2020 was a very unusual year for reading. For everyone. When our local public library was forced to close its physical doors in late March, I was motivated to switch to their digital offerings. I had read a few ebooks in the past, but was unimpressed and hadn’t bothered with them for years. Now, for a time, ebooks became my mainstay. Our local independent bookseller, Words Worth Books, was also forced to shut its doors. However, they were soon up and running with a safe collection system via the back door of the store. Select your books online, place your order, pay, and when you come to collect just ring the doorbell and step back six feet until a staff member brings your books to you (wearing a mask, of course). Remarkably, as business after business in Waterloo fell under the weight of the pandemic, our bookstore has survived. So far.

One of the other features of 2020 has been podcasts. One of my favourites is the BBC podcast, A Good Read, in which host Harriet Gilbert and two guests share their selection of a good read and then proceed to have a lively discussion. I’ve picked up numerous excellent suggestions for my reading list from this podcast. One, which rather surprised me, was for a high-concept thriller call The Sudden Appearance of Hope by Claire North, a pseudonym of Catherine Webb. The story was so strange and almost philosophical (despite clearly being a thriller) and all of the participants equally enthused about it. So I put that in my first closed door order at Words Worth Books back in the spring. And I’ve ended up reading all of the Claire North novels over the course of this year. What fun!

Highlights of the year included books by Lily King, Richard Ayoade, Cees Nooteboom, Max Porter, Jess Walter, and Claire North. So, a lot of good books!

As has been my way in recent years, I have written short reviews of each of the books and posted those on LibraryThing.

Stats from my 2020 reading list:

• 49 were borrowed from our public library
• 10 have Canadian authors
• 2 were chosen due to personal recommendation from friends
• 1 was being reread
• 5 are non-fiction
• 19 are ebooks

Books read in 2020 (79):

• Braithwaite, Oyinkan. My Sister, The Serial Killer
• Kawakami, Hiromi. The Ten Loves of Nishino
• Pratchett, Terry. The Bromeliad: Truckers, Diggers, Wings
• Tomes, Susan. Speaking the Piano: Reflections on Learning and Teaching
• Amis, Martin. The Rachel Papers
• Morgenstern, Erin. The Starless Sea: a novel
• Oyamada, Hiroko. The Factory
• Simsion, Graeme. The Rosie Project
• Porter, Max. Lanny: a novel
• Aronson, Elliot and Tavris, Carol. Mistakes Were Made (but not by me): why we justify foolish beliefs, bad decisions, and hurtful acts
• Strugatsky, Arkady and Boris. Roadside Picnic
• Bank, Melissa. The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing
• Headley, Maria Dahvana. The Mere Wife: a novel
• Nooteboom, Ces. The Following Story
• Han Kang. Human Acts: a novel
• Groff, Lauren. Florida
• Hay, Elizabeth. All Things Consoled: a daughter’s memoir
• Capote, Truman. Breakfast at Tiffany’s and three stories
• Iyer, Lars. Nietzsche and the Burbs: a novel
• Tawada, Yoko. The Emissary
• Gini, Al. The Importance of Being Funny
• Alexis, André. Beauty and Sadness
• Ross, Leone. Come Let Us Sing Anyway and other stories
• Berryman, John. 77 Dream Songs
• St. John Mandel, Emily. The Glass Hotel
• Hammett, Dashiell. The Maltese Falcon, The Thin Man, Red Harvest
• Nneka Arimah, Lesley. What it means when a man falls from the sky: stories
• Lim, Thea. An Ocean of Minutes: a novel
• Irani, Anosh. Translated From The Gibberish: seven stories & one half truth
• Evaristo, Bernadine. Girl, Woman, Other: a novel
• O’Neill, Joseph. Good Trouble: stories
• Offill, Jenny. Dept. of Speculation
• Ayoade, Richard. Ayoade on Top
• Sloan, Robin. Sourdough: a novel
• O’Brien, Edna. The Country Girls
• Babiak, Todd. The Empress of Idaho: a novel
• King, Lily. Writers and Lovers: a novel
• O’Neill, Joseph. The Dog: a novel
• Rooney, Sally. Conversations With Friends: a novel
• Smith, Ali. Spring: a novel
• Polek, Nicolette. Imaginary Museums
• Murata, Sayaka. Convenience Store Woman: a novel
• Ford, Richard. Sorry for Your Trouble: stories
• Rooney, Sally. Normal People: a novel
• Vandermeer, Jeff. The Southern Reach Trilogy: Annihilation; Authority; Acceptance
• Choi, Susan. Trust Exercise: a novel
• Offill, Jenny. Weather: a novel
• Barker, Emily Croy. The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Real Magic
• North, Claire. The Sudden Appearance of Hope
• Gailey, Sarah. Magic for Liars: a novel
• Li, Yiyun. Must I Go
• Moshfegh, Ottessa. Death in Her Hands
• Tyler, Anne. Redhead by the Side of the Road
• Bergman, Ingmar. The Magic Lantern: An Autobiography
• Ferrante, Elena. The Lying Life of Adults
• Chiang, Ted. Stories of Your Life and Others
• North, Claire. Touch
• North, Claire, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August
• Choo, Yangsze. The Night Tiger
• Chiang, Ted. Exhalation: stories
• Walter, Jess. The Cold Millions: a novel
• North, Claire. The Gameshouse
• DeLillo, Don. The Silence: a novel
• North, Claire. The End of the Day
• Clarke, Susanna. Piranesi
• North, Claire. 84K
• Evans, Danielle. The Office of Historical Corrections: a novella and stories
• North, Claire. The Pursuit of William Abbey
• Thammavongsa, Souvankham. How to Pronounce Knife: stories
• Dimaline, Cherie. Empire of Wild
• Smith, Ali. Summer: a novel
• Rosoff, Meg. The Great Godden

