Challenged Reading 2015 Editon

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Prolonged Shame: Sep 5, 2004

I'm aiming for 100 books again this year, with at least 12 presidential biographies and 25 nonfiction books (in addition to the prez bios). I'll also take on Stravinsky's challenge.

Here's my Goodreads page, if anyone wants to be friends: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/8528817-squids

# ¿ Jan 1, 2015 22:54

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 06:07

Prolonged Shame: Sep 5, 2004

Goodreads usually has pretty good book lists if you're looking for a specific genre.

Here are a couple post-modern book lists:

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/10503.61_Essential_Postmodern_Reads_Los_Angeles_Times

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/18219.Waiting_For_Classic_Post_Modern_Literature

And absurdist lists:

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/24776.Absurdist_Fiction

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/48227.Books_with_surreal_absurdist_jouneys

# ¿ Jan 2, 2015 21:06

Prolonged Shame: Sep 5, 2004

It doesn't look like I'll be finishing anything else this month, so here's my list so far:

1) The Other Boleyn Girl - Philippa Gregory: Not the best Tudor-related fiction I've ever read. She really leans way on the 'fiction' side of historical fiction, and has a tendency to put modern day codes of morality on medieval society. Still, I hate to leave a series unfinished so I'll probably read the rest of these.
2) Akira Vol. 3 - Katsuhiro Otomo: Manga is not really my thing but I read the first two volumes in this series and want to see how it ends. Not bad overall.
3) Steel Magnolias - Robert Harling: I love the movie and loved the play as well. I didn't even know it was a play until I found it searching for a play for Stravinsky's Challenge. It's pretty close to the movie except that all the scenes take place in Truvy's salon, and there are no male speaking roles. I also didn't know that it is based on a true story; the author's sister died of complications from diabetes. Fun fact: the nurse that turns off Julia Robert's life support in the movie is the real life nurse that turned off his sister's life support.
4) The Four Feathers - A.E.W. Mason: While there wasn't as much action in this book as I initially thought, it was a fascinating look at the role of 'honor' and how important it was in imperial Britain.
5) Giant's Bread - Mary Westmacott (AKA Agatha Christie): One of her few non-mystery novels. There were a couple of twists at the end which I never saw coming. Quite good.
6) A Good Marriage - Stephen King: A novella in which a wife discovers a horrifying secret about her husband while he is away on business. It's a good premise and the book is short enough that King doesn't have room to ruin it with his weird word games and interminable internal monologues. We do get the life history of every character and how a childhood event reverberates through their entire life though.
7) Eiger Dreams: Ventures Among Men and Mountains - Jon Krakauer: A collection of some of Krakauers essays for various magazines over the years. Not bad.
8) In the Heart of the Sea: the Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex - Nathaniel Philbrick: The true story of the whale that sunk a whaleboat and what happened to the crew afterwards. It also has a nice little history of whaling in Nantucket. This is the event that inspired Melville to write Moby Dick. Very good.
9) Foundation - Isaac Asimov: I wanted to like this more, but it was hard to keep track of who was who as all the characters were completely interchangeable. It's a nifty premise but it was hard to remain interested in the characters who ranged from bland to annoying.
10) The Best of Edward Abbey - Edward Abbey: a collection of his essays and selected book chapters compiled by the author himself. I love Ed Abbey.
11) A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal - Robert Macintyre: The true story of a double agent in MI6 who went undetected for decades and basically undermined all western intelligence for years, passing untold numbers of secrets to the Soviets. I found this fascinating.

Total: 11/100
Presidential bios: 0/12
Non Fiction barring prez bios: 4/25

Stravinsky's Challenge:
1. The vanilla read a set number of books in a year. 11/100
2. Read a female author - The Other Boleyn Girl - Philippa Gregory
5. History - In the Heart of the Sea: the Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex - Nathaniel Philbrick
6. An essay - The Best of Edward Abbey - Edward Abbey
12. Something dealing with space - Foundation - Isaac Asimov
16. That one book that has been sitting on your desk waiting for a long time - Giant's Bread - Mary Westmacott
17. A play - Steel Magnolias - Robert Harling
19. The color red - A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal - Robert Macintyre

# ¿ Jan 30, 2015 16:28

Prolonged Shame: Sep 5, 2004

February!

