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I'm down! As with last year, I want to reach 52 books total, with at least 1/3 by women and at least 1/3 by writers of colour. Also the full Booklord!
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Dec 31, 2017 18:37
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So the first two months of the year hit me like a series of trucks, and I only managed to get a little reading done. Hoping to pick up the pace majorly! I read four books in Jan/Feb: 1 - Saga, vol. 8, by Fiona Staples and Brian K. Vaughan. The latest trade dials back the abject bleakness of volume 7, while offering equal parts closure and momentum. Also features some very frank political commentary - not that it feels out of place given the circumstances. 2 - Sandman: Book of Dreams, edited by Neil Gaiman and Ed Kramer. Been reading this off and on for a few months now, but finally finished it. A collection of short stories by various writers, all set in Gaiman's Sandman universe. Essentially 300 pages of authorised fan fiction, the ratio of good to less-good is about what I expected given the book's premise. The good stuff was very good, though, and often managed to capture the same moods as the comic series. Susanna Clarke's 'Stopp'd-Clock Yard' and Delia Sherman's 'The Witch's Heart' stick particularly hard in my memory for their explorations of grief and darker themes without resorting to some of the shock-value edginess seen elsewhere in the collection. That said, the Will Shetterly story 'Splatter' was very satisfying, with a colourful cast of serial killers. There are a couple of issues carried over from the main comic series to this collection, as I should probably have expected: a couple of the stories are dreadfully clumsy with portrayals of mental illness, and the two writers who try grappling with the lone transgender character Wanda do so unsatisfyingly. Overall though I'm glad I picked this up, as it's a nice way to dip back into Sandman stuff and also to sample some of the narrative trends and themes that Gaiman evoked in the minds of other writers. 3 - October: The Story of the Russian Revolution, by China Miιville. A month-by-month, blow-by-blow telling of the revolution's first year of 1917. Focusing on figure big and small, Miιville explores small uprisings, major upheavals and dense, political conference discussions with equal excitement and enthusiasm. There were plenty of details of which I was unaware - the 1917 All-Russian Muslim Women's Conference; the proto-fascist Black Hundreds; Lenin's cartoonish disguises during his exile. With an enormous cast of characters, he was thoughtful enough to include a glossary of names as well as an index, which is a nice addition. The prologue and epilogue, detailing the origins and the aftermath of the revolutions, were particularly interesting, as he finds clear narrative and ideological threads across years and decades. The epilogue in particular, where he addresses the failures and the horrors of what the USSR became, are especially sad. Throughout the book there is a sense of true desperation and hope - even through the denser, more clerical episodes of parliamentary and intra-movement debate. For all the ways in which the events of 1917 are mythologised, seeing them laid out in a clear, chronological narrative helped bring the people -figureheads and masses alike - to life. 4 - The Bloody Chamber and other stories by Angela Carter. Read this over a couple of months, dipping in for one or two stories at a time. Carter's prose is so dense and florid that I had trouble with some of the longer stories, even though I very much enjoyed them. This collection mainly consists of fairytales and folk stories with Carter's dark, playful twists, and there were some very satisfying entries. I was particularly fond of the titular Bloody Chamber, as well as The Company Of Wolves and Lady In The House Of Love. Sexuality and femininity - especially female puberty - are a constant focus across the stories, lending even the shorter and less detailed tales a sense of viscerality. This is the first Carter I've properly read, and I'm curious how I'd get on with a full novel - hopefully well, since I like a lot of what I read here. The first recommendation I got this year, unsolicited, was John Scalzi's Redshirts, so that's on my to-read pile. 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge - 52 - 4 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 1/3 of them are written by women. - - 4, bonus: Of these make sure half are by authors new to you - - 4, 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 1/3 of them are written by someone non-white. - - bonus: Of these make sure half are by authors new to you - - 4. Read at least one book by an LGBT author. bonus: Make sure 10% of the books you read this year are by LGBT authors 5. Participate in the TBB BotM thread at least once in 2018 (thread stickied each month at the top of the forum). bonus: Participate in the SHAMEFUL The Greatest Books You've Never Read thread 6. Ask another poster to issue you a wildcard, then read it. bonus: Similarly, get a wildcard from another thread in this forum 7. Get a recommendation from a friend or loved one. bonus: Read literally the first in-person book recommendation you get in 2018 (solicited or not) 8. Read something written before you were born. bonus: Read a book written/published the exact year you were born bonus: Read something that wins an award in 2018, but only after it is announced (i.e. don't apply retroactively) 10. Read something translated from another language. bonus: Read something that isn't in your primary language 11. Read something political. bonus: Read something political from/about a country you aren't from and don't currently live in 12. Read a poetry collection. bonus: Read poems by at least 10 different poets 14. Read a play. bonus: Read a play first published in the last 10 years bonus: Read something about a (nonfictional) war that didn't involve the U.S. 16. Read something biographical. bonus: Read something biographical about someone you've met/seen in person4 17. Read something about religion. bonus: Read a major religious text 18. Read something from a non-traditional perspective. bonus: Read something narrated in the 2nd person 19. Read something that has been banned, censored, or challenged. bonus: Read something currently banned, censored, or challenged in its country of origin 20. Read something about music. bonus: Read something about a genre of music you're explicitly not a fan of 21. Read something that involves Maslow's hierarchy of needs. bonus: Read something about hunger 22. Read something about the future. bonus: Read something about a future that takes place before the current year
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Mar 1, 2018 04:17
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MockingQuantum posted:I'm looking a bit ahead in my reading list, and I need some suggestions on: Shot in the dark here, but Owen Jones's Chavs: The Demonisation of the Working Class is a pretty great primer on British class culture and also very accessible.
