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Hey, I'm in. Name: Chamberk Number: Aiming for about 52. Booklord Challenge: Sure Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/4263667-kyle I'm already two down this year, having finished Tad Williams's novella "The Heart of What Was Lost" (as a lead-up to his new trilogy) and The Two Towers (because LOTR is comfort food). I don't usually load up too much on fantasy these days but it's generally fun stuff. I tend to read a decent mix of fancypants literature and fantasy - I'm gonna try to aim for a few more nonfiction books this year as well, because my fiction habit is somewhat obsessive.
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Jan 5, 2017 08:07
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1. The Heart of What Was Lost - Tad Williams 2. The Two Towers (LOTR #2) - J.R.R. Tolkien 3. The Return of the King (LOTR #3) - J.R.R. Tolkien 4. Drums of Autumn (Outlander #4) - Diana Gabaldon 5. Paddle Your Own Canoe - Nick Offerman 6. The Snow Child - Eowyn Ivey 7. The Shadow of the Wind (Cemetery of Forgotten Books #1) - Carlos Ruiz Zafon 8. The Book of Strange New Things - Michel Faber 9. Sula - Toni Morrison 10. The Silmarillion - J.R.R. Tolkien 11. The Mysterious Benedict Society - Trenton Lee Stewart 12. Beautiful Ruins - Jess Walter 13. The Grace of Kings (Dandelion Dynasty #1) - Ken Liu 14. Murder on the Orient Express - Agatha Christie 15. Lost City of Z - David Brann Man, I got off to a running start with this month - I don't expect to read this many in months to come, but I got a lot in (mostly because many of them were short). Standouts were The Snow Child (a magical tale set in Alaska in the 20s, based on the old fairy tale), The Shadow of the Wind (one of my favorite mysteries, set in post-WWII Barcelona), The Lost City of Z (about an explorer's doomed search for a city in the Amazon), and Murder on the Orient Express (a fantastic murder mystery that deserves the acclaim it gets). 1) Read some books. Set a number and go hog wild. (15/52) 2) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. - Ivey, Morrison, Christie, Gabaldon 3) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. - Liu, Morrison This one, I'll have to edit - I'm trying to get through a massive amount of books I own and not a whole lot of them are by people of color. So I'm reducing this to 10% - which I'm not meeting this month, but will hopefully get back on track in months to come. 4) Read at least one book by an LGBT author. 5) Read at least one TBB BoTM and post in the monthly thread about it. 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). -The Heart of What Was Lost 8) Read something which was published before you were born. - LOTR, Murder on the Orient Express 9) Read something in translation. - The Shadow of the Wind 10) Read something from somewhere you want to travel. 11) Read something political. 12) Read something historical. - The Lost City of Z 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). - The Grace of Kings 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. - LOTR 24) Read something from a non-human perspective.
