|
1. Left Behind -- Tim LaHaye & Jerry B. Jenkins 2. Pacific Vortex -- Clive Cussler 3. Tribulation Force -- Tim LaHaye & Jerry B. Jenkins 4. Left Behind: The Vanishings -- Tim LaHaye & Jerry B. Jenkins 5. Left Behind: Second Chance -- Tim LaHaye & Jerry B. Jenkins Edit: Seems I'm not venturing too far out of my comfort zone, so I'm going to give the Booklord challenge a go after all, if that's ok. My apologies for being a pain in the butt. BL Challenges Completed: ectoplasm fucked around with this message at 08:09 on May 17, 2018 |
#
?
May 17, 2018 02:56
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 03:11 |
|
|
Wow, where did April go? Whole month is a blur. Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell - An interesting read, but I didnt like it nearly as much as The Bone Clocks. Human Acts, by Han Kang - Devastatingly effective and beautiful. Boy, Snow, Bird, by Helen Oyeyemi - I enjoyed the writing in this novel. The story doesnt really go anywhere after the end of the first act, but I was still on board with it right up until the last ~20 pages where it takes a bizarre and needless twist. Ultimately, the book just left me feeling confused and disappointed. O Pioneers, by Willa Cather - I guess I expected Little House on the Prairie going into this, so I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the novel is much more mature and interesting than that. The Twenty Days of Turin, by Giorgio De Maria - A slow moving horror with a few memorable haunting scenes. Posthumous Papers of a Living Artist, by Robert Musil - A series of sketches and essays. I can only describe this book as relaxing. I really enjoyed the final short story, though I question how well it was translated. Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky - I was inspired to read this by this article. It describes a subculture of young men/teens who sneak into the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, inspired by this book and the other media it spawned. The book was a fun read, and I enjoyed the afterword about the difficulties the authors had getting it published in the Soviet Union. Bridge of Birds, by Barry Hughart - I dont follow the Sci-Fi and Fantasy thread, but its title has been brainwashing me into reading this book for months (years?) now. I found it a little misogynistic in the beginning, but it toned that down and grew on me as it went on. Basically Nicer Rick and Strong Morty in Fake China. Challenges completed: 5, 6, 8, 10, 11 (and bonus), 13, 14 (and bonus),15, 17, 19, 22 (and bonus)
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2018 06:22
|
|
|
Guy A. Person posted:Just finished this the other day and it was great. Particularly liked how the author was able to convey his characters insecurities particularly Sam and Alison, who both love someone and are afraid that this person doesn't really love them back -- even tho it is obvious to the reader that the girl is into Sam and that Alison's son is pretty desperate to impress her by acting grown up. The payoffs were a little on the nose with each situation being directly and openly resolved, but because the characters were so well realized it worked because this is what you were hoping for the whole time. Also really loved how these two characters' stories in particular intersected toward the end. I'm glad you enjoyed it! I really liked how fully realised the characters were - Rita in particular has stuck with me, because I've known exactly that kind of person who destroys themselves through their own runaway emotions and Norris nails it. The book has a special resonance for me because I was at the author's school (the one Sam attends, ill-disguised though not named) and I know him very very distantly, so when he's lovingly describing Salisbury and its surroundings I'm completely on board because it captures a lot of my own feelings about the area. That whole angle possibly doesn't come across if you didn't grow up there, but I think the strength of the book is that even if you aren't reading it as a love letter to where you grew up, it's still a really great book full of excellently written characters.
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2018 10:50
|
|
|
MockingQuantum posted:Can I request a new wildcard? If you'd like a wildcard from a very recently dead white guy, you could try The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe. Alternatively, tomorrow will be the 38th anniversary of the Gwangju Uprising, which can be read about in the incredibly good yet horrifying Human Acts by Han Kang Franchescanado posted:Wildcard! How about The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot? A combination of biography and biology on how one woman's cells helped transform medicine. Robert Deadford fucked around with this message at 09:49 on May 18, 2018 |
|
#
?
May 17, 2018 21:43
|
|
|
6. Left Behind: Through the Flames -- Tim LaHaye & Jerry B. Jenkins 7. Left Behind: Facing the Future -- Tim LaHaye & Jerry B. Jenkins 8. The Bourne Identity -- Robert Ludlum 9. Nicolae -- Tim LaHaye & Jerry B. Jenkins 10. Life After God -- Douglas Coupland BL Challenges Completed: 1 | 2 | 3 | ectoplasm fucked around with this message at 00:26 on May 21, 2018 |
|
#
?
May 18, 2018 03:10
|
|
|
Quoted myself instead of editing in my own dang thread
|
|
#
?
May 18, 2018 04:00
|
|
|
Corrode posted:I'm glad you enjoyed it! I really liked how fully realised the characters were - Rita in particular has stuck with me, because I've known exactly that kind of person who destroys themselves through their own runaway emotions and Norris nails it. He definitely makes the love of a small home town pretty universal, and yeah the characters are great. Unfortunately (fortunately?) haven't known many people like Rita all that well but like I said, Sam and Alison really drew me in.
|
|
#
?
May 19, 2018 00:36
|
|
|
Sorry Portrait of a Lady didn't work out for you, MockingQuantum - that was the Henry James that turned me around on Henry James, but if it didn't work for you, it didn't work. I'll go ahead and request a wildcard as well, since I don't believe I've done so so far.
|
|
#
?
May 20, 2018 22:15
|
|
|
Chamberk posted:Sorry Portrait of a Lady didn't work out for you, MockingQuantum - that was the Henry James that turned me around on Henry James, but if it didn't work for you, it didn't work. I nominate The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco! If you've read that then I nominate Stone's Fall by Iain Pears!
|
|
#
?
May 21, 2018 00:21
|
|
|
I'm coming up on needing a new book, someone please Wildcard me!
|
|
#
?
