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quote:1 - The Elementals, by Michael McDowell I read four books in November. I'm cutting it close but I might manage to complete this year's Booklord....! 54 - This Love Is Not For Cowards: Salvation And Soccer In Ciudad Juárez, by Robert Andrew Powell. After moving to "the most dangerous city in the world", Powell embedded with fans of the Juárez football team Los Indios for a season filled with highs, low, tragedies and surprises. The book is comprised of three threads: The lived experience of being an Indios fan and spending time with the team themselves, a game-by-game account of a turbulent season of football; the frightening surreality of life in Juárez, where Powell describes murders so common that a general numbness has settled over the populace; and an exploration of the city's reputation and politics in the wider scheme of things. Even though I'm not a football fan and rarely read true-crime journalism, this was engrossing, empathetic and an all-round good book. I've already bought a copy for someone for Xmas! 55 - Neoreaction A Basilisk: Essays On And Around The Alt-Right, by Elizabeth Sandifer. A collection of writings about far-right and "dark enlightenment" oddballs on the fringe of online culture, and how their bizarre mythologies compare with the current shitstorm of fascist revivalism we live under. Sandifer writes in a style best described as "academic snark", and does her best to unpick, untangle and re-complicate her subjects' fears and fixations. The prose does get quite rambling at times, especially in the titular mega-essay, and the subject matter can get very distressing. But it's undeniably fun to follow Sandifer down these rabbit-holes, and along the way learn about Silicon Valley techno-fascism, William Blake's visions, and fake goths. 56 - Flight, by Sherman Alexie. YA novel about a troubled "Half-Irish, half-Indian" teenage runaway and his life in and out of foster care, trying to come to terms with the world and his place in it...that soon turns into a time-travelling lesson in Native American history, war and empathy. I liked this a lot, even if the audiobook narrator's voice kept making me think of Todd from Bojack Horseman. I'd heard good things about Sherman Alexie's work and this was a good introduction. 57 - High Windows, by Philip Larkin. Short poetry collection. Gift from my late aunt. Beautiful and sad and witty. Not much more I can say. 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 1/3 of them are not written by men - 26 - 2, 3, 7, 11, 12, 14, 19, 21, 22, 23, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30, 33, 34, 35, 36, 40, 43, 45, 48, 49, 50, 55 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 1/3 of them are written by someone non-white - 21 - 4, 7, 9, 10, 16, 17, 21, 26, 27, 31, 33, 35, 36, 37, 38, 43, 45, 48, 51, 53, 56 [*]N. America - 1, 3, 6, 7, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 33, 34, 35, 42, 44, 45, 49, 51, 54, 55, 56 [*]S. America - 53 [*]Europe - 2, 4, 5, 8, 12, 22, 23, 24, 27, 32, 39, 40, 41, 46, 47, 52, 57 [*]Africa - 31, 37, 43, 48 [*]Asia - 9, 10, 17, 21, 36, 38 [*]Oceania - 50 8. Ask another poster to issue you a wildcard, then read it. 10. Read a book by a local author. 16. Read a play. 21. Read something in the public domain. 22. Read one book you didn’t finish in a previous attempt. Remaining challenges: 8 10 16 21 22
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Dec 1, 2019 02:21
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November Update 30. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez, translation by Gregory Rabassa - There's S. America of my list. This book felt like it took me 100 years to actually finish, despite making steady progress on it. I don't think I've ever read anything quite like it, and I'm glad I read it, but I'm deeply glad it's over too. I liked exactly one character, and then it was more just because Ursula is such a touchstone the whole story. It also hits my number of books total!!! 31. The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher - A quick breather after finishing One Hundred Years, and what a delight. A nice horror romp that leans heavily into local folk traditions--I was really delighted to find out as I was reading it was set very close to where I grew up, and Kingfisher knew what to reference. A fun genre romp with a very good dog. The dog lives 32. Lysistrata by Aristophane, translation by Sarah Ruden - Here we have my banned public domain play; I did slog through a public domain translation off Gutenburg while I waited for my copy of Ruden's translation to arrive, but I do not at all recommend that. Ruden's translation is incredibly well done, with lots of notes about the humor and jokes she couldn't convey in English, and it's a romp. The play itself is a ton of fun, and I really recommend it (with Ruden's translation). Her commentaries at the end also were nice intro dives into aspects of Greek society, particularly Athens, that I had mostly forgotten since university. I ended up reading the play three times (pub domain version, and Ruden's translation once through with notes and again after reading the commentaries), and I feel like that both sells it's length (it's short!) and how good it is. 33. 82년생 김지영/Kim Jiyeong, Born 1982 by 조남주/Cho Namju - Here's my feminism book; it came out in 2016, but the movie recently released here. I actually ended up reading this because of the movie--my work group was supposed to go on a team building field trip to see the movie, so I was reading it beforehand to have an idea what the plot was and what to expect. The language is extremely simple, and almost all the vocab is stuff that gets used in daily life/talking about daily life, so it ended up being the rare quick Korean read for me too. It is a very frank look at the fairly typical experiences of a woman living in Korea--not every woman is going to experience all the things that Jiyeong goes through in the book but... well, most of these are things either I've dealt with living here, or friends have mentioned dealing with. The point is literally just recounting and making known the things that women deal with here. (eta: A fun side effect of the movie has been women going with their boyfriends to see it... and then breaking up because the boyfriend said it seemed too unrealistic or over the top, it's shown up in a couple forums and on a few news sites I read.) There's an English translation due next year in February, and the book is short and concise enough that if you're all interested, I recommend you keep an eye out for it. cryptoclastic, this is pretty much the ideal for a KSL reader--like I mentioned above, pretty much all the language is in common use right now and Cho's style is extremely concise. And that's November! I got a sports wildcard to read this month and a book by an indigenous author; I'm in the middle of reading Petals of Blood for my African book (which is incredible), so despite my thoughts when I started I... might actually finish the challenge???? To Do: 1. 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written not by men. 15 of 33 - 45% 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 15 of 33 - 45% 4. Read a book by an author from every continent ( 6. Read at least one book by an indigenous author. 8. Ask another poster to issue you a wildcard, then read it. 16. 17. 18. Read a book involving sports. 20. 21. 2019 So Far 1.The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South by Michael W. Twitty 2. The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo 3. 흉가/The Haunted House by Shinzo Mitsuda 4. 돌이킬 수 없는 약속/The Unbreakable Promise by Gaku Yakumaru 5. The WoW Diary: A Journal of Computer Game Development by John Staats 6. Invitation to a Beheading by Vladimir Nabokov 7. 책을 지키려는 고양이/The Book-Guarding Cat by Sōsuke Natsukawa 8 & 9. 신세계에서 1 & 2/From the New World 1 & 2 by Yusuke Kishi 10. 