I thought since in 2017 in about 29 hours I would do a year end review of reading.

This week I finished two books, the outstanding and hilarious “The Importance of Being Ernest” by Ernest Cline **** and the good, if unneeded end to Colleen Hoover’s Slammed Series “This Girl.” ***

I am up to 73 books on Goodreads for the year, and I have probably re-read another dozen books or so, so let’s call it around 85.

Another neat picture, I wish I knew how to embed this. Includes my five star books highlighted.

Here are the five star Goodreads books I have read in 2016

1. The Painted Word by Tom Wolfe (re-read/essay):

I flew through this again for the fourth time or so on the train ride to NYC.

Then I went to the Museum of Modern Art and saw some of the art the critics loved so much.

I think some of it isn’t as lionized as it once was.

And I do happen to like abstract expressionism. I’m surprised how little sold.

I will say the 1960s floor of MOMA wasn’t close to as impressive as the 1890-1959 floor.

A book I really enjoy and I do think critics to a great extent did help create a lot of art. True in poetry in the post World War II era too I think. I’m glad poetry got spoken word to get out of overthought poetry by professors.

2. The Importance of Being Ernest by Ernest Cline (poetry):

I just flew through this one. I read most of it while laughing uproariously at a Chinese Buffet for Christmas with my family. So much fun and something I probably should have bought a while ago. I’ve loved “Geek Porn Auteur” and “Dance Monkeys Dance” for a long time and loved him novel “Ready Player One.”

He’s also part of the power poetry couple of geeky goofery with maybe my favorite modern poet the hilarious and awesome Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz. I know he has moved on to novels but would love some more geeky poems. Great Christmas present!

3. How Poetry Saved My Life: A Hustler’s Memoir by Amber Dawn (poetry/memoir):

Beautiful, honest, raw writing. I think there are so many more great tales of sex workers out there.

I will admit to liking the prose more than the poetry but just outstanding. And amazingly honest.

… I feel like I should say more about this one. Great memoir can be magic.

4. The Whore of Akron: One Man’s Search for the Soul of LeBron James by Scott Raab (memoir/sports):

Amazing, crazy, profane book.

This goes into being Jewish, from Cleveland, addiction, madness and the odd loyalty of being a die hard sports fan.

I am a Philadelphia sports fan, and the Phillies winning a World Series made me happy, but I am happy that I am not this connected to sports.

It would just be so exhausting. Wonderful, crazy gonzo writing that isn’t everyone with lots of sexual references.

And the Decision really was one of the most bizarre and ridiculous sports shows ever.

I’m glad LeBron came back to Cleveland in 2004 and finally got the city a championship in 2016 from a 3-1 comeback.

I also highly recommend the ESPN #30For30 documentary “Believeland” which does include Scott Raab. The city really desperately needed a championship after all that heartbreak.

5. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Definitely processing.

Race and whiteness themselves are strange concepts.

How is being white better?

Why does America think of itself as so exceptional?

Why do we allow such racist policing?

I really hope things get saner and better in our country. It has to happen. Things are bad now. But thete is so much wealth, and so many people want to make the world better. Powerful book.

… After Donald Trump is elected, I worry about these themes and questions even more.

6. MiXED NUTS or What I’ve Learned Practicing Psychotherapy by Rick Cormier

We need more therapists like Rick Cormier. Giving, humorous, and always trying to help their patients anyway they can.

I also gave it to my friend who is a new LCSW and a therapist and she was very impressed.

I love how grounded and relatable the stories are. Like the person with two clocks with rotating minutes who had to stop between the first and second clock every minute. Simple solution? Take one clock out of the room. Or using practicing deep breathing and lists to help people with panic attacks. Or that hypnosis can help people with their fears.

I will admit I have bipolar disorder and I haven’t found many therapists or psychiatrists I would like. Some are just their for diagnosis. A lot of therapists fall into the “well what do you think?” trap. I think I would like Rick Cormier.

Outstanding book.

.. He is a friend I knew from drum circles a bit in Maine and a heck of a nice guy and I am sure great therapist.

