40 43 books read or partially read, not counting the re-reading of comfort food books (Hunger Games, Harry Potter, Dorothy Sayers mysteries, and Pride and Prejudice) but totally counting War & Peace, because I read the shit out of that, except the epilogue, which I skimmed the shit out of, because UGH TOLSTOY I GET IT NAPOLEON HISTORY EUROPE. Other than the epilogue, though, it really was pretty good! That was a pleasant surprise.
Here is the full list, roughly in order:
The Orphan Master’s Son (Johnson) – A
Life After Life (Atkinson) – A
Finishing the Hat (Sondheim) – A
Lonesome Dove (McMurtry) – A-
War and Peace (Tolstoy) – A-
Tenth of December (Saunders) – A-
A Tale for the Time Being (Ozeki) – A-
On Writing (King) – A-
Just Kids (Smith) – B+/A-
[all five of] The Patrick Melrose Novels (St. Aubyn) – B+/A-
Dear Life (Munro) – B+
The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P. (Waldman) – B+
Speedboat (Adler) – B+
Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore (Sloan) – B+
Crazy Salad and Scribble Scribble (Ephron) – B+
Half the Kingdom (Segal) – B+
Where’d You Go, Bernadette? (Semple) – B+
The Long Goodbye (Chandler) – B+
Foreign Affairs (Lurie) – B/B+
The Golem and the Jinni (Wecker) – B
Parrot and Olivier in America (Carey) – B
Your Baby and Child (Leach) – B
The Song of Achilles (Miller) – B
The Middlesteins (Attenberg) – B
The Burgess Boys (Strout) – B
Miss Silver Comes to Stay (Wentworth) – B
Double Indemnity (Cain) – B
The Interestings (Wolitzer) – B/B-
The Private Patient (James) – B-
Angry Conversations with God (Isaacs) – B-
Thrones, Dominations (Patton Walsh) – C
PUT ASIDE FOR LATER AND NOT BECAUSE OF QUALITY
When I Was a Child, I Read Books (Robinson) — UF
The Brothers Karamazov (Dostoyevsky) — UF
PUT ASIDE, KINDA BECAUSE OF QUALITY, OR MAYBE I JUST WASN’T IN THE RIGHT MOOD
The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells (Greer)
Love, In Theory (Levy)
Telegraph Avenue (Chabon)
Bringing up Bebe (Druckerman) <– If Carrie from SATC had not just gone to France but stayed there, had a baby, and written an inane memoir
UNRATED BUT EXCITING
Flashes of War (Schultz) — by a friend! Can’t rate it objectively but can kvell.