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Apr 24, 2018 05:19
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I read nine books in March and April. I'm doing my best to get back into the book-a-week rhythm that'll help me reach my goal. 5 - The Queue, by Basma Abdel Aziz. Gripping dystopian novel by an Egyptian activist and journalist. Lots of reviews have described it as Orwellian and/or Kafkaesque, with characters crushed under the weight of totalitarianism and bureaucracy. But it's more than that - Aziz is able to depict the daily lives of people forming their own communities in the titular Queue, and characters who initially appear one-dimensional become fleshed out and challenged over the course of the story. While the book is far from cheerful, there is a sense of vitality and hope under the surface. I'm glad I read this, and I'll definitely explore more of her work in future. 6 - Battle Angel Alita:The Complete Collection by Yukito Kishiro. All nine volumes of the manga series, comprising around 2,000 pages. A classic of Japanese cyberpunk SF, with countless fans and a litany of works it influenced. The story follows the exploits of a cyborg girl with incredible talent for combat in a grim far-future undercity called the Scrapyard. Her adventures see her taking on various roles: vigilante, sports star, freedom fighter, assassin, mercenary - and each of the nine volumes and eight story arcs is filled with memorable supporting characters. The artwork starts impressive and only improves, with Kishiro able to capture both sweeping vistas and complex, minute details (though the T&A quotient rises also). While a lot of the stories focus on ideas of humanity, or lack thereof, the most interesting lens I found to read it through was a political one. The world of Alita is a grotesquely unequal one, but within that clear haves-versus-have-nots dynamic, Kishiro paints an awful lot of nuance with different characters' perspectives, aspirations and ideologies. Also recurring are questions of who is allowed - and able - to weild both destructive and creative power. On top of all of that, of course, is an enormous amount of action. Martial arts with cyborg combatants features a staggering amount of detailed and grisly violence and gore, and even minor conflicts can get obscenely graphic. Combined with the exaggerated, cartoonish ugliness of so many of the supporting cast, Kishiro is able to really bring out feelings of revulsion. My praise isn't unreserved, though. While the action and fight scenes are visually impressive, the pacing can drag, and the viscera can get stale when Alita's opponent has been reduced to putty but keep on fighting through some trick or other. There is also, for a lot of the series, a fixation on women and girls who are "damaged" in some way: serious physical and psychological trauma are common throughout the cast, but only with the female characters is this trauma something that can be supported through paternal or romantic love. It's not until Alita's operator Lou in the last third of the series that we get a woman other than the main character who has much self-determination. All that said, it's a hell of a read, even with its length (and this is just the first THIRD of the Alita story!!). I can see why it was such a big hit, and so influential. Maybe someday I'll pick up part two. 7 - Attack of the Flickering Skeletons: More Terrible Old Games Youve Probably Never Heard Of, by Stuart Ashen. A joyous and snarky followup to the original TOGYPNHO, the sofa man from YouTube dredges up another collection of bizarre and dreadful home computer games from the past. Growing up my favourite part of getting gaming magazines was reading the negative reviews, as that was where the writers were able to pack the best jokes to appeal to my young brain, and I have a real pang of nostalgia for those reviews when reading through these collections. There are a few entries to mix up the formula, from guest submissions to a genuinely fascinating breakdown of "Hareraiser", but this is more of a book to dip into now and then. Rather than, as I did, read it through in a couple of sittings. Still, really fun, and a good spotlight shone on forgotten failures of the past, which is totally my jam. 8 - Ana Voog - Dreaming On Stage: 10 years From a 24/7 Art/Life Webcam, by Ana Voog (edited by J.D. Casten). A collection of artwork and journals from Ana Voog, who lived online through webcam and chat programs for over ten years, starting in 1997. One of the first people to willingly surrender so much of her privacy to the online panopticon, Voog's journals and art offer time capsules of the effects of media saturation, online celebrity and living digitally. Voog's audience grows and shrinks and her posts become more elaborate, both introspective and outspoken about US and Internet culture. There's an air of "outsider art" about her project and her other artistic endeavours, and her journals are about as unfiltered and raw as she intended her webcam project to be: a naked portrayal of herself and her life for the world. The "Unlimited Edition" I read mostly consisted of Voog's visual art, which features recurring themes of blurred identity, painted and manipulated bodies. Altogether, an interesting and empathetic collection from a unique artistic voice, and part of digital history. 9 - Lincoln In The Bardo, by George Saunders. Read for the BOTM thread, very late in the month. This was a fascinating and surprisingly gripping book, told in a strange but accessible way. The cosmology Saunders builds is rife with emotion, and allows him to explore intimate and frightening parts of the human experience, before and after apparent death. Centring his story around Lincoln, practically a mythological figure at this point, means that every passage feels like a historical account - there are whole chapters which consist of assorted eyewitness testimonies and historians' analyses of Lincoln, his family, his home, his decision-making. The main characters are warm and interesting, with their foibles and anxieties well fleshed-out over the course of their ordeal - each gets a satisfying send-off, too. I'm sure there are more interesting and scholarly things that could be said about this book, but I don't quite feel qualified to do so. 10 - The Slow Regard Of Silent Things, by Patrick Rothfuss. A short and egregiously whimsical novella about a subterranean urchin girl preparing to welcome someone important. The prose is, by Rothfuss's own admittance, incredibly twee and flowery, and this is more of a long vignette than a story. It is surprisingly involving, though: Auri's world is described evocatively enough that it allows the reader to put together vivid mental pictures. The focus of much of the book is Auri's routines, fixations, superstitions, and a constant obsession with things being done "properly" or "politely". In the absence of any other living characters, inanimate objects are imbued with personality and charisma, to surprisingly strong effect. As an experiment for the author, it works well, and was a refreshing exploration of worldbuilding from below. 