All the books I didn't read

In years past, I've done a year in review of books I read or a look ahead at books I plan to read. I used to read as many as 25 books in a year. Then I had a baby...end of story. I keep a little log of the books I read because I am type A and then some it's interesting to see what I have read, where the book took place, if I liked it and how long it took me to read it. See I wasn't kidding about the type A part. This past year I actually did read some books but...I also started and never finished some books. This used to be a huge pet peeve of mine. I could not move onto a new book until I finished the last and I could never just not finish a book. This is why I finished Passage to India, my least favorite book of all time. Part of me wants to buckle down and make myself finish these books but the other part of me knows better than to worry about a few unread books.

So what books did I actually finish and what ones just didn't make the cut???

I read this early in 2012 when I was still nursing all the freaking time. I love this book. It's short stories that are intertwined. It takes place around 1900 in a small Midwestern town and is full of fascinating characters.

I ended up loving this book by the end but actually didn't like it most of the way through. Yet I couldn't put it down because I just found the characters so good.

 This was light fluffy fairly entertaining. Another book I read during my maternity leave while nursing A LOT!

This was my "oh shit we have a lot of medical bills to pay off" book. I had a minor panic attack, read this book, and felt much better. In all seriousness this is a good book and very easy to read. I think he has a practical model for getting out of debt. We used it with a lot of success to pay our copious amount of hospital bills and are still using it to pay off student loans. I also loved his section on kids and money his allowance ideas are great!

I read this book along with everyone else on the interwebs. It happened to be a book club book. I couldn't put it down however after the fact I really didn't like it and I will not be seeing the movie. It's just too negative to be enjoyable.

After Gone Girl I needed something light and fluffy and this was perfect. And very timely since I think Margot was about 8 months old when I read it. I remember laughing a lot.

I liked Little Earthquakes so much I picked this one up for my trip to Vegas. It was okay. I mostly enjoyed it until someone tells an entirely unnecessary upsetting story that ruined it for me. if you are the mother of a small child (say under the age of 5) don't read this book.

This was the only other book club book from this past year that I finished. I didn't have high expectations but I actually really enjoyed this book. Sure the story is bizarre and there are a few upsetting parts but it's just such a fascinating way of telling a story. It also helped that I loaded this book on my ipad and was able to read small bits while I was waiting for meetings to start etc.

I started but didn't finish:

 I love Louisa May Alcott and I wanted to love this book but..it's really freaking boring.

 This was a book club book that I just couldn't get into.

 Another book club book. I wanted to read this book. But I have very complicated feelings. So Ken Kesey is a Eugene/Springfield native and somewhat of a local icon. Also this book is very well written and I did enjoy the first few chapters. However, this book is about a mental hospital based on one my grandmother was actually in during the time this book was written and for that reason I just found it too upsetting.

This book is fabulous so far and I will finish it. However it was really scary and I just needed a break.

Another book club book. My sense is that this is a really good book. However, I just have a bad feeling that something really bad is going to happen and I just couldn't take the stress. Neurotic sure, do I care?  no.

I have no lofty aspirations to read a lot of books next year. I am currently reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn for my book club and I am enjoying it albeit it's a little boring and very long. However I really like it when she describes the food they eat.

There you have it, a super long blog post about books. The end.