Reading Wrap-Up:

 

Nonfiction and Memoir:

Total read: 23

Best of the year: Hunger by Roxane Gay, Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann, Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson

Graphic Novels/Memoirs:

Total read: 9

Best of the year: John Lewis’s March trilogy and Pashmina by Nidhi Chanani

SciFi/Fantasy Reads:

Total read: 35

Best of the year: La Belle Savauge by Philip Pullman, N.K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy, and The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi

Contemporary Fiction

Total read: a lot– most of my stack

Best of the year: Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman, and The Animators by Kayla Rae Whitaker

General reading wrap up:

A-Z challenge: 25/26 (could have tried harder to finish this one! X, you defeated me this time.)

Goodreads challenge: read 157/125 books– very pleased with this!

ARCs reviewed this year: 32

Favorite reading thing done #1: gave recommendations on Twitter and Facebook based on last food ate and color wearing, and got a chance to rec my favorite books of the year!

Favorite reading thing done #2: got a chance to interview the author of The Book of the Unnamed Midwife (a great, great book)

Writing Wrap-Up

Long stuff:

• Words written on book-length stuff: over 100k
• Full books finished: 1 (then edited significantly!)
• NaNoWriMo project: won NaNo, and book from that project in progress. Hope to finish draft zero by the end of January!

Short stuff:

This was my most productive publishing year yet, so a few highlights:

Had the immense privilege this year to publish in a few outlets that I absolutely adore: The Rumpus to talk about ash trees and politics and Electric Lit, where my Wonder Woman history piece found a home.

I had a strange humor piece about airplanes published in Higgs Weldon, and wrote about parenthood and cry rooms for US Catholic. 

I’ve been challenging myself to write and submit more, and have a few things pending for publication that I’m excited to announce.

Life, Etc.

2017 kicked me in the pants, like it did to many that I know.

Some things I’m grateful for at the end of it:

• family who keeps me on my toes (even with bouts of lice, colds, and constant “Why?” questioning)
• friends that will share fried pickles, stories, tears, and laughter
• a great job the challenges me daily
• a tougher shell, but a better ear for criticism
• hope for the future

Here’s to a good 2018, my friends.