Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson

Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson

320 pages

Published March 2023 by Penguin Publishing Group

Publisher's Summary:

Darley, the eldest daughter in the well-connected old money Stockton family, followed her heart, trading her job and her inheritance for motherhood but giving up far too much in the process; Sasha, a middle-class New England girl, has married into the Brooklyn Heights family, and finds herself cast as the arriviste outsider; and Georgiana, the baby of the family, has fallen in love with someone she can’t have, and must decide what kind of person she wants to be. 

Rife with the indulgent pleasures of life among New York’s one-percenters, Pineapple Street is a smart, escapist novel that sparkles with wit. Full of recognizable, loveable—if fallible—characters, it’s about the peculiar unknowability of someone else’s family, the miles between the haves and have-nots, and the insanity of first love—all wrapped in a story that is a sheer delight.

My Thoughts: 

This book was our January book club selection, recommended by one of our members. It was also a Good Morning America book club selection and it appeared on a number of best of 2023 lists. I had really high hopes going into this one. I wish it would have lived up to them. Unfortunately, for me, it didn't. Which is not to say there wasn't something to like about it. 

What I Liked: 

• The ideas of it: middle-class girl marries into rich family and has to learn to navigate that environment, rich person begins to wake up to her privilege and wants to better herself, mom realizes that, while she loves her kids, being a stay-at-home mom isn't necessarily for her.
• There were a lot of themes addressed: family, privilege, racism, classism, infidelity, marriage, philanthropy and its warts. 
• The jabs at the truly rich, in so far as it went. 
• The characters, in so far as they were developed. One I really did like was Tilda. Why her? Because she didn't change - she never apologized for who she was and remained an elitist snob. Which makes her not so much a character I liked, but I appreciated the reality of her character. 

What Didn't Work For Me: 

• Those ideas I liked weren't as fully developed as I would have liked. I get that Jackson was trying to write a book that addressed some big issues but with a lighthearted approach. That approach often works for me (Lian Moriarty is terrific at it). Here I really wanted more depth. 
• All too often I wanted to slap almost all of the characters. Sasha married Chip in no small part because she wasn't too intensely in love with him; yet even before they are married, he hasn't stood up for her when it comes to his family. Why would she marry someone who picks his sisters over her? Why doesn't she stand up to him even after they are married and demand he choose her as his priority? Why doesn't he see that he never puts her first? Georgiana, who has an affair with a married man, who is truly oblivious to her privilege, even though she works in a non-profit to help those in need worldwide. Georgiana and Darley who make up their minds about Sasha early on and refuse to give her any grace, even knowing that she isn't from the world they've been raised in. They adore their brother, but think he's so clueless that he's marry a gold-digger? 
• There are plenty of jabs, as I said, at the rich. But then Jackson goes on about their clothes, their homes, their jewelry, their cars, their airplanes...all in a way that appeared to me to be meant to impress. Nothing is made, for example, of the fact that Brooklyn has been so gentrified that the people who used to live there have been chased out by astronomical prices. 
• I felt like the growth that we did see in the characters was too rapid. Georgiana suddenly wakes up one day and recognizes that she has well more money than she will ever need and decides to give it all away? (At the same time, she doesn't recognize that she's been looking down on her own sister-in-law for having come to the marriage with less.) 
• Georgiana becomes an addict (although it's never called that) and then she just suddenly isn't, without any work put into it. That's not how addiction works. 

Now, I do need to tell you that in addition to all of those glowing reviews from well-known writers and all of those spots on best book lists, everyone else in my book club liked this book a lot more than I did. And it does make a good book for discussion, so in that regard, I would recommend it. 

Happy Sunday! I've got sunshine, it's a big football day, and I get Tommy cake tonight to I'm a happy girl today. What's Tommy cake, you ask? It's a delicious chocolate cake with an insanely rich frosting that the Big Guy's grandmother made and she started calling it Tommy cake because BG's big brother loved it when he was little and he was her favorite. I. Can't. Wait! 