Prolonged Shame posted:

12) Perfume: The Story of a Murderer - Patrick S�skind: The story of a man born with no odor of his own, but the most superhuman sense of smell anyone has ever had. A strange story with some beautiful writing.
13) Mistborn: The Final Empire (Mistborn #1) - Brandon Sanderson: I liked what he did with The Wheel of Time, and goons were constantly recommending this book so I gave it a try. It took a few chapters to get into it, but I ended up really enjoying it and plan to read the rest of the trilogy.
14) The Giver - Lois Lowry: Meh. I don't get what all the fuss is about.
15) Lost in the City - Edward P. Jones: A book of 'slice of life' short stories about African Americans in the DC area. Very well written.
16) The Blithedale Romance - Nathaniel Hawthorne: I liked the humorous aspects of this book but I don't think it's Hawthornes best effort.
17) Akira Vol. 4 - Katsuhiro Otomo: Better than the last one.
18) The Art of War - Sun Tzu: This book gets referenced constantly in other media so I figured I'd read it myself. It was simple, easy to read, and made a lot of sense. It gets paired with 'The Prince' a lot, and I see why, but it's a thousand times simpler and stripped of extraneous wordage. Highly recommended.
19) William Howard Taft: The Travails of a Progressive Conservative - Jonathan Lurie: Awful. Poorly written, tedious to read, and the author was seemingly more concerned with running down Teddy Roosevelt (or 'TR' as he constantly refers to him) than discussing Taft.
20) The Maltese Falcon - Dashiell Hammet: This is my second attempt at reading noir, and I really think it works better on the screen than in print. I had a hard time giving a poo poo about any of the characters, particularly the protagonist.

Total: 20/100
Presidential bios: 1/12
Non Fiction barring prez bios: 5/25

Stravinsky's Challenge:
1. The vanilla read a set number of books in a year. 20/100
2. Read a female author - The Other Boleyn Girl - Philippa Gregory
4. Philosophy - The Art of War - Sun Tzu
5. History - In the Heart of the Sea: the Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex - Nathaniel Philbrick
6. An essay - The Best of Edward Abbey - Edward Abbey
9. Something absurdist - Perfume: The Story of a Murderer - Patrick S�skind
12. Something dealing with space - Foundation - Isaac Asimov
16. That one book that has been sitting on your desk waiting for a long time - Giant's Bread - Mary Westmacott
17. A play - Steel Magnolias - Robert Harling
18. Biography - William Howard Taft: The Travails of a Progressive Conservative - Jonathan Lurie
19. The color red - A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal - Robert Macintyre[/b]
20. Something banned or censored - The Giver - Lois Lowry
21. Short story(s) - Lost in the City - Edward P. Jones
22. A mystery - The Maltese Falcon - Dashiell Hammet

# ¿ Feb 28, 2015 16:18

Prolonged Shame: Sep 5, 2004

Prolonged Shame posted:

March was a good month reading-wise.

21) Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass - Frederick Douglass: Someone mentioned reading this last month and I though it sounded good. It was excellent. Heartbreaking and well written.
22) Spring Snow - Yukio Mishima: A charmingly written, beautiful, sort of coming of age story occasionally interrupted by exceedingly dull philosophical ramblings.
23) The Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham: One of the first post-apocalyptic novels. It was chilling and quite apt, even though it was written over half a century ago.
24) The Arabian Nights: Tales From a Thousand and One Nights - Anonymous: I enjoyed this. It was interesting seeing the origins of a lot of cultural touchstones and other notable literature.
25) Arabella - Georgette Heyer: I'm generally not a romance novel reader, but I really like this author. She's no Jane Austen, but she's the closest I've ever seen.
26) Woodrow Wilson: World Statesman - Kendrick A. Clements: An adequate biography of Wilson.
27) The Blind Owl - Sadegh Hedayat: I alternated between enjoying this and wanting to murder the narrator. Overall, I'm glad Stravinsky included it in his challenge as it is something I never would have picked up otherwise.
28) Worm - Wildbow: My first time reading a web serial, and I loved it. It was really long and needs some serious editing, but man was it enjoyable!
29) The Rosetta Key - William Deitrich: Book 2 in the Ethan Gage series. These are really fun and easy to read.
30) Don Quixote - Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra: I feel like I've been reading this forever. It was charming and funny, but way, way too long.
31) The Ohio Gang: The World of Warren G. Harding - Charles L. Mee: There is some controversy about the historical veracity of some parts of this book, but it was an enjoyable and easy to follow read - a real feat for a presidential biography. Also, I had no idea how much of a slimeball Warren Harding was.