May 21, 2018 03:01
|
|
|
Fellwenner posted:I'm coming up on needing a new book, someone please Wildcard me! The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez Reverte. Feel free to wildcard me, as I also need one.
|
|
#
?
May 21, 2018 07:26
|
|
|
ectoplasm posted:The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez Reverte. Feel free to wildcard me, as I also need one. Justine, by Lawrence Durrell.
|
|
#
?
May 21, 2018 10:03
|
|
|
Fellwenner posted:Justine, by Lawrence Durrell. Sounds really interesting, thanks!
|
|
#
?
May 21, 2018 21:33
|
|
|
2018 Reading Challenge Theme Week #7 - Challenge no. 8: Read something published before you were born This is another easy one and probably doesn't warrant that much discussion outside of recommending each other cool old books. Read something published before you were born which for most of us I am assuming is on the under side of half a century, and there are a bunch of good books from back then. As for me, I am going deep and reading Middlemarch by George Elliot (the alias of Mary Anne Evans) published in 1872(ish) which was recommended in some thread or another awhile back and was at the bottom of my queue forever. The more interesting challenge here is probably the sub-challenge: "Read a book written/published the exact year you were born" Obviously a google search should be sufficient to find a list of books but presumably some of you may want actual recs. I was born in 1983 so I am going to do 2 from that year: Orhan Pamuk's Slient House and Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross which first premiered that year. I am not going to get to either this week but they are on my list for the near future.
|
|
#
?
May 22, 2018 02:57
|
|
|
I read Going After Cacciato by Tim O'Brien, published in 1978. Published just 3 years after the Vietnam War ended, it went on to win the National Book Award, surprising observers who thought it might be too soon to view it all objectively. Cacciato is sort of a dumb kid who announces to a friend in his squad that he's going to desert and head to Paris. Naturally, there is no choice for the squad but to go after the deserter. Their surreal journey through Mandalay, Delhi, Iran etc is narrated by Paul Berlin, whose story is punctuated by reminiscences on his squadmates who died previously and occasional observations about his own mental state throughout the war. As you might expect, it deals a lot with fear and the conflict between individual freedom and societal obligations. I found the prose here to be notable. It was spare and straightforward which set off nicely against a journey with magical realist elements. The book I read immediately after probably lost some marks in comparison. While it's not as notable as O'Brien's later The Things They Carried, Going after Cacciato is definitely worth reading and I found it to be a very good read. Would recommend.
|
|
#
?
May 22, 2018 16:31
|
|
|
Awesome write up Ben Nevis. Also, the May BotM is wrapping up but Hieronymous is calling for suggestions in the thread if anyone wants a part in choosing their own challenge: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3856234
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2018 02:30
|
|
|
Guy A. Person posted:Orhan Pamuk's Silent House. Currently reading The White Castle by Pamuk and it's definitely interesting. If anyone could give me another wildcard (for my girlfriend) that would be awesome. Anything goes, but something without violence or gore is preferred (she has PTSD). Thank you!
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2018 03:05
|
|
|
ectoplasm posted:If anyone could give me another wildcard (for my girlfriend) that would be awesome. Anything goes, but something without violence or gore is preferred (she has PTSD). Thank you! Swamplandia! by Karen Russell
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2018 13:48
|
|
|
Hey once again for those of you taking the challenge but who have not participated in the Book of the Month, here is a chance to choose your destiny by voting: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3858406 I voted for Wolfe but don't let that influence you
|
|
#
?
May 29, 2018 17:30
|
|
|
Man, I hosed up March and April and May by selecting a book that was a) kind of long and b) awfully boring. Took me from 3/8 to 5/20 to finish! The Seven Ages of Paris by Alistair Horne. I selected it because my wife and I were going to Paris for a trip and I wanted to learn some more about the history of the city. Instead, this book was very boring, used a lot of inside jokes in French, and assumed you had a deep understanding of French history (and European history as well) before reading. It was a friggin' chore to get through.
|
|
#
?
May 31, 2018 01:05
|
|
|
May went okay. 19 - Meditations - Marcus Aurelius, translated by Gregory Hays. I've wanted to read this for years, but it was an awful lot more repetitious than I'd anticipated, but that's only to be expected from some notes a Roman emperor left to himself. Fascinating to see one of the 'great men' of history struggling internally with the same petty interpersonal issues and self-control and pain that all humans do. 20 - A Briefer History of Time - Stephen Hawking. Another one I've wanted to read for years. The first 3/4 of the book felt like stuff I've read before, and then the last parts were almost completely beyond my understanding. 21 - The Paleblood Hunt - Redgrave. I'm counting this because it's long enough to be a book. 107-page, thesis-length analysis of the videogame Bloodborne, which I read alongside my husband over the course of a couple of days. 22 - A History of England: Volume Three, Revolution - Peter Ackroyd. The reason I started reading this doorstop of a series! And ... disappointing. Ackroyd tries to cram too much detail into too small a space here, giving only thumbnail sketches of the stuff I was most interested in, glossing over the progress and conduct of the English Civil War, and also has a weirdly unexamined and unqualified adoration towards Cromwell. After that last one I called my brother and hit him up for some recommendations, so now I'm a quarter of the way through The People's War, which is much better.
|
|
#
?
