The Big Book Post 2021

Welcome to the only time of year I post in this blog: recap time!

Somebody stop me, this is probably the most long-winded one yet.

Jan: Dreyer's English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style by Benjamin Dreyer

Feb: Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem

Mar: The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

Apr: Days of Distraction by Alexandra Chang

May: The Godspell Experience: Inside a Transformative Musical by Carol de Giere

Jun: A Favourite of the Gods by Sybille Bedford

Jul: The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

Aug-Sep: Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

Oct: Dune by Frank Herbert

Nov: ¡Hola Papi!: How to Come Out in a Walmart Parking Lot and Other Life Lessons by John Paul Brammer

Dec: The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

Dec: Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

I finished 11 books this year, beating last year's total by 1 and falling short of this year's goal by the same number. I read about 1/4 of Dune before giving up on it, making Dune this year's Outlander (maybe I should stop trying to read 800-page genre fiction?). 

The first book I read this year was probably my favorite: Dreyer's (which Goodreads also tells me was the most highly rated of all the books I finished this year). I also gave high marks (4 stars) to Cloud and Distraction. My only 2-star review was Midnight, which I know is a popular book (the most shelved book of the ones I read this year, according to Goodreads), but I had problems with it (see my Goodreads review, linked above).

More Goodreads nonsense:

• Shortest book I read this year: Ocean (181 pages), but that honor would have gone to Passing if I'd finished it (and I will)
• Longest book I finished this year: Cloud (509 pages), and it took me a good long time, too
• Least popular book I read this year: Godspell (79 people shelved it to Midnight's 1.8 million, but I know one of them! Hi Rebecca if you're reading this.)

And by the way, I think I'm in good book-nerd company on Goodreads this New Year's Day as the site is super slow.

By the authors

I finished 6 books by male authors and 5 by female authors (Passing by Nella Larsen would have evened the score). Bedford is the oldest author I read this year, Dreyer the oldest living author (unless de Giere, whose age I could not find, is older). I could not find the birth years of Chang or Brammer, but I suspect the latter is the youngest author I read this year. Morgenstern, 43, is the youngest author I read this year whose age I could track down. This year I read mostly American authors, with the exception of 4 English authors (Bedford, Haig, Mitchell, Gaiman) and possibly de Giere who may be Canadian (and let's give her the benefit of the doubt). Bedford was born in Germany but is considered English. Lahiri was born in England but identifies as American. I didn't dig too deep into this, but I read at least 2 LGBTQ+ authors (Dreyer, Brammer), and three authors in particular shared their ethnic heritage in their books (Chang, Brammer, Lahiri). Most of the authors were new to me, but this year I read my second book of Morgenstern's, Bedford's, and Lahiri's, and my sixth by Gaiman.

By publication date

The only book I finished this year published before 1999 was Favourite (1963). Passing, published in 1929, would have been the oldest. Many of my reading years feature a return to the books that were on the best sellers list when I was working at Borders in 2002, and this year's selection from that pool are Interpreter (1999) and Motherless (1999). The only book I read that was published in 2021 was Papi, but Distraction and Midnight were from 2020 and Dreyer's and Starless were 2019.

By setting

Most of the books I read this year take place in the present day (for the book). Godspell reaches back into the seventies to tell the beginning of that story. Favourite is mostly set in and around WWI. Cloud covers the widest time period, from the mid-19th century to unfathomably in the future. Five books take place partially or entirely in NYC (Dreyer's, Motherless, Starless, Godspell, Papi) and Distraction takes place mostly in New York state. The books by the UK authors take place mostly in the UK (Favourite, Midnight, Ocean) except Cloud, which is mostly in and around the Pacific Ocean. Interpreter takes us to Boston and India.

By genre

Fiction: 8

• Fantasy: 3 (Midnight, Starless, Ocean)
• Historical: 2 (Favourite, Cloud)
• Sci-fi: 1 (Cloud)
• Short stories: 1 (Interpreter)
• Other: 2 (Distraction, Motherless)

Non-fiction: 3

• Language/Writing: 1 (Dreyer's)
• Arts & Entertainment: 1 (Godspell)
• Memoir: 1 (Papi)

Awards

• Motherless won the 1999 National Books Critics Circle Award for fiction
• Interpreter won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
• Cloud won the 2005 British Book Award for literary fiction and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize
• Ocean was the 2013 British Book Awards Book of the Year, and is the only book I read this year that was a #1 on the NYT best seller list

Movies and book clubs

• I read Motherless with the Page & Popcorn (P&P) Book & Movie Club, and we watched the 2019 film together (remotely). Motherless was also a selection in WNYC's Get Lit with All of It book club, and I watched Alison Stewart's interview with Jonathan Lethem. 
• Passing, which I am reading now, is also a P&P selection. I also watched The White Tiger and the 1984 and 2021 Dune adaptations with P&P but did not read the former and did not finish the latter.
• I haven't yet but plan to watch the 2012 film adaptation of Cloud, despite reports that it is bad and/or weird.
• I watched the 1993 film of Remains of the Day, which I read 8 years ago.
• I watched season 4 of Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale, which has by now gone way beyond the book, which I read in 2005 with the CHA book club. I also watched all of Anne With an "E" and The Wheel of Time, but have not read either of those book series.