That pic to the left? Not today. Not any time this winter. While the south has gotten a lot of snow this past week, we haven't had this much snow all of the winter combined. We have, however, had a mean cold streak this past week - hats, mittens, scarves all required if you were going to be outside at all. On the plus side, January is almost done - the LONGEST month of the year! 

Last Week I: 

Listened To: I started Beautyland, by Marie-Helene Bertina, which was recommended to me by Mini-me. Very unusual and I'm really enjoying it. Meanwhile, they're reading Lauren Groff's Matrix, which we gave them for Christmas. 

Watched: Will and Harper, which we both highly recommend. It's a story about friendship, acceptance, finding your place in the world. Go into it open-minded and learn something. 

Read: Finally, Jodi Picoult's By Any Other Name. At almost 500 pages, it's taking me a while. 

Made: We're working on trying to use up the food we already have, instead of buying anything more (except milk and fresh produce). This week we've made a peanut stir fry (that also became chicken fried rice), tacos (leftover meat then became taco salads), chili cheese dogs (BG's favorite Saturday lunch). Partly this is a matter of not wasting food. Partly it's a matter of making room so we can stock up before prices begin to soar, which we fear will happen. 

Enjoyed: BG is having a milestone birthday this week and I've been planning a big weekend getaway to celebrate and having so much fun with it. He is completely clueless, which makes it even more fun!

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This Week I’m:  

Planning: I'm behind with the Cozy Minimalist communities Hushing Challenge for this past week, which was the family room so I'll be working on that. I've had time to do it, but it's a daunting task when you have a lot of bookshelves in a room and a lot of stuff on them. And then there will be a new room to work on announced on Tuesday. 

Thinking About: Ways to fight back.

Feeling: Overwhelmed and incredibly sad for our country, particularly for its most vulnerable citizens. 

Looking forward to: Dinner out on Tuesday for BG's bday. We're going with friends for a special event at a really good restaurant. 

Question of the week: If you're feeling like I am, how are you managing? 

Hidden Valley Ranch: Inside the Mind of An American Family by Robert Kolker

Hidden Valley Ranch: Inside the Mind of An American Family by Robert Kolker

Read by Sean Pratt

13 hours, 8 minutes

Published April 2020 by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

 

Publisher's Summary: 

Don and Mimi Galvin seemed to be living the American dream. After World War II, Don's work with the Air Force brought them to Colorado, where their twelve children perfectly spanned the baby boom: the oldest born in 1945, the youngest in 1965. In those years, there was an established script for a family like the Galvins--aspiration, hard work, upward mobility, domestic harmony--and they worked hard to play their parts. But behind the scenes was a different story: psychological breakdown, sudden shocking violence, hidden abuse. By the mid-1970s, six of the ten Galvin boys, one after another, were diagnosed as schizophrenic. How could all this happen to one family?

What took place inside the house on Hidden Valley Road was so extraordinary that the Galvins became one of the first families to be studied by the National Institute of Mental Health. Their story offers a shadow history of the science of schizophrenia, from the era of institutionalization, lobotomy, and the schizophrenogenic mother to the search for genetic markers for the disease, always amid profound disagreements about the nature of the illness itself. And unbeknownst to the Galvins, samples of their DNA informed decades of genetic research that continues today, offering paths to treatment, prediction, and even eradication of the disease for future generations.

My Thoughts: 

In the early 1990's, the University of Nebraska football team had a player whose mental health ended his playing career and eventually ended up with him being shot and paralyzed by police. At the time, the word was that he had schizophrenia (that is not the diagnosis they later gave him). By that time, I had two small boys and I spent some portion of their late teens and early twenties worrying about schizophrenia because of what I'd learned all of those years earlier, terrified that one of them might begin exhibiting signs in his early twenties. Fortunately, neither did. 

Don and Mimi Galvin were not so fortunate. Because of mental illness, one of their sons killed himself and then his girlfriend, one of them sexually assaulted their two daughters, two of them died after decades of taking medication. 

