Tag Archive: Books

  1. My 100s of 2025

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    Each year I have the goal of cooking 100 recipes, listening to 100 newly recorded songs, reading 100 books, and watching 100 movies/shows. Here is my recap of 2025! It was a great year and I mostly met my goals.

    Cooking

    I use an app called Recipe Keeper to keep track of what I cook. It quickly imports recipes from URLs, photos, or text. You can then edit the ingredients and instructions based on your habits. The app stays open on your device as you cook, and you can click off the ingredients as you prep them. You can create Courses, Categories, and Collections easily. I cooked 113 recipes (I did include those where John was Executive Chef and I was Sous). I have so many favorites! One that really surprised me was Ravioli Lasagna. I love making lasagna, but I had a bunch of ravioli on hand that I needed to use and it turns out you can replace the noodle/ricotta layers with frozen ravioli for an easy baked dish. Another favorite was Jalepeno Peach Chicken made with local peaches. Let me know if you want any more recommendations! You can view all of the recipes here.

    Music

    To collect music I use Apple Music. They make a new playlist for me every Friday, and they also have a category with Newly Released albums and songs. I collected 132 songs by individual artists that were recorded in 2025. You can listen to the playlist here. Some of my favorite songs were “Metal” by The Beths and “Bottom of a Bottle” by Julien Baker & TORRES.

    Books

    I use Goodreads to track my books and reading. I had so much fun reading in 2025! I read 98 books and it’s really hard to say my favorites because there are so many! You can view all 98 here (though I think you need a Goodreads account). I got a whole lot of enjoyment from cerebral powerhouses like Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman and Timefulness by Marcia Bjornerud.

    Movies/Shows

    I use IMDB to track my viewing habits. I hit an even 100 with viewing movies and shows in 2025! You can see the whole list here. Adolescence was a hard watch but so impactful. Paradise surprised me because I normally don’t like to suspend reality but this show made it worth it. I LOVED the Devo documentary.

    What were your favorite recipes, songs, books, and movies of 2025?

  2. Djerassi, The Books

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    I had a goal to read 40 books while at Djerassi, because I normally like to raid the Alumni Library and read at least a poetry book a day. But I wasn’t reading as much poetry as I was memoir and fiction. And that’s okay. I ended up finishing 30 books in 28 days, so I’ll take that. I read some REALLY AMAZING books, and you can read my reviews on Goodreads. Some of my favorites were Townie by Andre Dubus III, My Life on the Road by Gloria Steinem, and Living with a Wild God by Barbara Ehrenreich.

    Thirty for Thirty

  3. My Year in Books

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    My Year in Books

    How privileged and happy am I that in 2015 I was able to read 114 books totaling 26,151 pages. How did I do it? Why did I do it?

    In late 2014 I gave a talk as part of the ASU Humanities Lecture Series about how literature encourages empathy. Citing the work of David Comer Kidd and Emanuele Caetano, I highlighted a cause and effect relationship between reading and caring more for others. Since caring more for others (and , specifically, showing that care) has been a long-term goal of mine, and because my job requires me to have a deep familiarity with the field of contemporary American literature, I set a goal to read 102 books in 2015, or roughly two books a week.

    I surpassed that goal using several techniques.

    1. At any given time this year I had several books going: on my Kindle, my iPhone Overdrive App, on my bedside table, and on my coffee table. I really enjoyed moving between the different books, especially all those times they were in dialogue with each other.

    2. I’m going to make a parallel here that may seem crazy. But I kind of approached reading the way I approach running, AND I read while I ran. 114 books and 26,151 pages corresponded to 838 miles and 125,525 feet elevation gain. That running took me over 200 hours, and I read for probably 75% of that time.

    My Year in Miles

     

    3. I spent a lot of hours reading. According to myreadspeed.com, I read at almost 300 words per minute. If we assume a page is 300 words, that means I spent 435 hours this year reading.

    My Reading Speed
    What were some of the happy byproducts of this reading? First, I found that during conversation instead of quoting Seinfeld episodes I started talking about authors and books I was reading and the rich ideas running through the texts and in my head. Second, I did find that I was understanding more types of human situations. Especially with books like Being Mortal by Atul Gawande (Oh my gosh!) and The Forever War by Dexter Filkins.

    So what’s the goal for 2016? I’m going to say 104 again. Will you join me?