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I was nearly done with The Reckoning, a 750 page history of the American and Japanese car industries up through the 80's. Really good and informative, I've been wrapped up in it all week. I have thirty pages left and was looking forward to finishing it as soon as I got home. I go to take it out of my bag but it's not there. I forgot it on my desk at work 
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Feb 1, 2019 23:46
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citybeatnik posted:4) A book about feminism Animal: The Autobiography of a Female Body by Sara Pascoe, Fight Like A Girl by Clementine Ford, and Everyday Sexism by Laura Bates are all good, IMO.
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Feb 2, 2019 05:28
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Tiggum posted:Animal: The Autobiography of a Female Body by Sara Pascoe, Fight Like A Girl by Clementine Ford, and Everyday Sexism by Laura Bates are all good, IMO. I'll add those in to the hopper as well. I think I'll check out A Well-Paid Slave since it was mentioned earlier in the thread to get the sports aspect covered. As well as keeping an eye out for books dealing with art that folks might suggest.
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Feb 2, 2019 16:26
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January! 1. Catcher in the Rye. J. D. Salinger. This was really hard to read because I just couldn't get into the mindset of the protagonist. In a sense, I kind of understand the way he behaves, but I just couldn't get into the story. Still, interesting. 2. The Giver. Lois Lowry. The prose of this book was kind of monotonous and dry, just like the society it describes. There's a slight problem with this in a sense that it's really slow to start. And of course, the end leaves the reader with even more questions. Still, a short read and that's usually good in cases like this. 3. Good Omens. Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman. Great book, it's just so funny and full of insight. And gets better with rereadings. 4. The Scarlet Letter. Nathaniel Hawthorne. This was a very descriptive and cluttered book. The story goes around and around and the symbolism hits us like a hammer in the head. The characters are a little bit cartoony, but I guess it kind of works. 5. Spice and Wolf Vol. 1. Isuna Hasekura. A slow read, but interesting, especially all the merchant jargon in a medieval society. With some fantasy elements that don't really stand out that much. 6. Pretties. Scott Westerfeld. This was a little weird. In a sense, I like how the author wanted to show the change of mindset in some characters, but it just didn't work that well. Also, the story was worse than the first book in the series. 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. (6/60) 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. (1/12) 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. (1/12) 4. Read a book by an author from every continent (N. America, S. America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania). (3/5) 5. Read at least one book by an LGBT author. 6. Read at least one book by an indigenous author. 7. Participate in the TBB BotM thread at least once in 2019 (thread stickied each month at the top of the forum). 8. Ask another poster to issue you a wildcard, then read it. 9. Get a recommendation from a friend or loved one. 10. Read a book by a local author. 11. Read a book published in 2019. 14. Read a poetry collection. 15. Read a collection of short stories. 16. Read a play. 17. Read a book about feminism. 18. Read a book involving sports. 19. Read something biographical. 21. Read something in the public domain. 22. Read one book you didn’t finish in a previous attempt (think high school if nothing comes to mind!). 23. Read a book about art.
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Feb 2, 2019 18:28
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January Kurt Vonnegut - Galapagos Adam Rockoff - Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film Chris Gethard - Lose Well I own a lot of Vonnegut books I've never read so I'm going through those this year. The horror history book I've been wanting to read for a while but had trouble finding until recently, and Gethard is one of my favorite comedians. A slow month but I set a low target for a reason. Booklord Challenge 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. (3/30) 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. (0/?) 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. (0/?) 4. Read a book by an author from every continent ( 5. Read at least one book by an LGBT author. 6. Read at least one book by an indigenous author. 7. Participate in the TBB BotM thread at least once in 2019 (thread stickied each month at the top of the forum). 8. Ask another poster to issue you a wildcard, then read it. 9. Get a recommendation from a friend or loved one. 10. Read a book by a local author. 11. Read a book published in 2019. 12. Read a book with an awesome cover. 13. Reread a book. 14. Read a poetry collection. 15. Read a collection of short stories. 16. Read a play. 17. Read a book about feminism. 18. Read a book involving sports. 19. Read something biographical. 20. Read something that has been banned, censored, or challenged. 21. Read something in the public domain. 22. Read one book you didn’t finish in a previous attempt (think high school if nothing comes to mind!). 24. Read a book that is the basis for a movie/tv show you have already seen.
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Feb 3, 2019 19:49
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Well, here it is February, and I think I've already got my awesome cover locked down. 
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Feb 4, 2019 17:18
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Ben Nevis posted:Well, here it is February, and I think I've already got my awesome cover locked down. I'm curious to hear what you think of this. I really want to love Grady Hendrix, but both his other fiction books I've read (Horrorstor and My Best Friend's Exorcism) while entertaining, both felt a bit like horror fiction's greatest hits, as performed by a cover band. Functionally good, but more effective as wink & nudge homages to the genre than great books in their own right. Some of the book design on Horrorstor was fantastic, though. This one sounds like enough of a departure from standard horror plots that it might be a nice step up. I genuinely think he has it in him to put out some drat good horror novels.
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Feb 4, 2019 17:24
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6. Blackwater, by Michael McDowell. This thing is something else. The scope of it is immense. The characters are all incredibly flawed. Taking place in a small Alabama town from 1919 to the early 70s, McDowell shows great craft in detailing the lives of a rich family. Spiced up by intriguing supernatural elements, Blackwater is a huge but great read. 7. The Marrow Thieves, by Cherie Dimaline. Post-apocalyptic YA novel set in Canada. The world fell to chaos after most people stopped being able to dream. Indigenous people are hunted for their marrow, which may bring dreams back for those who lost them. I don't know if it's just because it's YA, but I didn't really enjoy this. No nuance to the bad guys, an awkward romance, and gutpunch deaths just for the shock. That being said, as a book for Indigenous representation, it's pretty cool. Challenges a lot of assumptions. The characters are all from different tribes and nations with distinct spiritualities and customs. So it was cool for that stuff. 8. Enigma Variations, by Andre Aciman. A coworker recommended this to me saying it was a great depiction of a bisexual character. Aciman's prose is fantastic and the ups and downs the lead character goes through are quite riveting. That said, it is impossible to sympathize with him. He's an rear end in a top hat. While this is a common thread throughout the book, the "twist" ending seals the deal and sours any goodwill the rest of the book might have earned. 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 4. Read a book by an author from every continent ( 7. Participate in the TBB BotM thread at least once in 2019 (thread stickied each month at the top of the forum). 8. Ask another poster to issue you a wildcard, then read it. 10. Read a book by a local author. 11. Read a book published in 2019. 12. Read a book with an awesome cover. 13. Reread a book. 14. Read a poetry collection. 15. Read a collection of short stories. 16. Read a play. 18. Read a book involving sports. 19. Read something biographical. 20. Read something that has been banned, censored, or challenged. 21. Read something in the public domain. 22. Read one book you didn’t finish in a previous attempt (think high school if nothing comes to mind!). 23. Read a book about art. Books by women: 5/8 - 62.5% Books by authors of color: 2/8 - 25% apophenium fucked around with this message at 01:10 on Mar 6, 2019 |
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Feb 5, 2019 03:55
