
My 2017 Goodreads Challenge has twelve hours to go. Last January 1st I told myself I could definitely read 52 books, figuring one a week would suit me fine. I made this commitment to read for compassion to prod myself away from watching the news and being so angry at the direction our president was leading the country. I am still angry, but I found that reading calmed me down and gave me some inner peace to release into the universe. Reading for
By midnight tonight I will have almost doubled my reading challenge number-- from 52 books to 102. I’m debating whether to keep my 2018 challenge at 52, or settle on that nice round number of 100. I have until midnight to decide.
Favorites for 2017
• The Zoo Keepers Wife, by Diane Ackerman
• You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me: A Memoir, by Sherman Alexie
• Bear Town, by Fredrick Backman
• A Wall in Jerusalem, by Mark Braverman
• Mr. Emerson’s Wife, by Amy Belding Brown
• Remarkable Creatures, by Tracy Chevalier
• Fifth Business, by Robertson Davies
• A Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Life of the Last True Hermit, by Michael Finkel
• Grief Cottage, by Gail Godwin
• Burial Rites, by Hannah Kent
• In Other Words, by Jhumpa Lahiri
• Inheritance from Mother, by Minaie Mizumura
• Astrid & Veronika, by Linda Olsson
• The Street Sweeper, by Elliott Perlmann
• Colorless Tsuuru Tazaki, by Haruki Murakami
RUNNERS UP
• The Glass Castle, Annette Walls
• All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr
• Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead
• The Lowells of Massachusetts, Nina Sankovitch
• The Manicore, by Robertson Davis