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Tiggum posted:
I saw Fetish and Split together in an op shop and, having read and enjoyed The Fictional Woman, I wanted to give her a fiction a go. It's bad. I read the second one only because I already had it, and in the hope that she might have actually improved as a writer between the first and second books. She hadn't. The second one's actually worse. The first one is bland, forgettable, but ultimately not bad enough to be offensive. The second just doubles down on all the worst things about the first one while bringing absolutely nothing new to the table. I'd previously read Emma and enjoyed it so I was expecting to like Pride and Prejudice as well, but mostly I was just left wondering why this is the popular one. Emma was so much better. This one is just obnoxious people being mostly unlikable. And there are several characters that just don't seem to have any purpose in the story - like Kitty. Did Austen just think Elizabeth needed one more sister for some reason? Then I read Death Comes to Pemberley, which is just bad fanfiction. Not so bad it's funny, just so bad it's bad. The characters don't even read as the same people and the story has nothing to do with Pride and Prejudice - except for the occasional bits where James provides additional backstory and explanations for things in the original book that were perfectly fine as they were and didn't need any elaboration. I read Change Detectives for school and hated it. If you want to know how to put a lot of effort into lessons that kids aren't going to give two shits about, read this book. It just reminded me exactly why I always hated science classes in school. It's also very annoying to read because it's written more like a reference for people who already know what they're doing than as a set of instructions, so you have to flip forward and back to figure out what it's talking about. It reminded me of reading the instructions for one of those board games where the first paragraph tells you that you can spend Blah Tokens on Whatsit Cards but doesn't tell you how to earn Blah Tokens until paragraph five or what Whatsit Cards are until right near the end. If you know Clementine Ford's writing then you know what to expect of Boys Will Be Boys, but if you know Clementine Ford's writing then you're probably not going to find anything much new in this book. The Princess Diarist was pretty bland and forgettable. I'm not a particular fan of Carrie Fisher (although I've nothing against her either) so obviously I'm no the target audience, and I only read it because it was at my parents' house when I was looking for something to read there, but it was basically fine. My Diarrhe was exactly what I expected, which is basically the same as Miranda's YouTube videos but in book form. Pretty funny, but not a lot to it. I'd had Happy Snak sitting on my to-read list for a long time but kept avoiding it. I can't even really say why, it's just that the name is very unappealing to me for reasons I can't explain. I'd just look at it and go "... nah." But it turns out it's actually pretty good. Good characters, decent story, very pleasant read. The ending is maybe a little too convenient, but it's fine. I still hate the name though. Crows, Papua New Guinea, and Boats is not Thorne's best, and if you follow him online the you'll already have read some of it, but it's still pretty good. The funny bits are as funny as ever and he tells a good story even if he is obviously lying about a lot of it. I also finished The Magicians by Lev Grossman yesterday, which I'll have to include on next year's list, but which I wanted to mention as it was very good. One of those books that made me enjoy reading in the way I used to as a teenager; staying awake far too late because I don't want to stop and immediately wanting to start on the sequel as soon as I finished it. Reviews on Goodreads.
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Jan 2, 2019 13:20
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Well despite a three month stretch where I didn’t read anything at all, I ended up finishing the challenge! Go me! I may have read a few questionable “books” (short stories) but I’m counting it as a clear. My December books are below. 32. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume. I did this on audiobook. It was basically what I expected. I did learn that sixth grade girls are very catty. 33. There There by Tommy Orange. Book about urban Indians. I grew up next to the Cherokee Indian Reservation in North Carolina so it was interesting to read. 34. The Heat of the Sun by Kim Yu-Jeong. Short story set in Korea’s colonial period. 35. Malleus by Dan Abnett. Second Eisenhorn book. I am not a Warhammer fan but read the first as part of a small book club a couple years ago. I figured I would do the audiobook. I regret it. 36. Broken Strings by Kang Kyeong-ae. Another short story. 37. Lashing: Notes from a Prison Journal by Kim Dong-in. A short story about prison in the colonial period. Rough. 38. Rugged Rhymes by William Sidney Hillyer. Poetry! I am not a fan of poetry I guess. Or this is not good poetry. Likely the latter. 39. Hereticus by Dan Abnett. So much regret. 40. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. I think I would have enjoyed this more had I read it when I was 15. 