Nonfiction and Poetry 2022

One of my reading plans for 2022 was to read 25 works of nonfiction and 4 books of poetry." More would be fine, but I want to get to at least this many works of nonfiction in a variety of genres (essays, history, biography). I did well with a similar goal last year, in part because I kept a list so I will do the same this year using this post. 

I am not counting the poetry books toward the nonfiction count, but plan to track both here. If I blog about a specific book once I finish it I will link to the post. I am also doing the Nonfiction Reader Challenge and will note the categories (where applicable) each book fits into on this list. 

Nonfiction titles read:

1. Italy: A Short History by Harry Hearder (January)
2. Blowing the Bloody Doors Off by Michael Caine (January) NRC- celebrity
3. Canada by Mike Myers (January) NRC-celebrity/wildcard
4. A Voice from the Attic by Robertson Davies (January)
5. Readers' Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction (February)
6. How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where you Are to Where You Want to Be by Katy Milman (February)
7. Readers' Advisory Guide to Historical Fiction by Jennifer Baker (February)
8. The Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman (February)
9. Living with a Dead Language by Ann Patty (March) NRC-language
10. Ikegai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life by Hector Garcia Puigcerver and Francesc Miralles (March)
11. Browsings: A Year of Reading, Collecting, and Living with Books by Michael Dirda (March)
12. Readers' Advisory Guide to Nonfiction by Neal Wyatt (April)
13. One Half of Robertson Davies by Robertson Davies (April)
14. Women Writers at Work by the Paris Review (April)
15. Blizzard of Glass by Sally M. Walker (April)
16. Dusk, Night, Dawn by Anne Lamott (May)
17. Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (May)
18. Readers' Advisory Service in the Public Library by Joyce Saricks (May)
19. The Power of Ritual: How to Create Meaning and Connection in Everything You Do by Casper ter Kuile (May)
20. Uncommon Carriers by John McPhee (June)
21. The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean (June) NRC - popular science
22. No Hard Feelings: Emotions at Work by Liz Fosslien and Mollie West Duffy (June)
23. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (June)
24. Dorothy Parker: What Fresh Hell is This? by Marion Meade (June)
25. Ninety Nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret by Craig Brown (July) NRC-social history/wildcard
26. The Power of Regret by Daniel H. Pink (July) NRC-published in 2022
27. Burning Questions by Margaret Atwood (July)
28. The Readers' Advisory Guide to Genre Blends by Megan McArdle (July)
29. Your Best Year Ever by Michael Hyatt (July)
30. The Lazy Genius Kitchen by Kendra Adachi (August)
31. Agatha Christie: First Lady of Crime edited by H.R.F. Keating (Sept.)
32. The One-page Financial Plan by Carl Richards (Sept.)
33. Living a Charmed Life by Victoria Moran (Sept.)
34. The Mindful Day by Laurie J. Cameron (Oct.)
35. Virginia Woolf: A Writer's Life by Lyndall Gordon (Oct.)
36. The Lazy Genius Way by Kendra Adachi (Oct.) NRC-related to a podcast
37. The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman (Oct.)
38. Midlife: A Philosphical Guide by Kieran Setiya (Oct.)
39. A Libertarian Walks into a Bear by Matthew Hongolz-Hetling (Nov.) NRC-animal related
40. If Then: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future by Jill Lepore (Nov.)
41. Biography: Fiction, Fact, and Form by Ira B. Nadel (Nov.)
42. Off the Clock by Laura Vanderkamp (Nov.)
43. The 99% Invisible City by Roman Mars (Dec.)
44. Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen (Dec.)
45. Python Programming by Cal Baron (Dec.)

Poetry books read:

1. Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude by Ross Gay (October)

Nonfiction Reader Challenge 2022

Book'd Out is hosting a 2022 Nonfiction Reader Challenge which I think will be a good companion for me to the non-fiction reading goal I am setting for myself (more about that in a future post).

For this challenge there are 12 categories and the idea is to read one nonfiction book for each of them, or to read any 12 nonfiction books. There are also challenge levels for 3 and 6 books. There is also a set your own goal category (the nonfiction grazer). I am going to participate as a grazer because I plan to read 12 books, but only use some of the defined categories (8 at the most) and then fill in the remaining 4 spots with essentially wild-card selections.

