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I'll do 80 and the booklord.
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Jan 1, 2018 05:02
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Last year I read No Knives in the Kitchen's of this City by Khaled Khalifa as a political book for the challenge. The novel traces the descent into ruin of a once rich family in Aleppo under the Assad regime. You look through different characters and histories of the family to see how the fear and control of the regime has lead to their degradation. It's definitely a bummer of a read, but when you look at the mess Syria is now and wonder what prompted them into this nasty revolution, this provides a good sense of what drove people to that extremity. I'm probably not going to get a political read in for Theme Week, unless I stretch to make it sci-fi. Ben Nevis fucked around with this message at 20:06 on Jan 31, 2018 |
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Jan 31, 2018 19:43
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nerdpony posted:Infomocracy by Malka Older and its sequel, Null States, would be good fictional political books. Null States was actually the sci-fi I was considering stretching to this. I'll probably be to it late next week. I enjoyed the first (and it presciently got at a government trying to rule via fake news) and am looking forward to the second.
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Jan 31, 2018 20:08
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Six books this month. I started off on a tear and rapidly slowed down when I got to my current book which turned out to be a lot longer than I thought. Some decent reads but nothing with 2 that were real solid, but a few frustrating misses as well. I've got higher hopes for February as my current read is shaping up to be better than most of this month. 1. Djinn City by Saad Hossein - Started in the last days of 2017 this was one pulled from a Best of 2017 list. This is a really interesting book that creates a compelling world of Djinn and their interactions with people. It tells a pretty good story, and then just stops well before anything is resolved. Like it's almost literally, "Can the heroes get together in time to stop the bad thing?" ~Fin~ No current indication of a sequel, so I really have trouble recommending this. 2. Tales of Falling and Flying by Ben Loory - A collection of short short stories. I don't think any exceeded 10 pages, and many didn't get to 5. A lot of them seem to fables of a sort and others more dreamlike. I really enjoyed this one, and read it far to quick. I'd like to re-read and maybe just do a story at a time for awhile. 3. The Dragon Behind the Glass: A True Story of Power, Obsession, and the Worlds Most Coveted Fish by Emily Voigt - Voigt begins looking into the mysterious world of the Asian arowana, the worlds most expensive aquarium fish (distinct from fish for eating (giant tuna) and outdoor water feature fish like koi). It's rumored that the arowana trade is unsavory with mob ties and fierce, even deadly, competition between vendors. As she explores the arowana trade, Voigt wants to see one in the wild, and begins a quest to find them in Myanmar or Indonesia or find their cousins in the deep recesses of the Brazilian rainforest. This is a surprisingly wild nonfiction tale with lots of travel and more colorful characters than I can name. I'd recommend it. 4. Sourdough by Robin Sloan - I grabbed this after enjoying the previous book by Sloan. This looked promising with weird bread cultures and spooky farmers markets, and it didn't really get there. It touched on several things I thought would have been real neat but didn't go in that direction. On the whole it wasn't bad just sorta flat. 5. The Punch Escrow by Tal M Klein - The cover was eager to let me know this was being made into a major motion picture. And that makes sense, it was a pretty exciting book and once it got rolling was a really compelling read. When you're told there's a mysterious company controlling teleportation and the main character is going to be on the run there's a predictable reason, and sadly that was the reason here. Consequently several interesting questions may be raised, and here they are. They're not really dealt with though. Inasmuch as a sci-fi teleport thriller can be predictable this sorta was. It's not bad just kinda there, though it was exciting. Ultimately fairly forgettable. 6. The Accidental by Ali Smith - The child loving thread had some stuff about Smith recently and it looked interesting, so I grabbed one from the library. In this one a stranger cum houseguest disrupts a family's life, throwing each member out of their comfort zone and changing all their lives. It takes place in three parts, the introduction, their life with the stranger, and the aftermath. Each section has a chapter from each family member. To me I thought the best thing was Astrid's narrative. It really seemed accurately teenage. There were definitely some highs here, but ultimately I didn't think it came together. Sort of a let down at the end. 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge - 80 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. 2/6 bonus: Of these make sure half are by authors new to you: 2 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 2/6 bonus: Of these make sure half are by authors new to you: 2 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 9. Read a book published in 2018 (or if you're eager to start early, the latter half of 2017). 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 13. Read a collection of short stories. - Dreams of Falling and Flying bonus: Read short stories by at least 10 different authors 14. Read a play. bonus: Read a play first published in the last 10 years 15. Read something involving history. 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 person 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. - Punch Escrow bonus: Read something about a future that takes place before the current year Ben Nevis fucked around with this message at 22:35 on Feb 1, 2018 |
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Feb 1, 2018 22:30
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Ben Nevis posted:1. Djinn City by Saad Hossein February was a big reading month for me. I finished off a big book that'd slowed me down in January. Then polished off another a couple days later at jury duty. After a few genre novels, I found myself at the library with no idea what to check out and a dead phone, so I grabbed 4 short books from the new books section. I judged them by the covers, natch. I enjoyed some new to me authors and reading without a plan. It was a pleasantly mild adventure that took me some places I might not have otherwise. It may have artificially inflated my book count a little, but here we are. 7. Gnomon by Nick Harkaway - I was excited to see a new book by Harkaway since I've enjoyed the previous I've read. In the near future Britain has become a panopticon and problems are corrected before they can even begin, leading to a happier well adjusted populace. Issues are decided by votes and public debate with a system designed to ensure an invested and informed populace. Diana Hunter, a refusenik who opts out of the system as much as possible, dies during a routine scan, and our main character, Witness Neith is called to investigate. Nieth, and the reader, quickly find themselves tossed into another story, trying to piece together what happened from the unifying threads of several different histories HUnter has internalized. This is a really fascinating book, in that it tells several different stories all to tell one big one. It tickles those pattern matching parts of the brain as well. 8. All Systems Red by Martha Wells - The first of the Murderbot Diaries, this is a bit of xeno exploration, a bit mystery, and a bit thriller. A nice light book starring a murderbot. Intended be part of a panopticon trilogy, but the murderbot wasn't as expected. 9. Null States by Malka Older - The follow up to Infomocracy, this was a good look at a place where Information was incomplete. The biggest downside is that it's mostly a set up for book 3. 10. The Last Cowboys of San Geronimo by Ian Stansel - The first of 4 random shortish fiction books. A classic revenge western with a wife chasing down her husband'ss killer (and brother) on horseback. The twist, it's in modern day California. It actually works. It's a good story, well realized characters, and some meditation on brotherhood and revenge. 11. For Isabel: A Mandala by Antonio Tabucchi - This is billed as an investigation where each new circle of the 'mandala' reveals new information, going deeper and deeper into the life and mysterious death of Isabel. It wasn't so much. I'm not sure why we were even looking for Isabel. The later bits take a weird mysticism (maybe not unexpected give the subtitle). This wasn't bad it just didn't click with me and what I wanted or expected at all. 12. The Silence of the Spirits by Wilfried N'Sonde - The story of an illegal immigrant seeking asylum and redemption in Paris. Clovis is from a war torn African country and fled to Paris to try and find his sister and escape the horror left behind. This was good, and I think a viable entry as a political book, as it really look at the plight of asylum seekers and the need for people and peoples to face up to what they've done. If I don't read anything else that does, I'll throw it in that box. 13. Glory Days by Melissa Fraterrigo - It's debatable whether this is a series of connected short stories or a novella with unusually disconnected chapters. Either way it tells the story of Ingleside a farming town that becomes a weekend destination as farms are bought up for subdivisions and to become an amusement park, the eponymous Glory Days. There's a small cast, mainly Teensy and his daughter Luanne, but a handful of other recurring characters as we see the old ways disappearing and supplanted by a new but temporary revival. This is gritty and ultimately pretty grim as well. It's a well told, and interesting. 14. Amberlough by Lara Elena Donnelly - Realized I'd read only one (middling) book from the Nebula nominees and this was the first alphabetically. This turned out to be a lot of fun. Set in an alternate world in a time frame that seems to mirror pre-WW2 Germany, this is a mostly a spy novel, with spies and smugglers skulking around trying to make arrangements as a fascist movement comes to power. I thought the characters were good, the story was good, and once it laid it's foundations, it was a pretty exciting read as well. Of the 2 Nebula noms I've read, this one has my vote. 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge - 14/80 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. 6/14 bonus: Of these make sure half are by authors new to you: 5 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 3/6 bonus: Of these make sure half are by authors new to you: 3 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 9. Read a book published in 2018 (or if you're eager to start early, the latter half of 2017). 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. - For Isabel, A Mandala 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 13. Read a collection of short stories. - Dreams of Falling and Flying bonus: Read short stories by at least 10 different authors - 2 14. Read a play. bonus: Read a play first published in the last 10 years 15. Read something involving history. 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 person 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. - Punch Escrow bonus: Read something about a future that takes place before the current year Ben Nevis fucked around with this message at 19:14 on Mar 1, 2018 |
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Mar 1, 2018 19:11
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Guy A. Person posted:Mr. Penumbra's 24 hour bookstore came together a bit at the end but still felt super amateurish. The fascination with Google as a company was extremely dumb. This is a really apt description of Penumbra. I couldn't put my finger on specific things, but amateurish is about right.
