My Year in Reading

My Year in Reading

- A 2020 Wrap Up -

I’m one of those special kind of nerds that sets goals about how many books I will read in a year. And when I set my goal on Goodreads back in January at 60 books in 2020, I thought I was being super reasonable. After all, I read 68 books last year, so 60 should be no sweat, right?

Wrong.

As I write this post, the final 55 hours of 2020 are ticking down and I still have to finish two books to meet my “super reasonable” goal. Color me humbled.

(I mean, it is still technically possible. I’m partially done with two short-ish books, so the optimist in me believes it could still happen.)

But whatever. Even if I don’t read another word this year literally no one but me will care. And, more importantly, I enjoyed myself doing all the reading I did manage.

Some of the most fun I had reading this year was with my daughter. Even though she is getting to the age where she can get lost in a book all by herself for hours at a time (so proud!) I still read to her a lot. Highlights from our time reading together this year included favorite series from my own childhood (The Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter, and Ramona Quimby), some classics I had somehow never managed to read before (The Wind in the Willows, Heidi), and some contemporary books I loved myself and wanted to share with her (The Girl Who Drank the Moon).

I also spent more time than usual reading non-fiction this year, mainly books about race, and these were some the most important books I read this year. While not always pleasant to read (well, hello there shame, humility, and regret! Nothing like getting corrected when you think you’re already woke, am I right?), I am infinitely glad I went back to them again and again even when it was uncomfortable. Already there are two I plan to reread next year to continue the work of addressing my own racial biases and behavior, and to help me in raising my kids to do even better.

Ultimately, it was a great year of reading both in terms of enjoyment and enrichment. I read books that made me laugh and made me cry. I read books that made my heart soar and books that cut me more deeply than any before. I have learned a lot both about writing and storytelling, as well as what is means to be human and about the responsibilities I bear as a parent, as a spouse, as an American and as a white lady. In so many ways, 2020 has been a real doozy of a year. But when it comes to the books I’ve read, it was actually pretty great. Here are my favorites I read this year in four of my most-read categories:

My Favorite Books I Read This Year:

Middle Grade: Flora & Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo

I didn’t know before I started reading it that this book is a mixture of prose and comic/graphic pages. It was a fun surprise! I found it to be charmingly quirky, unexpectedly relatable, and certainly entertaining. I gave it to my (6 yo at the time) daughter to read when I was done with it, and she also pronounced it Very Good.

Young Adult: Six of Crows duology by Leigh Bardugo

Leigh Bardugo always writes such fun stories. I have enjoyed anything I have read by her. Her Grishaverse is so unique and fascinating! But my favorites so far have been the Six of Crows duology. I guess I’m a sucker for an ensemble adventure quest featuring plenty of will they/won’t they tension and a heavy dose of badass, broody antihero. I flew through both (long!) books this summer and loved every page of them. Really fun reads!

Classic: East of Eden by John Steinbeck

East of Eden is hands down one of my all-time favorite books. Now, it was written in the 1950s and as is true for so many classics it is therefore not without its problems (read: notes of racism, sexism, etc.). But the story and the characters get me every time. I have yet to read another novel that captures the beautiful melancholy of the human condition in the way this story does, juxtaposing the glory and the agony we experience in the power of our choices. This isn’t a difficult book to read as far as “classics” go. The writing isn’t so old fashioned as to feel inaccessible. But I wouldn’t call it a beach read, either. It isn’t like junk food that tastes great and goes down easy (though I love that in a book like that every now and again!). This is meat. It’s a fine whiskey. You need to chew it, savor it. I love it every time I read it, and this time was no different. I don’t have any tattoos myself, but I do love the idea of a great literary tattoo, a visual reminder of the deep impression a great story can make on a reader. If I ever were to get one it would say “timshel”.

Non-Fiction: White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard to Talk to White People About Racism by Robin DiAngelo

If you are white and you have not read anything this year about racism, I am going to ask you right now to please make that one of your top reading priorities for 2021. And this book is a really good place to start. It was written by a white woman whose life work is as an anti-racist educator and I found it to be eye-opening, humbling, inspiring, and very practical in its advice. I highly recommended it. But be warned: You will need to pick it up with an attitude of humility and a true desire to learn. If you have ever bristled when your beliefs about race have been challenged, then I challenge you to read this book. (Also recommended: How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi.)

For further reading about the issue of racism, stay tuned for my full recommended reading list coming soon.

