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I'm at 75/100.
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Oct 9, 2022 20:03
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I finished five books in October. 82 - Carmilla, by J. Sheridan Le Fanu. A spooky, gothic and very gay tale of lady vampire intrigue and mystery and suspense. The prose is as old-timey and flowery as I expected from its reputation, but as a novella it doesn't outstay its welcome. There are some particularly memorable images, and the slow build of the tension climaxes well, in a pretty sapphic way (or at least as sapphic as you could get while still firmly in the "weirdo sexual predators in our midst" Victorian moral outrage. 83 - Blindness, by José Saramago. Recommended by everyone, this is a book containing extreme misery, squalor and abuse of power. The titular blindness is contagious, and as it spreads through society, every facet of civilisation crumbles into violence, filth and starvation. It's beautifully written, though I found the way conversations are conveyed - entirely as reportage - quite annoying at times. The tone is conversational and detached enough from the moment-to-moment awfulness that Saramago is able to make the reader keep persevering, even through the nadirs his characters experience. Definitely lives up to the hype, even if it wasn't quite my speed. Maybe it was a little too relentless, or I wasn't in the right frame of mind while reading it. I'm very interested in the sequel, too, so that's on my list for sure. 84 - Don Quixote, by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. I knew its reputation, of course, but I didn't know just how long this is, or how much I would enjoy it - which was a lot! It's a grand farcical adventure full of delusion, hubris, and a comedic portrait of rural Spain 400 years ago. The translation by Tobias Smollett is peppered in Shakespearian flourishes which helped immerse me in the setting. Technically two novels, I enjoyed the ending of the first so much that I thought "What could possibly happen in the sequel?" but I actually enjoyed that even more, with a wider cast and wilder adventures. The ending made me very sad, even though I could see it coming from a while off - Cervantes certainly knew how to make a reader fall in love with his characters, even with their many faults and annoying idiosynracies. There are parts that drag - the adventures in the brown mountains feel like running in circles - but the great majority of this book had me engrossed and thoroughly entertained. 85 - Stories from Quarantine (aka The Decameron Project): 29 New Stories from the Pandemic, put out by the New York Times Magazine. A mix of very short stories from a wide range of variously famous writers, all set during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. Some of them are funny, some are romantic, many more of them are wistful and troubled and desperate. It's a real mix quality-wise, but most of them I thought were pretty good. A lot of them felt like they could have been excerpts from longer pieces, too. I don't have much to say about this. It's exactly what it says on the cover, and maybe it's too early or too late to fully appreciate these stories. 86 - The Thousand Crimes Of Ming Tsu, by Tom Lin. A moody, gory Wild West story of revenge with a body count that starts rising on the first page. The titular outlaw is an escapee from indentured servitude for a trans-continental railroad, travelling west and accumulating allies and companions along the way to his final reckoning. There's some mysticism, some dark and sad ruminations on life, death and memory, and it's paced pretty well too. The ending is blunt and inevitable, and the journey to get there is a good mix of tension, action and aftermath. I'm excited to see what Lin writes next, because for a first novel I liked this a lot! 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are not written by men. - 25 - 2, 4, 13, 15, 17, 18, 31, 32, 34, 35, 36, 38, 43, 44, 51, 52, 53, 55, 56, 60, 71, 73, 78, 81, 85 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 25% of them are written by writers of colour. - 30 - 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 19, 26, 31, 35, 41, 43, 46, 48, 54, 56, 57, 59, 60, 62, 63, 64, 65, 73, 79, 86 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are written by LGBTQ writers. - 19 - 1, 13, 17, 18, 34, 36, 38, 39, 41, 43, 51, 52, 55, 61, 68, 70, 72, 73, 78, 79, 81 6. Read two works by the same author 8. Read an issue of a story-focused/literary magazine (there are many available online entirely for free!) 13. Read something about film or television 18. Re-read something you love Remaining challenges: 6, 8, 13, 18
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Nov 2, 2022 07:47
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A good month for October. I'm close to wrapping up challenges, I think with just 1 left. Read some Halloweeny books, and generally pretty pleased with my progress. I think I clear the number easily. 55. Nettle & Bone by T Kingfisher - A third princess is shuffled off to a convent, as one does. When she hears her sister is being abused and fears for her sister's life, she embarks on a fairy tale quest to save her. A neat little book. Despite trafficking in fairy tales adjacent grounds, it wasn't just a retelling or reimaging, rather spinning a whole new thing of it's own. Enjoyed this. 56. Carmilla by J Sheridan Le Fanu - Sapphic vampires. A bit predictable, but you have to expect that when it may well have invented some vampire tropes. Good! 57. Mango, Mambo, and Murder by Raquel V Reyes - For National Hispanic Heritage Month, a woman and her husband move back to Miami, except more the country club bit than the vibrant immigrant community she grew up in. While dealing with her racist mother in law, and trying to get a new job and social group together, her best friend is accused of murder. Naturally, our protagonist has to solve it. Apparently the first in a series, I enjoyed the multi-ethnic angle, and the firm sense of place. Also enjoyed what felt like a realistic depiction of trying to care for a toddler while investigating a crime. All in all a fun, solid start to the series. 58. You Made a Fool of Death with your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi - So yeah, I read Freshwater, I read Vivek Oji, and here I am grabbing the new one hoping to hit on the theme of Transformation. This wasn't it. More about finding yourself after the death of a partner and recovering from grief. And hooking up with the guy your dating's dad. It's a good novel. Emezi can write, 59. October Country by Ray Bradbury - A spoopy collection for Halloween. It's decent. If you really want Halloween Bradbury, Something Wicked This Way Comes is better. On the other hand, this literally has a "there's a skeleton inside you!" story. 60. Cycle of the Werewolf by Stephen King - So when I was a kid my uncle brought over Silver Bullet and it scared the bejabbers out of me and my brother, who were definitely too young to be watching a werewolf movie. I liked the illustrations here, though they sometimes robbed the book of some tension. 61. Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon - A been meaning to read. I generally enjoyed this one. And then I read some more about it after the fact. Apparently it's complicated. 62. The Bullet that Missed by Richard Osman - Thursday Murder Club book 3. A very good continuation of the series. Would recommend. 63. The Library of the Dead by TL Huchu - In a dystopian near future Edinburgh, Ropa is a "ghost talker" taking messages from ghosts to people, provided they can pay. She gets convinced to do a free job and find a missing kid for a ghost. Obviously, this uncovers a bigger thing. Also there's a secret magic library. Had sort of first book problems, with some set up and it didn't feel very complete. Also, wanted more magic library. The end sort of just slaloms at a breakneck pace from one big action thing to another, and it felt a little inelegant. Ultimately, with so little buildup somewhat anticlimactic. That said it's overall pretty interesting and engaging. I'll probably read the next one, but in a "if I see it on the library shelf" sort of way, not an "I'm already putting a hold on it" sort of way. Ben Nevis posted:1. Noor by Nnedi Okorafor