11 - SuperMutant Magic Academy, by Jillian Tamaki. Print collection of Tamaki's webcomic of the same name, following a handful of highschoolers, some with various magical powers. It's full of little vignettes that slowly build up and flesh out the characters, with genuinely good comedy interspersed with more poignant moments. Things come together into a clearer narrative in the last third, and I was left feeling touched by the humanity of her characters. There were more than a few moments that I'll be remembering for a long time. 12 - Love Is Power Or Something Like That, by A. Igoni Barrett. A short story collection by a Nigerian author - I picked this up due to a Goodreads algorithm recommendation. It's interesting and often entertaining, with evocative descriptions and a good sense of pacing. Some of the stories are very good, though a couple are really unpleasant - I'm not sure if that was the author's intent or not. A running theme in these stories seems to be male violence, male incompetence, animalistic masculinity - from small children to grown men, there are very few characters that are not their own worst enemy. The sexuality on display is sometimes genuinely upsetting, with a few pubescent and even pre-pubescent girls given a certain amount of sexual maturity and agency in ways that I found very uncomfortable. This is not to say that there weren't good parts of these stories, of course, but some aspects were hard to stomach. The characters and day-in-the-life situations offer glimpses of people and societies that I have no lived experience of, and the pidgin dialogue helped immerse me in the lives of Igoni Barrett's characters. I think I'd like to read more of his work. 13 - The Feminist Utopia Project: Fifty-Seven Visions Of A Wildly Better Future, edited by Alexandra Brodsky and Rachel Kauder Halebuff. A collection of short speculative fiction stories, essays, interviews, poetry and visual art projects around the multifaceted theme of "What would your utopia look like?", this was a fascinating and suprisingly inspirational book. The featured "visions" range from the mundane and forthright (workplace protections and sensible footwear) to the seemingly frivolous, but actually really interesting and important (respecting and embracing the linguistic importance of teenage girls' vocal quirks). There are moments of humour, moments of raw anger, and a range of diverse and even contradictory ideals at play. Listing my favourites would take too long, but I'm glad for even the few instalments that I disageed with. Overall this was a wonderful and resonant book that showcased a whole range of positive, hopeful and urgent desires for the future. 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge - 52 - 4 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 1/3 of them are written by women. - 5 - 4, 5, 8, 11, 13 bonus: Of these make sure half are by authors new to you - 5 - 4, 5, 8, 11, 13 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 1/3 of them are written by someone non-white. - 4 - 5, 6, 11, 12 bonus: Of these make sure half are by authors new to you - 4 - 5, 6, 11, 12 bonus: Make sure 10% of the books you read this year are by LGBT authors 5. Participate in the TBB BotM thread at least once in 2018 (thread stickied each month at the top of the forum). bonus: Participate in the SHAMEFUL The Greatest Books You've Never Read thread 6. Ask another poster to issue you a wildcard, then read it. bonus: Similarly, get a wildcard from another thread in this forum 7. Get a recommendation from a friend or loved one. bonus: Read literally the first in-person book recommendation you get in 2018 (solicited or not) - 'Redshirts' (suggested by flatmate). 8. Read something written before you were born. bonus: Read a book written/published the exact year you were born bonus: Read something that wins an award in 2018, but only after it is announced (i.e. don't apply retroactively) bonus: Read something that isn't in your primary language 12. Read a poetry collection. bonus: Read poems by at least 10 different poets 14. Read a play. bonus: Read a play first published in the last 10 years bonus: Read something about a (nonfictional) war that didn't involve the U.S. bonus: Read something biographical about someone you've met/seen in person 17. Read something about religion. bonus: Read a major religious text bonus: Read something narrated in the 2nd person 19. Read something that has been banned, censored, or challenged. bonus: Read something currently banned, censored, or challenged in its country of origin 20. Read something about music. bonus: Read something about a genre of music you're explicitly not a fan of 21. Read something that involves Maslow's hierarchy of needs. bonus: Read something about hunger 22. Read something about the future. bonus: Read something about a future that takes place before the current year
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May 2, 2018 03:42
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In May/June, I read ten books: 14 - The Heart Goes Last, by Margaret Atwood. Unpleasantly plausible Tomorrow-AD dystopia forms the backdrop for a private-prison living experiment. The scope of Atwood's story is fairly small, but her main characters' concerns and personalities are fleshed out compellingly. As a critique of shallow corporate culture and "public good through private enterprise" it isn't as cutting as I expected, but what I did get was a fun and gripping story with some real emotional stakes. Throughout the book I kept thinking how it would be easy to adapt into a Netflix miniseries, though I don't know if that says more about the story itself or about my mindset while reading. Still, rather good! 15 - Lightning Rods, by Helen DeWitt. A satire on sexual politics and self-help culture, in which a down-on-his-luck salesman turns his extremely specific sexual fetish into a booming industry. There's a gentle farce at the core of the novel that kept me guessing where things would go next, and the way the characters treat the central bizarre concept with such seriousness always proved amusing. DeWitt weaves a great snowball effect into the plot, with small ideas and quirks becoming major life-changing decisions, and the book ends up being very engrossing. 16 - Literally Show Me A Healthy Person, by Darcie Wilder. Short novella told in a stream-of-consciousness Tumblr-feed style. The main character is a miserable and apathetic twenty-something, dealing with the fallout from a family tragedy while trying to piece together shards of a life she seems to have given up on. Her attention flickers between serious emotional reflection, sexual angst and errata like which New York streets have the best garbage. The overall effect is surprisingly powerful, and create a much fuller picture of the main character's inner and outer world than I thought it would. I liked this so much I lent it to a coworker as soon as I finished it. 17 - Fragile Things: Short Fictions & Wonders, by Neil Gaiman. Mostly short stories and some poems. A lot of the works in this collection left me unsatisfied, unfortunately - ideas not fully fleshed out, character motivations unclear, or simply unfulfilling tales. The ones that did work for me, though, were great. 'How To Talk To Girls At Parties', 'Bitter Grounds', and the last piece in the collection, 'Monarch of the Glen'- a sequel-novella to 'American Gods' that put me back in the same frame of mind as the original novel. By Gaiman's admission this book is cobbled together from odds and ends and stories over twenty years, so the disparity in quality is understandable. I certainly wouldn't recommend it as someone's first Neil Gaiman book, but there are some gems in here that I'm glad I could find. 18 - Who Fears Death, by Nnedi Okorafor. A powerful SFF novel that transplants the typical hero's journey to a post-apocalypse Saharan landscape. Our protagonist is a girl who seeks to learn magic to take revenge and must overcome immense odds and obstacles to complete her journey. Okorafor is unflinching in portraying the natiest aspects of human cruelty, from sexual assault and racial prejudice to more subtle, insidious complacency. Some passages are particularly difficult to read, and this is far from a happy book, but the way in which Onyesonwu's struggles and triumphs are told is really engrossing. As the cast of characters grows and new communities are discovered, hints at the richness and diversity of life are seen, but never over-explained. The world Okorafor has written has an awful lot of unanswered questions, but those answers are irrelevant to the characters and their experiences: I was left wanting more but not feeling short-changed at all. The book explores themes of loyalty, heritage and family, both chosen and inherited, and by the end I felt a real sense of how far the characters had come. 19 - Everyone's A Aliebn When Ur A Aliebn Too: A Book, by Jomny Sun. Simple illustrations and a children's-book narrative allow Sun to explore, in simple and emotionally raw terms, the highs and lows of human existence. An "aliebn" explorer meets denizens of Earth and learns about happiness, art, love, loss, and belonging. While a quick read, it was one where I lingered on