My Year in Writing

My Year in Writing

- A 2020 Wrap-Up -

Ah, 2020. What a year. I’d say, “Happy New Year, and good riddance!” but we all know it’s not like when the clock strikes midnight on the first of January that anything is going to be immediately different but the date on the calendar.

I had so many grand plans for my work this year. For the first time since my kids were born, both of them were in school two days each week and I actually had a regular writing routine! I was making lots of progress on my various projects and the plan for 2020 was to accomplish even more with my newfound writing time.

Everything went swimmingly for the first few months of the year. I submitted an application for Author Mentor Match with my Lucas Miller and the Silver Shadow manuscript. While I wasn’t chosen to be a mentee, I received some very helpful feedback from the mentors I’d submitted to. Then I connected with a friend of a friend of a friend on Instagram, and when she began training to be a book coach I got to be one of her guinea pigs and again received some massively helpful feedback on my project. (Dani is AWESOME. If you feel stuck in revisions - or even as you are outlining a new project! - you should check our her coaching services.)

And then the pandemic hit the US with full force. My kids, just like everyone else’s, went on Spring Break and never went back to school. And all at once my beautiful, glorious, long-awaited writing routine went completely out the window.

But THEN… Onto the scene came my dashing husband, who valiantly shifted his work schedule so that I could still find time to work in the midst of our unexpected new quarantined, distance-learning lifestyle. During the summer, which we spent in Maine with my family, my sister helped out with the kids a couple times a week. So despite the totally upended routine, over the course of the spring and summer I actually still managed to outline two new projects and get a first draft completed for one of them. And in the middle of all of that, I got the opportunity to work with another book-coach-in-training on my full Lucas Miller manuscript. And once again a book coach seriously changed the game for me. (Thank you, Amy! Check out her book coaching services, too!)

But as the start of the new school year approached, it became clear that we wouldn’t be going back to the same set-up I had enjoyed the year before with all that precious time to myself to write in silence. With the pandemic ever-worsening, my daugher’s school’s plans for distance-learning still unclear, and a potential move back to New England in the works, we decided to homeschool. And then we made the move to Maine official and had to haul all our stuff back up north and get resettled. And then, even when we enrolled my daughter at her new school for twice-a-week in-person learning, the rest of the year was still filled with holidays and birthday and anniversaries and as a result I have done barely any writing since August.

But this is not a sob story about how 2020 ruined all my plans.

While this year certainly did not go the way I (or anyone else!) expected, and while I may not have accomplished everything I had hoped, I am proud of the work I did do this year. And I am supremely thankful for the support system I have and for the lessons I have learned.

One of my biggest takeaways from this year, at least when it comes to my work, has been the importance of the interplay between tenacity and patience. I have big goals for myself and my writing. But I also understand the reality of my current life situation. I have an incredibly supportive and encouraging husband who goes out of his way to help me make time whenever it’s possible. And a family who I (now) live close to who also support me. But I also have two young kids who are home all the time and need lots of care and attention. And ultimately they matter more to me than any book.

So I work when I can. And how I can. Most of my “writing” over the last several months has consisted of early morning walks before my husband goes to work, during which I record voice memos as I attempt to talk myself through the changes to my Lucas Miller project I planned during my book coaching session with Amy in August. And then hurriedly transcribing those notes later in the day a week later.

Other writing related activities also slowed down in a major way. My instagram went dark for nearly 6 months. My last blog post was written even further back than that.

At the same time, I have watched lots of writer friends on social media hit some super exciting landmarks in their writing journeys this year. Completing Projects! Landing agents! Getting published! I have been so thrilled for every one of their personal victories. And while there is always the temptation to wonder, “Am I behind? Should I be at that point in my career by now, too? Will that ever even happen for me, or am I totally out of my depth?”, instead I find myself wildly inspired and encouraged by the community among fellow creators.

For now, I am committed to enjoying where I am. And I have all the time in the world. My only deadlines are the ones I set for myself. If I blow right by them the world will not end. I will find no strongly worded emails from an editor in my inbox. I have made the choice to not let the slower-than-desired progress of my work to rob me of the joy of creation. (Or any of the hundreds of snuggles my kids ask for throughout the day because they are home and they can.)

That’s not to say I don’t have goals for 2021. But I’m holding them loosely. If the last year has taught us anything it’s the reminder that we never know what the future holds. Our best laid plans can get flushed right down the toilet in an instant. But with the knowledge that a return to our regular routine is unlikely any time soon, I can make different kinds of plans. Plans for intentionality in time management. Plans for being flexible with my schedule. And plans to keep chasing my dreams one step at a time, even when life throws the most unexpected of curveballs.