Total: 31/100
Presidential bios: 3/12
Non Fiction barring prez bios: 6/25

Stravinsky's Challenge:
1. The vanilla read a set number of books in a year. 31/100
2. Read a female author - The Other Boleyn Girl - Philippa Gregory
3. The non-white author - Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass - Frederick Douglass
4. Philosophy - The Art of War - Sun Tzu
5. History - In the Heart of the Sea: the Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex - Nathaniel Philbrick
6. An essay - The Best of Edward Abbey - Edward Abbey
9. Something absurdist - Perfume: The Story of a Murderer - Patrick S�skind
10. The Blind Owl - The Blind Owl - Sadegh Hedayat
11. Something on either hate or love - Arabella - Georgette Heyer
12. Something dealing with space - Foundation - Isaac Asimov
16. That one book that has been sitting on your desk waiting for a long time - Giant's Bread - Mary Westmacott
17. A play - Steel Magnolias - Robert Harling
18. Biography - William Howard Taft: The Travails of a Progressive Conservative - Jonathan Lurie
19. The color red - A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal - Robert Macintyre[/b]
20. Something banned or censored - The Giver - Lois Lowry
21. Short story(s) - Lost in the City - Edward P. Jones
22. A mystery - The Maltese Falcon - Dashiell Hammet

# ¿ Mar 31, 2015 02:42

Prolonged Shame: Sep 5, 2004

Prolonged Shame posted:

April was not so great a month for reading:

32) Shadow Scale - Rachel Hartman: the second book in a duology about a girl who is half human/half dragon in a world where dragons can transform into human form. It's a charming little book, I really enjoyed it.
33) The Well of Ascension (Mistborn #2) - Brandon Sanderson: I really like the world he has created and I like the unusual take on the standard fantasy hero quest that he has going in this series. I will probably finish up the third one this month.
34) A Royal Experiment: The Private Life of King George III - Janice Hadlow: I loved this. Most biographies of kings and presidents and such generally amount to a list of their public accomplishments and failures and the impact they had on the world at large. This book was all about the private lives of George III, his wife and 15 children (and to a lesser extent his grandparents and parents), and it showed how external forces (eg the war in the colonies) impacted familial relationships, as well as the impact of his descent into madness. A great book!
35) Calvin Coolidge - David Greenberg: A short but thorough biography of Coolidge. Relatively unbiased, which was nice.
36) Savage Summit: The True Stories of the First Five Women Who Climbed K2, the Worlds Most Feared Mountain - Jennifer Jordan: This was an interesting account of the first five women to summit K2 and the unique challenges they faced in a male dominated sport. The author did a pretty good job of giving a sense of her subjects personalities, even when they were somewhat unpleasant. I really liked it.
37) White Teeth - Zadie Smith: The story of two intertwining families in 70's-90's London. Very funny and quite well written. The plot was a little weak but the characters more than made up for it.

Total: 37/100
Presidential bios: 4/12
Non Fiction barring prez bios: 8/25

Stravinsky's Challenge:
1. The vanilla read a set number of books in a year. 37/100
2. Read a female author - The Other Boleyn Girl - Philippa Gregory
3. The non-white author - Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass - Frederick Douglass
4. Philosophy - The Art of War - Sun Tzu
5. History - In the Heart of the Sea: the Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex - Nathaniel Philbrick
6. An essay - The Best of Edward Abbey - Edward Abbey
9. Something absurdist - Perfume: The Story of a Murderer - Patrick S�skind
10. The Blind Owl - The Blind Owl - Sadegh Hedayat
11. Something on either hate or love - Arabella - Georgette Heyer
12. Something dealing with space - Foundation - Isaac Asimov
13. Something dealing with the unreal - The Well of Ascension - Brandon Sanderson
15. Something published this year - Shadow Scale - Rachel Hartman
16. That one book that has been sitting on your desk waiting for a long time - Giant's Bread - Mary Westmacott
17. A play - Steel Magnolias - Robert Harling
18. Biography - William Howard Taft: The Travails of a Progressive Conservative - Jonathan Lurie
19. The color red - A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal - Robert Macintyre
20. Something banned or censored - The Giver - Lois Lowry
21. Short story(s) - Lost in the City - Edward P. Jones
22. A mystery - The Maltese Falcon - Dashiell Hammet

# ¿ May 1, 2015 14:29

Prolonged Shame: Sep 5, 2004

Prolonged Shame posted:

I did well in May.
38) I Come From the Stone Age - Heinrich Harrer: I really only read this because a coworker loaned it to me. It's the account of the author's expedition deep into the interior of Dutch New Guinea in the 60's and his first summits of the mountains there, as well as interesting info about the native population. The subject matter is interesting, but it is literally a transcription of his diary and can be a bit dry at times.
39) Akira Vol.5 - Katsuhiro Otomo: At this point I'm reading these just to finish the series. They're ok, but not really my thing.
40) An American Tragedy - Theodore Dreiser: The story of a young man in the early 20th century and his desperate social ambitions which culminate in tragedy. Brilliant character creation, maybe a bit overlong.
41) Throne of Jade - Naomi Novik: The second in the Temeraire series. Not quite as good as the first, but I will keep reading. I gather they get better as the series progresses. It's a fun concept (Napoleon with dragons).
42) The Hero of Ages (Mistborn #3) - Brandon Sanderson: Wow, I loved this. I wasn't sure where he was going to take this series, but I never would have predicted that ending. Immensely satisfying and very original. This was my first Sanderson series after finishing the Wheel of Time, and I will definitely be reading more.
43) Unfinished Portrait - Agatha Christie writing as Mary Westmacott: Loved this as well. AC wrote a handful of non-mystery novels under her pen name, and this one was amazing. It's essentially a portrait of a woman's personality throughout her life showing how it is shaped and changed by her experiences. It is supposedly the closest thing Agatha Christie wrote to an autobiography. It's difficult to describe but I recommend it if you can find it.
44) French Lessons: Adventures With Knife, Fork, and Corkscrew - Peter Mayle: I'm a big fan of his Provence series but this one just wasn't as good. There was no narrative connecting each section, though each was charming on its own. It felt like a collection of magazine articles.
45) Akira Vol. 6 - Katsuhiro Otomo: I'm not even sure what happened at the end. What a weird series.
46) Herbert Hoover - William E. Leuchtenburg: Hoover had the bad luck to be elected mere months before the stock market crash of 1929, and he bungled the administration of the great depression. He is one of those presidents, like Quincy Adams and Taft, who achieved more after their presidencies than during it. This is an adequate biography. I wanted a short one since I'm starting on a giant FDR bio next.
47) The Enchanted April - Elizabeth Von Armin: An enjoyable read about four English women who rent an Italian castle for a month and the changes it creates in all of their lives. Short and sweet. Much better than the movie based on it.
48) Paris - Edward Rutherfurd: Not his best work. I've loved some of his other historical epics (Sarum, London) but this one just didn't work. Part of the charm of his books is that you get to watch the city grow and change and basically be a character in the book, and with the exception of the section on the building of the Eiffel Tower, he failed to do that in this book. He basically just namedrops famous locales in Paris and calls it a day.

Total: 48/100
Presidential bios: 5/12
Non Fiction barring prez bios: 10/25

Stravinsky's Challenge:
1. The vanilla read a set number of books in a year. 48/100
2. Read a female author - The Other Boleyn Girl - Philippa Gregory
3. The non-white author - Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass - Frederick Douglass
4. Philosophy - The Art of War - Sun Tzu
5. History - In the Heart of the Sea: the Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex - Nathaniel Philbrick
6. An essay - The Best of Edward Abbey - Edward Abbey
9. Something absurdist - Perfume: The Story of a Murderer - Patrick S�skind
10. The Blind Owl - The Blind Owl - Sadegh Hedayat
11. Something on either hate or love - Arabella - Georgette Heyer
12. Something dealing with space - Foundation - Isaac Asimov
13. Something dealing with the unreal - The Well of Ascension - Brandon Sanderson
15. Something published this year - Shadow Scale - Rachel Hartman
16. That one book that has been sitting on your desk waiting for a long time - Giant's Bread - Mary Westmacott
17. A play - Steel Magnolias - Robert Harling
18. Biography - William Howard Taft: The Travails of a Progressive Conservative - Jonathan Lurie
19. The color red - A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal - Robert Macintyre
20. Something banned or censored - The Giver - Lois Lowry
21. Short story(s) - Lost in the City - Edward P. Jones
22. A mystery - The Maltese Falcon - Dashiell Hammet

Someone give me a wildcard!

# ¿ Jun 1, 2015 15:54

Prolonged Shame: Sep 5, 2004

Prolonged Shame posted:

June was not super productive, readingwise, but I'm in the middle of three giant books, so hopefully July will be better. At least I hit my halfway mark.

49) Shelley: Poems - Percy Bysshe Shelley: I read this specifically for the Booklord challenge, as I don't generally read volumes of poetry, but rather individual poems (In fact I chose it because I love Ozymandias). It was pretty good, but none of the poems measured up to Ozymandias. Easily the best one in the book.
50) The Boleyn Inheritance - Philippa Gregory: The stories of Henry VIII's 4th and 5th wives, told from their points of view. I like how Gregory gives personality to her historical figures, but I don't always like how she gives people motives for things that happened based on absolutely nothing.
51) Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World - Mark Kurlansky: This started off really strongly. The history of the cod fishery was interesting, as was the importance of the fish in cuisine worldwide and it's importance in the slave trade. Unfortunately, he sort of ran out of steam and never really went anywhere or made any sort of point other than "cod are overfished, probably". I feel it could have benefited from an actual description of the cod themselves and an overview of their biology and habits.
52) Big Little Lies - Liane Moriarty: A total trashy beach read that ended up being way better than I anticipated. The characters were well drawn, somewhat realistic, and had understandable motivations, and the suspense she creates by not revealing the identities of the murderer or the victim of the murder builds quite nicely throughout the book.
53) Black Hawk Down - Mark Bowden: The definitive account of the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu. This is what the movie was based on. It took some effort to get into it, as there were tons of different points of view, but once I had a basic Idea of who was who, it was fantastic.
54) FDR - Jean Edward Smith: Loved this. It was a fantastic biography that read like a novel. It gives a very good sense of FDR's personality and balances the list of his accomplishments and failures with some behind the scenes private life information.