Jun 2, 2018 10:43
|
|
|
May Lectures on Literature by Vladimir Nabakov (2002 edition) Nabakov is the grumpy uncle of literary criticism. He loves what he loves and is dismissive of anything that doesn't fit his standards. He'd fit right in with TBB. This book seems to be disheartening for people looking to it for Nabakov's personal interpretations of literary classics, when instead he's interested in arming his readers with a standard set of reading skills so the details may help a reader come to their conclusions. Most of the advice is pretty standard, though isn't implemented by the average reader (drawing maps, researching the details of a book, making lists of characters, marking patterns in the style, etc.). There are great sections exploring style and prose and what the authors were doing while they wrote the book. Nabakov's attention to detail is more akin to a fascinated scientist, which is an interesting perspective to consider, but might deter a fresh reader who may think Nabakov's the only authority in lit crit rather than one of many voices to consider. Recommended I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara (2018) As well-written as a posthumous book can be with a story that still doesn't have a resolution (at least until we get a trial for the current suspect in custody). I found myself for interested in McNamara's fascination with crime investigation than the actual investigation. I'm a big horror fan, but I have a hard time with true crime; there isn't a layer of disassociation available for me, I have to read this knowing real suffering occurred for these people. It's a good book--a little overlong and monotonous, sure--but it is also a shining example as to why I don't read more True Crime. Recommended , but with the warning that it's full of psychological torture, countless cases of rape and murder, all of which happened to real people. The 2018 Booklord Challenge 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge 12/24 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. 4/5 Pride & Prejudice Hunger The Handmaid's Tale I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 4/5 Aunt Julia & the Scriptwriter by Mario Vargas Llosa Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro Multiple Choice by Alejandro Zambra Hunger by Roxane Gay  4. Read at least one book by an LGBT author. Hunger by Roxane Gay reviews her relationships with women and men 5. Participate in the TBB BotM thread at least once in 2018 & participate in the SHAMEFUL The Greatest Books You've Never Read thread 6 times BOTM: Lectures in Literature by NabakovShameful: 3/6 Aunt Julia & the Scriptwriter by Mario Vargas Llosa Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood 6. Ask another poster to issue you a wildcard, then read it. 7. Get a recommendation from a friend or loved one. The Golden Compass - they thought I would like that it's a YA fiction book for atheists. 8. Read something written before you were born. Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro (published in 1989) 9. Read a book published in 2018. I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer 10. Read something translated from another language. 11. Read something political. 12. Read a poetry collection. 13. Read a collection of short stories. 14. Read a play. 15. Read something involving history. What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whistthe Facts of Daily Life in 19th-Century England by Daniel Pool 16. Read something biographical. 17. Read something about religion. 18. Read something from a non-traditional perspective. Multiple Choice by Alejandro Zambra 19. Read something that has been banned, censored, or challenged. 20. Read something about music. 21. Read something that involves Maslow's hierarchy of needs. 22. Read something about the future. The Handmaid's Tale - dystopian fiction TOTAL CHALLENGE GOALS COMPLETED 7/22
|
|
#
?
Jun 2, 2018 15:28
|
|
|
May! 27. The Gathering Storm. Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson. Okay, this was very good. The story advanced, we got some badass moments, the characters were pretty good and the action was quite cinematic. Things are getting good in the Wheel of Time universe! 28. Las Batallas en el Desierto. Josι Emilio Pacheco. It's amazing how much content and meaning can be put it such a short book. The characters were amazing and concise, the setting of a Mexico in transition is also amazingly detailed. 29. The Word for World is Forest. Ursula K. Le Guin. A good short book, the themes are already seen in many media. The colonial invaders and the special natives in conflict. Here we have some nice story in the same vein, but with better characters and more time for reflection. 30. Cold Skin. Albert Sαnchez Piρol. Slow and mediocre. The story is all over the place even if there's not much of a setting, the ending is very bad. If only, the main character is interesting, everything else didn't hold my interest. 31. Shoukoku no Altair 1. Kotono Kato. A very interesting story about an alternate world Turkey and the soon to be invasion of their enemies, the non-Holy Roman Empire. The characters need more time to shine, but I suppose there are all the next volumes for that. 32. Downbelow Station. C. J. Cherryh. This book has some very detailed worldbuilding and political intrigue. But the story was too long for what it was, and the themes were not treated very well. The characters were pretty good, but in the end, was a little hard to read. 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge: (32/60) 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. (8/12) bonus: Of these make sure half are by authors new to you 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. (10/12) bonus: Of these make sure half are by authors new to you bonus: Make sure 10% of the books you read this year are by LGBT authors (5/6) 5. Participate in the TBB BotM thread at least once in 2018 (thread stickied each month at the top of the forum). bonus: Participate in the SHAMEFUL The Greatest Books You've Never Read thread 6. Ask another poster to issue you a wildcard, then read it. 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 9. Read a book published in 2018 (or if you're eager to start early, the latter half of 2017). 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 12. Read a poetry collection. bonus: Read poems by at least 10 different poets bonus: Read short stories by at least 10 different authors 14. Read a play. 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 17. Read something about religion. bonus: Read a major religious text 18. Read something from a non-traditional perspective. bonus: Read something narrated in the 2nd person bonus: Read something currently banned, censored, or challenged in its country of origin 20. Read something about music. bonus: Read something about a genre of music you're explicitly not a fan of 21. Read something that involves Maslow's hierarchy of needs. bonus: Read something about hunger bonus: Read something about a future that takes place before the current year [/quote]
|
|
#
?
Jun 2, 2018 19:26
|
|
|
May 36. Fire in the Hole - Elmore Leonard 37. & Sons - David Gilbert 38. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - J.K. Rowling 39. The Good Soldier Svejk - Jaroslav Haek 40. The Silkworm (Cormoran Strike #2) - Robert Galbraith 41. Circe - Madeline Miller 42. Cold Mountain - Charles Frazier My reading has, in general, slowed down since the arrival of kid #2, but that hasn't stopped me from reading some good stuff. Fire in the Hole is classic Leonard in short-story form (#13 down), and Circe was another very good book along the lines of Miller's first book, Song of Achilles, which I read last year. I like how she takes these Greek myths about Great Men (Achilles, Odysseus, etc.) and attacks them from a different perspective - a female one in Circe, and a tender homosexual romance with Song of Achilles. Svejk was... well, I started it in February and finished it this month. It took me a long-rear end time. It wasn't a bad book, but it had the feel of a shaggy dog story about a guy who tells shaggy dog stories. It's subversive for its time and occasionally pretty funny, but it's long and meandering - more of a "pick it up and read it occasionally" than a page-turner. & Sons was a decent 'modern white writer writes about white writers' novel (reminded me a good bit of Franzen's Corrections, but not quite as dense or good) and Silkworm was a pretty solid mystery. 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge (42/36) 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. - Rowling, Miller 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. (Nowhere near this percentage...) 4. Read at least one book by an LGBT author. 5. 6. Ask another poster to issue you a wildcard, then read it. 7. Get a recommendation from a friend or loved one. - Cold Mountain (my wife loved it) 8. 9. Read a book published in 2018 (or if you're eager to start early, the latter half of 2017). - Circe 10. Read something translated from another language. - The Good Soldier Svejk 11. Read something political. 12. Read a poetry collection. 13. Read a collection of short stories. - Fire in the Hole 14. Read a play. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. Read something that has been banned, censored, or challenged. - Svejk and (lol) Harry Potter, I guess. 20. 21. 22. I'll keep an eye out for that Iain Pears book, since I read Name of the Rose a few years ago. Though I guess I could reread it... edit: nice, Stone's Fall is in at the library. I'll check it out. Chamberk fucked around with this message at 05:13 on Jun 4, 2018 |
|
#
?