When their eldest, Don Jr., the golden child began exhibiting troubling signs of mental illness in the 1960's, the Galvins worked hard to hide his illness from the outside world. Mimi, in particular, worked hard to get him the help he needed. But help was hard to find then, as it continued to be as one and then another of the boys' mental health declined, to find the help they needed. There was very little knowledge of schizophrenia - no known cause (nature vs. nurture being an ongoing battle amongst those who did research the illness) and no effective medical treatments that didn't leave the patient a shadow of themselves. As that young football player had done, the Galvin boys repeatedly stopped taking the medication, convinced that it was not helping or that its help came at too high a cost. Through it all, Mimi continued to fight for her sick boys, at the expense of her healthy children.

Alongside the story of the Galvins, Kolker also gives readers some background on the history of schizophrenia research and treatment, introducing readers to scientists and doctors who, in an effort to prove the biological and genealogical cause of the disease, worked tirelessly to find answers. '

Eventually the two paths crossed. Because of the high incidence of the disease in the Galvin family (as well as hundreds of other families who also had high percentages of family members with the disease), the researchers were able to reach a great number of conclusions as to the biological cause of the disease and to work toward finding a medical treatment. Here's where our medical system has failed all of those who came after the Galvins - there is not a lot of money to be made in developing and marketing medications to treat schizophrenics and so pharmaceutical companies don't. 

As I read, this book reminded me very much of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, although the Galvins were not unwilling participants. And unlike that book, this one doesn't end with an "at least groundbreaking research resulted and so many lives have been saved." Kolker ends with us understanding that, despite everything that researchers have learned, there's still a long way to go in finding out how to treat patients with schizophrenia. 

Tenth of December by George Saunders

Tenth of December by George Saunders

Read by George Saunders

5 hours, 40 minutes

Published January 2013 by Random House Publishing Group

Publisher's Summary: 

In the taut opener, “Victory Lap,” a boy witnesses the attempted abduction of the girl next door and is faced with a harrowing choice: Does he ignore what he sees, or override years of smothering advice from his parents and act? In “Home,” a combat-damaged soldier moves back in with his mother and struggles to reconcile the world he left with the one to which he has returned. And in the title story, a stunning meditation on imagination, memory, and loss, a middle-aged cancer patient walks into the woods to commit suicide, only to encounter a troubled young boy who, over the course of a fateful morning, gives the dying man a final chance to recall who he really is. A hapless, deluded owner of an antiques store; two mothers struggling to do the right thing; a teenage girl whose idealism is challenged by a brutal brush with reality; a man tormented by a series of pharmaceutical experiments that force him to lust, to love, to kill—the unforgettable characters that populate the pages of Tenth of December are vividly and lovingly infused with Saunders’s signature blend of exuberant prose, deep humanity, and stylistic innovation.

Writing brilliantly and profoundly about class, sex, love, loss, work, despair, and war, Saunders cuts to the core of the contemporary experience. These stories take on the big questions and explore the fault lines of our own morality, delving into the questions of what makes us good and what makes us human.

Unsettling, insightful, and hilarious, the stories in Tenth of December—through their manic energy, their focus on what is redeemable in human beings, and their generosity of spirit—not only entertain and delight; they fulfill Chekhov’s dictum that art should “prepare us for tenderness.”

My Thoughts: 

I feel like a broken record when I say this, but it seems to be a truism (for me, at least) when I tell you that in this collection of short stories some were stronger than others. 

Maybe it's because I listened to it. As much a fan of having authors read their own works as I am, here is was something of a problem for me. Professional readers or actors are able to alter their voices to make the characters from story to story unique. Mr. Saunders either isn't or chose not to do so. Because of that, it was difficult for me to adjust to new stories because it felt very much like I was still listening to the main character from the last story. 