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Feb 1, 2017 05:43
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February! 16. The Angel’s Game (Cemetery of Forgotten Books #2) - Carlos Ruiz Zafon 17. All the King’s Men - Robert Penn Warren 18. The Prisoner of Heaven (Cemetery of Forgotten Books #3) - Carlos Ruiz Zafon 19. The Wall of Storms (Dandelion Dynasty #2) - Ken Liu 20. Just Mercy - Bryan Stevenson 21. The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials #1) - Philip Pullman 22. The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials #2) - Philip Pullman 23. Homegoing - Yaa Gyasi 24. Hocus Pocus - Kurt Vonnegut 25. The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials #3) - Philip Pullman 26. Streets of Laredo - Larry McMurtry 27. Lincoln in the Bardo - George Saunders 28. Undermajordomo Minor - Patrick DeWitt 29. Zama - Antonio di Benedetto Another month in which I shot right past my expectations in reading. I expect things to pick up at work soon, though, so maybe it’s good that I gave myself a sizeable lead. Once again I went with some favorite books to reread - the His Dark Materials trilogy (which I found out mid-read is getting a sequel later this year!) and All the King’s Men, one of the best political novels ever written. Among my new reads, there were definitely a few gems: Homegoing was a good multi-generational story about Africans and African-Americans, and how life changed over the centuries both in Africa and the United States for these people. Just Mercy was a good book about the criminal justice system in Alabama and the South and its racist bias, told by a guy who started a nonprofit in order to help those on death row. Streets of Laredo reminded me that I really loved Lonesome Dove. Granted, how everyone crosses paths and knows each other in a region as huge as the American West is a little bit of a mystery, but I still found it pretty engaging and I’m planning to read the other two of the series, Dead Man’s Walk and Comanche Moon, pretty soon. Lincoln in the Bardo was a pretty amazing book consisting of dialogues among ghosts in the cemetery where Willie Lincoln, Abe’s beloved son, was buried. I loved George Saunders’s short stories, and this matched or exceeded them in many ways. Also worth checking out: Zama, a Peruvian existentialist novel about an Americano noble who falls on hard times and chases women, Undermajordomo Minor, the story of a young man who takes a job at a mysterious castle - written by the guy who did The Sisters Brothers, a pretty solid western, The Wall of Storms, second book in Ken Liu’s Dandelion Dynasty fantasy series. He does a pretty good job of building a world and its belief systems, but like Brandon Sanderson, sometimes his characters fall a little flat - still a good read, though. 1) Read some books. Set a number and go hog wild. (29/52) 2) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. - Gyasi 3) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. - Liu, Stevenson, Gyasi 4) Read at least one book by an LGBT author. 5) Read at least one TBB BoTM and post in the monthly thread about it. 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). - Lincoln in the Bardo, Homegoing 8) Read something which was published before you were born. - Zama, All the King's Men 9) Read something in translation. - The Angel's Game, The Prisoner of Heaven, Zama 10) Read something from somewhere you want to travel. 11) Read something political. - Just Mercy 12) 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). - The Wall of Storms, All the King's Men, The Amber Spyglass, Streets of Laredo 18) Read something which was banned or censored. - pretty sure His Dark Materials (or at least the first) was banned somewhere 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. - All the King's Men (greed) 23) Read something that you love. - All the King's Men, His Dark Materials 24) Read something from a non-human perspective.
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Mar 5, 2017 01:12
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March~ 30. The Nightingale - Kristin Hannah 31. Cold Days (Dresden Files #14) - Jim Butcher 32. The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov 33. Skin Game (Dresden Files #15) - Jim Butcher 34. Finch - Jeff Vandermeer 35. Flashman - George McDonald Fraser 36. Winter's Tale - Mark Helprin 37. Dragon Keeper (Rain Wilds #1) - Robin Hobb 38. Dragon Haven (Rain Wilds #2) - Robin Hobb 39. Then We Came to the End - Joshua Ferris 40. Room - Emma Donoghue 41. City of Dragons (Rain Wilds #3) - Robin Hobb 42. Blood of Dragons (Rain Wilds #4) - Robin Hobb 43. The Unvanquished - William Faulkner This month had a lot of series reading - I finished up the Dresden Files books (fun!) and read the entirety of the Rain Wilds series (also fun!) There were also a few rereads, such as The Master and Margarita and Winter’s Tale, both of which are very good magic-realist books. (Wildly different styles, though.) The Nightingale was a pretty decent female-led WWII drama, while Flashman was an amusing "cad-who-makes-good" historical narrative. Finch was an interesting weird-sci-fi sort of noir novel (which I've since discovered is the third book in a series - whoops!) Nothing really stands out this month as a truly great book, but there was also nothing terrible. 1) Read some books. Set a number and go hog wild. (43/52) 2) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. - Hobb, Hannah, and Donoghue 3) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. - totally failed here, whitest month yet 4) Read at least one book by an LGBT author. 5) Read at least one TBB BoTM and post in the monthly thread about it. 6) Read a book someone else in the thread recommends (a wildcard!) 7) 8) Read something which was published before you were born. - Master and Margarita 9) Read something in translation. - Master and Margarita 10) Read something from somewhere you want to travel. 11) 12) 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). - Winter's Tale 18) Read something which was banned or censored. - Master and Margarita, I'm pretty sure 19) Read a satire. 20) Read something about honour. - The Unvanquished - Faulkner's all about that Southern Honor. 21) Read something about fear. 22) 23) Read something that you love. - Winter's Tale, Master and Margarita 24) Read something from a non-human perspective.