Jun 4, 2018 05:06
|
|
|
34. Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino 35. Five Rivers Met on a Wooded Plain by Barney Norris 36. Hunger by Roxane Gay 37. Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg by Irin Carmon, Shana Knizhnik 38. Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow 39. Lectures on Literature by Vladimir Nabokov 40. Sweat by Lynn Nottage 41. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas S. Kuhn Not a huge month for a three digit goal but I got in one of my rereads, some challenges, a BotM and my wildcard, so still pretty successful. Some thoughts/highlights: - Italo Calvino I didn't actually take to right away despite his stuff being so perfectly down my alley. It wasn't until I read The Cloven Viscount and The Nonexistent Knight a few years back that his stuff really clicked for me. I had read Invisible Cities and If On A Winter's Night... years ago and I am glad I decided to reread cities because I enjoyed it significantly more this time around. Will probably reread some of his other stuff that I own, especially since a lot of it flies by. - Five Rivers was a fantastic wildcard which I have already discussed a bit. Thanks again to Corrode for a sick rec. - Sweat I had put on hold a while back as part of the play challenge and finally got it a few weeks ago. It was powerful stuff and is apparently coming to Chicago next year so going to check it out. (On a similar note, my wife surprised me and flew me to New York to see the Harry Potter play last weekend, and what was specifically interesting was that it was the first play I had read before seeing it in person, and that's definitely something I want to do more in the future, it was a cool experience contrasting how I interpreted dialogue with the actual performances.) ---- I originally scheduled another theme week for this week, but the first few days of the month always get a bunch traffic from people posting updates so I am going to move it back a week. This next one will cover the LGBT challenge in honor of pride month.
|
|
#
?
Jun 4, 2018 16:57
|
|
|
34. Two Serpents Rise - Max Gladstone - The second book in the Craft Sequence about magical lawyers doing crazy stuff. I enjoyed this, but not nearly as much as Three Parts Dead. I think overall it had a weaker conceit, plus it lacked the novelty of the first book to buoy it along. Still, not bad at all, and I plan to continue with the series in any case, it just didn't grab me as much as the first book. 35. Bone - Yrsa Daley-Ward - A very interesting poetry book, written from a perspective very different from my own. It focuses a lot on identity, physicality, sexuality, love, romance, and otherness. In particular it examines love and relationships and how they intertwine with our physical and emotional identity. Not my favorite poetry in the world, but I thought it was a compelling treatment of a lot of its themes. 36. Disgraced - Ayad Akhtar - Wow, what a great, brisk little play. A hell of a gut-punch too, it centers around a lapsed-Muslim Pakistani American who has worked hard to conceal his Islamic background due to how it would reflect on him professionally. Really digs down into the internal conflict this character feels about his heritage and religion and its place in the world. Some deeply uncomfortable and compelling scenes. I missed this one when it was at the local regional theater and I'm kicking myself for it now. 37. The Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded - Molly McCully Brown - A haunting collection of poems set in the titular location over different years and time periods. This one resonated with me much more than Bone did. In part, I think the concept of the collection gave it a lot more cohesion, and the individual poems gave the whole book more of an impact when taken together. Plus, to be totally honest, I think McCully Brown has a better grasp of the lyricism of the language and is much more intentional about her structural choices. Overall my favorite book of poetry in years. 38. We Have Always Lived in the Castle - Shirley Jackson - The Haunting of Hill House is one of my favorite books ever, so it's kind of weird that I had never gotten around to reading this until now. It was excellent, and also very haunting and eerie, though for different reasons than Hill House. I guessed the "twist" well ahead of time, though it's not the sort of book that lives or dies on a twist, and honestly I think some of the dread that the book inspires could be derived from Jackson expecting you to at least guess at what's really happened, then watch as the story inevitably drives towards acknowledging the awful truth. Hill House is still my favorite of hers, but this was excellent in its own right. 39. A God in the Shed - J-F Dubeau - A thoroughly mediocre horror novel with some decent-to-interesting ideas marred by some amateurish writing. It feels under-edited, and some dumb structural choices rob the supernatural elements of a lot of their impact. It's a pity, because I think there was a pretty good (though still not amazing) book to be had in there somewhere. I'm curious enough to see what this author does next, though I sincerely hope his writing improves dramatically on future books. It was never unreadable, but a lot of the book's problems are the sorts of things that get hammered to death in even beginner level writing courses or every writing advice blog on the internet. There were a couple of grammatical issues, but it was mostly a lot of telling instead of showing, very little useful descriptive language, a lot of the chapters were characters sitting around and contemplating what was going on instead of events actually occurring in time in the book. Also a lot of the chapters felt weirdly disconnected, like they could be rearranged into a different order without really any issues, which means a lot of them didn't really create any sort of chain of cause-and-effect. 