Resolutions 2016 Update: Mental

What an enjoyable New Year's Resolution this was - to read at least 12 books I already own and pass them on! Achieving this was a piece of cake, but the Smithsonian magazines I usually read during the summertime backed up. Even though I let the subscription lapse, I have 12 issues from 2015-16 to read in 2017. Great. No matter what, crap is always piling up! And now, thanks to public school fundraisers, I renewed the Smithsonian subscription, and will also start receiving Traditional Home magazine any day.

But back to the joy of crossing off one of my 2016 New Year's Resolutions two months early!  If you are interested in knowing what indeed was lying around my house waiting to be read, here is the list in the order they were read, with one-sentence synopses.  Yes, my taste in literature is quite eclectic.

Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchy
Fiction, 1990. Paperback, 600 pages.
Irish wallflower in the 1950's has progessive friends and nasty people get their just desserts.

A Way Out of No Way: Claiming Family and Freedom in the New South by Dianne Swann-Wright
Nonfiction, 2002. Paperback, 177 pages.
Woman writes short piece of nonfiction for no apparent reason other than to bore us to death.

Cornbread Nation 1: The Best of Southern Food Writing edited by John T. Edge
Nonfiction, 2002. Paperback, 251 pages.
Interesting compilation of essays about American food by American food writers making me wish I was an American food writer.

A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
Fiction, 1924. Paperback, 362 pages.
Classic tale of the evils of colonization colorfully mixed with haughty Englishmen, Englishwomen with delicate sensibilities, and Indians caught between being themselves or behaving according to English expectations; a tea party and criminal trial ensue.

A Happy Marriage by Rafael Yglesias
Fiction, 2009. Paperback, 371 pages.
Man of no means meets and marries an upper class girl in New York City resulting in 20+ years of sometimes-complicated sometimes-blissful marriage culminating in a struggle about whether to fight for life or just let go in the end. <P.S. Any book with this title HAS to be fiction.>

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Fiction, 2005. Paperback, 590 pages.
Girl on Scandanavian island goes missing in the 1960's and her rich uncle determines to solve the mystery decades later by hiring an ostracized journalist and unbalanced "goth" female investigator to create havoc with the relatives, solving the crime while succeeding in partly avenging goth female's past.

Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal
Fiction, 2015. Hardcover, 310 pages.
Story of a lonely girl with a mysterious knack for cooking is told amid much sumptuously delicious description.

John Adams by David McCullough
Nonfiction, 2001. Paperback, 752 pages (651 before references).
The epic biography of Presidential greatness and a First Lady way ahead of her time unfolds amid conflict, failures and successes in establishing the United States as an independent self-governing country. (Spoiler alert - Thomas Jefferson seems like kind of an asshole.)

Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawless
Nonfiction, 2012. Paperback, 383 pages.
Unconventional memoir delightfully and brazenly told not without touching moments reflecting the softer side of familial and marital relationships.

Book of the Dead by Patricia Cornwell
Fiction, 2007. Hardcover, 405 pages
Conventional whodunnit murder mystery.

In America by Susan Sontag
Fiction, 2000. Hardcover, 387 pages.
Polish actress comes to America seeking greatness and...zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck
Fiction, 1961. Paperback, 358 pages.
Adorable, funny, well-liked hardworking man is faced with difficult choices and their consequences, reminding me that there is not a Steinbeck story out there that I don't like.

BONUS POINTS; PUBLIC LIBRARY LENDS
The Road to Little Dribbling: Adventures of an American in Britain by Bill Bryson
Nonfiction, 2015. Hardcover, 376 pages
Sassy American-turned-Brit recounts tales of woe trying to understand British ways while traveling the countryside. (Note: My friend "Petal" insisted I read this before leaving on my trip to England. It didn't really help with the NYResolution, but was a worthy read anyhow. Thanks, Petal!)

EXTRA CREDIT; AUDIOBOOKS
I love a good story while I am on the road. Audiobooks, most of them from the public library, save me from boredom while driving long distances.

The Hurricane Sisters by Dorothea Benton Frank
Fiction, 2014. Unabridged, 9 CDs.

Metro Girl by Janet Evanovich
Fiction, 2004. Abridged, 5 CDs.

The Johnstown Flood by David McCullough
Nonfiction, 1968. Unabridged, 8 CDs.

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
Fiction, 2015. Unabridged, 9 CDs.