|
Sign me up for 52 total books and the booklord challenge, please!
|
#
¿
Dec 30, 2015 02:51
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 19, 2024 13:53 |
|
|
MonotoneKimi posted:In for 52 books again this year and the Booklord challenge. Have you read Between the World and Me? If not, read that.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 31, 2015 19:39
|
|
|
January! 1. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay- Michael Chabon. I loved this overall, but I definitely enjoyed the first part of the book where it was mostly about Kavalier and Clay's comics careers more than the end, but that might be because I was also reading the next book on my list at the same time. 2. Superman is Jewish? How Comic Books Superheroes Came to Serve Truth, Justice, and the Jewish-American Way- Harry Brod. Really fascinating background information for reading Kavalier and Clay. Plus there's a whole chapter at the end specifically discussing that book, which was great and gave me a better understanding and appreciation for it. I am very glad I read these two books at the same time. 3. Battle of Wits: The Complete Story of Codebreaking in World War II- Stephen Budiansky 4. Fathers and Sons- Ivan Turgenev 5. Justice at Dachau: the Trials of an American Prosecutor- Joshua M. Greene. Like all good Holocaust books, this was incredibly fascinating and crushingly depressing.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 1, 2016 00:59
|
|
|
3/5, creative but vague. February 6. Chasing Aphrodite: The Hunt for Looted Antiquities at the World's Richest Museum- Jason Felch. From what I understand this is the expanded book version of this journalist's reporting on the subject during the early 2000s. I guess the story of western museums (specifically the Getty) trafficking in illegally looted antiquities might have been surprising at some point but I think that point is pretty well past. An interesting look at the behind-the-scenes goings on but definitely treated like the subject was way more shocking than it is. 7. The Rape of Europa: the Fate of Europe's Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War- Lynn H. Nicolas. The book that inspired the movie The Monuments Men. I don't know how it lives up to the film since I haven't seen it, but it's a meticulously-researched look into the movement of art objects during the war. It's not presented chronologically, though, so it's very easy to lose track of who's who and what's going on generally during the specific events being talked about. 8. The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington- Jennet Conant. Turns out Roald Dahl didn't really do much spying but this person sure wrote a 400 page book about it anyway. Boring as gently caress. 9. Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account- Miklos Nyiszli 10. The Law Jew of Treblinka- Chil Rajchman 11. Clay's Ark- Octavia Butler 12. Wondrous Moment: Selected Poetry- Aleksandr Pushkin. I don't know how good this translation is. The Russian and English versions of both poems are presented, but my Russian's not good enough to fluently read them. I could definitely tell there was a lot of variance in the English verses in word choice and just making things fit into an English rhyme scheme, though. I'll probably end up giving another translation of Pushkin's work a try in the future, because I overall I wasn't impressed by these.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 4, 2016 01:57
|
|
|
March 13. The Rook- Daniel O'Malley. Fun urban fantasy with a neat premise. The main character wakes up with no memory of who she is and soon discovers she's the administrator of the government's supernatural poo poo branch. 14. The Traitor Baru Cormorant- Seth Dickinson. I LOVED this. I went in expecting normal generic fantasy but instead got a queer WOC main character fighting the forces of colonialism with a plot full of as much political machination as Game of Thrones. Plus the author has a read-along on his website which goes over each chapter in depth to tell you more about his thought process and background for the story, which is something I haven't seen before but was really interesting. 15. The Wild Blue: the Men and Boys Who Flew the B-24s Over Germany 1944-1945- Stephen E. Ambrose. By "men and boys" it actually means "George McGovern specifically" but it had some nice insight on what daily life was like regardless. 16. Wild Seed- Octavia Butler. 17. Anno Dracula- Kim Newman.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 30, 2016 22:53
|
|
|
Ben Nevis posted:I read this one this month too. It's my second book by Newman and I'm just not quite sure how to take him. I sorta find the premise interesting, and there are good moments, but the whole seems a bit flat. What'd you think? Same, really. Like you said, there were some cool ideas and moments, but a lot of it felt like the author being real smug about the amount of obscure references he could make and it kind of fell apart at the end, I thought. The ending felt really rushed and nonsensical. Like, he spends the whole book building up Dracula as a threat and then they escape him trying to murder them by just running away? And he lets them go? Really? A solid "eh". I don't regret reading it but I have no real desire to pick up another of Newman's books.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 1, 2016 00:08