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Nov 3, 2022 17:10
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I finished 5 books in October. My reading is still a bit slow lately but I'm blaming that on my seasonal affective disorder. And at least I am still reading! 66. The Citadel of Weeping Pearls by Aliette de Bodard I think this is the third or fourth thing by Bodard I've read and as much as I wish it wasn't the case, there's something about her writing style that just makes my attention slide off. Even just a month later I'm having trouble recalling details of this. There's a space station (the titular Citadel) that went missing, some sort of time travel shenanigans, people with mommy issues. I know other people really jive with her work but I just can't seem to, and not for lack of trying! 67. We Are Here to Hurt Each Other by Paula Ashe This was a really good, really nasty little interlinked short story collection. If you want some pseudo-cosmic (but maybe not exactly cosmic? more King in Yellow-y? I think there even was a King in Yellow reference at some point) horror about some really hosed up and tragic people, this is it. Reminds me a bit of Joe Koch's writing as far as the visceral and gross parts, but it's more grounded and less psychedelic. 68. Surface Detail by Iain M. Banks Went from the first Culture book and skipped to number 9 here on the recommendation of a friend. I enjoyed this so much more than Consider Phlebas. The background of the whole story is a virtual war trying to determine if certain civilizations will be allowed to keep their post-death-brain-upload VR hells or not. The foreground is about a young woman who is murdered by the obscenely rich guy keeping her in what's essentially slavery, and then her seeking revenge as she's revented (sort of like digital-analog reincarnation) via Culture technology. We get to see a lot more of the Culture and the Minds in this, and I can finally see why people dig the setting so much. 69. The Art of War by Sun Tzu I wasn't aware of how short this was and it almost felt like cheating to use it for my 500+ year old book but here we are. A lot of this advice feels a bit like common sense now, but we've had about 2,500 years of warfare history to look at in the intervening time. Supply lines have always been, and will always be, very important! 70. Into the Riverlands by Nghi Vo A really short novella, the third entry in The Singing Hills Cycle. The cleric Chih is still travelling around and collecting stories while getting entangled in local events. The theme of some of Chih's travelling companions and story sources not being quite what/who they seem at first continues, but it doesn't feel stale. These stories haven't really attempted to make an overarching narrative (yet) but I think they're just fine being mostly-stand-alone little snacks. Really recommend this series if you're looking for some well-written, but easy to read novellas. 1. Set a goal for number of books and/or another personal challenge. Total: 70/52  Nonfiction: 13/10 Moby Dick: 1/1 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are not written by men. ~39/70 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 25% of them are written by writers of colour. ~20/70 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 8% of them are written by LGBTQ writers. ~31/70 5. Read something originally published... a. In the past year [Light from Uncommon Stars - 2021] b. At least 5 years ago [Ninefox Gambit - 2016] c. At least 25 years ago [The Sparrow - 1996] d. At least 50 years ago [Master and Commander - 1970] e. At least 100 years ago [Moby Dick - 1851] f. At least 250 years ago [The Female Quixote - 1752] g. At least 500 years ago [The Art of War - 5th century BCE] 6. Read two works by the same author [Ninefox Gambit and Raven Stratagem - Yoon Ha Lee] 7. Read something by a disabled author 8. Read an issue of a story-focused/literary magazine (there are many available online entirely for free!) [Seize the Press, Vol. 1] 9. Read an anthology or collection containing the work of more than one author [Book of Queer Saints] 10. Read something from a genre you rarely or never read [Romance - Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics] 11. Read something about exploration [Icebound] 12. Read something about transformation [Wingspan of Severed Hands] 13. Read something about film or television 14. Read something fictional, based (however loosely) on a historical event [Master and Commander] 15. Read something written by an author living in the opposite hemisphere from you where you currently live/the one you'd call home (North/South and/or East/West - Bonus Points* for both axes!) [Tender is the Flesh] 16. Read something about mountains [Buried in the Sky] 17. Read something you've been meaning to read for a while, but haven't yet [Moby Dick] 18.Re-read something you love [We Have Always Lived in the Castle] 19. Read something scary [Tell Me I'm Worthless] 20. Look through some other Book Barn threads (or the Discord) and pick a book suggested or discussed there to read (Bonus Points* if you also post in that thread to discuss the book once you've read it!) [The March North] 21.Ask someone in this thread for a Wildcard to read OR read something that was explicitly recommended to you either by someone you know, or by someone in another thread in The Book Barn (Bonus Points* if you do both!) [Murderous Dr. Cream] 22. Read something that will teach you something new (and briefly tell us what you learned!) [Icebound - Did you know that polar bear livers contain so much Vitamin A that it's toxic for a human to eat it? The Barents expedition found that out the hard way!]
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Nov 3, 2022 21:07
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Posting this before we get the end-of-November updates so it doesn't get lost. First, if anyone is interested in taking up the thread for next year, you're more than welcome to PM me with your ideas! If no one is interested, I'm happy to run the thread again for 2023. However, I will be realistic. The thread has been slow, to say the least, these past few months (as it seems it usually is toward the end of the year). But I can't help but wonder if the challenge has gotten a little big for its britches. Which is to say, if I didn't go overboard with challenge criteria even if not everyone signed up for them. With that in mind, and for the sake of making the Challenge accessible and achievable, while still keeping it a challenge, I have some ideas for streamlining and changing the prompts -- specially the number of them (and if anyone is interested in taking over next year, I would encourage considering that sort of approach and/or I'm happy to share my ideas with you). After all, as much as I love that this sort of prompt challenge can push a person out of their comfort zone, I think that just encouraging people who want to read more to actually read more, whatever they read, is the main goal (at least, it's my goal).
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Nov 27, 2022 22:39
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Sounds good! Yep for me I'm one of those people just trying to make reading books a habit again, so finishing 3 to 10 books of interest in a year would be good for me. Most I've finished in a year in recent times is 3, plus some comics and audiobooks. To get granular, I set a goal with say 5 books, 5 audiobooks, and 10 comic collections for say a 20 goal on Goodreads. Right now I'm aiming to finish 2 books in these last 5 weeks, but finishing just one would be okay too. Neuromancer is what I'm on, which is great, but not one to pick up if I'm tired and brain frazzled. But it is really cool. Also enjoyed that Johnny Mnemonic short. Heavy Metal fucked around with this message at 23:36 on Nov 27, 2022 |
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Nov 27, 2022 23:32
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15: House made of dawn. A nicely written book but I think I'm too dumb to really get what the author was trying to say. 