41. The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Really enjoyed this. Sad but hopeful at the same time. — bonus: Make sure 10% of the books you read this year are by LGBT authors 1/31 — bonus: Participate in the SHAMEFUL The Greatest Books You've Never Read thread — bonus: Similarly, get a wildcard from another thread in this forum — bonus: Read literally the first in-person book recommendation you get in 2018 (solicited or not) — bonus: Read a book written/published the exact year you were born — bonus: Read something that wins an award in 2018, but only after it is announced (i.e. don't apply retroactively) — — bonus: Read something political from/about a country you aren't from and don't currently live in — bonus: Read poems by at least 10 different poets — bonus: Read short stories by at least 10 different authors — bonus: Read a play first published in the last 10 years — bonus: Read something about a (nonfictional) war that didn't involve the U.S. — bonus: Read something biographical about someone you've met/seen in person — bonus: Read a major religious text — bonus: Read something narrated in the 2nd person — bonus: Read something currently banned, censored, or challenged in its country of origin — bonus: Read something about a genre of music you're explicitly not a fan of — bonus: Read something about a future that takes place before the current year So there it is. That’s my Booklord Challenge complete! I hit all the major challenges, and 8 of the bonus challenges. It was a lot of fun! I read some books I would never have read otherwise if I had not done this challenge. Some of them were good, and some of them were bad. The only books I really didn’t like were the Warhammer books. Doing this challenge gave me a greater appreciation for literature, and helped me realize that just reading fantasy books is really not something I should do. There are so many good books out there, and I can’t wait to discover more. My top books this year were, in no particular order: Pachinko by Min Jin Lee The Overstory by Richard Powers (read with some friends in a local book club) The Twenty Days of Turin by Giorgio de Maria (thanks SA BotM) The Man with the Compound Eyes by Wu Ming-Yi (thanks Safety Biscuits! Sorry I didn’t do Christmas this year, money was tight.) Although there’s no Booklord for this year yet, I really hope something happens there soon. This challenge was really fun and helped me discover my love for reading again. Thanks Guy A. Person for setting this up and guiding it this past year, and thank you everyone for participating!
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Jan 2, 2019 14:30
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To start, a list. quote:1. Djinn City by Saad Hossein 90. The Emissary by Yoko Tawada - National Book Award winner for a translated work, this takes place in Japan, which has been closed off to outsiders due to an environmental crisis. This crisis has left the newest generation very weak, but somehow granted renewed vitality to the older generation leaving them (practically?) immortal. Most of this comes to light as Yoshiro reminisces and tries to care for his grandson Mumei. This was fairly disjointed and not a story so much as an exploration of this new Japan. Fundamentally this just didn't click for me. 91. Three Hearts and Three Lions by Poul Anderson - Sort of a classic fantasy with a modern man thrown into a fantasy world to find himself a legend. It was a solid read. It's a bit basic these days, but it's sort of the problem of being a founding work. So much has been done to build on it. Anderson was smart to keep this short and impactful instead of an epic series that drags out over a decade, which strikes me as the modern tendency. 92. I Didn't Talk by Beatriz Bracher - In post revolutionary Brazil, a man in haunted the revolution and the death of his friend. More specifically, because it's assumed that he ratted out the friend to the government. His decision not to talk and the presumption that he did still dogs him years later. Ultimately, I'm not sure what to make of this as I read it at a really busy time. It'd benefit from re-reading 93. Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells - Murderbot #3 and the best one yet. Making #4 a priority in the new year. After a handful of other books. 94. If on a winter's night a traveller by Italo Calvino - My final challenge book, I read hard for the last couple of days to finish up a 2nd person book on NYE around 14:30. It took me a bit to get into this and get a feel for it, but I wound up enjoying this. All told, it was a good year. No outright stinkers. Some really good books over all. I was about 10 books short of last years total and ~3200 pages short. I had a few shorter books this year that really just took a long time. I Didn't Talk took me way longer than any <200 page book should. There were a few other culprits as well. I wound up with 14 5 star books, which was higher than last year. And now for a few meaningless awards: Of the 9 short story compilations I read this year, the winner goes to Her Body and Other Parties, runner up Mutual UFO Network, a third you should read anyways Tales of Falling and Flying For Genre