How the books came to me

• Interpreter and Ocean were loaned to me by Holly and Garrett (respectively) when I arrived at their home having finished Papi on the train ride there. Distraction was a loaner from a coworker and Cloud was loaned to me by a neighbor, despite that I have a copy of it on my shelf loaned to me by a former roommate (Sharon, if you're reading this, do you want that back?).
• Godspell was mailed to me by a friend whose job I guess is to get rid of books? I saw Godspell and an Ursula K. Le Guin compilation and claimed them both, and Aubrey Gordon's book What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat is also on its way to me thanks to him.
• Dreyer's and Starless were both holiday or birthday gifts from my parents, and Papi was a birthday gift from Álvaro
• I found Midnight on the bargain table at Powerhouse in Industry City (it was damaged). Motherless must have been either a Housing Works or roadside giveaway find because it is ravaged. Favourite has been on my shelf for a few years, but I think it originally came from McNally Jackson.

Goals

• Starless, Favourite, Dreyer's, and Motherless were goals from last year that I successfully completed, yay. I didn't make it to The Testaments by Margaret Atwood, so that will come with me into the new year
• I've just been handed a pile of loaners from Kathryn which I will prioritize, including Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh, and the first three books in Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea series. I also have When Brooklyn Was Queer by Hugh Ryan on my shelf, a gift from Kathryn.
• And speaking of gifts, I am now the proud owner of the following pile of books gifted from my parents which I should get on: 12 Bytes by Jeanette Winterson, Circe by Madeline Miller, and Stay Sexy & Don't Get Murdered by the My Favorite Murder ladies. I also got A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles from an office gift exchange, as well as the aforementioned Passing which I'm already half-way through.
• As if the above weren't enough for one year, I'm also hoping to get through some of these which have been on the top of my pile for a while but keep getting bypassed: The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson, The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, and Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood.
• Do I dare to want more books after accumulating so many (the above being the tip of the iceberg)? Yes. This year I would like to acquire and read Fuzz by Mary Roach and Early Riser and The Constant Rabbit by Jasper Fforde.

And lastly

In 2018, I made a post listing my most-read authors. Since then, my top three have not changed (Jasper Fforde with 9 books, David Sedaris with 8, J.K. Rowling with 7), but three authors have ascended into what is now a five-way tie for fourth place, I/me having read six of their books each. Joining Sarah Vowell and Margaret Atwood in this category are: 

• Neil Gaiman after I read Ocean last year
• Gregory Maguire after I read Hiddensee and Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister in 2019 and 2020 respectively
• Mary Roach after I read Gulp in 2019

And these authors have moved into the category of authors I've read more than once:

• Donna Tartt after I read The Goldfinch in 2019
• John Hodgman after I read Medallion Status in 2020
• Erin Morgenstern, Sybille Bedford, and Jhumpa Lahiri having read their books in 2021
• Ursula K. Le Guin, having read her for the first time in 2019 (The Lathe of Heaven) and again in 2020 (The Left Hand of Darkness)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Andrew Berman (@andrew.berman)

OK that's (more than) enough. See you in my next recap post!

Podcasts and the rest of 2020

Podcasts 2020

Podcasts took on a new role in my life this year. More time in the kitchen and more time puzzling at home meant a more frequent need for audio entertainment. I started the year by finishing The West Wing Weekly podcast (and on clicking that link I see that they made a new episode to discuss the recent special to benefit When We All Vote, which I'm now excited to listen to). Between finishing that and discovering my new obsession, You're Wrong About, I dabbled in Ologies, This Podcast Will Kill You, After All: A Mary Tyler Moore Podcast, but none of them stuck.

A neighbor turned me on to You're Wrong About in May, and in under two months I'd devoured all the episodes that had yet come out. I now listen to it every Monday, except on the Mondays where they fail to publish one, which takes me about a week to get over.

Fortunately I have two other podcasts to fill my ears between episodes of You're Wrong About:

• The Greatest Generation which is about Star Trek, not your grandparents
• The Judge John Hodgman podcast

I was a listener of both of these podcasts 5ish years ago when I was working at Yeshiva University doing mindless work that left my ears available to receive podcasts. I fell out of the habit of listening to them when I became a copy-editor, and stopped being able to listen to podcasts during the workday. Fortunately they both thrived in my absence and were there waiting for me to pick back up.

When I first started listening to The Greatest Generation, it was a brand new podcast recapping and lambasting the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. I listened to a few episodes, but did not watch the corresponding episodes of the TV series because the first season of TNG is terrible. They were also a little bit bro-ey, so it was easy to stop listening to it. I picked it back up at the beginning of season three, by which point both the podcast and the TV series had figured themselves out. The hosts were practiced in the art of podcasting and were more complex and interesting than the bros I remembered, and Beverley was back so all was well on the Starship Enterprise. 

I listened to each episode of The Greatest Generation in chronological order, sometimes watching the corresponding TV episode and sometimes not (if I remembered it well enough, or I remembered not liking it, although I did eventually go back and watch all of them). The hosts, Adam and Ben, discuss their lives in addition to Star Trek, and occasionally current events slip in. At the point where I picked it back up, Trump was just gaining steam in the 2016 election, and Trump is a hilarious figure so they'd do impressions of him a lot. After Trump won the election and he became something more to be reviled than laughed at, Adam and Ben stopped doing impressions of him. 

After they finished TNG, they continued with the next series in the canon, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Since I was slightly less familiar with DS9 (although not so unfamiliar as to not have already seen the whole thing, as early posts in this blog record), I have been in the habit watching episodes of the TV series along with the podcast, sometimes watching before listening and sometimes the other way around. The only TV episode I skipped was the series premiere, which I remember really hating. It was really interesting listening as they went through the beginning of the pandemic and reliving that through them (a process I went through in the opposite direction with Judge John Hodgman). By the end of 2020, I'd finished season 6. I am currently three months behind podcast (I'm about to listen to the episode they published on October 5, 2020), and expect to be caught up with them by the time they start Star Trek: Voyager (which they have promised to do, because this podcast is their lives now).

