Slow reading in 2022

Last year, I read a lot and posted quarterly book lists. This year, we're in the third quarter of 2022, and I have not read a lot or shared my reading list. I guess that's what happens when the main theme of three of the first five books you read is suicide. And those were followed by Plunder, which was interesting, but slooooow. 

Until recently, I really didn't feel like I had read anything worth sharing, except for Harlem Shuffle. It's brilliant, but as I've said before: Read Colson Whitehead. Period. He is amazing. And Harlem Shuffle has a real Elmore Leonard vibe, at least for me. 

Anyway, I recently finished The Midnight Library by Matt Haig, which was good and also makes the perfect book-club book -- it will foster great discussions & plenty of drinking. That made me revisit my 2022 reading list, and as I looked back on the books I finished, it doesn't suck as much as I thought. Yes, there were some tough topics, but the only book that I really didn't like was Bewilderment by Richard Powers. The others have made up for it. 

Below you'll find the list of what I've read so far in 2022. Any of them (except Bewilderment) are worth a go. Harlem Shuffle and The Midnight Library are definitely the top two, but A Single Thread, The Liar's Dictionary and The Paris Hours are also excellent (the former being a little predictable, but interesting nonetheless). The buzziest on the list is probably All That She Carried, and it is a fascinating story that will make you think about history and family and much more. 

My current list still has about 20 books on it. I don't know if I'll get to them all between now and the end of the year, but I'll definitely share what I get through.

2022 Reading list (through Sept. 9)

The Dutch House/Patchett 

Apples Never Fall / Moriarty 

The Matrix / Groff 

I Keep Trying to Catch His Eye / Maisel (nonfiction)

Bewilderment / Powers 

Plunder: Napoleon's Theft of Veronese's Feast / Saltzman (nonfiction)

Harlem Shuffle / Whitehead 

The Turnout / Abbot 

The Paris Hours / George 

All That She Carried / Miles 

Olive, Again/ Strout 

A Single Thread / Chevalier 

The Liar's Dictionary / Williams 

The Other Black Girl / Harris 

Of Women and Salt / Garcia 

Crying in H Mart / Zauner (nonfiction)

The Midnight Library / Haig 

The Maidens / Michaelides 

A Man Called Ove / Backman

2021 Book List

Remember when blogging was a thing? I haven't written for entertainment purposes in a veeeery long time and, given that it's been nearly a decade (or more than a decade if you count 2020 for what it felt like it lasted), this could very well disappear when I hit "Publish." In 2021, I periodically posted on a different platform the updated list of books I had read. I thought it would be easier to write about the final 2021 list this way, then share the link on that other platform. We'll see. This could be a one-and-done, or it could be the start of something beautiful. In all, my Excel sheet says I read 42 books in 2021. The way the last couple of years have blended together, I may have forgotten one or two. For instance, I can't remember when I read Terror in the City of Champions by Tom Stanton: 2020? 2021? Who knows. I didn't start tracking library check-outs until March-ish. That's important because 95 percent of the list below came from the library. (Bookseller friends, don't hate me: I buy and give copies of the books I like to friends I think will like them.)

Anyway, my list -- complete or not -- is below. It is primarily fiction (88%), and quite diverse. Non-fiction is denoted with an *. There is a clear best & worst: Fight Night by Miriam Toewes, and Earthlings by Sayaka Murata.

I chose a lot of books based on other peoples lists (i.e. Best of 2020; Best Thrillers for a Cold Winter; you get the idea). I read some that were recommended by others. Thank you Sarah Kelbaugh, Kevin Redman, Nancy Brosnahan, Susan from the Dog Park, Ted Lasso. Please note, Kevin recommended The Bookman's Tale, not the book on the list by Kevin Redman. I don't recommend reading several books in a row by the same author, especially if you want to keep the thrill in the thrillers (coughRuthWarecough). There were a few that lived up to the hype (The Vanishing Half! The Boy in the Field! The Nickel Boys!) and a few that were disappointing (The Four Winds, The Guest List, The Pull of the Stars). There were also some really satisfying finds (The Shadow Land, Great Circle, Hamnet, Such a Fun Age). And a few authors I hadn't read before, that I want to read more of, namely Colson Whitehead, Miriam Toewes and Charlie Lovett. Here's to 2022 -- I'm already three books in.