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Dec 1, 2022 04:40
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Bloody hell, this month's been a lot... Finished seven books this month. I might break a hundred before year's end, which would be something. 87 - Nova, by Samuel R. Delany. A ponderous and thoughtful SF story of grand families competing for the prize of infinite energy, and the ordinary workers caught in the gears of their plans. Delany's characters are affable and well-drawn, and the world he sketches around them is one born of clear philosophical extrapolation. I thought some aspects of this speculative future were a little flimsy, but they all serve the central themes rather well. While things drag from time to time, I was happy to be carried along throughout, and the climax and final punchline had me grinning like an idiot. By now I would definitely call myself a Delany Fan. 88 - Conversations With Friends, by Sally Rooney. Okay, I get what all the fuss is about, but this didn't do very much for me at all. Every character irritated in uninteresting ways, the first half of the book crawled along in glacial increments, and the cast were largely uninteresting. The protagonist's mental health and trauma function as barriers to anything positive in her life, with her neuroses escalating as the scale of her bad decisions ramps up. In the smaller more personal moments there's something great here, but otherwise it's a slog full of smug arseholes and bad sex. 89 - All About Me! My Remarkable Life in Show Business, by Mel Brooks. A joyous experience, with Mel Brooks himself reading the audiobook. A lot of fun and sweet details from his early life, as well as a lot of interesting facts and anecdotes about his early career on stage and in television writing. There aren't many stories about his adult life outside of his career and marriage - his first marriage only gets a brief mention - but Brooks has so much to say about his work and the people he's worked with that I didn't feel short-changed at all. Definitely worth picking up, in audio if you can, even if you're only a casual fan of his stuff. 90 - Katamari Damacy, by L.E. Hall. A comprehensive exploration of the history, structure and legacy of one of the best games of the last twenty years. Covering everything from the excellent soundtrack to the design philosophies of designer Keita Takahashi, this is a short but satisfying read. I didn't really learn anything new, beyond some of the details around how the project was first developed, but it was fun and inspiring to revisit the whole process...and sad to read about its half-life as a franchise for milking. 91 - Bliss, by Jeff VanderMeer. Creepy novella about a band travelling through the overgrown marshland of a failed state to play a concert for a mysterious wealthy benefactor. VanderMeer does weird very well, and this has some moments of genuine discomfort. The afterword helps fill in some of his writing process too, which is cool. 92 - Only Light Remains, by Karin Malady. Short and very good collection of queercore writing. Transhumanism, science fiction hyperactivity, monstrous bodies, extreme violence, a lot of catharsis. Also sometimes very funny. Very into this. 93 - The Galaxy Game, by Karen Lord. A dull slog of a SF (YA?) novel about Rafi, a teenage boy with dangerous psychic powers in a politically fraught interstellar confederation. Rejected by his mother, who fears his abilities, he escapes offworld in search of a place where he can be himself and also play a future-sport called "wallrunning". Unfortunately none of these details amount to anything much at all. Every time something exciting or interesting might happen the aftermath is so boring that it makes the events feel pointless. The writing is laden with bureaucratic squabbling and proper nouns, and each chapter ends with a shrug. There are some small glimpses of a better novel here: Rafi's relationship with his mother, his estranged uncle's political position, the SF-flavoured codeswitching and immigrant experience. But Lord doesn't seem interested in following any of those threads to anywhere engaging or satisfying or exciting. I had to force myself to finish this. Very disappointed. Only a couple of challenges left, too! Whoa!
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Dec 1, 2022 10:37
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I finished 8 books in November and ticked off the last two challenges I had left (a book about TV/film, and a book by a disabled author)! I went on a little non-fiction tear again, which seems like it usually rejuvenates my reading when I start to drag a little with fiction. 71. The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty by Caroline Alexander This is the second book by Alexander I've read, and she does a good job of laying everything out. I was only passingly familiar with the mutiny on the Bounty and the mythologized idea of Captain Bly, so this was just a lot of new-to-me info. The only part I sort of skimmed through was when it started recounting the court inquest (I've read a good amount of nonfiction books that do this, where they recount events, then do it again via court records and it rarely holds my attention the second time around), but otherwise this was a good read. 72. Ocean's Echo by Everina Maxwell This is not a sequel to Winter's Orbit, but it is set in the same universe and also follows a couple of guys who are forced into a government-mandated relationship that eventually figure out they actually do like each other. There's not more than a few kisses between the two, so it's not a "romance" in the way some might expect. A lot of the story focuses on the book's central mystery, and that definitely does most of the heavy lifting. A few things about the worldbuilding (mostly regarding how gender is handled) still bug me like they did in WO, but I'm likely to pick up whatever she writes next as a popcorn read. 73. Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark This is a tidy stand-alone horror novella. Set during the Jim Crow era, it follows a group of black women who hunt down Ku Klux Klan members who've morphed into monsters via their own hatred (and some cosmic horror-style intervention). Clark is just a really solid writer and this is a breezy, but not insubstantial read. (I definitely recommend checking out a video of the McIntosh County Shouters if you're not familiar with what an actual Ring Shout is -- he describes it really well in the book, but actually watching a performance is something else.) 74. Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner A secondary world 'fantasy' (there's no magic, though) where aristocrats settle their disputes via swordsmen-for-hire who fight duels for them. The main character is the (current) best swordsman in the city, who gets entangled in the petty revenge plot of a noble and has to deal with it. Really smoothly written, and its handling of queer characters (which is most of the primary characters) feels incredibly modern (a la the queernormative approach), especially considering it was written in 1987. Highly recommend it! 75. Experimental Film by Gemma Files A mixture of 'found footage' and folk horror. Reminds me a little bit of Wylding Hall, but it's first person and focused on lost films from the 20s combined with Eastern European folk deities. I really dug this. There's a few quibbles I had (the protagonist and first person POV character is of Somali descent, but it leaves almost no trace in the book even in places where it feels like it would be relevant -- I know that the major theme of her son being autistic and how it was handled might not sit well with some people, too), but overall I thought this was a really strongly realized book. 76. Spare Parts: The Story of Medicine Through the History of Transplant Surgery by Paul Craddock A history of transplants! From arm-skin being grafted to form new noses hundreds (if not thousands) of years ago in India and Italy to 'tooth transplants' and on to the advent of modern surgery. This was a really interesting read, and doesn't shy away from how often transplant breakthroughs ended up benefitting the wealthy and exploiting the poor. There's a lot of horrific animal experimentation as part of transplant history too, unfortunately. At least we might be able to just 3D print new parts for people in the near future! 77. Being Seen: One Deafblind Woman's Fight to End Ableism by Elsa Sjunneson What it says on the tin. This is also a sort of combination of memoir, disability rights advocacy, and media criticism all rolled into one. If you're already up on disability activism, there might not be a lot in here that's surprising or new information, but this would be a really good introduction to the concept and the many many ways that disabled people and their needs are ignored (or worse) by society at large. 