My reading numbers are down for 2019. Only 56 books read this past year. In part that was due to a variation in reading habits — for example, spending a long time dipping into a large collection of essays on jazz, which I didn’t read in whole and thus didn’t count. In part it was due to having a few months where I barely read at all. However, it didn’t feel like a bad reading year because so many of the books that I read were excellent. And very few were bad (and none were awful).

Highlights of the year included books by Ben Lerner, Don DeLillo, Anna Burns, Max Porter, and Taffy Brodesser-Akner. But also highly regarded were works by Pat Barker, Ottessa Moshfegh, Jean-Philippe Arrou-Vignod, Erika Swyler, Daniel Pennac, Antonio Damasio, David Salle, Colm Tóibín, Jessie Kanelos Weiner, André Alexis, Meg Rosoff, Jesmyn Ward, Rachel Kushner, and George Saunders. So, a lot of good books!

As has been my way in recent years, I have written short reviews of each of the books and posted those on LibraryThing. I’m confident that 2020 will be an even better year for reading.

Stats from my 2019 reading list:

• 25 were borrowed from our public library
• 13 have Canadian authors
• 5 were chosen due to personal recommendation from friends
• 0 were being reread
• 13 are non-fiction
• 0 are ebooks

Books read in 2019 (56):

• Saunders, George. Fox 8: a story
• Kushner, Rachel. The Flamethrowers
• Ward, Jesmyn. Sing, Unburied, Sing
• Rosoff, Meg. Good Dog, McTavish
• Peterson, Oscar. A Jazz Odyssey: The Life of Oscar Peterson
• Mistry, Rohinton. A Fine Balance
• Homes. A.M. Days of Awe: stories
• Li, Yiyun. Where Reasons End: a novel
• Swyler, Erika. The Book of Speculation: a novel
• Barris, Alex. Oscar Peterson: A Musical Biography
• Plett, Casey. Little Fish: a novel
• Russell, Karen. Swamplandia!: a novel
• Baker, Dani. Macarons and Murder
• Alexis, André. Days by Moonlight
• Weiner, Jessie Kanelos and Moroz, Sarah. Paris in Stride: An Insider’s Walking Guide
• Tóibín, Colm. Mad, Bad, Dangerous to Know: The Fathers of Wilde, Yeats, and Joyce
• Salle, David. How To See: Looking, Talking, and Thinking about Art
• Gros, Frédéric. A Philosophy of Walking
• Callanan, Liam. Paris By The Book
• Fowler, Christopher. Full Dark House
• Pennac, Daniel. Le Roman d’Ernest et Célestine
• Damasio, Antonio. The Strange Order of Things: Life, Feeling, and the Making of Cultures
• Miller, Tom. The Philosopher’s War
• Pennac, Daniel. L’oeil du loup
• Swyler, Erika. Light From Other Stars
• Porter, Max. Grief is the Thing with Feathers
• Arrou-Vignod, Jean-Philippe. Le professeur a disparu
• Moshfegh, Ottessa. My Year of Rest and Relaxation
• Gopnik, Adam. A Thousand Small Sanities: The Moral Adventure of Liberalism
• Burns, Anna. Milkman
• Brodesser-Akner, Taffy. Fleishman Is In Trouble
• Crummey, Michael. The Innocents: a novel
• Ewen, Paul. How to be a Public Author by Francis Plug
• Cusk, Rachel. Coventry: essays
• Du Maurier, Daphne. Rebecca
• Barker, Pat. The Silence of the Girls
• Baker, Carleigh (compiler), Hernandez, Catherine (compiler), Whitehead, Joshua (compiler). The Journey Prize Stories 31
• DeLillo, Don. The Angel Esmeralda: nine stories
• Lerner, Ben. The Topeka School: a novel
• Robinson, Eden. Trickster Drift
• Eisenberg, Deborah. Your Duck is My Duck: stories
• Lerner, Ben. Mean Free Path
• Tannahill, Jordan. Liminal
• Westover, Tara. Educated: a memoir
• North, Ryan. How To Invent Everything: A Survival Guide for the Stranded Time Traveler
• Skibsrud, Johanna. I Do Not Think That I Could Love A Human Being
• Bernhard, Thomas. Wittgenstein’s Nephew
• Strout, Elizabeth. Olive, Again: a novel
• Smith, Zadie. Grand Union: stories
• Kaufman, Andrew. The Ticking Heart
• Rosoff, Meg. McTavish Goes Wild
• Patchett, Ann. The Dutch House
• Aylett, Steve. Lint
• deGrasse Tyson, Neil. Letters From An Astrophysicist
• Ferrante, Elena. Incidental Inventions
• Yoshimoto, Banana. Kitchen

