Books Read in 2016

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Twenty-one books! This is the lowest record yet, and I'll just go ahead and chalk it up to a divorce year, where time was spent reading court orders and custody guidelines and not as many New York Times bestsellers.

Instead of dividing the books into random, invented categories, as I usually do, let's stick with two this year: titles--actual wording of titles--I could apply to my year of divorce, and the others I couldn't. The latter category is smaller than the former, which is why this experiment is so interesting. I mean, come on; I finished "When Things Fall Apart"! By coincidence! Nicholas Sparks could not have planned this better.


 Titles I Read That Coincidentally Could Easily Be Applied To Said Divorce, and Require Some Use Of Your Imagination
• When Things Fall Apart, Pema Chodron
• Promise Land, Jessica Lamb-Shapiro
• The Woman Who Walked In Sunshine, Alexander McCall Smith
• The Red Parts, Maggie Nelson
• Bluets, Maggie Nelson
• Between The World And Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates
• Not That Kind of Girl, Lena Dunham
• The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, Stephen Adly Gurgis
• Tribe, Sebastian Junger
• The Door, Magda Szabo
• All At Sea, Decca Aitkenhead
• The Magic Finger, Roald Dahl
• How To Be Here, Rob Bell
• Amazing, Fantastic, Incredible, Stan Lee
• Home, Marilyn Robinson

Titles I Can't Readily Stretch Into The "This Relates To My Divorce And Everything That Followed" Category
• Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train, Stephen Adly Gurgis
• The Pharos Gate, Nick Bantock
• Esio Trot, Roald Dahl
• My Name Is Lucy Barton, Elizabeth Strout
• Negroland a memoir, Margo Jefferson
• Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls, David Sedaris


In My Name Is Lucy Barton, Elizabeth Strout writes, "You will have only one story. You'll write your one story many ways. Don't ever worry about story. You have only one." After 2016, I did try to write my story, and at the same time found myself in the words of others, which is entirely the purpose and beauty of the art and craft of writing.









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