every page, unable to stop smiling, and often genuinely affected. It is clear to see why Sun's work, both on- and offline, has been such a touchstone for people of my generation, and I am genuinely happy that I have this book in my life. 20 - Finn Family Moomintroll, by Tove Jansson. A charming book with episodic adventures that I recognised from the Moomins cartoon I watched growing up. Magical transformation, seafaring, treasure, friendship, and buckets of whimsy. Not as heavy as the previous book, but still featuring some real emotional honesty. This was a quick read, and never failed to put a big smile on my face. 21 - The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde. Shamefully I'd never read any Wilde before, despite knowing an awful lot about him and his life. This was everything I expected it to be: florid, witty, engrossing, vicious, deeply satisfying. Of course there are some hiccups - some casual anti-semitism scattered here and there, and a dreadful amount of misogyny, and especially with the latter it's hard to chalk it all up to "being written in the 19th Century". The book is staggeringly, overwhelmingly homoerotic, even more than I anticipated, and the central character of Dorian is wonderfully, unpleasantly drawn. I now need to read (or watch on stage) everything else Wilde did, because it really does live up to the hype. 22 - A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess. I can certainly see what all the fuss is about. A short and engrossing novel about adolescent viciousness, crime and punishment, and free will being stripped away by the state...But also a rather conservative story of a young man growing out of rebellion and, by the end, seeking a gentle, more passive life. Being very familiar with the film I recognised most of the scenes and plot beat for beat, though with significant thematic changes, especially to the ending. I was pleased to read that the "youth fashion" in the book is even sillier than the ones Kubrick put onscreen. Overall I'm happy I finally got to reading this - it's a hell of a book, a great story, with some scenes that will stick with me for some time. 23 - Infect Your Friends And Loved Ones, by Torrey Peters. Short novella about life as a trans woman in 201X, and also a post-apocalypse triggered by disaffected trans women. It's powerful and sad and little exciting; Peters writes with a matter-of-fact urgency that reads as much like a confessional as a piece of fiction. Obviously there are elements of this book I simply will not Get, given that I'm not a trans woman, but as a cis guy reading this I was definitely affected by it. Very good. 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge - 52 - 23 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 1/3 of them are written by women. - 11 - 4, 5, 8, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 20, 23 bonus: Of these make sure half are by authors new to you - 8 - 4, 5, 8, 11, 13, 15, 16, 23 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 1/3 of them are written by someone non-white. - 6 - 5, 6, 11, 12, 18, 19 bonus: Of these make sure half are by authors new to you - 5 - 5, 6, 11, 12, 19 bonus: Make sure 10% of the books you read this year are by LGBT authors 5. Participate in the TBB BotM thread at least once in 2018 (thread stickied each month at the top of the forum). 6. Ask another poster to issue you a wildcard, then read it. bonus: Similarly, get a wildcard from another thread in this forum 7. Get a recommendation from a friend or loved one. bonus: Read literally the first in-person book recommendation you get in 2018 (solicited or not) - 'Redshirts' (suggested by flatmate). bonus: Read a book written/published the exact year you were born bonus: Read something that wins an award in 2018, but only after it is announced (i.e. don't apply retroactively) bonus: Read something that isn't in your primary language 12. Read a poetry collection. bonus: Read poems by at least 10 different poets 14. Read a play. bonus: Read a play first published in the last 10 years bonus: Read something about a (nonfictional) war that didn't involve the U.S. bonus: Read something biographical about someone you've met/seen in person 17. Read something about religion. bonus: Read a major religious text bonus: Read something narrated in the 2nd person bonus: Read something currently banned, censored, or challenged in its country of origin 20. Read something about music. bonus: Read something about a genre of music you're explicitly not a fan of 21. Read something that involves Maslow's hierarchy of needs. bonus: Read something about hunger I'm having trouble coming up with ideas for the Maslow/hunger book(s), so if anyone has any suggestions I'd be very grateful! Also, someone please WILDCARD ME! (thanks) Gertrude Perkins fucked around with this message at 04:30 on Jun 30, 2018 |
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Jun 30, 2018 04:27
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Another suggestion I'd like to add to the pile would be Let's Talk About Love, which is 2/3 a biography of Cιline Dion and her rise to infamy as a popstar people love to hate on. The expanded edition also has a lot of writers, musicians etc talking through their own thoughts on "taste", "guilty pleasures" and the like.
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Jul 13, 2018 16:06
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I read eight books in July. Half of them were "graphic novels" or whatever but it still counts to me, dammit 24 - Kept: A Comedy of Sex and Manners, by Y. Euny Hong. It's definitely a comedy about sex and manners - more explicitly about manners, class, and etiquette, thugh sex and sexuality are woven into almost every conflict in the book. The cast is peppered with unpleasant caricatures of the bourgeoisie and intelligentsia, though Hong manages to humanise the protagonist and her main love interest to an extent. I was still left with a bad taste in my mouth, which I think was intentinal, given the blinkered narcissism and exploitation on display. Judith, the protagonist, is the penniless heir to a noble Korean family, and her voice is believably pompous and hard-done-by given her earnestly awful circumstances. Every character is trapped by ideas of what and who they ought to be, and their behaviour is extrapolated from those anxieties. There is a strange plot thread about converting to Judaism that seems to appear out of nowhere and has little consequence, but again that feels deliberate. This isn't the usual sort of thing I'd read but I'm happy I picked it up, as a nice change of pace. 25 - Seventeen & J, by Kenzaburo Oe. Two novellas by the Nobel Prize-winning author, both written in the early sixties but published together in '94 in the edition I have. The first novella, Seventeen, is a grotesque and disturbingly plausible story of a disaffected and sexually frustrated teenager who is indoctrinated into extreme rigt-wing politics. The second and longer one, J, is not as punchy but almost more unpleasant in the way it explores the protagonist's amoral sexual fixaions. I don't know enough about the Nobels to judge how wothy Oe is of the prize, but it's clear that these stories were powerful enough when they were written to still resonate thirty years later. 26 - The City & The City, by China Miιville. Police procedural thriller set in a fictional eastern-European city-state and also in another fictional eastern-European city-state tat overlaps it. Miιville has a lot of fun with the conceit of the setting, spinning it out into a delicious allegory for a world overwhelmed with conflicting information and individualised versions of truth. The plot centres around extremist factions and doctoral students, the latter being especially well-drawn, and the protagonist's journey is both troubling and cathartic. The actual murder case at the centre of the book never quite grabbed me, sadly, but every other element, as well as Miιville's wonderful prose, made this a joy to read. 27 & 28- Pluto, vol. 3 & 4, by Naoki Urasawa. The plot starts to thicken with the introduction of anti-robot extremists and increasingly troublesome politics. The title character shows himself. There's an unexpectedly moving scene with a robot dog, and some surprises that really got to me. I will absolutely finish this series. 