2018 was a good year for reading. I discovered new authors whose work I enjoyed: Aleksandar Hemon, Sarah Meehan Sirk, Simon Armitage, and Rachel Kushner. I continued my affection for authors with whom I had already been acquainted: Don DeLillo, Jenny Erpenbeck, John McGahern, Rachel Cusk, Sarah Selecky, and Lisa Moore. I also wrote short reviews of each book I read this past year and posted them on LibraryThing. I’m already looking forward to another great year of reading ahead.

Stats from my 2018 reading list:

• 40 were borrowed from our public library
• 21 have Canadian authors
• 25 were chosen due to personal recommendations from friends
• 7 are by authors who appear more than once on the 2018 list
• 0 were being reread
• 0 was read aloud by my wife and me
• 18 are non-fiction
• 0 are ebooks

Books read in 2018 (86):

• MacAskill, William. Doing Good Better

• Chast, Raz. Going Into Town: A Love Letter to New York
• Bausch, Robert. In The Fall They Come Back: a novel
• 
Alderman, Naomi. The Power

• Baker, Dani. Santa’s Last Muffin
• 
Coetzee, J.M. Late Essays: 2006-2017

• Proulx, Joanne. We All Love The Beautiful Girls
• Anglin, Emily. The Third Person: stories

• Mayr, Suzette. Dr. Edith Vane and the Hares of Crawley Hall

• Alexie, Sherman. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven

• Smith, Ali. Winter: a novel

• Hemon, Aleksandar. The Question of Bruno: stories

• Winters, Michelle. I am a Truck
• Humphreys, Helen. The Evening Chorus
• Kaufman, Andrew. Small Claims