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Apr 1, 2017 06:51
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April~ 44. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil - John Bernante 45. A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet - Becky Chambers 46. Mischling - Affinity Koman 47. A Darker Shade of Magic (Shades of Magic #1)- V.E. Schwab 48. In Praise of Mortality - Rainer Maria Rilke 49. Selected Stories of Anton Chekhov - Anton Chekhov 50. Fool’s Assassin (Fitz and the Fool #1) - Robin Hobb 51. A Gathering of Shadows (Shades of Magic #2) - V.E. Schwab 52. Fool’s Quest (Fitz & the Fool #2) - Robin Hobb 53. Killers of the Flower Moon - David Grann Overall, a decent month of reading, even if (like March) nothing really stood out. I started on a few fun series (the Fitz and the Fool series and the Shades of Magic series) and got a few of the items on my Booklord Challenge knocked off (poetry, short stories). Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil was a pretty decent non-fiction that's... very of its time. Killers of the Flower Moon, on the other hand, came out a week or two ago and is a very good novel-esque history book (think Erik Larsen) about a mysterious spate of deaths among Osage Indians in the 1920s. I definitely liked that. Mischling was an... interesting Holocaust book, about a pair of twins in Joseph Mengele's lab. It was unusual but pretty good! Some of the poetry in Rilke was quite lovely, too, though I don't usually read poetry. Oh, and A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet was pretty light and fun, but it will make a lot of people roll their eyes. (I feel like the author was a very big fan of Firefly and Farscape.) The two series I started this month I'll finish up in May, so I'll save my thoughts on them til then. 1) Read some books. Set a number and go hog wild. (53/52) - Moving this up to 80. 2) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women: Schwab and Hobb, as well as Becky Chambers 3) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. (Once again, super-white...) 4) Read at least one book by an LGBT author. 5) Read at least one TBB BoTM and post in the monthly thread about it. 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). - Mischling, Killers of the Flower Moon 8) Read something which was published before you were born - Technically both the Rilke and the Chekhov were written before I was born, but these compilations of verse and short stories were compiled recently... 9) Read something in translation. - In Praise of Mortality, Selected Stories of Anton Chekhov 10) Read something from somewhere you want to travel. - Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (I've been to Savannah before, will probably go again, and am unlikely to go international for a while given my small child) 11) 12) Read something historical - Killers of the Flower Moon 12a) Read something about the First World War. 13) Read something biographical. 14) Read some poetry. - In Praise of Mortality 15) Read a play. 16) Read a collection of short stories. - Selected Short Stories of Anton Chekhov 17) Read something long (500+ pages). - Fool's Assassin, Fool's Quest 18) 19) Read a satire. 20) 21) Read something about fear. 22) 23) 24) Read something from a non-human perspective. - A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (there are alien and AI pov's in this, so I'm counting it) If anyone has a Wildcard suggestion for me, I'll take it. In pursuit of the other challenges, maybe a LGBT author or a satire?