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Mar 1, 2018 19:16
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I just finished 3 books by women authors. Most notable is probably Goodbye, Vitamin by Rachel Khong. I saw it on a few Best Of lists last year. A young woman moves home to help her mom cope with her father's Alzheimer's. It was good, there's some ruminations about memory and trying to come to terms to the failures of your paternts. It also had a decent sense of humor running through things to keep it from getting too weighty. Mentally, I'm kinda throwing it in a bucket with Moshi Moshi by Banana Yoshimoto and So Many Olympic Exertions by Anelise Chen where big life changes in the 20's force a second (or delayed) "coming of age" for their protagonists. I don't know if that's a real genre, but that's 3 I've read in the last year. For the SFF crowd, I would recommend Amberlough by Lara Elena Donnelly. It's up for a Nebula this year, so that's a plus. Rather than being a more standard SF or Fantasy novel, it's more a second world type thing with a rising tide of fascism in a fictional world that has parallels to the Weimar Republic. It's a pretty spiffy little spy novel and while it's now the first of a trilogy, it wasn't when it was written, so if that's a deterant for anyone this can be read as a solo. I'd also grabbed Glory Days by Melissa Fraterrigo. It's a novella/collection of short stories focusing on a few people in a small town as it becomes gentrified and then how that falls apart. It's all farmers and others who lost their lifestyle as land was bought up for subdivisions and an amusement park. This is grim, but was pretty good I thought. Aside from those 3 recent works, I had a real good run last year of Latina authors. Umami by Laia Jufresa, The Story of my Teeth by Valeria Luiselli, Lady Matador's Hotel and The Aguero Sisters by Cristina Garcia, and In the Time of the Butterflies and by Julia Alvarez. It's a good reminder that I'd like to get more by these authors on my list this year. Finally, I'll throw in a rec for Rachel Ingalls. Apparently she's having a bit of a renaissance with a book of short stories out last year and a republishing of Mrs. Caliban. Mrs. Caliban is a short novel about a housewife who falls in love with a frog monster. That sort of thing is all the rage these days, but it's a really good little book anyways.
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Mar 7, 2018 16:44
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I think I'm going to do Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike by Christopher Durang for a modern play, but gotta wait for ILL to get it to me. Sounds fun though. Though it doesn't make the 10 year cut off, I have The Goat or Who is Sylvia by Albee coming in as well, because I've liked Albee in the past and who doesn't want a play about goatloving?
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Mar 28, 2018 16:14
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Ben Nevis posted:1. Djinn City by Saad Hossein A busy month with 7 books. No real downers, and no one should be surprised by the high point of Lincoln in the Bardo. Goodbye, Vitamin also proved to be quite good. The Mannequin Makers and The Night Market were winners as well, The Night Market surprisingly so. I did not do well with minority representation this month. I'll probably have to make a concerted effort to read more inclusive this coming month. The only challenge this month I can cross off is #5, but I'm glad I did it this month. And if you really want to know, 18, 19 and 20 here show some of what makes me grab books from the library and a few concepts that I always find intriguing. Any recs along those lines would be welcome. 15. Goodbye, Vitamin by Rachel Khong - Saw this on a few Best of 2017 Lists. After a bad breakup, Ruth moves home to help her mother with her father's newly diagnosed Alzheimer's. This was surprisingly humorous and warm but still felt authentic. It might not surprise you to learn there's a lot of ruminations on memory as well as trying to come to term with parents as people. I enjoyed this. 16. Sun of Suns by Karl Schroeder - A very different sort of sci-fi. A basic revenge sort of tale set in a unique world. It's a fullerene sphere with small artificial suns floating through deep space. It leads to a world that's gravity free in parts, but has an atmosphere, so it's somewhere between a seagoing adventure and a space one. Really interesting and well put together there with a pretty good revenge/sea voyage type thing going on. I'll likely read the sequels when I feel like I need a space thing over the course of the year. 17. After the End of the World by Jonathan L Howard - The 2nd in the Carter and Lovecraft series. In the alternate world Carter and Lovecraft now inhabit, the Nazis either weren't so bad or no one cares. What do you do when no one knows how bad the Nazis might have been if things had broken just a different way? That's not the central conceit of the book, but an interesting question asked along the way. Mostly this is Lovecraft and Carter in a lovecraftian adventure with physics and spies. If you liked the first, I feel like you'd like this one, though it is different enough (mostly a spy-type novel) than the first that it's not assured. 18. Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders- Hey this is great, you should have read it with the BotM. Funny and remarkably sentimental at times. Just a great read. If you do read it check out the BotM thread, there's some good thoughts. 19. The Night Market by Jonathan Moore - I'd grabbed this wanting something light here and the concept of a "night market" has always been fascinating to me. I mean that in the sense of a hidden market selling things beyond our ken. This turns out not to be about that at all. Rather it's a near future cop thriller and a scathing critique of capitalism. This wound up significantly better than expected. 20. The Emerald Circus by Jane Yolen - Like the idea of a night market, circuses as a place or phenomenon that bends reality is an idea that really captures my imagination. So I grabbed this based largely on that. Apparently Jane Yolen is a beloved modern folklorist. I was not aware of this. Most of the stories in this collection are retellings or otherwise spins inspired by well known folk tales. Also Arthurian legend. These were well done, they just didn't resonate with me. If you like that sort of thing, this could be for you. 21. The Mannequin Makers by Craig Cliff - Like night markets or circuses, the idea of creating simulacra is something that really catches my fancy. This book caters to that, as a good bit is about trying to make art lifelike and vice versa. I felt the ending didn't really uphold that aspect as much as I'd like. Still this was a good novel that I enjoyed. 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge - 21/80 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. 8/14 bonus: Of these make sure half are by authors new to you: 7 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 4/6 bonus: Of these make sure half are by authors new to you: 4 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). - Lincoln in the Bardo 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 9. Read a book published in 2018 (or if you're eager to start early, the latter half of 2017). - The Night Market 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. - For Isabel, A Mandala 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 13. Read a collection of short stories. - Dreams of Falling and Flying bonus: Read short stories by at least 10 different authors - 2 14. Read a play. bonus: Read a play first published in the last 10 years 15. Read something involving history. 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 person 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. - Punch Escrow bonus: Read something about a future that takes place before the current year Ben Nevis fucked around with this message at 16:57 on Apr 3, 2018 |
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Apr 2, 2018 18:31
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I've read a couple short story collections this year, and the stand out was Tales of Falling and Flying by Ben Loory. They're all pretty short, many just a couple pages. They're mostly sort of fables or parables with some rough overall themes. They really just sort of suck you in and I kept going, "Oh, just one more..." Last year the winner was What it Means When a Man Falls From the Sky by Lesley Nneka Arimah. Most of the stories focus on recent immigrants or divided families. There's a touch of magical realism running through it all. They're very good. Ben Nevis fucked around with this message at 22:52 on Apr 11, 2018 |
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Apr 11, 2018 22:28
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Franchescando, have you read Revenge by Yoko Ogawa? That seems like something you might enjoy.
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Apr 12, 2018 21:22
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The stories are fairly dark and all work to create sort of an eerie, macabre world that is sort of horror-adjacent, so I thought that would appeal.
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Apr 12, 2018 21:43
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Guy A. Person posted:24. Borne by Jeff VanderMeer I'm curious as to how you liked What it Means When a Man Falls from the Sky I've totally read a biography. Review to come with a writeup tomorrow and probably to be reposted next week as well.