78. Into the Abyss: How a Deadly Plane Crash Changed the Lives of a Pilot, a Politician, a Criminal and a Cop by Carol Shaben About a plane crash in remote Canada in 1984, told by the daughter of one of the survivors (the Politician of the title). A lot of detail is given about the circumstances that lead to the crash (a lot having to do with lax aviation regulation enforcement at the time), and then the latter half of the book focuses on what happened to the survivors after the crash, giving mini-biographies of each. An interesting read, but not quite a must-read, at least for me. (It also went into court proceedings after the crash which ticked it down a few points for me personally.) 1. Set a goal for number of books and/or another personal challenge. Total: 78/52 Nonfiction: 17/10 Moby Dick: 1/1 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are not written by men. ~45/78 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 25% of them are written by writers of colour. ~22/78 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 8% of them are written by LGBTQ writers. ~32/78 5. Read something originally published... a. In the past year [Light from Uncommon Stars - 2021] b. At least 5 years ago [Ninefox Gambit - 2016] c. At least 25 years ago [The Sparrow - 1996] d. At least 50 years ago [Master and Commander - 1970] e. At least 100 years ago [Moby Dick - 1851] f. At least 250 years ago [The Female Quixote - 1752] g. At least 500 years ago [The Art of War - 5th century BCE] 6. Read two works by the same author [Ninefox Gambit and Raven Stratagem - Yoon Ha Lee] 7. Read something by a disabled author [Being Seen] 8. Read an issue of a story-focused/literary magazine (there are many available online entirely for free!) [Seize the Press, Vol. 1] 9. Read an anthology or collection containing the work of more than one author [Book of Queer Saints] 10. Read something from a genre you rarely or never read [Romance - Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics] 11. Read something about exploration [Icebound] 12. Read something about transformation [Wingspan of Severed Hands] 13. Read something about film or television [Experimental Film] 14. Read something fictional, based (however loosely) on a historical event [Master and Commander] 15. Read something written by an author living in the opposite hemisphere from you where you currently live/the one you'd call home (North/South and/or East/West - Bonus Points* for both axes!) [Tender is the Flesh] 16. Read something about mountains [Buried in the Sky] 17. Read something you've been meaning to read for a while, but haven't yet [Moby Dick] 18.Re-read something you love [We Have Always Lived in the Castle] 19. Read something scary [Tell Me I'm Worthless] 20. Look through some other Book Barn threads (or the Discord) and pick a book suggested or discussed there to read (Bonus Points* if you also post in that thread to discuss the book once you've read it!) [The March North] 21.Ask someone in this thread for a Wildcard to read OR read something that was explicitly recommended to you either by someone you know, or by someone in another thread in The Book Barn (Bonus Points* if you do both!) [Murderous Dr. Cream] 22. Read something that will teach you something new (and briefly tell us what you learned!) [Icebound - Did you know that polar bear livers contain so much Vitamin A that it's toxic for a human to eat it? The Barents expedition found that out the hard way!]
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Dec 1, 2022 21:57
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I will do this for 2023
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Dec 3, 2022 19:38
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16: GPS by Paul Ceruzzi/Spaceflight by Michael Neufeld (MIT Press) which I will count as half books each about the history of practical space stuff. Honestly I was shocked that this was actually readable but it was just a fairly dry but detailed overview of GPS systems and spaceflight. The GPS one I was basically reading for my work (I do surveying) and I found it pretty interesting. The second one for fun was honestly insanely brutal just really deconstructing a bunch of the cold war triumphalist narratives about spaceflight. It mostly accomplished this by detailing all the turf war infighting and clashing personalities of the leaders involved which really showed what a clown show these projects could be. It also showed how only after apollo there was a push to get alot of space science done which was really in the backseat for the duration of the program. Meanwhile the soviet space program basically immediately tripped over itself though they eventually did manage to partially recover after reorganizing themselves. That said they always had problems with quality control on parts and it doomed a bunch of their missions which should have worked otherwise if they had just done QA/QC. The other stuff was just a general history of "astroculture" and a meditation on the both the political failures and successes spaceflight and it was a pretty interesting but sobering read.
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Dec 4, 2022 07:05
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Closing in on this thing. Should definitely wrap up, though I'm slow getting through this literary magazine. Decent month for November, numberswise. A couple were a little disappointing. Also, fixed a numbering issue, so now this and goodreads agrees on how many I've read. 66. Invisible Things by Mat Johnson - A research mission to Jupiter finds a colony of humans living unexpectedly on one of the moons. They seem to be living peacefully with many needs provided. Yet sinister things work. Definitely satire by way of sci-fi. Not surprising if you know Johnson. 67. Self Portrait with Nothing by Aimee Potwatka - When she's approached by a probate lawyer, an anthropologist learns what she's long suspected, that her mother is a famous artist. But she's just missing, not dead, so Poppy sets out to find her. As she investigates she starts to learn that maybe there's something to the rumors that her mother paints "alternate" versions of the people in her portraits. Pretty decent sci-fi type deal. 68. The City Inside by Samit Basu - In a near future India, Joey, our heroine, is a "reality creator" for one of the biggest local social media stars. When a PR crisis occurs, all of our characters start to wonder if they can't do something bigger. This was interesting. The future felt well realized, like believably India in 20 years. It felt maybe a little unsatisfying somewhere. 69. Fish Swimming in Dappled Sunlight by Riku Onda - The pitch here is a couple who are splitting spending their last night together trying to figure out which had killed a tour guide on a trip to the mountains. Somehow there's more than that, but it feels sort of soap opera-y and disappointing, I thought. 70. The Big Man's Daughter by Owen Fitzstephen - Sort of a continuation of Maltese Falcon with a girl trying to get away from the whole scene after her father was killed. Inevitably, she winds up involved in another search for the bird. All the while, she reads a book that's a sort of sequel to Wizard of Oz about a grown up Dorothy trying to live her life after all that. I enjoy noir and story with in a story things, so was hopeful, but ultimately thought this a little flat. 71. The Alchemist by Paolo Coehlo - A young man goes off in search of treasure and learns secrets of the universe. Eh. 72. The Unwilling Warlord by Lawrence Watt Evans - from the SFF Thread favorite Eshthar series. A gambler is picked up by a group of soldiers because he's the hereditary warlord of a tiny kingdom he's never heard of. Upon arrival he learns they're about to be wiped out by an alliance of their enemies. And so it goes. Each solution provides new problems, and it's humorous without being slapsticky. A good fantasy palate cleanser. Ben Nevis posted:1. Noor by Nnedi Okorafor
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Dec 8, 2022 00:16
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Fell off the wagon hard this year. Just a really miserable time. The books so far:
THE 2022 CHALLENGE: I messed up the book numbers here at some point and I just cannot sort it out so those aren't totally accurate. 1. a. Set a goal for number of books and/or another personal challenge. 31/60 books 1. b. 10 "classics". 1/10 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are not written by men. 14/ 5, 6, 12, 15, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 27, 28, 30, 31 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 25% of them are written by writers of colour. 10/ 1, 2, 3, 8, 12, 15, 18, 22, 24, 33 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 8% of them are written by LGBTQ writers. 1 31 I think, I’m not confident in my research on this. 5. Read something originally published...
