PaperbackPirate reads 43 in '19!

I read 42 books, 1 play, and 1 literary journal in 2018. I'm counting that as 44 and as passing my goal of 42. Last year I based my goal on my age so I'm going to do the same again.

Previous threads in case you're interested:

2018 (44 books)
2017 (41 books)
2016 (43 books)
2015 (35 books)
2014 (33 books)
2013 (50 books)
2012 (43 books)
2011 (43 books)
2010 (42 books)

My goal is to post more reviews this year as part of the Monthly Key Word Reading Challenge. I hope you stop by!

January-March
1. I'm Proud of You: My Friendship with Fred Rogers by Tim Madigan - finished 1/2
2. Caliban's War by James S. A. Corey - finished 1/20
3. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See - finished 1/26
4. Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett - finished 2/18
5. The Winter of the Witch: A Novel by Katherine Arden - finished 3/10
6. You Suck: A Love Story by Christopher Moore - finished 3/16
7. Faithful by Alice Hoffman - finished 3/23
8. The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin - finished 3/29

April-June
9. Sisters in Law: How Sandra Day O'Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg Went to the Supreme Court and Changed the World by Linda Hirshman - finished 4/21
10. What the Fuzz?!: The Adventures of Fuzzberta and Friends, the World's Cutest Guinea Pigs by Monica Wu - finished 4/27
11. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells - finished 4/27
12. Before We Were Yours: A Novel by Lisa Wingate - finished 5/11
13. My Guy Barbaro: A Jockey's Journey Through Love, Triumph, and Heartbreak with America's Favorite Horse by Edgar Prado - finished 5/19
14. Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple - finished 5/26
15. Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters, Volume 1 by Eric Powell - finished 5/26
16. The Joy of Keeping Score: How Scoring the Game Has Influenced and Enhanced the History of Baseball by Paul Dickson - finished 5/27
17. Pet Sematary by Stephen King - finished 6/14
18. Sunday You Learn How to Box by Bil Wright - finished 6/15
19. Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story by Christopher Moore - finished 6/24
20. Quotations of John Muir by John Muir - finished 6/30

July-September
21. Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty - finished 7/1
22. The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson - finished 7/9
23. Wizard and Glass (The Dark Tower IV) by Stephen King - finished 7/21
24. The Diary of Frida Kahlo: An Intimate Self-Portrait by Carlos Fuentes - finished 7/23
25. The Wisdom of Wonder Woman by Signe Bergstrom - finished 7/24
26. The Woman Destroyed by Simone de Beauvoir - finished 8/3
27. Lost Lake by Sarah Addison Allen - finished 8/9
28. The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls by Anton DiSclafani - finished 8/21
29. NOS4A2 by Joe Hill - finished 9/13
30. Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross - finished 9/27

October-December
31. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas - finished 10/6
32. Bright Dead Things: Poems by Ada Limón - finished 10/12
33. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens - finished 11/2
34. Rubina Chinchada and the Enchanted Dresser: A Day of the Dead Novelita by Kathy Cano-Murillo - finished 11/3
35. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: The Illustrated Edition by J. K. Rowling - finished 11/10
36. The Bookshop on the Shore by Jenny Colgan - finished 12/4
37. They Called Us Enemy by George Takei - finished 12/7
38. Forever Frida: A Celebration of the Life, Art, Loves, Words, and Style of Frida Kahlo by Kathy Cano-Murillo - finished 12/23
39. A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness - finished 12/26
40. Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan - finished 12/28
41. Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burn - finished 12/31
42. Oogy: The Dog Only a Family Could Love by Larry Levin - finished 12/31
43. The World of Dinosaurs: And Other Prehistoric Life by Dougal Dixon - finished 12/31

This is where I'll keep track of the places I visit in my reading.

USA
Arizona: Rubina Chinchada and the Enchanted Dresser: A Day of the Dead Novelita by Kathy Cano-Murillo
Arkansas: They Called Us Enemy by George Takei
California: You Suck: A Love Story by Christopher Moore
Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story by Christopher Moore
Bright Dead Things: Poems by Ada Limón
Colorado: NOS4A2 by Joe Hill
Connecticut: Sunday You Learn How to Box by Bil Wright
Florida: The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls by Anton DiSclafani
Georgia: Lost Lake by Sarah Addison Allen
Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burn
Illinois: The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson
Kansas: Wizard and Glass by Stephen King
Kentucky: Bright Dead Things: Poems by Ada Limón
Maine: Pet Sematary by Stephen King
Massachusetts: The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
New York: Faithful by Alice Hoffman
Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn
North Carolina: The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls by Anton DiSclafani
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
South Carolina: Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate
Tennessee: Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate
Texas: I'm Proud of You: My Friendship with Fred Rogers by Tim Madigan
Washington: Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
Washington, D.C.: Sisters in Law by Linda Hirshman

Countries and Territories
Australia: Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
China: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
England: Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
France: The Woman Destroyed by Simone de Beauvoir
Italy: Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross
Mexico: The Diary of Frida Kahlo: An Intimate Self-Portrait by Carlos Fuentes
Forever Frida: A Celebration of the Life, Art, Loves, Words, and Style of Frida Kahlo by Kathy Cano-Murillo
Japan: Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters, Volume 1 by Eric Powell
Rus': The Winter of the Witch: A Novel by Katherine Arden

I've been doing this challenge for a few years but this will be my first year keeping track on my thread. I like it because it helps me figure out what to read next from Mount TBR.