고양이 식당/Cat Restaurant by Bongsu Choi 11. The Authoritarians by Bob Altemeyer 12. 박물관의 고양이/The Museum's Cats by Ma Weidu 13. A Horizon of Jostling Curiosities by Sam Keeper 14. A Bodyless and Timeless Persona by Sam Keeper 15 & 16. 단아한 고양이 1/The Graceful Cat 1 by 달그네/Dalgune 17. Who Killed the World: Solarpunk after the Apocalypse by Sam Keeper 18. Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl by Andrea Lawlor 19. Uncovering Grammar by Scott Thornbury 20. The Illiad: A New Translation by Caroline Alexander, Homer 21. Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain by David Gerard 22. Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer 23. Peter Darling by Austin Chant 24. Color and Light: A guide for the realist painter by James Gurney 25. Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay 26. 날씨가 좋으면 찾아가겠어요/I'll come find you when the weather is good by 이도우/Dou Lee 27. 보통으로 사는 건 보통 일이 아니야/Living a Normal Life Isn't Easy by 자림/Ja Rim 28. Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado 29. Puss in Heels by Aysha U. Farah 30. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez, translation by Gregory Rabassa 31. The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher 32. Lysistrata by Aristophane, translation by Sarah Ruden 33. 82년생 김지영/Kim Jiyeong, Born 1982 by 조남주/Cho Namju felgs fucked around with this message at 01:13 on Dec 2, 2019 |
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Dec 2, 2019 01:10
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FelicityGS posted:33. 82년생 김지영/Kim Jiyeong, Born 1982 by 조남주/Cho Namju - Here's my feminism book; it came out in 2016, but the movie recently released here. I actually ended up reading this because of the movie--my work group was supposed to go on a team building field trip to see the movie, so I was reading it beforehand to have an idea what the plot was and what to expect. The language is extremely simple, and almost all the vocab is stuff that gets used in daily life/talking about daily life, so it ended up being the rare quick Korean read for me too. My wife actually devoured this over the course of three or four hours around the time the movie came out. Many of her friends were praising the book so she bought it. She wasn't that impressed with it, but she was an English major with a heavy concentration in feminist literature. She pretty much said the same thing you did: it's a common story for every woman here. However, not being from Korea, or a woman, I might actually be able to get more from it. Thanks for the recommendation!
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Dec 2, 2019 01:33
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Yeah, it's not hugely ground breaking in the context of like all feminist literature, but in the context of a a mainstream Korean novel that got a movie adaption, it is very much breaking ground. The last few years in Korea, there's been a louder and more vocal push in the mainstream from feminists--the Gangnam murder case with resultant protests/vigils and metoo movement gaining ground here both spring to mind immediately; a... few months ago? a a female news caster chose to wear her glasses and it caused a huge poo poo storm because women wearing glasses is seen as 'unprofessional' despite that standard not applying to men, and on and on. It feels like this stuff is getting more vocal and people are becoming more aware of it, and in a lot of ways this book is kind of just furthering that mainstreaming of the inequalities that exist.
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Dec 2, 2019 01:44
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If you want an Indigenous sports book, I just read Richard Wagamese’s Indian Horse which was really great.
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Dec 2, 2019 01:57
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Arivia posted:If you want an Indigenous sports book, I just read Richard Wagamese’s Indian Horse which was really great. O that sounds rad, thanks!!
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Dec 2, 2019 02:01
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FelicityGS posted:O that sounds rad, thanks!! Just be wary: it’s very dark.
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Dec 2, 2019 02:01
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Books by women: 12/24 Non-fiction: 3/12 1066 And All That is very dated but still somewhat amusing. I'm sure it would have been absolutely hilarious if I were a hundred years older and from the UK, but I'm not so it wasn't. The Storms of Chai felt like it must have been written under duress. There's absolutely no sense of any enthusiasm from the author at all. The Tides of Gorgoron, on the other hand, was a lot better. It's not great, but there are some interesting ideas and some replayability. The Cult Crushers is terrible in every way, and of course Slaughterhouse Five is very good. And I really need to read more. Full reviews on Goodreads.
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Dec 2, 2019 02:33
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November update. I've passed my number of books, and completed the book lord challenge. Just need to read one more book by an Iraqi author. Frankenstein in Baghdad - Ahmed Saadawi My 4th book by an Iraqi author. A frankenstein corpse enacts revenge on those who killed the people who provided the body parts for his body, but he quickly becomes unsure of who is bad and who is good, and where he falls. I have seen a definite similarity with the Iraqi authors I've read, with them all having a bit of surrealism in describing the wars and violence that has been so prevalent in the country since the 1980s. Many of the authors also adopt a dark humour, including in this book, particularly the rivalry between competing seers. God of Carnage - Yasmina Reza My play. Two couples meet to discuss a fight between their sons. Their initial attempts at civility, overlain by a progressive veneer, give way to bickering and their not so progressive actual thoughts about each other and society. Very short, kind of funny but not haha funny. Bush in Babylon - Tariq Ali A not so academic history of Iraq. Ali knows his poo poo but writes in a colloquial style, and directs a lot of venom at Bush. He also uses poetry and his own personal accounts of people he knows that were killed by the Ba'ath party. Degrowth - Giorgis Kallis A dive into the degrowth movement. Kallis argues that ecological collapse is inevitable in a system driven by growth, and economic growth is not able to be decoupled from emissions and other negative environmental impacts. Although he uses Marxist political economy to understand power and politics behind growth under capitalism, he stays away from Marxian economics to illustrate a path forward, preferring ecological economics instead. In my view, ecological economics is not a coherent framework for understanding an economy. A Jest of God - Margaret Laurence My book that has been banned or censored, because it depicts more sex than normal in 1966. A book about a repressed women in a small town, scared to act outside of social norms but also scared of becoming a spinster. The ongoing inner monologue of the main character is both great and anxiety inducing. Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone People have been trying to get me to read the series for years. Personal goal: read 5 books by Iraqi authors: 4/5 1 Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. 52/50 2 Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. 29/52 3 Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 25/52 4 Read a book by an author from every continent ( 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 [/quote]
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Dec 3, 2019 02:02