7. Love the Dog by Sharon Creech (not my first read/Children’s/Poetry):

Such a sweet little book. It’s not the first time I’ve read it.

Would love to see more book written with poems like this.

The only other author I can think of that does it is Ellen Hopkins.

8. Real Artists Have Day Jobs: (And Other Awesome Things They Don’t Teach You in School) by Sara Benincasa (Self-Help/Hilarious):

An absolutely fabulous book I expect to come bsck to again and again.

Great chapters about radical overconfidence, asking for exactly what you want, to stop apologizing, doing things anyway despite what you are bad at.

Making art like a kid. realizing artists have day jobs and are still artists etc.

I definitely need to get rid of stuff, be more confident and go for more things

The world needs more strong, hilarious women and we can all use the quote she uses from Sarah Hagl, “Lord, give me the confidence of a mediocre white man.”

… I have also gone through this again at least in pieces. Wonderful read.

And my book of the year goes to:

9. Madness: A Bipolar Life by Marya Hornbacher (memoir/mental illness)

Brilliant book but very hard to read for me.

I have bipolar disorder as well and this brought me back to manias in the past.

It also makes me very happy for my relative stability. I didn’t have bulimia, alcoholism or workaholicism.

And I have been to the hospital three times, not many, many times.

All blessings to those living with major mental illness.

… Nothing has come close to me for what it feels like to be manic. Such a visceral book.

And besides re-reading “The Painted Word” and “Love That Dog” and putting them in my Goodreads for the year (neither was in it already) other five star re-reads include: “A Man Without A Country” by Kurt Vonnegut which I have re-read every year since I have bought it maybe 6-7 years ago. This review includes some quotes. My most read book this year the graphic novel “Daytripper” which I finally bought this year. The excellent graphic novel and the Ku Klux Klan and the blues “BB Wolf and the Three LPs” by JD Arnold.

It’s been a good year of reading. Two things that helped were having a patio table to read outside and just bring books outside and let the cellphone stay inside. And getting reading glasses, it makes a huge difference to just have +0.50 on my prescription so I can read the small print better, my guess is this goes up over the years. I am only 42 now.

I have liked Colleen Hoover for a while. Ever since being one of the first readers of her original Kindle only book “Slammed” when my friend Gennyfer saw it free. And I totally loved it. Then she read my Amazon review on her book and started getting in contact. And she totally loved my poem “Write Poorly” and even included it her follow up that amazingly only came out a month later “Point of Retreat”. It’s amazing to me that this is all less than five years ago, it honestly seems a lot longer.

Since then, Colleen Hoover has gone to be a New York Times bestselling novelist. The interesting thing is since she is a Kindle first person, I feel like you see her books less in the library than her sales indicate.

And a lot of what I read and three of the four books I finished this week are by Colleen Hoover.

The first was Point of Retreat which I finished on Friday night not long after writing the post. It honestly didn’t hit me as hard as “Slammed” on the reread. It’s still very good, but the big conflict is nowhere near as big or interesting. I still have to go with my initial four star rating though since it’s not fair to judge a book by the reread. Although I do it for other media like movies. **** (5 Goodreads)

The second was the good “Confess.” It was a fun read but didn’t hit me like “Slammed” has. But I did finish it unlike “Hopeless” so far, which maybe I will try again. And it was weird to read in large print, the only format the CT libraries had. *** (3 GR)

The third book I finished was from Rick Cormier, “My Life Cracks Me Up”. I’m just going to copy and add to my Goodreads review on it. Really good fun.

I especially like the idea in the epilogue of two journals, one a loose leaf one with negative thoughts you can shred, burn or rip off. The other with positive thoughts you can keep forever. I talked about this earlier in the week as a blogpost.

We all have both, and I may need to add the negative personal journal. Not everything is my life is Three Good Things.

I also had no idea Rick was badass enough to drive a motorcycle through the snow, extremely cool. And I would love to own one of his silly guitar songwriter stuff. It would be an awesome idea to go out on the internet or something. Fun read.