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1. Elixir: The American Tragedy of a Deadly Drug, by Barbara J. Martin. I thought this was going to be about the opioid crisis. It's actually about the elixir sulfanilamide poisonings that led, in part, to the creation of the modern FDA. Overall, the book is decent. Exceptionally thorough, but rather limited in scope and dry. I will, however, give it points for the abject terror that comes from the exhaustive listings of victims, which just go on and on and on until I became horrified by the sheer banality of it. If only it wasn't real. Anyway, I should read book descriptions before I put them on my list. 2. Borne, by Jeff VanderMeer. Biopunk dystopia. I didn't find it incredibly deep or anything, but it's a pretty solid read. I really like his writing style, I'm super into stream of consciousness and the free-flowing dialog. 3. Storm of Steel, by Ernst Jünger. Autobiography by a German officer on the Western front during WWI. I got turned onto this by Hardcore History. Unfortunately, the audio book narrator was really dry and it was pretty hard for me to keep focusing on it, so I don't think I really got a lot of it. But what I did was all pretty dry in content, too, so maybe it wasn't just the narrator. It was really interesting how matter-of-fact it was, though. Part of what I take away is that people really can get used to anything. I'm gonna try to dig up a physical copy at some point and see how that goes. 4. The Man in the High Castle, by Philip K. Dick. It's an alternative history where the Allies lost WWII, and lost it badly. My parents were watching the Amazon show when I went home for Christmas and I caught some of it, and I decided to listen to the audio book. It was decent. Rather different from the show, much slower paced. While the show is focused more on people fighting against the Nazi and Japanese regimes, the book seems more focused on how people learn to live under them. Unfortunately, I think Joanna's character was kind of thin, which handicapped it pretty significantly. 5. Parasite Eve, by Hideaki Sena. This is a Japanese horror novel which is a very thinly veiled diatribe against organ donation. Mitochondria are rebelling against humanity, lighting people on fire, and trying to evolve into a higher form of life. Also there were apparently some video games? It's totally insane, and one of the funniest things I've ever read. It's just so over the top and ridiculous, I love it. I read it back in early high school and decided to reread it since I was bored. Not exactly high literature, but fun. 6. All Systems Red, by Martha Wells. A sci-fi novella about an apathetic and detached Murderbot. It was a fun, fast read, well-written and paced. I'm not sure how much I want to dive into the rest of the series, but it might by decent if I've got a few hours to kill sometime. 7. Roadside Picnic, by the Strugatskys. Look, you all know about this one, I'll skip the summary here. Good book. I keep trying to discuss it with my Russian boss, he's read it and proclaims his love for it, but he never seems to engage. 8. The Reckoning, by David Halberstam. An in-depth history of the US and Japanese car industries leading up to collapse of American auto manufacturing in the 70's. It specifically focuses on Ford and Nissan, contrasting their management and manufacturing styles to explain why America wasn't able to compete. Great read, highly recommended (but be warned: it's big. The copy I had was 750 pages with tiny print.) A lot of it's very relevant today, I can see a lot of the same issues in our current economy. 9. How to Suppress Women's Writing, by Joanna Russ. It lays out the various tactics that have been used to ignore and... well, Suppress Women's Writing. It's kinda in the title. I adore this book. It's 35 years old, and still powerful. Read this book. Full stop. 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. 9/60 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. 2/9, 22% 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 1/9, 11% 4. Read a book by an author from every continent ( 5. Read at least one book by an LGBT author. 6. Read at least one book by an indigenous author. 7. Participate in the TBB BotM thread at least once in 2019 (thread stickied each month at the top of the forum). 8. Ask another poster to issue you a wildcard, then read it. 9. Get a recommendation from a friend or loved one. 10. Read a book by a local author. 11. Read a book published in 2019. 12. Read a book with an awesome cover. 13. Reread a book. Parasite Eve, by Hideaki Sena 14. Read a poetry collection. 15. Read a collection of short stories. 16. Read a play. 17. Read a book about feminism. How to Suppress Women's Writing, by Joana Russ 18. Read a book involving sports. 19. Read something biographical. Storm of Steel, by Ernst Jünger 20. Read something that has been banned, censored, or challenged. 21. Read something in the public domain. 22. Read one book you didn’t finish in a previous attempt (think high school if nothing comes to mind!). 23. Read a book about art. 24. Read a book that is the basis for a movie/tv show you have already seen. The Man in the High Castle, by Philip K. Dick
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Feb 5, 2019 05:12
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January’s Jubilations: Oh gosh, here we are in mid-February, so it’s high time to share my January reading experiences. I’m enjoying mixing it up with different genres and such. Reader life is good. My Legit Lit List: 1. A Single Shard (Linda Sue Park, 2001). I briefly met the author last summer at a children’s literature conference and put this young adult novel on my to read list. It was a quick read, considering the book’s grade level, and I really enjoyed it as a coming of age story. I could dig the universal themes of reaching toward an impossible dream, and I appreciated the Korean history angle, having lived and taught English there for several years. 2. Common Grounds: Contemplations. Confessions, and (Unexpected) Connections from the Coffee Shop (Lee Warren, 2015). I have no idea when I picked up this ebook, but it was there for me to read, and sometimes that’s all it takes. Really, that’s the best recommendation I have for it. As far as personal, observational essays go, this wasn’t bad. But the author’s mix of self-deprecating writing about his own age, weight, loneliness reminded me livejournaling teens, circa 2006. 3. A Little Gold Book of Ghastly Stuff (Neil Gaiman, 2011). An uneven collection of writing for my tastes, but I’m not a huge fan of Gaiman to begin with. This was collected as some ebook purchase through Humble Bundle. 4. My Southern Home: Or, the South and Its People (William Wells Brown, 1880). Public Domain! I listened to this as a LibriVox recording on my work commute. It’s a worthwhile memoir that looks at the relationships between black and white Southerners before and after the Civil War. The early chapters were light and playful in describing an idealistic plantation life. Then the tone quickly got dark and terrible. If the horrors of slavery and institutionalized racism aren’t enough for you, look up “gander snatching” for one more vexation to shake your head at. 5. Friendly Acres (Peter McArthur, 1927). Public Domain! The memoir more or less traces the author’s reflections over the course of a year working on his farm in Ontario. The book isn't for everyone, but I personally enjoyed the balance between its down-home anecdotes about fool animals and the farmer’s more heady reflections on themes of work vs. leisure, nature vs. human progress, and materialism vs. minimalism. Full disclosure: I read this during a long gaming binge of Stardew Valley, and there was almost certainly a positive feedback loop between the enjoyment of the two of them. 6. The Long Goodbye (Raymond Chandler, 1953). Noir and hard boiled detective stories have been a guilty pleasure of mine since discovering Sam Spade radio shows years ago, so I was excited to read my first Philip Marlowe novel. I wasn’t disappointed by this classic. The plot didn’t keep me guessing, granted, but I don’t think that’s the point. The hard boiled, cynical detective was spot on, and there were some great one liners along the way. My Booklord challenge updates: 6/50 books read! 2/6 continents represented! Public domain challenge met! My Joyful Responses: MockingQuantum posted:10. The Thin Man, Dashiell Hammett - This was my first read of anything by Hammett, and I think it was kind of a weird choice. I didn't initially expect the book to be funny, but it was ultimately pretty enjoyable. I still want to read something else by him, probably Maltese Falcon or Red Harvest, because I don't think I really got the flavor of classic hard-boiled detective novel here. The Thin Man has been on my reading list for a while now. I really enjoy the old Sam Spade radio dramas, but I wasn't sure how that humor-detective balance would play out in text. I suppose I'll be moving The Thin Man up on my the queue now. For a more straightforward hard-boiled story, I'd definitely recommend Raymond Chandler's The Long Goodbye if you haven't read it already. If folks can send any more noir/hard-boiled recommendations my way, I'd definitely appreciate it. I can't get enough of that mess. Also, anyone want to throw a wildcard my way? clamcake fucked around with this message at 07:16 on Feb 11, 2019 |
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Feb 11, 2019 07:10
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Patricia Highsmith - The Price of Salt for your wildcard clamcake.
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Feb 11, 2019 14:34
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All of my reviews are through the Goodreads link. 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. 52 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 4. Read a book by an author from every continent (N. America, S. America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania).