29 - Poems For A World Gone To Sh*t, a Quercus collection. As the title describes, this is a short collection of poetry from various writers and eras, on themes such as loss, regret, frustration, hope and peace. I recognised a good number of them, but the ones I didn't know so well were generally good and well-written (even if only a few really spoke to me). I was given this by a friend, and I'm happy to have read it, if only to discover a few verses I hadn't encountered before. It's light, and several entries are extracts from much longer works, but it's fine. It put a smile on my face. 30 - My Solo Exchange Diary, by Nagata Kabi. The sequel to the excellent 'My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness', this is a direct episodic continuation of the themes of the first: isolation, depression, a difficult and stifling home environment, and the struggles of trying to fulfil one's potential as an "adult". It's as charming and resonant as her first book, and even discusses the consequences of making one's emotional and romantic life into a work of art. I liked thi an awful lot, and I look forward to reading the next instalment. 31 - My Friend Dahmer, by Derf Backderf. Graphic novel about the high-school life of notorious serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, as told by one of his classmates. I'm most familiar with Backderf's style from his shorter political comics like 'The City', and his artwork here is an appropriate blend of detailed and unpleasant - characters seem to move like puppets, particularly Dahmer himself. Combined with the matter-of-factness of the narration, I got a real sense of disaffection and creepiness from the whole mood of the school setting, even outside of Dahmer's vicinity. I was impressed by the tonal consistency, portraying Derf's highschool years with a blend of nostalgia, shame and regret that resonated pretty strongly. What got to me most was the afterword, in which Backderf annotates the preceding events and catalogues how real-life events were depicted or elided in the name of making a more coherent narrative. It's rare to see such an honest and thorough rundown on the process of adapting nonfiction into narratives. It's also deeply sad reading into Dahmer's mother's mental illness, his parents' divorce, his own downward spiral through alcoholism and violent urges toward his first act of murder. As Backderf repeats throughout: where were the adults? I saw the film adaption of this comic before reading it, and on balance I feel that this is a more complete story and a more fulfilling experience, if an unpleasant one. 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge - 52 - 31 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 1/3 of them are written by women. - 13 - 4, 5, 8, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 20, 23, 24, 30 bonus: Of these make sure half are by authors new to you - 9 - 4, 5, 8, 11, 13, 15, 16, 23, 24 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 1/3 of them are written by someone non-white. - 11 - 5, 6, 11, 12, 18, 19, 24, 25, 27, 28, 30 bonus: Of these make sure half are by authors new to you - 7 - 5, 6, 11, 12, 19, 24, 25 bonus: Make sure 10% of the books you read this year are by LGBT authors 5. Participate in the TBB BotM thread at least once in 2018 (thread stickied each month at the top of the forum). 6. Ask another poster to issue you a wildcard, then read it. bonus: Similarly, get a wildcard from another thread in this forum 7. Get a recommendation from a friend or loved one. bonus: Read literally the first in-person book recommendation you get in 2018 (solicited or not) - 'Redshirts' (suggested by flatmate). bonus: Read a book written/published the exact year you were born bonus: Read something that wins an award in 2018, but only after it is announced (i.e. don't apply retroactively) bonus: Read something that isn't in your primary language 14. Read a play. bonus: Read a play first published in the last 10 years bonus: Read something about a (nonfictional) war that didn't involve the U.S. bonus: Read something biographical about someone you've met/seen in person 17. Read something about religion. bonus: Read a major religious text bonus: Read something narrated in the 2nd person bonus: Read something currently banned, censored, or challenged in its country of origin 20. Read something about music. bonus: Read something about a genre of music you're explicitly not a fan of bonus: Read something about hunger
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Jul 31, 2018 04:32
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In August and September, I read twelve books: 32 - Infomocracy, by Malka Older. Near-future SF novel that explores the bureaucracy and tensions and cultural effects a one-world government system might actually have. In a world of "microdemocracy" the population is carved up into enclaves or "centenals" governed by corporate or ideological groups whose influence is truly global. Older flits between characters who all have skin in the election game: pollsters, influencers, activists - and each one feels personable and fleshed-out, even those the reader spends less time with. I was pleasantly surprised that a novel ostensibly about hardcore politicking and polling data turned out to be so exciting and interesting, and a genuine page-turner. I can't wait to check out the sequel! 33 - Dead Funny: Britain's Best Comedians Turn To Horror, edited by Robin Ince and Johnny Mains. An anthology of short horror stories (and one poem), all written by comedians. The stories vary wildly in topic and quality, but seem to centre around common themes of isolation, loss of control, delusion. I'm familiar enough with the comedy careers of the writers that I could definitely feel each one's voice in their stories: Stewart Lee's piece is essentially a long, self-indulgent monologue; Reece Shearsmith rubs the reader's face in awfulness before a final superfluous but satisfying twist; Tim Key writes a fun and oddly sweet little poem. I did have a good time with this collection, and phraes like "viscous dog" will stay with me for a long while. 34 - 920 London, by Remy Boydell. I read the first draft of this, as a Patreon backer. 920 London follows a pair of troubled queer dogs in 2005 London, with adventure-vignettes about bad exes, bad parties, cheap drugs and a home magic mushroom grow-op. Done in Boydell's signature style of soft watercolours and reappropriated cartoon animals, which throws harsher images and fraught emotional moments into sharp relief. I lived in and around north London in the years after this is set, and a lot of the locations and atmosphere were familiar to me, even if the social aspects weren't. 35 - The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. Le Guin. A beautiful, deep and unnervingly relatable novel about an anarchist society twinned with an Earth-like civilisation, separated by space and politics and perhaps something much deeper: the gulf between ideologies. When Shevek, a scientist from a world without government, laws or private property, travels to the prosperous world of Urras, he becomes the catalyst for an ongoing dialectic between social norms, priorities and ethics. Contrasted with his collectivist life on his homeworld, LeGuin describes with rich detail and emotional honesty what a truly anarchist world might look like - and whether it would be truly "anarchist" at all. This book made me think hard about my own place in the world, and despite some heavy discussions of morality and political structure, still felt very human at its core. I can see why so many people consider this a masterpiece. 36 - Bone: The Complete Edition, by Jeff Smith. 