Kevin D. Hendricks's Blog, page 14

2019 Reading Stats

I’ve given mytotal reading numbers for 2019—107 total—and my favoritefictionandnon-fictionbooks, now it’s time to look at some stats.

I’ve never really thought of myself as a data nerd. I can’t use Excel to save my life. But here I am: I ruthlessly track my reading.

Why? It holds me accountable to exposing myself to a wider range of views. It helps me spot trends, and figure out where I might be doing things wrong (or right).

Here are my numbers for 2019:

59% POC books.67% female authors.

...

Top 10 Non-Fiction of 2019

I read 107 books in 2019, and about a quarter were non-fiction. I often have a hard time getting through non-fiction, with a top five or seven list at the end of the year, but this year I had a bunch of favorites and went for a top 10.

Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again by Rachel Held Evans – Oh, it’s still hard to believe we lost Rachel last year. I love the approach she took engaging with the frustrations and difficult questions with the Bible. Lots of...

Top 15 Fiction of 2019

I read 107 books this year and found a few winners. Here’s my list of top fiction. I’ve done a top 10 the past few years, but this year I went with 15. The top five are probably a few steps above the others, but they’re all worthy reads.

I’ll Be There by Holly Goldberg Sloan – This is one of those books that just comes at you with a quiet, tender story that just grabs you. I loved the characters and I love the simple, matter of fact asides the story continually offers (though it can make...

2019 Reading List

I read 107 books in 2019.

It’s nowhere near my record, but it is up slightly from last year.

My reading still hasn’t returned to 2012-2016 levels, but I suspect that has a lot to do with continued rejection of YA and middle grade stories (only 11% this year, last year it was 25%). Sci-fi amounted to 37%, pushing up from a third or less in previous years.

Here are my top 15 fiction books of 2019, top 10 non-fiction of 2019, and my diversity stats for the year.

2019 Reading Themes Discovering...

Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker Review

All right, so we went and saw Rise of Skywalker. And then we turned around the next day and went back to see it again.

Because why not? It’s Christmas break.

So what’s my take? Spoiler alert…

No, seriously—SPOILER ALERT.

All right, I warned ya.

The Star Wars Experience

As I hinted at before we saw the movie, one of my favorite things about Star Wars movies is just the nerdy fan experience. Wearing our Star Wars T-shirts, watching the lights go down and the fanfare come up, being in a crowd...

Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker & End of an Era

In less than an hour I’m off to see Rise of Skywalker with the kids.

All the feels.

First Showing

Since the new movies started coming out, I’ve always gone to the early screening on Thursday night so I could “pre-screen” the movie for my kids. Mostly I just wanted to see it first and they couldn’t be up that late. And OK, I totally did need to pre-screen it (Milo still leaves the room for that one scene in Force Awakens).

But this time around I opted not to pre-screen it. I figured they’re...

Impeached

I just wanted the U.S. House of Representatives vote on two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump.

It’s only the third time in history a president has been impeached.

I watched it gathered around the TV with my daughter, watching as the votes came in and waiting for it to hit the magic number (thank goodness for PBS where the vote count was broadcast silently with no blathering commentary).

I wrote about impeachment before, and my view hasn’t really changed. Though I did...

Murray Trudell, 1925-2019

My wife’s grandfather passed away last week. The funeral is tomorrow and we’re heading back to Green Bay for it. We were just there for Thanksgiving and planned to go see him for lunch on the day he died.

It always strikes me that I don’t have much experience dealing with death. I haven’t lost many people close to me, and I haven’t been to many funerals.

I’m reminded of some thoughts on grief from Melanie Walby at a recent event I attended:

Not everything happens for a reason. Some things...

THanks for Supporting West St. Paul Reader

Back in May I launched West St. Paul Reader. It’s a hyper local news site focused on my town of West St. Paul. It exists thanks to the generous support of a lot of people, from my initial Kickstarter backers to my current Patreon supporters.

It’s been a wild journey, and I’m very grateful for it.

I’ve been writing about West St. Paul here on my personal blog for a while. I think it started in 2014 when we had a hotly contested mayoral election. And it grew from there. It was always a hobby,...

Taking Stock of the 2020 Democratic Canidates

So I opined on impeachment last week (and I have to say, it feels much more urgent and possible this week), and in the midst of the inquiry the Democrats have another debate. Seems like a good time to take stock of the 2020 candidates.

More than anything, I just want to note my thoughts and moods at this moment in time.

In general, I don’t follow the horse race that closely. I don’t watch the debates, but I do pay attention to where things are at. I’ve had my eye on a few candidates, but I haven’t felt ready to j...