These are the categories I am considering using (with possible titles for each):

Social History

• Columbine by Dave Cullen
• Stonewall: The Riots the Sparked the Gay Revolution by David Carter
• Brolliology: A History of the Umbrella in Life and Literature by Marion Rankine
• For All the Tea in China by Sarah Rose

Popular Science

• The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean

Language

• Greek to Me by Mary Norris
• Living with a Dead Language by Ann Patty
• Shady Characters by Keith Houston
• Just My Type by Simon Garfield

Celebrity

• Not My Father's Son by Alan Cumming
• Canada by Mike Meyers
• What Would Audrey Do? by Pamela Clark Keogh
• Cary Grant by Scott Eyman

Linked to a podcast

• NPR's Podcast Start-up Guide by Glen Weldon

Wild Animals

• A Libertarian Walks into a Bear by Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling
• The Book of Eels by Patrik Svensson

Economics

• The Secret Life of Groceries by Benjamin Lorr

Published in 2022 

• Maybe - depends on what comes out this year

The categories I think I will skip are Medical Memoir, Climate/Weather, Reference, and Geography.

Challenge Check-in: Nonfiction Reader Challenge

In hopes of completing my various reading challenges by the end of the year I will be posting check-ins this week on the various challenges and what I have left to read if I am going to complete them. 

The 2022 Nonfiction Reader Challenge has 12 categories and the idea is to read one nonfiction book for each of them, or to read any 12 nonfiction books.  I decided to participate as a "grazer" and set my own goal which was to read 12 books, but not necessarily in the defined categories.

These are the categories for which I have read books:

Social History: I read two books that fit this category Blizzard of Glass by Sally M. Walker and 99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret by Craig Brown and am counting both toward this challenge.

Popular Science: The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean

Language: Living with a Dead Language by Ann Patty

Celebrity: I am counting two books that fit this category Blowing the Bloody Doors Off by Michael Caine and Canada by Mike Meyers.

Published in 2022: The Power of Regret by Daniel H. Pink

I have completed 7 books so far and need to read 5 more. Or I need to designate other non-fiction books I already read this year as "wildcards" for this challenge.

These are the categories for which I haven't read/designated a book:

• Linked to a podcast
• Wild Animals (have A Libertarian Walks into a Bear on my shelf)
• Economics
• Medical Memoir
• Climate/Weather
• Reference
• Geography

December Book Report

December 2022

I finished 9 books last month.

A quote from this month's reading:

“It is much more sensible to be an optimist instead of a pessimist, for if one is doomed to disappointment, why experience it in advance?” --Elizabeth Peters, The Snake, the Crocodile, and the Dog

Here is my progress toward various goals and challenges:

• 4 were non-fiction (toward my goal of 25 non-fiction books this year) and 2 counted toward the NonFiction Reader Challenge 
• 1 was a book I own but hadn't read before (inspired by The Unread Shelf project)
• none were poetry (toward my goal of reading 4 poetry books this year)
• none counted toward the the 16th Canadian Reading Challenge  
• 1 was from my Classics Club List and counted toward Back to the Classics

• none counted toward the Cruisin' Through the Cozies challenge 
• 1 counted toward the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 
• none counted toward the Turtle Recall Challenge
• none counted toward the TBR Pile Challenge 
• none were for my Century of Books project
• 2 were from my Literary Christmas list 

 Here are the books I finished in December 2022: (link title to post if is one)

1. The 99% Invisible City by Roman Mars (audiobook, 4-stars)
2. Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen (4-stars)
3. Python Programming by Cal Baron (3-stars)
4. The Snake, the Crocodile, and the Dog by Elizabeth Peters (4-stars)
5. Kissing Christmas Goodbye by M. C. Beaton (3-stars)
6. The Secret, Book and Scone Society by Ellery Adams (audiobook, 3-stars)
7. Read and Gone by Allison Brook (3-stars)
8. The Real Story: A Guide to Nonfiction Reading Interests by Sarah Statz Cords (4-stars)
9. No Mallets Intended by Victoria Hamilton (4-stars) 

I didn't get as many books finished this month as usual, but I have several in progress so January may have a more typical number. I mostly completed all my 2022 challenges except the goal of reading 4 books of poetry (I read 1). 

August Book Report

August 2022, Hampton Beach, NH

I finished 8 books last month.