Since I had no idea where I left off with Judge John Hodgman, I decided to start from the most recent episode and work my way backwards, listening to new episodes as they popped up. I remembered listening to an episode of Judge John Hodgman years ago in which Hodgman (or maybe it was bailiff Jesse Thorn) announced that this was the preferred way to listen to a non-serial podcast, as that way you are in the know with the current goings-on of the podcast and the hosts, and can be subject to their pledge drives. At some point in a recent episode they revisited this and disavowed it, but it's too late now as I am stuck in this retrograde listening orbit. As I mentioned above, I got to listen as the pandemic and lockdown became less and less familiar to them until suddenly it was a brand new thing, and then the next episode, completely gone and life was normal again. I also got to hear Hodgman's urging that we get out the vote become less and less urgent and the election vanished completely.

Not podcasts 2020

In addition to the list at the bottom of this post, I also:

• spent outdoor holiday celebrations with my family at my sister's in Pelham (some birthdays, the High Holy Days, and Chanukah), my parents' in Commack (Thanksgiving), and Mohonk Mountain House (my parents' anniversary)
• got in some pool time and pre- and post-rehearsal social time at Lindsay & Leslie's in Rahway, NJ
• oh and by the way MARCHED IN THE MACY'S THANKSGIVING DAY PARADE with The Lesbian & Gay Big Apple Corps, which involved weekly rehearsals on Saturday mornings in Harrison, NJ and a COVID test and tech rehearsal in Manhattan. Chalk that up to one of the coolest things I've ever done, and perhaps you saw me on TV?
• after a grueling two-week brand launch at work, which involved consecutive 12-hour days including weekends, was treated to a weekend in the country (how delightfully droll) at Cricket's parents' cabin in the Finger Lakes, which included much campfire cookery and a hike past a waterfall (because Ithaca)
• got to go to the beach (Robert Moses ::tui tui::) a few times with my parents
• celebrated 7 years of living in Brooklyn
• went on countless long walks and bike rides, the longest being a bike ride from Sunset Park to Astoria which involved three separate CitiBike rentals, and in general broadened my notion of what is an acceptable distance to walk and what is acceptable weather for walking
• attended copious Zoom and Google Meet calls, at which JackBox games was a frequent and welcome diversion
• did much outdoor drinking with neighbors in our backyard and at the sidewalk cafe that Judy's has become 
• voted
• got a flue shot
• got three COVID tests
• learned to play the ukulele with Holly (well, really watched Holly learn to play the ukulele and answered her questions about music notation and theory)

2020 Viewing

I covered the first half of the year in my mid-year post, copy/pasted below. Second half of the year has been added in blue.

Series continued:

• Call the Midwife: seasons 8 & 9
• Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: season 7 (ongoing), continued until I lost HBO in August
• The Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj: volume 6
• Steven Universe: season 5, movie, and follow-up series Steven Universe Future
• Black Mirror: season 5
• The Good Place: season 4
• The Crown: season 4
• Fargo: season 4 (did not finish in 2020)
• The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel: season 3
• Star Trek: Discovery: season 2
• The Politician: season 2
• Sex Education: season 2
• Dead to Me: season 2
• The Mary Tyler Moore Show: rewatched seasons 4-7
• Star Trek: The Next Generation: various episodes here and there, full rewatch of seasons 3-7 along with The Greatest Generation podcast, with the occasional Netflix Party w/Lindsay, Leslie, Jess, and Kyle
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: rewatched seasons 1-6
• American Crime Story: The People vs. O.J. Simpson: all (rewatch inspired by You're Wrong About)

Series started and miniseries:

• Breaking Bad: seasons 1-4 (with Cricket and Mark in person), finished the series
• Schitt's Creek: seasons 1-3
• Killing Eve: season 1, and then seasons 2 & 3
• Big Little Lies: season 1
• The Good Fight: all (4 seasons)
• Castlevania: all (3 seasons)
• Unbelievable: all
• The Stranger: all
• Hollywood: all
• Mrs. America: all (while texting Cricket as we watched simultaneously in our homes)
• Star Trek: Picard: all
• Star Trek: Short Treks: all
• Fosse/Verdon: all
• Belgravia: all
• The Great: all
• Upload: all
• Outlander: part of season 1 after reading part of the book
• I May Destroy You: a few episodes before I lost HBO
• Bridgerton: season 1 (did not finish in 2020)
• Unorthodox: all
• Self-Made: all
• Challenger: The Final Flight: all
• The Queen's Gambit: all

Movies (streamed unless otherwise noted):