6. 7. 8. Ask another poster to issue you a wildcard, then read it. 9. 10. Read a book by a local author. 11. 12. Read a book with an awesome cover. 13. 14. 15. 16. Read a play. 17. 18. Read a book involving sports. 19. 20. Read something that has been banned, censored, or challenged. 21. Read something in the public domain. 22. 23. Read a book about art. 24. Read a book that is the basis for a movie/tv show you have already seen. goodreads
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Feb 12, 2019 21:17
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I would like to join the challenge, albeit a bit late! I used to be a voracious reader, but somehow got to the point that I only read a couple of books last year. I want to turn this trend around. Personal goal: 25 books Booklord challenge: Yes! (I may double up on a few of the challenges though, maybe read a poetry collection by a local author, as I don't think I'll make it otherwise)
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Feb 20, 2019 02:10
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piejinks posted:I would like to join the challenge, albeit a bit late! I used to be a voracious reader, but somehow got to the point that I only read a couple of books last year. I want to turn this trend around. Added you to the list. I think I have everyone so far. One thing I would suggest is not doubling up. I noticed a few other people doing the same already. Doubling up for numbers 2-4 is fine because they’re broad categories to be checked off as you handle other challenges. However, for the rest, the goal is to read a variety of books and experience new things. Not completing a challenge is perfectly fine, what is more important is that you read something new. That’s the spirit of the booklord to me at least. If you do decide to double up, at least wait until the end of the year to do so. If you’re behind in November or December then go ahead and cut some corners. I read a few very very short stories to hit my numbers last year. And in the spirit of planning ahead to hit my goals, I would like a wildcard now please!
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Feb 22, 2019 02:09
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cryptoclastic posted:
Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
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Feb 22, 2019 03:04
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clamcake posted:Other than the BotM participation and the wildcard recommendation, I plan to read whatever catches my eye and tick the boxes for categories as I go. I'll start to target specific challenges in November as needed. I had set a personal goal of 20 books for this year and stand poised to blow that out of the water already so that will give me the time to get one long hard book like Ulysses a go.
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Feb 22, 2019 18:21
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cryptoclastic posted:One thing I would suggest is not doubling up. I noticed a few other people doing the same already. Doubling up for numbers 2-4 is fine because they’re broad categories to be checked off as you handle other challenges. However, for the rest, the goal is to read a variety of books and experience new things. Not completing a challenge is perfectly fine, what is more important is that you read something new. That’s the spirit of the booklord to me at least. If you do decide to double up, at least wait until the end of the year to do so. If you’re behind in November or December then go ahead and cut some corners. That makes perfect sense to be - I will not be doubling after all!
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Feb 22, 2019 21:06
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Books by women: 3/24 Non-fiction: 1/12 Full reviews on Goodreads. I read You because I liked the TV show, and, well, the TV show is better. Much better. And I was enjoying Nevada but then it just... stopped? Like, there was no real resolution, I just reached the end of the book. So that was disappointing. And the last two Lone Wolf books were bad. Hopefully I read some better things next month.
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Feb 28, 2019 13:32
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New for February: 17. Broken Homes, - Ben Aaronovitch - This was my favorite Peter Grant so far. It's the first one that really felt like there was a world beyond whatever individual case Peter was working on, so it was cool to see that fleshed out. Also nice to see the main storyline moved along at a good clip. But holy poo poo Ben, stfu about architecture or learn how to write about it in a way that doesn't just use a bunch of jargon and hope people will either know what you're talking about, or take the time to look it up on Wikipedia. I got bored enough with meaningless architecture references that I honestly just skimmed through a bunch of it later in the book, and I don't feel like anything was lost really. 18. Killers of the Flower Moon - David Grann - This was really good. I tend to enjoy true crime books, and this one was really well written. It's also a fascinating and heartbreaking, and covered a portion of history I knew absolutely nothing about beforehand. Definitely recommend if this sort of book is your cup of tea. 19. The Western Star - Craig Johnson - This was a weird one. Right when I finished it I felt like it was the best Longmire book so far, but it's kind of paled in my memory since. It does start out really strong, with a compelling mystery, as well as some genuine questions about the nature of justice and mercy. In retrospect, though, the ending is a bit abrupt, and the solution to the mystery feels very "gotcha" in the sense that while you probably have all the information needed to solve it yourself, it's not an intuitive jump, and in fact is a little bit problematic of a choice. 20. Winter's Bone - Daniel Woodrell - I did not like this book. I'm particularly glad it was short. That's not to say it's a bad book really, but dear lord was it hopeless and depressing, to the point of kind of being comical at a few moments. The prose was actually quite good, but the book ended in a way that felt like it was intended to be hopeful and positive, but really just put depressed people back into the same lovely situation they started in at the beginning of the book. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone personally, just because I have a pet peeve about books that lean hard on a sense of crushing despair to get the reader invested. 21. Found Audio - NJ Campbell - I wanted to like this book so much but I think it's really just wasted potential. The book opens with an interesting conceit (someone transcribes a collection of cassette tapes with weird recordings on them, mystery ensues) but then kind of drops the conceit in any meaningful way. It ends up being a somewhat-disconnected string of vignettes that sort of share a central mystery, but nothing ever really comes of it. Also the author clearly didn't actually care about the prose reading in any way like it was being spoken by a real human being, as it all wold read very unnaturally in that context. I want to see exactly this book, written by someone with more experience and more commitment to the idea. 22. The Freeze-Frame Revolution - Peter Watts - I liked this a lot. It's hard to say much about it without giving some things away, and (like a lot of Watts) it's a book best experienced blind. Suffice to say, it's really good sci-fi with some interesting questions about human identity and a compelling far-future world-end scenario. 23. Foxglove Summer - Ben Aaronovitch - This may be the last book I read in the Peter Grant series. Someone in this thread mentioned the "UF bloat" and there were definitely parts of this book that felt like nothing but that. This is also the first book in the series that really felt like it fell victim to the "I have to write a book every year to make a living" problems that any series has. It's just... not good. A lot of filler, a lot of kind of half-hearted scenes, iffy action scenes, an abrupt and (for me) very boring ending. I was looking forward to this series because Rivers of London felt really unique and fun, but it's been really spotty since then. 24. Dracula - Bram Stoker - I loved Dracula in high school. This is the first time I've read it since then and I... surprisingly still really liked it? I think I just have a soft spot for gothic fiction, even with all its silly Victorian hangups and comical "nervous brainstorms" and dumb, dated gender roles stuff. I don't know that I have much else to say about it really, it's Dracula. 13, 21 25. Animal Farm - George Orwell - This was the first of my re-reads that I felt really benefited from being re-read. One of the reasons I wanted to re-read some classics is that I've now had enough distance from high school and college lit classes that liked to hammer home the loving stupid mentality that all literature exists for you to mine it dry of themes and symbols and motifs because there's some single, "best" reading of a book that needs to be unlocked. It was nice reading this without a teacher harping on about allegory and making me enumerate what every single thing references and why it's socially important. The book still has a huge impact (arguably more now that I have a better understanding of history and am living in the time we're in), but was also much more enjoyable and worrying to read. 13 26. The Girl with All the Gifts - MR Carey - This one won me over in the end. Honestly, it's kind of a bog-standard zombie apocalypse novel, and leans hard on the cordyceps fungus idea, just like the 5 or 6 other works of fiction did at the same time, all super certain that they were the first ones to think of the idea. The fact that the whole idea is now a bit overdone didn't really hurt the book, though. Despite some fairly bland, stock scenes, the book had some heart and interesting characters, and I kinda enjoyed it despite myself. 27. Blood Standard - Laird Barron - Barron is an odd duck. He's mostly a writer of short stories, usually weird fiction or cosmic horror, and has a huge body of work. I've read just about everything he's written, despite only actually liking about half of his output. He's also kind of crap at writing novels. His first one, The Croning, was basically just short stories with some connective tissue and didn't really hang very well as a single narrative. This book was better, in that respect, but still felt a bit like a collection of things happening, some of which were only sort of tied into the main story. It kind of worked, though, as it's definitely intended to be the "origin story" of the main character, who I think he intends to be the central character of yet another neverending series of novels. The second book is out already, and I enjoyed this one enough to take a look. quote:1. Any Other Name, Craig Johnson
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Feb 28, 2019 17:31
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MockingQuantum posted:17. Broken Homes, - Ben Aaronovitch - This was my favorite Peter Grant so far. It's the first one that really felt like there was a world beyond whatever individual case Peter was working on, so it was cool to see that fleshed out. Also nice to see the main storyline moved along at a good clip. But holy poo poo Ben, stfu about architecture or learn how to write about it in a way that doesn't just use a bunch of jargon and hope people will either know what you're talking about, or take the time to look it up on Wikipedia. I got bored enough with meaningless architecture references that I honestly just skimmed through a bunch of it later in the book, and I don't feel like anything was lost really. That was me that brought up the UF bloat and yeah. Broken Homes was actually the one where I started going "wait, is this it?" truth be told. Aside from Nightingale actually letting loose in it the whole thing felt meh, particularly with the ending and the yammering on and on about building stuff. He just couldn't deliver on the stuff brought up in Whispers Underground. Foxglove Summer, meanwhile, veers heavily in to "yeah, no, I get it, Peter Grant fucks" feeling for me - sex comes up more ever since Moon Over Soho and more and most of it is cringy as gently caress when mentioned. Which was annoying as gently caress because the first book's whole Magical Law & Order slant was a thing I liked.