• Flood, Cynthia. What Can You Do
• Barnes, Julian. The Noise of Time
• Chabon, Michael. Summerland
• Sirk, Sarah Meehan. The Dead Husband Project: stories
• Howe, Murray. Nine Lessons I Learned From My Father
• Hardcastle, Kevin (compiler), O’connell, Grace (compiler), Tsabari, Ayelet (compiler). The Journey Prize Stories 29
• Johnson, Denis. The Largesse of the Sea Maiden: stories
• DeLillo, Don. Zero K
• Evans, Danielle. Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self: stories
• Updike, John. The Complete Henry Bech: Bech: A Book, Bech is Back, Bech at Bay, His Oeuvre
• Boast, Will. Daphne: a novel
• Smith, Zadie. Feel Free: essays
• Armitage, Simon. Kid
• Erpenbeck, Jenny. Go, Went, Gone
• Egan, Jennifer. Manhattan Beach
• Link, Kelly. Magic For Beginners: stories
• Groff, Lauren. Fates and Furies: a novel
• McGahern, John. The Collected Stories
• Moore, Kate. The Radium Girls
• Barnes, Julian. The Only Story: a novel
• Tomine, Adrian. Killing and Dying: stories
• Cusk, Rachel. Kudos
• Rovelli, Carlo. The Order of Time
• Miller, Madeline. Circe
• Han Kang. The Vegetarian
• Greer, Andrew Sean. Less
• Johnson, Denis. Nobody Move
• Despentes, Virginie. Vernon Subutex 1
• Hamid, Mohsin. Exit West
• Ginzburg, Natalia. The Little Virtues
• Bernstein, Gabrielle. Judgment Detox
• Moody, Rick. Demonology: stories
• Hill, Nathan. The Nix
• Cather, Willa. The Troll Garden
• Pennac, Daniel. Cabot-Caboche
• Groff, Lauren. Florida
• Erpenbeck, Jenny. The Book of Words
• Somer, Bradley. Fishbowl
• Barclay, Linwood. Broken Promise
• Selecky, Sarah. Radiant Shimmering Light
• Miller, Tom. The Philosopher’s Flight
• Drnaso, Nick. Sabrina
• Kushner, Rachel. The Mars Room
• Yoshimoto, Banana. Moshi Moshi
• Chang, Jade. The Wangs vs. The World
• Nussbaum, Martha C. The Monarchy of Fear: A Philosopher Looks at our Political Crisis
• Honeyman, Gail. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine
• Ryan, Donal. From a Low and Quiet Sea
• Armitage, Simon. The Unaccompanied
• Galchen, Rivka. American Innovations: stories
• Ondaatje, Michael. Warlight
• Lemire, Jeff. Roughneck
• DeWitt, Patrick. French Exit
• Moore, Lisa. Something for Everyone: stories
• Edugyan, Esi. Washington Black: a novel
• Tasumi, Yoshihiro. A Drifting Life
• Powers, Richard. The Overstory: a novel
• Wohlleben, Peter. The Hidden Life of Trees
• Berlin, Lucia. A Manual For Cleaning Women: selected stories
• Robinson, Eden. Son of a Trickster
• Bujold, Lois McMaster. The Curse of Chalion
• Rovelli, Carlo. Reality Is Not What It Seems: The Journey to Quantum Gravity
• Rakoff, David. Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish: a novel
• Li, Yiyun. Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to Your in Your Life
• Bala, Sharon (compiler), Clare, Kerry (compiler), Peterson, Zoey Leigh (compiler). The Journey Prize Stories 30
• Tatsumi, Yoshihiro. Abandon the Old in Tokyo
• Tatsumi, Yoshihiro. The Push Man and other stories
• Kakutani, Michiko. The Death of Truth: notes on falsehood in the age of Trump
• Johnson, Charles. The Way of the Writer: Reflections on the Art and Craft of Storytelling
• Moore, Lisa. Flannery

Last month, a writer I knew passed away. It was a sadly familiar tale of misdiagnosis, radical and aggressive treatment, apparent respite, then recurrence, treatment, recurrence, and so on. Each treatment seemed more debilitating. Each respite less certain. Throughout this lengthy ordeal, Tracie kept writing.

I didn’t know her well. Or rather, I only knew her well as a writer. We met for the first time in late 2010. I was joining an already established writing group, a group of which she was a member. They had been together for a few years, meeting each month, sharing and critiquing each other’s work. I was fortunate they took me on. Eight years later, we still submit a short portion of what we have been writing recently to the others for comment.

I’ve been going back over the pieces I submitted to the group through the years in order to recall Tracie’s typical comment. She was naturally good-humoured herself and loved writing that raised a chuckle. “Funny!” she would write in the margin. “Too much!” But she also, perhaps due to her career as a family therapist, knew when you were getting to the truth of an experience.

Back when I first joined the group, Tracie was mostly submitting poetry. But once she submitted something entitled, “A Short Story.” That short story grew. And grew. And grew. A novelist was emerging. Later there was another novel, still being written furiously over this last year. And there was also Pecky.

Some time in 2016 we read the first of the Pecky books. Pecky is a talking duck who lives with a family in the suburbs but who has another life as a Hollywood star. “Funny!” It turned out that Pecky was a perfect vehicle for Tracie. She poured her time into the Pecky books, found a wonderful illustrator in Shirley Fowley, and managed the process of production, publication, publicity and distribution. Tracie’s readings at local bookstores were special events, complete with a real life Pecky who accompanied Tracie. Later Pecky would travel to Yellowstone, the Everglades, even Ottawa. “Too much!”

Tracie’s enthusiasm for writing, her generous critiques, her busy full life even through the worst of these past two years — I’ll always remember. She wrote for the love of it. And though I know she did many other things well — therapist, musician, mother — it was as a writer that I knew her. She will be missed.

Tracie Klaehn’s homepage.