Monthly Key Word Challenge 2019 COMPLETED!
(read a book with one of these words in the title)

JAN- Snow, Winter, Year, Hat, Dance: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
FEB- Red, Love, Heart, Rose, Walk, Who: You Suck: A Love Story by Christopher Moore
MAR- Gold, Faith, What: Faithful by Alice Hoffman
APR- Time, Cross, All, Where: The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
MAY- Memory, You, Mountain, Day, Wind, Sky: Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
JUN- Man, Woman, Happy, How: Sunday You Learn How to Box by Bil Wright
JUL- Work, Lake, Field, Family, Cloud, Because: Lost Lake by Sarah Addison Allen
AUG- Ride, They: The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls by Anton DiSclafani
SEP- Here, Back, School, Speak, Paper, Them, Book: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn
OCT- Fall, Witch, Night, Creature, He: A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
NOV- Food, Family, Dream, Live, She: Oogy: The Dog Only a Family Could Love by Larry Levin
DEC- Star, Night, Angel, Present, Tree, It: Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burn

This is where I'll keep track of how much I'll enjoy following along! Happy reading once again.

>5 rocketjk: Lol, thank you! Happy reading to you!

Happy reading in 2019 and happy new year.

>7 Ameise1: Thank you! I wish you the same!

>9 frahealee: Thank you for joining me!

Here you are! Thank you for the link.

I’ve only read two of the books you’ve read so far this year- Snow Flower and The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry and I liked them both. Looking forward to following along with you this year!

>11 Copperskye: Thank you for stopping by! Those were both good; I'm off to a pretty good start this year.

A quarter of the year already over?! What were your 5 favorite books from January to March?

My favorites, in the order I read them, are:

Caliban's War by James S. A. Corey
The Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden
You Suck: A Love Story by Christopher Moore
Faithful by Alice Hoffman
The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

Happy Easter weekend, Nicole.



Here are my five favourite ones:
The Chessman by Peter May
Liberation Movements by Olen Steinhauer
The Strings for Murder by Oscar de Muriel
The Redeemed by M. R. Hall
The Strangler Vine by M. J. Carter

>14 Ameise1: No love for the chicken! LOL!

Thank you for sharing your list!

3. I read Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See for the Monthly Key Word Challenge. The January key word was Snow. One reason I like this challenge is because it helps me read my tbr pile. I've had this book since 2011.

I really loved this book because it brought to life all of those terrible things I had read about in history books back in school. This historical fiction/coming of age story is of a little girl living in early nineteenth-century China. I teach 7 year olds, so when I read again about the torture of little girls for Chinese culture it was a new shock for me. This includes the brutal practice of foot binding. I cannot imagine doing that to a little girl or any child.

But it also taught me about the beauty and connectivity of relationships developed through other aspects of Chinese culture from that time. As the main character, Lily, grows to be a woman she shares a special friendship with Snow Flower. This is the heart of the story and what makes it worth reading.

6. I read You Suck: A Love Story by Christopher Moore for the Monthly Key Word Challenge. The February key word was Love. One reason I like this challenge is because it helps me read my tbr pile. I've had this book since 2018.

I didn't realize before I started that this book is second in a series. I read it on a trip to San Francisco since that's where it takes place, so I didn't have time to switch to the first. I was still easily able to follow the tale of two young vampires in love as they struggle to convince friends, family, and landlords that they are human, while outwitting the people who know they aren't human and want to kill or use them.

This book was very funny and even made me laugh out loud. I liked it so much that I'm going to read the first anyway, and of course the third.

7. I read Faithful by Alice Hoffman for the Monthly Key Word Challenge. The March key word was Faith. One reason I like this challenge is because it helps me read my tbr pile. I've had this book since 2018.

This was a traditional beautifully tragic story from Alice Hoffman. This time we follow Shelby Richmond, a teenager who survives a car crash while her best friend doesn't fare as well. As Shelby deals with survivor's guilt in unproductive ways, the reader gets to follows along and shout at her and cheer for her.

I don't think I can share too much else without giving away the story, but I do want to share that my favorite element of this tale has to do with the title.

Another quarter done! What were your five favorite books read from April-June? My favorites in the order I read them are:

Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate
My Guy Barbaro: A Jockey's Journey Through Love, Triumph, and Heartbreak with America's Favorite Horse by Edgar Prado
Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
Pet Sematary by Stephen King
Sunday You Learn How to Box by Bil Wright

And I have to add a shout-out to a cute little picture book I read, What the Fuzz?!: The Adventures of Fuzzberta and Friends, the World's Cutest Guinea Pigs by Monica Wu.