Maybe it's just me, because "real" reviewers praise the heck out of this collection. Perhaps I just don't get it; perhaps, once again, it would have made more sense for me to read one story a day and not read straight through. Maybe it's just that my reading mood, my mood in general, was not in a place to take in all of the unrelenting harshness of the stories.

All of that being said, some of these stories really made an impact. In "Victory Lap," I was literally on the edge of my car seat, not going in to work, as the story finished up, terrified by what might happen to the children involved. "Escape from Spiderhead" made me really consider the choices we make and truly what our criminal justice system and science might be capable of doing. So many of the stories (all?) deal with human beings capacity for hope, but also for delusion. No story captures that better than "Al Roosten." The story that really touched me the most was "Tenth of December," where a dying man, set out to commit suicide to avoid a slow, even more humiliating end, wanders out into the cold woods to die. When he sees a young boy fall into a not quite frozen lake, though, he needs to find the strength and determination to save him. 

And here I am, in the end, questioning whether or not short stories are for me. Or are the really good stories worth searching for amongst the stories that don't work as well for me? 

Life: It Goes On - January 19

Happy Sunday! It's sunny here...at least for now...but only a whopping 3 degrees so we're hunkering down. Sitting here next to the windows on the north side of the house, it's considerably cooler than where I've been sitting, enjoying my morning coffee and watching CBS Sunday Morning. May have to grab a cardigan and some slippers if I'm going to sit here long enough to finish this and write up a couple of reviews. How many more days until summer? 

Last Week I: 

Listened To: Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker. I don't have any audiobooks that have become available just now, and I'm way behind on podcasts, so I'll probably listen to some of those until a book becomes available. 

Watched: Football, college basketball, women's professional volleyball. Did I tell you that Omaha is home to two professional women's teams? Last week we watched one team and this week we watched the other. Pretty excited that ESPN feels like there's a decent enough audience that they will be showing at least some of the matches for that team. It also has Nebraska alum on it, included two that are Olympians. 

Read: Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson for book club this week. 

Made: What did we eat this week? I'd like to tell you but I honestly can't remember anything other than homemade mac and cheese. I cannot get myself in the mood to cook lately. 

Enjoyed: Wednesday was hair night and you know I always love that. Friday we had dinner with friends and I always enjoy that. But what I most enjoyed was texts and FaceTime calls I was getting from Miss H, who is on a trip to Phoenix this week. Life was really hard for her for a really long time and it makes this mama's heart so happy to see her loving life and having great adventures. 

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This Week I’m:  

Planning: This past week, as part of the Cozy Minimalist Community's House Hushing Challenge, I started "hushing" my house. In hushing you clear the surfaces in a room (at least) and live with it emptied for at least 24 hours then make the decision on what to bring back. Tuesday the next room will be announced and I'm eager to start that, after seeing this past week's results. 

Thinking About: Less than two months until Daylight Savings Time begins and I can't wait for sun in the evenings. I mean, it's dark in the morning here until about the time I'm half way to work everyday - I don't care if it's light then since I can't see outside during the day anyway. 

Feeling: Lighter. This week I "hushed" my kitchen. Which is to say that I took everything off of the counters and refrigerator and lived with it like that for 24 hours before deciding what needed to come back in. I found new homes for several things (my big mixer will now live in the basement since I only use it a few times a year and I am loving the the result. Now to work on the tops of the cupboards!

Looking forward to: Book club this week. 

Question of the week: January tends to be the time that people either decide to start living healthier or to declutter and reorganize (or both). Are you one of those people, if so, which do you do? I have given up on using January as the time to start a regime for lifestyle (the gym is too full, there's often too much decadent food left over from the holidays, it's too cold to walk outside). But you know I'm all about any kickstart I can get to declutter and organize! 