fiction, I'm giving it to Record of a Spaceborn Few with a runner up for Space Opera For Nonfiction my favorite this year was Eat the Apple Most ambitious book was Gnomon, which tells a story by telling a handful of unrelated stories, letting the reader piece together common elements. Favorite book in translation A Man Called Ove, I'm absolutely a sucker for this sort of story. Biggest Surprise: The Marvellous Equations of the Dread: A Novel in Bass Riddim Most confusing Goodreads rating: Tacky Goblin somehow this is higher than 4. And what you've all been waiting for, best book of the year was Lincoln in the Bardo. Thanks Guy A. Person for running this, it was a good challenge this year. Finally for anyone curious, the completed challenges and the books that completed them. I've edited out bonuses that weren't done and counted a bonus as completing the base challenge, if there wasn't another book to do so. All 22 and 10 bonuses. 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge - 94/80 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. 37 39.4% — bonus: Of these make sure half are by authors new to you: 29 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 28 29.8% — bonus: Of these make sure half are by authors new to you: 23 4. Read at least one book by an LGBT author. - The Merry Spinster 5. Participate in the TBB BotM thread at least once in 2018 (thread stickied each month at the top of the forum). - Lincoln in the Bardo 6. Ask another poster to issue you a wildcard, then read it. - Space and Place 7. Get a recommendation from a friend or loved one. — bonus: Read literally the first in-person book recommendation you get in 2018 (solicited or not) - A Man Called Ove 8. Read something written before you were born. - Lady Audley's Secret — bonus: Read a book written/published the exact year you were born - Going After Cacciato 9. Read a book published in 2018 (or if you're eager to start early, the latter half of 2017). - The Night Market — bonus: Read something that wins an award in 2018, but only after it is announced (i.e. don't apply retroactively) - The Friend 10. Read something translated from another language. - For Isabel, A Mandala 11. Read something political. - Any Man — bonus: Read something political from/about a country you aren't from and don't currently live in - Frankenstein in Baghdad 12. Read a poetry collection. - Blackacre 13. Read a collection of short stories. - Tales of Falling and Flying 14. Read a play. - Arcadia — bonus: Read a play first published in the last 10 years - Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike 15. Read something involving history. - John Woman — bonus: Read something about a (nonfictional) war that didn't involve the U.S. - The Opium War 16. Read something biographical. - Eat the Apple 17. Read something about religion. - The Marvellous Equations of the Dread 18. Read something from a non-traditional perspective. - Eat the Apple — bonus: Read something narrated in the 2nd person - If on a winters night a traveller 19. Read something that has been banned, censored, or challenged. - The Hate U Give 20. Read something about music. — bonus: Read something about a genre of music you're explicitly not a fan of - A Simple Habana Melody 21. Read something that involves Maslow's hierarchy of needs. — bonus: Read something about hunger - Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl 22. Read something about the future. - Punch Escrow Ben Nevis fucked around with this message at 00:09 on Jan 3, 2019 |
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Jan 2, 2019 19:56
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Recapping my list too so I can remember what the heck I read this year:quote:
And in December, I read: 96. The Rook - Daniel O’Malley - The tagline I kept seeing for this one was "X-Men meets MI5" and that's pretty much it in a nutshell. Some interesting twists and fun ideas, though I doubt it'll blow anybody away. If the elevator pitch interests you, you'll probably enjoy it just fine. 97. Raven Stratagem - Yoon Ha Lee - Apparently I'm in the deep minority for the fact that I liked this book much less than the first one. Lots of people seemed to dislike that Ninefox threw you deep in the middle of the setting without much exposition; I kind of liked it. This one was much weaker in my opinion, largely due to it being fairly focused on internal politics, but there wasn't much intrigue or compelling characters to keep me very enthused about the book. Still, I'm glad I read it, and it really improved at the end. I'm sure I'll read the third book at some point, but tbh I wasn't really blown away by this one. 98. Midnight Riot (aka Rivers of London) - Ben Aaronovitch - A fun, if by-the-numbers, urban fantasy that stands out mostly on the characters being reasonably interesting and not walking pillars of magical conquest, like so many of its peers. I tend to not judge UF series by the first book, since so many of them take a couple of books to hit a stride, so I'm curious to keep reading these and see where they go. 99-102. Four more Walt Longmire books - fun, quick, formulaic in a way that was easy on my very stressed brain, set in the midwest of my childhood (sort of). I would never say these are great books, and they most definitely qualify as a guilty pleasure. 