338/365

books I read in october:

the heart is a lonely hunter (carson mccullers)

electric arches (eve l. ewing)

the americans (robert frank)

306/365

books I read in september:

my year of rest and relaxation (otessa moshfegh)
the street photographer's manual (david gibson)

287/365

literary scenes I'd please like to step into and live in for a little while, part one:

hobie's kitchen (the goldfinch)
francie's fire escape (a tree grows in brooklyn)
danny's tiny caravan home (danny, the champion of the world)

276/365

books I read in august:

the nickel boys (colson whitehead)
the book of delights (ross gay)
junonia (kevin henkes)

262/365

the twenty nineteen summer reading list of our former president:

the nickel boys (colson whitehead)
exhalation (ted chiang)
wolf hall (hilary mantel)
men without women (haruki murakami)
american spy (lauren wilkinson)
the shallows (nicholas carr)
lab girl (hope jahren)
inland (téa obreht)
how to read the air (dinew mengestu)
maid (stephanie land)

to have a president who reads, who thoughtfully recommends books. feels like another lifetime.

258/365

book stores I have loved, in no particular order:

cloud & leaf (manzanita, oregon)
faulkner house (new orleans, louisiana)
strand bookstore (new york, new york)
the book lady (savannah, georgia)
shakespeare & company (paris, france)
ohio book store (cincinnati, ohio)
a capella (atlanta, georgia)
librairie bookshop (new orleans, louisiana)
beckham's bookshop (new orleans, louisiana)
e.shaver bookseller  (savannah, georgia)
city of lights (san francisco, california)
avid bookshop (athens, georgia)
and, the mother of all book stores, powell's city of books (portland, oregon)

250/365

a list for those of us who loved ms. morrison:

you don't know anything, and other writing advice
meaning, without the white gaze: a memoir written for her, and for pecola breedlove
and finally, a magnificent 1978 toni morrison reading from the magnificent song of solomon 

(song of solomon broke me wide open 25 years ago-- forever grateful for her work, for her presence in this world)

245/365

books I read in july:

florida (lauren groff)
daisy jones & the six (taylor jenkins reid)
lost children archive (valeria luiselli)

it needs to be said: lost children archive is an extraordinary book. florida is too. the first of the books I've read this year that I believe to be great-- really and truly-- great. and lost children archive deserves its own list, I think. 

214/365

books I read in june:

the secret history (donna tartt)
henri cartier bresson (aperture masters of photography)
against the odds: women pioneers in the first hundred years of photography (martin w. sandler)
wildsam field guides: american south (taylor elliott bruce)
the library book (susan orlean)

184/365

books I read in may:

the great believers (rebecca makkai)
where the crawdads sing (delia owens)
big magic (elizabeth gilbert)
the interestings (meg wolitzer)
I dreamed I had a girl in my pocket (wendy ewald)

179/365

reasons books will never ever die:

they do not require internet
they do not need to be charged
they are always just sitting there, waiting for you, patiently

174/365

books I read in my early twenties that profoundly influenced me:

song of solomon (toni morrison)
a tree grows in brooklyn  (betty smith)
their eyes were watching god (zora neale hurston)
like water for chocolate (laura esquival)
slaves of new york (tama janowitz)
I know why the caged bird sings (maya angelou)
the bell jar (sylvia plath)

168/365

books checked out from the library:

easy growing (gayla trail)
herb gardening from the ground up (sal gilbertie/larry sheehan)
small plot big harvest (lucy halsall)
the anxious gardner's book of answers (teri dunn chace)

if this gives you any idea where my head is these days.

154/365

books I read in april:

sleeping by the mississippi (alec soth)
the clothing of books (jhumpa lahiri)
little fires everywhere (celeste ng)
becoming (michelle obama)
shrill: notes from a loud woman (lindy west)
the yellow wallpaper (charlotte perkins gilman)

123/365

books I read in march:

how art can make you happy (bridget watson payne)

the complete stories (zora neale hurston)

pride and prejudice (jane austen)

101/365

a few people I met tonight at my very first silent book club:

lauren, who was reading the joy luck club
erin, who was reading the power
nicholas, who was reading hope never dies
cherie, who was reading her veterans health benefits handbook

p.s. I love silent book club. I love it. I love it.