He mentioned to me it really helped him write his excellent memoir of being a psychotherapist, “Mixed Nuts.”

It also was a book type I could see myself making. I have thought of making a best of the blog book at some point. Or even just reposting old pieces and adding some thoughts. We all have such fun stories in our life. ***1/2 (4 GR)

The fourth I had to finish this morning “November 9” by Colleen Hoover. Another compulsively readable book of hers with her also common sometimes ridiculous plot twists. This one was about a couple that met every on November 9th for 5 years and no other times. A lot of this really did seem totally ridiculous but I was completely hooked by it. It’s odd you can be both at the same time. Good fun. ***1/2 (4 GR)

Books checked out:
“The Kingdom of Speech” by Tom Wolfe. I just read a page so far. I am looking forward to it though.

My favorite two books by Tom Wolfe are long essays first “From Bauhaus to Our House” about how the Bauhaus movement sterilized a lot of architecture, see the amazing intricacies of a Craftsman home, that were actually called that because you could buy the whole kit from Sears, totally amazing. And to be replaced by big glass boxes like Philip Johnson’s Seagram building, and pretty much all suburban Edge City towers with tons of parking. Also I think the complete awfulness of the Soviet Bloc housing which is in so much of the world including most American projects. I should try to find my copy again which could be in storage or just borrow it from the library. **** (5 GR)

Also “The Painted Word” about how the art critic has shaped so much of modern art. I think this may have been more true in the 50s-70s then today. But, I think it’s still very true about MFA programs, galleries and museums. So probably still quite true. Both are great. **** (5 GR)

And I just reserved both from the library again, should probably hear more about them again in a couple weeks.

Bought: None

Also read:
““Voices of Bipolar Disorder: The Healing Companion: Stories for Courage, Comfort and Strength”, interesting set of essays from various perspectives, I read another 40% since last week, and up to page 109 of 175. I am lucky to have mild bipolar disorder usually. I do suffer from depression a lot and my most major manias came after life changes (finishing college, finishing my MBA, losing my dad, 2 year anniversary of my dad’s death). *** (3 GR)

“King Dork” by Frank Portman, I think I may have read a bit of this, this week, but not totally sure. Fun little read about dorks who are constantly thinking up new band names far more often than actually practicing. It’s also oddly obsessed with “A Catcher in the Rye”, it’s even part of the cover. On page 87 of 344. I may push through this in the week and a half before it’s due at the library (after 2 renewals). I’ve had it out since mid-September. I love that I can renew online with the library. And a library book shelf (it’s on my top left) is very important when you check out a lot of books. **1/2 (3 GR)

“This Girl” by Colleen Hoover. It’s #3 in the “Slammed” series and really an odd idea. It’s basically a retelling of the book “Slammed” by the male character Will. I feel like we got his perspective in book 2 of the series “Point of Retreat.” Colleen Hoover now loves to have chapters back and forth from the perspective of the lead characters. That was true in both “Confess” and “November 9”. I loved reading “Slammed” and “Point of Retreat” again, I’m doing this a bit at a time. It’s an odd book. On page 64 of 285. ***/3 GR

“Moscow 2042” by Vladimir Voinovich. Very interesting book, I’ve only read the first few chapters. It’s about a Russian exile who lives in Germany who heard about a time machine that flies faster than light speed. He wants to see Moscow 60 years in the future (it was written in 1982 during the Soviet times). I’ve heard it is similar to 1984. I am very intrigued by the start, very, very different than the wonderful YA romance of Colleen Hoover.

The odd thing is I feel like I didn’t read much this week, but I guess that wasn’t true at all. Reading is after all fun-da-mental. Although I was more than half done with “Point of Retreat” 85%, “Confess” around 75% and “My Life Cracks Me Up” around 60% last week. The only book I read all of this week was “November 9”. It’s also interesting that this post is now over 500 words longer than my Nanowrimo book. I’m amazed I completed that in 2005. I haven’t even really gotten started with it since. I guess blogging can be my thing.