{"id":987,"date":"2019-12-31T08:18:06","date_gmt":"2019-12-31T16:18:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/digitalmanticore.com\/?p=987"},"modified":"2019-12-31T08:18:06","modified_gmt":"2019-12-31T16:18:06","slug":"2019-the-12th-annual-year-in-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digitalmanticore.com\/?p=987","title":{"rendered":"2019: The 12th Annual Year in Books"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This year I read 73 books, which is a lot! Last year I read 58 and my average for the previous decade of reading was 52 books per year. This is the second-most books I&#8217;ve read in a year (the most is 90), beating out 2015&#8217;s 71 books. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>\u00a0Page count:<\/strong> 23,510. Interestingly, this is only about 1,300 more pages than last year, so I read a lot more books this year but they were shorter. <\/li><li><strong>Library use:<\/strong> 30 of this year&#8217;s 73 books were from the library. I did start the year trying to read through books I already own, but the allure of the library is strong, especially because I have made it a weekly custom to ride my bike to the local branch. <\/li><li><strong>Female\/male authors: <\/strong>58 books by women authors, 3 books with multiple authors that included men and women, and 12 just men. That means about 80% of the books I read this year were written by women, even excluding the mixed-gender authors. <\/li><li><strong>Digital and analog: <\/strong>42 ebooks, 31 paper books. ebooks are more convenient, especially when traveling or lounging in the bath, but I still enjoy paper books.<\/li><li><strong>Fiction and non-fiction: <\/strong>42 fiction, 31 non-fiction. I read a lot more non-fiction this year. I&#8217;m preoccupied with the world and what&#8217;s happening in it. I&#8217;m reading for the revolution. <\/li><li><strong>Books in other languages: <\/strong>just one, though I started and abandoned several. 2020 may be more fruitful on this front.<\/li><li><strong>Favorites<\/strong>: This is a lot of favorites, but I have good taste so it makes sense that a lot of the books I read would be that good. Looking at my list, I want to recommend almost everything as a favorite but I kept it to just these 10.<ul><li>The novel that reminds you to be hopeful and fight for what&#8217;s important in these bullshit times: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.librarything.com\/work\/22332167\/book\/163578764\">The Light Brigade<\/a> by Kameron Hurley<\/li><li>The fascinating sci-fi read with a new concept: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.librarything.com\/work\/19514141\/book\/163578745\">Semiosis <\/a>by Sue Burke<\/li><li>The academic version of talking about how shitty facebook is: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.librarything.com\/work\/21802959\">Anti-Social Media: How Facebook Disconnects us and Undermines Democracy<\/a> by Siva Vaidhyanathan <\/li><li>The one about how artificial intelligence and big tech companies could fuck everything up: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.librarything.com\/work\/22530003\">The Big Nine: How the Tech Titans and Their Thinking Machines Could Warp Humanity<\/a> by Amy Webb<\/li><li>The one about how stupid AI is and how it won&#8217;t be taking over anytime soon: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.librarything.com\/work\/23578640\">You Look Like a Thing and I Love You: How Artificial Intelligence Works and Why It&#8217;s Making the World a Weirder Place<\/a> by Janelle Shane<\/li><li>The gift of time-traveling lesbians writing letters to each other: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.librarything.com\/work\/21713349\">This is How you Lose the Time War<\/a> by Amal el-Mohtar and Max Gladstone<\/li><li>The story of magic gay men fighting the system: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.librarything.com\/work\/20930458\">Witchmark <\/a>by C. L. Polk<\/li><li>The one with lesbian necromancers that you won&#8217;t be able to stop reading: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.librarything.com\/work\/21635641\/book\/176834171\">Gideon the Ninth<\/a> by Tamsyn Muir<\/li><li>The data about how women are excluded from most research that impacts us that will piss you off: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.librarything.com\/work\/22617600\/book\/171214893\">Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men<\/a> by Caroline Criado Perez <\/li><li>The feminist manifesto that will make you want to burn it all down: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.librarything.com\/work\/22855395\/book\/174202467\">The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls<\/a> by Mona Eltahawy<\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And now for the list!