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I didn't do the challenge here last year, but I did on Goodreads and ended up reading 46 books, which for me is a lot. Most I've ever read! Really proud of myself. Name: apophenium Number: 40 Booklord: Yes Feel free to add me on Goodreads!
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Jan 1, 2017 16:26
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 12:51 |
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Does anyone have some recommendations for me to pick from as far as WWI books go?
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Jan 23, 2017 01:37
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I haven't posted any updates, and I'm going to continue procrastinating on that, but I'm chugging along. Need a wildcard though. Hit me!
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Apr 17, 2017 03:47
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USMC_Karl posted:I'll scratch your back if your scratch mine! (I need a wildcard, help a brother out.) Thanks friend! Here are some books I've read by women of color. I'm nervous about forcing someone to read a specific book, so take your pick! The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang The Color Purple by Alice Walker Kindred by Octavia Butler All of these were really good. Pick the one that seems the most interesting or challenge yourself with something outside your usual wheelhouse!
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Apr 17, 2017 16:30
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Hello, I've been lax in posting updates, so here's a big one of everything I've read this year so far. Total: 34/40 Booklord: 4-14, 16, 17, 19-24 Women: 14/34, 41% Non-White: 11/34, 32% 1. Harmony Black, Craig Schaefer - A spin-off of Schaefer's Daniel Faust stories. Fun urban fantasy featuring an FBI agent who also practices witchcraft! 2. Mother Night, Kurt Vonnegut - Read for the BotM Club from January. Really liked Vonnegut's sense of humor. 5 3. Imagined Communities, Benedict Anderson - Pretty hardcore examination of nationalism. Very enjoyable, though over my head at times. 11 4. 1984, George Orwell - Neat dystopian book bogged down by Orwell's apparent hatred of women. 19 5. Death's End, Cixin Liu - I found it to be a lot longer than it should have been. Enough ideas to sustain several novels/novellas, mashed into one giant mess. 9 6. Kindred, Octavia Butler - Pretty amazing read. I really messed up waiting so long to read Octavia Butler. 8 7. March, Book One, John Lewis - Awesome graphic biography of a living legend. Counting the three books as, well, three books. 13 8. The Obelisk Gate, N. K. Jemisin - With a smaller scope and a narrowed focus, this sequel would have fallen flat were it not for all the amazing character moments within. 7 9. Eichmann in Jerusalem, Hannah Arendt - A less funny counterpart to Mother Night. Worth it for the phrase "banality of evil" and so much more. 12 10. March, Book Two, John Lewis - A bit better all around than Book One, art especially. Some creative panel work. Lewis's retelling of sit-ins was riveting. 11. Red Knight Falling, Craig Schaefer - A much better outing for Harmony Black. The premise of the story (a satellite possessed by space ghosts) is cool and reminiscent of the X-Files. Perfect for magic using FBI agents. 12. March, Book Three, John Lewis - The finale for John Lewis's March series is compelling and incredibly relevant. There were a lot of little bits that get overshadowed that I thought Lewis really helped bring to life in the book. 13. Oblivion, David Foster Wallace - I've put Infinite Jest on a pedestal, but have always been wary of reading DFW's other stuff. A lot of really dense stuff DFW was known for. Worth it for Good Old Neon alone, probably, but the other stuff is nice as well. 16 14. Shards of Honor, Lois McMaster Bujold - Been recommended the Vorkosigan series a hundred times, but only this year did I give it a try. Didn't really go for it, but I've heard the series gets better. 20 15. The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison - Loved this, some feel-good, low-conflict fantasy. Easy to get engrossed in and quite a satisfying ending. Maia is a half-goblin, half-elf, that's non-human enough, right? 24 16. Nabokov's Favorite Word is Mauve, Ben Blatt - A series of interesting essays on word choice, cliches, book covers, and more from a data analysis perspective. Fun, but not very deep. 17. Letters from the Dust bowl, Caroline Henderson - Lovely collection of letters from an endearing homesteader. Was lent to me by a coworker and I didn't expect much from it, but it blew me away. Very sad towards the end, but a great look at a unique life. 18. Poems, Emily Dickinson - A kind of poorly put together collection, but Dickinson's poems speak for themselves. I had read her greatest hits and was happy to get a much fuller idea of her body of work. 14 19. The Scar, China Miéville - Kind of flabby, but stuffed with interesting ideas. Uther Doul is the real centerpoint. I wanted to like Bellis, but never quite got there. Good, but not as engrossing as Perdido Street Station. 