A quote from this month's reading:

“We both know you can’t tell your own story without exposing someone else’s.”
― Nina de Gramont, The Christie Affair

Here is my progress toward various goals and challenges:

• 1 was non-fiction (toward my goal of 25 non-fiction books this year) and it will  count toward the NonFiction Reader Challenge once I blog about it
• none were books I own but hadn't read before (inspired by The Unread Shelf project)
• none was poetry (toward my goal of reading 4 poetry books this year)
• 1 counted toward the the 16th Canadian Reading Challenge which began 7/1/2022. 
• none were from my Classics Club List but 1 counted toward Back to the Classics

• 3 counted toward the Cruisin' Through the Cozies challenge 
• 2 counted toward the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 
• 1 counted toward the Turtle Recall Challenge
• 0 counted toward the TBR Pile Challenge
• 0 was a book for my Century of Books project
• 6 were from my 20 Books of Summer list 

 Here are the books I finished in August 2022: 

1. Sentenced to Death by Lorna Barrett (3-stars)
2. Small Ceremonies by Carol Shields  (4-stars)
3. The Lazy Genius Kitchen by Kendra Adachi (4-stars)
4. The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont (5-stars)
5. Pyramids by Terry Pratchett (3-stars)
6. Shades of Earl Grey by Laura Childs (3-stars)
7. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (5-stars)
8. Bran New Death by Victoria Hamilton (3-stars)

I completed my 20 Books of Summer reading list this month, though it ended up being quite different from the list I started with as 6 of the original books got crossed off in favor of other titles.

October Book Report

October 2022, Shirley, MA

I finished 13 books last month.

A quote from this month's reading:

"But I miss whom I once could touch, as all must do when we make our way through whatever forest or wood it is in which we travel or are raised, This does not mean the man is lost or has disappeared forever. For although he no longer walks beside you, he still remains in the time and place of memory and this is where he will appear again and again, as often as you will seek him. Not only in those places where he has always been but where he could not be then yet will be now." -- The Bear (p. 131)

Here is my progress toward various goals and challenges:

• 6 were non-fiction (toward my goal of 25 non-fiction books this year) and 1 counted toward the NonFiction Reader Challenge 
• 2 were books I own but hadn't read before (inspired by The Unread Shelf project)
• 1 was poetry (toward my goal of reading 4 poetry books this year)
• none counted toward the the 16th Canadian Reading Challenge 
• 1 was from my Classics Club List and it counted toward Back to the Classics

• 2 counted toward the Cruisin' Through the Cozies challenge which I have now completed
• 1 counted toward the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 
• 1 counted toward the Turtle Recall Challenge which is now complete
• 1 counted toward the TBR Pile Challenge
• none were for my Century of Books project

 Here are the books I finished in October 2022: 

1. The Mindful Day by Laurie J. Cameron (4-stars)
2. Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude by Ross Gay (4-stars)
3. The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui (graphic memoir, 3-stars)
4. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins (4-stars)
5. One Poison Pie by Lynn Cahoon (3-stars)
6. The Bear by Andrew Krivak (5-stars)
7. Virginia Woolf: A Writer's Life by Lyndall Gordon (4-stars)
8. The Lazy Genius Way by Kendra Adachi (4-stars)
9. The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman (5-stars)
10. Interesting Times by Terry Pratchett (3-stars)
11. Up to No Gouda by Linda Reilly (4-stars)
12. Birds of a Feather by Jacqueline Winspear (audiobook, 4-stars)
13. Midlife: A Philosphical Guide by Kieran Setiya (4-stars)

I wrapped up two of my 2022 challenges this month and finally got started on my poetry reading goal. I have 3 volumes (all short) of poetry picked out that I plan to read before year end.

September Book Report

September 2022

I finished 8 books last month.

A quote from this month's reading:

"It is strange how the dead leap out on us at street corners, or in dreams."
           -- The Waves by Virginia Woolf

Here is my progress toward various goals and challenges:

• 3 were non-fiction (toward my goal of 25 non-fiction books this year) and none counted toward the NonFiction Reader Challenge 
• 1 was a book I own but hadn't read before (inspired by The Unread Shelf project)
• none were poetry (toward my goal of reading 4 poetry books this year)
• none counted toward the the 16th Canadian Reading Challenge which began 7/1/2022. 
•  2 were from my Classics Club List and 1 counted toward Back to the Classics

• 1 counted toward the Cruisin' Through the Cozies challenge -- as my "holiday" book
• none counted toward the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 
• none counted toward the Turtle Recall Challenge
• 1 counted toward the TBR Pile Challenge
• none were for my Century of Books project

 Here are the books I finished in September 2022: 

1. In the Bleak Midwinter by Julia Spencer Fleming (4-stars)
2. Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens (4-stars)
3. Agatha Christie: First Lady of Crime edited by H.R.F. Keating (3-stars)
4. Freezer I'll Shoot by Victoria Hamilton (4-stars)
5. The One-page Financial Plan by Carl Richards (4-stars)
6. Living a Charmed Life by Victoria Moran (4-stars)
7. The Waves by Virginia Woolf (4-stars)
8. Hallowe'en Party by Agatha Christie (4-stars)

I still have quite a few books to finish to complete my reading challenges for the year. I may need to do some planning to make that happen.

