|
This looks great! More challenging than this year, and I really enjoyed this year's challenge, and it got me reading again (and reading different types of books than genre) I'm up for the book lord challenge, and I'll up my number to 50. Also could someone give me a wildcard by a non-white author as well?
|
#
¿
Dec 27, 2016 10:52
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 16:21 |
|
|
Radio! posted:I'm in the middle of two books right now, but I think the one I'm gonna finish first is Judy Melinek's Working Stiff, which is just a medical examiner talking about her years working for city of New York. It's a nice balance of her talking about what actually goes on in her job re: figuring out cause of death and helping solve the occasional homicide and her just recounting the gnarliest corpses she encountered. It rules. Awww boo, I was going to get that recently in a sale but was busy over the holidays and forgot.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 5, 2017 21:18
|
|
|
January update: 1. Shift - Hugh Howey Didn't start off the year that great. 2nd in a post-apocalyptic series about people who live in underground silos. This author is a very mixed bag. The first book started out really interesting but then started having nonsensical elements and a weak ending. I wouldn't have continued the series at all, but it contained a teaser chapter from the start of the second book, which is the story of how the world ended and early history of the silos. Again, this started out as a really fascinating book, even better than the first. Then about a third of the way in, a second storyline is inserted with a bizarre, apparently near-immortal character (never explained). It switched between these two stories, one fascinating and the other boring and nonsensical, which seemed to exist mostly as a kind of fan-service to the first book. Finally that ends, and then yet another fan-service storyline begins, slightly more interesting but also containing inexplicable events and even less necessary to the main (and more interesting plot). The main plot line comes to a screeching and sudden halt as well, the main character doing a 180. I started reading the last of the three books before realising I just don't want to continuing wasting my time. He already fooled me twice. 2. Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith - Jon Krakauer This book is an examination of religious belief through the lens of Mormonism/Latter Day Saints, with a particular exploration of fundamentalism and extreme belief. A recurring focus of the book is the murder of a woman and her baby by two fundamentalist brothers. Not being into true crime writing, I didn't enjoy that aspect of the book, and at times I felt that the book invited a sort of voyeuristic pleasure in the graphic details of murder, incest, and paedophilia it discussed which really put me off. I really enjoyed the incredibly detailed historical and theoretical parts of the book. It is a thoroughly researched and well written account of the founding of a major religion less than 200 years ago and the implications of its spread and history. 3. Empathy Exams - Leslie Jamison I ended up hating this so much. There have been books I haven't enjoyed before, but few that I actively loathed as much as this one. I was expecting to like it based on all the positive attention and praise it's received. Then again, I also thought it would have something to do with empathy. When described, all anyone seems to mention is the first essay on the author's experience acting as a patient for student doctors. That essay (and the Barkley marathon/Morgellons essays) were interesting, but the rest were just a chance for the author to prove what an insufferable, self-absorbed arse she is. She writes like a dumb teenager who just smoked pot for the first time and is completely convinced that she has all these incredibly profound revelations and world views that you just wouldn't understand, and like, she was in love with this poet who said deep things about her because she's, like, so deep, you just don't even know. The topics she writes about might be interesting if she stopped turning everything into narcissistic navel-gazing rumination about herself - how great she is, how much she has suffered, how no one (including herself) really understands how amazing she is and how much she has suffered, how many guys were just totally obsessed with her and said these deep things about how deep and mysterious she is. She even has a chapter where she talks about how she had her friends read her essays and how they all said it was just so amazing, for reals. Go read a teenage art student's diary, and you have this book, complete with excessive discussion of the metaphorical meanings of menstruation. 4. Mother Night - Kurt Vonnegut BOTM. Loved this, loved the discussion, want to read more Vonnegut. Made me feel uncomfortable as well. 5. The Memory of Running - Ron McLarty A middle-aged obese alcoholic loser learns everyone in his family is dead. Ends up cycling across America, experiencing all kinds of bizarre things and meeting bizarre people, finds love and happiness - the self-realisation/transformation plot. I don't think the author is quite as funny as he thinks he is, and the story is unrealistic enough to really strain my credulity - morbidly obese alcoholics don't suddenly turn into really fit, sober, cool people in two months of cycling across the entire United States while getting hit by cars, badly beaten, etc but somehow being fine. That said, it was an enjoyable enough book, especially when it focused more on the stories of the other people he met (and less on his insane sister and his messed up relationship with a paralyzed girl he ignored for two decades). I'm building on the reading habits I started developing last year but apparently doing a poo poo job at the actual challenge. 1) Read some books. Set a number and go hog wild. 5/50 2) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% (10/50) of them are written by women . 