8. Read an issue of a story-focused/literary magazine (there are many available online entirely for free!) 9. Read an anthology or collection containing the work of more than one author 10. Read something from a genre you rarely or never read 11. Read something about exploration 13. Read something about film or television 14. Read something fictional, based (however loosely) on a historical event 20. Look through some other Book Barn threads (or the Discord) and pick a book suggested or discussed there to read (Bonus Points* if you also post in that thread to discuss the book once you've read it!) *Bonus Points are entirely made up and can be whatever reward you feel like you deserve and/or makes you feel good for taking the extra effort! I don't enforce the rules, I just suggest them!
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Dec 9, 2022 02:23
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tuyop posted:Fell off the wagon hard this year. Just a really miserable time. It happens! No need to beat yourself up about it. Finishing thirty-plus books is still drat impressive, especially if you really enjoyed some of them!
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Dec 10, 2022 19:02
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Gertrude Perkins posted:It happens! No need to beat yourself up about it. Finishing thirty-plus books is still drat impressive, especially if you really enjoyed some of them! I thought I'd just use Goodreads to keep track but it's missing a bunch, even though I was pretty diligent about updating my read statuses. Couple weeks maybe I'll take a deeper dive through things and add any missing stuff.
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Dec 13, 2022 20:07
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tuyop posted:I thought I'd just use Goodreads to keep track but it's missing a bunch, even though I was pretty diligent about updating my read statuses. Couple weeks maybe I'll take a deeper dive through things and add any missing stuff. I've not put the dates in when marking something read and it won't show up in the chronological "books read" at a reasonable spot.
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Dec 13, 2022 21:06
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I'm gonna try and finish up the dawn of everything today. For book number 17 though I'm still disappointed I didn't manage to read all the books I wanted to but on the other hand I'm kinda impressed I read this many and it's the most I read in years. Edit: I forgot I finished masters of doom so dawn of everything would be book 18. Masters of doom was pretty good honestly though.
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Dec 31, 2022 19:18
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19: The Dawn of everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow Pretty good though extremely dense and I'll probably have to reread the end section because I was sorta flying through it. Definitely opinionated and that's mostly fine but I had issues with some of the claims but there is plenty of room for nuance about them. Graeber  and Wengrow still can tell a very compelling narrative and it ends on some of the most powerful messages I can think of so it's really an incredibly positive book. I would recommend it.
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Dec 31, 2022 21:26
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Think I'm about wrapped for the year, my first time passing 52 books in a year since I started keeping track! 1. The Happiest Song Plays Last by Quiara Alegria Hudes 2. Paradise by Abdulrazak Gurnah 3. Scratches and Glitches: Observations on Preserving and Exhibiting Cinema in the Early 21st Century by Jurij Meden 4. Dream Story by Arthur Schnitzler 5. Reform or Revolution and Other Writings by Rosa Luxemburg 6. Ring by Koji Suzuki 7. The Breasts of Tiresias by Guillaume Apollinaire 8. Kingdom Come by J.G. Ballard 9. The Letter Killer's Club by Sigizmund Krzhishanovsky 10. My Dearest Darkest by Kayla Cottingham 11. Grey Bees by Andrey Kurkov 12. Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets by Svetlana Alexievich 13. From Main Street to Mall: The Rise and Fall of the American Department Store by Vicki Howard 14. Crash by J.G. Ballard 15. Sejanus by Ben Jonson 16. Retail Apocalypse edited by Fredi Fischli, Niels Olsen and Adam Jasper 17. Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix 18. From the Streets of Shaolin: The Wu-Tang Saga by S.H. Fernando Jr. 19. Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre 20. Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood 21. ADHD 2.0: New Science and Essential Strategies for Thriving with Distraction -- from Childhood Through Adulthood by Edward M. Hallowell and John J. Ratey 22. The Pope's Mustard-Maker by Alfred Jarry 23. Liarmouth: A Feel-Bad Romance by John Waters 24. The Ubu Plays by Alfred Jarry 25. Alfred Jarry: A Pataphysical Life by Alastair Brotchie 26. The Master Key by Masako Togawa 27. Rorschach by Tom King, Jorge Fornes and Dave Stewart 28. The Collected Shorter Plays by Samuel Beckett 29. Of Walking in Ice: Munich -- Paris, 23 November -- 14 December 1974 by Werner Herzog 30. 'Pataphysics: A Useless Guide by Andrew Hugill 31. All the Wrong Moves: A Memoir About Chess, Love and Ruining Everything by Sasha Chapin 32. Italian Futurist Poetry edited by Willard Bohn 33. The Lost Daughter by Elena Ferrante 34. The Twilight World by Werner Herzog 35. Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe 36. Kaspar and Other Plays by Peter Handke 37. The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick by Peter Handke 38. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky 39. Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus by Rick Perlstein 40. Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion 41. 100 Selected Poems by e.e. cummings 42. A Season in Hell and The Drunken Boat by Arthur Rimbaud 43. My Immortal by Tara Gilesbie 44. Water, Wasted by Alex Branson 45. A Sorrow Beyond Dreams by Peter Handke 46. Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot 47. Suicide by Edouard Leve 48. Poems 1962 - 2012 by Louise Gluck 49. White Teeth by Zadie Smith 50. Day of the Oprichnik by Vladimir Sorokin 51. Russian Dada, 1914 - 1924 edited by Margarita Tupitsyn 52. Ghosts by Cesar Aira 53. On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong 54. Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson 55. Love Sonnets and Madrigals to Tommaso de'Cavalieri by Michelangelo Buonarroti 56. Behold a Pale Horse by Milton William Cooper 57. The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy 58. American Pastoral by Philip Roth 59. Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion 60. The Autonomous City: A History of Urban Squatting by Alexander Vasudevan 61. Stella Maris by Cormac McCarthy I didn't sign up to do Booklord this year but curious how much I checked off without even trying to do it: 1. Set a goal for number of books and/or another personal challenge. -- 61/52 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are not written by men. - 26% 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 8% of them are written by LGBTQ writers. - Unclear but I think at least about 15%, not checking orientation of every author but Jarry, Waters, Cottingham, Kobabe, Vuong, Michelangelo I know for sure, I think Togawa too? 5. Read something originally published... a. In the past year - The Passenger/Stella Maris b. At least 5 years ago - Scratches and Glitches c. At least 25 years ago - White Teeth d. At least 50 years ago - Play It As It Lays e. At least 100 years ago - The Ubu Plays f. At least 250 years ago - Sejanus g. At least 500 years ago - The Love Sonnets might fall just short by a couple decades, think Michelangelo didn't meet Tommaso until 1532. 