I am at a complete loss as to why the universe would have this book and Creation "recommended" for me back-to-back.  They are very similar reads, although set in different time periods and with slightly different writing styles.  The pompous, intellectual superiority of the narrators could not have been more similar, though.  In this book, the overused storyline, wherein the crotchety old, unsympathetic man shows a moment of humanity and then we have to get his entire backstory to explain how is life unfolded in such a way as to explain why he is mean and grumpy, unfolds painfully slowly.  The problem here is that while many things go array in his life--really so many as to make me start to roll my eyes by chapter 25--throughout basically the entire story he always acted superior and above everyone else. Even when he was doing kind, self-sacrificing things, he was still doing them from this place of an intellectual analysis of what it means to do good and be righteous, not beause he actually felt anything like an emotional connection to the other people or the worlds around him.  He really only ever cares for a woman who is lover and for his child.  Every other relationship is held at bay. 

For example, he tried to sacrifice himself several time in order to save or benefit others, but these attempts are in vein.  As a result or this and other overdone plotlines, he ends up witnessing not only the standard "horrors of war" tropes that are a dime a dozen, but also ones that seem deliberately manifested by the author for shock value, such as when he comes into contact with the "giant" who who is into beastiality.  Please don't think that is what turned me off the book, though. I was turned off a good 15 chapters before that happened.

The narrator is a Professor of Aesthetics, as if there could be a more arrogant sounding title.  He prattles on about the beauty of art and the natural world, about the philosophical connection between art and science, and about such things as the "aesthetics of justice."  As he moves through one traumatic, awful event after another, his conviction that he is in some way the most important person in all of the narratives comes across in the way that I think only a Professor of Aesthetics could narrate.  That he was an expert at everything from mountain climbing to art to languages to love started to lose credulity.  His ability to survive physical and psychological ordeals pushed the bounds of willing suspension of disbelief a mile too far.  But even more than this, the part where we spend the better part of 500 pages (of the total 880 pages) believing him to be obsessed with the practical application of the philosophy of ethics to his privileged existence only to have him go off on a side quest to avenge the death of girl he was in love with in a war zone by a guy in the other military made absolutely no sense whatsoever.  And then, to have this venture thwarted by the arrival on scene of the target of his crusade's small child was just too trite.  More eye rolling from me.

If you enjoyed Creation, you will love this book--and the other way around.  If you are me, you will not have enjoyed either. At all.

On a side note, I was hanging out with a friend who has been recommending books to me for many years.  In return, I have recommended for him many books, which he has not only read, but almost universally loved.  I once went so far as to take him to the library to find the book I thought he needed to read right then, at that moment in his life. When the book was not on the shelf, I tracked down the librarian, who found a copy of it on a display of books people should read.  So, I have brought a lot of joy to this friend-reader's literary life.  And what did I find out about the recommendations this friend has been making?  Well, apparently, he was quite bent out of shape that his first few 50-Books-Recommended-By-50-Friends recommendation were trashed on this blog and therefore started recommending spite books for me to read.  Which, in retrospect explains a lot about the books he made me read (and subsequently trash on this blog).  Having had this conversation with him, in the context of having had not one, but two "friends" recommend back-to-back books filled with pretty much everything I hate makes me wonder how many of you are deliberately doing this to me?  Does this explain my high rate of Do Not Recommend?  Have I spent years thinking I am just a hater when actually this has been a deliberate strategy to punish me for some unknown, historical slight?  

Do not recommend.

Click here to purchase this book and support My 50 Bookish Friends blog project.

This was just the right comfort book I needed this week.  It is a book for readers in that it is set in a book store and it is filled with characters who love to read referencing the books they have read. I loved recognizing the books I know as the characters talk about them and this time I recognized more than last time, having another 7 or 8 years of reading under my belt since the last time I read it.  
I love the main character and the sardonic tone of the book as it is told as if his curmudgeonly way was the end all be all of existence.  I love how he grows and changes as the story unfolds and how the people in his life adjust to his changing circumstances.  The plot hold together well, too, with the storyline unfolding and then folding itself back in in delightful ways.
It is also extremely sad, so if you are looking for a good cry, it is a great comfort book for that, too.
Highly recommend.