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May 1, 2017 05:02
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May~ 54. A Conjuring of Light (Shades of Magic #3) - V.E. Schwab 55. Summer of Night - Dan Simmons 56. Small Gods - Terry Pratchett 57. Decline and Fall - Evelyn Waugh 58. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood 59. Assassin's Fate (Fitz and the Fool #3) - Robin Hobb 60. The Prince of Tides - Pat Conroy 61. The Narrow Road to the Deep North - Richard Flanagan 62. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy 63. Lovecraft Country - Matt Ruff 64. Ill Will - Dan Chaon Another month, more books. I finished both the Shades of Magic and Fitz and the Fool trilogies. Shades of Magic was kind of light and fun, while Fitz and the Fool was the culmination of about 16 books over 20 years' time - so it felt like the more satisfying conclusion. The Prince of Tides was an excellent story of a hosed-up family from South Carolina, and while the prose was kind of over-the-top at times, it was a drat good story. Anna Karenina, one of my old favorites, got trotted out for a reread, as did Handmaid's Tale. The Narrow Road to the Deep North was half a pretty dark, hosed-up look at POWs during WWII and half a cheesy love story - it didn't quite work out well, though I'd still recommend Flanagan's book "Gould's Book of Fish." Lovecraft Country was a supernatural take on Jim Crow, and Ill Will was a psychological thriller with a few holes in it. Still, some good reading this month for sure. 1) Read some books. Set a number and go hog wild. (64/80) 2) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women: Schwab, Hobb, and Atwood 3) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. (Boy, am I falling down on this...) 4) Read at least one book by an LGBT author. 5) Read at least one TBB BoTM and post in the monthly thread about it. 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). - Lovecraft Country, Ill Will, A Conjuring of Light, Assassin's Fate 8) Read something which was published before you were born - Anna Karenina, Decline and Fall, 9) Read something in translation. - Anna Karenina 10) 11) 12) 12a) Read something about the First World War. 13) Read something biographical. 14) 15) Read a play. 16) 17) Read something long (500+ pages). - Assassin's Fate, Anna Karenina, The Prince of Tides 18) 19) Read a satire. - Decline and Fall 20) 21) Read something about fear. - Lovecraft Country 22) 23) Read something that you love. - Anna Karenina 24) Chamberk fucked around with this message at 22:25 on May 29, 2017 |
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May 29, 2017 21:39
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June~ 65. Sabriel (Old Kingdom #1) - Garth Nix 66. The Night Ocean - Paul la Farge 67. The North Water - Ian McGuire 68. The Lost Hero (Heroes of Olympus #1) - Rick Riordan 69. Temporary People - Deepak Unnikrishnan 70. The Brothers K - David James Duncan 71. The Son of Neptune (Heroes of Olympus #2) - Rick Riordan 72. Fever Dream - Samanta Schweblin 73. Lirael (Old Kingdom #2) - Garth Nix 74. The Mark of Athena (Heroes of Olympus #3) - Rick Riordan 75. A Separation - Katie Kitamura 76. Abhorsen (Old Kingdom #3) - Garth Nix 77. Farmer Boy - Laura Ingalls Wilder 78. The House of Hades (Heroes of Olympus #4) - Rick Riordan 79. Salt: A World History - Mark Kurlansky Turns out I read a lot last month, enough to put me close to my new goal. So I'll go with 100 books for the rest of the year. Several of the books I read (A Separation, Fever Dream, Night Ocean, Temporary People) were for the Tournament of Book's Summer Challenge, which picked 6 books published in 2017. They were all pretty decent (my favorite had to be Temporary People, about workers in the UAE, with a great deal of magical realism involved) and I'm glad that taking on some of those books allowed me to expand my horizons a bit. I also went nuts with some series - the second Percy Jackson series (Heroes of Olympus - somewhat juvenile, but fun) and Garth Nix's Sabriel/Old Kingdom series, which was a really good fantasy trilogy with some neat ideas. I reread David James Duncan's The Brothers K, which is an all-time favorite of mine, and The North Water was a pretty gripping and good adventure tale set near the North Pole. 1) Read some books. Set a number and go hog wild. (79/80) 2) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women: Wilder, Schweblin 3) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. Kitamura, Unnikrishnan 4) Read at least one book by an LGBT author. 5) Read at least one TBB BoTM and post in the monthly thread about it. - SALT! 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). - Temporary People, Fever Dream, A Separation, The Night Ocean, The North Water 8) Read something which was published before you were born - Farmer Boy 9) 10) 11) 12) 12a) Read something about the First World War. 13) Read something biographical. 14) 15) Read a play. 16) 17) Read something long (500+ pages). - most of the Heroes of Olympus books, The Brothers K 18) 19) 20) 21) 22) 23) Read something that you love. - The Brothers K 24)