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Feb 28, 2019 18:16
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citybeatnik posted:That was me that brought up the UF bloat and yeah. Broken Homes was actually the one where I started going "wait, is this it?" truth be told. Aside from Nightingale actually letting loose in it the whole thing felt meh, particularly with the ending and the yammering on and on about building stuff. He just couldn't deliver on the stuff brought up in Whispers Underground. Have you read the rest of them? I'm curious if it ever improves, but couldn't find a general consensus online. Amusingly, in one of the books, Aaronovitch thanks Blake Snyder for basically making his writing career possible. Snyder wrote a book called Save the Cat! that is basically a by-the-minute manual on writing screenplays based on the monomyth, and has (unfortunately) been touted as a go-to reference for novel writing as well. The further I got into the series, the more it became amply clear that he's kind of just writing straight to the instructions in terms of plot structure, which makes the books both extremely predictable and chock full of unnecessary filler because he tends to include "steps" of the process that don't necessarily apply to a given story. (moral here, if you're an aspiring writer: screenwriting != novel writing, similarly good screenwriting != writing a screenplay to a minute-by-minute template, usually)
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Feb 28, 2019 18:30
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MockingQuantum posted:Have you read the rest of them? I'm curious if it ever improves, but couldn't find a general consensus online. I've read the main series all the way through Lies Sleeping and while I'm not familiar with Save the Cat! the way you're describing it I can say "yeah, the rest of the books get like that". I'm not sure if it's because I haven't bothered with the novellas to link some of it together or not but the story beats do sort of blend together, combined with callbacks to earlier stuff that I'm sure he thinks is far more clever than they actually are (Foxglove Summer sets some stuff up for Molly, which comes in to play in Lies Sleeping). But the further in the series I got the more skimming of the pages I did. I can't for the life of me recall much of anything that happened in The Hanging Tree save for a few set pieces and me getting more and more annoyed with Leslie and going "yeah, I get it, this not-a-werefox is very particular in explaining that it's technically ephebophilia". For a series that was pitched to me as "if you liked Pratchett you'll love this!" I sure as hell have fallen out of love with it.
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Feb 28, 2019 18:50
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Coming in under the bell, I got a solid 7 in this month, thanks to a couple of short books, and some quick reads. All in all, a solid month with no real duds. I got in an Awesome Cover, We Sold Our Souls, and it's likely to stick the rest of the year. A recommendation from a loved one and some short stories were read as well. The short stories are a little problematic to count. They focused on under-represented groups, so lots of women, authors of color, and LGBT authors as well. I might just increment those categories by 1. 8. We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix - I think I saw this on a best of list from 2018. Either way, who can resist a black book with flames, upside down crosses, and dyed black page edges. You open the cover to reveal a crimson interior. It's metal AF. Kris is a down and out guitarist from a moderately successful metal band. Unfortunately, the lead singer got them all to sign a lovely contract and then took off. She comes to learn that the contract not only rooked them out of music rights, it sold their souls for his success. Obviously, a confrontation must occur. Obviously, this is going to be at a giant metal fest. This book finds its way onto some horror lists. I don't read much horror so I'm not sure what qualifies. There are definitely some tense scenes and some gruesome ones as well. I found this to be a fun, compulsively readable book. I'm not so sure about the redemptive power of metal or metal as the music of the oppressed, but this was fun anyways. 9. The Monster Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson - Baru 2. This was pretty solid. I didn't enjoy it as much as 1 though, and it sort of has middle book problems. I'll pick up 3, though I'm a little nervous to read that it's now a 4 book series rather than a trilogy. 11. Educated by Tara Westover - A memoir of a girl growing up among in a remote family of crazy prepper Mormons. Sort of all the rage, apparently, as this hit a lot of lists in 2018. A lot of the discussion now seems to center on authenticity and how likely it is a woman from that background could wind up with a PhD and the general credentials she's amassed. Lost in that, it's a compelling picture of abuse and how people buy into these situations. The writing at times can be a little clunky and Westover occasionally veers into melodrama, but otherwise a solid read and very interesting besides. 11. A People's Future of the United States ed. Victor LaValle - 25 authors contributed to the volume, and it's sort of a Who's Who of SFF at the moment. The stories are intended to provide some hope stemming from repressed people. As such most of the authors are people of color, women, LGBT, etc. What I did not expect going in was that most of them would be dystopias. The common trend is to imagine the heavy societal divides and regressive tendencies to increase. Some are surveillance states, some post global warming Mad Max type scenarios, and a few are more present day. The best of these stories are excellent, though they don't all live up to that mark. Taking a story by story rating for some sort of composite for the book though would likely miss the mark. Really, I think where this shines is cry from those who don't quite fit in that they will not be erased. As much as anything I've read, this is a direct response to the current times and political trends. 12. A More Beautiful and Terrible History: The Uses and Misuses of Civil Rights History by Jeanne Theoharis - I read an interview with Theoharis on MLK day and decided to grab this as a Black History Month read. Theoharis takes the stance that the way we talk about the Civil Rights movement obscures a lot of important details. She specifically focuses on the idea that it was primarily a Southern issue. Did you know that Boston only integrated schools in 1974? Or New York City never did? She traces the back to show that the Montgomery Bus Boycotts were the product of years of ineffective resistance, not a spontaneous response to Rosa Parks. Some of this is obvious, but she digs down deeply into it and challenges the idea Civil Rights is an accomplished thing and not an ongoing process. A good read. 13. Vigilance by Robert Jackson Bennett - This takes the idea that in the near future omnipresent fearmongering, cameras, and advertising will lead to the commodification of mass shootings, and eventually a game show where with substantial prizes for killing a shooter or being last surviving shooter as a mass killing incident. This follows the production team behind the show and a civilian woman as the next Vigilance is announced. You really really get the idea here that RJB wants to take everyone at Fox News and give them a good shaking. The characterization of their viewers is humorous, but reads a bit petty. Overall enjoyable, entertaining, but a bit shallow. 14. Bear by Marian Engel - February BOTM. A bookish librarian spends her summer in the wilderness cataloguing the books in an old house. There's also a pet bear. And she rediscovers her sexuality. (cue saxophone) Ben Nevis posted:1. Ice by Anna Kavan
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Feb 28, 2019 19:32
