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December 2014

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Cannonball Read 6 – My Year in Books

Written by , Posted in Reviews

Alright. I did it! Review #52 is done. I’ll still be reading this year, and possibly reviewing what I read, but for now, I’m going to enjoy the fact that I did it. Two years running!

So what did I read, exactly?

Well … in terms of topics, I was spread pretty widely. I read only 10 fiction books (down from 16 last year), and 42 non-fiction books. Those non-fiction books included nine about history and seven that were humorous memoirs. Yup. I still like those.

The authors were sort of varied – I read 35 women and 20 male (a couple books had two authors). Unfortunately my diversity beyond male or female wasn’t so great. As far as I could determine (some biographical information was not available), 40 of the authors were white (European), five were Black, and two were Indian. 43 are from the USA; two are from the UK, one from Nigeria, one from India and two from France. Only four publicly identify as LGBTQ and only one author is trans.

As far as my ratings go, the average is a 3.5. I read nine 2-star books, 17 three-star books, 14 4-star books, and 12 5-star books.

I’ve not completely settled on it yet, but I think that my favorite book of the year was either Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, or A Storm of Swords. Yeah, I know. Kind of different. So let’s say that was my favorite non-fiction and my favorite fiction.

So much of what I read made me angry, from the failings of our police (Rise of the Warrior Cop) to the failings of the media (#Newsfail) to the failings of politics (Pro). But I also read a lot that I found to be really inspiring, especially with Caitlin Doughty and Atul Gawande‘s books. The humorous memoirs weren’t as good as last year’s crop, although Amy Poehler continues to bring me joy.

So .. now what? Well, I think I’m going to attempt the double cannonball next year. I’m thinking of picking a couple of themes and pursuing them, like all of Jane Austen’s books, or many books recommended by the author of my favorite non-fiction.

In the meantime, I’m going to check out a few magazines.

Happy Reading!

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