Hello friends! It’s been quite some time since I’ve posted in ye olde blog. I started off strong in January with the books I’d read, and then in February and March I completely fell off the posting wagon. Honestly, the pandemic isolation was getting to me and it was hard to find motivation to do anything extra. Once some time passes, the level of difficulty in trying to catch up becomes greater until…it feels too hard to catch up and then you turn around and it’s August.

I don’t think I can go back and write up all the books I’ve read this year (I’m at 24 so far), but I will write up the two classics I’ve read for my challenge, and I’ll list what I’ve read from February – July here:

• A Deadly Education, by Naomi Novik ★ ★ ★
• To Say Nothing of the Dog, by Connie Willis ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
• The Color of Compromise, by Jemar Tisby ★ ★ ★ ★
• Out of the Silent Planet, by C. S. Lewis ★ ★ ★
• Perelandra, by C. S. Lewis ★ ★ ★ ★
• The Fated Sky, by Mary Robinette Kowal ★ ★ ★ ★
• That Hideous Strength, by C. S. Lewis ★ ★
• The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters, by Priya Parker ★ ★ ★ ★
• Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson ★ ★ ★ ★
• The Spy Who Came In From the Cold, by John le Carre ★ ★ ★
• Love Lettering, by Kate Clayborn ★ ★
• Howl’s Moving Castle, by Diana Wynne Jones ★ ★ ★ ★
• Tell Me More, by Kelly Corrigan ★ ★ ★
• Black Sun, by Rebecca Roanhorse ★ ★ ★ ★
• Castle in the Air, by Diana Wynne Jones ★ ★ ★
• House of Many Ways, by Diana Wynne Jones ★ ★ ★
• Jesus and John Wayne, by Kristin Kobes du Mez ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
• The Making of Biblical Womanhood, by Beth Allison Barr ★ ★ ★ ★
• Thrones, Dominations, by Dorothy L. Sayers and Jill Paton Walsh ★ ★ ★
• The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, by Becky Chambers ★ ★ ★
• Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

My plan is to start with my August reads early next month and continue with writing up book thoughts after that. If there’s anything particularly you’d like to hear about, let me know or if I know you in person, ask me! I’m delighted to talk books any time.

Looking back at the list, I’ve mostly read nonfiction and sci fi/fantasy, with a few exceptions. I’m just going to keep leaning into that, though I need to add in some classics in the fall to catch back up. I might need to extend my classics timeline to get through 50. I blame the pandemic for derailing my plans!

If you have any tips for Charles Dickens’ “Pickwick Papers,” let me know. I didn’t realize it was a travelogue and not an overarching story, so I kept waiting for the main story but now that I’ve listened to 11.5 hours (out of 32.5!) I think I’ve figured out the style. It’s entertaining in places, but whew, Dickens could have used an editor big time, as some of the stories are less good than others. I’ll let you know if I go back to this one or if I abandon it on the side of a country road (metaphorically, of course).