• The Laundromat
• Late Night
• Bombshell
• Bad Education
• Whitney Cummings: I'm Your Girlfriend
• Ilana Glazer: The Planet Is on Fire
• One Child Nation
• Ever After (rewatch)
• Parks & Recreation special
• Downton Abbey movie (on a plane)
• Crazy Rich Asians (on a plane)
• Hannah Gadsby: Douglas (1 and a half times)
• Star Wars IX: The Rise of Skywalker (in the theater w/Kathryn)
• Little Women (in the theater w/Page & Popcorn)
• Ant-Man and the Wasp (Netflix Party w/NYMAAC)
• The 13th (Netflix Party w/NYMAAC)
• Just Mercy (Netflix Party w/NYMAAC)
• Where'd You Go, Bernadette? (via Kast w/Page & Popcorn)
• West Side Story (via Kast w/NYMAAC)
• Becoming
• The Queen (rewatch)
• Clue (rewatch with friends via Netflix Party)
• Hello Again (rewatch)
• Overboard (rewatched simultaneously with Cricket and her parents while we texted)
• The Hate U Give (via Kast w/Page & Popcorn)
• The Social Dilemma
• Enola Holmes
• Boys in the Band (2020)
• My Octopus Teacher
• What the Constitution Means to Me
• Judy
• A Life on Our Planet (w/my Parents)
• The Witches (1990 & 2020 w/Page & Popcorn via Netflix Party and Kast)
• Coastal Elites
• Class Action Park
• A West Wing Special (via Kast w/Kathryn)
• Sleepless in Seattle (rewatch)
• What We Left Behind: Looking Back at Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
• Uncle Frank
• Prom
• Bel Canto (Amazon Prime watch party w/Sue Ha)

Other things streamed:

• Jagged Little Pill (via Facebook watch party)
• Puffs: 3 consecutive Fridays in April of virtual staged readings from the Puffs! canon
• LGBAC "Home Together" and "Marching With the Band" series, and Yuletide by the Fireside
• Saturday Night Seder
• Dar Williams on Susie on Sundays
• Judy's Live on Instagram
• @Laurateachesyoga live on Instagram
• Return to Mostly Sondheim
• My niece's piano recital
• Clue live script reading
• Two episodes of At Home With Rhinestone Gorilla + an online watch party
• Holidays at Hendricks
• One Night Only: The Best of Broadway

Live theater:

• Hamilton on Broadway (2nd time, with family)

Puzzles 2020

This is my first end-of-the-year puzzle recap since it's the first year of my voracious at-home puzzle habit. For years we've had puzzles going at work for people to enjoy between projects. When the work-from-home order came down, I was able to resume the hobby at home thanks to a few puzzles a neighbor left in the lobby.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Andrew Berman (@andrew.berman)

Above are the highlights. Below is the full list in chronological order, along with some nerdy analysis. Pictures of all the puzzles, including the completed puzzles, in-progress shots, and photos in which my cats have claimed the puzzles for their own, can be seen on my Instagram.

In order

APRIL

• Eight Arms for You, 1000 pieces, New York Puzzle Co
• Mammals With Mohawks, 500 pieces, Mudpuppy

MAY

• Potato Chips, 506 pieces, Bepuzzled (pictured above: right column, center row)
• Dog Gallery, 1000 pieces, Cobble Hill
• Légumes, 1000 pieces, New York Puzzle Co (pictured above: center column, bottom row)

JUNE

• Snowy Owl With Pentagram, 500 pieces, Educa Puzzles
• NPR Podcasts, 1000 pieces, New York Puzzle Co
• The New Yorker: View of the World from 9th Avenue, 1000 pieces, New York Puzzle Co (pictured above: left column, center row)
• NPR Sound Community, 1000 pieces, New York Puzzle Co
• Brooklyn Magnetic City Puzzle, 100 pieces, GeoToys

JULY

• Zodiac, 500 pieces (and circular!), Moruska
• Stag, 1000 pieces, High Quality Wood Products

AUGUST

• Vintage Cereal Boxes, 1000 pieces, White Mountain Puzzles
• National Parks, 1000 pieces, Ravensburger (pictured above: right column, bottom row)
• Disney/Pixar, 1000 pieces, Ravensburger

SEPTEMBER

• Rainbow, 1000 pieces, Cobble Hill (pictured above: center)
• Lightning Striking Tree, 1000 pieces, Eurographics (pictured above: left column, bottom row)

OCTOBER

• National Parks Vintage Puzzle, 1000 pieces, Cavallini & Co
• Gustav Klimt's "The Kiss," 1000 pieces, Piatnik
• Icing on the Cake, 1000 pieces, Springbok

NOVEMBER

• Bibliophile: Book Club Darlings, 1000 pieces, Galison
• I Had One of Those!, 1000 pieces, White Mountain Puzzles

DECEMBER

• Phish "Rift" Album Cover Art, 550 pieces, Banana Road (?)
• The New Yorker: Liberty, 500 pieces, New York Puzzle Co
• The World of Frida Kahlo, 1000 pieces, Laurence King Publishing (pictured above: right column, top row)
• The New Yorker: Yellow Brick Roadblock, 1000 pieces, New York Puzzle Co
• Butterflies of North America, 500 pieces, Mudpuppy (pictured above: center column, top row)
• Maps, 500 pieces, Rifle Paper Co
• Summer at the Amusement Park, 500 pieces, Mudpuppy
• Cat Library, 1000 pieces, Cobble Hill
• Pop Culture, 1000 pieces, White Mountain Puzzles
• Star Trek: The Next Generation, 500 pieces, iseeme.com (pictured above: left column, top row)

By piece count

1000 pieces: 19

~500 pieces: 12 (this includes two oddballs of 506 and 550 pieces)

100 pieces: 1 (the magnetic puzzle)

The reason I don't go larger than 1000 is my puzzle table (also known as the kitchen table) is 35" in diameter, which limits the size of the puzzle it can hold. For three puzzles (Cake and two of the White Mountain puzzles), I had to place a 36" x 24" poster frame on the table and work on that.