The Antidote by Karen Russell

The Antidote by Karen Russell

432 pages

Published March 2025 by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

Source: my copy courtesy of the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review

Publisher's Summary: 

The Antidote opens on Black Sunday, as a historic dust storm ravages the fictional town of Uz, Nebraska. But Uz is already collapsing—not just under the weight of the Great Depression and the dust bowl drought but beneath its own violent histories. The Antidote follows a "Prairie Witch,” whose body serves as a bank vault for peoples’ memories and secrets; a Polish wheat farmer who learns how quickly a hoarded blessing can become a curse; his orphan niece, a basketball star and witch’s apprentice in furious flight from her grief; a voluble scarecrow; and a New Deal photographer whose time-traveling camera threatens to reveal both the town’s secrets and its fate.

Russell's novel is above all a reckoning with a nation’s forgetting—enacting the settler amnesia and willful omissions passed down from generation to generation, and unearthing not only horrors but shimmering possibilities. The Antidote echoes with urgent warnings for our own climate emergency, challenging readers with a vision of what might have been—and what still could be.

My Thoughts: 

The Antidote was a great book to finish off 2024. It defies classification: it is both historical fiction and fantasy. It is political commentary, sweeping saga, intimate personal stories. It is devastating and hopeful, tense but not without humor. It's set in one of the most notable times of this country's history but addresses concerns that span the centuries. And it's set in a fictional small town in Nebraska, but it's packed with real places, the real history of the state, and real photographs taken by those sent to record that time.

"Black Sunday began as a gash in the western sky, growing wider and wider and spilling down dirt instead of blood. Sometimes I imagine the glee of those journalists in the New York City papers - typing up the story of our worst day in their fancy language. Adjusting the margins and pushing our tragedy into a skinny column, just like old Marvin at the funeral home shoving a tall corpse into a tight suit."

"Imagine every ghost rising up to hurl their cemetery earth at the living. That was the sound we heard last Sunday afternoon. At 3:00 p.m the sun was murdered in cold blood, in full view of every woman and child. The sun sank into black cloud. Buried alive, at a shocking altitude, but the duster to end all dusters."

We get the story primarily from The Prairie Witch, Asphodel Oletsky, Harp Oletsky, and Cleo Allfrey whose names will change as chapter headings as the books progresses. But we also get chapters from the points of view of a cat and a scarecrow, chapters that are The Antidote's history, and one of Harp's "deposits." In less skilled hands, all of this shifting could be confusing; but Russell skillfully blends all of these points of view at the same time she is moving the story forward while giving us the backstory of the land and the people. The characters are fully realized, their travails their own but their concerns and hopes universal. While the full story is slow to develop, it's never drags and it's well worth the time spent when everything comes to a conclusion with a second cataclysmic (and real) event. 

"The Republican River became a four-mile-wide whitewater monster, thrashing its long tail from eastern Colorado to Oxford, Nebraska. Twenty-four inches of rain fell in twenty-four house! Bridges split and splintered apart. Hundreds of miles of road got washed out. The river poured forward with enough force to carry cars and rooftops. Walls floated away. Friends became cadavers in outfits we recognized, floating beside tractors and drowned cattle. Bodies were seen riding on the crest through the middle of towns, their shy faces staring underwater even as we screamed their names."

At a time when I was really struggling to focus on any book, this one grabbed me and kept me reading. The concepts, the history, the characters, the writing, the pacing, the creativity all worked to make this book that will stay with me a long time. As much as it is set in the past, it is filled with lessons to be learned, not the least of which are to see how history is repeating itself and how human nature remains unchanged. Russell leaves us with hope - we see that there is an opportunity to learn from the past and to change our future. If only we will listen. 

One final note, if you read this book, make sure you read the Land Lost Acknowledgment and the Author's Note at the end. 

Life: It Goes On - January 12

Happy Sunday from Omaha, where, at least for now, the sun is finally shining. I've been whinny about the grey and the low pressure system; but I'm grateful to have dodged the ice and snow storms that have crippled so much of the country. Now if we could both just get healthy at the same time! 

We finally got this Christmas tree down on Friday. I'd taken off all of the ornaments a week ago but needed Big Guy to help with the lights and the tree. Between one thing and another, it just didn't get done all week. What a relief to finally have the family room back in order and my favorite chair back in the room. It's my favorite place to curl up and read! 