|
|
|
Crazy idea: people should read what they like to read.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 6, 2016 18:58
|
|
|
April 17. City of Stairs- Robert Jackson Bennett. Loved this. Really cool fantasy exploration of the relationship between gods and people and belief, plus the main character is pretty much secret agent Indiana Jones. 18. Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg- Irin Carmon 19. Sunshine- Robin McKinley. Utter garbage. Pages upon pages of dull exposition, often inserted in the most narrative pace-destroying way. The main character literally stops in the middle of stabbing a vampire to talk about vampire killing history for like 10 pages, because that's a great way to write an exciting action sequence. Hated this immensely. 20. The Story of Kullervo- JRR Tolkien. This is a newly published book of Tolkien's early adaptation/re-writing of a Finnish folk tale. The main character, Kullervo, and his family are taken in bondage when he is an infant. He is eventually sold away for being a huge dick, returns to get revenge, and along the way meets and sleeps with his sister, whom he doesn't recognize. When he realizes her identity he throws himself on his sword. As you can probably guess, this was the basis of Tolkien's story of Turin. The actual book wasn't incredible (the story is pretty primitive and the book includes two copies of a speech Tolkien made about the collection of folk tales from which the story of Kullvero originates. The speeches are basically exactly the same so their inclusion is a little puzzling), but if you're a big stupid Tolkien nerd like I am it's a neat insight into Middle Earth mythology. 21. Mind of My Mind- Octavia Butler 22. Patternmaster- Octavia Butler 23-25. The Lord of the Rings- JRR Tolkien. These are my favorite books and I reread them every year. See above comment about being a big stupid nerd.
|
|
#
¿
May 1, 2016 05:12
|
|
|
I haven't updated since April because I suck! May 26. This Book is Full of Spiders: Seriously, Dude, Don't Touch it- David Wong 27.The Ocean at the End of the Lane- Neil Gaiman. Maybe this is an okay book by itself but to me it just felt extremely derivative of Pratchett's Tiffany Aching books but not as good. 28. The Silmarillion- JRR Tolkien. Yearly re-read. 29. I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream- Harlan Ellison 30.Star Wars: Before the Awakening- Greg Rucka 31. Earth Abides- George R. Stewart. This sucked. It's the story of a dude trying to survive after the world's population is decimated by disease but he spends the whole time internally whining about how superior he is to everyone else and how much better he could make the new society he lives in without ever actually doing anything about it. 32. Lagoon- Nnedia Okorafor 33. Mission Control: Inventing the Groundwork of Spaceflight- Michael Peter Johnson. With all the writing skill of your average undergrad, Johnson spends 160 pages on excruciating minutiae. Have you ever wondered whether mission control at JPL had tile or carpeted floors in 1972 (carpet), or, more importantly, what color that flooring was (blue)? If so, then congratulations! You're the most boring person in the world and this is the perfect book for you. June 34. City of Blades- Robert Jackson Bennett. Owns. Great, incredibly original fantasy about a world trying to adjust after a war that left the literal gods dead. Also isn't set in generic medieval Europe and full of white people, which I love. 35. The Sun Also Rises- Ernest Hemingway 36. Elantris- Brandon Sanderson. I enjoy Sanderson's work, but dang if all his stuff doesn't have the exact same characters: politically savvy lady and dude with magic who leads a band of plucky outcasts. July 37. Alan Turing: The Enigma- Andrew Hodges. 38. Stiletto- Daniel O'Malley. Seriously my favorite urban fantasy ever. 39. Impact- Douglas Preston. Read this for the airport fiction category and man did it suck. I am not joking when I say that multiple female characters were introduced by a physical description of their breasts. 40. The Price of Valor- Django Wexler. I love this series. If you want some Napoleonic-era fantasy with LGBT characters this is your jam, trust me. 41. Blood Oath- Christopher Farnsworth. This is about a vampire who serves as magical secret service to the President. Sounds good, but the book takes itself way too seriously for it to actually be enjoyable in any way. August 42. Promise of Blood- Brian McClellan 43. The Crimson Campaign- Brian McClellan 44. Island- Aldous Juxley 45. The Guns of Empire- Django Wexler 46. The Song of Achilles- Madeline Miller September 47. Welcome to Night Vale- Joseph Fink 48. The Monuments Men- Robert Edsel 49. Death in Venice- Thomas Mann 50. Shadow Divers- Robert Kurson 51. A Conspiracy of Decency- Emmy E. Werner. 52. Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codemaker's War 1941-1945- Leo Marks. A firsthand account of the codemaking and -breaking activities of the SOE during WWII. I'm not sure how much of it I actually believe, but it was very entertaining regardless. 