I feel like I started out 2018 super strong with my reading life and goals. While my list of books to read was pretty dang long, I felt pretty confident I could get through most of the list. Then entered the Fall and I started teaching a class and my reading life just plummeted. I ended up having to focus all my extra time on preparing for this class and trying my best to keep up with my own kid’s pre-reading that I couldn’t stay on top of my list – nor could I stay on top of posting where I was at with reading!
That said, I’m hopeful that 2019 will prove to be a little different. I’d love to start posting here again more regularly and I’m working on a list for next year that will be possibly a little more realistic. But…I’m not teaching anyone next year except for my own children so I’m super hopeful!
Here’s what I read this past year – along with those I abandoned (books with an * were for a book club)
Abandoned Books
- Billy Budd (this was for my son’s CC class – what a doozy)
- The Great Divorce* (weird, totally weird)
- The Fledgling (a read aloud my daughter and I started – another weird one)
- Across Five Aprils (we started this as a family and then life…)
- Fanny Crosby (this was a pre-read for my daughter and we both abandoned it)
- Orthodoxy – (My brain…just can’t. Although I’m hoping to keep trying)
- The Mill on the Floss (I actually really liked this one. It’s a huge book and I had to return it to the library and never picked it up again)
- Tending the Heart of Virtue – (another one I didn’t have time to finish before I had to return it to the library)
Finished Fiction
- A Wind in the Door – L’Engle
- The Princess & the Goblin* – MacDonald
- Pride and Prejudice* – Austen
- Alias Grace* – Atwood
- The Book of Three* – Alexander
- Caddie Woodlawn – Brink
- David Copperfield* – Dickens
- Island of the Blue Dolphins – O’Dell
- Before We Were Yours – Wingate
- The Inimitable Jeeves* – Wodehouse
- Gilead – Robinson
- Father and I Were Ranchers: Little Britches – Moody
- Station Eleven* – St. John Mandel
- Glass Houses – Penny
- The Penderwicks – Birdsall
- Pachinko – Jin Lee
- A Gentleman in Moscow – Towles
- In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex* – Philbrick
- Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures – DiCamillo
- Jayber Crow – Berry
- Hannah Coulter – Berry
- Tanglewood Tales – Hawthorne
- This Must be the Place – O’Farrell
- Where the Red Fern Grows – Rawls
- The Phantom Tollbooth – Juster
- Murder on the Orient Express – Christie
Finished Non-Fiction
- Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life – Harrison-Warren
- A Touch of the Infinite: Studies in Music Appreciation – Hoyt
- Uncommon Type: Some Stories – Hanks
- 12 Ways Your Phone is Changing You* – Reinke
- Know and Tell: The Art of Narration – Glass
- Reading People: How Seeing the World Through the Lens of Personality Changes Everything – Bogel
- The Hiding Place – Ten Boom
- On Writing: A Memoir of Craft – King
- The Question: Teaching your Child the Essentials of Classical Education – Bortins
- The Self-Driven Child – Stixrud
- Educated* – Westover
- The Man Who Invented Christmas* – Standiford
- The Wisdom of God: Seeing Jesus in the Psalms… – Guthrie
- Seaman: The Dog Who Explored the West with Lewis and Clark – Karwoski
- Beauty in the Word – Caldecott
In Review
If I look at all the books I had on my original list, I pretty much read 80% of the fiction and read almost none of the Personal Growth. I abandoned a lot, which is a new thing for me to finally admit. I found this list to be a helpful one to turn to when I realized I was short a book to read and wasn’t sure where to go next.
The hardest book I tried to read was Orthodoxy. I really want to pick it up again this year and push through it. I read snippets from it all the time and they are so good! But this book just hurt my brain. I wanted so hard to understand it and just have it sink in so deep.
For fiction, the hardest books I read were a cross between Gilead and Jayber Crow. In both books, I just couldn’t enjoy the voice of the narrator. Gilead I couldn’t identify with at all; although listening to the Close Reads Podcast discussion helped a ton. Jayber Crow, I wanted to love, oh how I wanted to love it because everyone loves it, but honestly Hannah Coulter is my Port William favorite. I think maybe if I had read Jayber first I might have enjoyed it more; but Wendell’s voice as Hannah was much more relatable to me.
My favorite books of the year were:
- David Copperfield – because Dickens has become my complete favorite classic author
- Flora and Ulysses – hands down most enjoyable children’s book we read this year
- Know and Tell – best book on narration and just teaching-wise I’ve read
- Liturgy of the Ordinary – just super good for your heart and soul
Currently…
I’m still working on my final list for next year, but here’s what I’m reading as we close out 2018:
- Half a Yellow Sun – Adichie
- Man, The Dwelling Place of God – Tozer
- The Tech-Wise Family – Crouch
- The Children’s Homer – Colum
- The Swiss Family Robinson – Wyss