92/365

books I read in february:

devotions: the selected poems of mary oliver (mary oliver)
upstream: selected essays (mary oliver)
the little friend (donna tartt)
jimmy's blues and other poems (james baldwin)
america (zoe strauss)

89/365

childhood books I read over and over again-- tirelessly, joyfully-- books I loved so much it hurt:

maria tallchief (tobi tobias)-- purchased in first grade at the school book fair, filled with gorgeous pencil drawings of a native american dancer who went on to become a famous prima ballerina with the new york city ballet-- I spent hours examining the drawings and though I have long since parted ways with ballet (modern dance forever) this book was the definitive beginning of a life devoted to the study of dance (there are still times I want to slip back inside this book and become maria tallchief)

peppermint (dorothy grider)-- a litter of kittens is born in the back of a candy shop and all of them find a home but one, a sickly little white kitten named peppermint-- the heartbreak, I could not take it-- which is probably why I read it a hundred million times

little majorette (dorothy grider)-- baton twirling was never really my thing but the pictures of the costumes in this book (specifically a little red two-piece number with bright white fringe and matching white leather boots) had me seriously reconsidering

I know a story (miriam blanton huber, frank seely salisbury, mabel o'donnell)-- pretty much your standard collection of classic tales but the last story in the book, the boy who went to the north wind, was about a magic stick and a magic goat and a magic tablecloth and wind that actually talked and a boy and his mother who had nothing but got everything in the end 

popular party games (alison m. abel)-- purchased at the school book fair in second grade and the beginning of a lifelong obsession with party planning-- there's a price tag on the front marked 30 cents and my initials scrawled next to it which means at some point, I probably tried to sell this book at family yard sale-- thank the good lord it never sold because there are key sentences underlined throughout, specific game titles circled and entire paragraphs crossed out-- it's a little piece of second grade andrea and I die when I think how easily it could have disappeared into the ether

flicka, ricka, dicka and the strawberries (maj lindman)-- checked out from the local library repeatedly and then purchased twenty years later at an antique mall somewhere in tennessee-- to be clear, I loved all the flicka, ricka, dicka books as well as the snip, snap and snurr books (because old-fashioned storybooks about swedish triplets are meant to be adored)-- however, this particular flicka, ricka, dicka book just about did me in-- the girls (in adorable matching red and white dresses, mind you) go on a picnic in the woods, get lost while picking wild strawberries, and are taken in by a sweet family who has nothing-- in the end, the family helps them get back home safely and the girls return with a basket filled with strawberries and milk and bread and other assorted goodies to repay the kindness and every time, my little seven year-old heart burst wide open reading this, every single time

64/365

books I read in january:

on composition and improvisation (larry fink)
a separate peace (john knowles)
the complete persepolis (marjane satrapi)
a thousand mornings (mary oliver)
dear america, notes of an undocumented citizen (jose antonio vargas)
bird by bird: some instructions on writing and life (anne lamott)

47/365

books I'd like to read/re-read in twenty nineteen (in no particular order):

feel free (zadie smith)
electric arches (eve l. ewing)
the complete persepolis (marjane satrapi)
the heart is a lonely hunter (carson mccullers)
how art can make you happy (bridget watson payne)
on composition and improvisation (larry fink)
tar baby (toni morrison)
bird by bird (anne lamott)
it chooses you (miranda july)
pride and prejudice (jane austen)
the making of great photographs (eamonn mccabe)
just mercy (bryan stephenson)
the little friend (donna tartt)
slaughterhouse five (kurt vonnegut)
salvage the bones (jesmyn ward)
literacy and justice through photography (wendy ewald)
12 years a slave (solomon northrup)
slant rhymes (rebecca norris webb, alex webb)
if beale street could talk (james baldwin)
the diary of a young girl (anne frank)
dear america: notes of an undocumented citizen (jose antonio vargas)
pachinko (min jin lee)
the accidental (ali smith)
the great gatsby (f. scott fitzgerald)
the nature of photographs (stephen shore)
a thousand mornings (mary oliver)
one hundred years of solitude (gabriel garcia marquez)
rabbit: the autobiography of ms. pat (patricia williams)
against the odds: women pioneers in the first hundred years of photography (martin sandler)
the interestings (meg wolitzer)
street: new york city (carrie boretz)
sights in the city: new york street photographs (jamel shabazz)
my year of rest and relaxation (ottessa moshfegh)
text me when you get home (kayleen schaefer)
vivian maier: the color work  (colin westerbeck)
I dreamed I had a girl in my pocket (wendy ewald)
I was told there'd be cake (sloane crosley)
it's what I do: a photographer's life of love and war (lynsey addario)
becoming (michelle obama)
america (zoe strauss) 
zoli (colum mccann)