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May 1, 2018 22:36
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Ben Nevis posted:1. Djinn City by Saad Hossein A pretty good month for reading. I read 10 books, but there was a play and a couple of short ones there midmonth that really pumped up my count. I managed a play, something biographical, and something published in my birth year, though that was entirely accidental. I'd intended the something biographical to be political, but it didn't quite hit that mark like I'd hoped. I'm in the midst of a big book about a foreign war, so I'll have that one sewn up by June. I feel like I've knocked a lot of the real easy stuff off the list and it's time to start strategizing for some of the remainder. 22. In Vino Duplicitas, The Rise and Fall of a Wine Forger Extraordinaire by Peter Wellman - Turns out that in the lead up to the financial crisis of 2008 a shady fellow was conning all these millionaires with fake wine. Massive sales of rare and in many cases nonexistent vintages were made. This wasn't as interesting as I was hoping, and most of the interest was in things I don't think Wellman intended. The massive expenditures of the Wall Street dbags leading up to the crash, the the crazy otherworldly lifestyle of the less evil Koch brother, the ignorance of oenophiles, the fact that a man with no visible means of support or income got a multimillion dollar loan because he drank wine with a banker, and the clear complicity of the major auction house associated with a lot of this are all fascinating byblows in what is sort of an otherwise dull story. Wellman clearly wants to protect his wine buddy friends so this remains a bit sterile and drab. 23. White Butterfly by Walter Mosley - Easy Rawlins mystery #3. Mosley has a way about him that reminds me of Chandler without trying to ape Chandler, which is about the highest praise I'd offer on this style of mystery. 24. The Night Masquerade by Nnedi Okorafor - Binti #3. Like the previous ones, this is a good read. I'm worried about the series because these are now getting a little predictable. Or if not quite predictable, a bit samey. Threat -> Binti is Amazing -> Binti levels up. The interactions of race, culture, and gender as well as Okorafor's style keep these from being boring, I'm just not at all sure how they continue without some innovation. 25. Agents of Dreamland by Caitlin R Kiernan - A shady government agency investigates a Lovecraftian threat. This was a nice little read for someone who wants modern Lovecraft type things. 26. On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers - Pirates and magic in the Caribbean. Voodoo, the Fountain of Youth, cursed chickens. This book really has it all. It was adapted into a rather unfortunate Pirates of the Caribbean movie. The source material is better. This is my second Powers book and I feel these are generally paced more deliberately than I'd prefer. They'd benefit from being a little more driven. Still, if you like pirate fiction (or fantasy) this is a good read. 27. Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike by Christopher Durang - The play I read, chosen not entirely at random from a list of "Best Plays Since the Turn of the Century." I wanted something humorous, and this play certainly delivered. Vanya, Sonia, and Masha are siblings (Sonia adopted) who had a pair of Chekhov loving parents. Masha is an aging but successful movie star whereas Vanya and Sonia stayed behind to take care of the ailing (now deceased) parents in the family farmhouse, which may or may not have a cherry orchard. Masha returns home with her boy toy Spike to attend a posh costume ball and announces she's selling the house. Resentments bubble over as the siblings try to come to terms with themselves and their lives. This had some laugh out loud moments as well as some genuine feeling. I wish I could have seen the original production with David Hyde Pierce as Vanya and Sigourney Weaver as Masha. They've have killed it. As it is, I'd love to see this performed and intend to keep an eye for a local production. 28. Space Opera by Catherynne M Valente - In space, whenever the existing hegemony comes across a new dominant species, questions quickly arise as to whether they can be exploited. Obviously, it'd be inhumane, er, unkind to exploit a sentient species. With the staggering diversity of life, the only reasonable way to do that is with a singing competition. Does the species have the emotional depth and ability to communicate that through the universal medium of music? All humans have to do to escape destruction is not come in last. I feel like you'll know whether this is for you with the simple description of "Douglas Adams does Eurovision" and a look at the foiled cover with a ringed disco ball. If that juxtaposed with the usual genre definition of Space Opera doesn't give you at least a twinge of amusement you ought to move on. Cat Valente does her best Douglas Adams and just nails it. This sticks out as the most fun book I've read this year. 29. Eat the Apple: A Memoir by Matt Young- Young writes a memoir of his time in the Marine Corps and his 3 tours in Iraq. It's not necessarily new ground. If you saw Jarhead, some of this will be familiar territory. What really makes this stand out is Young's look at an institution that take struggling teens and produces broken men. What also makes it stand out is the wide variety of styles. Chapters switch from traditional third party and first party narratives to screenplays to sketches, to packing lists, to how to instructions and back. It feels, at times, that Young really wanted to get stuff down but he needed some distance or some gallows humor to cope with what he'd done and seen. While some thought it distanced themselves from Young, it felt to me like it provided insight into the how difficult some of this was for him. I thought this was really interesting and good. 30. Going After Cacciato by Tim O'Brien - I was on a war book kick, so decided to pick up this book and it turns out it was published the year I was born. Set in Vietnam, Cacciato deserts with the stated intention of travelling to Paris. His squad has no choice but to follow through Mandalay, India, Iran, Turkey, Greece, and so on. Interspersed with their adventures through Eurasia, our narrator flashes back to the war taking us through each squad member who has died so far and how they did. This was a very good book about obligation and fear. It also sticks out for O'Brien's prose. He has a straightforward style that really provides for the immediacy and it's a particularly effective in setting the horror of the war sections off against the almost magical realism of the road to Paris. 31. The Last Good Kiss by James Crumley - A PI from Montana gets roped into family drama as he tries to track down a writer on a bender and a girl who is a decade missing. Sort of a western noir, in a way. Set in the 70s but the open landscapes and empty miles between Montana, Colorado and California are a real part of the feel of it all. This isn't bad, but it felt a bit like a remixed Big Sleep. It's not exactly, but there are a lot of similar moving parts. After the clean prose of O'Brien, Crumley's meandering sentences really stuck out. Often they felt like they were trying for philosophical or hard and ironic and just kinda came off as wandering. When they hit, it was good, but there were more misses. It wasn't bad, but I preferred Mosley. 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge - 31/80 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. 11 bonus: Of these make sure half are by authors new to you: 8 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 6 bonus: Of these make sure half are by authors new to you: 4 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). - Lincoln in the Bardo 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 - Going After Cacciato 9. Read a book published in 2018 (or if you're eager to start early, the latter half of 2017). - The Night Market 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. - For Isabel, A Mandala 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 13. Read a collection of short stories. - Dreams of Falling and Flying bonus: Read short stories by at least 10 different authors - 2 14. Read a play. bonus: Read a play first published in the last 10 years - Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike 15. Read something involving history. bonus: Read something about a (nonfictional) war that didn't involve the U.S. 16. Read something biographical. - Eat the Apple bonus: Read something biographical about someone you've met/seen in person 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. - Punch Escrow bonus: Read something about a future that takes place before the current year
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May 2, 2018 18:46
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nerdpony posted:Ben Nevis, if you want to read another book about sketchy wine, check out The Billionaire's Vinegar by Benjamin Wallace. They touched on this one briefly, as the Koch brother had some of the Jefferson wine as well, which motivated his crusade to track down Kurniawan. This is such a potentially interesting area that I'll likely pick this one up as well.
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May 4, 2018 18:49
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This year I grabbed Eat the Apple by Matt Young. It's a memoir of his basic training and 3 tours in Iraq. Rather than being a more traditional narrative, it changes POV, at times being in first, second and third person, and even branches into other formats. A brief screenplay, a how to guide, packing checklists, and cartoons are a few of the methods used to get across points. In some interviews I've read, Young credits this to "flash nonfiction" which creates short vignettes and may be experimental. Young's focus isn't always directly on what he did or experienced, but as using those experiences to look at how those systems can take troubled teens and spit out broken men. Those diversions and changes provide some necessary distance as Young looks back over what were obviously traumatizing times for him, and it also allows some humor to run through what otherwise could be a very grim read. In that sense it's a more "literary" memoir, in that it's heavily stylized and in some regards experimental. It's also a good, compelling read, even if it is a bit of a hard one at times.
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May 9, 2018 16:47
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MockingQuantum posted:Hey, I'm just about to start White is for Witching! We'll have to compare notes afterwards. I read this a couple years ago. I really like how creepy Oyeyemi can get. A couple scenes from that book have stuck with me.
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May 11, 2018 18:51
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I read Going After Cacciato by Tim O'Brien, published in 1978. Published just 3 years after the Vietnam War ended, it went on to win the National Book Award, surprising observers who thought it might be too soon to view it all objectively. Cacciato is sort of a dumb kid who announces to a friend in his squad that he's going to desert and head to Paris. Naturally, there is no choice for the squad but to go after the deserter. Their surreal journey through Mandalay, Delhi, Iran etc is narrated by Paul Berlin, whose story is punctuated by reminiscences on his squadmates who died previously and occasional observations about his own mental state throughout the war. As you might expect, it deals a lot with fear and the conflict between individual freedom and societal obligations. I found the prose here to be notable. It was spare and straightforward which set off nicely against a journey with magical realist elements. The book I read immediately after probably lost some marks in comparison. While it's not as notable as O'Brien's later The Things They Carried, Going after Cacciato is definitely worth reading and I found it to be a very good read. Would recommend.