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Not a bad November. Up to 89, and when I finish the current read 50% will be women. Sort of unintentional, but hey, it's another challenge, I guess. Nothing too bad this month, but nothing that really blew me away either. A good short story collection, some different fantasy, and my banned/challenged book. Next year I'm going to put more effort into choosing so I'm not grabbing whatever YA people got pissed off at 10 years ago. The sole remaining challenge is to finish a previously started book. I might go Wuthering Heights, though I'm debating still. Should polish that off comfortably this month. 83. Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Garica-Moreno - A fantasy novel set in 1920s Mexico where our heroine finds herself on a quest to restore the lord of Xibalba, the Mayan underworld, to his throne after he was cast down and exiled by his brother. It's a tour through a rapidly changing Mexico and through Mayan mythology as well. An enjoyable read, especially if you like fantasy drawn from less common sources. 84. We Love Anderson Cooper by RL Maizes - A short story collection. The main themes explored here are struggles of identity, especially of people who feel set apart. A young Jewish boy planning to come out as his bar mitzvah rather than read that verse from Leviticus. An ugly tattoo artist who can tattoo people beautiful. A Jewish man at Hanukkah who comes to believe his cat is cheating on him with his protestant girlfriend. These were all solid stories with no real low points. The cheating cat story was probably my favorite. If it sways you, pets are also a pretty important thing here and show up in maybe half the stories. I think Lot was probably the better short story collection I read this year, but this is still quite good. 85. Triumph of the Spider Monkey by Joyce Carol Oates - An early novella recently republished with a related work. Triumph of the Spider Monkey is sort of a memoir of a mass murderer. It's very much meant to be the product of a badly disordered mind, skipping back and forth, making things up whole cloth, hallucinating, all while building to the murder of 9 women in an apartment for which he may or may not now be on trial for his life. This was good. A little challenging at times, but very interesting. The associated story I didn't care for as much. 86. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett - Famous hardboiled detective story. Dames, mobsters, a missing bird that may represent an enormous fortune. What else is there to say? 87. Witchmark by CL Polk - This won the Nebula and the World Fantasy Award, so I figured I'd give it a go, especially as I'm trying to pump up my women authors and finish the year at 50+% ladies. It'd be hard to sum it all up, but basically a psychologist working with returning soldiers in an Edwardian-esque setting discovers something very wrong and it leads him to a secret that may be the end of his country as he knows it. This was a pretty decent read and does a good job with questions of agency and obligation. It's a little fanfic-ish and maybe a little questionable in the main relationship. On the whole, I'll probably read the 2nd. 88. The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline B Cooney - Apparently an oft challenged book. A teen girl spots herself as a toddler on a milk carton as a missing child. She wrestles with whether it's her, what that means about her parents, whether she should tell anyone of what she learned, and all. It's mostly focused on the wrestling, there's no real conclusion. I'm not sure why it was challenged. Maybe because there's kissing and an implication that she and her boyfriend may go all the way? I dunno. 89. Rocket to the Morgue by Anthony Boucher - A murder set in 1941 in Los Angeles. A pretty good mystery. The real draw here is that it's set among the Manana Literary Society, a group of golden age of sci fi authors. Thinly disguised Robert Heinlein, L Ron Hubbard and others show up as suspects in a locked room mystery. So yeah, read it if that interests you. Ben Nevis posted:1. Ice by Anna Kavan
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Dec 3, 2019 18:35
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No particularly noteworthy reading choices last month, but here's my... November Update: 65. Mouthful of Birds by Samanta Schweblin - Surreal vignettes and opaque storytelling that become more unsettling if you interpret the stories as metaphors for society's gender/family expectations and violence and the acceptance of violence against women. 66. In a Single Garment of Destiny: A Global Vision of Justice by Martin Luther King, Jr. - This collection includes a lot of deep cuts that I didn’t read in school, and it was interesting to see how King’s viewed racism, poverty, and colonialism as overlapping evils that feed into each other. 67. The Soldiers of Year II by Medbh McGuckian - I'm sure there's deep personal meaning in these poems for some readers out there, but most of the book was gobbledygook to me. There were some real, powerful lines every few pages that made the reading experience almost worth it? 68. But Is It Art?: An Introduction to Art Theory by Cynthia A. Freeland - I found myself looking up lots of art and artists as I read this book. The book touches on quite a few theories of art without really digging deeply into them. But as a casual reader without an artistic background, that's exactly what made it an enjoyable introduction to art and aesthetics. Challenge Progress 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 9. Get a recommendation from a friend or loved one. (Received but not read)
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Dec 4, 2019 04:57
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November I read books in November! But now it's finals time, so I'm busy as hell. I'm honestly not sure if I'll be able to finish my challenges. And I'm the drat booklord! I should have read a bit more in the summer, I guess. In November I read three books, and enjoyed all three of them. I've also been chipping away at The Scarlet Letter, which is my previously abandoned book, and Angle of Repose, which was my wildcard. I think I can hit my goals, but the other three books I need to read will need to be short. 33. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. I'm going to count this as my art book, because the kid wants to be a comic, and the drawings are a big part of the book! This was fun and cute, and really heart-warming. 34. The Rider by Time Krabbe. A book about a one day cycling race. Was a fun read, but I bet I would have enjoyed it more if I had read it in one sitting. Sports book done! 35. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison. Really liked this. I apparently missed out on a lot of themes throughout the work. I need to learn to read more critically. 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. 35/40 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. 14/35 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 13/35 4. Read a book by an author from every continent ( 6. Read at least one book by an indigenous author. 8. Ask another poster to issue you a wildcard, then read it. 12. Read a book with an awesome cover. 22. Read one book you didn’t finish in a previous attempt (think high school if nothing comes to mind!). cryptoclastic fucked around with this message at 11:03 on Dec 4, 2019 |
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Dec 4, 2019 05:54
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It says you just did sports/art books, so you should be fine for those. You could double-dip the Sherman Alexie for indigenous, or do an Oceanic indigenous novel.
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Dec 4, 2019 09:28
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Arivia posted:It says you just did sports/art books, so you should be fine for those. You could double-dip the Sherman Alexie for indigenous, or do an Oceanic indigenous novel. Yeah I’m an idiot and just copied last months post and forgot to get rid of that part! Oops!