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"\"><tbody><tr><td><strong>Date Finished<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>Title<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>Author<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>1\/1\/19<\/td><td>Read and Riot: A Pussy Riot Guide to Activism<\/td><td>Nadya Tolokonnikova<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>1\/8<\/td><td>Cold Steel<\/td><td>Kate Elliott<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>1\/10<\/td><td>Crow After Roe: How &#8220;Separate But Equal&#8221; Has Become the New Standard In Women\u2019s Health And How We Can Change That<\/td><td>Robin Marty and Jessica Mason Pieklo<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>1\/15<\/td><td>Fighting Fascism: How to Struggle and How to Win <\/td><td>Clara Zetkin<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>1\/17<\/td><td>She Would Be King<\/td><td>Wey\u00e9tu Moore<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>1\/28<\/td><td>Dead Girls: Essays on Surviving an American Obsession <\/td><td>Alice Bolin<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>2\/2<\/td><td>The Child Catchers: Rescue, Trafficking, and the New Gospel of Adoption <\/td><td>Kathryn Joyce<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>2\/4<\/td><td>My Sister, the Serial Killer<\/td><td>Oyinkan Braithwaite<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>2\/18<\/td><td>The Mortal World<\/td><td>Genevieve Cogman<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>2\/19<\/td><td>The Third Hotel<\/td><td>Laure Van den Berb<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>2\/21<\/td><td>Roller Girl<\/td><td>Victoria Jamieson<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>2\/24<\/td><td>Tomorrow&#8217;s Kin<\/td><td>Nancy Kress<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>3\/7<\/td><td>If Tomorrow Comes <\/td><td>Nancy Kress<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>3\/18<\/td><td>Terran Tomorrow <\/td><td>Nancy Kress<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>3\/21<\/td><td>The Light Brigade<\/td><td>Kameron Hurley<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>3\/21<\/td><td>Brillant Imperfection<\/td><td>Eli Clare<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>4\/2<\/td><td>The Raven Tower<\/td><td>Ann Leckie<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>4\/9<\/td><td>Semiosis<\/td><td>Sue Burke<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>4\/12<\/td><td>Vox<\/td><td>Christina Dalcher<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>4\/26<\/td><td>Lost Children Archive: A Novel<\/td><td>Valeria Luiselli<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>4\/29<\/td><td>How Long &#8217;til Black Future Month<\/td><td>N. K. Jemisin<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>5\/1<\/td><td>Handbook for a Post-Roe America<\/td><td>Robin Marty<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>5\/8<\/td><td>A Memory Called Empire<\/td><td>Arkady Martine<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>5\/13<\/td><td>Wild Seed<\/td><td>Octavia Butler<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>5\/15<\/td><td>The Poisoned City: Flint&#8217;s Water and the American Urban Tragedy<\/td><td>Anna Clark<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>5\/24<\/td><td>Ninety Percent of Everything: Inside Shipping, the Invisible Industry that Puts Clothes on Your Back, Gas in your Car, and Food on Your Plate<\/td><td>Rose George<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>5\/26<\/td><td>Mind of My Mind<\/td><td>Octavia Butler <\/td><\/tr><tr><td>5\/31<\/td><td>I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life<\/td><td>Ed Yong<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>6\/1<\/td><td>El Espejo Enterrado<\/td><td>Carlos Fuentes<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>6\/5<\/td><td>Circe<\/td><td>Madeline Miller<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>6\/13<\/td><td>The Collected Schizophrenias<\/td><td>Esm\u00e9 Weijun Wang<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>6\/20<\/td><td>The Night Tiger<\/td><td>Yangsze Choo<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>6\/22<\/td><td>Anti-Social Media: How Facebook Disconnects us and Undermines Democracy<\/td><td>Siva Vaidhyanathan<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>6\/26<\/td><td>Mother of Eden<\/td><td>Chris Beckett<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>6\/29<\/td><td>Daughter of Eden<\/td><td>Chris Beckett<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>7\/4<\/td><td>The Big Nine: How the Tech Titans and Their Thinking Machines Could Warp Humanity<\/td><td>Amy Webb<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>7\/6<\/td><td>The Water Cure<\/td><td>Sopihe Mackintosh<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>7\/13<\/td><td>Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch<\/td><td>Neil Gaiman &amp; Terry Pratchett<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>7\/16<\/td><td>The Black God&#8217;s Drums <\/td><td>P. Dj\u00e8l\u00ed Clark<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>7\/23<\/td><td>Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men<\/td><td>Caroline Criado Perez<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>7\/24<\/td><td>Storm of Locusts<\/td><td>Rebecca Roanhorse<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>7\/27<\/td><td>This Is How You Lose the Time War<\/td><td>Amal el-Mohtar, Max Gladstone<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>8\/1<\/td><td>How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy<\/td><td>Jenny Odell<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>8\/10<\/td><td>Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language<\/td><td>Gretchen McCulloch<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>8\/13<\/td><td>Late in the