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In January/February, I read thirteen books: 1 - The Elementals, by Michael McDowell. Southern Gothic horror novel about a haunted house that by all accounts shirks a lot of supernatural clichés of the genre. I don't read much horror fiction, but this seemed to be a great example of it: effective surprises, unsettling imagery, a well-drawn cast of characters. The settings feel lived-in and I was able to put together vivid mental pictures of the events from McDowell's prose. There are a few elements that felt strange to me - some of the family connections were simply unfamiliar - but one that stuck out was the character Odessa, the single black protagonist. The book never ceases to remind you of her blackness, her supposedly innate connection to the spiritual, her lack of education, and while she's never portrayed as unlikeable or incapable, McDowell seems to be knee-deep in the "magical negro" archetype to an extent that felt distracting. All in all though, I really enjoyed this book, and know a few people I'd recommend it to. 2 - Red Rosa: A Graphic Biography Of Rosa Luxemburg, by Kate Evans. I had a vague knowledge of Rosa Luxemburg before reading this, but I had no idea there was so much to her life and to her words. One thing that jumped out at me most was how empathetic and fond of little moments Rosa's writing seemed to be - an aspect that Evans highlights with quieter sections in the narrative. I found the story inspiring and powerful and sad - the artwork took me a while to get used to, though. It's often quite ugly, though Evans is writing about ugly times with ugly situations, so it's thematically appropriate at least. This book made me want to explore more of Luxemburg's writings, so I consider it a success. 3 - A Closed And Common Orbit, by Becky Chambers. As the sequel to one of my favourite SF books, this had a lot to live up to. And it mostly managed: this is a sweet, exciting book overflowing with empathy and peppered with lovely lived-in space opera stuff. Comprising two parallel coming-of-age stories, an escaped child slave and a newly-awakened AI, Chambers captures a whole spectrum of worries and excitements and flaws and different kinds of love. While this book doesn't reach the same emotional highs and lows as its prequel, it's still a cosy and really enjoyable story, and I've already got the third novel on my shelf. 4 - My Revolutions, by Hari Kunzru. A surprisingly great and very sad novel about a middle-aged man whose radical, revolutionary past starts to catch up with him. The interpersonal struggles of activists in the mid-20th Century contrasted with the uneasy consensus of late-90s Britain. I'd heard good things about Kunzru's work but this has sold me completely, and I can't wait to check out his other work. 5- This Is Going To Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor, by Adam Kay. I listened to the audiobook of this, read by Kay himself. It's a shockingly candid work, alternating between hilarious moments and heartbreaking tragedy, and with an undercurrent of ever-increasing frustration and anger. It's an account of someone working gruelling hours with little support or remuneration, and the bulk of it was written -before- the current shitshow of what the government has done (and is still doing) to healthcare in the UK. The final open letter had me filled with righteous anger, and I'm sure I wasn't the only one affected so deeply. A hell of a book about a hellish state of affairs. 6 - Gods Of Metal, by Eric Schlosser. Short book about nuclear weapons and campaigns for disarmament, particularly focusing on the Ploughshares activists in the US. Troubling statistics and journalism combine with the humbler human stories of people trying to stop untold devastation. A quick and sobering read. 7 - FTL, Y'all!: Tales From the Age of the $200 Warp Drive, edited by C. Spike Trotman. Anthology of SF comics. I helped kickstart this, and I'm really happy I did: this is a collection of interesting, funny and sometimes heartfelt stories. The artwork and writing vary wildly, as one might expect from an anthology like this, but each story has more than enough personality to make up for any narrative or stylistic missteps. The best entries for me were the smaller-scale ones: the interpersonal conflicts, the existential worry of being a small human with an infinite universe to get lost in. Iron Circus continue to put out great indie-comics productions and this makes me want to get more and more. 8 - S.N.U.F.F.: A Utopia, by Victor Pelevin. This took me almost 2/3 of the book to properly get into, but I found the last act very satisfying. As a far-future vision of a grim cargo-cult media theocracy, it's intense and scathing and bitter. But there are far too many jokes or satirical swipes that landed awkwardly for me. I got tired of wondering "Is this piece of narration lazily sexist because it's meant to show how warped this society's gender politics are, or because it's just an easy gag?" Even though the protagonist/narrator is written as a nasty piece of work - a product of his time and culture - he was unpleasant and callous in ways that I didn't find particularly interesting. It's only in the last third, where his circumstances shift considerably, that I found myself excited to see his perspective. There are plenty of good things here - the path Grim takes is particularly satisfying - but there is a lot of filler. Clearly Pelevin had a lot of fun writing it, and it was never dull or slow, but it was lacking the bite I was hoping for. 9 & 10 - Pluto, vol. 7 & 8, by Naoki Urasawa. The final two volumes of the SF epic, featuring pitched battles, empathy in the face of oblivion, and a surprisingly tangled matryoshka doll of false identities. The last chapters are powerful and engrossing and the artwork continues to be superb. The twin shadows of terrorism and climate disaster loom heavily in the subtext, and almost every character ends up changed in some meaningful way. Pluto is a drat good comic series and I'm very happy I've finished it. 11 - Strawberry Milkshake, by Cate Wurtz. I've been a big fan of Wurtz for a while now, especially her ongoing series Crow Cillers, so I was really excited to get into Strawberry Milkshake. Being familiar with her previous work, I had a good idea of what to expect stylistically, from the scruffy "fake cartoon show" style to the blend of everyday life and nightmarish horror. The themes of abusive relationships and escaping dire circumstances with unlikely allies have featured in plenty of Wurtz's comics, but rarely so finely honed as in this story. The snippets of Cole's "TV-interview" inner monologue are particularly chilling. This is a great comic and one I'll be recommending to friends as a way into her body of work. 12 - A Girl Is A Half-formed Thing, by Eimear McBride. McBride experiments with style in this stream-of-consciousness tale of a girl growing up in a bitterly oppressive life of family tragedy and brutal religion. This book is a relentless, miserable experience rendered with genuine power. Sad, broken people crash against each other in sad, broken ways. Every silver lining has an army of clouds behind it, and every brief respite precedes a new depth to which the reader is dragged. A very well-crafted book that I hated reading. 13 - Big Hard Sex Criminals vol. 2: Deluxxxe, by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky. Arcs 3 and 4 of the comic about people whose orgasms stop time. This gets even more metatextual than the first book, including a lengthy scene where the creators themselves talk about a sequence they can't think how to write. In keeping with the themes of the comic, it's very self-effacing and honest about human flaws - though when characters' mistakes become increasingly frustrating toward the end of arc 4, my engagement as a reader started to stretch more thinly. That said, I won't be putting this series down - there are some really nice moments and good jokes and difficult interpersonal conversations here, even through the haze of dick and kegel jokes. Plus they managed to write in an asexual character who doesn't seem tokenistic or out of place? So that's nice. 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. - 13/52 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 1/3 of them are written by women - 5 - 2, 3, 7, 11, 12 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 1/3 of them are written by someone non-white - 4 - 4, 7, 9, 10 4. Read a book by an author from every continent (N. America, S. America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania). [*]N. America - 1, 3, 6, 7, 11, 13 [*]S. America - [*]Europe - 2, 4, 5, 8, 12 [*]Africa - [*]Asia - 9, 10 [*]Oceania 6. Read at least one book by an indigenous author. 7. Participate in the TBB BotM thread at least once in 2019 (thread stickied each month at the top of the forum). 8. Ask another poster to issue you a wildcard, then read it. 9. Get a recommendation from a friend or loved one. 10. Read a book by a local author. 11. Read a book published in 2019. 13. Reread a book. 14. Read a poetry collection. 15. Read a collection of short stories. 16. Read a play. 18. Read a book involving sports. 20. Read something that has been banned, censored, or challenged. 21. Read something in the public domain. 22. Read one book you didn’t finish in a previous attempt. 24. Read a book that is the basis for a movie/tv show you have already seen.