40. Revenge - Yoko Ogawa - Fantastic. This is an eerie, gothic collection of short stories set roughly in the present. Initially the first couple feel like morbid, dark(ly funny) tales that tie up rather neatly, but pretty quickly it becomes apparent that the stories are all connected in interesting, sometimes very subtle ways. It's a book I definitely plan to re-read a couple of times, since I think there were at least a few nuances and connections I missed out on during this read. Overall, it was a pretty good month. I'm actually contemplating quitting the reading challenge, because I have a bad tendency to rush through things so I can make numbers go up, so while I'm getting through a lot of books I'm kind of not giving them enough time individually. I do like that the challenge is encouraging me to read a wider range of authors from different backgrounds and styles that I'm not usually drawn to, but looking back at books from the last couple of months, I feel like I can barely remember some of them, and that's not good. We'll see how this month goes, maybe I can just take it slow and it won't bother me. Challenges Remaining: 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge: 40/70 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women.11/14 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 9/14 bonus: Make sure 10% of the books you read this year are by LGBT authors 1/7 bonus: Participate in the SHAMEFUL The Greatest Books You've Never Read thread 6. Ask another poster to issue you a wildcard, then read it. bonus: Read a book written/published the exact year you were born 9. Read a book published in 2018 (or if you're eager to start early, the latter half of 2017). bonus: Read something that wins an award in 2018, but only after it is announced (i.e. don't apply retroactively) bonus: Read something that isn't in your primary language bonus: Read something political from/about a country you aren't from and don't currently live in bonus: Read something about a (nonfictional) war that didn't involve the U.S. 16. Read something biographical. bonus: Read something biographical about someone you've met/seen in person 17. Read something about religion. bonus: Read a major religious text 19. Read something that has been banned, censored, or challenged. bonus: Read something currently banned, censored, or challenged in its country of origin 20. Read something about music. bonus: Read something about a genre of music you're explicitly not a fan of 21. Read something that involves Maslow's hierarchy of needs. bonus: Read something about hunger.
|
|
#
?
Jun 4, 2018 17:49
|
|
|
Here's my May. Five books: 19. Six Wakes, by Mur Lafferty. Didn't quite live up to the premise which is: clone crew of generation ship wakes up to discover their prior iterations murdered brutally and has to figure out what went wrong. Some decent whodunnit parts made interesting by the whole clone thing. Ending left a lot to be desired. 20. I'll Be Gone in the Dark, by Michelle McNamara. This book taught me that true crime is not my bag. McNamara's writing gives background to the Golden State Killer. Does not veer into victim idolatry or glamorizing the crimes. However, it was too unsettling for me to read knowing this happened to real people. I'm glad it exists; it's important to not shy away from real horrors, and instead learn from them. But it was quite a bit much for me. 21. Born a Crime, by Trevor Noah. Though frequently funny, this book is really about a country struggling to find an identity after years of racial apartheid. That its mirrored so well in Noah's own growth and the development of his own identity is quite a nice bit of writing. It was very genuine and Noah's conversational tone made it an enjoyable read. 22. The Castle Doctrine, by Craig Schaefer. Schaefer has really grown as a writer since this series began. The book is tight and well-paced, with rock-solid plotting. Schaefer sets things up, gets all the pieces on the board, and then it all shakes out. Usually in favor of the protagonist, but hey. I never noticed how violent these books are before. Maybe having just read the Golden State Killer book made me a bit squeamish. There was a lot of killing... 23. The Will to Battle, by Ada Palmer. Book Three of the Terra Ignota series. This one really hammered home how much I love Palmer's richly crafted setting and wide array of interesting characters. It's one of those things where I'm waiting for certain characters to interact because I know it's gonna be awesome. And I can't wait to see it all come crashing down in the next and final book. Goals 1. 23/50 Books Read. 2. %Women Authors: 47.8% 3. %Authors of Color: 30.4% 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. I'm currently reading The City & The City, by China Miιville. Nice little murder mystery so far. With a bit of a spin on it...
|
|
#
?
Jun 4, 2018 22:22
|
|
|
Ben Nevis posted:1. Djinn City by Saad Hossein A pretty good book month. I'd picked one to hit a challenge, but stumbled across another. I'm in the middle of a series of somewhat modestly rated books on Goodreads. In general, you might not be surprised to realize some people have bad taste. 32. The Opium War: Drugs, Dreams and the Making of Modern China by Julia Lovell - As you might expect from the title, this takes a look at the role of opium in China and Chinese/British relations in the lead up to the Opium War(s), the Opium Wars themselves, and the British and Chinese view of them afterward, particularly with the way they were seized upon after the fact by Chinese nationalists and eventually Mao as a rallying cry against Western imperialism. I found it to be a pretty good read and informative to boot. 33. The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell - A recent and pregnant widow is haunted by creepy painted figures in her husband's hereditary home. This has apparently had a lot of good buzz as a classic gothic horror type thing. It had it moments, but never quite hit it for me. 34. Queen of Spades by Michael Shou-Yung Shum - This says it's a re-telling of the classic Pushkin tale of the same name. It's a well put together tale of the lead-up to the most famous hand of Faro ever. You can really see pieces start coming together and it makes for a well crafted and really interesting tale. 35. Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi - I found out after reading it that it had been shortlisted for the MBI. It didn't win, but this was a really interesting tale. A twist of fate has brings to life a monster made of bits of dead corpses gathered from around Baghdad. The monster stalks the city seeking revenge on the people who killed his various components. In the meantime, Baghdad goes on, with various characters trying to eke out a living despite the rampant violence that followed Saddam's overthrow. With the examination of violence in Iraq and the questions of justice raised, and what it means for Iraqi citizens, I'm going to count this as a political entry. 36. The Circle by Dave Eggers - My city does a [City] Reads One Book thing every summer where there's a big push to get everyone to read the same book.This year this was the book. Mae goes to work at a tech company whose innovations put more and more of people's lives online and looks at some of the consequences. This was a light and compelling read that was almost wholly without nuance and was basically one big sledgehammer to the point. 37. Spy of the First Person by Sam Shepard - A short book, apparently the last Shepard wrote before succumbing to ALS. Its focus is on an old man, rocking on the porch as he reminisces about and interesting life and tries to cope with his diminished abilities. I think I'd have enjoyed this more had I known more about Shepard before reading it. That lack of knowledge made it less impactful, but there's still something here that I enjoyed. 