By brand

New York Puzzle Company created seven of the puzzles I worked on this year, including all of the New Yorker magazine covers, the two NPR puzzles, the Légumes, and the first one I did this year: "Eight Arms for You." I did three each from Mudpuppy (Mammals with Mohawks, Butterflies of North America, Summer at the Amusement Park), White Mountain Puzzles (the three nostalgia ones), and Cobble Hill (Dog Gallery, Cat Library, and Rainbow). The two Ravensburgers (National Parks and Disney/Pixar) were from a neighbor. All the rest were one-offs, including Piatnik and Springbok which I know from office puzzling.

By subject matter

• Animals: 8 (Eight Arms, Mammals, Dog Gallery, Snowy Owl, Zodiac, Stag, Butterflies, Cat Library)
• New York: 7 (the 3 New Yorker covers, the 2 NPR puzzles, Brooklyn, Amusement Park)
• Entertainment: 5 (Star Trek, Disney/Pixar, The Rift, Cat Library, Book Club Darlings)
• Maps: 4 (Brooklyn, New Yorker's View, National Parks, Maps)
• Food: 4 (Potato Chips, Légumes, Cereal, Cake)
• Nature: 3 (Lightning, the 2 National Parks puzzles)
• Toys: 3 (I Had One of Those, Pop Culture, Disney/Pixar)
• Fine Art: 2 (The Kiss, Frida Kahlo)
• Rainbows: 1 (Rainbow)

How'd I do?

I only gave up on two of them: Snowy Owl and Book Club Darlings, both of which were the type of puzzle where every shape is identical (why). In the former, I ended up with 12 pieces that wouldn't fit anywhere (so, clearly not identical enough), and in the latter, I ended up with 70 pieces that were all solid white, and I just decided I wasn't going to put myself through that. 

I cheated to get through the Stag puzzle, another one with identically shaped pieces that was going to be a slog to the end. Fortunately, the pieces were such a tight fit that I could pick the puzzle up and flip it over, where there was a letter pattern that helped me find the spots for the last few pieces.

I finished all the rest without cheating, and in most cases without looking at the image on the box (after the initial look to decide which puzzle to do). The third puzzle I worked on was the potato chip puzzle, which didn't have an image to work off of, so I guess that broke me of the habit early. Potato Chips, Lightning Striking Tree, and The Kiss were probably the hardest ones I finished this year (except the Stag). I suppose you could say I didn't "finish" The Kiss or Butterflies since they came to me with pieces missing, but I got as far as I could. Zodiac I finished despite an extra challenge they threw in the box: two decoy pieces!

Where did all these puzzles come from?

Puzzle swaps: 

• My friend Holly loaned me Cereal, Lightning, and Cake. 
• I got the two Ravensburgers (National Parks and Disney/Pixar) from a neighbor, two of the New Yorker covers (Liberty and Roadblock) from another neighbor, and the Frida Kahlo one from a third neighbor. 
• Eight Arms and Mammals presumably also came from a neighbor but I don't know who since they were anonymously left in the lobby. I swapped those two away to a stranger (friend of a friend) who gave me Dog Gallery and Snowy Owl, both of which have been sent off to friends. The friend I sent the Owl to sent me The Kiss and Book Club Darlings in return. 
• My friend Marissa sent me Pop Culture in exchange for one of the NPR ones. 
• I took The Rift from my parents' house, but we think it was originally my sister's, so that wasn't a swap but it's back with her now anyway.

Gifts (I am very lucky to have such generous parents and friends): 

• Kathleen gave me Rainbow, and got one for herself so we could puzzle together. 
• Justine gave me the Stag, Zodiac, and a third one that I'm saving for the winter because it looks hard. 
• Hillary was my secret gift giver in a holiday gift exchange and sent me Cat Library. 
• Kathryn, Courtney, Jess, and Kyle got together and gifted me the New Yorker's View puzzle and the magnetic Brooklyn map for my birthday. 
• Cricket and Mark gave me the Vintage National Parks puzzle which came in an attractive cylinder box. 
• I Had One of Those was a kind thank you gift from Jason for working on the band's Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade appearance press release. 
• Lindsay & Leslie gave me the Star Trek one as a holiday gift. 
• Finally, an embarrassment of puzzle riches came from my parents for my birthday, Chanukah, and just because: Potato Chips (many years ago), the two NPRs, Légumes, Maps, two of the Mudpuppys (Butterflies and Amusement Park), and another hard one that I'm saving for later.

And where did they go?

• The swaps were all returned to their owners except for The Kiss and Pop Culture which I was told I could keep, and Book Club Darlings which is a swap-in-progress (the owner is still working on Rainbow). NPR Sound Community and Légumes are still out on loan.
• Zodiac and View are on loan to my sister for her to do with her kids; the former will be a special challenge for them since that's the one with the decoy pieces.
• Stag and Potato Chips are pinned to walls in my apartment because they stay together without the use of glue or tape. Brooklyn is still magneted to the magnet board I assembled it on (currently covered with holiday cards).
• The rest are all still here and most are candidates for swapping if you're interested!

The Big Book Post 2020

Merry bookmas! 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Andrew Berman (@andrew.berman)

What that tree and 2020 have in common is I did not read very many books in either. My books-completed count is lower this year (10) than in past years (usually between 14 and 18) due to the lack of a subway commute for most of it (where I now realize I get most of my reading done), reduced time out in the world (in other words, away from my TV), and a newfound passion for jigsaw puzzles at home. I've had a puzzle going on my kitchen table almost non-stop since April.

But 10 is more than 0, so let's talk about the books I read this year.