11. I read The Time Machine by H. G. Wells for the Monthly Key Word Challenge. The April key word was Time. One reason I like this challenge is because it helps me read my tbr pile. I've had this book since 2010. That summer I watched a reality show on Bravo called Work of Art: The Next Great Artist. One of the challenges was to create a new cover for a classic book to celebrate Penguin's 75th anniversary. I ordered this book from Penguin after John Parot's cover design won.

The story is about scientist who creates a time machine, travels through time to the future, and comes back to share with everyone what he saw. He narrates his experience to a bunch of people in a pub.

It definitely was not what I pictured it would be, although I still enjoyed it. I felt like it was a negative commentary on society hidden in science fiction.

14. I read Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple for the Monthly Key Word Challenge. The May key word was You. One reason I like this challenge is because it helps me read my tbr pile. I've had this book since 2016.

This is an epistolary novel from different points of view and sources. Bee is a hard-working student who has earned a promised trip to Antarctica for her good grades. Her mom is Bernadette, a famous architect who hasn't worked for years, and is pretty out of touch with reality. Bernadette also always makes her opinion known, making her a favorite character for me!

The author shows us the power of family and community through the flawed characters while making us laugh. I can't wait to see the movie!

18. I read Sunday You Learn How to Box by Bil Wright for the Monthly Key Word Challenge and for Pride Month. The June key word was How. One reason I like this challenge is because it helps me read my tbr pile. I've had this book since before I was on LibraryThing; my guess would be about 15 years, sadly.

I didn't realize I had a little coming-of-age gem waiting on my shelf, about a black gay boy growing up in Connecticut projects in the late '60s/early '70s. This book really gives readers a lot to chew on: family, sexuality, race, culture, and friendship. It's pretty short but packed with challenging issues.

I'll definitely be scanning the bookstores for more by this author.

DW and I saw the movie last week. We had been looking forward to seeing it as we both thoroughly enjoyed it as an audiobook. I was a bit worried as it received lukewarm reviews. Forget the reviews, we both loved the movie. Blanchett made a great Bernadette.

>23 Marcial87: Most of my book club has already read Where'd You Go, Bernadette so we're just waiting for a couple to finish and we'll go together.
Glad to know you loved it! (I always ignore the reviews. ;-)

What were your 5 favorites from the last quarter (July-September)?

My favorites in the order I read them were:

The Diary of Frida Kahlo: An Intimate Self-Portrait by Carlos Fuentes
Lost Lake by Sarah Addison Allen
The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls by Anton DiSclafani
NOS4A2 by Joe Hill

My 4.5 star honorable mentions were:
Wizard and Glass (The Dark Tower IV) by Stephen King
Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross

27. I read Lost Lake by Sarah Addison Allen for the Monthly Key Word Challenge. The July key word was Lake.

Magical realism and a summer cabin getaway by the lake make this story special, but it explores family roles, love, and community as other great stories do.

28. Review coming soon...

What were your 5 favorite books from the last quarter of the year? My top 5 in the order I read them were:

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
They Called Us Enemy by George Takei
Forever Frida: A Celebration of the Life, Art, Loves, Words, and Style of Frida Kahlo by Kathy Cano-Murillo
Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan

Here's a challenge I didn't complete but had fun trying:

What's In A Name Challenge 2019
(read a book with these things in the title)

A precious stone/metal:
A temperature: Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burn
A day of the week: Sunday You Learn How to Box by Bil Wright
A meal:
Contains the word “woman”: The Woman Destroyed by Simone de Beauvoir
Contains both the words “of” AND “and”: Dash and Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan

>30 Ameise1: Thank you so much! I wish you the same! xoxo

I met my goal and read 43 books in 2019!

My 10 favorite fiction books in the order I read them were:

Caliban's War by James S. A. Corey
You Suck: A Love Story by Christopher Moore
Faithful by Alice Hoffman
Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
Pet Sematary by Stephen King
Sunday You Learn How to Box by Bil Wright
The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls by Anton DiSclafani
NOS4A2 by Joe Hill
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan

My favorite nonfiction in the order I read them were:
My Guy Barbaro: A Jockey's Journey Through Love, Triumph, and Heartbreak with America's Favorite Horse by Edgar Prado
The Diary of Frida Kahlo: An Intimate Self-Portrait by Carlos Fuentes
They Called Us Enemy by George Takei

What were your favorites?

>33 frahealee: Thank you so much! Your thread doesn't remind me of a trash heap, but of my paper book journal! All the great books that we want to read have to be listed somewhere!

Congrats on reading 43 books!! I loved Where'd You Go, Bernadette? too.

My top books of 2019 were:
Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney
Henry, Himself by Stewart O’Nan
Big Sky by Kate Atkinson
Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
Darktown by Thomas Mullen
Deep Creek: Finding Hope in the High Country by Pam Houston
Goodbye, Mr Chips by James Hilton
Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane
The Heart Of Horses by Molly Gloss
Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout

Have you started a new, 2020 thread yet? I need to look!