Book list for January 2018

Books are in the order I read them:

The Checklist Manifesto. Atul Gawande*
The One Full Year Challenge. Brad Hardin
The Store. James Patterson and Richard Di Lello*
A Homemade Year. Jerusalem Jackson Greer*
A Bed of Scorpions. Judith Flanders*

Best book of the month: The Checklist Manifesto.

As always, * = library book.

Here's a picture from January:

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Book list for January 2017

Hunting Badger. Tony Hillerman.
An Obvious Fact. Craig Johnson.*
Living Well, Spending Less. Ruth Soukup
Garden of Lies. Amanda Quick.*

More Hillerman, of course. 

The Longmire book just jumped out at me from the library shelf and I was surprised they had it.  It was fun, I guess. 

I borrowed Living Well, Spending Less from Laine and I liked a lot of it.  The rest of it, I didn't but whatever.  It was one of those things I liked well enough while I was reading it and then kept thinking about all the parts of it that bothered me in the days after I finished it. I got some good things out of it, but can't remember what those are now that I'm typing about it. I'm glad I read it.

I saw Garden of Lies on a display at the library and Evelyn and I had a lot of fun talking about what a garden of lies would entail.  It wasn't that great of a read.  I was distracted by the anachronistic language in this attempt at a Victorian detective novel, the weird attempts at romantic banter, and just about everything about this seemed .... off.  But it did keep me up a few nights because I liked the dumb diversion. 

2016's book list

These are the books I read in 2016.  Library books are marked with an asterisk and I'm not going to bother putting them in any kind of order.  I just copied and pasted them from the posts where I wrote about them throughout the year (under the book list tag) and threw in one or two of the novels I read in December. 

It was a big year for Hillerman and how-tos.  I'm not sure what this year's reading list might look like.  I'm looking forward to finding out, though.


The Kingdom of Little Wounds. Susann Cokal*
Diving into the Wreck: Selected Poems 1971-1972. Adrienne Rich.
Gray Mountain. John Grisham*
The Leftovers. Tom Perrotta*
Magpies, Homebodies, and Nomads: A Modern Knitter's Guide to Discovering and Exploring Style. Cirlia Rose.*

Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? Roz Chast.*

The Dark Wind.  Tony Hillerman.

Knitting Pearls: Writers Writing About Knitting. Ann Hood, ed.*
People of Darkness. Tony Hillerman.
Sacred Clowns. Tony Hillerman.

The Blessingway. Tony Hillerman.
Talking God. Tony Hillerman.
Step Aside, Pops. Kate Beaton.*
Prepper's Survival Hacks: 50 DIY Projects for Lifesaving Gear, Gadgets, and Kits. Jim Cobb.*

Things I Learned from Knitting...Whether I Wanted to or Not. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee.*
Listening Woman. Tony Hillerman.
People of Darkness. Tony Hillerman.
My Grandmother's Knitting: Family Stories and Inspired Knits from Top Designers. Larissa Brown, ed.*  

Dry Bones. Craig Johnson.*
The Gift of Failure: How the Best Parents Learn to Let Go so Their Children Can Succeed. Jessica Lahey*
Coyote. Tony Hillerman.*
Blessing Way. Tony Hillerman.*
Dance Hall of the Dead. Tony Hillerman*
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. Marie Kondo.*
Pieces: A Year in Poems and Quilts. Anna Grossnickle Hines.*
Spark Joy: An Illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up. Marie Kondo.*
The Little Spark: 30 Ways to Ignite Your Creativity. Carrie Bloomstein.*
The Girl in the Spider's Web. David Lagercrantz.* 

Little Victories: Perfect Victories for Imperfect Living. Jason Gay.*
Skinwalkers. Tony Hillerman.*
Thief of Time. Tony Hillerman.*
Wait for Signs: Twelve Longmire Stories. Craig Johnson.*

Faithful. Alice Hoffman*

November's Book List

The Nameless Dead: An Inspector Devlin Thriller. Brian McGilloway.*

I thought I might want to try out a new crime series, so I checked this out from the library.  I think I'll just get back to the Leaphorn and Chee novels.

This picture has nothing to do with the books I read last month, and I took it 5 or 6 years ago.  The tree is still thriving in our neighborhood and its leaves turned a week or so ago.  Evelyn and I went for a walk last weekend and were impressed with how bright the yellow leaves could be.

October's book list

"Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?" Roz Chast.*

Man, this was sad.

"The Dark Wind " Tony Hillerman.

I may need a small break from the Hillerman books. Just a small one, though.