Challenged Reading 2015 Editon

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Radio!: Mar 15, 2008; Look at that post.

Going for 52, as usual, but I'll do the Stravinsky Challenge� too since it seems easy enough. Booklord, do you have any suggestions for books in the various categories? Especially the post-modern, absurdist, and hate/love categories.

# ¿ Jan 2, 2015 01:02

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# ¿ May 17, 2024 19:50

Radio!: Mar 15, 2008; Look at that post.

CestMoi posted:

Good suggestions

Prolonged Shame posted:

more good suggestions

Thanks! I've actually got The Things They Carried on my nightstand right now but never realized it was post modern so I learned a thing. I also heartily second the recommendation for On a winter's night a traveler because it's amazing.

Gonna throw out my own recommendation for anyone looking for a female/non-white author- Nnedi Okorafor's Who Fears Death, which is a fantasy exploration of genocide, weaponized rape, and female genital mutilation/oppression of/violence against women set in post-apocalyptic Sudan.

# ¿ Jan 3, 2015 00:43

Radio!: Mar 15, 2008; Look at that post.

Guy A. Person posted:

Just want to point out that my suggestion of My Name is Red wasn't just about the title; the book has multiple non-traditional narrators including inanimate objects like a coin, a drawing, and the color red.

But it is also an excellent book and I am seriously suggesting that someone read it for that number in the challenge, or just in general.

Alternate suggestion would be a book about the War of the Roses since you have the theme of red vs white roses and also blood because of the war.

I've been meaning to read this and haven't gotten around to it, so you've convinced me to finally actually do it.

# ¿ Jan 7, 2015 07:05

Radio!: Mar 15, 2008; Look at that post.

ToxicFrog posted:

53. Rockets and People, Volume 1 by Boris Chertok

The first volume of Chertok's massive four-volume history of the Soviet rocket program, from the 1920s to the fall of the USSR. A combination autobiography, collection of memoirs, and comprehensive history of the space program, the first volume extends from Chertok's childhood and prewar work as an aircraft electrician, to the end of Soviet rocket research in East Germany a few years after WW2, when they pack up and move everyone and everything back into Russia.

It's not as smooth a read as Ignition!, but is still fascinating. The first volume is primarily concerned with aviation, as Chertok didn't become heavily involved in rocketry until the war, but the BI-1 rocket-powered interceptor sees a fair amount of discussion.

One thing that I found fascinating was reminders of what aeroplane design was like in those eras by mentions of when it changed. For example, he describes their first experience designing a plane with these fancy new "flaps" that let it change the wing cross-section for takeoff and landing -- thus reminding the reader that everything mentioned prior to that in the book didn't have them!

I was stoked to start Volume 2, which is where things really get off the ground -- so to speak -- but it's a double-page PDF which my e-reader chokes on, so I took a break while figuring out a way to reformat it.

All four volumes are available on Amazon for 2$ each if you don't want to have to mess with them.
http://www.amazon.com/Rockets-Peopl...kets+and+people

I ran out of steam partway through vol. 3, personally. Mostly because Chertok introduces people like once and then assumes you remember them way later and it's hard to keep track of everyone (also I'm not very technical so I had a lot of moments of :wtf:

).

Do you have any recommendations for other space race books that are worth picking up? I loves me some early spaceflight history.

# ¿ Jun 10, 2015 04:56

Radio!: Mar 15, 2008; Look at that post.

Argali posted:

Not bad, but also not available at any of my libraries. I'd have to order it from the UK which is a pain in the butt. I'll add it to my list though. Anyone got something I can find?

Octavia Butler's Lilith's Brood.

Somebody wildcard me now please.

# ¿ Sep 20, 2015 20:37

Radio!: Mar 15, 2008; Look at that post.

Dahl book sounds good. Thanks bookfriends.

(White Teeth is on my to-read list already)

# ¿ Sep 21, 2015 00:00

Radio!: Mar 15, 2008; Look at that post.

For challenge suggestions, maybe reread a book you read for school as a kid? I know some people aren't into rereads but I always find it interesting to go back to books years later and see how my understanding and opinion of them has changed.

Mahlertov Cocktail posted:

REQUEST: Could someone/several someones recommend me books for post-modern and absurdist categories? Preferably on the shorter side, considering how far behind on the quantitative challenge I am.

Have you read If on a winter's night a traveler?

# ¿ Nov 30, 2015 22:06

Radio!: Mar 15, 2008; Look at that post.

Mahlertov Cocktail posted:

I have not! Absurdist or postmodern?

Postmodern. Also excellent.

# ¿ Dec 1, 2015 00:42

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# ¿ May 17, 2024 19:50

Radio!: Mar 15, 2008; Look at that post.

I don't think I'm going to finish another book before the 1st so here's my list.

1. The vanilla read a set number of books in a year. 61/52
2. Read a female author Agatha Christie, Kate Chopin, Octavia Butler, Ursual K LeGuin, Mary Roach, Zora Neal Hurston, Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, Annie Jacobsen, Hannah Arendt
3. The non-white author Sherman Alexie, Solomon Northup, Ken Liu, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Zora Neal Hurston, Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, Salman Rushdie, Sadegh Hedayat
4. Philosophy Hannah Arendt's On Violence (Turns out I hate Hannah Arendt. What a racist)
5. History I read like a million history books but I liked The Forgotten Fifteenth the most because it mentioned my grandfather's B-24
6. An essay Robin DiAngelo's White Fragility
7. A collection of poetry Maya Angelou's The Complete Poetry
8. Something post-modern Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried
9. Something absurdist Kafka's The Trial
10. The Blind Owl yup that sure was a book I read
11. Something on either hate or love Toni Morrison's Beloved
12. Something dealing with space Mary Roach's Packing For Mars
13. Something dealing with the unreal Gabriel Garcia Marquez' One Hundred Years of Solitude
14. Wildcard (Some one else taking the challenge will tell you what to read) Roald Dahl's Over to You (I don't normally like short stories but these were great and managed to make a big emotional impact in a very short period of time)
15. Something published this year or the past three months Ta-Nehisi Coates' Between the World and Me
16. That one book that has been sitting on your desk waiting for a long time Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children (Actually ended up have to force my way through this because it just did not interest me at all for some reason)
17. A play Shakespeare's Othello
18. Biography Jamie Doran's Starman: The Truth Behind the Legend of Yuri Gagarin
19. The color red Orhan Pamuk's My Name is Red
20. Something banned or censored Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago
21. Short story(s) Dahl's Over to You
22. A mystery Raymond Chandler's The Long Goodbye, Agatha Christie's The Mysterious Affair at Styles

My full list is on my goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user_challenges/2096532

Best book(s) of the year is a tie between Between the World and Me and The Gulag Archipelago. Both were superb eye-opening accounts of injustice that I still find myself thinking about pretty frequently.

# ¿ Dec 27, 2015 18:26

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > Challenged Reading 2015 Editon