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Project "Try to finish by reading short books" is proceeding apace, and indeed, has me on the cusp of finishing. My niece challenged me saying this was cheating, but I've salved my conscience by noting that in normal times, I'm at the library 1-3 times a week browsing new releases and grabbing whatever interests me, which is often short books, because if you have no idea about a book or an author it's not a commitment. I'm just doing that all now instead of spreading it over the last 8 months. That said, it's yielded some interesting results I might not have read otherwise. November was a good reading month on the whole that also made me feel like a boss because of the high book count (ignore the low page count). Technically, this hits me at my book goal, though I still need to finish something only online (I'm halfway!) and something with the same name (also halfway). Feeling pretty good here. Also for some reason the shorts are overwhelmingly women, and often authors of color so that's keeping my ratios good. 67. Red Dust by Yoss - This is supposed to be a sci-fi detective story. It's sorta that. There's precious little detection and a lot of time, for a novella, spent on info dumps. Could have been much better. Given that this was a miss otherwise right up my alley, I'm probably skipping more by YOSS. 68. Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh - A rich dilettante takes over a manor and it's haunted wood. This really leans back into old style fairy and folk tales. It's a pretty good read. 69. The Drowned Country by Emily Tesh - The sequel to the previous book where maybe Silver and Toby go to Fairy Land. Also pretty good. 70. The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo - This was better, I think. It's a story told about an empress and her arrival in court, her eventual banishment, and her return. It's all told a little obliquely by a former servant. I very much enjoyed it. 71. Gingerbread by Helen Oyeymi - Food but not cooking, this is about a family who makes marvelous gingerbread, their trials and travails, and a maybe mystical country not appearing on any map. This for me was a miss. I've read and enjoyed Oyeyemi before (Icarus Girl and White is for Witching) and this didn't live up. 72. Finna by Nino Cipri - A pair of low wage employees at Not-Ikea are deputized to recover a grandmother who has fallen into a wormhole that opened in the store. They're also trying to navigate a recent breakup. Pretty good, some adventure, some personal drama, some critique of capitalism. 73. Jack by Connie Willis - In WW2 a group of bomb watchers in London gets a new member of the team who is unusually adept at locating people buried in rubble. I used my knowledge of Willis's other work to completely miss the trick. Pretty good, very short. 74. The Four Profound Weaves by RB Lemberg - The first "Birdverse" work published, though apparently there's more online? I dunno. In a desert land, a woman tries to learn the last of the four profound weaves while her friend, a transman tries to figure out how he fits into the world. Magic, weaving, and strong trans themes. While it's not necessary to have read any of the online stuff, it's clear more exists than is here on the page. 75. Unexpected Stories by Octavia Butler - 2 stories that Butler's literary executor more or less found in the closet. They're both pretty good. Not up to Butler's best, they're both early in her career, but hey, more Butler. Bet you didn't expect that. 76. The Postutopian Adventures of Darger and Surplus by Michael Swanwick - A con-man and a con-genetically-modified-dog travel a postutopian world, trying to con their way through London, Paris, New Orleans, and at least one more I forget. This didn't have the snappy patter I'd hope for from con-men. The plans weren't that clever. And there's more time than there should be spent on people wanting to bang our protagonists. I keep considering knocking a star off this every time I think about it. 77. Tokyo Ueno Station by Miri Yu - A ghost haunts a train station and the local homeless camp. He recounts his very depressing life and brings some light to issues of overwork and poverty in Japan. Pretty solid little book, though a bummer. A National Book Award Finalist. 78. The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner - The first of 2 books called The Thief. I found this one while looking for the other. This turned out to be a pretty good fantasy novel with a thief broken out of prison to try and steal an ancient artifact that might determine the fate of 3 neighboring kingdoms. These days I prefer my fantasy less of "fate of 3 magic kingdoms" or whatever, but this was well done. When I feel the itch for that sort of thing, I'll pick up the rest of the series. 79. Ring Shout by P Djeli Clark - In 1920s Georgia Maryse and her group fight Ku Kluxes, otherworldly demons masquerading as regular clan members. They feed on hatred, and were summoned to this world by occult ritual and The Birth of a Nation. An upcoming screening of the movie at Stone Mountain threatens to bring the end of the world. Loved this. Cosmic horror, body horror, regular horror at the racism of our world, and Black Girl Magic. Clark absolutely nailed it, I think. 80. The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw - A short story collection focusing on Black women struggling with family and religion. Usually when that old religion doesn't quite fit and trying to reconcile that with faithful family and the struggles of getting by. Some of these are great. Flirted with 5 stars, but I felt kinda fell off a bit. Another National Book Award Finalist. 