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May 22, 2018 16:31
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Ben Nevis posted:1. Djinn City by Saad Hossein A pretty good book month. I'd picked one to hit a challenge, but stumbled across another. I'm in the middle of a series of somewhat modestly rated books on Goodreads. In general, you might not be surprised to realize some people have bad taste. 32. The Opium War: Drugs, Dreams and the Making of Modern China by Julia Lovell - As you might expect from the title, this takes a look at the role of opium in China and Chinese/British relations in the lead up to the Opium War(s), the Opium Wars themselves, and the British and Chinese view of them afterward, particularly with the way they were seized upon after the fact by Chinese nationalists and eventually Mao as a rallying cry against Western imperialism. I found it to be a pretty good read and informative to boot. 33. The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell - A recent and pregnant widow is haunted by creepy painted figures in her husband's hereditary home. This has apparently had a lot of good buzz as a classic gothic horror type thing. It had it moments, but never quite hit it for me. 34. Queen of Spades by Michael Shou-Yung Shum - This says it's a re-telling of the classic Pushkin tale of the same name. It's a well put together tale of the lead-up to the most famous hand of Faro ever. You can really see pieces start coming together and it makes for a well crafted and really interesting tale. 35. Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi - I found out after reading it that it had been shortlisted for the MBI. It didn't win, but this was a really interesting tale. A twist of fate has brings to life a monster made of bits of dead corpses gathered from around Baghdad. The monster stalks the city seeking revenge on the people who killed his various components. In the meantime, Baghdad goes on, with various characters trying to eke out a living despite the rampant violence that followed Saddam's overthrow. With the examination of violence in Iraq and the questions of justice raised, and what it means for Iraqi citizens, I'm going to count this as a political entry. 36. The Circle by Dave Eggers - My city does a [City] Reads One Book thing every summer where there's a big push to get everyone to read the same book.This year this was the book. Mae goes to work at a tech company whose innovations put more and more of people's lives online and looks at some of the consequences. This was a light and compelling read that was almost wholly without nuance and was basically one big sledgehammer to the point. 37. Spy of the First Person by Sam Shepard - A short book, apparently the last Shepard wrote before succumbing to ALS. Its focus is on an old man, rocking on the porch as he reminisces about and interesting life and tries to cope with his diminished abilities. I think I'd have enjoyed this more had I known more about Shepard before reading it. That lack of knowledge made it less impactful, but there's still something here that I enjoyed. 38. The Sea Beast Takes a Lover by Michael Andreason - A collection of short stories, often taking place in moderately absurd circumstances. A boat slowly being sunk by an amorous Sea Beast, a town where a young boy is slowly building to explosion, an unfortunate couple abducted by aliens in the middle of consummating and affair, that sort of thing. A lot of these all get back to people searching for a connection, and the absurd circumstances raise some interesting questions of their own through the book. This was surprisingly good, I thought. 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge - 38/80 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. 13 bonus: Of these make sure half are by authors new to you: 10 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 8 bonus: Of these make sure half are by authors new to you: 6 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). - Lincoln in the Bardo 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 - Going After Cacciato 9. Read a book published in 2018 (or if you're eager to start early, the latter half of 2017). - The Night Market 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. - For Isabel, A Mandala 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 - Frankenstein in Baghdad 12. Read a poetry collection. bonus: Read poems by at least 10 different poets 13. Read a collection of short stories. - Dreams of Falling and Flying bonus: Read short stories by at least 10 different authors - 3 14. Read a play. bonus: Read a play first published in the last 10 years - Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike 15. Read something involving history. bonus: Read something about a (nonfictional) war that didn't involve the U.S. - The Opium War 16. Read something biographical. - Eat the Apple bonus: Read something biographical about someone you've met/seen in person 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. - Punch Escrow bonus: Read something about a future that takes place before the current year
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Jun 5, 2018 04:10
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Guy A. Person posted:2018 Reading Challenge Theme Week #8 - Challenge no. 4: Read a book by an LGBT author For the genre crowd, I'd recommend Sorcerer of the Wildeeps by Kai Ashante Wilson. It's set up as a basic swords and sorcery type thing, but deals a lot with performative aspects of race and gender. It's a real interesting little book. I just checked out The Merry Spinster: Tales of Everyday Horror by Daniel Mallory Ortberg from the library, which is going to be my LGBT challenge book. I strongly suspect I've read at least one other book by an LGBT author this year, but a quick bio search on Wiki or their website wasn't enough to turn it up. A Goodreads friend gave it 5 stars, so I'm cautiously optimistic. It also had a neat cover.
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Jun 13, 2018 16:31
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Ben Nevis posted:1. Djinn City by Saad Hossein It was an interesting month for books in translation. 4 were translated, 3 were translated well and 1 badly. 1 must have been particularly tricky. The bad one seemed clunky, but a review online actually pointed out some mistranslated words. After reading a few other translated works this year, it makes me wonder if there've been other mistranslations and not known because it wasn't mentioned or the reviewer may not have read Arabic or whatever. I'm also in a bit of an unintentional not quite theme, having read 2 books by Indians, one by a West Indian, and my current read is an American Indian. 39. A Beautiful Young Woman by Julian Lopez - This was the poorly translated book. It's largely a man remembering his mother and his trying to come to terms with her disappearance. It's at times really good, with a lyricism that makes it believable that Lopez is a poet as well. Other times, it's much less so. It's a bit of a shame, because I feel like a better translation probably would've yielded a book I enjoyed more. 40. Blue Self Portrait by Noemi Lefevbre - I picked this book up because it's about a young lady ruminating on life as she flies out of Berlin. I was going to be flying out of Hamburg, but figured it was close enough. She reflects on music, art, philosophy all through the course of obsessing over her interactions with a pianist. It's a lot of long, digressive paragraphs. Elements will be brought up again and again, remixed in light of new revelations, and twisted back and forth. This is not my usual bag. I thought it was fair, but a better understanding of some of the philosophy and art might have bumped it up for me. 41. The Big Get Even by Paul DiPhillipo - I figured I needed a light read for the plane, so I grabbed this. It looked a like a fun heist/con story and the cover blurb mentioned Chandler. When will I learn? The number of people worthy of cover blurbs mentioning Chandler is much smaller than those who actually have such blurbs. A disgraced investment guy and an out of jail arsonist plan to scam the towns largest banker. It's all sort of OK. There are flaws, not the least of which, somehow this guy winds up banging every attractive women mentioned in the book. The writing isn't as clever as the author thinks. I can't really recommend. 42. He by John Connolly - Apparently a bit of a passion project for Connolly. He takes Stan Laurel and uses his works and letters and biographies to try and recreate, from Laurel's perspective, his relationship with Hardy, Chaplin, and other people from the early years of Hollywood. The real focus is on the friendship between Laurel and Hardy and it's sketched out hear beautifully. I wound up really enjoying this. It was a very good read. 43. The Not-Quite States of America by Doug Mack - Mack gives an overview of the US territories. He visits American Samoa, Guam, the US Virgin Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands and Puerto Rico. Each one gets a brief overview of how they became a territory, what things are like today, and some idea of what people think should happen to them in the future. This never goes deep into any of the territories discussed, but it felt real nice for an overview. It was written before Puerto Rico's big hurricane and massive blackout. I feel like that'd have been a rather different section if it were written today. Would recommend for a quick intro for the casually interested reader. 44. The Linden Treee by Cesar Aira - A man who is not-Cesar Aira reflects on a youth that's very similar to Aira's. He reflects on how they changed under Peron and after, how they lived and what they all did and tries to untangle the past with the knowledge of the now. In many ways this is similar to the Lopez book earlier, but definitely had a more sensible translator. It was a good read, though short. 45. Ambiguity Machines and Other Stories by Vandana Singh - A sci-fi short story collection. I don't know if Indo-futurism is a thing, but if so, this is definitely part of it. A number of these are tied to Indian legends or scripture, others are set in post-environmental disaster India, some just focus on Indian culture in other circumstances. I thought this was a strong collection and a bit of a breath of air for a sci-fi collection. 46. A Necessary Evil by Abir Mukherjee - A mystery! It's set in 1920 in India with British Sam Wyndham and his partner Sgt Bannerjee. The crown prince of Sambalpore is assassinated in the midst of negotiations with the British and Wyndham must sort out whodunnit, while navigating the difficulties in a Indian kingdom not subject to the crown. A pretty solid story overall with a good setting. My biggest complaint is that it's the second in a series and this isn't noted on the copy I'd checked out. I'd missed a bit of backstory, but wasn't lost or anything. Would recommend for mystery fans. 47. Slave Old Man by Patrick Chamoiseau - A novella from Martinique, it's about an old slave's escape from the plantation. This must have been a bear to translate from Creole. It's heavily intertwined with some works from Glissant, and a lot of that is laid out in footnotes at the end provided by the translator. I really liked this one. Despite it's brevity (~120 pages) it really seemed to carry a lot of history and a real sense of the culture as well. Would recommend. 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge - 47/80 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. 14 bonus: Of these make sure half are by authors new to you: 12 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 13 bonus: Of these make sure half are by authors new to you: 10 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). - Lincoln in the Bardo 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 - Going After Cacciato 9. Read a book published in 2018 (or if you're eager to start early, the latter half of 2017). - The Night Market 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. - For Isabel, A Mandala 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 - Frankenstein in Baghdad 12. Read a poetry collection. bonus: Read poems by at least 10 different poets 13. Read a collection of short stories. - Dreams of Falling and Flying bonus: Read short stories by at least 10 different authors - 4 14. Read a play. bonus: Read a play first published in the last 10 years - Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike 15. Read something involving history. bonus: Read something about a (nonfictional) war that didn't involve the U.S. - The Opium War 16. Read something biographical. - Eat the Apple bonus: Read something biographical about someone you've met/seen in person 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. - Punch Escrow bonus: Read something about a future that takes place before the current year
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Jul 2, 2018 17:37
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Guy A. Person posted:Read something that isn't in your primary language I've got a thin volume of Unamuno in Spanish hanging around that I may take a shot at. Otherwise, I've read several in translation but need to review before posting some recs.
