The Nature of Things

It is the solemn duty of every blogger who writes about books to compile a year-end list of the best books read that year. Since I am nothing if not a dutiful blogger, I have been agonizing for days over my list. As of today, I have read 88 books this year and the majority of them were terrific reads. Those who follow the blog know that I rate my books on a scale of one to five stars, using the Goodreads definitions ; one-star meaning "not good" and five-stars meaning "exceptional." I had a few one- and two-star reads this year, but most of them were three stars or higher. In compiling my list, I narrowed the 88 books down to four- and five-star reads, because often there's very little daylight between four and five stars. But that list proved much too unwieldy. I couldn't give you a list with more than forty books on it! So, in the end I selected just the five-star reads. Even that list had nineteen books on it, but I simply couldn't choose among them, ...

(UPDATE: In rereading this post, I realized I had left off one of my *favorite books of the year read in October. I've now added it, raising my total favorites to 22. And growing.) Everybody's doing their end-of-year recaps, so why should I be any different? The most popular way of recapping is to do the "top 10" list. I pulled up my list of books read in 2015 and tried to narrow my favorites down to a top 10. I couldn't do it. Next I thought I would pick a favorite book from each month of reading. I've read 98 books (so far) in 2015. Surely there would be one special book in each month that would jump out at me when I tried to make my list. Nope. I made a list of all the books that I read and truly, unequivocally loved and then tried to narrow that list down to a bloggable few. I found I couldn't bear to exclude any of them. So, here it is - my list of...um...my 21 22 favorite books read in 2015. Some old; some new; some rereads and most read for the fir...

December is the time of year when everyone is making his/her list and checking it twice for the best or worst things about the year. Time announces its person of the year and we see lists of the best and worst movies or TV shows or video games. The New York Times lists its notable books of the year. As a constant reader, I have my own list of "notable" books, the best books I have read this year. It was a difficult list to narrow down because I have read some very good books in 2013. I tried to select my favorite book in each month and found that in some months I just couldn't do it. Here, then, is my own highly personal list of my favorite books that I have read this year with links to my review of each book. January: Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver Kingsolver's novel of the effects of global warming on the life cycle and migration of the beautiful Monarch butterfly was one of the first books that I read this year and it is still one of the most affecting....

'Tis the season for making lists. Everybody is going on record with a list of his/her favorite movies, television shows, songs, books, or whatever turns him/her on. Or, in some cases, it is the ten least favorite things, but, regardless of whether it's good or bad, it seems that one must make a list. Not wanting to be left out of the fun, I decided to make a list of my favorite books that I read this year. Instead of a "top ten," I thought I would do it a bit differently and pick one book from each month - it would be my favorite from that month, so I would wind up with a list of twelve. Sounds easy enough and most months were easy. But a couple of months proved problematic. I just couldn't pick between two favorites from those months. So, in the end, I had a list of fourteen favorites. And here they are, my favorites from each month with links to my reviews of them. January :   The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach I loved this book about baseball as life, as t...

2011 was such a downer of a year on so many fronts. The worldwide economy was in a mess. Self-serving politicians refused to do anything that might help the country for fear that it would also help the re-election prospects of a president whom they despise and revile. The dumbing of America aided by such "news" outlets as Fox News continued. Global warming continued on its inexorable path and extreme weather became the norm. Here in Texas, the exceptional year-long drought accompanied by the worst wildfires in the state's history made our lives a misery. Still, some optimistic folks are able to look back over the year and find reasons to celebrate. One of them was Michael Moran of Slate.com who gave us his list of ten things to celebrate about this year. 1.   Osama bin Laden : Not merely his death, but an ignominious death at the hands of US soldiers that revealed once and for all the value of patience, Pakistan’s duplicity, President Obama’s mettle as commander-in-chie...