In order

JAN: Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
JAN: The Library Book by Susan Orlean
FEB: The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
FEB: Belgravia by Julian Fellowes
MAR: Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire
APR: Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness by Peter Godfrey-Smith
MAY: Willful Creatures by Aimee Bender
JUN-AUG: half of Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
SEP-NOV: half of The Overstory by Richard Powers
OCT: The Witches by Roald Dahl
DEC: Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
DEC: Medallion Status: True Stories from Secret Rooms by John Hodgman

10 is the number finished, but if you'll allow me to count Outlander and Overstory has half a book each, the count of total books read is 11.

The year was very front-heavy, most of the second half of the year taken up by long or dense books I did not end up finishing. My favorite book of the year was Darkness, garnering my only Goodreads 5-star review of 2020. I did not like Norwegian (which Goodreads tells me was the most popular book on their site that I read this year) or Witches.

One other interesting fact from Goodreads: Medallion was both the least popular (least shelved/reviewed) and highest rated book I read this year, which I think John Hodgman would find appropriate.

By the authors

Of the books I finished, 6 were by men and 4 by women. The authors were British (Fellowes, Dahl), Australian (Godfrey-Smith), Japanese (Murakami), and from the US (the rest). Two are deceased (Dahl, Le Guin). Of the living authors I read, Murakami is the oldest (although only 7 months older than Fellowes) and Hodgman is the youngest at 49. This year, I read my 6th book by Maguire, my 4th by Murakami (and possibly my last, woof), and my 2nd by Le Guin and Hodgman.

By publication date

I read no books that were published this year, but Medallion was the closest at the end of 2019. The oldest book I read was Darkness (1969). The rest were from the eighties (Witches, Norwegian), nineties (Confessions), aughts (Bel Canto, Willful), and teens (Minds, Belgravia, Library, Medallion).

By setting

These books took place largely far from home (NYC). The closest was Medallion, based in Brooklyn but chronicling mostly travel around the country. Library is centered mostly in LA and Willful was mostly non-specific but one assumes the US. The rest were abroad: Belgravia and Witches in the UK, Confessions in the Netherlands, Bel Canto in an unnamed South American country, Norwegian in Japan, Minds off the coast of Australia, and the farthest abroad was Darkness on the planet Winter. All are set in the recent past except Confessions (17th century), Belgravia and Library (19th century), and Darkness (presumably the distant future).

By genre

Fiction (7):

• Fantasy: 2 (Confessions, Witches)
• Science fiction: 1 (Darkness)
• Historical fiction: 1 (Belgravia)
• Short stories: 1 (Willful)
• Plain-old novels: 2 (Norwegian, Bel Canto)

Non-fiction (3):

• History: Library
• Science: Minds
• Memoir: Medallion

Awards

No Pulitzers, Man Bookers, or NBAs among the books I read this year. I don't know the literary awards landscape too well, but the ones that seem notable here are the Hugo Award (Darkness) and the PEN/Faulkner award (Bel Canto).

Movies and book clubs

• After reading Belgravia, I watched the TV miniseries on EPIX (via Amazon Prime)
• I read Witches with the Page & Popcorn Book & Movie Club. We watched both film adaptations of the book (1990, 2020). I also watched Where'd You Go, Bernadette? (which I read last year), and Little Women and The Hate U Give (which I did not read) with P&P.
• After reading Bel Canto, I watched the 2018 film with my friend Sue Ha on Prime.
• After not finishing Outlander, I likewise did not finish the first season of the Starz series on Netflix
• I watched Crazy Rich Asians (which I read last year) on a plane
• I watched a few episodes of the new Tales of the City, but this series isn't based on the one book I read (years ago)
• I watched Unorthodox, a miniseries based on the book by Deborah Feldman, which I read years ago
• There is no movie made of Minds, but I did watch My Octopus Teacher which was a similar story of a diver connecting with an octopus

How the books came to me

• Loaners: Norwegian was loaned to me by Holly, Confessions by Lindsay (or maybe "stolen from" would be more accurate), and Minds by my boss
• Gifts: Library, Belgravia, and Medallion were all gifts from my parents, I believe from three separate birthdays/holidays
• My bookshelf: Bel Canto and Willful have been in my possession for a while, 4 and 14 years respectively
• Purchases: Darkness (Housing Works), Outlander (Community), Overstory (Terrace Books), Witches (Center for Fiction)

Goals old and new

• Library, Darkness, Belgravia, Bel Canto, and Outlander were all goals I set for myself in last year's big book post which I (mostly) achieved.
• The Starless Sea, The Testaments, and A Favourite of the Gods were goals from the last big book post which I'll carry into 2021.
• I'm sure I'll come up with other goals as I dismantle the book tree and see what's hiding in there, but I know I will want to read Dreyer's English (which I got this summer on the same trip to Center for Fiction when I got Witches) and Motherless Brooklyn, which my book club just chose as its next selection.

Happy new year and happy reading!

Things I read, watched, saw, and did in the first half of 2020

At last, an excuse (quarantine) to have read so many books and watched so much TV (although you'll notice the quantity is not much different from that of last year's mid-year post).

Keep up with my content consumption and other activities week by week by reading my quarantine diary on Instagram.

Books

• Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami (my 4th by him)
• The Library Book by Susan Orlean
• The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin (my 2nd by her)
• Belgravia by Julian Fellowes (and watched the miniseries)
• Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire (my 6th by him)
• Other Minds by Peter Godfrey-Smith
• Willful Creatures by Aimee Bender

I'm one book behind on my reading goal for the year, and it does not help that that book is the 850-page tome Outlander by Diana Gabaldon.

Podcasts

In January, I finished The West Wing Weekly podcast.