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Feb 28, 2019 23:10
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Read 8 books this month for a total of 14. Way above my intended pace. I saw the comment about not double counting. Since I'm going to read way more books than initially intended, I'll try to double up on categories where there's overlap. Invisible Man by Ralph Waldo Ellison - I enjoyed most of this book. There were lots of long monologues that I wasn't so into. Some of the sections were a little disconnected, but they all drove home the point of a black man who was not seen as individual, but as a set of stereotypes and expectations of behaviour, to the point where even he didn't know who he was, as he reinvented himself to suit the role pushed on to him. Lots of musical symbology. The Obelisk Gate by N. K. Jemisin - Picked up after about a hundred pages. I felt the first in the series struggled with characterization, because it held on to the 'these are different people' gimmick too long. This one did better on that front, actually developing a single character (or two I guess). Metis and the Medicine Line by Michel Hogue - I really enjoyed this book. A history of the Metis people and how they shaped the border between Canada and the US, and how that border shaped them. The book also dives into the border of race that began to be developed in both Canada and the US, as the Metis found themselves excluded from being White and from being Indian. The history looks at the material and environmental factors that shaped the Metis (primarily the decline and collapse of the Buffalo, and the expansion of the nation states of Canada and the US). But it also maintained a more personal narrative throughout, following a few families as they participated in buffalo hunts, cross border trade and appeals to state authorities. Turns out the author is in the same city as me, so I guess it counts as a local author but I have two others on hold at the library anyway. Provenance by Anne Leckie - A quick, fun read. Didn't like it as much as the ancillary series, and it didn't feel as meaningful. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - Took a bit to get used to the language, but once I got it I was hooked. The writing did well to bring out the humour and absurdity in the situations the sisters found themselves in. Dust by Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor - I tried to read this book last spring and couldn't do it. I wasn't into the prose in this book. The setting descriptions sometimes did well at evoking a sort of film noir aesthetic, but the long descriptions, regular use of metaphor and strong authorial voice kind of drowned out the characters. Which is not a good thing when the plot is about slowly revealing the characters secrets. Nevada by Imogen Binnie - Maria was a great character. Funny, smart, anti-capitalist punk, but also self-destructive and tragic. The shift to Nevada was abrupt, and I didn't feel that James was as well developed as Maria, but he did help to flesh out Maria more. Both as a new outside perspective on the character, and as a Maria at a younger age sort of thing. The ending didn't resolve anything, but it felt fitting for Maria. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald - I read it and never felt bored or disengaged. But I guess it just didn't pop. Maybe I'm just reserving judgement. 1 Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. 14/50 2 Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. 10/14 3 Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 8/14 4 Read a book by an author from every continent ( 5 6 7 Participate in the TBB BotM thread at least once in 2019 (thread stickied each month at the top of the forum). 8 Ask another poster to issue you a wildcard, then read it. 9 10 11 Read a book published in 2019. 12 Read a book with an awesome cover. 13 Reread a book. 14 15 Read a collection of short stories. 16 Read a play. 17 Read a book about feminism. 18 19 Read something biographical. 20 Read something that has been banned, censored, or challenged. 21 22 23 Read a book about art. 24 Read a book that is the basis for a movie/tv show you have already seen.
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Mar 1, 2019 07:12
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February update. It was a slow month but I did get some reading done. Erstwhile: 1. The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas. 2. Glasshjerte, Torkil Damhaug. 3. Penric's Demon, Lois McMaster Bujold. 4. The Wandering Earth, Liu Cixin. New: 5. The Gone World, Tom Sweterlitsch. Apocalyptic time-travel mystery with secret space travel, conspiracies and murder. Enjoyed it quite a bit. 6. The Passage, Justin Cronin. Vampire apocalypse with a twist. Quite good fun again. 7. Before Mars, Emma Newman. Side-quel #2 to Planetfall. Yet another apocalyptic conspiratorial unreliable-memory mystery thriller. Good stuff. Huh, there seems to be a lot of apocalyptic global destruction in my reading these days. Booklord challenge: 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. - 7/40. 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. - 2/7 = 29%. 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. - 1/7 = 14% (unless you count Dumas just to be clever) 4. Read a book by an author from every continent (N. America, S. America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania). - N. America, Europe, Asia 5. Read at least one book by an LGBT author. 6. Read at least one book by an indigenous author. 7. Participate in the TBB BotM thread at least once in 2019 (thread stickied each month at the top of the forum). 8. Ask another poster to issue you a wildcard, then read it. - have it assigned but not yet read. 9. Get a recommendation from a friend or loved one. 10. Read a book by a local author. - Glasshjerte 11. Read a book published in 2019. 12. Read a book with an awesome cover. 13. Reread a book. 14. Read a poetry collection. 15. Read a collection of short stories. - The Wandering Earth 16. Read a play. 17. Read a book about feminism. 18. Read a book involving sports. 19. Read something biographical. 20. Read something that has been banned, censored, or challenged. 21. Read something in the public domain. - The Count of Monte Cristo 22. Read one book you didn’t finish in a previous attempt (think high school if nothing comes to mind!). 23. Read a book about art. 24. Read a book that is the basis for a movie/tv show you have already seen. - The Count of Monte Cristo
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Mar 1, 2019 10:48
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Here comes Februrary Orlando by Virginia Woolf So far the best book I've read this year. Orlando is goofy and rich in a way I forgot novels could be. The imagery just gushes out of Woolf's prose seemingly effortlessly, it's just insane and very thrilling. I will decide later whether I count this one as my LGBT author (since it's dedicated to and inspired by her lesbian lover), or book about feminism (because it deals with the position of women at different stages of British history). Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky As far as the genre of non-fiction books I think of as "here's all there is to know about a single mundane thing" this one is rather OK. The Hospital by Ahmed Bouanani This amazing short novel about patients in a decrepit tuberculosis hospital has a very dreamlike quality and really beautiful writing. I can't vouch for the original (as far as I know, it was written in a sort of vernacular French used in Morocco), but the translation has very good rhythm and flow in the prose. It is often said that The Cancer Ward was Solzhenitsyn's metaphor for all the societal ills of the Soviet Union, so I can probably guess that Bouanani tries to do the same here with his native country, but that is beside the point when the book contains truly exhilarating passages I just had to reread several times moved by their beauty.
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Mar 1, 2019 14:38
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January and February Gateways to Abomination by Matthew Bartlett Bear by Marian Engle Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges The Drowning Girl by Caitlin Kiernan Old Man's War by John Scalzi Hocus Pocus by Kurt Vonnegut The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. 7/20 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. 3/7 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 4. Read a book by an author from every continent ( 6. Read at least one book by an indigenous author. 8. Ask another poster to issue you a wildcard, then read it. 10. Read a book by a local author. 11. Read a book published in 2019. 13. Reread a book. 14. Read a poetry collection. 16. Read a play. 17. Read a book about feminism. 18. Read a book involving sports. 19. Read something biographical. 20. Read something that has been banned, censored, or challenged. 21. Read something in the public domain. 22. Read one book you didn’t finish in a previous attempt (think high school if nothing comes to mind!). 23. Read a book about art. 24. Read a book that is the basis for a movie/tv show you have already seen.
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Mar 2, 2019 17:35
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What did you think of the Caitlin Kiernan and the Alice Hoffman? I read Hoffman's The River King recently and it completely blew me away.