81. The Ghosts of Sherwood by Carrie Vaughn - After the events in Robin Hood, Robin has become a baron and forced King John to sign the Magna Carta. Their longstanding enmity has consequences when his kids are kidnapped in Sherwood. A fun little adventure building on the Robin Hood myths. 82. The Heirs of Locksley by Carrie Vaughn - A couple years after the previous, John is dead and the Locksley's head out to pledge fealty to boy king Henry. Naturally, there's an archery competition and attempted murder. These were a fun little duology and I'd read more. I'd love to see them fleshed out into something full length. 83. Enter the Aardvark by Jessica Anthony - An odd little satire. A young up and coming republican congressman receives a stuffed aardvark from his secret gay lover and suddenly his life falls apart. Also, the story of the man who stuffed the aardvark and his secret lover. I'm not real sure what to think. In some ways a story of the difficulties of closeted love, whether that's in Victorian England or modern republican party in the US. In others it's a weird story about stuffing an aardvark. 84. The Half God of Rainfall by Inua Ellams - An epic poem about a half-god from Nigeria who goes to America to play basketball, and the conflict between his pantheon, Zeus, and his Mother. It sounds odd, or a bit gimicky, but I thought it was really good. Would recommend. 85. The Aunt Who Wouldn't Die by Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay - A woman from a poor family marries into a rich but declining family. The men have all grown indolent and the family persists only by selling off it's old land and jewelry. The great aunt of the family dies and haunts our protagonist while she tries to get her husband to set up a shop and get with the times. Also, the story of her daughter, and her rebellious ways.Through these generations of aunt, mom, and daughter, Mukhopadhyay looks at the changing roles of women. It's good, somewhat humorous, and again, short. Ben Nevis posted:1. Famous Men Who Never Lived by K Chess Ben Nevis fucked around with this message at 17:27 on Dec 4, 2020 |
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Dec 2, 2020 19:45
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Got kind of distracted so I didn't post any of the books I read this year but 1. Green Rider by Kristen Britain. Fantasy adventure story about mail delivery gone wrong. There's some bits I don't have a lot of patience for, but the parts about this girl just racing across a country to get mail to a king on time is just aces. 2. Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey Picked out as my wild card book by bowmore. I mostly liked it! Murder mystery about a small town in the 70s destroying itself with its racism, bigotry, and classism. I was expecting more mystery but you quickly realize its more about characters reacting and surviving in this horrible environment. And that's fine. 3. Thunder Bay by Cork O'Conner Only read as part of a random library book challenge in February. Apparently the seventh book in the series? Utterly uninteresting. Can't remember a single thing about it. 4. Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix. Horror story about a haunted Ikea. Infinitely better than that description, really wowed me with its Big Big Anti-Capitalism themes. 5. Beauty by Robin McKinley Utterly shameless fantasy fairy tale that my girlfriend gave me. Just a really charming and sweet retelling of Beauty and the Beast 6. The Affair of the Mysterious Letter by Alexis Hall Sherlock Holmes style mystery, with almost all LGBT characters and Lovecraftian horrors. They really drop you into this world and leave you to kinda roll with the fact that you won't understand it all. Which kind of makes it hard to solve as a mystery? I had an inclining what was going on at some point but there's no real foreshadowing or clues that will lead you in that direction unless you're really thinking about the flaws of the characters. Generally a fun read though. 7. The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson. Historical novel about Winston Churchill's first year in office. Jumps around to a lot of different players and characters throughout Britain's bombing and just zeroes in on all the different struggles of the war. Absolutely stellar passages and connections that bring these smaller stories into a wider historical context. Can't complain. 8. National Security Cinema by Matthew Alford and Tom Secker. Started as a perfectly fine book about government intervention in Hollywood, kinda went a little off the rails about connections they couldn't quite prove. Dangerously close to be a conspiracy theorist book but mostly dodges out of the way. 9. Sewer, Gas, Electric: Public Works Trilogy by Matt Ruff Science fiction comedy book. Starts pretty good but the pieces don't really clash together and it sort of just becomes a jumbled mess. There's a plague in the world's backstory, which I kinda absolutely didn't need right now. I read Matt Ruff's Lovecraft Country book last year and while he's gotten.... better about race since he wrote this, I think also he might need to stop writing about race. 10. The Once and Future by A. R. Capetta and Cory McCarthy LGBT space future King Arthur book. Really fun and empathetic, doesn't fall into "we need to teach cis people a lesson" too much, really willing to engage the tragedy and messiness of King Arthur characters that other King Arthur books I've read really aren't. I'll definitely be checking out the sequel. 11. The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin Ambitious fantasy tale about women surviving a broken and fascist system and seeking their own doomed happiness. Requires a lot of patience but I found it really rewarding. 12. Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer Another ambitious fantasy story about another corrupt system and people trying to survive it. I really wanted to like this but it just flat out didn't work for me. One of the central gimmicks is that its a post-gender society but screwed up in their attempts to move beyond gender. And that's fine but when the (unreliable) narrator is mockingly telling the reader "oh does it bug me when I gender them? Does it make you nervous? Does it remind you of their bodies?" it adds a layer that I have a lot of trouble untangling. 13. Anger is a Gift by Mark Oshiro Extremely brutal read about people who are unsympathetic to your plight and how non-white communities are expected to take every half-assed apology with genuine gratitude. Really hard read. Sometimes the protagonist is hard to side with but I can't tell if that's the book or some internalized white privilege. Really forced me to think on some things and you gotta appreciate that. Just gotta... see if I can read seven books in four weeks now that school's out. edit: forgot 14: The Inugami Clan by Seishi Yokomizo. Great translation, great mystery, you can see why this series was so acclaimed back in the day. Nerdietalk fucked around with this message at 03:59 on Dec 3, 2020 |
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Dec 3, 2020 03:53
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December already? 40. A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs A book from the 1910s! This was decent pulp fiction and not really what I was expecting. I kind of want to watch the recent movie but I know my time could be spent better doing literally anything else. 41. Fingersmith by Sarah Waters Fulfills the historical challenge. This is a crime/romance set in 1860s England and I think it was pretty well balanced between those genres (if anything the romance was more of a side plot). Some good twists I didn't see coming too. 42. The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde Fulfills the play challenge. This was entertaining enough but overall felt rushed, which yes it's a play so it's meant to be experienced all at once but it still seems shorter than necessary. Challenges: 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. 42/55 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are not written by men. Currently 28.5% 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 20% of them are written by writers of colour. Currently 11.9% 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by LGBT writers. Currently 21.4% 5. Read a book from each decade of the 20th Century (1900s, 1910s etc). I’m down to just needing the 70s. Fulfilled by The African Queen. Fulfilled by Empire of the Sun. Fulfilled by Trail of Lightning. Fulfilled by The Hobbit. Fulfilled by Fingersmith. Fulfilled by Me. Fulfilled by Milk! Fulfilled by The Man in the High Castle Fulfilled by Prince Caspian. Fulfilled by Don’t Call Us Dead. Fulfilled by The Importance of Being Earnest. 17. Read a short story collection. Fulfilled by The Mysterious Study of Doctor Sex. 19. Read a prize-winning book. 20a&b. Read two books with the same (or very similar) titles. Fulfilled by Red, White and Royal Blue. Fulfilled by The Count of Monte Cristo. (Censored in English until recently) Fulfilled by The Fishermen I know I'm not hitting 55 and I'm going to try to hit the 20% POC but I'm not sure I'll be able to. I have the books for 19, 20A, & 20B picked out, I'm currently reading a book set in the 70s. My classes end Dec 9th but then Cyberpunk comes out so...we'll see.
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Dec 4, 2020 16:55
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Humerus posted:
I kinda liked it, but aside from the stellar cast (AKA like half the cast of HBO's Rome) it is generally kinda meh. Mostly, I have a strong attachment to these books because my dad read them (and the Tarzan books) to me when I was a kid.
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Dec 9, 2020 22:39
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Humerus posted:42. The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde Watch the (2002) movie. It's really good.
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Dec 10, 2020 10:47
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Tiggum posted:Watch the (2002) movie. It's really good. The Jim Varney version is really good too.
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Dec 10, 2020 14:45
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Gertrude Perkins posted:Lastly, looking ahead to 2021, if anyone thinks they'd like to take up the Booklord mantle, then do let me know in PMs! Always good to have new people involved. If nobody else steps up I'm happy to run things again next year. Bumping this! Please do get in touch if you'd like to run next year's thread!
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Dec 21, 2020 10:01