My audio obsession of the moment is the You're Wrong About podcast, which I've listened to in its entirety (91 episodes) in the space of a month.

Now that I'm caught up with You're Wrong About, my next podcast of choice will probably be Ologies by Ali Ward.

Puzzles

While I voraciously consume episodes of You're Wrong About, I busy my hands with jigsaw puzzles. The following are puzzles I've completed since April:

• Eight Arms for You (1000 pieces, a few days)
• Mammals With Mohawks (500 pieces, one day)
• Potato Chips (500 pieces, two weeks)
• Dog Gallery (1000 pieces, a few days)
• Vegetables/Légumes (1000 pieces, a few days)
• Owl with pentagram (500 pieces, a few weeks, did not finish)
• NPR Podcasts (1000 pieces, two days)
• The New Yorker: A View of the World from 9th Ave (1000 pieces, a few days)
• NPR: Sound Community (1000 pieces, a few days)
• Geo Toys: Brooklyn magnetic city puzzle (100 pieces, an hour)

TV (aka things I watched at home)

Series continued:

• Call the Midwife: season 8
• Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: season 7 (ongoing)
• The Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj: volume 6
• Steven Universe: season 5, movie, and follow-up series Steven Universe Future
• Black Mirror: season 5
• The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel: season 3
• Star Trek: Discovery: season 2
• The Politician: season 2
• Sex Education: season 2
• Dead to Me: season 2
• Star Trek: The Next Generation: various episodes here and there
• American Crime Story: The People vs. O.J. Simpson: all (rewatch inspired by You're Wrong About)
• Hannah Gadsby: Douglas (1 and a half times)
• Ever After (rewatch)
• Parks & Recreation special

Series started:

• Breaking Bad: seasons 1-4 (with Cricket and Mark in person)
• Big Little Lies: season 1
• Killing Eve: season 1
• The Good Fight: all (4 seasons)
• Castlevania: all (3 seasons)
• Unbelievable: all
• The Stranger: all
• Hollywood: all
• Mrs. America: all (while texting Cricket as we watched simultaneously in our homes)
• Star Trek: Picard: all
• Star Trek: Short Treks: all
• Fosse/Verdon: all
• Belgravia: all
• The Great: all
• Upload: all
• Ilana Glazer: The Planet Is on Fire
• One Child Nation
• Downton Abbey movie (on a plane)
• Crazy Rich Asians (on a plane)

Movies (streamed):

• The Laundromat
• Late Night
• Bombshell
• Bad Education
• Whitney Cummings: I'm Your Girlfriend

Live-streams and virtual watch parties:

• NYMAAC watch parties: Ant-Man and the Wasp, The 13th, and Just Mercy (via Netflix Party); Where'd You Go, Bernadette? (with the Page & Popcorn Book & Movie Club via Kosmi); West Side Story (via Kast); Jagged Little Pill (via Facebook watch party)
• Puffs: 3 consecutive Fridays in April of virtual staged readings from the Puffs! canon
• LGBAC "Home Together" and "Marching With the Band" series
• Breaking Bad: season 5 (with Cricket and Mark via Netflix Party)
• Saturday Night Seder
• Dar Williams on Susie on Sundays
• Judy's Live on Instagram
• @Laurateachesyoga live on Instagram
• Return to Mostly Sondheim
• My niece's piano recital

In-person viewing

Movies (in theater):

• Star Wars IX: The Rise of Skywalker (w/Kathryn)
• Little Women (w/Page & Popcorn)

Live theater/shows

• Hamilton on Broadway (2nd time, with family)

Things I did

• Went to Hawaii with my parents and Cricket
• Played in one concert: QUO Soliloquy of Dreams, Ian's first concert as artistic director
• Performed and volunteered at LGBAC's Drag Bingo fundraiser at Slate
• Two trips to NJ for NYMAAC service events, and two more for socially distanced pool parties
• Celebrated 15 years as a New Yorker and 4 years at my current workplace, and turned 40
• Went on 0 dates
• Doodled Chicago and Washington DC
• Got into a habit of taking regular long walks, and then out of that habit
• Mourned the loss of Car2Go but welcomed CitiBike into my life
• Taught some basic music theory to 3 people and led an online trivia night for 13 people
• Adopted 2 new plants (string of bananas and echeveria) and kept all my other plants alive, and the cats are still alive too
• Recorded percussion tracks for 4 virtual performances (Can-Can and Les Toréadors for QUO, Baba O'Reilly and Bad Guy for LGBAC)

The Big Book Post 2019

The books I read in 2019, in order:

Jan: Vita Nostra by Marina & Sergey Dyachenko
Jan-Feb: Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
Feb-Mar: Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War by Mary Roach
Mar: Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann
Mar-Apr: Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan
Apr: My Brother by Jamaica Kincaid
May: The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson (didn't give the titular f*ck about this book and therefore didn't finish it)
May-Jun: Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
May-Jul: Birds of America by Lorrie Moore
Jul-Aug: How to Write an Autobiographical Novel by Alexander Chee
Aug: Where'd You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple
Sep-Oct: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Nov: The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin
Nov: Hiddensee: A Tale of the Once and Future Nutcracker by Gregory Maguire
Dec: Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami (still reading)

It was a lighter year than most, falling 5 books short of my goal of 18. I credit the low count to a lot of time spent reading Sapiens (nearly two months). Goldfinch also took a long time (or at least it felt like it), and I spent the last month of the year reading a book I didn't end up finishing (Norwegian). My favorites all fell in the second half of the year: Hiddensee, Lathe, and Bernadette. I rated Vita slightly lower than them, but in retrospect I'd like to bump that up to a favorite as well, and it was certainly the most interesting book I read last year. Of the books I finished, I liked Brother the least, but will try Kincaid again. Subtle is not worth talking about, and I will discuss Norwegian next year.