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Jul 8, 2017 00:22
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July~ 80. The Witchwood Crown (Last King of Osten Ard #1) - Tad Williams 81. The Blood of Olympus (Heroes of Olympus #5) - Rick Riordan 82. The Impossible Fortress - Mark Rekulak 83. Marlena - Julie Buntin 84. Clariel - Garth Nix 85. Night Film - Marisha Pessl 86. Underground Airlines - Ben Winters 87. Mr Splitfoot - Samantha Hunt 88. Little House in the Big Woods - Laura Ingalls Wilder 89. On Beauty - Zadie Smith 90. The Salt Roads - Nalo Hopkinson 91. The Little Drummer Girl - John le Carre I have to say, I read a lot of really good stuff this month. Witchwood Crown was the beginning of a new series that continues my favorite fantasy trilogy, Memory Sorrow and Thorn, and while it might not have measured quite up to the original, I'm eager to see where it goes. The Impossible Fortress is a really fun coming-of-age story about a kid in the 80s who's learning to program on his Commodore 64 and falls in love; Marlena is another coming-of-age story about teenage girls in a dead-end northern Michigan town and where their rebellion takes them. Both were really, really good. Underground Airlines was a really interesting alt-history about 'if the Civil War had never happened' - four states still have slavery in the 21st century. (Sounds a lot like that HBO show that people aren't happy about.) Finally, The Salt Roads was a real mind-twister of a fantasy/history book, with some sort of spirit goddess connecting the lives of Charles Baudelaire's mistress, a slave on Haiti before the revolution, and an Alexandrian prostitute in the year 345 CE. I have no idea what to think of it, but it was really good. 1) Read some books. Set a number and go hog wild. (90/100) 2) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women: Buntin, Hunt, Pessl, Wilder, Smith, Hopkinson 3) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. Smith, Hopkinson 4) Read at least one book by an LGBT author. - Hopkinson 5) 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). - The Witchwood Crown, Marlena, Underground Airlines 8) Read something which was published before you were born - Little House in the Big Woods 9) 10) 11) 12) 12a) Read something about the First World War. 13) Read something biographical. 14) 15) Read a play. 16) 17) Read something long (500+ pages) - Witchwood Crown, Blood of Olympus, 18) 19) 20) 21) 22) 23) 24) Chamberk fucked around with this message at 07:03 on Jul 31, 2017 |
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Jul 30, 2017 13:54
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August 92. Dead Man's Walk - Larry McMurtry 93. The Forever War - Joe Haldeman 94. The Aeronaut’s Windlass (The Cinder Spires #1) - Jim Butcher 95. The Sheltering Sky - Paul Bowles 96. Wild Seed - Octavia Butler 97. Comanche Moon - Larry McMurtry 98. Mind of My Mind - Octavia Butler Oh hey, two weeks have gone by and I haven't updated. Most everything I read was pretty solid - I really enjoyed finishing Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove series, with Dead Man's Walk and Comanche Moon. Gus McCrae and Woodrow McCall are such a great mismatched/perfectly-matched team, I love his characters and dialogue; I'm considering going back to read the first book again (since it comes after the fourth book, chronologically...) Also excellent was Octavia Butler's "Patternmaster" series, which I've since finished this month. The first two are strange and excellent (a four-thousand-year-old man is breeding a race of psychics and is challenged by a shapeshifter and one of his own progeny) and I'm pretty impressed with her style and imagination. The Jim Butcher was silly, but fun, and The Forever War was a pretty solid sci-fi classic. Clear loser this month: The Sheltering Sky, picked because it was on one of Time's best 100 books list. It went from "oh look at these drunk/lost/depressed Americans and Europeans in a non-white setting" (in this case French North Africa) to super racist prettttty quick in the final third of the book. 1) Read some books. Set a number and go hog wild. (98/100) 2) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women: Butler 3) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. Butler 4) 5) 6) Read a book someone else in the thread recommends (a wildcard!) 7) 8) Read something which was published before you were born - The Sheltering Sky 9) 10) 11) 12) 12a) Read something about the First World War. 13) Read something biographical. 14) 15) Read a play. 16) 17) Read something long (500+ pages) 18) 19) 20) 21) 22) 23) 24) Don't think I've forgotten that wild card - Giovanni's Room is a great book and I plan to reread it soon. Baldwin's a genius.
