{"id":4079,"date":"2016-01-04T13:51:01","date_gmt":"2016-01-04T20:51:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kbtechworks.com\/kbranch\/blog\/?p=4079"},"modified":"2016-01-04T13:51:01","modified_gmt":"2016-01-04T20:51:01","slug":"a-year-of-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kbtechworks.com\/kbranch\/blog\/archives\/4079","title":{"rendered":"A year of books"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"books\"<\/p>\n

A couple years ago I started doing a personal annual review <\/a>in the style of Chris Guillebeau. Basically, it’s an end of year reflection on what went well and what didn’t over the year, followed up by setting some goals for the upcoming year. I’ve found it a useful process, especially as I’ve diversified the way I spend my time such that the normal professional measures don’t apply as much.<\/p>\n

While I don’t publish all of this publicly, I did want to share one part this year.<\/p>\n

Last year, I set a goal to read more. I didn’t have any idea how many books it would be reasonable for me to read in a year, but I set a goal of 50. Mid-year, I realized this was a pretty high goal that I most likely wouldn’t get close to. But then as the year went by, my reading rate accelerated, in no small part due to the fact that I was actually keeping track.<\/p>\n

In the end, I read 51 books in 2015. The list is below, with those I’d especially recommend in bold. (And most of the books on the list are quite good; really, there are only a couple I wouldn’t recommend.)<\/p>\n

Reading was one of several things I turned to this year when things weren’t going well otherwise. Other things included baking bread, gardening, sitting in the sun, walking, and writing letters. So when the depressing world news got to be too much or a conference call that had been difficult to schedule was cancelled at the last minute or someone said something mean or I just otherwise felt bummed, I tried to turn to one of these things. I think my overall health benefited from this.<\/p>\n

And I read some great books.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Everybody Matters<\/em> by Mary Robinson<\/strong><\/li>\n
  2. Mindfulness<\/em>\u00a0by Mark Williams and Danny Penman\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n
  3. The Importance of a Piece of Paper<\/em>\u00a0by Jimmy Santiago Baca<\/li>\n
  4. Unaccustomed Earth<\/i> by Jhumpa Lahiri<\/li>\n
  5. Mr. Mercedes<\/i> by Stephen King<\/li>\n
  6. Border Patrol Nation<\/i> by Todd Miller<\/li>\n
  7. A Lost Lady<\/i> by Willa Cather<\/li>\n
  8. The Professor’s House<\/i>\u00a0by Willa Cather<\/li>\n
  9. Death Comes for the Archbishop<\/i>\u00a0by Willa Cather<\/li>\n
  10. Lucy Gayheart<\/i>\u00a0by Willa Cather<\/li>\n
  11. Sycamore Row<\/i> by John Grisham<\/li>\n
  12. Legal Research Explained<\/i> by Deborah E. Bouchoux<\/li>\n
  13. Shantaram<\/i> by Gregory David Roberts<\/li>\n
  14. The Clan of the Cave Bear<\/i> by Jean Auel<\/li>\n
  15. Behind the Beautiful Forevers<\/i> by Katherine Boo<\/li>\n
  16. Flight\u00a0Behavior<\/i>\u00a0by Barbara Kingsolver<\/strong><\/li>\n
  17. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry<\/i> by Rachel Joyce<\/li>\n
  18. How to be Both<\/i> by Ali Smith<\/li>\n
  19. To Animas With Love<\/i> by Carol Smith<\/li>\n
  20. Lost and Found<\/i> by Brooke Davis<\/li>\n
  21. The Bestseller<\/i> by Olivia Goldsmith<\/li>\n
  22. Perfect<\/i> by\u00a0by Rachel Joyce<\/li>\n
  23. A Year and a Day on Just a Few Acres<\/i> by Peter Larson<\/strong><\/li>\n
  24. The Stranger<\/i> by Harlan Coben<\/li>\n
  25. We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves<\/i> by Karen Joy Fowler\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n
  26. The Love Song of Queenie Hennessy<\/i>\u00a0by Rachel Joyce<\/li>\n
  27. Curriculum Integration: Designing the Core of Democratic Education<\/i> by James A Beane<\/li>\n
  28. The Half Brother<\/i> by Holly LeCraw<\/li>\n
  29. Wit’s End\u00a0<\/i>by Karen Joy Fowler<\/li>\n
  30. Seveneves<\/i> by Neal Stephenson<\/strong><\/li>\n
  31. The Valley of Amazement<\/i> by Amy Tan<\/li>\n
  32. The Liar’s Club<\/i> by Mary Karr<\/li>\n
  33. Reamde\u00a0<\/i>by Neal Stephenson<\/li>\n
  34. Cherry\u00a0<\/i>by Mary Karr<\/li>\n
  35. The Fourth Hand<\/i> by John Irving<\/li>\n
  36. Under the Banner of Heaven<\/i> by Jon Krakauer<\/li>\n
  37. Junkyard Dreams<\/i> by Jeanette Boyer<\/li>\n
  38. Make Your Home Among Strangers<\/i> by Jennine Capo Crucet<\/li>\n
  39. The Last Theorem<\/i> by Arthur C Clarke and Frederik Pohl<\/li>\n
  40. African Air<\/i> by George Steinmetz<\/li>\n
  41. Skipping Christmas<\/i> by John Grisham<\/li>\n
  42. Tribes<\/i> by Seth Godin<\/li>\n
  43. The Last Juror<\/i> by John Grisham<\/li>\n
  44. In Thin Air<\/i>\u00a0by Jon Krakauer<\/li>\n
  45. All My Puny Sorrows<\/i> by Miriam Toews<\/strong><\/li>\n
  46. God Help\u00a0the\u00a0Child<\/i> by Toni Morrison<\/li>\n
  47. Kitchens of the Great Midwest<\/i> by \u00a0J. Ryan\u00a0Stradal<\/li>\n
  48. The Buried Giant<\/i> by\u00a0Kazuo\u00a0Ishiguro<\/li>\n
  49. A Complicated Kindness<\/em> by Miriam Toews<\/li>\n
  50. To a Mountain in Tibet<\/em> by Colin Thubron<\/li>\n
  51. Let Me Explain You<\/em> by Annie Liontas<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    A couple years ago I started doing a personal annual review in the style of Chris Guillebeau. Basically, it’s an end of year reflection on what went well and what didn’t over the year, followed up by setting some goals for the upcoming year. I’ve found it a useful process, especially as I’ve diversified the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[165,166],"class_list":["post-4079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-annualreview","tag-reading"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kbtechworks.com\/kbranch\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kbtechworks.com\/kbranch\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kbtechworks.com\/kbranch\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kbtechworks.com\/kbranch\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kbtechworks.com\/kbranch\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4079"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.kbtechworks.com\/kbranch\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4079\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4088,"href":"https:\/\/www.kbtechworks.com\/kbranch\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4079\/revisions\/4088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kbtechworks.com\/kbranch\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kbtechworks.com\/kbranch\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kbtechworks.com\/kbranch\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}