July Book Report

July 2022

I finished 16 books last month.

A quote from this month's reading:

“We love Jane Austen because her characters, as sparkling as they are, are no better and no worse than us. They’re so eminently, so completely, human. I, for one, find it greatly consoling that she had us all figured out.”
― Natalie Jenner, The Jane Austen Society

Here is my progress toward various goals and challenges:

• 4 were non-fiction (toward my goal of 25 non-fiction books this year) and 2 counted toward the NonFiction Reader Challenge 
• 3 were books I own but hadn't read before (inspired by The Unread Shelf project) 
• none was poetry (toward my goal of reading 4 poetry books this year)
• 3 counted toward the the 16th Canadian Reading Challenge which began 7/1/2022. 
•  one was from my Classics Club List and it counted toward Back to the Classics

• 6 counted toward the Cruisin' Through the Cozies challenge 
• 3 counted toward the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge which I have now completed
• none counted toward the Turtle Recall Challenge
• one counted toward the TBR Pile Challenge
• none were for my Century of Books project
• 7 were from my 20 Books of Summer list 

 Here are the books I finished in July 2022: 

1. 99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret by Craig Brown (4-stars)
2. Madame Bovary by Gustav Flaubert (3-stars)
3. The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner (5-stars)
4. A Deadly Grind by Victoria Hamilton (audiobook, 3-stars)
5. Sad Cypress by Agatha Christie (4-stars)
6. Fluke by Christopher Moore (3-stars)
7. The Power of Regret by Daniel H. Pink (4-stars)
8. Cheddar Off Dead by Korina Moss (4-stars)
9. Your Best Year Ever by Michael Hyatt (audiobook, 4-stars)
10. Murder in Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie (4-stars)
11. Memoirs of Stockholm Sven by Nathaniel Ian Miller (4-stars)
12. Pushing Up Daisies by Rosemary Harris (3-stars)
13. Burning Questions by Margaret Atwood (4-stars)
14. Bowled Over by Victoria Hamilton (audiobook, 4-stars)
15. The Readers' Advisory Guide to Genre Blends by Megan McArdle (3-stars)
16. The Stone Carvers by Jane Urquart (4-stars)

This was a good reading month overall and I am pleased to have completed my first challenge for the year. I am also ahead of schedule for the Canadian Reading Challenge which is nice for a change. 

My "Unread Shelf "reading is still going in the wrong direction. I had 126 books "owned but not read" back in March and I now have 133. I have been reading from my shelves, but I have also been acquiring books -- mostly from library book sales. Limiting my unread book collection to 50-60 titles may be an unreasonable goal.

April Book Report

April 2022, Concord, NH

I finished 13 books last month.

A quote from this month's reading:

"But Dickens was not a cool customer. He was, in fact, a ripsnorting, raging, egotistical cad, and if he had not also been a supremely great writer he would have been intolerable." --Roberson Davies, "Phantasmagoria and Dream Grotto," in One Half of Robertson Davies

Here is my progress toward various goals and challenges:

• 4 were non-fiction (toward my goal of 25 non-fiction books this year) and 1 counted toward the NonFiction Reader Challenge 
• 2 were books I own but hadn't read before (inspired by The Unread Shelf project)
• none was poetry (my goal of reading 4 poetry books this year is not coming along too well so far)
•  4 counted toward the Canadian Book Challenge which I have now completed for the current year (this challenge begins and ends on Canada Day)
• 2 were from my Classics Club List and 1 counted toward Back to the Classics

• 3 counted toward the Cruisin' Through the Cozies challenge 
• 1 counted toward the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 
• none counted toward the Turtle Recall Challenge
• 1 counted toward the TBR Pile Challenge
• none were for my Century of Books project

 Here are the books I finished in April 2022: 

1. Death in Cornwall by G. M. Malliett (4-stars)
2. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield  (audiobook, 5-stars)
3. Readers' Advisory Guide to Nonfiction by Neal Wyatt (4-stars)
4. Where Angels Fear to Tread by E. M. Forster (4-stars)
5. The Art of Falling: A Novel by Danielle McLaughlin (3-stars)
6. One Half of Robertson Davies by Robertson Davies (3-stars)
7. Murder Your Darlings by J. J. Murphy (3-stars)
8. Women Writers at Work by The Paris Review (3-stars)
9. Lust for Life by Irving Stone (4-stars)
10. Blizzard of Glass by Sally M. Walker (4-stars)
11. Live and Let Chai by Bree Baker (audiobook, 3-stars)
12. The High Mountains of Portugal by Yann Martel (4-stars)
13. Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel (5-stars)

This was a good reading month: I finished a challenge; read two 5-star books, and got to wrap up the month with a whole day of reading. 