1/10 3) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% (10/50) of them are written by someone non-white. 4) Read at least one book by an LGBT author. 6) Read a book someone else in the thread recommends (a wildcard!) 7) Read something that was recently published (anything from after 1st January 2016). 8) Read something which was published before you were born. 9) Read something in translation. 10) Read something from somewhere you want to travel. 11) Read something political. 12) Read something historical. 12a) Read something about the First World War. 13) Read something biographical. 14) Read some poetry. 15) Read a play. 16) Read a collection of short stories. 17) Read something long (500+ pages). 18) Read something which was banned or censored. 19) Read a satire. 20) Read something about honour. 21) Read something about fear. 22) Read something about one (or more!) of the seven sins. 23) Read something that you love. 24) Read something from a non-human perspective.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 2, 2017 22:37
|
|
|
Corrode posted:Anyone interested in reading more women/non-white people, this might be cool: Heroism and Anti-heroism in Five New Novels by Arab Women Thanks for this. Think I'll check out The Queue - surrealist Arab fiction about totalitarianism.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 3, 2017 22:07
|
|
|
Enfys posted:1. Shift - Hugh Howey 6. The Last Kingdom - Bernard Cornwell This is the first in his Vikings series set in mid to late 800 AD around the time of the Viking invasion of England and the reign of Alfred the Great. Cornwell writes wonderful historical fiction, and this is no exception. I particularly enjoyed how he presented good and bad sides to the Danes and to the English rather than just having straight up 'good guys' and 'bad guys'. 7. Big Questions of Philosophy - David K. Johnson Starts off with what is philosophy and why is it important and relevant in today's world, then moves onto logic and reason - how can we evaluate commonly held beliefs which we might think are based on reason but often turn out to be irrational (and should we even question/explore our fundamental beliefs)? It covers a lot of the great philosophers/philosophical theories and trends throughout history to explore various moral, religious, political and personal beliefs. It looks at questions like what is knowledge and truth? Do we have freedom/free will? Does God and the soul exist? What is justice, and what would a just society look like? What is the meaning of life? It often made me uncomfortable and left me longing for a bit of certainty and assurance in some regards, but I'm very glad to have grappled with these topics. 8. Revenge - Yoko Ogawa This was my wildcard, and I absolutely loved it, so thanks Corrode! What I first thought was just a collection of odd stories slowly transformed into a beautiful and haunting story made of interconnected parts. The first stories seemed a little bizarre and eerie, but as each new story added new details and added depth to this strange world, I became entranced. All of the characters inhabit a slightly surreal, dangerous, yet beautiful world full of emotion and obsession. I wish I understood the final story better. This is one that deserves a reread. 9. The Pale Horseman - Bernard Cornwell This is the second in his Viking/Saxon series. I really enjoyed the first book, but this one has unlikable characters and tripped over itself to describe all the gratuitous rape, betrayal, and violence it could possibly stuff into its pages. At least once per chapter, if not multiple times per chapter, women were being raped or men were discussing rape. The main character was likeable in the first book, as were many other characters, but in this book everyone is horrible. I know that life in the 800s was pretty bleak and brutal and that war involved lots of rape, pillaging, and general horribleness, but somehow the first book managed to mention these things without dwelling on them. This book gets right down into the muck and wallows in it. Haven't really felt like continuing the series, which is surprising as I tend to like Cornwell's historical fiction. 10. Half of a Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie This is a novel from the perspective of 4 characters during the 60s when the British pulled out of Nigeria and explores the resulting civil war. British involvement in Nigeria led to a huge amount of racial tension between Muslim, Christian, and minority groups. The massacres a few years after independence led to part of the country trying to separate and form its own nation. The civil war caused mass starvation and was a humanitarian crisis of enormous scope. The political and bureaucratic interference by Western countries led to the formation of Doctors without Borders. It's a personal and moving look at the realities of war, starvation, genocide and cultural misunderstandings. 1) Read some books. Set a number and go hog wild. 10/50 2) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women . 3/10 3) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 2/10 4) Read at least one book by an LGBT author. 7) Read something that was recently published (anything from after 1st January 2016). 8) Read something which was published before you were born. 9) Read something in translation. 10) Read something from somewhere you want to travel. 11) Read something political. 12) Read something historical. 12a) Read something about the First World War. 13) Read something biographical. 14) Read some poetry. 15) Read a play. 16) Read a collection of short stories. 17) Read something long (500+ pages). 18) Read something which was banned or censored. 19) Read a satire. 20) Read something about honour. 21) Read something about fear. 22) Read something about one (or more!) of the seven sins. 23) Read something that you love. 24) Read something from a non-human perspective.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 28, 2017 12:38