Susan: I want to see your list when you get it compiled! I assume you’ll share?
Me:  I definitely do. I am also putting together a blog with the lists from last three years--which is taking longer than expected. I am looking for a title. Anyone have any suggestions?
***
Michele: (i personally would be so thrilled if you got a blog up and running.. i absolutely love following all of your comments and reviews!!)
Me: I’m on it. It has been my winter break project. Hoping to have it up this month. Ideas for titles?
Michèle: Lorena’s Reads
Me: After telling Trystan, who is the best namer of things ever, that I wanted something punny or sexy, he suggested: The Book Slut. The byline would be" I'll basically get in bed with any book. But there is no way I would use "slut" or "whore" publicly to describe myself in any context, but I love the concept. If I can't come up with something catchy, then I will just use something like Lorena's Reads. It is actually really funny you suggest this because my working title has been Reynolds' Reads, so we are on the same track.
Michèle: i was going to say reynolds reads, but it sounds a little too serious, i’m thinking we want a fun title right? BookFloozy ?
Me:  Oh, I like BookFloozy!
Me: I also liked Trystan suggestion: #BookGoals

​
You can imagine, then, how much I love the instant access that is now available online.  I use Audible, Learning Ally, Audiobooks, and sometimes OverDrive (Libby).  I still speed the up. The speed of the original narration determines how much.  A lovely southern drawl can sometime go to triple speed!  My family hates the high speed noise, so if I can convince them to listen along, I'll slow it down, especially if it is Jim Dale , Davina Porter, Wil Wheaton, Katherine Kellgren, or Ralph Cosham.

***Excepts from online banter about audio books:
My brother, Trystan: Have you read As Meat Loves Salt?
Me: No audio? You read a book on paper? Really? Try again.
Trystan: You said you read a book a week! I thought that’s what you meant!
Me: Have you ever met me? Give me another one!!
Trystan: Far from the Tree? There’s an audio version of that one— read by the author, which is actually a good thing. He’s a great reader (also a friend, so I may be biased).
Me: Trystan, Seriously? I am almost 100% certain I recommended that to you! I absolutely love that book. I didn’t know you knew the narrator, who was great. I assign the chapter on conception by rape in the sociology class I teach. Third time is the charm?
***
Jennifer: PS How in the hell do you find time to read a book a week? I am on fastest readers I know but by God, I don't have that kind of time!
Me: Audio books on high speed while doing every loathsome task I have to do
Jennifer: Oh! Ok. I love me some Audible too.
Me: I have Audible, Audiobooks, Learning Ally, & the public library app. I’m a totally junky.
Heather: I never ever listen to audiobooks. I love actually reading, finding the time is hard but I love nothing more than to sit with a book.
Jennifer: Perhaps you are predominantly a visual learner? I’m primarily an auditory learner; so audio books are perfect for me. 
***
Amy: The Unsettling of America by Wendell Berry!
Me: I don’t think there’s an audio version, Amy. Do you have another suggestion?
Amy: It has to be audio?
​Me: Yes. I hardly ever read on paper & my list of only-available-in-paper-format is at least three years long. But I plow through the audio books. But also, my 50 books list for 2018 is full.
***
No audio version for We Were Witches, so Nora went with The Antelope Wife.
​***
Lisa: The illustrated memoir - The Best We Could Do- is a beautiful book, but only if you read it on paper!
***
Julie: Do you use Audbile only, or do you use the public library overdrive system too?
Me: I sometimes do, but I hate waiting.  
***
Rhonda: I like to support the library.
Me:  I read everything on audio book. The library system is fine if you have a lot of time & patience to invest in waiting for what you want or for the next book in the series. I would rather just buy it, which also thereby supports the authors, publishers, & editors that produce the works I want to read. Maybe when I retire I’ll go back to the library system. In the meantime, I’ve spent enough money on library fines in my past to have funded ten times what I lost or returned late. It’s probably cheaper for me to just be buying them anyhow.
Rhonda:  I hear you! Those lost books are such a pain.​
​

hen my kids were little, I used to read out loud to them.  Once they got past picture books and easy chapter books, though, I didn't really enjoy it.  The last thing I remember reading to them was Harry Potter, although they would read to me almost as much as I read it to them.  Reading on paper is just a struggle for me. I much preferred to listen to someone else read to us. But one of the things that I started to do as they got older was to order the audio book of whatever they were reading in school and I would read it at the same time they were. Well, this is not entirely true. I often got the book list at the beginning of the year from the teacher and then read the books before they did.

For a long time, this caused them much grief and they, mostly my oldest, would complain that this was weird, that none of the other parents did this, and that it was somehow overbearing or obtrusive.  But, I loved reading what they were reading.  It meant we always had something to talk about, even when there was a lot of conflict and there weren't a lot of topics that brought us together.  And complaints aside, when there is a paper a write and a deadline, it is not uncommon for me to get a text or a call from college asking what I thought of a concept or passage from something I've read.  I loved the times we talked about books and often what I thought was important about a classic wasn't what was being talked about in school.  To me, teaching To Kill a Mockingbird without talking about rape and the intersection of rape and race is just a waste of a decent read. Teaching Of Mice and Men without talking about the myth of the false rape allegation just perpetuates rape culture.  