53. Hitler's Scientists: Science, War, and the Devil's Pact- John Cornwell. All Those Dudes You Learned About in High School Science Class Were Nazis: the book 54. The Fall of France: The Nazi Invasion of 1940- Julian T. Jackson 55. Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory- Ben Macintyre. "Assured an allied victory" is probably overstating, but this is a great read if you want to learn more about some of the truly kooky poo poo that went down in WWII. 56. The Ghost Army of World War II: How One Top-Secret Unit Deceived the Enemy with Inflatable Tanks, Sound Effects, and Other Audacious Fakery- Rick Beyer. October 57. Robert Oppenheimer: A Life Inside the Center- Ray Monk. Turns out Oppenheimer was a huge shithead. Who knew? 58. The Autumn Republic- Brian McClellan 59. Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race- Margot Lee Shetterly. I wanted to like this. There's a movie coming out and the story itself is awesome and deserves to be know, but the book is just very...shallow? It's light on details and mostly focuses on the social conditions of the time period, which, don't get me wrong, are important to the story, but in this case sort of overshadows the time spent on describing the actual NASA work. It's okay, but I came away in the end not really having learned anything beyond "there were black women mathematicians who did calculations for NASA". My goodreads count and my count here are off by 1 and I can't figure out why ugh  Anyway I've finished my vanilla number goal and am just working on the Booklord Challenge goals, so I'm gonna need someone to give me a wildcard please.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 5, 2016 01:36
|
|
|
November 60. Rogue Heroes: The History of the SAS- Ben Macintyre 61. Wolf In White Van- John Darnielle 62. Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies- Ben Macintyre. I really enjoy Macintyre's books as the perfect mix of informative and entertaining. This one especially knocks it out of the park with a nice overview of Britain's Double Cross but also delightful tidbits about slightly related weird operations, like pigeon espionage. 63. The Anatomy of Fascism- Robert O Paxton. Took me forever to read because I was taking notes and wanted to write down like every other sentence. An incredibly thorough dissection of the process of fascism. Depressingly relevant. Hit me with a Wildcard please. Hopefully a relatively short one since I put it off so long.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 6, 2016 01:02
|
|
|
A book by an LGTBQ author seems like a good obvious addition.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 7, 2016 22:37
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 19, 2024 13:53 |
|
|
December 64. Goldenhand- Garth Nix. The 5th Abhorsen book. Better than Clariel, not as good as the first three. 65. Nazi Germany and Jews: The Years of Extermination- Saul Friedlander 66. Operatives, Spies, and Saboteurs: The Unknown Story of the Men and Women of World War II's OSS- Patrick O'Donnell I finished my target number for the year but failed the booklord challenge because I fell into a non-fiction hole from which I could not escape. Oh well. 1) Vanilla Number 67/52 (my goodreads is still off by one?  )2) Something written by a woman Hidden Figures, A Conspiracy of Decency, The Song of Achilles, Lagoon, Patternmaster, Mind of My Mind, Sunshine, Notorious RBG, Wild Seed, Clay's Ark, The Rape of Europa 3) Something Written by a nonwhite author the 4 Patternmaster books, Lagoon, Hidden Figures 4) Something written in the 1800s Fathers and Sons 5) Something History Related (fictional or non-fiction your choice) this is like half my list I'm not even gonna bother listing them 6) A book about or narrated by an animal FAILED 7) A collection of essays. FAILED 8) A work of Science Fiction Star Wars: Before the Awakening, I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream 9) Something written by a musician Wolf in White Van 10) Read a long book, something over 500 pages Nazi Germany and the Jews, Robert Oppenheimer, Between Silk and Cyanide, Alan Turing: The Enigma, Elantris 11) Read something about or set in NYC The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay 12) Read Airplane fiction (Patterson, ect) Impact 13) Read Something YA Goldenhand 14) Wildcard! FAILED- I didn't get one 15) Something recently published (up to a year. The year will be the day you start this challenge) Stiletto, City of Blades 16) That one book you’ve wanted to read for a while now. Lagoon 17) The First book in a series Wild Seed, The Rook, FotR, City of Stairs, Blood Oath, Promise of Blood 18) A biography or autobiography Robert Oppenheimer, Alan Turing 19) Read something from the lost generation (Fitzgerald, Hemmingway, ect.) or from the Beat Genneration The Sun Also Rises 20) Read a banned book The Sun Also Rises (apparently) 21) A Short Story collection I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream 22) It’s a Mystery. FAILED but I hate mysteries so whatever Happy new year, book goons. 
|
|
#
¿
Dec 31, 2016 21:16
|
|