|
|
|
Enfys posted:1. Shift - Hugh Howey I only managed to read two books this month, in part due to crazy life things but also in large part due to trying to finish the most depressing, miserable book ever. 11. A Little Life - Hanya Yanigihara I heard people call this "misery porn", and I don't think I really understood that term until I read this book. It took me 4 months to get through it because it's just so unrelentingly miserable, and it really does seem to take a kind of obscene pleasure in repeatedly describing tragedy and abuse. She's a really fantastic writer, and the writing itself is often beautiful, but it also could have easily been cut down 300 pages or so, but that would have removed the endless repetition of how much the main character hates himself, how much the other characters love him, how horrible his life is, etc. It's incredibly repetitive in its misery. At the same time, it's really insightful, and reading such a detailed examination of a life was interesting. I was really, really glad when it finally ended though. 12. Signs Preceding the End of the World - Yuri Herrera A young Mexican woman crosses the US-Mexico border in search of her brother. A really fantastic and well written book superficially about border crossing but with a lot of other levels exploring how we change our identities depending on where we are, physical/emotional/spiritual borders, how immigrants view their new and old cultures, etc. There are also a lot of parallels with Dante. 1) Read some books. Set a number and go hog wild. 12/50 2) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women . 4/10 3) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 4/10 4) Read at least one book by an LGBT author. 7) Read something that was recently published (anything from after 1st January 2016). 8) Read something which was published before you were born. 10) Read something from somewhere you want to travel. 11) Read something political. 12) Read something historical. 12a) Read something about the First World War. 13) Read something biographical. 14) Read some poetry. 15) Read a play. 16) Read a collection of short stories. 18) Read something which was banned or censored. 19) Read a satire. 20) Read something about honour. 21) Read something about fear. 22) Read something about one (or more!) of the seven sins. 23) Read something that you love. 24) Read something from a non-human perspective.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 1, 2017 14:42
|
|
|
Enfys posted:1. Shift - Hugh Howey 13. The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine - Michael Lewis I knew next to nothing about Wall Street when I watched the movie on a whim. That spurred me on to reading a series of books on the topic (starting with this one) and watching several other documentaries. All I really knew about the housing market crisis and recession prior to this was the often repeated idea that regular Americans were greedy and brought this all on themselves, so this fascinating (and disturbing). 14. Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China - Chang Jung This is the biography of 3 women who grew up in China in the 1900s. The author's grandmother is a warlord's concubine for awhile, her mother and father are officials in Mao's Communist China, and for awhile she herself is a Red Guard. A lot of the book deals with their efforts to survive the Cultural Revolution. It's a really depressing, horrifying book in a lot of places, but it offers a pretty unique insight into both life under Mao and the roles of women in China. 15. The Queue - Basma Abdel Aziz This was one of the books on a list Corrode posted awhile back of novels by Arab women, and so far I haven't gone wrong reading his suggestions! This is a surrealist dystopian story about the Arab Spring and the consequences of totalitarianism. A entity known as "The Gate" has risen to power after failed uprisings, and it controls every aspect of daily life. I really enjoyed this book, and despite its overall bleakness, it manages to be quite funny at times and has a lot of great wit and satire. 16. All Quiet on the Western Front - Erich Maria Remarque If you haven't read this, do it. I'd had it on a bookshelf for ages and read it just for the WWI category, and nothing I could say could capture what an incredible book this is. 17. Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World - Michael Lewis After the Big Short, Michael Lewis travels around Europe exploring the global consequences of the European countries getting involved with Wall Street. He starts in Iceland, which had up to the early 2000s never been involved in global finance and had 3 public banks and solid regulation, making them a stable place with a high quality of life. In what is essentially the best experiment of libertarianism we could find, they privatised the banks and deregulated everything and went wild, completely destroying the country in a few years. Then it takes a look at Greece, Ireland, and Germany before noting similarities between the European countries and some places in America, like California. It was an ok book, pretty light and with stereotypes a bit too broad and cringeworthy, but a short decent read. 1) Read some books. Set a number and go hog wild. 17/50 2) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women . 6/10 3) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 6/10 4) Read at least one book by an LGBT author. 7) Read something that was recently published (anything from after 1st January 2016). 8) Read something which was published before you were born. 11) Read something political. 12) Read something historical. 14) Read some poetry. 15) Read a play. 16) Read a collection of short stories. 18) Read something which was banned or censored. 20) Read something about honour. 21) Read something about fear. 23) Read something that you love. 24) Read something from a non-human perspective.