1300-page omnibus collection of the epic fantasy graphic novel, where three cartoon cousins are displaced into a sweeping high-fantasy world of prophecy, rat-creatures and frightened townsfolk. There's a burly grandma, a dragon-slaying scam, and the adventure is tempered with a healthy dose of gentle humour throughout. The stakes rise inexorably as the tone darkens, and what starts as a good-natured romp morphs into a world's-end conflict of warring factions and near-death experiences. The pacing is superb, the artwork is simple but lovely (the sweeping vistas in particular really evoke that fantasy-wilderness feeling); almost every character feels like their own person. Reading this felt like a blend of Lord of the Rings, Asterix, and the glut of epic fantasy films of the 80s. I'm so glad I finally got round to reading through this whole saga. 37 - All Creatures Great And Small, by James Herriot. Book Barn BOTM pick, and I listened to the audiobook. This is just delightful. The memoirs of a country vet working in 1930s Yorkshire, it's a window to a bygone age and a profession that has changed immeasurably in the last 80 years. Written episodically, Herriot builds up a rich and vivid world of farmers, vets and rural society. Everything from the trouble with calving to cinema etiquette is described with good-natured wit and a real empathy that makes even the most inconsequential chapters feel warm and satisfying. Once or twice I found myself getting very emotional, as Herriot's respect for animals and the humans who care for them radiates off every page. There is a cast of characters who ended up fully-formed and real in my mind's eye, and even though I have little interest in country landscapes or agriculture I was drawn in utterly. I've never read much nature writing, or medical writing for that matter, and now I feel I really ought to read more. After a long and difficult summer, this was an excellent balm. 38 - , Said The Shotgun To The Head, by Saul Williams. An epic poem in the vein of 'Howl' - Ginsberg is even namechecked in the acknowledgements. This takes the form of a ten-part rambling, psychedelic monologue comparing and conflating religious and romantic love. The language and themes get increasingly fervent and stray into political thoughts here and there, and Williams builds a cosmology of the sacred feminine as the true embodiment of the divine. In terms of typography the book plays fast and loose with font sizes and layout, often with single thoughts or words getting an entire page to themselves. The effect, when read in a single sitting, is to capture the freewheeling euphoria of a life-changing attraction and romantic yearning. It does feel less developed and intricate than his other work, especially later poetry, but his passion is infectious and there are a good few turns of phrase that stuck with me. 39 - Londonstani, by Gautam Malkani. Novel about a teenage wannabe gangster in a majority-Asian borough of London. A smart kid who's fallen in with a bad crowd, Jas's narration is a blend of code-switching, slang and braggadocio that sometimes feels overwritten. Malkani weaves a pretty by-the-numbers tale of an aspiring hard man biting off far more than he can chew, and occasionally it works. Malkani has a lot to say about ideas of authenticity, of masculinity, of keeping up appearances, and every character is beset by self-conscious maintenance of their public image. There are a couple of satisfying reveals over the course of the book, and some of the characters are fleshed out enough for the reader to become invested. But a lot of this felt like a kind of cautionary tale written for young teens, crossed with a Clockwork Orange-style "youth of today" gawking. I can't ignore the truly staggering punchline twist at the end which had me frowning in disbelief, though. I'm not sure whom this book is for. No doubt it goes some way to capturing the experience of being a disaffected Asian teen under the clouds of mid-00s London. But as a whole I found this novel frustrating and often simply distracting. 40 - Soppy, by Philippa Rice. A short and very sweet book, mostly illustrations and comics, chronicling the growth of a romantic relationship. There are troubles, but they're small moments in a collection of small moments. Even brief kindnesses are given as much importance as major events. The book is exactly as soppy as its title and simple art style suggest, and I enjoyed it very much. 41 - The Three-Body Problem, by Liu Cixin. Fascinating and neargriping hard-SF set in the Tomorrow-AD future and during China's Cultural Revolution and its fallout. A scientist investigating shady research discovers a strange MMORPG and a web of conspiracy, and that's just the first two acts. The final thrust of the book is, as they said in the past, "off the chain", and had me grinning from ear to ear. Really great stuff, and I can absolutely see why this got the Hugo award a couple of years back. 42 - Y2K9: The Dog Who Saved The World, by Todd Strasser. I picked this up for a penny because the cover was very, very entertaining to me. The actual contents of the book are, at best, mediocre, and at worst dreadful. Even when I was in the target age range for this book I would have been immensely disappointed. 43 - Archangel, by William Gibson, Michael St. John Smith and Jackson Butch Guice. Gibson's first foray into comics, and it's a short WWII pulp thriller with a fun sci-fi hook. Unfortunately the entertaining and engrossing premise falls away around the halfway mark, and the overall feeling is of a very rushed production. This would have been excellent as a short story, or as a considerably longer comic miniseries. My suspicion is that jamming everything into five issues meant cutting out a lot of connective tissue between scenes and even between panels within scenes. While the artwork is dynamic and exciting, with each transition my brain had to take a few moments to fill in the gaps. The last scene feels hurried and tacked-on, and according to the afterword, it literally was changed at the last minute. While I was disappointed by the comic, I'd be interested to see Gibson tackle a longer project in the medium, perhaps one where he and his collaborators have space to breathe. 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge - 52 - 43 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 1/3 of them are written by women. - 16 - 4, 5, 8, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 20, 23, 24, 30, 32, 35, 40 bonus: Of these make sure half are by authors new to you - 11 - 4, 5, 8, 11, 13, 15, 16, 23, 24, 32, 40 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 1/3 of them are written by someone non-white. - 15 - 5, 6, 11, 12, 18, 19, 24, 25, 27, 28, 30, 32, 38, 39, 41 bonus: Of these make sure half are by authors new to you - 10 - 5, 6, 11, 12, 19, 24, 25, 32, 39, 41 bonus: Make sure 10% of the books you read this year are by LGBT authors 6. Ask another poster to issue you a wildcard, then read it. bonus: Similarly, get a wildcard from another thread in this forum 7. Get a recommendation from a friend or loved one. bonus: Read literally the first in-person book recommendation you get in 2018 (solicited or not) - 'Redshirts' (suggested by flatmate). bonus: Read a book written/published the exact year you were born bonus: Read something that wins an award in 2018, but only after it is announced (i.e. don't apply retroactively) bonus: Read something that isn't in your primary language 14. Read a play. bonus: Read a play first published in the last 10 years bonus: Read something biographical about someone you've met/seen in person bonus: Read a major religious text bonus: Read something narrated in the 2nd person bonus: Read something currently banned, censored, or challenged in its country of origin 20. Read something about music. bonus: Read something about a genre of music you're explicitly not a fan of
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Sep 30, 2018 05:05
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If I want to fulfil the challenges I haven't managed yet, I need to read at least nine more books this year, so I need to get my skates on. Also, I'm not sure what "get a wildcard from another thread in this forum" would entail? In service of that, someone please WILDCARD ME!
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Oct 24, 2018 02:54
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Well heck, I've never actually read Pynchon so this is as good an excuse as any. Thanks!