38. The Sea Beast Takes a Lover by Michael Andreason - A collection of short stories, often taking place in moderately absurd circumstances. A boat slowly being sunk by an amorous Sea Beast, a town where a young boy is slowly building to explosion, an unfortunate couple abducted by aliens in the middle of consummating and affair, that sort of thing. A lot of these all get back to people searching for a connection, and the absurd circumstances raise some interesting questions of their own through the book. This was surprisingly good, I thought. 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge - 38/80 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. 13 bonus: Of these make sure half are by authors new to you: 10 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 8 bonus: Of these make sure half are by authors new to you: 6 4. Read at least one book by an LGBT author. bonus: Make sure 10% of the books you read this year are by LGBT authors 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 bonus: Participate in the SHAMEFUL The Greatest Books You've Never Read thread 6. Ask another poster to issue you a wildcard, then read it. bonus: Similarly, get a wildcard from another thread in this forum 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) 8. Read something written before you were born. 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) 10. Read something translated from another language. - For Isabel, A Mandala bonus: Read something that isn't in your primary language 11. Read something political. 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. bonus: Read poems by at least 10 different poets 13. Read a collection of short stories. - Dreams of Falling and Flying bonus: Read short stories by at least 10 different authors - 3 14. Read a play. bonus: Read a play first published in the last 10 years - Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike 15. Read something involving history. bonus: Read something about a (nonfictional) war that didn't involve the U.S. - The Opium War 16. Read something biographical. - Eat the Apple bonus: Read something biographical about someone you've met/seen in person 17. Read something about religion. bonus: Read a major religious text 18. Read something from a non-traditional perspective. bonus: Read something narrated in the 2nd person 19. Read something that has been banned, censored, or challenged. bonus: Read something currently banned, censored, or challenged in its country of origin 20. Read something about music. bonus: Read something about a genre of music you're explicitly not a fan of 21. Read something that involves Maslow's hierarchy of needs. bonus: Read something about hunger 22. Read something about the future. - Punch Escrow bonus: Read something about a future that takes place before the current year
|
|
#
?
Jun 5, 2018 04:10
|
|
|
11. 2010: Odyssey Two -- Arthur C. Clarke 12. Left Behind: Nicolae High -- Tim LaHaye & Jerry B. Jenkins 13. Dragon Teeth -- Michael Crichton 14. Left Behind: The Underground -- Tim LaHaye & Jerry B. Jenkins 15. Dolphin Island -- Arthur C. Clarke Halfway there, and before June 30th too! BL Challenges Completed: 1 | 2 | 3 |
|
|
#
?
Jun 7, 2018 02:53
|
|
|
Milt Thompson posted:26 Books as a minimum, under 20% rereads (currently 16 books with 1 reread) May was a good month for reading. I enjoyed all four of the books I finished. White Is For Witching was enjoyable. Oyeyemi is a very capable writer, although I felt that the spooky aspects of this novel added very little to the story. What I appreciated was the more biographical aspects of it - like her characters, Oyeyemi attended Cambridge university and this experience gave her work authenticity. In fact, one of the characters felt entirely like a self-insert. I didn't find this a problem. As an exploration of life as an outsider at Cambridge university, and of the challenges associated with mental illness, I found this book to be at its most compelling. The other major part of the story - the house as an active participant in the events of the story - I was less impressed with. Nonetheless, a good read. Human Acts might just be the best and hardest book I'll read this year. It's a fictional account of the Gwangju Uprising, in which the South Korean Army brutally put down pro-democracy protests in May 1980. Kang (and her translator) do an incredible job of bringing the horrific events of the Uprising to life, moving from the viewpoints of students taking care of the dead, to how surviviors battle the psychological trauma they suffered in the years afterward. It's a hard book to read due to the content, which depicts acts of almost unbelievable immorality carried out by a government against its own people. Highly recommended. So as a palate cleanser, I chose Stiff, which is about as far removed in tone from Human Acts as possible. What happens to the human body after we die? Roach goes to great lengths to investigate, looking at the fate of bodies donated as research. Although you might consider it a morbid book, nothing could be further from the truth. Roach is very careful to report respectfully what she learns, and balances her skilful reportage with a keen sense of humour. The target of her humour is almost exclusively herself and her own attitudes. I really enjoyed it, and I'll be looking forward to reading more of her work later this year. I came across An Unnecessary Woman by chance, when looking for works by a gay author. I thought it sounded like an interesting novel, and happily I was proven right. It's a novel about a great many things: the life of Aaliyah, an old woman in Beirut and how she finds solace in literature. It's about the challenges of translating literature. It's about the difficulties of leading a solitary, lonely life and of being under pressure from your own family. It's about Beirut itself, and about the roles women play in life and the relationships between them. Alahmeddine does a great job in making this novel approachable and readable, and in keeping Aaliyah sympathetic. I'm currently working on Stand On Zanzibar and it's hard-going because it's written in a frankly bizarre style and is 500 pages long. It is seen as something of a classic, though I'm not feeling that just yet. It's not exactly bad, but the structure is annoying as the narrative viewpoint changes dramatically every chapter.
|
|
#
?
Jun 8, 2018 20:19
|
|
|
2018 Reading Challenge Theme Week #8 - Challenge no. 4: Read a book by an LGBT author In honor of Pride month, this week's challenge is to read a book by an LGBT author. I admit I am not super well versed in this area outside of googling stuff, so any recommendations would be great. Last week I read Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn which I enjoyed a lot, this week I am planning to read Confessions of a Mask by Yukio Mishima. Earlier this year I read Don't Call Us Dead by Danez Smith for the poetry challenge which I talked about a bit. I am also a big fan of Roxane Gay and would recommend her non-fic (An Untamed State is also good although a tough read).
|
|
#
?