Goodreads would like you to know that Goldfinch was the most read on Goodreads of all the books I read in 2019, and it was also the longest book I read (although it took longer to read Sapiens). Lathe was the shortest, Brother was the least read, and Sapiens was the most highly rated (on Goodreads).

By the authors:
I finished books by 8 female authors and 6 male authors. Eight of them are American and the rest are Ukrainian, Korean, Singaporean, Antiguan, and Israeli. All of the authors whose books I finished are older than me, the youngest being Harari (b. 1976) and the oldest being Le Guin (1929-2018). This was my 6th read of Roach's, my 5th of Maguire's, and my 2nd of Tartt's. All other authors I was reading for the first time, but not the last for Le Guin and Kincaid, and I eagerly await the translations of more books by the Dyachenkos.

By publication date:
The oldest book I read was Lathe (1971), separated by a nearly 30-year gap from the 2nd-and 3rd-oldest books, Brother (1997) and Birds (1998). The rest of the books I finished were published in the 2010s, the freshest being Autobiographical in 2018. Two of the books I read were galleys, although in both cases the books had long since been published.

By setting:
The books took place in various locations around the US including New York, Seattle, Portland, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Oklahoma, New Hampshire, and Maine, and also in Russia, Korea, Japan, China, Southeast Asia, the Netherlands, Bavaria, Mexico, Antigua, and Antarctica.

By genre:
Fiction: 8

• Fantasy: Vita, Hiddensee
• Humorous: Crazy, Bernadette
• Sci-fi: Lathe
• Historical: Pachinko
• Short stories: Birds
• Plain old novel: Goldfinch

Non-Fiction: 5

• Science: Grunt, Sapiens
• Memoir/Essays: Brother, Autobiographical
• History/True Crime: Killers

Vita and Crazy are both first books in a series and I will probably continue them both, but the former is more likely (contingent upon more books in the series being translated).

Major awards:

Pachinko, Killers, and Brother were finalists for the National Book Award.

Goldfinch won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

Movies and book clubs:

• Page & Popcorn: I read Bernadette and Goldfinch with the Page & Popcorn Book & Movie Club, but did not attend either gathering (there wasn't one for the former). I watched the latter on Prime.  I watched The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society with Page & Popcorn this year, which I read in 2009. I started the HBO series adaptation of His Dark Materials (I read the Golden Compass with Page & Popcorn in 2008 and saw the movie, and I read the Subtle Knife in 2009).
• I read Crazy intending to watch the movie but haven't yet. 
• This year I watched the miniseries adaptation of Good Omens (which I read in 2015). 
• I read Sapiens and Subtle with an Astoria gay boys book club, and also discussed Less with them which I read in 2018.

Where the books came from, and why I read them:

• Gifts: Vita, Pachinko, and Grunt were 2018 holiday gifts from my parents. Vita came recommended from Bethany and Pachinko from Mary.
• Bought them in a store: Bernadette and Sapiens were intentional bookstore purchases (meaning I specifically set out to buy them) for reading with book clubs. Lathe, Hiddensee, and Brother were thrifts store finds. I had been wanting to try Le Guin and Kincaid.
• Loans from friends: Goldfinch was loaned to me by Josh and I'm holding it hostage until he visits NYC. I borrowed Killers from my brother-in-law by way of my mom, both of whom read it and loved it. A coworker recommended and loaned me her copy of Autobiographical.
• I found Crazy in a giveaway box in Kathryn's apartment building.
• Birds had been on my bookshelf since David Sedaris recommended it on a speaking tour in 2003. I bought it when I was working at Borders and it still has the yellow personal property sticker on the cover.

To 2020!

• Recently acquired: I got Susan Orlean's The Library Book and Randall Munroe's latest How To from my parents for Chanukah. Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness and Emma Donoghue's The Wonder are recent purchases from the Housing Works bookstore. The Island of Lost Maps jumped off of the shelf of Green Hand in Portland (ME) and into my green hands. Lastly, I nicked How Paris Became Paris (DeJean), The Last Girlfriend on Earth (Rich), and How to Talk About Places You've Never Been (Bayard) from Josh's collection before he left.
• From the bookshelf: 2019 was the rare year in which I took a book that's been cluttering up my collection for over a decade and read it (Birds). I don't think I'll go as far back as 2003 this year, but here are the books I've pulled off of my bookshelf for consideration in 2020: Mother Night (Vonnegut), Nocturnes (Ishiguro), Bel Canto (Patchett), A Favourite of the Gods (Bedford), Bean Trees (Kingsolver), Belgravia (Fellowes), The Edible Woman (Atwood), A People's History of the United States (Zinn, which belongs to my brother-in-law and I really should return it eventually)
• In the great beyond: I'm going to try and make time for Dreyer's English this year. I may seek out The Little Friend and finish the Tartt canon. I m hungry for Niffenegger's The Starless Sea and Atwood's The Testaments, but possibly not hungry enough to buy them in hardcover. Although I'll finish Norwegian Wood this year (this month, hopefully), I may want another Murakami. I might read the first books in the Outlander and Song of Fire and Ice series so I can finally start watching those TV shows.
• Still on my list of movies to watch for which I've already read the books are The Namesake and Remains of the Day, along with the previously mentioned Crazy and Bernadette.