2021 Reading list

 Here is my very short list of books I read in 2021.

1. Undercover Kitty - Sofie Ryan
2. Waiting for Godot - Samuel Beckett
3. The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway
4. The Garden of Eden - Ernest Hemingway
5. A Farewell to Arms - Ernest Hemingway
6. Timequake - Kurt Vonnegut
7. Going After Cacciato - Tim O'Brien

So only one series book this year, which is not really a bad thing.  I begin to get a little burned out on series after a while.  They become so formulaic and predictable.  The main reason I continue to read them is for the small threads that the authors weave through them to keep the reader interested.  After a while it gets to be too little to hold my interest, I'm afraid.

Waiting for Godot was one that I read because I'd always heard of it and wondered about it.  My husband and I read it together.  He said that he's glad I pulled him through it.

I decided to read The Sun Also Rises because I had started it in high school and not finished it.  My husband is a retired English professor who did his dissertation on Hemingway, so I've always felt bad about not having read Hemingway.  Together we read the three Hemingway novels on the list and I think it was good for both of us.  I really enjoyed reading The Sun Also Rises this time around.  I only made it about 4 chapters in on my first attempt all those many years ago, and I really didn't understand what was going on in the novel back then.  Now I get it.  The other Hemingway novels were really good, too.  I know that Hemingway gets a bad rap these days, but his writing really is very good.  We also read some of Hemingway's short stories, but I didn't keep a list.

Timequake was not what I expected, because it wasn't really a novel in the traditional sense.  It was more just Vonnegut throwing out ideas - some in the form of story synopses and some just as simple musings.  It was still interesting.

Lastly, Going After Cacciato is a story that my husband used to teach and suggested that I read it.  I enjoyed it, too.  O'Brien sort of blurs the line between reality and fantasy in an interesting way, while also telling a very powerful story about his experience in the Vietnam War.