Books Read in 2021

A Wrinkle In Time - L'Engle

Anxious People -- Backman

Bear Town - Backman

Becoming Duchess Goldblatt-Goldblatt*

Beheld-Nesbit

Earthlings -- Murata

Eight Perfect Murders-Swanson

Fight Night - Toewes

Fresh Water for Flowers - Perrin

Great Circle - Shipstead

Hamnet - O’Farrell

In a Dark, Dark Wood-Ware

Memorial-Washington

Night Came with Many Stars- Van Booy

Nine Perfect Strangers-Moriarty

One by One-Ware

Sisters - Johnson

Such a Fun Age-Reid

The Bookman's Tale - Lovett

The Boy in the Field - Livesy

The Dead are Arising-Payne*

The Four Winds -- Hannah

The Girls-Cline

The Good Lord Bird - McBride

The Guest List-Foley

The Historian - Elizabeth Kostova

The Huntress-Quinn

The Last thing he told me -Dave

The Mercies-Hargrave

The Nickel Boys-Whitehead

The Other Side of Someday - Redman*

The Other Wes Moore -- Moore*

The Plot -- Korelitz

The Pull of the Stars - Donoghue

The Shadow Land-Kostova

The Third Rainbow Girl-Eisenberg*

The Turn of the Key-Ware

The Underground Railroad - Whitehead

The Vanishing Half-Bennett

Trigger Warning - Gaiman

When No One is Watching -- Cole

Where’d You Go Bernadette- Semple

Slurring the lines of what's a slur

WTOP in Washington issued an apology yesterday after former defensive end Dexter Manly called former Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman a name that's just not acceptable in a public forum or anywhere really. (So we can move on and so you don't click away, the word was queer.)

Now, it's been awhile, but I don't remember Manly as being one of the NFL's most cerebral players to begin with, so I'm not really sure why WTOP producers would want to put a mike in front of the man anyway, except for he probably comes cheap.We're talking about a guy who actually managed to get himself kicked out of the NFL for failing drug tests ("In 1989, Manly failed his third drug test and was banned for life, with the opportunity for reinstatement in one year." Yes, you read it right. He was finally really truly banned for life in '91 after a fourth failed test, and served time for cocaine possession in the mid-'90s.)

So unless Dexter Manly is talking about, oh, "Breaking Bad," or "Orange is the New Black," I don't really care what he has to say.

What caught my attention though, is the WTOP apology that began: "This morning in a live interview former Redskins player Dexter Manley made an offensive and derogatory comment."

Remember kids, there's been an uproar off and on for years over the Washington football club's nickname. It has been especially intense since August when owner Dan Snyder saying outright he'll never change the team name. Some writers are refusing to use it this season, and the Associated Press, New York Times and other media outlets jumped on the SEO wagon at the time, announcing they would not publish it, but refer to the team only as Washington.

Apparently, though, WTOP isn't one of 'em. Just so we're clear: It's OK for WTOP to use what many deem an offensive and derogatory nickname in making an apology for a radio guest who made an offensive and derogatory comment.

Blood-sucking vampires

It is Twilight as I'm typing to complain about the American Red Cross. With the number of phone calls I have received lately, you would think the Red Cross was running for a vacant Senate seat. I hung up on the caller for the second time in three days.

I gave blood for the first time a few months ago. I had been meaning to do it for years, but like so many things, just never got around to it. Finally, in February, at the senior center up the street, I did and I felt good about it, even if the tech was a little freaky.

She was a little too excited to see my "lovely, luscious vein." She was pretty and perky and the way her eyes got all big as she inserted the needle making me feel like a supporting character in a Charlaine Harris novel. The time it took me to fill the pint bag came in at the low end of the average ... for men. Being competitive in anything and everything, I do boast about that a little.

A few weeks after I gave blood, I got my donor card and promptly tucked it in my wallet. I checked online for another local blood drive in April when I was eligible, but none were convenient. I got a flyer in the mail, listing upcoming drives. A few days later, I also got a phone call from an eager young man who was giving me the same information that was in the mailer.

It is now the end of the first week of May. I got the May flyer last week, and noticed the Red Cross will be back at my senior center in a couple of weeks, so that's on my calendar. On Wednesday, the Red Cross called. I said thanks, I got the flyer and hung up.

Tonight, the Red Cross called again. I said, sorry, wrong number and hung up. Again.

I understand that the need for blood is critical. When there's a disaster along the lines of 9/11 or Hurricane Katrina, donations soar. But blood has a short shelf life. If it's not used in a certain amount of time, it has to be thrown out. The Red Cross needs more donors and needs them to donate consistently.

However, the repeated phone calls, on top of the mailings, are not the way to get me to donate again. It makes the American Red Cross seem like blood-sucking vampires.

It also makes me question how the nonprofit is spending the monetary donations it receives. According to the Better Business Bureau, 90 percent of donations go to targets; 4 percent to fund-raising and 6 percent to administrative costs. I hope so, but between the amount of mail I'm receiving and the number of phone calls I'm getting, that seems hard to believe.