Jun 11, 2018 20:48
|
|
|
Guy A. Person posted:2018 Reading Challenge Theme Week #8 - Challenge no. 4: Read a book by an LGBT author I'm planning to finally read Stone Butch Blues for this. I've said that two years in a row, but I'm finally going to do it. (But not this week.)
|
|
#
?
Jun 11, 2018 20:51
|
|
|
Guy A. Person posted:2018 Reading Challenge Theme Week #8 - Challenge no. 4: Read a book by an LGBT author Nicola Griffith and Kelley Eskridge are both options if you've a mind for sci-fi. I've not read any of the latter's books, but have read Slow River by Griffith and it was really well done. It's sort of a coming of age story with some cyberpunk/dystopian elements.
|
|
#
?
Jun 11, 2018 22:28
|
|
|
Guy A. Person posted:2018 Reading Challenge Theme Week #8 - Challenge no. 4: Read a book by an LGBT author
|
|
#
?
Jun 12, 2018 01:58
|
|
|
Guy A. Person posted:2018 Reading Challenge Theme Week #8 - Challenge no. 4: Read a book by an LGBT author
|
|
#
?
Jun 12, 2018 02:08
|
|
|
oscar wilde, rimbaud and yukio mishima
|
|
#
?
Jun 13, 2018 10:22
|
|
|
Guy A. Person posted:2018 Reading Challenge Theme Week #8 - Challenge no. 4: Read a book by an LGBT author For the genre crowd, I'd recommend Sorcerer of the Wildeeps by Kai Ashante Wilson. It's set up as a basic swords and sorcery type thing, but deals a lot with performative aspects of race and gender. It's a real interesting little book. I just checked out The Merry Spinster: Tales of Everyday Horror by Daniel Mallory Ortberg from the library, which is going to be my LGBT challenge book. I strongly suspect I've read at least one other book by an LGBT author this year, but a quick bio search on Wiki or their website wasn't enough to turn it up. A Goodreads friend gave it 5 stars, so I'm cautiously optimistic. It also had a neat cover.
|
|
#
?
Jun 13, 2018 16:31
|
|
|
Haven't posted an update in a bit. Thanks for all the recommendations, I've put several on my list. I also ended up finishing Confessions of a Mask late last week and it was extremely good. It took me awhile to get into Mishima, I might need to revisit some of his other stuff I've read. I'm still planning on doing the weekly challenges because it's at least kept the thread active and full of recommendations for relevant challenges, and has helped me a ton. I've pushed back and adjusted the schedule a bit: week beginning... July 8 - something involving music July 23 - translated work August 6 - something about the future August 20 - something about history September 10 - something from non-trad perspective September 24 - banned book October 8 - something about religion October 22 - something involving Maslow's hierarchy November 12 - something published 2018
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2018 18:07
|
|
|
quote:
In May/June, I read ten books: 14 - The Heart Goes Last, by Margaret Atwood. Unpleasantly plausible Tomorrow-AD dystopia forms the backdrop for a private-prison living experiment. The scope of Atwood's story is fairly small, but her main characters' concerns and personalities are fleshed out compellingly. As a critique of shallow corporate culture and "public good through private enterprise" it isn't as cutting as I expected, but what I did get was a fun and gripping story with some real emotional stakes. Throughout the book I kept thinking how it would be easy to adapt into a Netflix miniseries, though I don't know if that says more about the story itself or about my mindset while reading. Still, rather good! 15 - Lightning Rods, by Helen DeWitt. A satire on sexual politics and self-help culture, in which a down-on-his-luck salesman turns his extremely specific sexual fetish into a booming industry. There's a gentle farce at the core of the novel that kept me guessing where things would go next, and the way the characters treat the central bizarre concept with such seriousness always proved amusing. DeWitt weaves a great snowball effect into the plot, with small ideas and quirks becoming major life-changing decisions, and the book ends up being very engrossing. 16 - Literally Show Me A Healthy Person, by Darcie Wilder. Short novella told in a stream-of-consciousness Tumblr-feed style. The main character is a miserable and apathetic twenty-something, dealing with the fallout from a family tragedy while trying to piece together shards of a life she seems to have given up on. Her attention flickers between serious emotional reflection, sexual angst and errata like which New York streets have the best garbage. The overall effect is surprisingly powerful, and create a much fuller picture of the main character's inner and outer world than I thought it would. I liked this so much I lent it to a coworker as soon as I finished it. 17 - Fragile Things: Short Fictions & Wonders, by Neil Gaiman. Mostly short stories and some poems. A lot of the works in this collection left me unsatisfied, unfortunately - ideas not fully fleshed out, character motivations unclear, or simply unfulfilling tales. The ones that did work for me, though, were great. 'How To Talk To Girls At Parties', 'Bitter Grounds', and the last piece in the collection, 'Monarch of the Glen'- a sequel-novella to 'American Gods' that put me back in the same frame of mind as the original novel. By Gaiman's admission this book is cobbled together from odds and ends and stories over twenty years, so the disparity in quality is understandable. I certainly wouldn't recommend it as someone's first Neil Gaiman book, but there are some gems in here that I'm glad I could find. 18 - Who Fears Death, by Nnedi Okorafor. A powerful SFF novel that transplants the typical hero's journey to a post-apocalypse Saharan landscape. Our protagonist is a girl who seeks to learn magic to take revenge and must overcome immense odds and obstacles to complete her journey. Okorafor is unflinching in portraying the natiest aspects of human cruelty, from sexual assault and racial prejudice to more subtle, insidious complacency. Some passages are particularly difficult to read, and this is far from a happy book, but the way in which Onyesonwu's struggles and triumphs are told is really engrossing. As the cast of characters grows and new communities are discovered, hints at the richness and diversity of life are seen, but never over-explained. The world Okorafor has written has an awful lot of unanswered questions, but those answers are irrelevant to the characters and their experiences: I was left wanting more but not feeling short-changed at all. The book explores themes of loyalty, heritage and family, both chosen and inherited, and by the end I felt a real sense of how far the characters had come. 19 - Everyone's A Aliebn When Ur A Aliebn Too: A Book, by Jomny Sun. Simple illustrations and a children's-book narrative