17 20. The Sympathizer, Viet Thanh Nguyen - Absolutely fantastic. A well-needed Vietnamese perspective on the Vietnam war. 6 21. The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe, Kij Johnson - Would have liked this a lot more if I were up on my Cthulhu mythos. Still pretty entertaining. 22. One of Us, Åsne Seierstad - gently caress Anders Breivik. Seierstad offers a look into the mind of a mass murderer without getting too sensationalist. Very thorough, very depressing. 22 23. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen - I have a tough time getting into classics. Obviously, the historical relevance of this book makes it worth it. Jane Austen is funny as hell. 24. City of Miracles, Robert Jackson Bennett - A bit of a victory lap for Bennett and his Divine Cities trilogy. Some of the favorite characters from books 1 and 2 reappear for a fun jaunt with a nicely satisfying ending. 25. Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates - A vital book. Coates's language is powerful and direct and never overstated. 21 26. Star Trek: How Much for Just the Planet?, John M. Ford - A zany Star Trek pastiche with a handful of bad male-gazey bits. The laughs overshadow that stuff, but did sour the book a bit for me. I'm a Star Trek fan so this is something I love (minus the objectification). 23 27. Raven Stratagem, Yoon Ha Lee - Kickass sequel to a surprise favorite milSF book from last year. Devoting less page space to world building allowed for a really unique read. 4 28. A Farewell to Arms - Another classic. Another book where overlooking sexism is necessary to enjoy it. Hemingway makes wine and liquor 3d characters but can't be bothered to do so for his female characters. 12a 29. Star Trek: Dragon's Honor, Kij Johnson and Greg Cox - A real piece of poo poo. I'm hoping all the terrible male-gaze, sexual objectification of the women in this book was Greg Cox and not Kij Johnson. Nothing good about this thing. 30. No is Not Enough, Naomi Klein - Galvanizing stuff. The promise of the title and the spin Klein put on it was quite good. Lots of important stuff about the current political climate in America in a mere 200 pages. 31. Beloved, Toni Morrison - God drat this was an amazing read. Morrison's prose is fantastic and the story she tells is horrifying but necessary. Loved every page. 32. Pachinko, Min Jin Lee - A nihilistic (though not pessimistic) stroll through a few generations of a Korean family. A good look at Japanese occupation of Korea and the kind of lives Koreans had living in Japan. Slow to start, but ultimately rewarding. 10 33. Matter, Iain M. Banks - Sad to be this close to having no more Culture books to read. Banks is a joy, even if this book is 200~ pages too long and wraps itself up with too much haste. 34. As Nature Made Him, John Colapinto - Yikes this was sad. Very interesting, though. Dr. Money was a real shitbag. Would like to read a book with a better (i.e. more current) take on gender identity. I was worried the booklord challenge would be kind of restricting, but I've found it to be rewarding. Hopefully I've got everything tagged correctly and hopefully the books fit the challenges. If Beloved doesn't work for 18 I'll probably give Lolita a try. apophenium fucked around with this message at 15:53 on Aug 22, 2017 |
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Aug 22, 2017 03:36
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 12:51 |
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apophenium posted:Hello, I've been lax in posting updates, so here's a big one of everything I've read this year so far. All right, I've finished my number goal. Total: 40/40 Female Authors: 17/40 = 42.5% Authors of Color: 13/40 = 32.5% 35. Too Like the Lightning, Ada Palmer - Riveting. The gendered pronoun stuff was more of a distraction than it was in the Ancillary series. Some great worldbuilding and a funky plot made it a really enjoyable read. 36. Night Thoughts, Wallace Shawn - A short, meandering essay on the plight of the unlucky at the hands of the lucky. Makes points obliquely, subtly. Entertaining, but didn't have more to it than that. 37. The Stone Sky, N.K. Jemisin - Very poignant conclusion to this trilogy. Superb stuff. Had a lot to say politically, too, if you read things certain ways. Excited for whatever Jemisin does next. 38. Hamlet, William Shakespeare - Somehow I had never read Hamlet, but I had to for class. Obviously incredibly influential. Certainly a good read. Not much more to say, though. 15 39. Binti, Nnedi Okorafor - Honestly expected more from this. Not that it was bad, but it had been hyped up a bit. I might still go ahead and read the others, see if they go anywhere since they're short. 40. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov - Ah jeez, Nabokov, couldn't you have written about anything else? A beautifully written book about an absolutely despicable man doing despicable things. 18 I'm going to continue reading books throughout the rest of the year. I'l of course try to preserve the percentage challenges in 2 and 3.
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Oct 1, 2017 16:33
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