6. Read two works by the same author -- Didion, McCarthy, Handke, Herzog, Jarry 7. Read something by a disabled author Unsure 9. Read an anthology or collection containing the work of more than one author -- Italian Futurist Poetry, Russian Dada, Retail Apocalypse 10. Read something from a genre you rarely or never read -- YA, My Dearest Darkest 11. Read something about exploration -- The Herzogs I think count 12. Read something about transformation -- How are we defining this? Gender Queer I suppose counts. 13. Read something about film or television -- Scratches and Glitches 14. Read something fictional, based (however loosely) on a historical event -- Sejanus 15. Read something written by an author living in the opposite hemisphere from you where you currently live/the one you'd call home (North/South and/or East/West - Bonus Points* for both axes!) -- The Master Key 17. Read something you've been meaning to read for a while, but haven't yet -- Play It As It Lays 18. Re-read something you love -- Reread Ubu Roi as part of the Ubu Plays 19. Read something scary -- Horrorstor 22. Read something that will teach you something new (and briefly tell us what you learned!) -- The Autonomous City, learned a lot about housing issues in 20th century Europe! TrixRabbi fucked around with this message at 21:54 on Dec 31, 2022 |
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Dec 31, 2022 21:34
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quote:
I finished eight books in December, bringing my total to 101...kind of. 94 - Lucent Dreaming, Issue 10. A high-production-value colour collection of short prose, poetry, and illustrations. Some of these were pretty affecting, such as a story about people who start floating, or a woman turning into a tree at the end of her life. Others were less interesting or simply didn't hit me in the right way. Still, more good than bad in this, and I'm tempted to pick up the next issue. 95 - No End Will Be Found, by Gretchen Felker-Martin. Relentlessly miserable and grisly story of a young woman captured, tortured and executed for witchcraft. Felker-Martin spares no detail in the gruelling ordeal her protagonist endures, and the only catharsis is death. Cheerful stuff. 96 - Moonflowers and Nightshade: and Anthology of Sapphic Horror, ed. by Samantha Kolesnik. Picked this up because a friend's story is included in it! Hers is one of the better ones, but there's a good mix of different horror and spooks, love and longing and doomed romance. There are werewolves, changelings, poisonings, and the final story is a particularly unpleasant and gore-soaked fantasy tale of cannibalism and dark magic. 97 - The Seven Deaths Of Evelyn Hardcastle, by Stuart Turton. I wanted to love this, but the weirdly horrific way Turton writes his sole fat character seriously put me off. That aside, this is a deeply engrossing and well-crafted time-loop mystery novel, with twists and revelations and a slow unravelling of things...that doesn't quite stick the landing, with the final parts of the book feeling a little clumsy and not quite satisfying. Still, a great puzzle and some very self-indulgent period drama to go along with it. 98 - Hot Head, by Simon Ings. Extremely 1992, from the postcyberpunk SF trappings to the bizarre "end of history" era worldbuilding that has aged like milk. The book is a mess with occasional moments of brilliance (one particularly good sequence sees the protagonist and her crew exploring a space colony full of overgrown meat-tech). Unfortunately the pieces don't fit together very well, with only two? three? interestingly-written characters, random acts of violence and trauma, and a tarot card theme that barely pays off. Also the printing I read had some really bad typos and missing punctuation all over the place. Overall a disappointing and frustrating experience that had some scenes that I enjoyed a lot - but only some. 99 - The Young Visiters, by Daisy Ashford. This is certainly a book written by a nine-year-old girl in 1890. It's charming, ephemeral, and an interesting window into the culrural norms of the time filtered through a child's imagination and sense of excitement. Lots of detail about clothing and food and a clear idea of class aspiration and romance. The foreword by J.M. Barrie is interesting, too - I can see why this was such a beloved thing when it was released. There are a number of really lovely and strange turns of phrase, with a comedy-of-manners plot based on weird assumptions about, for instance, what a gentleman is. Very fun and odd and a delightful curio. 100 - Upright Women Wanted, by Sarah Gailey. Short future-Western adventure about sapphic self-discovery and horseback violence. Sweet and uplifting but also a lot of fun, with a world sketched out in just enough detail to make things slot into place. A nice way to end the year. 101 - The Complete Maus, by Art Spiegelman. Except I didn't end the year with that, I ended it by binge-reading Maus, and it's still as crushing and miserable and beautifully composed as I remember, if not more so. This hits me much harder as an adult than when I read it as a teen, and some moments are just heartbreaking. It's gooooood. [s]22. Read something that will teach you something new (and briefly tell us what you learned!) That's not the whole story, though. Because I also read the entirety of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Part 7: Steel Ball Run, and Part 8: JoJoLion. Which, if I count volumes, are an extra fifty on top of that, for a final total of 151 books. But I didn't track those too because they'd throw the rest of the tracking way off. Not counting comics, I read 73 books this year. Comic pages read: 15,192 Non-comic pages read: 20,693 Average pages/book (non-comic): 292 Total pages read: 35,885 Average pages/book: 238 Average pages/day: 98 This is almost double last year's pace, which I do not expect to predict my booklording in the new year! Thank you DurianGray for lording over this year in book!!! Looking forward to next year. Gertrude Perkins fucked around with this message at 00:27 on Jan 2, 2023 |
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Jan 2, 2023 00:17
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I finished 11 books in December (a handful of them were ones I had been halfway through for a while, so I was doing some housekeeping to finish them before the new year). I think my count in the thread also got off somewhere along the way, but according to my storygraph account and my physical reading notebook, I read a total of 86 books this year! (But about the same page count as last year, so I read fewer but longer books than I did last year.) 76. Sitka by Louis L'amour My dad doesn't read a lot, but he has a lifelong love of Louis L'amour and he figured I'd enjoy this since it's a western, AND it also has a lot of sailing and navel battle type scenes, and even an escape sequence across Russia. I did enjoy it, and it was really interesting to see the sort of style and format that I suppose was more typical of 50s adventure novels (or at least L'amour's). 77. Serious Weakness by Porpentine Charity Heartscape A book that broke a glass bottle over my head and then proceeded to find new and horrible ways to grind the glass shards into my brain. Easily the most hosed up thing I read this year (maybe in my life so far!) and that's saying something. That said, Porpentine is an incredible writer and this book wouldn't have nearly had the impact on me it did if she wasn't. But I definitely would not recommend this to 99% of people, it's rough. 78. Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany I hadn't read any Delany yet and Dhalgren seemed like an interesting place to start. It was! Very slow paced, a sort of picaresque about a guy with partial amnesia who ends up exploring an extremely strange city and meeting its equally eccentric inhabitants. It's sort of sci-fi, but almost more fantastical. Sort of hard to describe in general, but it's definitely 70s as hell. 79. The Oleander Sword by Tasha Suri The second in a fantasy trilogy (in an India-inspired setting that has some really interesting but not overwhelming worldbuilding) and actually really good! It manages to avoid a lot of the pitfalls that seem common in second books and the plot and characters moved forward and escalated in interesting ways (basically, it didn't feel like the book was only there to set everything up for the third -- it had its own arcs). Really interested to see where the third book goes! 80. A Taste of Gold and Iron by Alexandra Rowland A lite-fantasy romance in a sort of Turkish/Ottoman(?) inspired setting (or at least the language is). The romance is a prince-and-bodyguard deal, but it's definitely a slow burn. Most of the plot focuses on the prince's recurring panic attacks (and attempts to hide them from everyone else since he thinks it's a personal failing/cowardice) and a counterfeiting mystery that escalates into more action sequences than I'd expected. Would recommend to people who enjoyed Winter's Orbit/Ocean's Echo and want more in that vein. 81. Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir I don't know why it took me so long to actually finish this but I'm glad I did. The series continues to be structurally/narratively weird (that said, this is more accessible in a lot of ways than Harrow was, IMO, even if it's still not 100% clear wtf is happening), and I'm here for it. This definitely is a lot more ponderous and slow than Gideon or Harrow, especially the first half, but it does pick up toward the end. 82. Chainsaw Man Vol. 1 by Tatsuki Fujimoto I'd been wanting to check this series out for a while after hearing people talk about how weird it is, and a friend happened to have it and leant it to me. This first volume is sort of standard shonen manga fare (though a lot gorier than I was expecting) but I can see how it would get increasingly weird. I'm definitely planning to check out more! 83. Witch Hat Atelier Vol. 1 by Kamome Shirahama Another manga loaned to me by the same friend. I had heard about it somewhere before and was interested but didn't have any expectations. This is cute and has some incredible artwork! Sort of Howl's Moving Castle vibes (at least the movie) with a girl who always wanted to learn magic but didn't think she could until she accidentally casts a spell that turns her mother into stone. Then she's taken on as an apprentice by a visiting witch. I'd like to read more of this too, at least for the artwork if nothing else. 84. The Last Hero by Linden A. Lewis I've mostly enjoyed this space opera trilogy and the escalation in this continues on a decent trajectory from the previous 2 books, but it didn't quite stick the landing for me. It seemed sort of ridiculous that one of the main factions essentially commits an act of genocide against the super powerful but usually isolationist AI hivemind, which causes the AIs to want to exterminate all humans. But then the rest of the main characters are able to save the world(s) by giving an extremely brief, 'but sometimes people are nice!' speech. Just felt sort of silly after everything else in the rest of the series. 85. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer A nonfiction memoir/science work that I really wish I had read sooner. Kimmerer narrates the audiobook and she has an incredibly soothing voice, so I highly recommend the audiobook if you're into them. A lot of the major takeaways boil down to 'don't be greedy about natural resources' and 'it's not always bad for humans to interact with nature' which is simple on the one hand, but her delivery and examples are all really interesting (and a few definitely made me tear up). 86. Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield This was my last book of the year. It's pretty good! A very 'literary' sort of horror (maybe even horror-lite?) about a woman and her wife who Comes Back Wrong after being on long submarine scientific expedition. I kind of wished there was a little more horror to it, but it's also got a lot of romance to it that was pretty compelling (in the, 'these people have been together for a very long time, and that means something, but things are different now' way -- not the meet-cute way). 1. Set a goal for number of books and/or another personal challenge. Total: 86/52 Nonfiction: 18/10 Moby Dick: 1/1 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are not written by men. ~53/86 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 25% of them are written by writers of colour. ~28/86 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 8% of them are written by LGBTQ writers. ~37/86 5. Read something originally published... a. In the past year [Light from Uncommon Stars - 2021] b. At least 5 years ago [Ninefox Gambit - 2016] c. At least 25 years ago [The Sparrow - 1996] d. At least 50 years ago [Master and Commander - 1970] e. At least 100 years ago [Moby Dick - 1851] f. At least 250 years ago [The Female Quixote - 1752] g. At least 500 years ago [The Art of War - 5th century BCE] 6. Read two works by the same author [Ninefox Gambit and Raven Stratagem - Yoon Ha Lee] 7. Read something by a disabled author [Being Seen] 8. Read an issue of a story-focused/literary magazine (there are many available online entirely for free!) [Seize the Press, Vol. 1] 9. Read an anthology or collection containing the work of more than one author [Book of Queer Saints] 10. Read something from a genre you rarely or never read [Romance - Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics] 11. Read something about exploration [Icebound] 12. Read something about transformation [Wingspan of Severed Hands] 13. Read something about film or television [Experimental Film] 14. Read something fictional, based (however loosely) on a historical event [Master and Commander] 15. Read something written by an author living in the opposite hemisphere from you where you currently live/the one you'd call home (North/South and/or East/West - Bonus Points* for both axes!) [Tender is the Flesh] 16. Read something about mountains [Buried in the Sky] 17. Read something you've been meaning to read for a while, but haven't yet [Moby Dick] 18.Re-read something you love [We Have Always Lived in the Castle] 19. Read something scary [Tell Me I'm Worthless] 20. Look through some other Book Barn threads (or the Discord) and pick a book suggested or discussed there to read (Bonus Points* if you also post in that thread to discuss the book once you've read it!) [The March North] 21.Ask someone in this thread for a Wildcard to read OR read something that was explicitly recommended to you either by someone you know, or by someone in another thread in The Book Barn (Bonus Points* if you do both!) [Murderous Dr. Cream] 22. Read something that will teach you something new (and briefly tell us what you learned!) [Icebound - Did you know that polar bear livers contain so much Vitamin A that it's toxic for a human to eat it? The Barents expedition found that out the hard way!]
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Jan 2, 2023 18:06
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The NEW 2023 THREAD IS HERE: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=4021041 Go ahead and join up! Feel free to keep posting any 2022 updates here though! Gertrude Perkins posted:Thank you DurianGray for lording over this year in book!!! Looking forward to next year. Aww, thank you! And thanks for the feedback on the prompts ideas for 2023!
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Jan 2, 2023 20:42
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I finished, but am out of town, will finish up reviews and whatnot in a week.
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Jan 3, 2023 07:40
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I have been very remiss in keeping up with this (I used to post in these every month!) but I'll hopefully have a year-end post soon. I most definitely did not complete the Booklord Challenge, but I hit 138 books total, so that's nice.