Last Week I: 

Listened To: I finished my first book of the year, George Saunders' The Tenth of December and started back up with Hidden Valley Road. When I looked at my reading numbers for 2024, I had read very few short story collections and not as much nonfiction as usual, so I'm off to a good start in turning that around in 2025. 

Watched: The usual football, college basketball, and the season opener of one of Omaha's professional women's volleyball teams. What an exciting match, with Husker alumni on both sides of the net and a record women's professional volleyball crowd in attendance. We also watch a couple of episodes each of Shrinking, Loudermilk, and Only Murders In The Building. 

Read: I started both Jodi Picoult's By Any Other Name (finally!) and All The Colors of the Dark, by Chris Whitaker, but not sure which one I'm going to stick with to the end first. I did not, as I had said I would, get back to either of the books I'd been reading as part of readalongs. 

Made: It's been so cold here lately so it's soup season. This week we made potato soup and corn chowder. 

Enjoyed: We went to see a movie...in the theater!...on Monday - A Complete Unknown, starring Timothee Chalomet. Well done movie with really good performances. I'm not a huge Bob Dylan fan so I could have done with a little less of the music, but the friends we went with really enjoyed that. 

We also enjoyed an overnight visit from my brother who was headed up to pick up some beef. Do people outside of the midwest buy meat by the half or quarter of an animal? 

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This Week I’m:  

Planning: BG is celebrating a big birthday this month so I'm working on a little family surprise for him. With everyone's schedules, it may not happen until a week or so after his birthday so I'll have to find another way to celebrate on the actual date. 

Thinking About: California. It's so huge and overwhelming to think about and my heart breaks for all of those affected. So much as been lost, so much that can never be replaced. It's so frustrating to see some trying to make this a political issue at a time when people are suffering. 

Feeling: BG is sick again. I'm pretty convinced that he's never fully recovered from what we got in November. I'd like to be sympathetic; but, honestly, I'm feeling a little cranky about having to wait on him again and do everything around here. 

Looking forward to: Last week ended up being kind of a weird week so this week I'm looking forward to a normal week. Although I have no idea what's on the calendar, not having turned the page yet. 

Question of the week: How are you holding up, now that the holidays are behind us and most of winter lies ahead? 

Life: It Goes On - January 5

Happy Sunday! If you're one of the millions caught in the path of this weekend's ice/snow storm, I hope you didn't have to go out on the roads and had stocked up on enough milk, Cheetos and Klondike bars to survive your time stuck at home. Miss H was at a convention all weekend and had to time her trip from downtown K.C. to her apartment so that there was enough snow over the ice to gain traction but not enough to get stuck. It's a whooping 16° here, but I'm grateful that there was no snow or ice to contend with last night when we were out with friends. 

Last Week I: 

Listened To: I started listening to William Faulkner's The Sound and The Fury but quickly realized that is not a book to be listened to so I'll be digging out my copy of the book to finish it. Then I switched to George Saunders' Tenth of December, a collection of short stories. I'd started it before I remembered that I never finished listening to 1984, so I'll get back to that this week. 

Watched: The New Year's Eve festivities, college basketball, and as much football as we can while it lasts. We also watched the latest Wallace and Gromit movie, Vengeance Most Fowl. This one is a little over the top, but still so much fun and pays homage to so many movies. 

Read: I finished Karen Russell's The Antidote on NYE, just in the nick of time to count it as a 2024 read. I've been reading Of Human Bondage, another readalong I failed at in 2024, but I'm determined to finish it before I start a new book in 2025 (likely All The Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker or Jodi Picoult's latest, By Any Other Name). 

Made: We had friends over for dessert on NYE; I made ice cream. Today we made potato soup and bread pudding. All of those things because we've both been shopping and accidentally doubling up on things - so too much whipping cream, milk and bread. 