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Jul 25, 2018 22:31
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Guy A. Person posted:2018 Reading Challenge Theme Week #10- Challenge no. 10: Read something translated from another language. I read Republic of Wine a couple years ago after a rec from the Lit Thread. I need to go back and re-read, I'm a better reader now. I've read a fair number of translated books this year. Looking back my favorite so far was probably Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi, it was shortlisted for the Man Booker International. After a suicide bombing, a Frankenstein-like monster rises to seek justice for the innocents killed in Baghdad. It focuses on a few people otherwise showing how Baghdad is struggling in increased violence following Saddam's ouster. The Linden Tree by Cesar Aira, Slave Old Man by Patrick Chamoiseau, and Silence of the Spirit by Wilfried N'Sonde have been other standouts. Glancing back to last year, I'd give hearty recommendations to Often I am Happy by Jens Christian Grψndahl and A Horse Walks into a Bar by David Grossman. No Knives in the Kitchens of this City by Khaled Khalifa has the distinction of having the lowest rating on Goodreads of any book I've read at 2.87. I found it worthwhile though as this tale of the long term degradation of a family in Aleppo provides some context and reasoning for the Syrian civil war. When I see how bad things are there now, it helps me understand why civil war was preferable for some.
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Jul 26, 2018 17:10
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Ben Nevis posted:1. Djinn City by Saad Hossein Over half-way through the challenge here and I'm ahead of schedule. I knocked out a short story collection by an LGBT author, and another one as well. It looks like I may hit short stories by 10 authors the hard way. Otherwise, not particularly a fruitful month for challenges, though there are always the new author challenges. I did have a fair few "summer reads" this month, looking at lighter more exciting stuff suitable for the beach, even if I'm not at the beach. 48. Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse - After environmental catastrophe has fractured the nation and brought about the 6th world, the Navajo nation rises again, full of magic and mystery. Through it all rides monster hunter Maggie Hoskie in her old beat up pickup. In addition to hunting down monsters, she has to contend with rear end in a top hat cops, the mischievous Coyote, and maybe even her former teacher. It's a unique setting and Roanhorse herself is Ohkay Owingeh and married a Navajo man, which I feel lends some authenticity here. There are definitely some rough edges, but hopefully they'll be smoothed by her next book, which I also intend to read. 49. Cove by Cynan Jones - The second book I've read by Cynan Jones, and this is even sparser than the first. In about 90 pages, Jones tells us about a man lost at sea in a kayak after a sudden storm. Jones deliberately takes a knife to this, cutting and trimming everything he deems unimportant. What's left is the distilled fear and desperation and hope at a rescue. I really enjoyed this and you can read it in an afternoon. Or over lunch. 50. The Life List of Adrian Mandrick by Chris White - I'm thinking I got this for the bird on the cover. Adrian Mandrick is an anesthesiologist and an avid birdwatcher. He's third in the US in terms of total number of birds watched. When the #2 birdwatcher dies, Mandrick sees his chance to move up and starts even more obsessively hunting rare birds. His life also spirals out of control as he renews his painkiller addiction and commences an affair. When he finds his mom died, it's time to confront old family traumas as well as the new ones he's instigated. Ultimately this just didn't hit for me. Other than the bird watching angle, it seemed sort of an average midlife crisis kind of book. 51. Food of the Gods by Cassandra Khaw - Rupert Wong is a cannibal chef. Not that he eats people, he just cooks them for a powerful ghoul clan. He's also indebted to Hell. And generally too many beings have a call on Rupert's soul. That's unfortunate when he gets tangled in international, interpantheon intrigue. This was a rollicking good time as long as you're not queasy about descriptions of people being cooked. 52. The Merry Spinster by Daniel Mallory Ortberg - Ortberg (formerly of the Toast) transitioned while/just after writing this, so the book is credited to Mallory Ortberg, who now goes by Daniel instead. I've preserved the Mallory here so hopefully you can find it if you want to check it out from the library. These are all dark-ish retellings or twists of fairy tales and the occasional Bible story. Ortberg's focus largely is on obligation, who owes what to whom and what should be done about it. There's (unsurprisingly) a bit of a focus on gender here, with many stories having roles be gendered, not people. So you have anyone who goes from the home to work called a son while those staying home are daughters, or something similar. It never rose to the level of being confusing and did sometimes provide a little food for thought at time. The best story was probably The Rabbit, a disturbing retelling of the Velveteen Rabbit. There were some misses as well, but overall a pretty decent collection. 53. The Italian Party by Christina Lynch - This was one of the big surprises this month. I was a little lukewarm on the idea of this book which seemed sort of a married couple struggling with their relationship in Italy. What got me was a line in the dust jacket summer about international intrigue as well. There's a lot going on in this one. Scottie and Michael got married quickly, really a whirlwind romance sort of thing before Michael gets them shipped to Italy to open the new Ford tractor dealer. But they all have secrets. See, Scottie is not the rich orphan she seems to be. Worse yet, she's pregnant and was hoping to get married to an upwardly mobile type man before it becomes clear that the kid wasn't his. Michael, well, he's not a Ford dealer, he works for the CIA and got married at the request of the agency before he shipped off to Italy to make sure it doesn't go communist. Also he's gay. Also, it turns out that this sleepy little Tuscan town is also full of secrets and secret agents. In addition to the expected Italians, the town is populated with Russians, socialists, ancient nobility, Brits, and all manner of commonplace secrets. Assassination, kidnapping, horse races, and glorious Italian lunches fill the pages while we see whether Michael and Scottie can (or should) patch up their relationship. And whether Michael can (or should) deliver Italy for the Americans. This was a delightful book and in many regards a great summer read. 54. Artificial Conditions by Martha Wells - Murderbot #2. Murderbot tries to learn more about himself, and gets tangled in some corporate intrigue. A nice continuation of that series. 55. The Oracle Year by Charles Soule - Will Dando wakes up one morning with 108 predictions for the near future that have come to him in a dream. After verifying they are true, he does what anyone would and makes some money. And that's the first little bit of the book. As Will starts to see the effects of the prophecies with companies failing, countries destabilized, and other subtly connected large effects, he becomes terrified of what they are intended to do. It doesn't help that everyone in the world is trying to track him down for their own nefarious means. Overall there's some good tense moments, chase scenes, and whatnot. I could totally see this made into a summer blockbuster. A nice, brisk, summer read. 56. The Mutual UFO Network by Martin Lee - Of the 6 short story collections I've read this year, this was the best. Somehow it only has like 5 ratings on Goodreads. I'm not sure where my library gets these. That being said, this is an outstanding collection. Lee takes every day slices of life from Anytown, USA and then something happens, sometimes something extraordinary, sometimes something mundane. In the aftermath people are sliced open and laid bare. Hope and resentments are exposed for everyone to see and at their best they touch a raw nerve in the reader as well. Would recommend. 57. Honor by Elif Shafak - The book opens on a girl going to pick up who brother who killed her mom in an "honor killing" 14 years ago. It traces through time back to the mothers birth and through recent years, exploring the societal pressures the lead up to the killing. It looks at a the culture and how it values honor among men and women. It looks at immigrants and the struggles of assimilation. This was a really intriguing, well written book. Would recommend. 58. Bangkok 8 by John Burdett - Bangkok Noir? Something of the sort. When Sonchai accidentally loses his partner while trying to save an American marine, he vow revenge. His quest to hunt down the killer leads him through the seedy underbelly of Bangkok, among the drugs, prostitution and art forgers. It's a pretty good read. Interesting mystery, that feels noir. It doesn't try for clever quips but does very much explore the idea of the only straight man in a crooked world. There's some Buddhism that probably is lacking in authenticity. Still a pretty enjoyable read. 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge - 58/80 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. 20 bonus: Of these make sure half are by authors new to you: 17 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 16 bonus: Of these make sure half are by authors new to you: 13 4. Read at least one book by an LGBT author. - The Merry Spinster 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). - Lincoln in the Bardo 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 - Going After Cacciato 9. Read a book published in 2018 (or if you're eager to start early, the latter half of 2017). - The Night Market 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. - For Isabel, A Mandala 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 - Frankenstein in Baghdad 12. Read a poetry collection. bonus: Read poems by at least 10 different poets 13. Read a collection of short stories. - Dreams of Falling and Flying bonus: Read short stories by at least 10 different authors - 6 14. Read a play. bonus: Read a play first published in the last 10 years - Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike 15. Read something involving history. bonus: Read something about a (nonfictional) war that didn't involve the U.S. - The Opium War 16. Read something biographical. - Eat the Apple bonus: Read something biographical about someone you've met/seen in person 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. - Punch Escrow bonus: Read something about a future that takes place before the current year Ben Nevis fucked around with this message at 18:34 on Aug 2, 2018 |