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Jan 3, 2023 17:43
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July 72. The Kraken Wakes - John Wyndham 73. The City in the Middle of the Night - Charlie Jane Anders 74. The Heart of What Was Lost (Last King of Osten Ard #0.5) - Tad Williams 75. The Witchwood Crown (Last King of Osten Ard #1) - Tad Williams 76. Crying in H-Mart - Michelle Zauner 77. Empire of Grass (Last King of Osten Ard #2) - Tad Williams 78. Into the Narrowdark (Last King of Osten Ard #3) - Tad Williams 79. A Prayer for the Crown-Shy - Becky Chambers (L) 80. The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck 81. The Lioness - Chris Bohjalian (L) 82. Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line - Deepa Anappara August 83. The Calculating Stars (Lady Astronauts #1) - Mary Robinette Kowal 84. H is for Hawk - Helen McDonald 85. Los Alamos - Joseph Kanon 86. Chess Story - Stefan Zweig 87. The Fated Sky (Lady Astronauts #2) - Mary Robinette Kowal 88. Crooked House - Agatha Christie 89. Imajica - Clive Barker 90. Naked Earth - Eileen Chang 91. Boxers - Gene Luen Yang (L) 92. Hey, Kiddo - Jarrett J. Krosoczka September 93. The Relentless Moon (Lady Astronauts #3) - Mary Robinette Kowal 94. Babel - R.F. Kuang 95. Saints - Gene Luen Yang (L) 96. Sag Harbor - Colson Whitehead 97. The Plague of Doves - Louise Erdrich 98. All the Crooked Saints - Maggie Stiefvater 99. What a Carve-Up! - Jonathan Coe 100. Stone Junction - Jim Dodge 101. How to Read Now - Elaine Castillo (L) 102. The High Desert: Black. Punk. Nowhere. - James Spooner (L) 103. The Mapping of Love and Death - Jacqueline Winspear 104. American Born Chinese - Gene Luen Yang (L) October 105. Middlemarch - George Eliot 106. The Terror - Dan Simmons 107. Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands - Kate Beaton 108. Sailing to Sarantium (Sarantine Mosaic #1) - Guy Gavriel Kay 109. Macbeth - William Shakespeare 110. Mercury Pictures Presents - Anthony Marra 111. Home Fire - Kamila Shamsie 112. The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger 113. Lord of Emperors (Sarantine Mosaic #2) - Guy Gavriel Kay 114. Gideon the Ninth - Tamsyn Muir 115. The Shadow King - Maaza Mengiste 116. The Golden House - Salman Rushdie November 117. Our Missing Hearts - Celeste Ng (L) 118. Fight Night - Miriam Toews (L) 119. Pride - Ibi Zoboi 120. Harrow the Ninth - Tamsyn Muir 121. Rules of Civility - Amor Towles 122. Kitchen - Banana Yoshimoto 123. Beneath a Scarlet Sky - Mark Sullivan 124. In the Distance - Hernan Diaz 125. Snow Country - Yasunari Kawabata (L) 126. Jingo - Terry Pratchett 127. Checkout 19 - Claire-Louise Bennett (L) 128. The Last of the Wine - Mary Renault December 129. Mating - Norman Rush 130. The Violin Conspiracy - Brendan Slocumb (L) 131. Olga Dies Dreaming - Xochitl Gonzalez 132. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow - Gabrielle Zevin (L) 133. V for Vendetta - Alan Moore 134. My Volcano - John Elizabeth Stinzi (L) 135. The Rabbit Hutch - Tess Gunty (L) 136. Fairy Tale - Stephen King (L) 137. Legendborn - Tracy Deonn 138. The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida - Shehan Karunatilaka Not bad for a second half of the year. Best books included: -Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow: two friends make video games together -In the Distance: an unconventional Western (a dude heads east from the west coast after taking the wrong boat) -H is for Hawk: a memoir about taking care of a hawk -Babel: a historical fantasy about imperialism and linguistics -Mercury Pictures Presents: Hollywood in the 1940s from the perspective of artists who fled fascism, now trying to make art to fight it 1. Set a goal for a number of books and/or another personal challenge. (138/100) 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are not written by men. (46%) 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are written by writers of colour. (24%) 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 8% of them are written by LGBTQ writers. (12%) 5. Read something originally published... a. b. c. d. e. At least 100 years ago - Middlemarch f. g. At least 500 years ago Didn't Do 6. 7. 8. Read an issue of a story-focused/literary magazine (there are many available online entirely for free!) Didn't Do 9. Read an anthology or collection containing the work of more than one author - Didn't Do 10. 11. 12. 13. Read something about film or television - Mercury Pictures Presents 14. 15. Read something written by an author living in the opposite hemisphere from you where you currently live/the one you'd call home (North/South and/or East/West - Bonus Points* for both axes!) - Snow Country or Kitchen - both from Japan. 16. Read something about mountains - My Volcano 17. 18. 19. Read something scary - The Terror 20. Look through some other Book Barn threads (or the Discord) and pick a book suggested or discussed there to read (Bonus Points* if you also post in that thread to discuss the book once you've read it!) - Snow Country (BB BOTM for November) 21. Ask someone in this thread for a Wildcard to read OR read something that was explicitly recommended to you either by someone you know, or by someone in another thread in The Book Barn (Bonus Points* if you do both!) - Legendborn (recommended by a colleague who teaches 9th grade) 22. Read something that will teach you something new (and briefly tell us what you learned!) - DUCKS - learned about the oil sands of Alberta
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Jan 8, 2023 16:28
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Sure. I'll be the last one. All in all a decent year. Maybe fewer 5 star reads than typical. Maus is probably the best of the lot. I have a real soft spot for When I Sing Mountains Dance. I don't know what was so enthralling with it, but it was. I bet going forward maybe the book I recommend most is 84, Charing Cross Rd. 73. Drunk on All Your Strange New Words by Eddie Robson - A sci-fi mystery, where the translator for aliens tries to solve the murder of the alien she was assigned to translate for. This was interesting, and had a very exciting climax. Overall a fun read. 74. The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Sylvia Garcia Moreno - I was excited for this after Mexican Gothic, but on the whole it fell a bit short. Somewhat sluggish and it generally fell a little flat. 75. A Christmas Memory, One Christmas, The Thanksgiving Visitor by Truman Capote - A holiday collection of Capote Stories. All good, and A Christmas Memory might well be the sort of thing you ready every year to kick off the season. 76. Her Majesty's Royal Coven by Juno Dawson - When a powerful magical adept is discovered, suddenly all the oracles start prophesying the rising of Leviathan. Helena mobilizes Her Majesty's Royal Coven and her high school gal pal witches to try and help. spoiler alert: TERFs are horrible. Overall pretty solid book, apparently first in the series, as some stuff is left unresolved for book 2. I'll probably read it. 77. American Chordata Fall 2021 - A literary magazine with stories, poems, and essays. I read it. It was OK. Literally finished reading it on my phone at like 2200 on 12/31. Ben Nevis posted:1. Noor by Nnedi Okorafor
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Jan 11, 2023 19:29
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