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Repeating that Goodreads has my full list for the year. I actually sailed past my goal and am still reading. My goals have all been met and my percentage goals aren't going to dip below the threshhold. I actually passed all my goals n late November but have been lazy about posting, I am planning to finish 4 of the "The Best American ____" books I am reading concurrently before midnight on new year's eve. https://www.goodreads.com/user_challenges/19883011 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. 119/100 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are not written by men. 49% 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 20% of them are written by writers of colour. 37% 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 5% of them are written by LGBT writers. 13% 5. Read a book from each decade of the 20th Century (1900s, 1910s etc). 1900s - Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekov 1910s - A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce 1920s - The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner 1930s - Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston 1940s - The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers 1950s - On the Road by Jack Kerouac 1960s - 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez 1970s - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig 1980s - The Color Purple by Alice Walker 1990s - Angels in America by Tony Kushner 6. Participate at least once in the TBB Book of the Month thread - read the book and post in the thread about that book! We by Yevgeny Zamyatin 7. Ask someone in this thread for a wildcard, then read it. The Setting Sun by Osamu Dasai 8. Read something by an indigenous author. An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz 9. Read an author's first book. Cyclonopedia: Complicity with Anonymous Materials by Reza Negarestani 10. Read something historical. Ghost on the Throne by James S. Romm 11. Read something about art/music. Dali - The Paintings by Robert Descharnes and Gilles Néret 12. Read something about food that isn't a cookbook. Sweetness and Power by Sidney Mintz 13. Find the book you have kept on your shelf unread for longest. Read it. Don't Look Back by Karin Fossum 14. Read a book you remember from your childhood. Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls 15. Read some poetry. Danez Smith, Ocean Vuong, Arthur Sze, Jesse Ball 16. Read a play. Happy Birthday Wanda June by Kurt Vonnegut, The Oldest Boy: A Play in Three Ceremonies by Sarah Ruhl, Circle Mirror Transformation by Annie Baker 17. Read a short story collection. Best American Short Stories 2019, The Complete Stories by Clarice Lispector, among others 18. Read something that's only available online. The Dionaea House by Eric Heisserer 19. Read a prize-winning book. The Overstory by Richard Powers 20a&b. Read two books with the same (or very similar) titles. Oblivion by David Foster Wallace & Oblivion by Sergei Lebdev 21. Read a love story. The Nakano Thrift Shop by Hiromi Kawakami 22. Read something banned/censored/challenged. Beyond Magenta by Susan Kuklin 23. Read a book from a country you've never visited. Human Acts by Han Kang I am planning to scale way back next year so that I can better manage my various hobbies, including drawing and video games (I would love to go back and tell my younger self that my old rear end needed to give up recreational reading to spend more time playing modern video games lol) but I am super proud of myself for blowing past my previous yearly record while continuing to broaden my scope. Similar congrats to everyone who attempted the challenge this year, I think it is an admirable self-improvement goal even if you couldn't complete it (which happens to all of us all at some point for various reasons). Looking forward to next year!
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Dec 30, 2020 03:41
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December: 62. A Bell For Adano by John Hersey, a writer for the New Yorker famous for his entire-magazine-length piece on Hiroshima in 1946. It's about an Italian-American major in charge of running an occupied Sicilian town during the war, and is less a war novel than a culture clash novel. Winner of the '46 Pulitzer, and has a touch of Hemingway to it. 63. A Bridge of Years by Robert Charles Wilson. A quite good time travel romp in which a 1989 divorcee discovers a tunnel leading back to 1960s New York City under his house in Washington, and decamps to go live there; but then finds himself stalked by a cyber-soldier deserter from the far future who thought the tunnel was his secret refuge alone. Really fun potboiler, and Wilson is my favourite new writer I discovered this year. 64. The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company by Robert Dalrymple. Non-fiction, about how a small company in London with very few staff ended up overthrowing the various Indian states, controlling the country and dominating British trade. That aspect of it was interesting but a lot of the book got bogged down in internal 18th century Mughal dynastic politics which was impenetrable to me. 65. Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. Whitehead's 2016 Pulitzer winner, a sort of magical realism novel in which the Underground Railroad is literally a long-distance subway; more interesting is the way each state the escapee protagonist visits has morphed into some different kind of terrible racism, from the ostensibly progressive South Carolina which is actually practicing forced sterilisation, to an outright genocide in North Carolina. I admired this one more than I enjoyed it. 66. Cold Hand in Mine by Robert Aickman. A collection of short stories by an English writer which would probably be classified horror but which he called "strange stories;" they rarely have anything supernatural about them but rather build an atmosphere of suspense with odd, inexplicable happenings viewed through the first-person eyes of somebody stumbling on the periphery of a larger, hidden story. I enjoyed them for the most part; a particular standout is The Hospice. Full list for 2020, six books beyond my goal of 60: 1. All Systems Red by Martha Wells 2. Fires’ Astonishment by Geraldine McCaughrean 3. Half the Day is Night by Maureen F. McHugh 4. Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days by Alastair Reynolds 5. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Sparks 6. The Reverse of the Medal by Patrick O’Brian 7. A Wrinkle in the Skin by John Christopher 8. Dark Matter by Blake Crouch 9. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe 10. Carpe Jugulum by Terry Pratchett (re-read) 11. Grass by Sherri S. Tepper 12. The ’50s: The Story of a Decade by The New Yorker 13. Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang 14. Lotus Blue by Cat Sparks 15. Warlock by Oakley Hall 16. Fun Home by Alison Bechdel 17. Permafrost by Alastair Reynolds 18. House of Stairs by William Sleator 19. The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain 20. On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden 21. The Stand by Stephen King 22. The Good Cop by Justine Ford 23. Old Man’s War by John Scalzi 24. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston 25. The Letter of Marque by Patrick O’Brian 26. Waiting for the Barbarians by J.M. Coetzee 27. The Second Sleep by Robert Harris 28. Journalism by Joe Sacco 29. The Call of the Wild by Jack London 30. Vernon God Little by D.B.C. Pierre 31. Salem’s Lot by Stephen King 32. The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrell 33. Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel 34. The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane 35. Explorers’ Sketchbooks: The Art of Discovery & Adventure by Huw Lewis-Jones and Kari Herbert 36. The ’60s: The Story of a Decade by The New Yorker 37. The January Dancer by Michael Flynn 38. The King of the Golden River by John Ruskin 39. Kindred by Octavia E. Butler 40. The Bone People by Keri Hulme 41. Victory Point by Owen D. Pomery 42. Blind Lake by Robert Charles Wilson 43. The Sympathizer by Viet Tanh Nguyen 44. South by Ernest Shackleton 45. Agency by William Gibson 46. Zone One by Colson Whitehead 47. The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai 48. Cage of Souls by Adrian Tchaikovsky 49. Darwinia by Robert Charles Wilson 50. A Science Fiction Omnibus edited by Brian Aldiss 51. Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe 52. Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell 53. Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirlees 54. The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones 55. Under the Mountain by Maurice Gee 56. House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday 57. Them Bones by Howard Waldrop 58. The Known World by Edward P. Jones 59. Piranesi by Susannah Clarke 60. The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst 61. Patience by Daniel Clowes 62. A Bell for Adano by John Hersey 63. A Bridge of Years by Robert Charles Wilson 64. The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company by Robert Dalrymple 65. Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead 66. Cold Hand in Mine by Robert Aickman 1903 - The Call of the Wild 1919 - South 1926 - Lud-in-the-Mist 1934 - The Postman Always Rings Twice 1944 - A Bell For Adano 1958 - Things Fall Apart 1961 - The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie 1975 - Salem's Lot 1984 - The Bone People 1991 - Half The Day Is Night And personal challenge of rounding off a decade's worth of either Booker or Pulitzer winners done - I've now read all the Booker winners from the 2000s. That was fun! I think I'll give it a miss in 2021, though - I don't like to do a challenge every year because I get too into box-ticking and it discourages me from reading longer books, of which I have quite a few piled up on the TBR shelf.
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Dec 31, 2020 04:31
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quote:
In a final sprint to the finish, I managed to read seven books in December. 52 - Disgrace, by J.M. Coetzee. A bestsellling, award-winning novel, and my wildcard. My first experience of the popular "middle-aged professor hooks up with his student, then his life falls apart" subgenre of Serious Literature. The prose is vivid, beautiful; richly-drawn scenes with attention to detail. The protagonist is an insufferable, loathsome prat paralysed by his own inability to see other humans as human, and the world around him contorts into whatever shape will supply the most pathos for him specifically. I think I hate this book. The further I got through it, the more each new plot point made me groan and roll my eyes. I could talk more about the misery porn or the grim "where is society going" bigotry or the clumsy overwrought pathetic fallacies or the protagonist's endless self-centred moaning about principles or the curtain-twitching racism or the caricature-level depictions of academia or the fact that David not only wants to but *manages* to gently caress almost every woman he meets. Somewhere in here is an interesting story about a well-to-do white male authority figure pushing his luck until it runs out. Somewhere in here is an interesting story about a young woman whose father re-enters her life at its lowest point. I'm sure there's also some clever commentary on South Africa's changing culture and society in the wake of apartheid. But this book fails to deliver any of these in any meaningful way. If this were published today, I have no doubt that Coetzee would be hailed as an "anti-woke" crusader railing against the overreach of "cancel culture" or somesuch nonsense. I won't be returning to this book again. 