Enjoyed: We went in to Lincoln Friday evening to spend time with the Big Guy's siblings, their spouses, and a great-nephew who was in town for a visit. Got to see his sister and her two-year-old son while we were there as well. Nothing makes you feel older than having a great- great-nephew! 

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This Week I’m:  

Planning: We're headed see A Complete Unknown (the movie about Bob Dylan) tomorrow evening. Otherwise, there is nothing on the calendar and I'm ok with that; I'm ready for some time to just relax and do nothing more than the usual chores. 

Thinking About: Not much this weekend - this low front has had me battling a headache. 

Feeling: Christmas is down and I must admit that I'm not really missing it, like I usually do. As soon as I'd finished putting it all out, I was ready to take some of it back down again - it was just too much this year for some reason. I've resolved to not feel like I have to put it all out every year from now on, but I'm keeping most of it so that I have choices. 

Looking forward to: A quiet week. 

Question of the week: How did you celebrate the New Year? Did you start a new book for the new year? 

2024 Wrap Up

 

I'm not really sure where 2024 went. It feels like a long time ago that we ushered it in and yet it also flew by. It was a strange reading year for me and I ended the year in a real blogging slump. I couldn't seem to find a good way to follow all of my favorite blogs any more so I've been a very bad blogging friend to top it off. I'd like to say that will change in 2025; but, if I've learned anything over the years, I've learned not to make promises I don't know if I can keep. That said, let's wrap up 2024! 

Top Fiction Books: 

James by Percival Everett

Sandwich by Catherine Newman

Table for Two by Amor Towels

The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell

After Annie by Anna Quindlen

Chenneville by Paulette Jiles

The Fraud by Zadie Smith

The Morningside by Tea Obrecht

Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty

Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout

Long Island Colm Toibin 

Pete and Alice in Maine by Caitlin Shetterley

Top Audiobooks:

Chenneville by Paulette Jiles, read by Grover Gardner

The Maid by Nita Prose, read by Lauren Ambrose

Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond, read by Dion Graham

The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell, read by Genevieve Gaunt

The Trackers by Charles Frazier, read by Will Patton

Long Island by Colm Toibin, read by Jessie Buckley

The Once and Future Witches by Alix Harrow, read by Gabra Zackman

Top Nonfiction Books: 

Poverty, By America by Matthew Desmond

Life In Five Senses by Gretchen Rubin

The Friday Afternoon Club by Griffin Dunne

We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamande Ngozi Adichie 

The Middle Place by Kelly Corrigan

Madame Restell by Jennifer Wright

By The Numbers: 

I read a total of 80 books. Of those 84% were written by female authors, a record 58% were audiobooks, 81% were checked out from the library and 16% were from Netgalley (which goes to show that I read very few books from my own shelves!). 

Six of the books were part of series, six were works of fiction based on real people, and four were written by Omaha authors. Two of the books were short story collections and three were either prequels or sequels. Three were set during Covid. 

I tend to think of books as often being of more than one genre so these numbers will not total to 80: 

24 literary fiction

19 historical fiction

15: mysteries, nonfiction

11: women's fiction, U.S. history

5: fantasy, memoir, self-help

3 chick lit

1 each: Western, science fiction, biography, classic, dystopian

I read books set in: Greece, Italy, England, Dominican Republic, Poland, France, Australia, Ireland, and two set in Nebraska. 

The themes I read about included: diversity (a disappointing 10 books), family, social issues, mental health, friendship, war, the justice system, feminism, marriage, abuse, and grief. These tend to be themes I'm consistently drawn to so I imagine if I looked back over the years, I'd see the same things. 

In 2025, I'm not setting any goals. But I would like to read more physical books, more books that I already own, and to read more diversely. I'd also like to finish up the books I started as read-alongs in 2024 and maybe be part of more of those in 2025. 

What did your reading year look like for 2024? 

Happy New Year!

“For last year's words belong to last year's language. And next year's words await another voice.” — T.S. Eliot