103. Guards, Guards! - Terry Pratchett - Honestly, I feel like a genre bitch traitor in saying this, but I think my enthusiasm for Pratchett has waned the more I've read his books. I say that, but this was the first Discworld that felt like it was of a quality on par with most frequently-recommended fantasy novels. It's the first one that struck me as more than a string of connected jokes or vignettes with some sort of okay overarching plot. Overally, not as good as Discworld fans have led me to believe, but still good. 104. Ego is the Enemy - Ryan Holiday - This is a fairly recent, basically self-help book that's basically a baby's-first-stoicism-primer. I didn't get much revolutionary insight from it, but it was a good read for when I read it. It's sort of refreshing to read a book like this, which goes firmly against the kind of workaholic, type-A cult of personality that so many "life manuals" preach. Overall a good reminder to not tie your self-worth into your work more than is absolutely necessary. 105. Legend - David Gemmell - This was aggressively okay, for how often I've seen it show up on "best fantasy" lists. Nothing wrong with it, though it's a very by-the-numbers underdog story filled with a collection of heroes that all feel very familiar but kind of cheaply rendered. It was cozy in the sense that the story held really no surprising and the writing was fine, so I guess it was a good holiday read. I'd recommend a lot of other fantasy before it, though. 106. 14 - Peter Clines - This was a fun, unexpected mystery/horror/something book, basically centered around an apartment building that is weird. That's it, that's the whole initial hook for the book. I actually kind of appreciated a book where the main character's big motivation for getting involved in a bunch of bizarre poo poo is just "I wanna know what's going on". This took a lot of twists and turns I wasn't expecting. The ending felt rushed, and overall the book felt a little bit rigid, like the author had this idea for years and kind of had to force it into a shorter book than they'd like, but I enjoyed it enough to recommend it. Alright, that was a lot of books! More than I think I want to read in the future, honestly, as I lost the depth of some of the books, and in general I just want to take more time with books (that deserve time devoted to them). I'm gonna steal the idea from Ben Nevis and give out my own "awards": Best Genre Fiction because I doubt I could tell you my favorite book overall, is Night Film though I'm not certain what genre I'd even call it... probably a mystery? It just did such a good job of creating a compelling and unique setting, and left me guessing right up til the end. Totally came out of left field, too, as I didn't have any idea what I was getting into. I totally acknowledge that this book hit all the right notes for my personal taste, though, and I read it early enough in the year that I probably view it with at least slightly rose-tinted glasses. Runner up is probably Her Body and Other Parties, if only because I don't want to drat the book to the genre ghetto. Best Nonfiction even though I didn't care so much for the back quarter, was I'll Be Gone In The Dark. I think I said this when I first read it, but the biggest shortcoming to the book is that McNamara wasn't able to finish it. She tells such a compelling story, even beyond the tale of the GSK himself, and it's a pity that she never got to finish it. Admittedly, I didn't read a ton of non-fiction this year, but this stood out from the pack nonetheless. Biggest Disappointment is like a 20-way split between a bunch of bad horror novels and a couple of mediocre fantasy novels, though standouts include A God in the Shed for taking an interesting concept and bumbling it so badly, with such terrible writing, that I'm shocked the book got published, and Black Helicopters mostly because it's criminal that the publisher tied it so closely to the arguably superior Agents of Dreamland despite them not really having anything worthwhile in common beyond the author. If I learned one thing this year, it's that "Best (genre) Books" lists are just loving worthless, and also there's so little really good horror published in a year that it's a struggle to put together a genuinely worthwhile "Best 10 horror of 20XX" list, apparently. Biggest Surprise, aka The Book I Find Myself Thinking About A Whole Lot More Than Expected because like I said, I can't honestly pick out a favorite book, is Universal Harvester. It hit me in a very deep and unexpected way, and still resonates with me almost a year later. It's beautiful, and sorrowful, and it's a pity that it's been corralled as a "horror" novel, which is patently misrepresenting the book. Runner ups are definitely Twenty Days of Turin, which overall didn't astound me (though it's very good), but has some individual moments that I still think on and find haunting, and I'm Thinking of Ending Things, which is a book that is probably best approached blind. Best Book I Wouldn't Have Read If It Weren't For The Challenge is a three-way tie between Revenge, A Brief History of Seven Killings, and Human Acts. All three of these were beautiful and engaging reads, and while I was peripherally aware of all three, I doubt