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Oct 24, 2018 15:08
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I read nine books in October. But my numbers are slipping, diversity-wise. I need to correct this. 44 - The Adventure Zone: Here Be Gerblins, by Clint McElroy, Griffin McElroy, Justin McElroy, Travis McElroy and Carey Pietsch. Adaption of the first story arc of the hugely popular D&D podcast. It's been long enough since I first listened to TAZ that I'd forgotten a lot of the smaller details and funny/cool moments from this first arc, so I was pleasantly surprised by a lot of this. Translating an audio story to avisual medium means that characters and locations get given "canon" appearances, and while these don't match the Merle, Taako and Magnus in my mind's eye, they're close enough and expressive enough that I didn't find the adaption jarring. I'm really glad this finally came out, and it was a much-needed pick-me-up for this month. Really hoping they continue to adapt the rest of the podcast, because there are some wild things down the road that I'd love to see fleshed out. 45 - Valley Of The Dolls, by Jacqueline Suzann. A cult classic that I started out really hating, but around halfway through started to properly win me over. The prose is purple, the language outdated (and often really grossly offensive with how it throws F-slurs around), but Susann did something really impressive with this book. She took what I thought would be generic archetype characters and tracked them through the years, through rises and falls, and made me genuinely care about what happened. The book is somewhere between a soap opera and a high showbiz melodrama, but with some moments of absolute fury and righteous bitterness at the core. I don't know what rating to give this, given how much of it put me off, and how much of it drew me back in. But I'm very glad I finally got to reading it, and everything else I learn about the background of the book and the author herself make me like it, and her, a little more. 46 - Kim & Kim vol. 1, by Magdalene Visaggio, Eva Cabrera, Claudia Aguirre. High-octane and delightfully silly comic series about two interdimensional bounty hunters. It's colourful, queer, and full of personality. Even among the absurdity, the story is grounded by the leads' relationship and an authentic emotional core. Tonally this feels like a spiritual successor to classic Tank Girl, with a little Saga mixed in. I really dug it. 47 - Mortal Engines, by Philip Reeve. Post-apocalypse YA novel set in a grim future where the world's towns and cities roam across the blighted Earth as enormous scavengers. I was excited for the worldbuilding in this book, and Reeve does not disappoint, with some really endearing quirks and cargo-cult interpretations of "Ancient" culture and technology. The allegory is laid on thickly in the novel's setting and narrative, but I was rarely dissatisfied - honestly it's nice to see a story like this pull so few punches in depicting the "future" London elite's culture of predation and powermongering at any cost. My only disappointment is that I didn't get round to reading this when I was the target audience, because teenage me would have loved it. 48 - Weird Al: The Book, by Nathan Rabin & Al Yankovic. A light and pleasant biography interspersed with photos, quotations and other goofs from Al himself. There are a few gems in here, like learning that Al's manager Jay Levey got his start working with Timothy Leary. Unfortunately the way the book is laid out is rather unsatisfying: Each long chapter is an unbroken string of paragraphs, which doesn't give major events or statements any room to breathe. This also means that a sentence can be broken up by two or three pages of photos or tweets, further spoiling the flow. The book kind of feels like one enormous magazine article. That said, I didn't dislike any of the content, and as a long-time fan I enjoyed all of the behind-the-scenes stuff. 49 - Saga, vol. 9, by Fiona Staples & Brian K. Vaughan. Saga is still superb, and things are only getting more intense. A lot of violence, bloodshed, and fraugh personal politics in this one. Bloody hell. 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge - 52 - 49 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 1/3 of them are not written by men. - 19 - 4, 5, 8, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 20, 23, 24, 30, 32, 34, 35, 40, 45, 46 bonus: Of these make sure half are by authors new to you - 13 - 4, 5, 8, 11, 13, 15, 16, 23, 24, 32, 40, 45, 46 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 1/3 of them are written by someone non-white. - 15 - 5, 6, 11, 12, 18, 19, 24, 25, 27, 28, 30, 32, 38, 39, 41 bonus: Of these make sure half are by authors new to you - 10 - 5, 6, 11, 12, 19, 24, 25, 32, 39, 41 bonus: Make sure 10% of the books you read this year are by LGBT authors 6. Ask another poster to issue you a wildcard, then read it. - 'Crying of Lot 49' bonus: Similarly, get a wildcard from another thread in this forum - 'The Elementals' 7. Get a recommendation from a friend or loved one. bonus: Read literally the first in-person book recommendation you get in 2018 (solicited or not) - 'Redshirts' (suggested by flatmate). bonus: Read a book written/published the exact year you were born bonus: Read something that wins an award in 2018, but only after it is announced (i.e. don't apply retroactively) bonus: Read something that isn't in your primary language 14. Read a play. bonus: Read a play first published in the last 10 years bonus: Read a major religious text bonus: Read something narrated in the 2nd person bonus: Read something currently banned, censored, or challenged in its country of origin bonus: Read something about a genre of music you're explicitly not a fan of
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Nov 2, 2018 15:14
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In November, I read eight books: 50 - Bright Lights, Big City, by Jay McInerney. Written entirely in the second person, this quirk actually lends more immediacy to the book than I had expected. It's a very, very mid-80s novel, full of cocaine, decaying urban sprawl and insecure straight masculinity. It's almost quaint, but I warmed to McInerney's prose and the small but emotionally rich story. There were some turns of phrase and maxims scattered through the book that were surprisingly profound, and by the ending I felt a real catharsis. An unexpectedly good read. 51 - Redshirts, by John Scalzi. A suggestion from my flatmate, I finally got round to reading it 11 months later. It's good! What starts as a knowing deconstruction of classic Star Trek-style tropes and foibles quickly morphs into a more compelling and personality-filled story. Scalzi surprised me with how empathtic his storytelling became, especially in the final third of the book. 52 & 53 - Pluto, vol. 5 & 6, by Naoki Urasawa. Continues to be one of the best manga series I've ever read - great pacing, beautiful art, and a real emotional core. 54 - The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas. drat, I can see why this was such a huge hit. It's an intense, emotional story about prejudice, violence and trying to exist as a young person under America's vicious culture of racism. Some of the best scenes are set in the daily home life of the protagonist, Starr, and the contrast between the "normal" ideas of what her childhood should be and the grim realities she has to face are rendered very well. Running through it is a core of righteous anger and a yearning for humanity to be better, and I can't help but resonate with that. 55 - Not Your Sidekick, by C.B. Lee. YA novel about a wannabe superhero who's grown up without any powers of her own. I wish I liked this more - it's sweet, it's endearing, it's got great queer and trans representation, the protagonist and her family's Vietnamese heritage is explored, and the central plot is fun. But it's all very easy: plot twists that are easy for the reader to figure out are stretched out for chapters before resolving exactly as predicted, and at no point did I find myself being genuinely excited or surprised by what was happening. The post-apocalypse setting surprised me and didn't really amount to that much in the grand scheme of things, aside from explaining why the world seems so small. I didn't dislike it, and I'm glad that younger audiences can pick up this book about a bisexual Asian-American teen who wants superpowers and falls in love and has a cool trans friend. I want more books like this in the world. 56 - Apple Quest Monsters DX, by Splendidland (Samanthuel Gillson). A delightful and charming art book inspired by game manuals of old, this collection features a bestiary of monsters from the fictional videogame setting of Pommeland. Each monster has its own bio, and there's a great amount of love and care poured into each page. There's even a sense of progression and climax toward the end of the book which surprised me and made me smile. 57 - Misty, by Arinzι Kene. A playwright struggles against his social conscience while his current work seems to trade in stereotypes. A mixture of dialogue, freestyle rap and poetry, most of what I thought about this play was "drat I'd love to actually see this performed on stage rather than just reading it". What I read, though, was engrossing, thoughtful and introspective. Smashed my raw number target, though I've still got some challenges to mop up. This will be difficult to fit into a busy month, but I'll do my best. 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 1/3 of them are not written by men. - 22 - 4, 5, 8, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 20, 23, 24, 30, 32, 34, 35, 40, 45, 46, 54, 55, 56 bonus: Of these make sure half are by authors new to you - 16 - 4, 5, 8, 11, 13, 15, 16, 23, 24, 32, 40, 45, 46, 54, 55, 56 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 1/3 of them are written by someone non-white. - 20 - 5, 6, 11, 12, 18, 19, 24, 25, 27, 28, 30, 32, 38, 39, 41, 52, 53, 54, 55, 57 bonus: Of these make sure half are by authors new to you - 13 - 5, 6, 11, 12, 19, 24, 25, 32, 39, 41, 54, 55, 57 bonus: Make sure 10% of the books you read this year are by LGBT authors 6. Ask another poster to issue you a wildcard, then read it. bonus: Similarly, get a wildcard from another thread in this forum bonus: Read a book written/published the exact year you were born bonus: Read something that isn't in your primary language bonus: Read a major religious text bonus: Read something about a genre of music you're explicitly not a fan of
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Dec 1, 2018 08:48
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Talas posted:November! Challenge almost finished, need a WILDCARD, please. If you've not seen/read it, definitely check out Tony Kushner's Angels In America.