Even when they have read for fun on their own, I have usually read what they read.  From Hunger Games and Divergent to Twilight, not to mention Harry Potter, I read what they were reading and it opened so many conversations.  Team Edward or Team Jacob? Team Petra or Team Gale?  These conversations about what is healthy in a relationship were spurred by these books.  [Not to mention next level sex ed as the result of an unplanned pregnancy in Twilight when a much older man convinces his teenaged bride that he cannot get her pregnant.  Seriously, even if he is dead/undead, you still absolutely need to use a condom and a backup birth control method.]

This year, it was The Communist Manifesto and Gilgamesh that we talked about over the holidays. Really, what's not to love about that?

Several friends want to know the book list plan for this year. I loved the 50 books recommended by 50 friends in 2018 that I want to do that again. So, here are the rules:
1. Only books I have not read, but if you recommend the first in a series that I have not finished you can opt to recommend the next book in the series.
2. Only one recommendation per person.
3. No duplicate authors.
4. Must be available from Audible or Learning Ally.
5. First 50 recommended are on the list.
I am hoping to have a blog of reviews this year instead of just having them on Facebook. We will see if I can get my act together to make that happen.

Jodi: And I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE your idea (1/1/17)
***
El: Btw, this is fun. I'm going to put these books on my list. But I don't read anywhere near as voraciously as you. And, I actually took 2 months off from reading novels this year. First time since I was a child that I didn't have a novel by my bedside. Filled the time with meditation instead.
Me:  I generally alternate between fiction and non-fiction, but took about ten years off reading after I finished with school.
***
​Jodi: Yay. It would be really great if you each week reported on this thread what you thought of each book and how your journey is going.
Me:  I was think the same thing. It’s not exactly a book a week, sometimes more, sometimes less. Let’s see if I can do it.
Jodi: One of the things I do is run a book club on memoirs and we just read a book called Tolstoy and the Purple Chair by Nina Sankovitch in which she read a book a day for a year and blogged about it on a website called readallday.org . My suggestion to you, is don't worry so much about the timeline, just focus on your quest to read 50 books by 50 friends in whatever time line it takes you and just a simple response back to each person who sent you a title that we can all see on the link so others that suggested a book to you can be inspired to read the book that you just read.
Me: I’m definitely not a consistent reader. I’ll read a ton one week & none the next, but have averaged about 50 a year the last few years (probably more like 65 last year). So, 50 books recommended by 50 friends seems like a fun goal.​​ 
***
Natalie: Are you going to come back and tell us what you think of our suggestions?
​Me: I'm going to try.
***
Andy: You got 269 comments for a reading list! There is a story to go along with this my friend​.
Me: Tells you something about my friend circle, doesn’t it?
Jacqueline: It’s awesome! Totally stealing this idea!
​***
Kim: Lorena, can you provide a tabulation the 50 books that made your 2018 list?
Me: Scroll up for the list. I included it in an edited post towards the top of the list.
Shasta: I would love to see a new post with the list, and then a short book report on each one as you read it. What a cool record that would be!  
***
​Tiffany: Thanks for posting your reviews. A service to us all 
​***
Julie:  I am keeping track of this list, as well as trying to find a book to recommend to you next year. It's kind of stressing me out 
Me: It is supposed to be fun, not stressful!!
***
Suz: When the heck are you going to write a book?
Me: What would I even write about?
​Suz: Hmmm, that sounds like a good title (and subject) if a book ...
***
​A short detour next for the monthly Soroptimist book club book. This month it is Miss Spitfire. I’m thinking Ancillary Justice is up after that.

I wasn’t convinced I was going to make it through the list this year, but I seem to be back on track. If I just didn’t get distracted by ones not on the list, I’d be sure to get them all done.
***
Ann:I would be interested in knowing what your top reads of the year are. So when I have time to read for pleasure after I defend 
Me: The recommended ones have a star next to them. But if you give me three books you loved that are similar to what you'd like to read next, I will give you three personalized recommendations.
Me: 21/44 recommendations is way higher than my normal rate, so I think this book list method has been a success. Even if the last 6 don't make the list, I would still be at 42%, which is much higher than my normal rate of 1/3.
​

From the 2018 List, the following recommendations got lost in the shuffle...
​
Recommended by Chris, I someone meant to add this one to the list, but it didn't make it.  "How bout Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes. A gripping historical novel about Vietnam. Highly recommended."

Kim recommended Knocking On Heaven's Door, but this also got lost in the shuffle.