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Sep 16, 2017 05:34
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September! 99. Brief Interviews with Hideous Men - David Foster Wallace 100. Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakami 101. Clay's Ark - Octavia Butler 102. Patternmaster - Octavia Butler 103. Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy 104. A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L'Engle 105. Otherland: City of Golden Shadows - Tad Williams 106. The Fifth Season - N.K. Jemison 107. The Obelisk Gate - N.K. Jemison I finished one series and started two more in September. The later novels in the Patternmaster series, Clay's Ark and Patternmaster, are completely different and mostly separated from the first two, giving the whole series this weirdly disconnected feel. (What blew my mind was that Patternmaster, the last one in the series, was written first - it feels like it'd be a completely different experience outside of the context of the rest...) I started the Broken Earth trilogy (Fifth Season, Obelisk Gate, and Stone Sky) and very much enjoyed it. I'm not sure why people are calling it sci-fi - it's post-apocalyptic fantasy. And I started one of my go-to series, the Otherland books by Tad Williams. I've read this and Memory Sorrow and Thorn so many times they're practically memorized by now, but what can I say? I like Williams's stuff. Finally, Blood Meridian is a lot better than I remembered from my first time through it, but as I recall I took that on as my first McCarthy and I wasn't used to his style. After reading the Border Trilogy and Suttree, I was a bit more open to it this time and thought it was great. 1) Read some books. Set a number and go hog wild. (107/100) 2) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women: Butler, Jemison, L'Engle (I'm at approximately 33% female) 3) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. Butler, Jemison (Only about 15% here) 4) 5) 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). - The Obelisk Gate 8) Read something which was published before you were born - A Wrinkle in Time 9) Read something in translation - Kafka on the Shore 10) 11) 12) 12a) Read something about the First World War. 13) Read something biographical. 14) 15) Read a play. 16) Read a collection of short stories. - Brief Interviews with Hideous Men 17) Read something long (500+ pages) - Otherland 18) 19) 20) 21) 22) 23) Read something that you love. - Otherland 24) I should probably get on those areas of the challenge I haven't touched in a bit...