Total: 54/100
Presidential bios: 6/12
Non Fiction barring prez bios: 12/25

Stravinsky's Challenge:
1. The vanilla read a set number of books in a year. 54/100
2. Read a female author - The Other Boleyn Girl - Philippa Gregory
3. The non-white author - Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass - Frederick Douglass
4. Philosophy - The Art of War - Sun Tzu
5. History - In the Heart of the Sea: the Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex - Nathaniel Philbrick
6. An essay - The Best of Edward Abbey - Edward Abbey
7. A collection of poetry - Shelley: Poems - Percy Bysshe Shelley
9. Something absurdist - Perfume: The Story of a Murderer - Patrick S�skind
10. The Blind Owl - The Blind Owl - Sadegh Hedayat
11. Something on either hate or love - Arabella - Georgette Heyer
12. Something dealing with space - Foundation - Isaac Asimov
13. Something dealing with the unreal - The Well of Ascension - Brandon Sanderson
15. Something published this year - Shadow Scale - Rachel Hartman
16. That one book that has been sitting on your desk waiting for a long time - Giant's Bread - Mary Westmacott
17. A play - Steel Magnolias - Robert Harling
18. Biography - William Howard Taft: The Travails of a Progressive Conservative - Jonathan Lurie
19. The color red - A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal - Robert Macintyre
20. Something banned or censored - The Giver - Lois Lowry
21. Short story(s) - Lost in the City - Edward P. Jones
22. A mystery - The Maltese Falcon - Dashiell Hammet

# ¿ Jun 29, 2015 17:53

Prolonged Shame: Sep 5, 2004

Prolonged Shame posted:

July:

55) The Running Man - Stephen King: This was pretty good. I like King more when he's brief and the weird dialects he gives his characters have less time to get on my nerves. It's a little dated but a fun read.
56) Orange is the New Black - Piper Kerman: This was better than I expected it to be. An interesting peek into a federal women's prison and the people affected by the war on drugs.
57) A Brief History of Seven Killings - Marlon James: This was my wildcard for the Booklord Challenge. It took me forever to get into, but I found myself enjoying it by the end. I never really got a handle on all of the character points of view, though I feel like an expert in Jamaican swear words now.
58) The Mists of Avalon - Marion Zimmer Bradley: Loved this. Arthurian legend told from the female characters points of view. Very good.
59) Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail - Cheryl Strayed: The parts of this book where she talks about actually hiking the trail were fantastic. The parts where she goes on and on about her life story prior to hiking the trail were not so great. It would have been better if some of the life history had been culled.

Total: 59/100
Presidential bios: 6/12
Non Fiction barring prez bios: 14/25

Stravinsky's Challenge:
1. The vanilla read a set number of books in a year. 59/100
2. Read a female author - The Other Boleyn Girl - Philippa Gregory
3. The non-white author - Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass - Frederick Douglass
4. Philosophy - The Art of War - Sun Tzu
5. History - In the Heart of the Sea: the Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex - Nathaniel Philbrick
6. An essay - The Best of Edward Abbey - Edward Abbey
7. A collection of poetry - Shelley: Poems - Percy Bysshe Shelley
9. Something absurdist - Perfume: The Story of a Murderer - Patrick S�skind
10. The Blind Owl - The Blind Owl - Sadegh Hedayat
11. Something on either hate or love - Arabella - Georgette Heyer
12. Something dealing with space - Foundation - Isaac Asimov
13. Something dealing with the unreal - The Well of Ascension - Brandon Sanderson
14. Wildcard - A Brief History of Seven Killings - Marlon James
15. Something published this year - Shadow Scale - Rachel Hartman
16. That one book that has been sitting on your desk waiting for a long time - Giant's Bread - Mary Westmacott
17. A play - Steel Magnolias - Robert Harling
18. Biography - William Howard Taft: The Travails of a Progressive Conservative - Jonathan Lurie
19. The color red - A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal - Robert Macintyre
20. Something banned or censored - The Giver - Lois Lowry
21. Short story(s) - Lost in the City - Edward P. Jones
22. A mystery - The Maltese Falcon - Dashiell Hammet

# ¿ Jul 31, 2015 16:36

Prolonged Shame: Sep 5, 2004

Prolonged Shame posted:

After a couple of slim months I finally had a productive month reading. Here's my August:

60) Dead Until Dark (Sookie Stackhouse #1) - Charlaine Harris- I've been binge-watching the show and liking it so I thought I'd give the books a try. The show sticks close to the book plot, but I liked the additional insight we get in the book. I'll keep reading these.
61) The Rose and the Yew Tree - Mary Westmacott (AKA Agatha Christie) - A lovely little book. Quintessentially Christie, even though it is not a mystery.
62) Black Powder War (Temeraire #3) - Naomi Novik- Definitely a step up from the previous novel, but I feel like this should have been a chapter in a bigger book rather than a standalone novel.
63) Foucault's Pendulum - Umberto Eco - I alternately enjoyed and loathed this. Parts of it were great, other parts were tedious. Overall I liked it.
64) Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania - Erik Larson - This was great. The author made me hope everything would end up being ok even though I knew that obviously wasn't the case. Perfect length and pacing, and I liked that he went into detail about the submarine and crew that fired the torpedo.
65) The Queen's Fool - Philippa Gregory- This was just absurd. The author's original character suddenly becomes the confidante of both Queen Mary I and Princess Elizabeth, not to mention Lord Dudley and everyone else she meets. Then a romance/marriage was tacked on. Not very good.
66) Truman - David McCullough - I've been looking forward to this one since reading McCullough's 'John Adams' and it did not disappoint. Absolutely fantastic. It was supposed to be my July president but, at over 1000 pages, it ran over into August. Highly recommended, even if you're not reading bios of all the presidents.
67) 41 Stories - O. Henry - O. Henry is always listed on lists of classics, but I had never actually read anything by him, so I decided to remedy that. His stories are charming and almost always very satisfying.
68) If on a Winter's Night a Traveler - Italo Calvino - I loved this, despite the repeated blue balls of the unfinished stories. I selected it for my post modern category in the Booklord Challenge.
69) Eisenhower in War and Peace - Jean Edward Smith - This was really good, but paled compared to the Truman I had just finished. Ike was a very interesting man and I was unfamiliar with his presidency so this was quite interesting.

Total: 69/100
Presidential bios: 8/12
Non Fiction barring prez bios: 15/25

Stravinsky's Challenge:
1. The vanilla read a set number of books in a year. 69/100
2. Read a female author - The Other Boleyn Girl - Philippa Gregory
3. The non-white author - Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass - Frederick Douglass
4. Philosophy - The Art of War - Sun Tzu
5. History - In the Heart of the Sea: the Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex - Nathaniel Philbrick
6. An essay - The Best of Edward Abbey - Edward Abbey
7. A collection of poetry - Shelley: Poems - Percy Bysshe Shelley
8. Something Post-Modern - If on a Winter's Night a Traveler - Italo Calvino
9. Something absurdist - Perfume: The Story of a Murderer - Patrick S�skind
10. The Blind Owl - The Blind Owl - Sadegh Hedayat
11. Something on either hate or love - Arabella - Georgette Heyer
12. Something dealing with space - Foundation - Isaac Asimov
13. Something dealing with the unreal - The Well of Ascension - Brandon Sanderson
14. Wildcard - A Brief History of Seven Killings - Marlon James
15. Something published this year - Shadow Scale - Rachel Hartman
16. That one book that has been sitting on your desk waiting for a long time - Giant's Bread - Mary Westmacott
17. A play - Steel Magnolias - Robert Harling
18. Biography - William Howard Taft: The Travails of a Progressive Conservative - Jonathan Lurie
19. The color red - A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal - Robert Macintyre
20. Something banned or censored - The Giver - Lois Lowry
21. Short story(s) - Lost in the City - Edward P. Jones
22. A mystery - The Maltese Falcon - Dashiell Hammet

Aside from the overall number goal, I'm done with the booklord challenge! While some categories were easy (female author, biography) some definitely pushed me outside my comfort zone (post modern, absurdist, Blind Owl) and I got to read some books that I would not have otherwise picked up. I'd do this again next year for sure.

# ¿ Aug 31, 2015 18:30

Prolonged Shame: Sep 5, 2004

Prolonged Shame posted:

September was another good month for reading:

70) The Circus Fire: A True Story of an American Tragedy - Stewart O'Nan: An account of the 1944 Hartford circus fire. Well written, almost too detailed when it comes to some of the details of the fire.
71) Russka: The novel of Russia - Edward Rutherford: This was so-so. He does better when writing about places he knows well (England). It was difficult to follow the threads of the families through history and I could barely muster up sympathy for any of the characters.
72) Pale Fire - Vladimir Nabokov: I really liked this, though it wasn't quite as good as Lolita.
73) Just Kids - Patti Smith: The autobiographical account of Patti Smith's time living in NY in the 70's-80's and of her relationship with the artist Robert Mapplethorpe. I really enjoyed this, much more than I thought I would.
74) A Daughter's a Daughter - Mary Westmacott (AKA Agatha Christie): Another of Christie's 'psychological' novels, about the relationship between a mother and adult daughter and how it impacts their lives outside the relationship.
75) Dark Rooms - Lili Anolik: Bad. I picked this up because it sounded interesting and because people kept comparing it to The Secret History, which I loved. It was awful. It started out mediocre and just slowly slid downhill. It seemed like an interesting premise but it just never delivered.
76) Unbroken: A World War II Story of survival, Resilience, and Redemption - Laura Hillenbrand: The true story of an Olympic runner whose plane goes down in the pacific during WWII. He survives over a month drifting on a raft, only to be captured by the Japanese and sent to a POW camp. Very, very good.
77) The Burden - Mary Westmacott (AKA agatha Christie) The last of the non-mystery novels. Excellent.
78) Fairyland: A Memoir of my Father - Alysia Abbott: A very good memoir by a woman who was raised by her gay single-father in San Francisco in the 70's-80's after her mother died. She has a unique perspective on the generation of men who were lost to AIDS during that time, including her father.
79) An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy 1917-1963 - Robert Dallek: This was ok. I would have liked more about his personal life and less excruciating detail about which adviser said what when and to who, but the sections on his health problems were interesting, and the chapter on the Cuban missile crisis was intense. Still, overall it was disappointing. His family post-election was barely mentioned, and his children may as well not have existed for all the attention they got.
80) Living Dead in Dallas (Sookie Stackhouse #2) - Charlaine Harris: This was a cute, quick read. I like seeing the differences from the TV show and these are fun little books to read.

Total: 80/100
Presidential bios: 9/12
Non Fiction barring prez bios: 19/25

# ¿ Sep 29, 2015 14:29

Prolonged Shame: Sep 5, 2004

Prolonged Shame posted:

October:

81) The Virgin's Lover - Philippa Gregory: I don't know why I keep reading these as they are getting progressively worse.
82) Club Dead (Sookie Stackhouse #3) - Charlaine Harris: These, on the other hand, I am still enjoying immensely.
83) Lyndon B. Johnson: Portrait of a President - Robert Dallek: I opted to read the condensed 1 volume bio of LBJ rather than the multivolume set the author wrote, and I made the right decision. This wasn't bad, but it suffered from the same problems as his Kennedy bio, mainly that as soon as LBJ becomes president, the book becomes a list of his public accomplishments/failures rather than a portrait of the man himself. I may as well have read his Wikipedia entry.
84) The Black Moth - Georgette Heyer: This seems pretty cliched for it's genre, but it's pretty good considering the author was 17 when she wrote it in 1921. Parts of it were funnier than I expected.
85) Sharp Objects - Gillian Flynn: Awful, awful, awful. I picked this up to see what all the Gillian Flynn hype was about. I still don't know, because this was terrible. Loathsome characters, a weak plot with a stupid ending, and terrible, cringe-worthy writing. Avoid.
86) Hell House - Richard Matheson: A good Halloween read. Very good and extremely creepy, though a little bit dated.
87) Empire of Ivory (Temeraire #4) - Naomi Novik: This one picked up a bit from the last couple. It was both an enjoyable self-contained story and an advancement of the overarching plot, so that was nice.
88) My Life in France - Julia Child: I picked this up on a whim and loved it. You get a great sense of her and her husband's personalities, and they seem like fun people to be around. She's also a good, evocative writer. Highly recommended.
89) The Crucible - Arthur Miller: A play about the Salem witch trials. This was a little difficult to get into at first, but the last scene was gut-wrenching. As is usually the case with plays, it is probably better when performed than when read.
90) A Little Princess - Frances Hodgson Burnett: I loved 'The Secret Garden' as a child and thought I would love this one as well, but it never quite got me. I don't know if I'm just too old for it, but the main character was annoyingly perfect and not overly sympathetic. It is also definitely dated in it's treatment of non-white characters ("orientals")
91) The Sunne in Splendour - Sharon Kay Penman: Historical fiction detailing the life of Richard III from his childhood to his death. Fantastic. Probably the best book I read this month.

Total: 91/100
Presidential bios: 10/12
Non Fiction barring prez bios: 20/25

# ¿ Oct 30, 2015 16:45

Prolonged Shame: Sep 5, 2004

I liked the challenge, and would do one again next year, but would definitely prefer new categories. I like the categories that are more open to interpretation (like 'the color red') rather than the more rigid ones. I would prefer to not be ordered to read a specific book though - what if I've already read it?