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Aug 2, 2018 18:29
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MockingQuantum posted:57. Black Helicopters - Caitlin Kiernan - So this was billed as a follow-up to Agents of Dreamlands, which I really liked, but actually isn't. It was released as a chapbook a few years before Agents, and Kiernan re-released it with some new chapters that supposedly tie it into the bigger mythology of Dreamland. In reality, I feel like this is a big mess of a book and a huge missed opportunity. There's a lot of dropped threads and incomprehensibility here. The incomprehensibility is very much intentional, but it feels a bit like Kiernan forgot to tell a story in the midst of it. There's also some nonsense to do with quantum mathematics in the mix. It's possible I'm too dumb to have "gotten" the book but it honestly feels like some of Kiernan's weakest work that I've read to date. This is literally the next book in my queue, so I'm a little less excited now.
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Aug 3, 2018 00:46
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Guy A. Person posted:Read something about a (nonfictional) war that didn't involve the U.S. For this one I read The Opium War: Drugs, Dreams, and the Making of Modern China by Julia Lovell. I don't normally read much of this sort of thing, so it's hard for me to judge against others of the type. It's about 1/3 buildup to the Opium War, 1/3 the first Opium War, 15% the second, and the rest views of the Opium War over time, how it was used rhetorically by different parties vying to rule China. Lovell gives a good overview, and makes the case that at the time, the Opium War wasn't viewed as that big of a deal in comparison to domestic conflicts, but was reinterpreted later as a foundational moment of Modern China. It goes to some effort of dispelling the notion that China was, at the time, a closed off xenophobic society that was "opened" by British traders. From looking around, it was generally pretty well received, though it's occasionally noted that it could have used more historical Chinese sources. It was an interesting read, and I feel like I left knowing more about the time period generally, as well as the war itself.
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Aug 28, 2018 16:19
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Stuporstar posted:Edit: I should also ask for a wildcard, since I haven't done that yet. This has sat for a few days, so I'll issue one. Umami by Laia Jufresa. It was one of my favorites of last year and judging by your posts in the genre thread it seems like something you might enjoy. If not, well, at least it helps with a few of the challenges.
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Aug 30, 2018 18:07
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Ben Nevis posted:48. Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse I pulled off the big list from the beginning and just restricted it to last month so I can keep track of where I am. This was a bit of a mixes month. A couple didn't pan out as well as I'd hoped. One was way good (and was an unsolicited reputation from a colleague of my wife's). 2 were focused on civil wars I don't know too much about. I didn't make huge strides on the challenge this month, other than numbers. I do have 3 selected for some remaining challenges, so I can hopefully pare this down a bit in September. 59. The Bottom of the Sky by Fresan Rodrigo - This was an odd read and any description I provide likely sells it short. It's not so much sci-fi as it is about what sci-fi means or why sci-fi. It does this through the relationship of 3 friends, starting in a sci-fi club when they are young. There's hope, sci-fi, novels, 9/11, aliens, and at what cost is the world saved? I enjoyed this, but I'm left with the lingering feeling that I didn't quite get it. There's something about Argentinian writers, perhaps. 60. Black Helicopters by Caitlin R Kiernan - The previous goon was right. This isn't bad, it's weaker than her previous story, and ultimately, not a sequel, despite being sorta billed as one. 61. The Judge Hunter by Christopher Buckley - I wasn't familiar with Buckley, but apparently I ought to have been. Samuel Pepys has a leech for a nephew and arranges for him to be sent off to the Colonies to hunt down 2 judges who signed the warrant for the execution of Charles I. Balty, his nephew, tramps around falling in love with a Quaker while falling out with various governors and unwittingly setting the stage for the second Dutch English war. This was a fun read, a bit of a romp through 17th century New England. There are few comparisons to modern day America that caught my eye and provided a bit more substance than a strict romp. I'm quite likely to pick up more from Buckley in the future. 62. My Cat Yugoslavia by Patjim Statovci - This book has 2 stories intertwined, a woman in Kosovo falls in love and marries an abusive man and their family has to flee Kosovo with the growing violence under Milosevic and a young man the child of refugees who falls in love with an abusive cat and tries to find some connection to his home. The parallels between the two stories are interesting, and it's well written, it just never quite comes together as much as I'd like. Not bad though. 62. A Man Called Ove by Frederic Backman - This is a book about a curmudgeon stuck in his ways with distinct ideas of what's right and how things should be and what he does with his time after his forced early retirement. I really enjoyed this one. Highlight of the month for me and one of the most enjoyable reads of the year so far. 63. Half Gods by Akil Kumarasamy - This is a collection of linked short stories. The focus is on a Tamil family who fled Sri Lanka during the Sir Lankan civil war. While not ordered chronologically, the stories show a glimpse of the world before the civil war, during the start of it, the difficulties of fleeing and becoming refugees, the troubles integrating and growing up in America, and friends left behind. This was a well done series of stories. 64. Noir by Christopher Moore - While not bad, this was pretty much the most disappointing of the month. I like Moore. I enjoy noir. Somehow this just didn't synch up though. It starts fairly strong, but goes off the rails a bit until it's no longer the noir parody it ostensibly started as but some other thing entirely, and I didn't enjoy the other thing as much. 65. Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennet - The starting novel of RJB's new series. Basically fantasy with some tech, driven by "scrived" sigils that can change some properties of materials. The city is rules by vast merchant houses and completely lawless otherwise. Sancia is a thief who finds herself is possession of something quite valuable the could change society as they know it. There's several heists, lots of action, and a pretty interesting world with some critiques of capitalism. I enjoyed, I'll most likely read the remainder of the series when it comes out. 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge - 65/80 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. 22 bonus: Of these make sure half are by authors new to you: 18 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 18 bonus: Of these make sure half are by authors new to you: 15 4. Read at least one book by an LGBT author. - The Merry Spinster 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). - Lincoln in the Bardo 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) - A Man Called Ove 8. Read something written before you were born. bonus: Read a book written/published the exact year you were born - Going After Cacciato 9. Read a book published in 2018 (or if you're eager to start early, the latter half of 2017). - The Night Market 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. - For Isabel, A Mandala 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 - Frankenstein in Baghdad 12. Read a poetry collection. bonus: Read poems by at least 10 different poets 13. Read a collection of short stories. - Dreams of Falling and Flying bonus: Read short stories by at least 10 different authors - 7 14. Read a play. bonus: Read a play first published in the last 10 years - Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike 15. Read something involving history. bonus: Read something about a (nonfictional) war that didn't involve the U.S. - The Opium War 16. Read something biographical. - Eat the Apple bonus: Read something biographical about someone you've met/seen in person 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. - Punch Escrow bonus: Read something about a future that takes place before the current year
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Sep 4, 2018 17:11
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Guy A. Person posted:2018 Reading Challenge Theme Week #13 - Challenge no. 18: Read something from a non-traditional perspective. To this I might add Only the Animals by Ceridwen Dovey, a collection of 10 short stories told by animals caught up in human conflicts. Each story also has a tie to another author, whether it's a Kerouac-ian mussel or Tolstoy's turtle. It's an interesting collection and pretty good all told. quote:Bonus challenge: Read something narrated in the 2nd person Thanks for this, I wasn't real sure where to start here, since some of the lists I've looked up definitely have things I wouldn't quie consider on them. My library has that Robbins book as well, so I may wait for you to see how that turns out.