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Oct 6, 2017 05:25
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October! 108. Otherland: River of Blue Fire (Otherland #2) - Tad Williams 109. The Stone Sky (Broken Earth #3) - N.K. Jemison 110. A Closed and Common Orbit (Wayfarers #2) - Becky Chambers 111. Otherland: Mountain of Black Glass (Otherland #3) - Tad Williams 112. Get Shorty - Elmore Leonard 113. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? - Edward Albee 114. Giovanni’s Room - James Baldwin 115. Sleeping Giants - Sylvain Neuvel 116. Neuromancer - William Gibson 117. Book of Dust - La Belle Sauvage - Philip Pullman 118. Otherland: Sea of Silver Light (Otherland #4) - Tad Williams 119. Waking Gods - Sylvain Neuvel I finished a decent number of series (Otherland, Broken Earth, Wayfarers, Themis Files) and reread a couple of favorites. Neuromancer was good, though it definitely is one of those books that had such impact that now, looking back, it seems somewhat cliche. (But it MADE the cliches!) Get Shorty was a good crime novel, definitely need to read some more Leonard. I covered two of my Booklord Challenges (Wildcard and drama), so now all that's left is biography and WWI - I have plans for both. The best book this month was likely La Belle Sauvage, which returned me to one of my favorite worlds - that of His Dark Materials and the Oxford of Lyra Belacqua. 1) Read some books. Set a number and go hog wild. (119/100) 2) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women: Chambers, Jemison 3) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. Baldwin, Jemison 4) Read at least one book by an LGBT author. - Baldwin 5) 6) Read a book someone else in the thread recommends (a wildcard!) - Giovanni's Room 7) Read something that was recently published (anything from after 1st January 2016). - La Belle Sauvage, The Stone Sky 8) Read something which was published before you were born - Giovanni's Room, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? 9) 10) 11) 12) 12a) Read something about the First World War. 13) Read something biographical. 14) 15) Read a play. - Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? 16) 17) Read something long (500+ pages) - Otherland 18) 19) 20) 21) 22) 23) Read something that you love. - Otherland 24)
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Nov 6, 2017 18:21
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November! 120. Little House on the Prairie - Laura Ingalls 121. The Way of Kings (Stormlight Archive #1) - Brandon Sanderson 122. Words of Radiance (Stormlight Archive #2) - Brandon Sanderson 123. Edgedancer (Stormlight Archive #2.5) - Brandon Sanderson 124. Exit West - Mohsin Hamid 125. Night - Elie Wiesel 126. Wounded: From Battlefront to Blighty - Emily Mayhew 127. Confessions of Nat Turner - William Styron 128. Oathbringer (Stormlight Archive #3) - Brandon Sanderson I'll admit that most of this month was exclusively dedicated to the horrendously overlong yet addictive Sanderson series the Stormlight Archives (the third one came out this month). I was able to squeeze in a few good reads with Confessions of Nat Turner (really controversial when it came out, but I don't know if it was banned) and Exit West, and I was also able to finish up my booklord challenge with an autobiographical short book (Night) and a novel about the medical side of WWI (Wounded). Huzzah! 1) Read some books. Set a number and go hog wild. (128/100) 2) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women: Mayhew, Ingalls 3) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. - Hamid 4) 5) 6) 7) Read something that was recently published (anything from after 1st January 2016). - Oathbringer, Exit West 8) Read something which was published before you were born - Confessions of Nat Turner 9) 10) 11) 12) 12a) Read something about the First World War. - Wounded 13) Read something biographical. - Night (autobiographical) 14) 15) 16) 17) Read something long (500+ pages) - Stormlight Archive 18) 19) 20) 21) 22) 23) 24)
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Dec 4, 2017 15:46
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December! 129. All Our Wrong Todays - Elan Mastai 130. Before the Fall - Noah Hawley 131. The Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller 132. American War - Omar El Akkad 133. Beach Music - Pat Conroy 134. The Sparrow - Mary Doria Russell I ended the year on a fairly good note; almost everything I read this month was good (with the exception of the Pat Conroy - read Prince of Tides and stop there, is my advice). Standouts include The Sparrow, an ingenious first contact story that tackles the subject of religion in meeting with a new sentient species; The Song of Achilles, a love story set during the Trojan War (spoiler: the love is between Achilles and Patroclus); American War, a speculative take on a post-climate-change America at war with itself; and Before the Fall, which is by Fargo/Legion creator Noah Hawley and is a pretty gripping mystery read. On to new books in 2018! 1) Read some books. Set a number and go hog wild. (134/100) 2) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women: Miller, Doria Russell OVERALL: 30% female - 41 written by women 3) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. - El Akkad OVERALL: 15% - failed this one pretty badly. 20 books written by POC. 4) 5) 6) 7) Read something that was recently published (anything from after 1st January 2016). - American War, All Our Wrong Todays 8) 9) 10) 11) 12) 12a) 13) 14) 15) 16) 17) Read something long (500+ pages) - Beach Music 18) 19) 20) 21) 22) 23) 24)
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Jan 7, 2018 21:17
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