53 - Nerd Do Well, by Simon Pegg. His 2010 autobiography, that I've had lying around since release but never read until now! It's very self-conscious and jokey, as I expected. Broken up into stories about his life, writing about film, and a spoof narrative about Simon Pegg, billionaire playboy superspy with a robot butler. The latter are spaced out enough that they don't totally overstay their welcome, but the jokes are a little hit-and-miss. The main body of the text gives enough insight into Pegg's idea of himself both as a person and a creator, with some candid and self-effacing stories of early failures and romantic dalliances. As the stories progress into his TV and then film career, and the narrative of the "nerd do well" success story becomes clear, the book becomes a little less interesting for anyone who already knows his work. Names of collaborators and project titles seem to fly past without much in the way of storytelling or behind-the-scenes insight. Not that it's unfun to read, but the latter half of the book is a series of "wow, poo poo, I can't believe I get to do X" moments. Which is fine, really - early on in the book, Pegg talks about his discomfort with the idea of writing about himself and his life. But I did come away rather disappointed. 54 - Little Liar, by Clare Boyd. Grim family drama for a target demographic of misery-porn-loving mums. A hard-working put-upon mother has a fraught relationship with her young daughter; a nosy neighbour (living with her own unprocessed traumas) who hears screaming from next door, assumes the worst. Interspersed with snippets of the daughter's secret diary, which never quite becomes as vital to the plot as I had expected. Lots of curtain-twitching suburban anxiety and male characters who Simply Don't Understand; a system of police and social services that seems set up to undermine every good intention; protagonists whose unchecked mental health issues cause them to lash out and make grave mistakes. It was "fun" in a melodramatic Eastenders-Christmas-episode way, but a little too silly in ways that undercut the emotional impact Boyd tries to inflict. And then a neat "well, everything's all right now" kind of ending. I didn't like it that much, but I know plenty of people who would. 55 - The Artificial Silk Girl, by Irmgard Keun. German novella set in 1931 Berlin that's (accurately) praised for its depiction of the glamour and sordid underbelly of late Weimar culture. Our protagonist and narrator is Doris, a young and pretty girl who runs away to the big city to pursue her dreams of stardom, only to find that life isn't nearly so neat. Her narrative voice is great fun, a cynical idea of the breezy young socialite wrapped up in a protective bubble of glamour and charisma (and other people's money). There's a sense of foreboding creeping in at the edges of the frame, as characters lament "the way the world is going" and try to tell her about politics and war, and the idea of engaging with these bigger ideas is only a passing fancy for Doris. Her relationship with the blind WWI veteran provides the most moving parts of the book, that affected me much stronger than I expected. I'm happy I picked this up, and would definitely recommend it. 56 - Little Liar, by Julia Gray. Gray is a musician I've loved for a long time, so when I heard she'd written a book (with an accompanying album!) I was really excited. The results are a little mixed, but mostly positive. Nora is a 17-year-old girl with a cool goth mum and a bohemian upgringing whose lies and exaggerations of the truth act as a defence mechanism to stop her dealing with the realities of life. She starts out getting an art teacher fired for their inappropriate relationship, and then infiltrates the life of one of the teacher's other victims, a troubled rich girl with similar parent-issues. What follows is a story of deception and misplaced trust that ends up in a pitched climax where characters are forced to confront uncomfortable truths. While I initially bounced off the prose style, Nora's voice grew on me, as did the larger-than-life but familiar characters that populate the book. 57 - The Adventure Zone: Murder on the Rockport Limited!, by Clint McElroy, Griffin McElroy, Justin McElroy, Travis McElroy & Carey Pietsch. The second TAZ graphic novel adaption, featuring a murder mystery, comedy, action, and a bright and fun art style. Not much more to say about it, it's McElroy stuff so if you like them and/or enjoyed the TAZ podcast you'll probably like this! 58 - The Little Prince, by Antoine De Saint-Exupéry. A bittersweet way to round out the year. A lovely, heart-filling children's book, deserving of its reputation as one of the greats. 1900 - 5 (1907) 1910 - 22 (1914) 1920 - 4 (1920) 1930 - 17 (1939), 55 (1932) 1940 - 58 (1943) 1950 - 51 (1958) 1960 - 7 (1967) 1970 - 39 (1974) 1980 - 41 (1988) 1990 - 26 (1995), 52 (1999) Total books: 58 Total: approx. 14,668 pages. Average pages per book: 253 Average pages per day: 40. Given the utter shitshow of a year it's been, I'm happy with these numbers, and satisfied that I completed the Booklord Challenge. It'd be embarrassing if I didn't complete my own gauntlet, huh? It looks like I'll be in charge of things next year too. I'll mix up the challenges a little and post a new thread within the next few days. Happy 2021, everyone. I hope it treats us all better. Gertrude Perkins fucked around with this message at 02:28 on Jan 1, 2021 |
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Jan 1, 2021 02:11
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I've unfortunately lost track of the list I'd kept by the middle of the year, but it was still good to see what other people were reading and get ideas from those. I'd be happy to at least look around next year or maybe ask about where people are finding things to read.
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Jan 1, 2021 03:08
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Somehow, having nothing to do and nowhere to go all year resulted in me reading less. So even though I set my goal lower than previous years, I still fell well short. And a lot of them were RPGs or comics. Oh well.