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Sep 12, 2018 20:46
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Guy A. Person posted:If you haven't read If on a Winter's Night I would highly recommend that as well. I had already read that and the other two I mentioned and they are all good for different reasons, but Calvino is fantastic. Weirdly I had read a bunch of his stuff and thought it was okay 5-10+ years ago but then I read The Nonexistant Knight and something clicked and I have loved everything I have read by him since, even when revisiting the ones that didn't blow me away before. Only IoaWNaT is from second person of course, but he has a lot of really good stuff. Yeah, it's on the list, broadly speaking. The library doesn't have that though, so it's up to vagaries of ILL.
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Sep 13, 2018 16:15
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I haven't gotten to this one yet (though I'm knocking out 4 other challenges this month). I'm glad to see it's Banned or Challenged, rather than just banned. Sometimes it's hard tracking down whether something was actually banned. Last year I read Lolita, and probably most people already know it's good. 2016 I went YA and read both The Chocolate War and A Day No Pigs Would Die. The Chocolate War was probably banned for trying to teach kids that the world is just full of bastards. It's right, but it's probably too young to snuff out some illusions. A Day No Pigs Would Die was one I really enjoyed, though it left me conflicted because the frequently quoted precepts of Shakerism were apparently more or less made up whole cloth. Nonetheless, pretty solid.
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Sep 27, 2018 19:48
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Ben Nevis posted:59. The Bottom of the Sky by Fresan Rodrigo A pretty decent month this month. I read 7 books and managed to finish off 3 challenges. I realize earlier I'd said 4, but this last one is dragging. I'll have it done by the end of the week, but putting this off even longer to up that count seems like cheating. For bonus fun though, I stumbled into the one for Challenge 17. It was unplanned, and wound up being excellent. I should have a read about Music finished off shortly, and after that it's just needing a Wildcard, something from a non-traditional perspective and a banned book. The end is in sight. 66. Vengeance by Zachary Lazar - Lazar, the novel's main character, is writing an article about the passion play performed in a Louisiana prison. In talking with an inmate, the inmate reveals he was wrongly convicted because the jury didn't understand a complicated story. Lazar sets out to investigate the story and finds it complicated not just by the facts of the story, but by race, class, and other social factors. As he tries to unravel this, his view on whether the conviction was wrongful or not shifts. There's a lot crammed into this slim volume, but it was a pretty good read, and could count as political were you so inclined. 67. Any Man by Amber Tamblyn - Hey wait, wasn't she on House? Yes, yes she was. She's also married to David Cross, and apparently now a novelist. And quite involved in the #TimesUp aspect of the #MeToo movement. In a way, this is the novel that #MeToo wrote. Tamblyn imagined a female rapist who did horrible things, yet was as difficult to pin down prosecute as systemic misogyny. This was a brisk read, and a fairly enjoyable one. It maybe didn't make me think quite as much as I think Tamblyn might have hoped. If you're curious it deserves a recommendation just for the tweet chapter, which imagines tweets after the revelation to a new victim. It's hysterical and just nails how we react to and commodify tragedy. A pretty good read, and again, probably political if you'd like. 68. The Marvellous Equations of the Dread: A Novel in Bass Riddim by Marcia Douglas - This was my accidental read about Religion. The religion of course, is Rastafarianism. Douglas here focuses mainly on a deaf woman named Leenah, her family, and her association with Bob Marley. While they were never lovers, she and Bob are soul mates. When Bob returns from Zion inhabiting the body of a fallen angel and homeless busker, she's the only one to see him for who he is. And that's not the half of it. The novel ties through to music, to Rasta, to colonialism, to violence, and the unique history, culture, and bass riddim of Jamaica, land of sugar and sweet water. In poverty and downpressed the children of Jamaica call out for a way salvation. This frenetic read bounces through time and space, from slave ships to the modern day to Ethiopia and even to Zion itself. While it never drops into patois, there's a bit of dialect and a fair helping of Iyaric. The bass riddim of this one makes you want to stand up and chant down Babylon. Would recommend. 69. Tacky Goblin by T Sean Steele - A boy experiences psychosomatic leg pains on the even of moving out of his parents house. Fortunately, the spot on the wall takes his legs and gives him instead the legs of the intruder who was watching him sleep. Thus it is resolved that he moves out, and this collection of diary entries about moving out and in with his sister continues. This is all sort of crazy and off the wall. At times it seemed meaningful, but more often seemed monkeycheese. Somehow this is rated like 4.25 on goodreads. I don't get it. 70. Hunger Makes Me A Modern Girl by Carrie Brownstein - A book about Hunger. Sort of. When faced with this challenge, I searched my library's catalog for books about Hunger. When that didn't turn up anything, then for books with Hunger in the title, which turned up this. Brownstein as you may be aware was a founding member of Sleater-Kinney and later went on to do Portlandia (and a Sleater-Kinney reunion). The book focuses on Brownstein's childhood and her time with the band. Touching on the theme (and title) it's very much about Brownstein's hunger (if you will) for attention. Or recognition. You get a bit of an idea that if no one notices her, she isn't there. A solid read. 71. The Queen of Swords by RS Belcher - The third in Belcher's Golgotha series. Belcher leaves the Weird West with Maude on a pirate/legal adventure with the (maybe) magical (sort of?) assassin ladies. Generally good fun. 72. Blackacre by Monica Youn - So there I was standing outside my kids daycare chatting with the other parents about reading. Needing a poetry selection, I asked if anyone had any favorites. And one of them had gone to high school with someone who is apparently a good poet now, Monica Youn. I looked it up, and sure enough Youn had won some awards and general acclaim for her 2016 collection, Blackacre, so here we are. It's divided into 4 sections, the first centers on a hanging with a variety on hanged men and women and the hanging tree. The second I don't recall. The third is series (color)acre, that starts looking at a land through different seasons, and winds up being about people. The final is Blackacre, the titular work, which is meditations on Milton's Sonnet 19 and oblique comparisons to the author's own struggle with infertility. I'm not real sure what to make of all this. My favorite may be the second iteration of Goldacre, which was only sort of about Twinkies. 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge - 72/80 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. 26 bonus: Of these make sure half are by authors new to you: 22 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 20 bonus: Of these make sure half are by authors new to you: 17 4. Read at least one book by an LGBT author. - The Merry Spinster 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). - Lincoln in the Bardo 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) - A Man Called Ove 8. Read something written before you were born. bonus: Read a book written/published the exact year you were born - Going After Cacciato 9. Read a book published in 2018 (or if you're eager to start early, the latter half of 2017). - The Night Market 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. - For Isabel, A Mandala 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 - Frankenstein in Baghdad 12. Read a poetry collection. - Blackacre bonus: Read poems by at least 10 different poets 13. Read a collection of short stories. - Dreams of Falling and Flying bonus: Read short stories by at least 10 different authors - 7 14. Read a play. bonus: Read a play first published in the last 10 years - Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike 15. Read something involving history. bonus: Read something about a (nonfictional) war that didn't involve the U.S. - The Opium War 16. Read something biographical. - Eat the Apple bonus: Read something biographical about someone you've met/seen in person 17. Read something about religion. - The Marvellous Equations of the Dread 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 - Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl 22. Read something about the future. - Punch Escrow bonus: Read something about a future that takes place before the current year
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Oct 2, 2018 16:08
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Looking back over this, I'm going to need a Wild Card. Anyone?
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Oct 5, 2018 15:05
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MockingQuantum posted:How about A Canticle for Liebowitz by Walter Miller Jr., purely because I was talking about it with someone earlier today. It's a great book, but I've read it already.