Day: A Novel<\/td><td>Tessa Hadley<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>8\/15<\/td><td>Witchmark<\/td><td>C.L. Polk<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>8\/23<\/td><td>Confessions of the Fox<\/td><td>Jordy Rosenberg<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>8\/26<\/td><td>Not Funny Ha-Ha: A Handbook for Something Hard<\/td><td>Leah Hayes<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>9\/17<\/td><td>House of Trump, House of Putin: The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia<\/td><td>Craig Unger<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>9\/17<\/td><td>Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants<\/td><td>Robin Wall Kimmerer<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>9\/20<\/td><td>Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America<\/td><td>Kathleen Belew<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>9\/22<\/td><td>The Testaments<\/td><td>Margaret Atwood<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>9\/27<\/td><td>Inland<\/td><td>T\u00e9a Obreht<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>10\/4<\/td><td>The Plot to Hack America: How Putin&#8217;s Cyberspies and WikiLeaks Tried to Steal the 2016 Election<\/td><td>Malcolm Nance<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>10\/14<\/td><td>The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls<\/td><td>Mona Eltahawy<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>10\/23<\/td><td>New Suns: Original Speculative fiction by People of Color<\/td><td>Nisi Shawl (editor)<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>10\/29<\/td><td>Archaeology from Space: How the Future Shapes Our Past<\/td><td>Sarah Parcak<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>11\/4<\/td><td>Burial Rights: A Novel<\/td><td>Hannah Kent<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>11\/9<\/td><td>Interference <\/td><td>Sue Burke<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>11\/11<\/td><td>In the Dream House: A Memoir<\/td><td>Carmen Maria Machado<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>11\/16<\/td><td>A Jewel Bright Sea<\/td><td>Claire O&#8217;Dell<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>11\/19<\/td><td>Magic for Liars<\/td><td>Sarah Gailey<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>11\/23<\/td><td>Silent Spring<\/td><td>Rachel Carson<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>11\/26<\/td><td>The Ten Thousand Doors of January<\/td><td>Alix E. Harrow<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>11\/30<\/td><td>Inconspicuous Consumption: The Environmental Impact You Don&#8217;t Know You Have<\/td><td>Tatiana Schlossberg<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>12\/9<\/td><td>Threads of Life: A History of the World through the Eye if a Needle<\/td><td>Clare Hunter<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>12\/10<\/td><td>You Have the Right to Remain Fat: A Manifesto<\/td><td>Virgie Tovar<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>12\/16<\/td><td>All the President&#8217;s Women: Donald Trump and the Making of a Predator <\/td><td>Barry Levine and Monique el-Faizy<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>12\/20<\/td><td>You Look Like a Thing and I Love You: How Artificial Intelligence Works and Why It&#8217;s Making the World a Weirder Place<\/td><td>Janelle Shane<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>12\/23<\/td><td>How to Be an Antiracist<\/td><td>Ibram X. Kendi<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>12\/26<\/td><td>Gideon the Ninth<\/td><td>Tamsyn Muir<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>12\/28<\/td><td>ALL SYSTEMS RED<\/td><td>Martha Wells<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>12\/30<\/td><td>Artificial Condition <\/td><td>Martha Wells<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This year I read 73 books, which is a lot! Last year I read 58 and my average for the previous decade of reading was 52 books per year. This is the second-most books I&#8217;ve read in a year (the most is 90), beating out 2015&#8217;s 71 books. \u00a0Page count: 23,510. Interestingly, this is only&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[86],"tags":[245,87,69],"class_list":["post-987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","tag-books","tag-books-of-the-year","tag-inspired-by-real-life-events"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3ni6N-fV","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalmanticore.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalmanticore.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalmanticore.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalmanticore.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalmanticore.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=987"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/digitalmanticore.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/987\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1027,"href":"https:\/\/digitalmanticore.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/987\/revisions\/1027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalmanticore.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalmanticore.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalmanticore.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}