allow Sun to explore, in simple and emotionally raw terms, the highs and lows of human existence. An "aliebn" explorer meets denizens of Earth and learns about happiness, art, love, loss, and belonging. While a quick read, it was one where I lingered on every page, unable to stop smiling, and often genuinely affected. It is clear to see why Sun's work, both on- and offline, has been such a touchstone for people of my generation, and I am genuinely happy that I have this book in my life. 20 - Finn Family Moomintroll, by Tove Jansson. A charming book with episodic adventures that I recognised from the Moomins cartoon I watched growing up. Magical transformation, seafaring, treasure, friendship, and buckets of whimsy. Not as heavy as the previous book, but still featuring some real emotional honesty. This was a quick read, and never failed to put a big smile on my face. 21 - The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde. Shamefully I'd never read any Wilde before, despite knowing an awful lot about him and his life. This was everything I expected it to be: florid, witty, engrossing, vicious, deeply satisfying. Of course there are some hiccups - some casual anti-semitism scattered here and there, and a dreadful amount of misogyny, and especially with the latter it's hard to chalk it all up to "being written in the 19th Century". The book is staggeringly, overwhelmingly homoerotic, even more than I anticipated, and the central character of Dorian is wonderfully, unpleasantly drawn. I now need to read (or watch on stage) everything else Wilde did, because it really does live up to the hype. 22 - A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess. I can certainly see what all the fuss is about. A short and engrossing novel about adolescent viciousness, crime and punishment, and free will being stripped away by the state...But also a rather conservative story of a young man growing out of rebellion and, by the end, seeking a gentle, more passive life. Being very familiar with the film I recognised most of the scenes and plot beat for beat, though with significant thematic changes, especially to the ending. I was pleased to read that the "youth fashion" in the book is even sillier than the ones Kubrick put onscreen. Overall I'm happy I finally got to reading this - it's a hell of a book, a great story, with some scenes that will stick with me for some time. 23 - Infect Your Friends And Loved Ones, by Torrey Peters. Short novella about life as a trans woman in 201X, and also a post-apocalypse triggered by disaffected trans women. It's powerful and sad and little exciting; Peters writes with a matter-of-fact urgency that reads as much like a confessional as a piece of fiction. Obviously there are elements of this book I simply will not Get, given that I'm not a trans woman, but as a cis guy reading this I was definitely affected by it. Very good. 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge - 52 - 23 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 1/3 of them are written by women. - 11 - 4, 5, 8, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 20, 23 bonus: Of these make sure half are by authors new to you - 8 - 4, 5, 8, 11, 13, 15, 16, 23 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 1/3 of them are written by someone non-white. - 6 - 5, 6, 11, 12, 18, 19 bonus: Of these make sure half are by authors new to you - 5 - 5, 6, 11, 12, 19 bonus: Make sure 10% of the books you read this year are by LGBT authors 5. Participate in the TBB BotM thread at least once in 2018 (thread stickied each month at the top of the forum). 6. Ask another poster to issue you a wildcard, then read it. bonus: Similarly, get a wildcard from another thread in this forum 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) - 'Redshirts' (suggested by flatmate). 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 that isn't in your primary language 12. Read a poetry collection. bonus: Read poems by at least 10 different poets 14. Read a play. 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 17. Read something about religion. 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 20. Read something about music. bonus: Read something about a genre of music you're explicitly not a fan of 21. Read something that involves Maslow's hierarchy of needs. bonus: Read something about hunger I'm having trouble coming up with ideas for the Maslow/hunger book(s), so if anyone has any suggestions I'd be very grateful! Also, someone please WILDCARD ME! (thanks) Gertrude Perkins fucked around with this message at 04:30 on Jun 30, 2018 |
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2018 04:27
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 03:11 |
|
|
June~~ 43. Hide Me Among the Graves - Tim Powers 44. The Lowland - Jhumpa Lahiri 45. The Italian Teacher - Tom Rachman 46. The Stress of Her Regard - Tim Powers 47. My Antonia - Willa Cather Yeah, this two-kid situation has cut back on my reading, but at least the stuff I am reading is pretty solid. The Stress of Her Regard/Hide Me Among the Graves are some fun Tim Powers books; he always mixes up some history and some fantastical elements (in this case, vampiric spirits) for fun results. Poets such as Lord Byron and the Rosettis get involved in a couple of scrapes with strange vampiric creatures from before the dawn of man. I kinda messed up and read the sequel (Hide Me...) before the original (The Stress...) but I enjoyed both. The Lowland was an excellent book about dislocation and the strain it can have on family relations, something Lahiri often writes about. The Italian Teacher was a new one from Rachman, whose other novels I've enjoyed; this one told the story of a son of a famous painter and how he has to deal with his father and his father's legacy. Worth reading just for the ending. My Antonia was one of those books that I've been meaning to get around to for years (it's a classic, etc.) and when I did finally read it, it was quite good. It didn't do much in the way of plot, but the way it showed the passage of time both in the title character and the setting was quite well done. 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge (47/36) 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. - Lahiri, Cather 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. - Lahiri 4. Read at least one book by an LGBT author. 5. 6. Ask another poster to issue you a wildcard, then read it. 7. 8. Read something written before you were born. - My Antonia 9. Read a book published in 2018 (or if you're eager to start early, the latter half of 2017). - The Italian Teacher 10. 11. Read something political. 12. Read a poetry collection. 13. 14. Read a play. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2018 20:47
|
|