***
Me: I noticed I actually had two hidden number 3's so I had to renumber everything. Exit West was the other one that got buried. In the process of doing that, I discovered there were books I said made the list when they were posted, but actually didn't get on there for some reason. So, below is an updated list!
1. Sister Outsider (Rhonda) 23*
2. Whipping Girl (Lisa) 21
3. Trauma & Memory (Renee) 11
4. The Magicians (Quinn) 20
5. Big Little Lies (Amanda) 1*
6. The God of Small Things (Shasta)
7. The Rules of Magic (Theresa) 17*
8. A Street Cat Named Bob (Kat) 7
9. Small Gods (Judah) 12
10. Fall On Your Knees (Nadine)
11. Cloud Atlas (Raul)
12. The Hate U Give (Diane) 15*
13. Team of Rivals (Charissa)
14. Earth Abides (Christian)
15. Mink River (Catsi)
16. Manhattan Beach (Gretchen) 27*
17. Ancillary Justice (Michael)
18. Morrigan's Cross (Tashia)
19. Exit West (Gretchen) 4
20. Origin (Stephanie)
21. The Girl Who Drank The Moon (Andrea)
22. Homegoing (Sybil) 2
23. Beneath the Scarlet Sky (Beth)
24. Last Call (Lisa)
25. The Tour (Erin) 13*
26. The Dress Lodger (Jodi)
27. Little Fires Everywhere (Beth) 22*
28. Beyond Belief (Shelby) 16*
29. Straight Man (Natalie) 26
30. When I’m Gone (Palmer) 10
31. Neverwhere (Leah)
32. Stiff (Kelly) 19
33. The Antelope Wife (Nora)
34. Call the Midwife (Becca) 26*
35. The Black Dahlia (Katrina)
36. The School of Essential Ingredients (Karey) 6
37. Breaking The Habit of Being Yourself (Jennifer)
38. The Language of Emotion (Wendy) 14
39. Crossing to Safety (Lisa)
40. Angle of Repose (Tiffany)
41. Lust for Life (Michele) 24
42. Sapiens (Bruce)
43. Altered Carbon (Gabriel) 18*
44. The Painted Girls (Lora) 24
45. Promise Me Dad (Julie) 9*
46. The Return of the Native (Sandra)
47. Wild Seed (Christina)
48. The Girls from Corona Del Mar (Katie) 8*
49. The Black Echo (Mina)
50. The Girl from Atomic City (Wendy)

These are ones I said I was adding even though I was over my 50:
51. A Mother’s Reckoning. (Lucy) 5
52. Fire & Fury (Amy) 3
53. Matterhorn (Chris)
54. Touch (John)
55. A Study in Scarlett (Mina)
56. Sweet Grass Talking (Renee)
57. The Life She Was Given (Tanya)

These are ones recommended after I had already closed the list:
58. No Name on The Street (Leonora)
59. Knocking on Heaven's Door (Kim)
60. The Medical Medium (Lisa)
61. Breakfast with Buddha (Mary)
62. A Fighting Chance (Dodie)
63. Before We Were Yours (Melissa)
64. The Care and Handling of Roses with Thorns (Heather)
65. The Signature of All Things (Leah)
66. The Long Earth (Michele)
67. Living Forward (Eric)
68. In Vino Duplicates(Dan)
69. Shanghai Girls (Kathy)
70. The Maddadadm (David)

Christian: Objection! My recommendation made the original list at 14 (see your previous posts) but somehow I have been bumped to the later list.​
Me: Overruled.
Me, later: I have reversed my previously ruling and put this back on the list because I discovered one of the remaining ones is a duplicate author.
​***
Michele: oh if there’s a waiting list i’ll also suggest Shantaram if u havent read it yet
Me: You already have The Long Earth on the wait list and you already want to add a second one?
Michele: .... there are really so few books that i have read and you have not ..
Me: what are you reading now?
Michele: uhhhh re-reading the deborah harkness trilogy 😍
Me:  I love that series!
***

​On January 1, 2018, I posted on my Facebook page that I typically read at least a book a week every year. Instead of doing my regular book list for the year, I wanted to compile a reading list for the year based on 50 books recommended by 50 friends and I asked my friends what they  recommended I read this year. I had overwhelming response and as I read the books, I wrote reviews.  After two days, I posted, "Only 10 more to go, so if you are still pondering, get your act together! My 2018 challenge: 50 books recommended by 50 different people with 50 different authors. All genres, all lengths, must be available in audio format. So far, there is a really good variety of novels, history, and self-improvement, but I think I am still light on sci fi and travel."

With almost 600 comments on the post over the following year, I decided to make it a searchable blog. This is that blog.  

I took the first 50 recommendations, no matter what genres, even if I was pretty sure I would hate it.  

There were some rules, though.  

First, it couldn't be a book I had already read.
Second, it had to be available in audio version from Audible or Learning Ally.
Third. must be by an author not already on the list.
​Fourth. one recommendation per person.