry when I studied it over two decades ago. The stories are engaging and memorable. I was entertained on a human level and fascinated by the science, even as a layperson.

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After The Disappearing Spoon re-ignited my thirst for chemistry and materials science knowledge, I picked up Napoleon’s Buttons right away. Le Couteur and Burreson’s work wasn’t quite as engrossing as Sam Kean’s, but I’m not entirely sure I can lay the blame squarely at their feet as I read this right as the early stages of the pandemic were dominating the headlines, though I remember it being a bit dryer and academic than Kean’s more informal and almost conversational style.

Napoleon's Buttons: How 17 Molecules Changed History by Penny Le Couteur and Jay Burreson

Very well researched. I did find my attention wondering a bit, which doesn't always happen in non-fiction. I don't necessarily attribute this as a condemnation of the quality of writing. It's a pandemic read, and I find my focus is impacted in direct relation to my level of anxiety.

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The all-knowing algorithm, seeing my interest in science non-fiction, then led me directly to my pick for the best non-fiction book I read in 2020. I recommended The Radium Girls to many people this year, and I found it particularly salient to be reading it during a public health crisis because it contains so many parallels between the misinformation and mismanagement of COVID-19 by the Trump Administration and the lies and cover-ups that occurred in the 1920s and 30s that cost the lives of so many workers who were told that the radium paint they handled was safe and would even improve their health.

While I was reading the text, I remember having so many conversations with friends about it and looking up a few podcasts that covered the topic. I also made sure to watch Radioactive, the dramatization of Marie Curie’s life starring Rosamund Pike, that came out in 2019. There’s also a film adaptation of a stage play that shares a name with the book, but I haven’t seen it yet.

The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women by Kate Moore

Very well-researched nonfiction with excellent storytelling and pacing. It never drags and strikes just the right balance between cold, hard facts and the personal details that give the story its heart.

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A History fo the World is 6 Glasses was just the type of accessible and fun non-fiction that I needed during the pandemic. I thoroughly enjoyed it’s well-laid out structure and the balance that it struck between presenting scholarship and archaeological evidence with engaging anecdotes and plenty of historical context. It wasn’t too heavy, and that’s precisely what I liked about it. Dare I say I found 6 Glasses refreshing?

A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage

Shorter than I wanted it to be. This book goes into just enough detail without getting too far into the academic weeds, but it was so fascinating, that I could have definitely read an entire book that was a deep dive into each of the beverages covered.

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Next I’ll cover two non-fiction history reads of 2020 that took me completely by surprise. First, The Jamestown Brides was shocking to me for imparting so much of my own country’s history that I’d never known about before. I’ve had a patchy formal education in history, but I considered myself unusually well-read in this area. I may have to reassess whether I truly am well read in history or not, though, because I learned so much through reading The Jamestown Brides and subsequently viewing the fantastic series America’s Untold Story from Secrets of the Dead on PBS that I’m certain I’ll be reading a lot more early American history in 2021 if only to fill in the gaps of my knowledge.

The Jamestown Brides: The untold story of England's 'maids for Virginia' by Jennifer Potter

Solid research, which must have been difficult given the geographic spread and dearth of historical records. I wish there would have been more personal stories, but it's good that the author didn't try to invent too much and shoehorn it in. The few inclusions of historical fiction excerpts were intriguing, though. I don't see that done often in non-fiction. A fascinating topic that has whet my appetite to queue up more reading on America during the colonization period.

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The second book that really surprised me a lot was Blitzed. I was absolutely shocked to learn that the Nazis war machine was run on methamphetamines during WWII and that Hitler was being injected with meth and testosterone. Hitler’s private physician injected him with so many vitamin cocktails and an opioid cousin of heroine called Eukadol that he soon couldn’t function without several injections in a day. Also shocking was the fact that Hitler received dozens of untested hormone treatments that were produced in unsanitary facilities that processed slaughterhouse offal and likely developed serious complications due to this practice. This was all new information to me, which accounts for part of why I found it so fascinating, but also I was again able to draw parallels with current events. The suspicion that Donald Trump abuses cocaine and Adderall is fueled by his often erratic behavior and movements and the frequency of his public appearance with extremely dilated pupils and instances where a hard white substance has sprayed from his mouth and nasal passages as he was giving public addresses. I found the descriptions of Hitler’s stimulant abuse and behavior in his final days startlingly similar to accounts of Trump’s reported relationship to stimulants and the behavior I’ve witnessed him display in public.

Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany by Norman Ohler, translated by Shaun Whiteside

Very well organized with excellent writing and research. I didn't know the extent of the Nazi regime's use of stimulants and the chapters on Hitler's drug abuse were fascinating.

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Now, from my top two sleeper hits of the year to my two biggest disappointments, though I hesitate to put The Golden Thread into the same category with When Women Rules the World because it deserves better.

I didn’t write a GoodReads review of The Golden Thread: How Fabric Changed History by Kassia St Clair. I do intend to re-read it eventually to give it a fair shot at impressing me when I’m not out of my mind with worry about the global pandemic, so perhaps I’ll write a review then. I really enjoyed St Clair’s The Secret Lives of Color. It’s one of the books I like to dip in and out of on occasion just to reference as I write. So when I heard she had a book about textile history coming out in 2020, I was really looking forward to it as textile history aligns with my interested in fashion history. I have to say, though, perhaps because of this high level of anticipation, I was left feeling let down by the actual book. I had a hard time staying engrossed in it, and didn’t find it very memorable. I do recall being enthralled by one section, so perhaps my biggest reason for not giving the book a starred review is that the sections were uneven.

This next one, though… I have to say that I rarely give one star reviews. I’m a fairly regular consumer of Egyptology media, not because I’m particularly interested in Egyptian history, but I am deeply interested in archaeology and a lot of popular media gets made about Egyptology because the pyramids and mummies and tombs are “sexy science”. So I went into this decidedly feminist take on Egyptian history with high hopes only to have them dashed. This is just a very poorly researched and very poorly written book by Kara Cooney.

When Women Ruled the World: Six Queens of Egypt by Kara Cooney

So. Much. Conjecture.

Here's how this book plays out: It asks a leading questions, then answers it without bothering to support the position with research. I expect better from non-fiction written by an academic and presumed expert in her field.

I'm strongly feminist, but this book leans hard into some gender issues that aren't strongly supported by the historical record. Sometimes I want to applaud when the author pulls no punches discussing the roll that Hillary Clinton played in her husband's administration and the roll that Ivanka Trump is currently playing, but the text never actually accurately draws the comparison between modern times and the historical figures being discussed adequately. I see the parallels with the ancient Egyptian queens she's trying to draw, but I don't think the writing and research quite got to the point it needed to be at. Perhaps it was rushed to press?

In any event, it was frustrating to read and I almost "DNF"-ed several times. The author did admirable narration on the audio version, though.

⭐️

Random Review Roundup

Sometimes I’ll write a review on Goodreads just because I know I’ll be writing this year-end retrospective and I want to record my thoughts on a book while they’re still fresh. This is the case with these few straggler reviews. I was pretty critical of romances this year. I don’t know if it’s because I’d exhausted my supply of excellent titles in the free library and was now down to the mediocre or average examples of the genre, or wether I’ve just had enough exposure to the genre now that its novelty has worn off for me. In any event, this year was an excellent year to indulge in reading romance. Having a guaranteed happy ending and fairly predictably structured conflict was a balm to frazzled nerves.

Secrets of a Spinster (Arrangements, #3) by Rebecca Connolly

Thoughts on the Arrangements series up to book 3: They're fine. There's not much to elevate them above others of their kind, but they will give you all the right feels. They're very chaste, if that's your thing. And they're not too heavy on research or period correctness. That's not to say they're incorrect. There's nothing to pull you out of the story screaming "that wasn't a THING then", but it also is nebulously framed in a wide swath of the period of horses and candlelight and quills and ink. The setting could float around in time by half a dozen decades and still not offend nitpickers. So if you're into specificity, there's not much here for you. The one thing that all three thus far have shared that had me sheer off a star on my rating is a propensity to cover the same emotional terrain too often. The stories could do with quite a bit less internal dialog about how dreamy/loathsome one character finds another. To me, it feels like the author doesn't respect my intelligence when they reiterate the same emotional guidepost thrice in as many pages. I'm not sure if I'll continue to read on until the rest of the cast get paired off. Collin might be worth sticking around for, but I'm still on the fence. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Annabelle (The Four Sisters, #2) by Audrey Harrison

This series is the worst offender of "head hopping" I've ever read. The abrupt shifts in POV take a lot away from the misunderstandings that provide the conflict in the story. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

This final review comes from the only historical fiction book I read this year. I remember very little about it, and I’m sure that is saying a lot.

Pont Neuf by Max Byrd

I can't imagine why this doesn't have a higher rating. I suppose because it is genre bending. People who love historical romance will dislike the literary quality of the description and management of the timeline, I suppose. I, for one, very much appreciated the complexity and subtlety.

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