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Jan 1, 2021 08:44
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Happy new year  43. Patternmaster by Octavia E. Butler My 70s book and it was okay but it felt rushed a bit at the end. I have the collection of all* the Patternist books and I'll probably read the others but I'm in no rush. *There's one book she wrote and then decided she hated it or something so it's not in print and was never made into an ebook so I guess I'll never know. 44. A Phoenix First Must Burn edited by Patrice Caldwell Short story collection featuring sixteen stories by sixteen authors, all of them non-white and not cis men. Most of these stories were good, a few were great, and a few were just okay. There were a couple I wish were full length novels, which is a good sign I think. 45. Binti by Nnedi Okorafor It's a novella and it was good, definitely see how it won so many awards. I'm looking forward to reading the other two novellas now. 46. Joyland by Stephen King Part a) of challenge 20. I liked this, sort of murder mystery sort of ghost story sort of coming of age story. Kind of meandering at points but enjoyable throughout. 47. Joyland by Emily Schultz Part b) of challenge 20. This book was...let’s say not for me. It was weird and disturbing at times. Gets across that feeling of teenage dread/childhood’s end but man, I definitely didn’t need so many scenes about 14 year olds masturbating and having sex. Overall just a weird book. Challenges: 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. 47/55  About 34% for the final! 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 20% of them are written by writers of colour. This ended up only being 17%. Which is pretty bad, honestly, because 20% seems like a low bar. If I wanted to rule lawyer this I could argue that by author it’s higher because of the short story collection but that’s disingenuous so I’ll take the L. About 21% for the final! Done! Fulfilled by The African Queen. Fulfilled by Empire of the Sun. Fulfilled by Trail of Lightning. Fulfilled by The Hobbit. Fulfilled by Fingersmith. Fulfilled by Me. Fulfilled by Milk! Fulfilled by The Man in the High Castle Fulfilled by Prince Caspian. Fulfilled by Don’t Call Us Dead. Fulfilled by The Importance of Being Earnest. Fulfilled by A Phoenix First Must Burn. Fulfilled by The Mysterious Study of Doctor Sex. Fulfilled by Binti. Fulfilled by Joyland and….Joyland . Fulfilled by Red, White and Royal Blue. Fulfilled by The Count of Monte Cristo. (Censored in English until recently) Fulfilled by The Fishermen So I didn’t hit my goal of 55 but I did hit all the challenges except the POC author one, which is not bad in my book. Overall I have mixed feelings on the challenge because on the one hand it does encourage to branch out and read books I wouldn’t have otherwise looked into (like the food book, the romance, the poetry) but that also can backfire - I wouldn’t have considered Schultz’s Joyland without the challenge and again, without the challenge I would have dropped it if I had started to read it anyway. So I think next year I’ll bump those percentages up to 30% across the board and not worry too much about the individual challenges.
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Jan 1, 2021 14:13
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Yeah, there are always some risks in branching out, but that's what keeps it exciting for me! If I hadn't been wildcarded I probably would never have read Disgrace and learned how much I absolutely hate it. It's been cool seeing people talk about their goals and work towards them, and it's been cool offering this as a space to touch base and find new and great (and sometimes awful) things to check out. I know a lot of things I've read were brought to my attention by looking at others' reading lists here. Even if you didn't hit your targets, you should all be proud of yourselves. 
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Jan 1, 2021 15:56
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Gertrude Perkins posted:Yeah, there are always some risks in branching out, but that's what keeps it exciting for me! If I hadn't been wildcarded I probably would never have read Disgrace and learned how much I absolutely hate it. Haha I'm sorry you hated it. I'd certainly describe it as a book I "admire" rather than "like" and can 100% understand why some people despise it. FWIW the other one I wildcard recc I gave you, Carey's Oscar and Lucinda, is like the polar opposite of Disgrace - a joyous, lovely, energetic bundle of fun. Carey's historical fiction reminds me a lot of both Dickens and Pratchett.
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Jan 2, 2021 02:40
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December! 103. Feet of Clay (Discworld) - Terry Pratchett 104. The Raven Tower - Ann Leckie 105. The Enchanted - Rene Denfeld 106. The Lying Lives of Adults - Elena Ferrante 107. Such a Fun Age - Kiley Reid 108. The Devil and the Dark Sea - Stuart Turton 109. An Unkindness of Ghosts - Rivers Solomon 110. The Black God's Drums - P. Djeli Clark 111. If Beale Street Could Talk - James Baldwin 112. Sharks in the Time of Saviors - Kawai Strong Washburn And we end the year with a number of quite-good books. My favorites were Sharks in the Time of Saviors, about a family and Hawaiian myth, and The Devil and the Dark Water, a mystery set aboard a Dutch trading ship in the 1600s. 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. (102/100) 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are not written by men. 54% female (Leckie, Denfeld, Ferrante, Reid, Solomon) 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 20% of them are written by writers of colour. 33% POC (Reid, Solomon, Clark, Baldwin, Washburn) 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 5% of them are written by LGBT writers. 5% (Solomon, Baldwin) 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20a&b. 21. 22. 23.
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Jan 2, 2021 22:16
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NEW THREAD HERE! COME ONE COME ALL!