And the Red Cross isn't that much different from the other charities I choose to support. Many have figured out that email is more cost-effective, but many still choose to mail or call, often for additional donations. Here's a news flash for them: I have given as much as I can. Try eliminating the mailings and paying for the staff who is calling me and see how much farther my donation goes toward supporting your programs.

Think about it: You try to do the right thing, then regularly have someone calling you to tell you it wasn't enough. It makes me tired. And it makes me want to find some other way to give.

With the Red Cross, my donation isn't monetary, but the principle is the same. Maybe I should go out and find a vampire to whom I can offer my blood directly. At least, I would know for sure that my donation is going to save a life. And I wouldn't get nearly as many phone calls.

"Now that you're single ..."

It's never easy to tell friends and family you're getting divorced. I suppose it's not easy to respond to the news either.

But when I started telling people my 15-year marriage was ending, the first thing that several -- meaning more than three -- people said to me was: "Now that you're single, you really should change your picture on Facebook."

Do I even need to mention they were all male?

For background, my "picture" on Facebook is the graphic inset here. I've used this graphic for years because I think it represents me pretty well. Half the time I'm at the end of my rope, half the time it's "Ready or not, here I come." I think it's witty and sarcastic and ironic and creative. All things I try to be.

There are also 560 Michelle McKenzies on Facebook. People searching for me know immediately which one I am, in part because it's witty and sarcastic and creative.

And hey, she's got great legs.

But apparently, if you're single, people want to know what you look like. Of course, none of the three guys who very sincerely suggested this took into account that my "friends" on Facebook are actually *gasp* friends. I don't take random friend requests. My friends already know what I look like, appreciate the graphic and have no interest in dating either one of us.

And just the idea of dating makes me want to, well, scream, grab a rope and jump.

I understand the power of social media, I appreciate it and I try to use it when it fits my needs. But I don't think that changing my picture on Facebook (or Twitter for that matter), really fits those needs.

I also find it curious that these three "wise men" all assumed that because I am now single, that I don't want to be. Maybe that's how it is these days. Becoming single is the start of the pursuit of becoming unsingle. And that, in turn, is hangs in the balance of what I look like instead of who I am.

No thanks. Those days are over.

Getting it off my chest

The recent news about the former Miss California, Carrie Prejean, getting a book deal opens the door for me to rant for a moment about the fact that the Miss California Pageant paid for her breast implants.

Now, I don’t have a problem with any getting implants and I am willing to wager that the majority of beauty pageant contestants have got them. What’s really sticking in my craw, is that the Miss California Pageant paid for them before she went on to compete for the Miss USA title.

Not Prejean herself, but the people running the show. I’m sure the California pageant officials just thought they were leveling the playing field. But I can’t help but wonder if they were sitting around a table sizing up the competition when they decided their Barbie lookalike would be a bust without a bigger bust.

Keith Lewis, the co-director for the pageant, has said bigger boobs were Prejean’s idea. And in May, he told an “Early Show” anchor that his board meets with the titleholder and asks questions about her opinion of herself and what can give her the “best possible confidence … to present herself … on the national stage.”

The woman had already won the state pageant in one of the biggest states in the country. Funny, but for me, that’d be a pretty big confidence boost. Or affirmation.

From where I sit, this is like the director of baseball operations for the Kansas City Royals (who stink, to you nonbaseball-types) holding a team meeting to tell his players they’ll all be getting HGH injections so they’ll hit more homeruns and throw harder pitches.

Granted, HGH is a banned substance and silicone is not. If Prejean paid for the implants herself -- taken out a loan, held a bake sale, whatever – I’d have no problem with it.

But when the California pageant coughed up the dough for the augmentation, it sent (yet another) message to young women everywhere about body image and who makes the decisions about how we look.

By the way, there’s no word yet on whether or not Prejean will have to give her breasts back or reimburse the pageant since she lost the crown. Over nude pictures. Taken before the surgery. Anyone else see the irony?

Heroes

I read a story last week bemoaning the way we tend to make heroes out of sports stars. And it's true. Just because a guy can hit a ball a long way or throw a ball a long way or swim better than anyone else in the world doesn't make him a hero. It just makes him rich.



Same goes for entertainers. Just because somebody can dance or act or sing doesn't mean he's above hitting a woman (James Brown, Chris Brown ... I can get cross-generational), or serves as a role model.



But the story I read last week pretty much said that no athletes should be revered as heroes, and that's simply not true. The problem is, the stories about heroes -- true heroes who are building their communities from the grassroots up or making huge differences in average lives and don't have a publicist shouting their every deed from the rooftops -- these stories usually don't get told.



Thankfully, sometimes they do. Like this one about the DeKalb, Ill., high school basketball team. Its players and coach are heroes and athletes and inspiration for all of us.