I would have picked them up if it weren't for the challenge. I'd like to say something pithy about these books, but honestly, just go read them instead. And finally, The Dubious Award for the Book I Don't Really Remember Reading goes to The Alienist. I think I blocked it out. I remember Teddy Roosevelt being in it, but couldn't tell you anything else about it. Overall, I'm really glad I did the challenge after all, though I don't usually need more reason to read a bunch of books. I acknowledge, however, that I sometimes need some motivation to read books that aren't just fluffy genre fare, so I'm glad I did the challenge for that reason, at least. edit: As far as the challenge goes, these are the ones I didn't complete: 6. Ask another poster to issue you a wildcard, then read it. — bonus: Read something that isn't in your primary language 17. Read something about religion. — bonus: Read a major religious text Reading a book in another language was pretty much never going to happen. I'm actually reading Ursula K. LeGuin's "translation"/adaptation of the Tao Te Ching, and had planned on reading that for challenge 17, but I decided it's something I want to take some more time with. Unfortunately for my wildcards, I just never really got going on either of them. Portrait of a Lady didn't do it for me at all (I don't care much for Henry James or that period/style of prose), and Harriet was a little too depressing for me around the time I picked it up. I may still read one or both of them, but honestly there's so many books I want to read I'm not sure when it'll happen. MockingQuantum fucked around with this message at 22:48 on Jan 2, 2019 |
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Jan 2, 2019 22:42
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This is a great thread and I'm happy everyone met their goals. I stopped logging my reading. I've learned that trying to keep up with this thread is just not conducive to my reading habits, and I end up reading less than I would without participating. I'm just not good at rigid reading goals, but I always find interesting books from the criteria. Anyway, new year, new books.
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Jan 2, 2019 23:08
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Been slammed at work but will post my own final tally in the next few days. Spoiler: I didn't complete me own drat challenge! (well not with bonuses at least) Also reminder that we could use a new book lord for the new year, if there's anyone who was considering volunteering.
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Jan 3, 2019 19:02
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Hey everyone! I am your Booklord for 2019! If everyone would just head over to this thread right here, let's get 2019 started!
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Jan 6, 2019 13:24
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I was doing so well and then tanked out at the end of the year, as I do every year because the dead of winter sucks. Which is also why this post is late and I have no energy to do much in the way of write ups (next year I'll have to be better about posting monthly and then maybe I'll get some write-ups in). But I did complete several added bonus challenges that I made for myself, the most crucial one being to read more fiction from my own country and more native american fiction. 1. 2. — 3. — [45][46][49][50][56][59][60][63][68][69][70][73][74][75][81][86] 22/34 — 4. — bonus: Make sure 10% of the books you read this year are by LGBT authors. – I honestly couldn't say because not every LGBT author is out to the public. Next time it might be better to make it about LGBT representation in the books themselves. — 5. — — 6. — bonus: Similarly, get a wildcard from another thread in this forum [77] – if you include taking a recommendation that was presented as, "Hey everyone, read this." — 7. — 8. — 9. — 10. — bonus: Read something that isn't in your primary language 11. — 12. — bonus: Read poems by at least 10 different poets [37][49][61][71][76] (I read random poems online but honestly can't say how many 13. — — 14. — bonus: Read a play first published in the last 10 years 15. — 16. — 17. — bonus: Read a major religious text 18. — 19. — 20. — 21. — 22. — 23. — 24. 25. 26. 1. The Ladies of Grace Adieu, Susanna Clarke (started 2017) 2. Salt: A World History, Mark Kurlansky (started 2017) 3. To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolfe (started 2017) 4. In Calabria, Peter S. Beagle 5. Lud in the Mist, Hope Mirrlees 6. Lincoln in the Bardo, George Saunders 7. A Taste of Honey, Kai Ashante Wilson 8. Periodic Tales, Hugh Aldersey-Williams 9. Hebrew Punk, Lavie Tidhar 10. Steering the Craft, Ursula K. LeGuin 11. The Power, Naomi Alderman 12. Fresh Complaint, Jeffrey Eugenides 13. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Phillip K. Dick (reread) 14. Gentlemen of the Road, Michael Chabon 15. The Runaway Species, Anthony Brandt & David Eagleman 16. Excession, Iain M. Banks 17. Dubliners, James Joyce 18. The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz 19. The Forever War, Joe Haldeman 20. Jennifer Government, Max Barry 21. Concrete Island, J. G. Ballard 22. Other Minds, Peter Godfrey-Smith 23. Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany's 24. The Unreal and the Real: Short Stories, Ursula K. Le Guin 25. Falling in Love with Hominids, Nalo Hopkinson 26. An Excess Male, Maggie Shen King 27. Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel 28. The Right Stuff, Tom Wolfe 29. Space Opera, Catherynne M. Valente 30. Invaders: SF Tales from the Outer Limits of Literature 31. Origin of Others, Toni Morrison 32. Call Me by Your Name, Andre Aciman 33. The Obelisk Gate, N. K. Jemisin 34. The Thing Around Your Neck, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 35. The Stone Sky, N.K. Jemisin 36. The Complete Fiction of Nella Larsen 37. A Pure Solar World: Sun Ra and the Birth of Afrofuturism, Paul Youngquist 38. Dance of the Jakaranda, Peter Kimani 39. Machine Man, Max Barry 40. The Electric Koolaid Acid Test, Tom Wolfe 41. An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth, Chris Hadfield 42. Atmospheric Disturbances, Rivka Galchen 43. Mothership: Tales of Afrofuturism and Beyond 44. Endurance: A Year in Space, Scott Kelly 45. Exit West, Mohsin Hamid 46. City of Brass, S. A. Chakraborty 47. Spineless: The Science of Jellyfish and the Art of Growing a Backbone, Juli Berwald 48. All Systems Red, Martha Wells 49. The Conference of Birds, Farid ud-Din Attar 50. The Accusation: Forbidden Stories from Inside North Korea, Bandi 51. Collected Stories, Gabriel Garcia Marquez 52. Invisible Cities, Italo Calvino 53. Time: A Traveler's Guide, Clifford A. Pickover 54. The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison 55. Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, Robin Sloan 56. The Inconvenient Indian, Thomas King 57. The 100-year-old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, Jonas Jonasson 58. The Found and the Lost: Novellas, Ursula K. Le Guin 59. Son of a Trickster, Eden Robinson 60. The Devourers, Indra Das 61. Words Are My Matter, Ursula K. Le Guin 62. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, Arundhati Roy 63. Turtle Island: The Story of North America's First People, Eldon Yellowhorn (I didn't realize this was a children's book when I put it on hold at the library. Read it anyway because, what the hell, I might learn something.) 64. The Peregrine, J. A. Baker 65. Private Pleasures: A Modern Egyptian Novel, Hamdy el-Gazzar 66. Green Grass, Running Water, Thomas King 67. The Sasquatch at Home, Eden Robinson 68. Trail of Lightening, Rebecca Roanhorse 69. Umami, Laia Jufresa 70. Floating City, Kerri Sakamoto 71. Flounder, Günter Grass 72. Witchmark, C. L. Polk 73. Ambiguity Machines and Other Stories, Vandana Singh 74. A Mosque Among the Stars (Short SFF) 75. Ernestine Shuswap Gets Her Trout, Highway Thomson 76. Songs of Innocence, and Songs of Experience, William Blake 77. Ice, Anna Kavan 78. Aspects of the Novel, E. M. Forster 79. My Stroke of Inspiration, Jill Bolte Taylor 80. The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje 81. So Long Been Dreaming: Postcolonial Science Fiction and Fantasy 82. Blindness, Jose Saramago 83. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey 84. Trickster Drift, Eden Robinson 85. Arcadia, Tom Stoppard 86. Washington Black, Esi Edugyan 87. How Do We Look, Mary Beard 88. Name of the Rose, Umbero Eco Flounder by Günter Grass was the one book I probably would have never thought to pick up if it wasn't for this challenge, but it looked like the most interesting published in the year of my birth (just the English translation, but whatever). It turned out to be one of my favorite books of the year and I wish I had more energy to write an essay about it because it was such a great book. And yeah, as mentioned above, the copy I picked up from the library was a first edition, so it had to be as old as I am, which was kind of cool. Seems not to be a popular book, otherwise that copy would have been trashed and replaced by now—especially since the binding glue was turning to dust. I had to be extrememly careful handling it. Edit: Also found the image I took of the worst book I read in 2018: Private Pleasures by Hamdy el-Gazzar. What does Egyptian sleazefic look like? Something like this:  In its favor, that's after the prostitute sex was broken up by a call to prayer, which I'm pretty sure was intended to be satirical. Also it's a translation, so who knows if the prose was this awful in the original. Stuporstar fucked around with this message at 21:17 on Jan 6, 2019 |
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Jan 6, 2019 20:56
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91. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J.K. Rowling 92. Flash for Freedom! - George MacDonald Fraser 93. The Reluctant Fundamentalist - Mohsin Hamid 94. Inside Out and Back Again - Thanhha Lai 95. Washington Black - Esi Edugyan (L) 96. City of Brass - R.A. Chakraborty 97. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowling 98. Rules for a Knight - Ethan Hawke 99. The Phantom Tollbooth - Norton Juster 100. Darkness at Noon - Arthur Koestler 101. Rose Under Fire - Katherine Wein 102. There There - Tommy Orange (L) 103. The Parking Lot Attendant - Nafkote Tamirat (L) Finishing up the year: I read a few laurel-winners of 2018 (There There, Washington Black) and reread a few favorites (Tollbooth, Potter). The Flashman series continues to be fun, and City of Brass was a promising start to another new trilogy. A short but excellent one was "The Reluctant Fundamentalist", by the writer who wrote Exit West - I get into that one more below. My challenge: 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge (103/36) 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. - Rowling, Lai, Edugyan, Chakraborty, Wein, Tamirat ----I ended this with almost 40% women! Nice! 