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Jan 3, 2021 02:08
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Finished. At least one thing that panned out OK this year, after a blitz of late novellas. Take that 2020. Favorites of the year are probably Lost Children Archive, Interior Chinatown, Death Comes for the Archbishop, Why Fish Don't Exist, Ring Shout, and The Only Good Indians. 86. The Thief by Fuminori Nakamura - The same name, cf 78. A pickpocket plies his trade while trying to deal with the fallout of his partner's disappearance, and also takes a poor boy under his wing to teach him the basics. Not quite a heist and not quite just philosophy, it kinda falls into the middle of the too. Oddly this was the one I had on my list initially, but wound up liking it less of the 2 The Thief books. 87. In the Shadows of Men by Robert Jackson Bennett - Two brothers try and make some money off the west Texas oil boom by trying to clean up an old motel that belonged to an uncle. But what did he get up to there? A nice little horror novella. 88. Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots - Anna is a data analyst, temping for supervillains, until the devastating consequences of a brush with a super hero lead to her finding more permanent employment. This was terribly entertaining and the first book in awhile that I just couldn't put down. Possibly the best super hero or hero adjacent book I've read. Would recommend. 89. The Standardization of Demoralization Procedures by Jennifer Hofmann - Possibly the longest title I've read this year. Bernd Zeiger is a Stasi agent in 1989. He's most notable for writing the titular manual in demoralizing the populace. When a waitress at the local cafe disappears, he investigates. Who was she, how was she connected to one of Zeiger's earlier cases, with a physicist who had a research stint in America working with a group attempting to weaponize the paranormal. There's a good sense of absurdism here, but overall I didn't think it came together well. I might have missed something. 90. 21 Immortals by Rozlan Mohd Noor - A police novel set in Malaysia with Inspector Mislan trying to get to the bottom of a baffling case. Not really a mystery but a police procedural type thing. They missed a huge clue early and I was disappointed. Otherwise, I found it pretty solid with a realistic feeling ending. 91. Afterland by Lauren Beukes - After a virus has devastated the world, killing almost all of the men, Cole and her son Miles escape a military institution and flee across the US to try and escape to their home country of South Africa. Sort of a post plague tour of the US. Also a chase book. Not Beukes's best, but probably a 3 or so that rounds up, I think. 92. Shakespeare's Storytelling by Brainworm - My online only work. The draft of Brainworm's text about Shakespeare's story telling. It breaks down what made Shakespeare different from previous authors and where you see those things today. Lots of modern references to help driver points, which was useful cause I know nothing about the basic subject. Ben Nevis posted:1. Famous Men Who Never Lived by K Chess
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Jan 3, 2021 18:15
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It was a long haul to get there, but I did it. I read 50 books and achieved all the booklord and personal goals I set for myself. I’m pretty sure I enjoyed reading the books while I was doing it? But looking back now, I think I was overambitious in my personal goals, and I couldn’t fairly say which one I enjoyed most or least. December Reading 49. Can’t Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation by Anne Helen Petersen - I wasn’t expecting much based on the title, so I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of research and interviews the writer did. The ideas in the book aren’t necessarily new or unfamiliar to millennials (like the problems with social media and the struggle to find work/life balance). But Petersen does a great job of articulating these thoughts and giving them context by connecting them to larger social and economic trends from the past 60 years. 50. Christmas: A Story by Zona Gale - Something light to end the year with. A small town that cancels Christmas when the factory shuts down and nobody can buy Christmas gifts? A single woman who doesn't care for Christmas learns the joys of the holiday when she has to adopt her orphaned nephew on Christmas Eve? I can easily imagine Hallmark making an adaptation of this book. 51. Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk - This one snuck in there in the last two days of the year, and I’m glad it did. I loved the melancholy mood and the narrator, and it was a perfect book for the winter. But I think part of why I enjoyed it is that I could read it for its own sake instead of feeling like I had to tick off boxes for my booklord challenge. I’m definitely scaling back next year. Challenge Progress 1. Set a goal for a number of books or another personal challenge - 51/50! 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 33% of them are not written by men - 52%! 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 33% of them are written by writers of color - 35%! 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 5% of them are written by LGBT writers - 13%! Personal. Of the books read this year, make sure at least 33% of them are nonfiction - 33!%
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Jan 3, 2021 23:20
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| # ? Apr 16, 2024 11:17 |
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Well I am done. I didn’t quite finish everything, but I did enough. The 1900s decade challenge was what I had the most problems with, as it really limited my options. Reading only 36 books, if I didn’t overlap things I had only 7 books that were “free.” Next year I am going to focus on the challenges less, as I feel like I didn’t enjoy reading as much this year. Anyway! December! December 33. Night by Bilge Karasu. My wildcard. It reminded me of Twenty Days of Turin. Just a weird “off” feeling throughout the entire books. I don’t know if they are considered similar books but if they are I definitely want to read more like this. 34. Our Town by Thornton Wilder. This would be really cool to actually see. 35. A People’s History of The United States by Howard Zinn. I was actually surprised by how much of the information in the book I had already learned in high school. Apparently my US History teacher was really good. Still, very eye-opening book. 36. The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois. This book is over 100 years old, but still incredibly relevant. And that sucks. 37. Diary of a Murderer and Other Stories by Kim Young-ha. It started off fun but then farted out. Meh. So that’s my booklord. My best books of the year would probably be... To Kill a Mockingbird A People’s History of the United States The Nickel Boys This is how you Lose the Time War Fever Dream Personal challenge: 20% Korean authors. 8/37 Personal challenge: 20% nonfiction. 12/37 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are not written by men.13/37 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 20% of them are written by writers of colour.23/37 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 5% of them are written by LGBT writers.3/37 5. Read a book from each decade of the 20th Century (1900s, 1910s etc). 1920s 1990s
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Jan 4, 2021 01:16
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