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Dec 4, 2019 11:04
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Super busy again, here's October and November! October 48. H.P. Lovecraft - The Call of Cthulhu and Other Stories. Fantastic weird fiction marred by absurd bigotry. 4/5. 49. Maria Gainza - Optic Nerve. Intricate stories paralleling life and visual arts. 4/5. 50. Andre Alexis - Days By Moonlight. Evocative magical realism travelogue. 5/5. 51. Meg Elison - The Book of Flora. Future feminist dystopia for queer theorists. 4/5. 52. Emma Donoghue - Room. Intimate, searing, perfection. 5/5. November 53. Margaret Atwood - The Testaments. Sadly pedestrian sequel to one of my favourite novels. 3/5. I've done my sports book and my play already in December, and I have poetry and an Oceania novel picked out to do. As long as I don't dip below 20% on my racialized content, I'll be good to finish the challenge. 2020 Reading Challenge Thread Will Be Up In The Last Half Of The Month. 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. 34/53 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 13/53 4. Read a book by an author from every continent ( 14. Read a poetry collection. 16. Read a play. 18. Read a book involving sports. Arivia fucked around with this message at 01:44 on Dec 9, 2019 |
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Dec 9, 2019 01:41
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Hrm, have not posted since the end of July, have a few to update...clearly though, this is as close as I'm going to get, because I suspect Moby Dick will take the entire month. December! What's Bred in the Bone by Robertson Davies These Mountains Are Our Sacred Places By Chief Dr. John Snow There There by Tommy Orange Wounds by Nathan Ballingrud also the entire run of Battle Angel Alita 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. 21/20 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. 5/21 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 6/21 4. Read a book by an author from every continent ( 6. 8. Ask another poster to issue you a wildcard, then read it. 14. Read a poetry collection. 16. Read a play. 17. Read a book about feminism. 18. Read a book involving sports. 19. Read something biographical. 21. Read something in the public domain. 22. Read one book you didn’t finish in a previous attempt (think high school if nothing comes to mind!). 24. Read a book that is the basis for a movie/tv show you have already seen. So short of the challenge, but pretty well covered in so few books for the year. Thanks OP for the push for diversity in reading
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Dec 9, 2019 04:31
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I kept telling myself I'd post here and didn't. Now it's December. That's cool! 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. I set out to read 60. So far, I'm at 64. 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. 7/64 with Anne Carson, Virginia Woolf, Cristina Peri Rossi, Angela Stent, Jane Austen, Lydia Chukovskaya, and Tsitsi Dangarembga. Not great. 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 6/64 with Anand Gopal, Sinan Antoon, Buddhadeva Bose, Feroz Hassan Khan, James Baldwin, and Tsitsi Dangarembga. 4. Read a book by an author from every continent (N. America, S. America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania). North America: 18. Favorite: Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin. South America: 4. Favorite: tie between Zama by Antonio di Benedetto and Ship of Fools by Cristina Peri Rossi. Europe: 32. Favorite: three-way tie between War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, Pan Tadeusz by Adam Mickiewicz, and The Logic of Violence in Civil War by Stathis Kalyvas. Africa: 1. The only African author I read was Tsitsi Dangarembga (Nervous Conditions), which is a drat shame because that book was awesome. Gotta do better next year. Asia: 3. Favorite: The Book of Collateral Damage by Sinan Antoon. Oceania: 1. I only read one Aussie named David Kilcullen. The book, Counterinsurgency, was not one of his best. 5. Read at least one book by an LGBT author. Done. I read Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway and Baldwin's Notes of a Native Son. 6. Read at least one book by an indigenous author. tbd 7. Participate in the TBB BotM thread at least once in 2019 (thread stickied each month at the top of the forum). Done. 8. Ask another poster to issue you a wildcard, then read it. Sure? 9. Get a recommendation from a friend or loved one. My friend convinced me to read Autobiography of Red and I'm glad I finally did it. 10. Read a book by a local author. tbd 11. Read a book published in 2019. The Book of Collateral Damage was only translated into English in 2019. I don't know Arabic, so I think that counts. 12. Read a book with an awesome cover. tbd 13. Reread a book. Done. Reread Anna Karenina.. 14. Read a poetry collection. It's No Good: Poems, Essays, Manifestos by Kirill Medvedev. 15. Read a collection of short stories. Today I Write Nothing by Daniil Kharms 16. Read a play. The Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht 17. Read a book about feminism. tbd 18. Read a book involving sports. Is horse racing a sport? There's a lot of that in Lime Twig by John Hawkes. 19. Read something biographical. Peter the Great by Vasily Klyuchevsky. Hell of a guy. 20. Read something that has been banned, censored, or challenged. To name a few: - Too Loud a Solitude by Bohumil Hrabal. Censored in then-Communist Czechoslovakia. - Sofia Petrovna by Lydia Chukovskaya. Had to be published in France in 1965 and was only available in the USSR in 1988. - Revulsion: Thomas Bernhard in El Salvador by Horacio Castellanos Moya. Infuriated enough Salvadorans and earned him and his family enough death threats that he ultimately fled the country. - Happy Moscow by Andrei Platonov. I can't remember if he even tried to publish this in his lifetime, but Platonov's works got a mixed reception from Stalin, to put it lightly. - I Burn Paris by Bruno Jasienski. One of the reasons he was deported from France. 21. Read something in the public domain. Yeah. 22. Read one book you didn’t finish in a previous attempt (think high school if nothing comes to mind!). Pride and Prejudice. 23. Read a book about art. tbd 24. Read a book that is the basis for a movie/tv show you have already seen. I started Homicide by David Simon, which is the basis for The Wire. Time will tell if I finish it this year.
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Dec 17, 2019 16:00
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Karenina posted:
If you want a really short book that's also by a writer of colour, then Shoplifting From American Apparel by Tao Lin is fun. So that's your wildcard, boom
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Dec 18, 2019 01:01
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there's an entire world of writing out there by non white people, and you went with tao lin.
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Dec 18, 2019 02:42
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Books by women: 14/24 Non-fiction: 5/12 Well, I fell well short of my goal this year. I might aim for 36 next year as it seems much more achievable - I think I only ever got to 52 when I was regularly taking public transport to work. Anyway, this month's books were pretty good. You Look Like a Thing and I Love You is excellent and I'd definitely recommend it. Because Internet could have been longer and gone into more depth and detail for my taste, but it was a good start. Purge the Unclean is a Dark Heresy campaign that I'm adapting for the RPG I'm running for some of my friends, and it's been very useful for that. And Dead in the Deep exceeded my expectations. I thought Ben might just be putting out some lazy half-arsed garbage to cash in on his father's name, but it's better than most of the New Order books that Joe actually wrote. In fact, I'd like to see Ben (or Vincent, because who knows how much each of them contributed) write some of his own gamebooks, either in the Lone Wolf setting or otherwise, but without the accumulated weight of all Joe's poor game design decisions dragging them down. In finishing the New Order series there's really nothing he could possibly do to make combat meaningful again or compensate for the fact that playing through the whole series is going to result in you being way over-levelled for stuff that presents a reasonable challenge to new players. My top 5 books for this year:
Full reviews on Goodreads.