|
|
#
¿
May 1, 2017 12:02
|
|
|
Enfys posted:1. Shift - Hugh Howey 18. Confronting Capitalism: Real Solutions for a Troubled Economic System - Philip Kotler Kotler is a big name in marketing. Here he examines the problems with capitalism and their possible solutions. He thinks that capitalism is basically the best overall of the various financial models, but that it is still hugely flawed and destructive. A lot of the book was pretty frustrating - sure, a lot of the problems with capitalism could be solved by closing tax loopholes and reigning in corporate greed, but...none of these solutions seem very feasible? Arguing that capitalism could be a great system if only people were better and less selfish just comes across as either naive or facetious. 19. Three Parts Dead - Max Gladstone I was a bit tired of actual law and finance, so I took a break to read about magical lawyers and accountants. An enjoyable read with an interesting cast of largely non-white female characters. 20. Angle of Repose - Wallace Stegner I tried reading this years ago but eventually gave up. I saw it referenced as one of the most important or influential American novels and decided to give it another go. It's primarily the story of New England lady trying to make a marriage with a mining engineer work in the 1800s. There are a lot of interesting frontier and western locations throughout the book, and it examines a troubled but loving relationship. Stegner is a brilliant writer with a gift for describing the world of his characters and the issues in their relationships. 1) Read some books. Set a number and go hog wild. 20/50 2) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women . 6/10 3) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 6/10 4) Read at least one book by an LGBT author. 7) Read something that was recently published (anything from after 1st January 2016). 12) Read something historical. 14) Read some poetry. 15) Read a play. 16) Read a collection of short stories. 18) Read something which was banned or censored. 20) Read something about honour. 21) Read something about fear. 23) Read something that you love. 24) Read something from a non-human perspective.
|
|
#
¿
May 31, 2017 15:02
|
|
|
Radio! posted:
I read a sample chapter of Red Rising and just wasn't into it, but everyone raves about it so I keep feeling I should get it to read anyway. Consider Phlebas has been sitting on my shelf for nearly a decade now. Every once in awhile, I pick it up and get a few chapters into it before losing interest. According to goons, some of the other culture books are really good though.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 1, 2017 17:42
|
|
|
Enfys posted:1. Shift - Hugh Howey 21. The Sisters Brothers - Patrick DeWitt Fantastic Western about two mercenary brothers during the California gold rush. I didn't expect to like this as much as I did. I have no idea how I heard about this book except that I saw it mentioned in some book barn thread, and it made its way to my to-read list. It's one of those books that manages to be comic and serious all at once. I'd recommend this one. 22. White Noise - Don DeLillo The opposite of the above, I expected to like this book far more than I did based on how much I had heard about it. I liked it a lot in the beginning, and it certainly had incredibly funny and brilliant moments, but it became exhausting to read in a way that's hard to articulate why. I also went into it expecting a different sort of story given how the back cover of my copy described it. 23. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro Hands down the best book I have read in a long, long time. A novel about a butler looking back on his time serving in a great English manor house, which sounds rather mundane but has an incredibly complex, funny, and heartbreaking story. Another book I randomly heard about in the book barn somewhere. I would recommend this to anyone and strongly suggest you avoid reading anything about it beforehand, even the goodreads blurb, as that gives away a substantial amount of the plot. 24. The Buried Giant - Kazuo Ishiguro I wanted to read more of Ishiguro. This is a sort of surreal, fantastical novel about a couple from vaguely Aurthurian England setting across a troubled land to visit their son. This was a strange book but a good one. I like the exploration of memory and how our memories (or what we forget) can shape our relationships. It plays with some common ideas we have about how "time heals all wounds" and our need to forgive and forget. The story shows the importance of both individual and collective memory on our lives. 25. The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet - Becky Chambers I read this in a day as it's a really fun space opera that felt a bit like reading episodes of an alternate Firefly in novel form. It's another one of those books that suffers a bit from a lack of editing polish in being self-published, as certain parts read like something that would work great acted out on TV but were just a bit clunky in writing. The story and characters were really fun, and it was refreshing how wide a universe she created in terms of different races and relationships. 