2016 Reading Recap

It has been a number of years since I've written a reading recap post (since 2012!) and I think the main reason is because of list paralysis.  I keep six different reading lists in Evernote:  one for myself, one each for my three readers, one for family read alouds, and one for family audiobooks.  It isn't like the data isn't there...  but how much do I include?  This sort of quandary is what makes me enjoy reading everyone else's lists while thinking vaguely that perhaps I should post my own.

Last year Brandy Vencel had this to say about the whole angst issue:

Do I include books I read aloud to my children for fun? What about all the books I read aloud for school lessons? Pre-reading for school lessons? Does that count, too? It’s hard for me until I finally remember that whether I read it aloud or silently, whether I read it for fun because I “had to,” I read it. Therefore, it qualifies.

So, taking a page from her book, here we go.  And I'm even going to include audiobooks too, as I think those count as well.  The only books I'm not including are ones that I'm always reading from, namely the Bible (mainly John's Gospel outside of the Mass readings this year) and Charlotte Mason's volumes (mainly 2, 4, and 6 this year)

First, Some Books of Note from 2016

Best Nature Writing:  Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez

Best History:  1491 by Charles C. Mann

Best Fiction:  Pilgrim's Inn by Elizabeth Goudge

Best Read Aloud:  Rascal by Sterling North

The Book that Was the Most Fun to Read/Listen to:  To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis

A Book that Made Me Cry:  A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park

Best Poetry:  Purgatorio by Dante and translated by Anthony Esolen

Induced the Most Discussion:  Utopia by Sir Thomas More and Whatever Happened to Justice by Richard J. Maybury, closely followed by The Prince by Machiavelli.

Most Useful (although I haven't read every page):   The Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling by John Muir Laws and Homeopathic Medicine at Home by Maesimund B. Panos, MD

The Full Lists

Audiobooks - Family (we listen to these in the car)

The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien
Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien
We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea by Arthur Ransome
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Little Men by Louisa May Alcott
Jo’s Boys by Louisa May Alcott

Interestingly, none of these are new listens, although some of the children either were not born or not able to actually comprehend the stories when we listened to them last.  But they are all so excellent none of us who could remember listening to them minded listening to them again!  I suspect this will frequently be the case at this point in our family's life.  We did attempt to listen to a new-to-us book, The Coral Island, but it was so gory and full of cannibalism that we bailed on it about 3/4 of the way through.  I definitely should have screened that one more carefully!

Read Alouds - Family

Crossbows and Crucifixes by Henry Garnett
The Young Brahms by Sybil Deucher
Lassie Come-Home by Eric Knight
A Weekend with Degas by Rosabianca Skira-Venturi
The Green Ember by S.D. Smith
Rascal by Sterling North
Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder (my husband read this one)
Family Under the Bridge by Natalie Savage Carlson
Ways of Wood Folk by William Long
Cruise of the Arctic Star by Scott O'Dell
Diary of a 49er by Chauncey Canfield
The Royal Road by Ann Roos
Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park

Books Read as Part of My Children's Schooling

The Sea Around Us
Inferno
Utopia
Arctic Dreams
1491
Kidnapped
A Briefer History of Time
The Chemical History of a Candle
Julius Caesar
Come Rack, Come Rope
Characters of the Reformation
Seabird
Along Came a Dog
The Incredible Journey
Abigail Adams: Witness to a Revolution
Microbe Hunters
Whatever Happened to Justice?
Galileo’s Daughter
The New World
The Family that Overtook Christ
Purgatorio
The Red Bonnet
The Days of Alfred the Great
Henry V
Twelfth Night
Of Courage Undaunted by Daugherty
Sacajawea by Wyatt Blassingame
The Prince by Machiavelli
Christopher Columbus, Mariner

Books I Read Because I Wanted To

Teaching from Rest (re-read)
The 39 Steps

Little Dorrit
Pilgrim’s Inn
A Book of Bees
Anne’s House of Dreams (audio - re-listen)
Busman's Honeymoon (re-read)
My Life as a Spy by Baden-Powell
Science & Human Origins by Ann Gauger, Douglas Axe & Casey Luskin
Land of Little Rain
To Say Nothing of the Dog (ebook/audio)
The Red House Mystery by A.A. Milne
Essentialism
Puck of Pook’s Hill
Life Together by Bonhoeffer
Gentian Hill