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Dec 29, 2019 10:23
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December Update I did it! I managed to actually finish despite not thinking I'd be able to! Big shout out to public transit commute, and thanks cryptoclastic for running this. 34. Petals of Blood by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o - This book alone makes me grateful for deciding to try to do the booklord challenge--I don't think I'd have read it otherwise, and that would have been a shame. I very much enjoyed it, and it felt a bit like a primer on Kenyan history I wasn't aware of. It grapples with a lot, and any summary I'd give would be pithy, but I very much recommend this one. 35. End Zone by Don DeLillo - This was my wildcard, and I do not really recommend it. It wasn't bad, but it was very much not in my wheelhouse even a little. I mostly felt like if I cared at all about football and the time period that it was set in, I would have liked it a whole lot more. 36. Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese - This is the one I'm counting for my sports book because I absolutely loved it, difficult topics and all. I like hockey, and Wagamese really captures why I love watching hockey despite knowing very few of the rules or anything about any of the teams. Extremely moving, and I'm already planning to read more by him. 37. 고양이 학교 1부1권: 수정동굴의 비밀/Cat School 1.1: Secret of the Crystal Cave by 김진경/Kim Jinkyeong - Squeaking in one last Korean book, this one extremely simple--it's billed as a sixth grade reading level, and I was surprised how easy it felt. The illustrations are lovely; it follows what happens when cats get old, with magic swords and crystals and silliness. Supposedly it's a little similar to Warrior Cats? These are all definitely not feral cats, though; it has the feel of a gentle way to let kids think their old cats go on tons of cool adventures and save the world instead of dying. And that's my year!! This was fun, and I'm looking forward to next year.  To Do: 1. 2. 3. 4. 6. 8. 18. 2019 So Far 1.The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South by Michael W. Twitty 2. The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo 3. 흉가/The Haunted House by Shinzo Mitsuda 4. 돌이킬 수 없는 약속/The Unbreakable Promise by Gaku Yakumaru 5. The WoW Diary: A Journal of Computer Game Development by John Staats 6. Invitation to a Beheading by Vladimir Nabokov 7. 책을 지키려는 고양이/The Book-Guarding Cat by Sōsuke Natsukawa 8 & 9. 신세계에서 1 & 2/From the New World 1 & 2 by Yusuke Kishi 10. 고양이 식당/Cat Restaurant by Bongsu Choi 11. The Authoritarians by Bob Altemeyer 12. 박물관의 고양이/The Museum's Cats by Ma Weidu 13. A Horizon of Jostling Curiosities by Sam Keeper 14. A Bodyless and Timeless Persona by Sam Keeper 15 & 16. 단아한 고양이 1/The Graceful Cat 1 by 달그네/Dalgune 17. Who Killed the World: Solarpunk after the Apocalypse by Sam Keeper 18. Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl by Andrea Lawlor 19. Uncovering Grammar by Scott Thornbury 20. The Illiad: A New Translation by Caroline Alexander, Homer 21. Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain by David Gerard 22. Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer 23. Peter Darling by Austin Chant 24. Color and Light: A guide for the realist painter by James Gurney 25. Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay 26. 날씨가 좋으면 찾아가겠어요/I'll come find you when the weather is good by 이도우/Dou Lee 27. 보통으로 사는 건 보통 일이 아니야/Living a Normal Life Isn't Easy by 자림/Ja Rim 28. Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado 29. Puss in Heels by Aysha U. Farah 30. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez, translation by Gregory Rabassa 31. The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher 32. Lysistrata by Aristophane, translation by Sarah Ruden 33. 82년생 김지영/Kim Jiyeong, Born 1982 by 조남주/Cho Namju
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Dec 30, 2019 05:42
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December Update: 69. East of Eden by John Steinbeck - Recommended by a friend. Beautiful humanist themes and beautiful writing. I could have (should have?) finished my year here and been happy, but instead I squeezed one more in with... 70. Bear by Marian Engel - I came late to the party and missed the BotM discussion. That said, I really enjoyed the passages with nature imagery, and I appreciated the themes connected to Lou's rebirth, rediscovering herself, and reclaiming her sexuality. I didn’t so much care for the fact that Lou having sex with a bear was part of that. But I guess you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs. And that, as they say, is that. Time to look forward to next year's challenge. Challenge Progress
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Dec 30, 2019 16:51
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I have been enjoying reading recaps so far, everyone is doing a great job. It’s the 31st here and I am under 100 pages from my goal. However, there is more urgent news! I think we might need a new Booklord for next year. I found a taker in November, and emailed them the other day to check in but no response. Lo and behold, they’ve been probated for a month. Can’t exactly be Booklord if you can’t post the thread. So, is there anyone who wants to be Booklord next year? Please PM me!
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Dec 31, 2019 00:27
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cryptoclastic posted:I have been enjoying reading recaps so far, everyone is doing a great job. It’s the 31st here and I am under 100 pages from my goal. I really hope someone jumps on. 
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Dec 31, 2019 21:33
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quote:
I read ten books in December, and completed the Booklord Challenge 2019!!! 58 - Temple of the Golden Pavilion, by Yukio Mishima. A wildcard suggestion and a famous piece of literature. A disaffected young man experiences love, beauty, betrayal and disgust during his time at a great ancient temple. Full of beautiful settings and scenes that stick in the mind, I still found myself being left rather cold by the story. I wonder if other Mishima would grab me more strongly. 59-61 - Decrypting Rita, Vol. 1-3, by Margaret Trauth. Finally worked my way through the full saga after dropping off vol 3 previously. The story concerns a woman named Rita being pursued through parallel lives in parallel worlds by past mistakes and personal ghosts. The artwork is rendered in eye-searing kaleidoscopic colour, and Trauth really pushes the limits of what a webcomic can do with the "Infinite Canvas". The final volume sees everything come to a head, in a cacophony of colours and clashing realities. The final scene has a classic SF air to it, a sense of pushing into the beyond and finding some kind of absoluion. I'm not sure how satisfied I was to finish it, but I'm glad to finally know the conclusion. 62 - Sirens, by Joseph Knox. A gritty crime novel set in Manchester, by a local writer. I don't read a lot of works in this genre, and so I had certain ideas about what sort of content to expect, and for better or worse Sirens matched those ideas closely. Flawed protagonist with a dark past but a sense of right and wrong? Check. Vulnerable young girl(s) that might not be saved in time? Check. Grim drug use and brutal violence? Check. Eye-rollingly gross stereotype? Check, in the form of "Bug", a proudly disease-riddled drag queen who keeps a harem of beautiful young people around. Yuck. At least the ending wrapped things up nicely. 63 - The Physicists, by Friedrich Dürrenmatt. A fun postmodern farce of a play set in a psychiatric home in the wake of "another" murder. There's some interesting stuff going on with the theme of science and the pursuit of knowledge being fundamentally destructive, while the bodies of scientists themselves are all too human, and the protagonists' minds are entrenched in circular patterns of expectation and disappointment. I'd like to see this on stage sometime. 64 - Record Of A Spaceborn Few, by Becky Chambers. A lovely, cosy SF book and worthy successor to the previous two in the series. Focused primarily on the human diaspora of the far future, Chambers examines the minutiae of life on- and offworld through the new rituals, necessities and cultural norms that have come to make up Exodan humanity. The full range of human life experience is captured here, from childhood trauma to adolescent rage to the comforts and worries of old age and beyond. I had been saving this book to read when I needed a pick-me-up, and was not disappointed in the slightest. 