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Mar 2, 2019 17:58
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Arivia posted:What did you think of the Caitlin Kiernan and the Alice Hoffman? I read Hoffman's The River King recently and it completely blew me away. The Kiernan was a pretty weird and fun book, with a narrator who is insane. Somehow she managed to weave together a story about a werewolf and a story about a mermaid, but not really? Very good stuff. The Hoffman book was apparently a prequel to another she had written that I have not read. It is about a family of siblings who are a lineage of witches discovering their heritage in Massachusetts and New York City through the 60s to roughly present. As hokey as that might sound it was tenderly written and stands as one of the few books I have read that has brought me to tears--like bawling, one part was so sad. Or I was just in the right headspace for a cry I guess. Both are recommended e: now that I recall the Kiernan was also set in New England fwiw Bilirubin fucked around with this message at 20:21 on Mar 2, 2019 |
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Mar 2, 2019 20:14
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February was a mess of a month. It's always super busy with a bunch of family commitments and stuff, and my reading discipline got way out of whack. I have to shovel a bunch of eh stuff down for Canada Reads next, which I'm not looking forward to. 8. Michael Hyatt - Your Best Year Ever. Simple, effective self-improvement advice. WASPy. 4/5. 9. Jim Butcher - Storm Front. Paint-by-numbers, pedestrian, chauvinist urban fantasy. 2/5. 10. Miriam Toews - Women Talking. Intimate, revelatory novel about women's lives. Traumatic. 4/5. 11. Rachel Kushner - The Mars Room. Evocative, sprawling prison novel. Weird issues with trans representation. 3/5. 12. Marian Engel - Bear. The spirit of the Canadian shield held in a campfire dalliance. Beautiful exploration of the wilderness's place in a woman's life. 5/5. 13. David Chariandy - Brother. Textured, nuanced depiction of the lives of Black Canadian youth. 5/5. 14. Angela Carter - The Bloody Chamber. Feminist, sexual retellings of classic fairy tales in Gothic and Romantic tones. 5/5. 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. 14/50 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. 8/14 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 1/14 4. Read a book by an author from every continent ( 5. Read at least one book by an LGBT author. 6. Read at least one book by an indigenous author. 8. Ask another poster to issue you a wildcard, then read it. 9. Get a recommendation from a friend or loved one. 10. Read a book by a local author. 11. Read a book published in 2019. 14. Read a poetry collection. 16. Read a play. 17. Read a book about feminism. 18. Read a book involving sports. 19. Read something biographical. 20. Read something that has been banned, censored, or challenged. 21. Read something in the public domain. 24. Read a book that is the basis for a movie/tv show you have already seen.
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Mar 3, 2019 20:39
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Arivia posted:February was a mess of a month. It's always super busy with a bunch of family commitments and stuff, and my reading discipline got way out of whack. I have to shovel a bunch of eh stuff down for Canada Reads next, which I'm not looking forward to. Ali Hassan account spotted
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Mar 4, 2019 00:33
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I read three books in February! 1. Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town, Stephen Leacock: This was a fun read. The people, situations, and jokes felt very familiar, even though I’ve never read it, since I think it was pretty influential on later Canadian humour. It was written in 1912. It is a collection of short stories, but they are all quite connected. The characters are very flawed, in an amusing way. Booklord #21, Public Domain 2. Prometheus Bound, Aeschylus, translated by Robert Whitelaw: This was more enjoyable than I expected. I approached it a bit pessimistically--I couldn’t sleep and thought this would do it. However, it wasn’t at all painful, and it was short enough for a single evening. It’s neat to read things from 2,500 years ago and feel that people were fundamentally the same. Here’s a line that seemed to resonate, where Prometheus is talking about Zeus: For this is ever, as it seems, the vice Of tyrants, to distrust the faithful friend. Booklord #16 , Play 3. Murder at Hazelmoor, Agatha Christie: I’m a big Christie fan and have probably read every one of her books at least twice. I doubt I “solved” this one the first time I read it, but rereading, Christie was perfectly fair. The clues hit you over the head once you realize that certain incidental things wouldn’t be mentioned or repeated unless they’re significant. This one was not a Hercules Poirot or a Miss Marple mystery, which is always a nice change. Booklord #13, Reread Number of books read: 3/25 Female authors: 1/3, 33% Nonwhite authors: 0/3, 0% - I'm definitely going to change this 0% in March!
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Mar 4, 2019 01:14
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February! 7. Sapiens. Yuval Noah Harari. I really liked it until the author started his sermon. Still, it was a very well written book and I learned a lot about the history of humanity. 8. Rendezvous with Rama. Arthur C. Clarke. Another great book from Clarke. The science seems spot on for the time. Reread. 9. Spice and Wolf Vol. 2. Isuna Hasekura. The story is still interesting, but some of the characters just don't fit that well. 10. The Crucible. Arthur Miller. Based on historical people and the real events of a community consumed by hysteria. It's pretty good, it makes you hate the bad people and root for the... "good" people. An interesting read. 11- The Fall. Albert Camus. A pretty dense book, but interesting. The way is narrated mixes with the thinking of the reader and sometimes it transcends the written page and becomes one of our own thoughts. 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. (11/60) 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. (2/12) 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. (2/12) 4. Read a book by an author from every continent (N. America, S. America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania). (3/5) 5. Read at least one book by an LGBT author. 6. Read at least one book by an indigenous author. 7. Participate in the TBB BotM thread at least once in 2019 (thread stickied each month at the top of the forum). 8. Ask another poster to issue you a wildcard, then read it. 9. Get a recommendation from a friend or loved one. 10. Read a book by a local author. 11. Read a book published in 2019. 14. Read a poetry collection. 15. Read a collection of short stories. 17. Read a book about feminism. 18. Read a book involving sports. 19. Read something biographical. 22. Read one book you didn’t finish in a previous attempt (think high school if nothing comes to mind!). 23. Read a book about art. Talas fucked around with this message at 03:41 on Mar 4, 2019 |
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Mar 4, 2019 02:55
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hello, I am late to this game but I would like to play! Personal goal: in addition to my usual genre diet of swords and spaceships, I will read at least 20 new-to-me "classics" by the end of this year. Booklord's challenge: yes! Catch-up book diary: 2019 January The Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy 2018 - ed. N. K. Jemisin and John Joseph Adams (anthology of 20 short stories) I don't have a lot of experience with anthologies, but found more hits than misses in this one. Don’t Press Charges and I Won’t Sue by Charlie Jane Anders was loving harrowing and I had to put the book down and breathe heavily for a little bit after. ZeroS by Peter Watts: sharp, visceral, blackly funny, thought-provoking. Only story I couldn't get through was The Hermit of Houston by Samuel Delaney. Cumbersome and unnatural dialogue, cutesy satirical references to current tech and current culture that just came off as out of touch and bad tempered, old man yells at cloud. I found it pretty much unreadable, and was bummed. To Say Nothing of the Dog - Connie Willis Read Doomsday Book in 2018 and literally, physically, could not put it down until I finished, so thought I'd try out some of her other Oxford time travel department stories. This one was a broad farce and had some genuinely very funny moments, but, well. I don't have a lot of background in social comedies, or Victorian history, and I never read Three Men In a Boat by Jerome K Jerome which this book HEAVILY references, so it didn't really sing for me. Still a fun romp though. Gets a bonus point for acknowledging, however briefly, that time travel into the past is a very dangerous sport for the non-white. The Library Book - Susan Orlean Loved this. Beautiful and meditative exploration of the library's past, present, and future, anchored in Orlean's own personal history and relationship with her mother, and the catastrophic Los Angeles central library fire in the 1980s. Perennial Seller - Ryan Holiday Breezy, bloggy book about how to approach the act of creating something (a book, a film, a product, a business) from the standpoint of building and selling things of real value that will capture audience's imaginations, and endure, rather than trying to hit it big quick and inevitably flame out. A Burden Shared - Jo Walton (short story) Thought provoking look at a family living in the near future, where people with chronic pain can offload their suffering to a consenting volunteer. A Wrinkle In Time - Madeline L'Engle (re-read) Meg breaks all the rules of protagonists by being passive, whiny, and literally incapacitated for a large chunk of the book, but I still sniffled and teared up when she finally achieved the power of real love. Also Aunt Beast is my mom now All Systems Red - Martha Wells Artificial Condition - Martha Wells Rogue Protocol - Martha Wells I LOVE MURDERBOT. 