One of the best parts about closing out the year is taking inventory of what I reading thoughts on what’s to come. There’s a lot to cover so let’s jump right in:

Here are my stats for 2020:

Favorites in Fiction: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman, Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor, We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

Favorites in Mystery: Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosely and The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths

Favorites in Other Genres: Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson (nonfiction), O Pioneers! by Willa Cather (Classic) and I am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sanchez (YA)

The Numbers:
Total books read in 2020: 48
Books by women: 38
Books by men: 10
Fiction: 25
Mystery: 16
Young Adult: 2
Non-fiction: 1
Classic: 2
Graphic Novel: 1
Poetry Collections: 1
Books in translation: 11 (Spanish, German, Japanese, Farsi, Swedish, Korean, and Finnish)
Books in Spanish: 1
Audiobooks: 7
Challenges participated in: 4 (completed 2)

This has been a tough year. And, yes, mainly due to COVID-19. My work has been very busy and I’ve been overwhelmed by the news that it’s been hard to concentrate on reading. So I read fewer books and listed to fewer audiobooks as I rarely drive anywhere since March. I am surprised by how few mysteries I read compared to other years, but I think that’s probably due to needing a break from thrillers.

However, I feel like I had a great year quality-wise. Lots of great fiction and works in translation. I’m very happy too that I discovered three new to me Mexican authors and I even read one book in the original Spanish. I’ve decided I really need to do that more often.

I participated in four challenges and completed two. I’m so excited about reading challenges again that I’m going to sign up for quite a few. More on those soon because they deserve their own posts.

One project I’d like to work on in 2021 is my bookshelf. When we moved to Austin more than 10 years ago, I had all of my books catalogued but before you know it, I stopped tracking and now I would say that half of my library is not catalogued. There’s no rush on this project but I think it would be a good way to find those shelf-sitters and determine if now is finally the time to read them and/or move them out.

How was your reading year? Do you have reading goals for 2021?

We made it through 2020. What a difficult year and I hope that better times are ahead for all of us. Thank you so much for visiting my blog and sharing in book talk with me. Best wishes for a healthy and joyful 2021 – Happy New Year!

Smiles,
Iliana

I’m back with more short reviews as I’m trying to wrap up my reading year.

“I watch Ms Ice Sandwich from the only door in and out of the supermarket; she’s always standing behind a big round glass case, just to the left and a little behind the cash registers, with that look on her face that’s like a mixture of surprise and boredom, as she’s selling sandwiches and salads and bread and things like that.”

Ms Ice Sandwich
Mieko Kawakami; Translated by Louise Heal Kawai

The narrator of this story is a young boy who forms an affection/attraction for the lady who sells pre-made sandwiches at a local shop. He goes there and doesn’t interact much with her other than to place his order but the reader can see just how much he is affected by her. He draws her portrait and he thinks of her often.

While there aren’t a lot of dramatic moments or grand events in this novella I really enjoyed the quiet exploration of a boy who is entering adolescence and the relationships he has with the other women in his life. There is some humor but best of all is that this was a sweet story without it being over the top. I would certainly love to read more by this author.

This was my reading choice for the Japanese Literature reading challenge 2020. I only read one book but that was my goal so challenge complete.

“Lately, Shelley hears things in the middle of the night, hinges creaking and papers rustling, but it could be anything – the dog, her son, a mouse, the wind – and she forces her mind to stop right there so she doesn’t imagine possibilities that would terrify her, like a killer or a ghost.”

Hieroglyphics
Jill McCorkle

Shelley is trying to raise her son on her own but life is not easy for a single mom with a young son. On top of that her work as a stenographer can be difficult as she has to hear so many awful stories. Now her life has gotten a bit more complicated when a man who claims he lived in her house many years ago would just like to come in and reminisce.

Frank and Lil are a couple who married young. Their lives have gone through ups and downs like everyone else’s but they have moved back to their old hometown and memories keep surfacing. The narrative is hard to follow in this story because we jump points of view, there are flashbacks to different time frames and while I have really enjoyed McCorkle’s books in the past this one was hard to follow.

“This story is about a lot of things, but mostly about idiots. So it needs saying from the outset that it’s always very easy to declare that other people are idiots, but only if you forget how idiotically difficult being human is.”

Anxious People
Frederik Backman; Translated by Neil Smith

The story starts off with a bank robbery at an apartment showing but was it really a bank robbery if nothing was taken and everyone seems to not know exactly what happened? Or are they saying they don’t know? Meanwhile, two police officers, who also happen to be father and son, interrogate all the witnesses but it sure does take the two a lot of effort to get no answers.

This novel is about fate and how small actions can lead to chain reactions. Through the course of the time they are held hostage, our witnesses will comfort one another but also have some frank conversations about their lives. There was some humor and a lot of humanity so why was this not a favorite of mine? I think I wanted to get to the crux of the matter but the author was going to take his time taking us there. I hope to read another book by this author and hopefully my next read will be much more in line with what I was expecting.

“One September afternoon in 1999, teenagers Matthew, Zoe and Duncan Lang are walking home from school when they discover a boy lying in a field, bloody an unconscious. Thanks to their intervention, the boy’s life is saved.”

The Boy in the Field
Margot Livesey

The boy, who’s been stabbed, recovers thanks to the help of the teenagers but it sets off a lot of questions for the teens mainly who could have done something like this and why. Each one will cope with the aftermath of this crime in different ways. Matthew by trying to find out the assailant, Zoe who is growing up and trying to find love and Duncan who decides to look for his birth mother.

I really loved this book because I think the author does a great job of showing us how each child is maturing and coming into their own. Along the way the teens start to think about their own parents as people they love but also people who make mistakes. It almost made it into my favorites of the year list but definitely gets an honorable mention.

All of these were advance review copies from NetGalley.

Let me know if you’ve read any of these or if they are on your TBR list.