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. - Hamid, Lai, Edugyan, Chakraborty, Orange, Tamirat ----I ended this one with just about 20% - 21 books out of 103. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Read a book published in 2018 (or if you're eager to start early, the latter half of 2017). - Washington Black, There There, The Parking Lot Attendant 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. Read something involving history. - Flash for Freedom, Rose Under Fire 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. My favorites of the year: Blackwater - A southern gothic drama with carnivorous lake monsters. Pachinko - A multigenerational story (I’m a sucker for those) about Korean immigrants in Japan and the discrimination they face. Idaho - A difficult tale to read about a family whose life is disrupted by a horrific act of violence; in the years and decades to follow, the tale only becomes murkier as motivations and memories fade. Still, amazingly written. Circe - The life story of a witch/demigoddess who was only a minor player in the Odyssey; in here, Odysseus is the minor player in her life. Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter - In a quiet Mississippi town, a man long suspected of an unsolved murder comes under suspicion again after another young girl disappears; the only person who could hold the key to the truth is the cop who, decades ago, was his only friend. Live by Night - Gangsters in Miami during Prohibition, what’s not to like? This is somewhat part of a series Lehane is writing about a family in the 1910s-1920s, but can be read on its own. Ahab’s Wife - Can be a companion piece to Moby-Dick, or could just be read on its own, it’s a beautiful story about a woman’s life in 19th century New England. My Antonia - Old school out on the prairie story about a girl from an immigrant family working hard and making (kind of) good throughout her life. Just a good story. The Year of the French - Fictionalized retelling of an Irish rising that was helped out by some French officers hoping to destabilize the Brits in their backyard. Things don’t go well. The Expanse - Good old fashioned science fiction for the fun of it, not really an “ideas” series as much as a pew-pew space thriller with cool interplanetary politics and mysterious alien technology. To the Bright Edge of the World - An epistolary novel, created of journals and letters between a husband and wife as the husband ventures into the vast Alaskan wilderness at the turn of the century. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down - A fascinating look at a cultural disconnect between Hmong refugees and American doctors, which results in disaster as a Hmong family’s daughter suffers from complications of epilepsy. An incredibly interesting cultural study and investigation into how to approach these seemingly impossible cultural dilemmas. The Known World - Differs from your usual slavery novel in that the slaveholders are, for the most part, black. (This was a thing that happened.) Reminds me of a less fantastical 100 Years of Solitude, as the narrative often wanders into the future and the past instead of keeping a strictly chronological retelling. Bridge of Clay - Markus Zusak’s followup to his megahit “The Book Thief” is, well, not as good as The Book Thief. It’s a hard one to measure up to, to be sure. But his story of five brothers - including the one of the title, Clay - does have his unique style as well as his endearing characters, and it’s worth a read. Everything I Never Told You/Little Fires Everywhere - Celeste Ng has a wonderful ability to tell the stories of families - mothers and daughters especially - and recognize the fault lines between cultures and ethnicities. Both of these books were quite wonderful, if in many ways quite sad. The Reluctant Fundamentalist - A short read, this is the tale of a young Pakistani man who comes to the U.S. to study at Princeton and work at a high-paying Wall Street job until he sees the effect of his adopted country on his own country. As the title suggests, he may not retain a particularly positive opinion of America, and the narration, spoken to an American audience in a Pakistani cafe, is entirely engaging. The Animators - A really good story about a friendship: two young women in art college team up and become underground heroes of animation, creating autobiographical movies about their childhoods and experiences, and the way they learn more about themselves through their work and how that affects the way they feel about each other. I feel like I’m underselling it? But it’s very good. Grant - A huge biography of a president I only knew a bit about; 960 pages later I emerged with a lot of information about the Civil War and Reconstruction, and a new concept of “that one guy whose administration was super corrupt.”