Back to the Classics 2022

Books and Chocolate is once again hosting Back to the Classics. The challenge is to read classics (must be published before 1972) that fit specific categories. The more categories you complete the more entries you get in the prize drawing at the end of the year. I am aiming to read 12 books for this challenge. Most of the categories can be filled by Classics Club titles that I was already planning to read this year.

These are the categories for 2022 with a title I might read for each:

1. A 19th century classic. (New Grub Street by George Gissing, 1891)

2. A 20th century classic. (Where Angels Fear to Tread by E. M. Forster, 1905)

3. A classic by a woman author. (The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer, 1950)

4. A classic in translation.  (Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, 1856)

5. A classic by BIPOC author. (Passing by Nella Larsen, 1929)

6. Mystery/Detective/Crime Classic. (The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins, 1868)

7. A Classic Short Story Collection. (Collected Stories of Somerset Maugham, vol. 1 -- Maugham died in the 1960s so all the stories are at least 50 years old)  

8. Pre-1800 Classic. (The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio, 1353)

9. A Nonfiction Classic. (Walden by Henry David Thoreau, 1854)

10. Classic That's Been on Your TBR List the Longest. (Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, 1791 -- my Dad recommended that I read this when I was in High School and I still haven't gotten to it)  

11. Classic Set in a Place You'd Like to Visit. (The Ambassadors by Henry James -- set in Paris)

12. Wild Card Classic. (Love Among the Chickens by P. G. Wodehouse, 1906)

Reading Plans 2022

These are the things I am planning for my 2022 reading life:

• To read 100 books (this is my usual GoodReads goal) 
• Read 12 books from my Classics Club list 
• Read for the Canadian Book Challenge (deadline is July 1  and I still need to read 11 books for the current challenge)
• Complete the Cruisin' Through the Cozies challenge (10 books)
• Complete the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge at the Victorian level (5 books) 
• Read 4 books of poetry (my own goal) 
• Read 25 works of non-fiction (my own goal), including some I added to my TBR during #nonficnov 
• Complete the NonFiction Reader Challenge (12 books - will all count toward the non-fiction goal of 25 books)
• Read books for at least 4 of the remaining 8 years needed to complete my Century of Books project
• Read 17 books from my shelves, inspired by The Unread Shelf project
• Participate in Rumer Godden Reading Week in December
• Continue posting a Book Report the first week of each month

If I don't have any overlap among these projects (which would be very unusual as I am often able to find books that meet multiple challenges) these challenges add up to 88 books.

I am participating in the Bookish Resolutions Challenge at Because Reading is Better than Real Life and this is my sign-up post.

November Book Report

November 2022

I finished 10 books last month.

Quotes from this month's reading:

“I think you have to have faith in people before they earn it. Otherwise it's not faith, right?” 
― Taylor Jenkins Reid, Daisy Jones & The Six

"Every relationship takes effort. As philosopher (and novelist) Alain de Botton once wrote, 'Choosing whom to commit ourselves to is merely a case of identifying which particular variety of suffering we would most like to sacrifice ourselves for.'" -- Laura Vanderkam, Off the Clock

Here is my progress toward various goals and challenges:

• 4 were non-fiction (toward my goal of 25 non-fiction books this year) and none counted specifically toward the NonFiction Reader Challenge 
• 1 was a book I own but hadn't read before (inspired by The Unread Shelf project)
• none was poetry (toward my goal of reading 4 poetry books this year)
• 2 counted toward the the 16th Canadian Reading Challenge
• 1 was from my Classics Club List and also counted toward Back to the Classics

• 2 could have counted toward the Cruisin' Through the Cozies challenge but I already finished that challenge
• none counted toward the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 
• none counted toward the Turtle Recall Challenge
• 2 counted toward the TBR Pile Challenge
• none were for my Century of Books project

 Here are the books I finished in November 2022: 

1. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (4-stars)
2. Grave Secrets by Kathy Reichs  (4-stars)
3. A Libertarian Walks into a Bear by Matthew Hongolz-Hetling (4-stars)
4. Mariners Compass by Earlene Fowler (4-stars)
5. Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid (audiobook, 5-stars)
6. If Then: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future by Jill Lepore (3-stars)
7. The Horse You Came in On by Martha Grimes (4-stars)
8. Biography: Fiction, Fact, and Form by Ira B. Nadel (3-stars)
9. The English Breakfast Murder by Laura Childs (3-stars)
10. Off the Clock by Laura Vanderkam (3-stars)