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Oct 5, 2018 15:49
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Guy A. Person posted:how about Space and Place by Yi-Fu Tuan Well now that's an interesting suggestion. Thanks!
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Oct 5, 2018 16:48
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Guy A. Person posted:2018 Reading Challenge Theme Week #15 - Challenge no. 17: Read something about religion. I stumbled into reading one here recently. I was a bit at sea on this one, but grabbed an interesting looking volume off the new book shelves at the library and wound up with The Marvellous Equations of the Dread: A Novel in Bass Riddim by Marcia Douglas. It has a few threads. Mostly it follows the life of Leenah, her parents, her childhood, her encounters with Bob Marley, her experiences with the (now fallen) Angel of Lust, and her daughter Anjahla. There's the Angel of Lust and his experiences as an angel and now as a homeless man. Lastly, there's Bob Marley, who is refused entry to Zion, ultimately to try and save Jamaica. This is not so much a novel where one could expect linearity. It bounces back and forth through time and place. You'll visit HIM Haile Selassie, in Ethiopia and sitting outside a recording studio in Zion. You'll learn all about Marcus Garvey, and what he meant to the poor of Jamaica. You'll meet Queen Nanny and others from Jamaica's history. Most of all, you'll see a Jamaica trying to cut through a history of colonialism, violence and iniquity to try and once again tap into the bass rhythm that so defines the island and ultimately provides a path to Zion. It's a messy, messy book that I really kind of loved. And if you couldn't tell the religion would be Rastafarianism. If you wanted to read it for the music challenge, that'd be fair as well.
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Oct 8, 2018 18:56
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I may get lucky there, I'm 3rd on the list for Milkman, though it's technically "on order" still. They usually show up before too long. Conceivably, there's always the genre awards or various regional prizes as well if you really wanted to take a shot for it.
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Oct 18, 2018 18:32
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Franchescanado posted:I've read Lot 49 a couple of times now, mainly due to it being so short. I'm ready for a re-read of V. Lot 49 is the only Pynchon I've read. Any suggestions as to where to go next?
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Oct 25, 2018 16:25
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For basic Maslow, I'd count The Cove by Cynan Jones about a man lost at sea in a kayak. As you might imagine it there's a fair bit about the need for the basics in the hierarchy. Jones is characteristically terse, it clocks in at 85ish heavily formatted pages with as many spare words as he could excised. You can knock it out over lunch if you wanted. I still found it to be impactful. For Hunger, I searched the library catalog for books with that in the title and settled on Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl by Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney and Portlandia fame. The focus is primarily on her growing up and her career in Sleater-Kinney. As to the hunger mentioned, a focus of the book is definitely Brownstein's hunger for attention, or maybe just acknowledgement.
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Oct 25, 2018 21:02
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Ben Nevis posted:66. Vengeance by Zachary Lazar It was a good month here, challenge-wise. I read my wild card and a book about music, so that's just a 2nd person book and a banned book left. Everything else was just sort of marking time. I'm on the list for the last two books to knock out my challenges (and a third for a Bonus, that's iffy though). Unfortunately the books weren't all that great this month. The good ones were good, but I had 3 that fell sorta flat for me, and that's above average. On the upside Her Body and Other Parties was as good as advertised, and while I haven't yet, I'm almost certainly going to hit bonus 13 the hard way. I finished this and realized the total didn't synch with Goodreads. After some investigating, I found that I had two 62s so, I'm starting this at 74 to account for that. Also, I'd apparently left off 2 books from previous months, I'm putting them in at 81 and 82. They should have been in in May and August, but some goodreads date errors made me overlook them initially. 74. A Simple Habana Melody: (from when the world was good) by Oscar Hijuelos - My music book. The intent here was to read The Mambo Kings Sing Songs of Love, but that's apparently lost within the library somewhere. So sure, I grabbed another music-y book by the same guy. So it follows Israel, and the great (unconsummated) love of his life Rita. As the composer of many popular light operas and the international sensation Rosas Puras, Israel gets to travel around. So you get to see the musician's view of the Cuban revolution and the building up to WW2 in Paris. Also, despite never hooking up with Rita, he does have a giant dong, which he uses on a number of prostitutes. There's some good stuff here, it just never comes together. Also the frequency with which the giant dong is mentioned is a bit weird. 75. The City of Lost Fortunes by Brian Camp - In a post-Katrina New Orleans, Jude lays low because he has trouble controlling his magic. It swelled with the storm surge and now it's uncomfortable to even be around people. He's found though when an old debt is called in and suddenly finds himself forced into hunting down whomever killed the city's God of Fortune. I was hoping for something along the lines of Sean Stewart's Galveston, but this isn't quite that. It was still a pretty good read. Brisk and interesting. 76. I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara - October's BOTM, this details the search for the Golden State Killer, and specifically McNamara's personal obsession and search for the killer. This was a good book if you like that crime thing or are interested in the people who obsess over cold cases. 77. The Dosadi Experiment by Frank Herbert - This was rec'd in the genre thread on the basis of a court system where you can win by killing the other lawyer and different ways of going about it constituted precedent. That was like maybe 1/4 of the book. It wasn't bad, but it flopped in relation to the recommendation. 78. The Hangman's Daughter by Oliver Pφtzsch - This is an oddly named book, as it's mostly about a hangman and a town doctor try and solve a crime to save an innocent woman accused of witchcraft before a full blown witch panic overtakes the town. The daughter is not even close to a focal point or really even a main character. At any rate, the titular hangman was apparently based of Pφtzsch's ancestor. The historical aspect is interesting. The conflict between towns over shipping rights, etc, all adds a nice flavor to it. The mystery at the heart of this thing is basically rubbish though and easily figured out before the halfway point. I wish this were better, but it's more middling. 79. Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience by Yi-Fu Tuan - Here the author breaks down how people experience Space, by which he means generic spaces and areas, and Place, by which he means meaningful places, like home, country, etc. It gets sort of mystical early on, but the thoughts towards the end about what makes places meaningful was definitely thought provoking and enjoyable. 80. Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado - I'd seen a lot of recs floating around, in the Lit thread and Horror thread, so grabbed this as a Halloween read. I'm glad I did, because it's real good. Sitting at the intersection of fairy tale, sci-fi, horror, and just plain literature, these stories focus on women's relations, with each other, with their bodies, and with the world at large. They are timely, and good. You should definitely read this 81. Armistice by Laura Ellen Donnelly - Actually read in May, this is the 2nd book of the Amberlough series, this primarily follows Ari and Cordelia in exile/on the run and drills down on some Ospie foreign relations stuff. This was maybe not quite up to the first but was still really good, and I'm looking forward to the third in 2019. 82. Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers - The third of the Wayfarers novels, this focuses on the portions of humanity that still reside on the initial generation ships that brought people from Earth. As you might expect there's a few intersecting storylines and they flesh out what these ships and humanities past mean to them now. There's something about this series that I just love. It's hard to pin down, but I'm tempted to say it's the humanity of it all. 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge - 79/80 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. 30 bonus: Of these make sure half are by authors new to you: 24 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 23 bonus: Of these make sure half are by authors new to you: 20 4. Read at least one book by an LGBT author. - The Merry Spinster 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). - Lincoln in the Bardo 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. - Space and Place 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) - A Man Called Ove 8. Read something written before you were born. bonus: Read a book written/published the exact year you were born - Going After Cacciato 9. Read a book published in 2018 (or if you're eager to start early, the latter half of 2017). - The Night Market 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. - For Isabel, A Mandala bonus: Read something that isn't in your primary language 11. Read something political. - 300 Main Street bonus: Read something political from/about a country you aren't from and don't currently live in - Frankenstein in Baghdad 12. Read a poetry collection. - Blackacre bonus: Read poems by at least 10 different poets 13. Read a collection of short stories. - Dreams of Falling and Flying bonus: Read short stories by at least 10 different authors - 9 14. Read a play. bonus: Read a play first published in the last 10 years - Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike 15. Read something involving history. bonus: Read something about a (nonfictional) war that didn't involve the U.S. - The Opium War 16. Read something biographical. - Eat the Apple bonus: Read something biographical about someone you've met/seen in person 17. Read something about religion. - The Marvellous Equations of the Dread 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 - A Simple Habana Melody 21. Read something that involves Maslow's hierarchy of needs. bonus: Read something about hunger - Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl 22. Read something about the future. - Punch Escrow bonus: Read something about a future that takes place before the current year
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Nov 2, 2018 17:30
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