65 - Ode To Broken Things, by Dipika Mukherjee. This disappointed me! After the first few chapters promised a deep and tangled web of interpersonal drama, political horrors and dark secrets waiting to be uncovered, the book lost all steam and continued to chug along joylessly for what felt much longer than its 220 pages. I will say that Mukherjee paints a vivid portrait of Malaysian life and culture, emphasising tradition, religion, superstition, gender politics and deep socio-political division. It made me go and look up the region's history and politics and cuisine, and I feel richer for it. However, the book itself left me unsatisfied and frustrated. By the time of the climax and its aftermath, I had lost all enthusiasm for the narrative. 66 - The Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead. Extremely good and very, very sad. As one might expect from a novel about the brutalities of slavery and racism in the US South and beyond, Whitehead is uncompromising with his portrayal of vicious oppression and dehumanisation. Of course, this means that when good or kind things do happen, the reader feels the same surge of excitement and hope as the characters - and the resulting shock and misery if and when the goodness is overturned. Despite its dense, dark subject matter, Whitehead's writing is swift and pacy, giving space to important details and rich inner lives. Really glad I read this; one of the best books of the year. Well, of two years ago, but I'm slow. 67 - Bartleby, The Scrivener, by Herman Melville. A famously powerful short story that lives up to its reputation. I was hooked from the first paragraphs, and despite being 160 years old Melville's writing is engrossing and full of personality. The title character is an excellent creation, at once an example of the crushing burden of bureaucracy and of numb melancholia. I laughed more than I expected, but by the end I felt very moved. An interesting text to end the decade on. drat, it feels good to complete the challenge, even if I did just creep over the line at the last minute. My reading is still very American/Eurocentric, which is something I can hopefully challenge in the new year. I also read a few classics which I'm proud of, some good history stuff, as well as the immense tome that is Dhalgren. [*]N. America - 1, 3, 6, 7, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 33, 34, 35, 42, 44, 45, 49, 51, 54, 55, 56, 59, 60, 61, 64, 65, 66, 67 [*]S. America - 53 [*]Europe - 2, 4, 5, 8, 12, 22, 23, 24, 27, 32, 39, 40, 41, 46, 47, 52, 57, 62, 63 [*]Africa - 31, 37, 43, 48 [*]Asia - 9, 10, 17, 21, 36, 38, 58 [*]Oceania - 50 Total: 67 books Total: approx. 17,168 pages Average pages/book: 256 Average pages/day: 47 More books than last year, but more short books. I'm keeping a decent pace, though! Onwards and upwards.
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Dec 31, 2019 23:36
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DrNewton posted:I really hope someone jumps on. Looks like Gertrude Perkins is going to be your Booklord next year (this year!) everybody. Stay tuned!
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Jan 1, 2020 01:34
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Gertrude Perkins posted:Onwards and upwards. C. S. Lewis quote detected  Congrats!
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Jan 1, 2020 02:48
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Bilirubin posted:C. S. Lewis quote detected Wait, that was C.S. Lewis? That's the first new thing I've learned this year! Also  HERE IS THE NEW THREAD FOR 2020! Hope to see y'all there!
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Jan 1, 2020 04:05
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Gertrude Perkins posted:Wait, that was C.S. Lewis? That's the first new thing I've learned this year! I mean he might not have been the only one but it was the continual refrain of Aslan during the conclusion of The Last Battle Hail the new book lord!
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Jan 1, 2020 21:23
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Been bad about posting in this thread, rather than list everything out, here's my goodreads year in books: https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2019/26945684 I didn't make my personal goal of 100 books but here's how I fared on the rest of the challenges: 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. - 100 books lol nope 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. - of the 77 books I read, 28 were written by women 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. - of the 77 books I read, 19 were by a non-white author 4. Read a book by an author from every continent (N. America, S. America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania). - completed; a bunch from North America, several from Europe and Asia, Borges from S. America, Marechera and Adichie from Africa, Murnane from Oceania 5. Read at least one book by an LGBT author. - Yi-Fu Tuan and Oscar Wilde at least 6. Read at least one book by an indigenous author. - Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead 7. Participate in the TBB BotM thread at least once in 2019 (thread stickied each month at the top of the forum). - Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado 8. Ask another poster to issue you a wildcard, then read it. - The Giants by J.M.G. Le Clezio 9. Get a recommendation from a friend or loved one. - Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann 10. Read a book by a local author. - The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros 11. Read a book published in 2019. - A few but let's say Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James 12. Read a book with an awesome cover. - grabbed the Whispering Muse by Sjon for this challenge 13. Reread a book. - a few again but specifically chose The Nonexistant Knight by Calvino for this one 14. Read a poetry collection. - Electric Arches by Eve Ewing and alphabet by Inger Christensen 15. Read a collection of short stories. - a few again but let's say The Best American Short Stories 2018 16. Read a play. - The Man Who Turned Into a Stick: Three Related Plays by Kobo Abe 17. Read a book about feminism. - Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit 18. Read a book involving sports. - Both Flesh and Not: Essays by David Foster Wallace has a few excellent essays about tennis 19. Read something biographical. - Escape from Camp 14 by Blane Harden 20. Read something that has been banned, censored, or challenged. - The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas 21. Read something in the public domain. - The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde 22. Read one book you didn’t finish in a previous attempt (think high school if nothing comes to mind!). - Dracula by Bram Stoker 23. Read a book about art. - Why Art? by Eleanor Davis 24. Read a book that is the basis for a movie/tv show you have already seen. - The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta
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Jan 2, 2020 00:33
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December It came down to the wire, but I did it! I completed my own Booklord challenge! 36. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. My gave up on book. I read the whole thing this time, okay Mr. Roberts?! I can appreciate its importance but still didn’t really enjoy it that much. 37. Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner. My wildcard. At first this thing was a slog, but I really grew to appreciate the support and the characters. If only it wasn’t so long. I think it took about six weeks to get through. 38. The Seventh Function of Language by Laurent Binet. My awesome cover. Dragged on at times. Lots and lots of famous French names being dropped. I need to read my copy of Mythologies I got in the secret Santa a few years ago. 39. The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera. Oceania and indigenous author. Interesting. Sad. 40. Trust Exercise by Susan Choi. Still not sure what I think of this one. It picks up towards the second half. 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 4. Read a book by an author from every continent (N. America 6. Read at least one book by an indigenous author. 8. Ask another poster to issue you a wildcard, then read it. 12. Read a book with an awesome cover. 22. Read one book you didn’t finish in a previous attempt (think high school if nothing comes to mind!). So that’s that. My Booklord challenge is done. It was fun but I realized I need to lower the number of books I want to read, or read more consistently throughout the year. Apparently every summer I stop reading. Favorites of the year were East of Eden, Look Homeward Angel, A Confederacy of Dunces, and A Man Called Ove. Look forward to seeing everyone in the new thread!