# ¿ Nov 27, 2015 03:39

Prolonged Shame: Sep 5, 2004

Guy A. Person posted:

I guess it would be ok as long as it wasn't something that everyone has read or something so long that no one will ever actually get around to reading it. The Blind Owl was both relatively obscure, and also short enough that I was willing to take a chance on it even though it had never been on my radar before. Infinite Jest, for example, would be a terrible choice. Not only is it commonly read, but it's over 1000 pages long.

I think the wildcard category should stay.

# ¿ Nov 27, 2015 04:38

Prolonged Shame: Sep 5, 2004

Prolonged Shame posted:

November:
92) High Crimes: The Fate of Everest in an Age of Greed - Michael Kodas: I found the subject matter of this book fascinating, but I wish the author had organized it differently. It was difficult trying to follow all the different stories he was jumping around to in the course of each chapter. If each one had been given it's own section it would have flowed better. Still, a good read. There are lots of assholes on Everest.
93) The Other Queen - Philippa Gregory: Not as bad as some of the other ones, but you get three character POV's, and each one does nothing but repeat themselves nonstop throughout the book. Finally, at the end you get a little character development.
94) The Lies of Locke Lamora - Scott Lynch: I loved this. I loved the world he built and the characters within it. I wish I'd picked this up sooner.
95) The Dakota Cipher - William Dietrich: This was ok. The story seems to be meandering a bit, and there is no good reason literally every female character the main character meets wants to sleep with him (other than author wish fulfillment) but overall it is a fun series.
96) In the Unlikely Event - Judy Blume: I loved Judy Blume growing up, and have enjoyed some of ther other adult novels, but this one just missed the mark for me. It has it's moments, bur ultimately I think it was spread too thin over many character POV's, to the point that it was hard to keep track of who was who.
97) The Johnstown Flood - David McCullough: An account of a deadly flood in early 1900's Pennsylvania. This got off to a really slow start, but once it picked up it was quite good.
98) Who Cooked the Last Supper?: The Women's History of the World - Rosalind Miles: I was disappointed by this one. It was good, but I was expecting an actual history of women through the ages and the awesome things they did, both as individuals and as a gender, despite being almost universally oppressed. This was more a list of the oppressions women have endured in various times and places with very small (like, 2 paragraph) anecdotes of awesome, interesting historical women. Not bad, just not what I was looking for.
99) Being Nixon: A Man Divided - Evan Thomas: This was great. It gave a really complete picture of who Nixon was as a person, rather than just a listing of his public successes and failures like the last two presidential bios I read.
100) The Botany of Desire: A Plant's Eye View of the World - Michael Pollan: A short history of four plants whose destiny is intertwined with that of humankind: apples, tulips, cannabis, and potatoes. A great read.
101) Elephant Company: The Inspiring Story of an Unlikely Hero and the Animals Who Helped him Save Lives in WWII - Vicki Croke: The true story of 'Elephant' Bill Williams, who started as an employee of a Teak company in colonial Burma and developed a love for elephants. Wonderful, charming book.

Total: 101/100 Done with the official goal!
Presidential bios: 11/12 Last one for the year (Ford) is in progress.
Non Fiction barring prez bios: 25/25 Done!

# ¿ Nov 30, 2015 17:58

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 06:07

Prolonged Shame: Sep 5, 2004

Prolonged Shame posted:

Final check-in!

102)O Pioneers! - Willa Cather: I didn't love this as much as some of her other work, but it was still really, really good.
103) Inside the O'Briens - Lisa Genova: This was a fictional account of a family who discovers that their father has Huntington's Disease and how it affects him and the entire family. HD runs in my family, and the descriptions in this book are spot on. It hit really close to home, and was a great book.
104) Gerald R. Ford - Douglas Brinkley: This was an adequate bio of Gerry Ford.
105) Feed - Mira Grant: A pretty good take on the post-zombie-apocalypse world. It could have used some better editing, but it wasn't bad.
106) Dead to the World (Sookie Stackhouse #4) - Charlaine Harris: Still a good series.
107) Master and Commander - Patrick O'Brien: People weren't kidding when they said you need to know obscure nautical terms to read this book. Still, it was very good and I will likely continue with the series.
108) The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd: This was ok. It was a bit predictable and the characters seemed like caricatures of themselves, but it wasn't bad.
109) A Natural History of Dragons - Marie Brennan: The memoir of Lady Trent, the world's foremost dragon naturalist. Very good, though it could have used more dragons.
110) Dead as a Doornail (Sookie Stackhouse #5) - Charlaine Harris: At this point the TV series has completely diverged from the books, so these are all new to me.

Total: 110/100 Done with the official goal!
Presidential bios: 12/12 Done!
Non Fiction barring prez bios: 25/25 Done!

# ¿ Dec 29, 2015 17:46

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