26. The Bees - Laline Paull A fantasy dystopian novel from the perspective of a bee in a beehive. It was overall a very enjoyable story but at times was a bit heavy-handed or just odd. It was fascinating to read a book from the perspective of bees, even if they were humanised to a degree for the sake of the story. It was at its best when it described how the hive communicated or functioned, and weakest with the sort of quasi-political/dystopian plot. 1) Read some books. Set a number and go hog wild. 26/50 2) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women . 8/50 : 16% 3) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 9/50 : 18% 7) Read something that was recently published (anything from after 1st January 2016). 12) Read something historical. 14) Read some poetry. 15) Read a play. 16) Read a collection of short stories. 18) Read something which was banned or censored. 20) Read something about honour. The Remains of the Day 23) Read something that you love.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 1, 2017 20:07
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 16:21 |
|
|
Enfys posted:1. Shift - Hugh Howey 27. All the Pretty Horses - Cormac McCarthy I really loved this. It was far less brutal than what I've come to expect from McCarthy, but not without a good dose of pain and loss. It's a sort of coming of age tale, and far less cheerful than most. The writing is stunning. 28. Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro I continued on my Ishiguro kick. This one is about a group of students at a mysterious boarding school in the English countryside. This was a strange book that really sucker punched me in the end. I think this one will stick with me for a long time. It's a very powerful examination of innocence, the consequences of losing innocence, and the deep pain of regret at opportunities lost or treasured things that cannot be recreated from our childhood. The struggle to find meaning and purpose and the rage over the senseless unfairness of life is played out very well through the lives of the students. 29. The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane - Lisa See The very sappy, unbelievable story of an indigenous Chinese girl in a remote Yunnan village and her daughter who is adopted by Americans. A mediocre at best book getting rave reviews probably for its depiction of an elusive indigenous culture. The parts about tea were interesting, but the actual plot of the book was disappointing and trite. This is chick lit with a eco-tourist flavour: the heroes getting perfect billionaire partners, dramatic showdowns with betrayers, secret benefactors, ridiculous coincidences, blah blah blah. All the tension was gone after the first 1/3 of the book, and then it was just a long slog to the inevitable conclusion. This is another case where the author can't write children very well. An overly precocious child becomes an overly childish adult because the character is written basically the same whether she's 5 or 20. The sections from her perspective are incredibly cringe-worthy. 30. No Country for Old Men - Cormac McCarthy Ahhh, there's the McCarthy who makes it hard to feel anything good about the world. 31. Butcher's Crossing - John Williams I loved this. It was a brutally beautiful book. A naive young man sets out on a quest to find himself, or to find his purpose in life by abandoning his life as a Harvard academic and traveling west to hunt one of the last remaining herds of buffalo. Reality offers a harsh lesson of its own. Man can make his mark on the world, can slaughter thousands upon thousands of buffalo, but he still cannot hope to tame nature to his desires. Is there any meaning at all in life? 32. Broke, USA: From Pawnshops to Poverty, Inc. - How the Working Poor Became Big Business - Gary Rivlin An examination of the fringes of economics and finance in the US. Interesting but unexceptional. 33. A Closed and Common Orbit - Becky Chambers The sequel to The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet. Like the first one, it's a pleasant, enjoyable read. There's not much tension or conflict, but it's nice to read books about good "people" doing good things for each other, especially after a month of reading lots of brutal depressing books. 34. Blindness - Jose Saramago This is a really grim book. A mystery epidemic starts turning everyone in a city blind. 1) Read some books. Set a number and go hog wild. 34/50 12) Read something historical. 14) Read some poetry. 15) Read a play. 16) Read a collection of short stories. 18) Read something which was banned or censored. 20) Read something about honour. The Remains of the Day 23) Read something that you love. Enfys fucked around with this message at 06:46 on Aug 2, 2017 |
|
#
¿
Jul 30, 2017 18:24
|
|