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Jan 2, 2020 02:30
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Good month of reading to finish the year. All challenges completed. Iraqi Women - Nadje Sadig Al-Ali A narrative history of Iraq, and the lives of women living in and out of Iraq. The author interviewed over 200 women in four different cities, many who no longer live in Iraq and had left anytime from the 1960s to the 2000s. The book covers the period of time from 1948 to 2006. Major events are covered, but so are the daily lives of women living in Iraq, which were impacted as secular tensions grew and the ba'ath party implemented more conservative policies regarding women. There's Something in the Water - Ingrid Waldron A book about environmental racism, specifically focusing on black and first nations communities in Nova Scotia. The author heads an anti-environmental racism movement in the province, and the book outlines what environmental racism is, its impacts, and the political movement against it. We Love Glenda so Much - Julio Cortazar A short story collection. Very good, experimental stories. I particularly liked the Story With Spiders and the story that was written to match A Musical Interlude by Bach. The last story was a let down in terms of content but interesting attempt at writing about 'life' after death. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - J.K. Rowling The Inconvenient Indian - Thomas King Thomas King is my favourite author, but I had only read novels and short stories. Inconvenient Indian isn't quite a history or a sociology. King's usual wit is there, and he really drives home the important points. Also interesting to hear the stories and pop culture that inform his fiction writing. Hag-Seed - Margaret Atwood I don't need to read the Tempest now. quote:
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Jan 2, 2020 12:41
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I'm a little late with the write up since I was travelling for the holiday a bit. I re-read Wuthering Heights to complete the challenge. So Yay. All in all I finished 95 books, 48 by women and 34 by authors of color. My winner on the year might be Lot by Bryan Washington. Other standouts were Haunting Paris, Signs Preceding the End of the World, and Divide me by Zero. Another short story collection worth reading is We Love Anderson Cooper. Best SFF novel was Gideon the Ninth. Best mystery was Bluebird, Bluebird. Yeah, I reckon that about wraps it up. 90. Divide me by Zero by Lara Vapnyar - An unexpectedly good read that cropped up late in the year. To cope with her mother's death and her failed marriage, Vapnyar wrote a book about her coping with her mother's death and her failed marriage. The book is structured around a series of notes her mother had left about writing a math book to (re)teach math to adults. Reading about her working through all the her lovely behavior in marriage and then seeing it suddenly hit when her mom starts dying is wrenching. This was surprisingly good. 91. Made Things by Adrian Tchaikovsky - A fantasy novella, where a young woodworker and thief is approached by living puppets. They work together and learn a startling secret about power in the city. Brief, pretty well put together, and the sort of thing you might want to read after the book about a dead mom and a life in shambles. 92. At Dusk by Hwang Sok-yong - A middle age architect suffers a bit of a crisis when he gets an unexpected message from a high school sweetheart. It traces his life growing up in a slum until he's a high powered architect managing big government contracts. You also learn about a young theater person trying to get by working multiple jobs. The eventual tie in is good, some brief reflections on architecture and what sort of development one should be doing are as well. It was a pretty decent book. 93. To be Taught if Fortunate by Becky Chambers - The tale of 4 astronauts exploring planets that seem promising for life. It really gets at questions of why we should explore space, who should, how to go about it, etc I enjoyed this, though I didn't find it Chambers' strongest. Still, I'm real likely to pick up just about anything she writes. 94. Jakarta by Rodrigo Marquez Tizano - Man, I just don't know. This was in sci fi as sort of a dystopian world after a plague type thing. That's not technically untrue. There's 100 some odd chapters. Or paragraphs. I guess each chapter is a paragraph or each paragraph is numbered as though it's a chapter. Regardless, they're narrated by a man who grew up in a school for poor children, worked in a brigade eliminating plague rats, spends a ton of time gambling on sports, and has a girlfriend who found a weird rock she spends all day staring at. The chapters switch between these elements and more general descriptions of their hellworld with little rhyme or reason. There's no real attempt at a coherent narrative. Just sort of an exploration of a horrible world, a horrible childhood, and like the worst job ever. I'd left this unrated. There's sort of a tie through that comes up late about the nature of labyrinths that I keep picking at thinking there's more going on that I expected. That being said it was a short but difficult read. 95. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte - I DNF this one in High School, stopping about the 2/3 mark, I thought. This time I did not stop, so completed my last remaining challenge. I don't like this book 96. Catfishing on Catnet by Naomi Kritzer - Steph is a teenage girl has a mom that moves her frequently, allegedly on the run from an abusive ex. The sole constant in her life is Catnet, a social network for sharing cute animal pictures. Unbeknownst to anyone, Catnet is run by the AI from "Cat Pictures Please" Kritzer's Hugo winning short. As you can probably see, Steph's going to wind up in danger and it's maybe up to the AI to help out. A fun teen oriented tech-thriller type thing. A nice light end of the year read, that still managed to raise some decent questions about technology and identity. [quote="Ben Nevis" post="500490732"] 1. Ice by Anna Kavan 2. The Milkman by Anna Burns 3. Tell them of Battles, Kings, and Elephants by Mathias Énard 4. The Descent of Monsters by JY Yang 5. An Elderly Lady is Up to no Good by Helene Tursten 6. The Governesses by Anne Sere 7. The Ensemble by Aja Gabel 8.We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix 9. The Monster Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson 10. Educated by Tara Westover 11. A People's Future of the United States ed. Victor LaValle 12. A More Beautiful and Terrible History: The Uses and Misuses of Civil Rights History by Jeanne Theoharis 13. Vigilance by Robert Jackson Bennet 14. Bear by Marian Engel 15.Revolution Sunday by Wendy Guerra 16.The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead 17. The Elementals by Michael McDowell 18. The Shepherds Hut by Tim Winton 19.The Bird King by G Willow Wilson 20. Mouthful of Birds by Samanta Schweblin 21.Miraculum by Steph Post 22. The Black God's Drums by P. Djeli Clark 23. In the Vanisher's Palace by Aliette de Bodard 24. The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djeli Clark 25. The Friends of Eddie Coyle by George V Higgins 26. Affections by Rodrigo Hasbun 27. Scribe by Alyson Hagy 28. Washington Black by Esi Edugyan 29. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Seek by Anthony O'Neill 30. The Cassandra by Sharma Shields 31. Palm-Wine Drinkard by Amos Tutuola 32. The Autobiography of my Mother by Jamaica Kincaid 33.Houston, Houston, Do you Read by James Tiptree Jr. 34.Train Dreams by Denis Johnson 35.The Sellout by Paul Beatty 36.How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accent by Julia Alvarez 37. Lot by Bryan Washington 38. The White Book by Han Kang 39. Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss 40. The Magnetic Girl by Jessica Handler 41.Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time by Dava Sobel 42. The Perilous Adventures of the Cowboy King: A Novel of Teddy Roosevelt and his Times by Jerome Charyn 43. The Heart of a Dog by Mikhail Bulgakov 44. Pym by Mat Johnson 45. Westside by WM Akers 46.Dare Me by Megan Abbot 47. If Cats Disappeared from the World by Genki Kawamura 48.Your Favorite Band Cannot Save You by Scotto Moore 49. The Gameshouse by Claire North 50. Gather the Fortunes by Brian Camp 51. Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach 52. Confessions of a Fox by Jordy Rosenberg 53. The Infatuations by Javier Marías 54. The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach 55. Who Censored Roger Rabbit? by Gary K Wolf 56. The Black Jersey by Jorge Zepeda Patterson 57. The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead 58. Haunting Paris by Mamta Chaudhry 59.Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke 60. This is How You Lose the Time War 61. Mapping the Interior by Stephen Graham Jones 62. The Test by Sylvain Neuvel 63. A People's History of Heaven by Mathangi Subramanian 64. A Morbid Taste for Bones by Ellis Peters 65. Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk 66. Last Supper Before Ragnarok by Cassandra Khaw 67. Tears of the Trufflepig by Fernando A Flores 68. Travel Light by Naomi Mitchison 69. Vita Nostra by Marina Dyachenko 70. Star by Yukio Mishima 71. The Hotel Neversink by Adam O'Fallon Price 72. The Orientalist by Tom Reiss 73. Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir 74. Gun Island by Amitav Ghosh 75. Memoirs of a Space Woman by Naomi Mitchison 76. Night Boat to Tangier by Kevin Berry 77. The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday by Saad Hosseini 78. The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barke 79. The Goat, or Who is Silvia? by Edward Albee 80. Signs Preceding the End of the World by Yuri Herrera 81. A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazney 82. Book of Folly by Anne Sexton 83. Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Garica-Moreno 84. We Love Anderson Cooper by RL Maizes 85. Triumph of the Spider Monkey by Joyce Carol Oates 86. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett 87. Witchmark by CL Polk 88. The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline B Cooney 89. Rocket to the Morgue by Anthony Boucher 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. 95/80 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. 48/95 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 34/95 4. Read a book by an author from every continent (N. America, S. America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania). 5. Read at least one book by an LGBT author. - Confessions of the Fox 6. Read at least one book by an indigenous author. - Mapping the interior 7. Participate in the TBB BotM thread at least once in 2019 (thread stickied each month at the top of the forum). - Bear 8. Ask another poster to issue you a wildcard, then read it. - Signs preceding the end of the World 9. Get a recommendation from a friend or loved one. - Educated 10. Read a book by a local author. - Lot 11. Read a book published in 2019. - Vigilance 12. Read a book with an awesome cover. - The Perilous Adventures of the Cowboy King 13. Reread a book. - A Night in the Lonesome October 14. Read a poetry collection. - Book of Folly 15. Read a collection of short stories. A People's Future of the United States 16. Read a play. - The Goat 17. Read a book about feminism. - Silence the Girls 18. Read a book involving sports - Dare Me 19. Read something biographical. - The Orientalist 20. Read something that has been banned, censored, or challenged. - The Face on the Milk Carton 21. Read something in the public domain. - Heart of a Dog 22. Read one book you didn’t finish in a previous attempt (think high school if nothing comes to mind!).- Wuthering Heights 23. Read a book about art. - The Ensemble 24. Read a book that is the basis for a movie/tv show you have already seen. - Who censored Roger Rabbit
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Jan 2, 2020 17:35
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November and December! Well, I kinda stalled out on posting, but I matched/beat my personal goal and finally got the last category of the challenge covered with a biography of Da Vinci. Highlights: Kristin Lavransdatter was a great trilogy/book about the life of a woman in 14th century Scandinavia, from childhood to death, and her marriage to an unwise man. It really takes you away from the modern world into another time. Bone was a reread of one of my favorite comics - still pretty great, funny and by the end quite epic. Guy Gavriel Kay's Fionavar series was a wonderful fantasy trilogy that started out seeming like fanfic (five Canadian college students are taken away to a mystical land!) but ended up going some very exciting and meaningful places. I also read a good number of women-written books in December, including Disappearing Earth (how the disappearance of two girls rocks a small Russian town), Inland (a woman strives to survive in the Arizona wilderness), and Fleishman is in Trouble, about a troubled marriage from the perspectives of the husband and the wife. Overall a great end to the year! 94. Bone - Jeff Smith 95. Jailbird - Kurt Vonnegut 96. Kristin Lavransdatter - Sigrid Undset 97. The Half-Made World - Felix Gilman 98. The Romanov Sisters - Helen DeWitt 99. The Summer Tree (Fionavar #1) - Guy Gavriel Kay 100. The Starless Sea - Erin Morganstern 101. The Wandering Fire (Fionavar #2) - Guy Gavriel Kay 102. Bodo - John Bennett 103. Leonardo: The Artist and the Man - Serge Bramly 104. The Darkest Road (Fionavar #3) - Guy Gavriel Kay -105. Disappearing Earth - Julia Phillips 106. The Maltese Falcon - Dashiell Hammett 107. Mansfield Park - Jane Austen -108. Fleishman is in Trouble - Taffy Brodesser-Akner 109. Trust Exercise - Susan Choi -110. Inland - Tea Obreht 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. (110/100) 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. - Undset, DeWitt, Morganstern, Philips, Brodesser-Akner, Choi, Obreht 39% 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. - Choi 22% 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. Read a book published in 2019 - Fleishman is in Trouble, Trust Exercise, Disappearing Earth, 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. Read one book you didn’t finish in a previous attempt (think high school if nothing comes to mind!). - Dante's Inferno 23. Read a book about art. - Leonardo 24.
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Jan 24, 2020 21:09
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