2019 February Exit Strategy - Martha Wells I STILL LOVE MURDERBOT. Making Money - Terry Pratchett A re-tread of the much better Going Postal. Still fun though. I Shall Wear Midnight - Terry Pratchett Occasionally clunky dialogue and expositional inelegance and a tacked-on ending and a sub-par villain didn't stop me from loving this book and finding it powerful and dark and yet another compelling example of how Pratchett was both furious at humans for the wretched, evil, vicious things we can't stop doing to one another, and how he also loved humans so much, because we're just... humans, and we're a mess, and what else can you do but choose to love? Nation - Terry Pratchett Same as above, but even more so. Imaginative and strange and bleak and full of compassion. Guards! Guards! - Terry Pratchett (re-read) Men at Arms - Terry Pratchett (re-read) Feet of Clay - Terry Pratchett (re-read) Extremely good and solid Discworld romps. Feet of Clay in particular is a fun, tightly plotted murder mystery, and also finds time to pose some interesting philosophical questions. I love his conception of the golems, and I love the big mistake they made, because of course they did, and I love its terrible, grisly result. Jingo - Terry Pratchett (re-read) Good moments, good comic scenes, but the plot doesn't hang together as well as the first three in the Watch series. The Fifth Elephant - Terry Pratchett (re-read) Vimes OP, please nerf. Also, I wish Pratchett would give Angua something better to do than moan about being a werewolf all the time and then get rescued by a man (or wolf) :| Night Watch - Terry Pratchett (re-read) Starts off a little clunky, with that thing Pratchett likes to do where the characters are all in possession of information that is kept secret from the reader to build artificial suspense. Then the time explosion happens and the story gets quite good. Vimes's coming of age book. Interesting exploration of social unrest, mob mentality, governance, and nonviolent (or very violent) resistance. Thud! - Terry Pratchett Sigh. Some cool moments, but Vimes is OP again, up to 11 this time. Signs of Pratchett's mental decline show themselves in lengthy, bombastic dialogue, and established characters acting very out of character (man-of-the-people Vimes, who loves Ankh-Morpork and hates being a duke, allows the Watch to stop the entire city's traffic during rush hour so he, personally, can make it home faster? What?) Wyrd Sisters - Terry Pratchett (re-read) This book doesn't get a lot of attention but I personally think it's one of the very greats. Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, and Magrat are in top form here and both the A and the B plot are tight and strong (and the B plot pays off wonderfully). You read Macbeth in high school, right? A delight all around. Witches Abroad - Terry Pratchett (re-read) Soggier than Wyrd Systers, but still fun, with some very good comic bits, and hints about the real power of witchcraft lying in knowing exactly who you are, and what you want, with no illusions or self-deception. CURRENT BOOKLORD CHALLENGE STATUS 1. Total books: 20 Total short stories: 21 New-to-me "Classics": 0 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. 7/20, or 35% 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 0/20 :| 4. Read a book by an author from every continent ( 5. Read at least one book by an LGBT author. ...is Martha Wells queer? I feel like she might be? regardless, I am not going to count this as checked off yet. 6. Read at least one book by an indigenous author. 7. Participate in the TBB BotM thread at least once in 2019 (thread stickied each month at the top of the forum). 8. Ask another poster to issue you a wildcard, then read it. 9. Get a recommendation from a friend or loved one. 10. Read a book by a local author. 11. Read a book published in 2019. 12. Read a book with an awesome cover. 13. 14. Read a poetry collection. 15. 16. Read a play. 17. Read a book about feminism. 18. Read a book involving sports. 19. Read something biographical. 20. Read something that has been banned, censored, or challenged. 21. Read something in the public domain. 22. Read one book you didn’t finish in a previous attempt (think high school if nothing comes to mind!). 23. Read a book about art. 24. Read a book that is the basis for a movie/tv show you have already seen.
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Mar 5, 2019 02:52
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ENEMIES EVERYWHERE posted:I never read Three Men In a Boat by Jerome K Jerome which this book HEAVILY references
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Mar 5, 2019 04:55
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I wanted to highlight the best book I read in February and one that I'll definitely re-read in the future. It is The House of God by Samuel Shem and it is a depressingly funny, emotionally draining, and will most likely open a new perspective on the medical profession for one unless one has already gone through BUFF & TURF. The book is quite well written and I recommend it. I removed the doubling for challenges. All of my reviews are through the Goodreads link. 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. 31/52 2. 3. 4.
6. 7. 8. Ask another poster to issue you a wildcard, then read it. 9. 10. Read a book by a local author. 11. 12. Read a book with an awesome cover. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. Read something biographical. 20. Read something that has been banned, censored, or challenged. 21. Read something in the public domain. 22. 23. Read a book about art. 24. goodreads Furious Lobster fucked around with this message at 07:15 on Mar 13, 2019 |
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Mar 5, 2019 07:55
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6. Blackwater, by Michael McDowell. This thing is something else. The scope of it is immense. The characters are all incredibly flawed. Taking place in a small Alabama town from 1919 to the early 70s, McDowell shows great craft in detailing the lives of a rich family. Spiced up by intriguing supernatural elements, Blackwater is a huge but great read. 7. The Marrow Thieves, by Cherie Dimaline. Post-apocalyptic YA novel set in Canada. The world fell to chaos after most people stopped being able to dream. Indigenous people are hunted for their marrow, which may bring dreams back for those who lost them. I don't know if it's just because it's YA, but I didn't really enjoy this. No nuance to the bad guys, an awkward romance, and gutpunch deaths just for the shock. That being said, as a book for Indigenous representation, it's pretty cool. Challenges a lot of assumptions. The characters are all from different tribes and nations with distinct spiritualities and customs. So it was cool for that stuff. 8. Enigma Variations, by Andre Aciman. A coworker recommended this to me saying it was a great depiction of a bisexual character. Aciman's prose is fantastic and the ups and downs the lead character goes through are quite riveting. That said, it is impossible to sympathize with him. He's an rear end in a top hat. While this is a common thread throughout the book, the "twist" ending seals the deal and sours any goodwill the rest of the book might have earned. 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 4. Read a book by an author from every continent ( 7. Participate in the TBB BotM thread at least once in 2019 (thread stickied each month at the top of the forum). 8. Ask another poster to issue you a wildcard, then read it. 10. Read a book by a local author. 11. Read a book published in 2019. 12. Read a book with an awesome cover. 13. Reread a book. 14. Read a poetry collection. 15. Read a collection of short stories. 16. Read a play. 18. Read a book involving sports. 19. Read something biographical. 20. Read something that has been banned, censored, or challenged. 21. Read something in the public domain. 22. Read one book you didn’t finish in a previous attempt (think high school if nothing comes to mind!). 23. Read a book about art. Books by women: 5/8 - 62.5% Books by authors of color: 2/8 - 25% Whoops, accidentally edited my January recap...
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Mar 6, 2019 01:11
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I think I have a book in mind for most of the "continent" challenge, but I admit I have no idea what I should read from Oceania. Anybody have any off the cuff suggestions?
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Mar 6, 2019 01:59
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MockingQuantum posted:I think I have a book in mind for most of the "continent" challenge, but I admit I have no idea what I should read from Oceania. Anybody have any off the cuff suggestions? From Australia: Picnic at Hanging Rock Oyster That Deadman Dance New Zealand: The Luminaries
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Mar 6, 2019 02:46
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