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Dec 8, 2018 01:19
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In December I read five books, bringing my year-end total to sixty-two. 58 - Gaia's Toys, by Rebecca Ore. What I thought would be a thrilling cyberpunk novel turned out to be a grim and miserable near-future SF with severe pacing issues and a real Bad World vibe. Not that I disliked the book: Ore packs an awful lot into it, with dense espionage intrigue, ecoterrorism, gene-tampering and lots of creepy-but-kind-of-sweet giant mantises. One central idea - that the brains of the poor are literally rented out by government and corporate interests for their computing power, in exchange for dole - is genuinely chilling. There's a lot in this book that's upsetting, from sexual assault to mind-editing to betrayal after betrayal after betrayal. A real sense of paranoia runs through the narrative, particularly the main protagonist and her struggle for self-determination. Does she get what she wants, in the end? Is humanity doomed to a future of manipulation, violence and artificiality? Can anyone trust the feds? (Answer: probably not, no.) There are moments of catharsis and respite in this story, but they are rare and hard-earned and they don't last. As a snapshot of 90s SF this is a bleak and tiring read; as a cyberpunk emancipation story it has some seeds of hope if you go digging. 59 - The Crying Of Lot 49, by Thomas Pynchon. I'd never read Pynchon before, so starting with one of his shorter works felt like a good idea. And I'm so glad I did: this book is superb. It's dense, endlessly witty, and Pynchon has a delightful command over the English language, with lines that will stick in my head for a good while. The central mystery stars out a little foggy but becomes incredibly engrossing, and by the end I was so satisfied. It's definitely a book from the 60s, with the associated datedness and troublesome language one might expect. But it's good, it's very good, and I'm kicking myself for not getting round to reading him sooner. 60 - Time Crawlers, by Varun Sayal. Full disclosure: I was given a review copy of this work. A collection of short SF stories, many written as dialogue. Each story is heavily expository, and I got the sense that Sayal very much enjoys exploring specific science-fiction concepts in and of themselves - only two stories, 'Nark-Astra' and 'Eclipse', feel like short stories rather than, say, scripts for graphic novels or short films. However, what we do get is entertaining and engaging. 'Death By Crowd' could be a Charlie Brooker script, and the first and last stories in the collection feel like snippets of some epic science-fantasy opera. Sayal's sense of humour comes through as well, with the satirical 'Genie', a shorter comedic story whose ending genuinely made me laugh. There are some really good things scattered through this work, and I'm looking forward to more of Sayal's writing as he further develops his craft. 61 - Jurassic Park, by Michael Crichton. As a big fan of the films, especially the first one, I was interested to see how the original book told a story I was so familiar with, and it surprised me in really good ways. This is a dense, tech-savvy thriller that always kept me wanting more, with some great character moments and surprisingly strong themes of corporate hubris and the place of humanity in the grand timeline of natural history. There are some characterisations that were changed for the films - Hammond's grandchildren are a little more bland in the book, Nedry even more of a craven glutton - but these flaws were forgivable in a story that kept me so engrossed. This was my first time actually reading Crichton, and I can see now why he was such a force to be reckoned with in his genre. The pacing is superb, the peril is visceral, and I was very satisfied by the ending. 62 - The Bees, by Laline Paull. A dystopian novel set in a beehive is enough of an elevator pitch to have me interested already, but I was not expecting Paull to not only deliver on the premise but surpass its potential with powerful skill. Tonally located somewhere between Watership Down and The Handmaid's Tale, the story of Flora 717's personal journey from neophyte sanitation worker to realising her true destiny is really gripping. The world of the hive is fleshed out enough to feel like a living world, and the characters and archetypes within it feel familiar but distinct enough to keep the oppressive picture from getting dull. I found myself moved by the ending and epilogue in ways I could not have predicted when I first picked this up. One of the best books I've read this year, and one I'll be recommending to people. bonus: Similarly, get a wildcard from another thread in this forum bonus: Read something that isn't in your primary language bonus: Read a major religious text bonus: Read something about a genre of music you're explicitly not a fan of Challenges I failed, and why: 6b: Similarly, get a wildcard from another thread in this forum - I started my wildcard suggestion but did not finish by the end of the year! 10b: Read something that isn't in your primary language - I have some Spanish graphic novels I never got round to. 17b: Read a major religious text - I started the Quran! And got about 50 pages in before my eyes glazed over. It's not exactly a mile-a-minute thriller. 20b: Read something about a genre of music you're explicitly not a fan of - It's really hard to think of genres I'm not a fan of. I think I should have looked at an artist I dislike, perhaps. Other thoughts: I really cut it close with my demographics, just scraping by on reading not-white-men. I read 38 books not written by white men, which is only one more than last year! I barely read any nonfiction this year, which I attribute mostly to the misery of the real world in 2018. I read a lot more this year, in terms of pages - both because I read a lot more graphic novels, but also because my current job gives me a lot of commuting time to read. Total page count ~17785. avg 287 pages/book avg 49 pages/day. I read more and more widely than last year, so go me!
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Jan 2, 2019 04:05
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