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Jan 7, 2019 17:12
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43. The Monster Baru Cormorant, by Seth Dickinson. Though not quite reaching the emotional peak of the prequel's ending, Monster does some great things to grow the setting, grow the characters, and introduce new ones. It feels more like a Part One than the first book did, but that's okay. I'm hooked. 44. The Body Keeps the Score, by Bessel van der Kolk. Maybe The Trauma Book? Not sure, but it covered a lot of ground. Good, descriptive anecdotes from van der Kolk's own patients and experiences help show the various ways trauma can be caused and how it can present. Perhaps the most interesting bit was the last section covering the various methods psychologists have come up with that have helped trauma survivors better than pharmaceuticals. Some really interesting things there, with the research to back it all up. Definitely recommended. 45. To All the Boys I've Loved Before, by Jenny Han. A feel-good high school romance with a little bit more social awareness. Think John Hughes updated for today's sensibilities. The plot is light and breezy and moves right along. It's frequently funny and just as frequently gave me butterflies like what I might have felt in high school interacting with a crush of my own. 46. P.S. I Still Love You, by Jenny Han. Sequel to the above. I liked this one a bit more because I had seen the movie, which covered all of book one and a little of this one. So there was a bit more to this one that kept me turning the pages wondering how things would resolve. Another past love of Lara Jean's returns and brings a lot of good tension and raised stakes to make this a worthwhile read. The third book is on my to-read list. 47. How to be Alone, by Lane Moore. Some absolutely hilarious anecdotes, some horrifying anecdotes, some anecdotes that had me weeping. Lane Moore is funny as hell and her life has been something else. Always honest with her emotions, Moore is instantly endearing. I was cursing out her exes right along with her. And praising the little doggy, Lights, for being a bright spot in Lane's life. Yay, animal companionship! 48. Red Rosa, by Kate Evans. A very good intro to the life of Rosa Luxemburg. Luxemburg is a leftist thinker I've always meant to read more of. I found this at a thrift store and figured it would be a start. Needless to say, Luxemburg was an amazing woman. I can't really say I enjoyed this as a graphic novel, though. The art is not my preferred style. But for a brief look into Luxemburg's life, I was pleased. Provided some much needed context for whenever I dig into some of Luxemburg's essays. 49. Call Them by Their True Names, by Rebecca Solnit. A collection of essays with a simple premise: By calling things what they are (fascism, sexism, racism, violence, etc.) we can start to take things down instead of wrestling with the facades and feints. Solnit always cuts to the heart of things, and this book was no exception. Her wit and tone make each essay easy and enjoyable to read, even if the subject matter is disheartening or unjust. 50. The Citadel of the Autarch, by Gene Wolfe. With The Book of the New Sun now behind me, I have to say I feel a bit let down. I enjoyed the books for what they were, but kept expecting the a-ha moment I had heard so much about. While there are some interesting revelations I do not feel an instant urge to reread to explore the new context. I imagine there's tons of things I missed. Maybe I'll go back at some point. I will definitely read Urth of the New Sun, though, since the end of this wasn't quite the end of Severian's story... Goals 1. 50/50 Books Read.  2. %Women Authors: 40% - 20/50 3. %Authors of Color: 30% - 15/50 4. LGBTQIA+ Author: Yes: The Black Tides of Heaven, by JY Yang. 5. TBB BotM Participation: Yes: The Sign of Four, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. 6. Wildcard: Yes: A Question of Power, by Bessie Head. A very enjoyable year of reading! There were only a handful of books that I outright hated. And a good many I expect to be thinking about well into the future. Hope everyone had a good time!
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Jan 8, 2019 02:20
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Woah hey there. Going to sunset this thread. Thanks to everyone for participating, it was really great running it last year and gave me an excuse to be a lot more active and aware of other people's goals and books they've read. Sorry for not closing/updating sooner, have been getting way underwater in work and life, but I think everyone got their last posts in anyway. For anyone who cares: I read 100 books but didn't do as many rereads as I had personally planned and didn't do the "read a religious text" or "different language" bonus challenge, although I did everything else! Here's a link to the new thread for anyone who has possibly missed it: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3878988
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Jan 22, 2019 23:58
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