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citybeatnik posted:I've given up on hitting my goal for the year I think due to the absurd amount of poo poo I have going on in my life at the moment. My advice for everyone is to try to keep your major life milestones to just one a year as opposed to three of them within 4 months of one another. Anyway. No! I refuse! I am having an incredibly amazing, productive year because I'm refusing to do that. 4 a month again. And then I got mired in this absolutely interminable Indian mystery novel. Yeck. 30. Catherine Leroux - The Party Wall. Interlocking, explosive stories of identity. 5/5. 31. Madeline Ashby - Company Town. Gripping, richly textured look at the cyberpunk Maritimes. 4/5. 32. Thea Lim - An Ocean of Minutes. Haunting, experiential treatment of human relationships. 4/5. 33. Sarah Henstra - The Red Word. Intimate, complex exploration of sex and gender creating identity. 5/5. 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. 33/50 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. 21/33 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 7/33 4. Read a book by an author from every continent ( 6. Read at least one book by an indigenous author. 10. Read a book by a local author. 14. Read a poetry collection. 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. 24. Read a book that is the basis for a movie/tv show you have already seen.
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Jul 10, 2019 00:37
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I just realized I never posted my June update. I am a less than stellar booklord. Sorry! I read four books in June. I was pretty busy as well so I’m proud of myself. I seem to read in spurts, barely reading for a week or two, and then suddenly reading a lot. Now the semester is over and I have the next two months off, so I hope to get a lot of reading done. Or I will buy a Switch and play that too much. June 18. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. Interesting and sad. A lot of the themes and ideas in the book really made me angry. 19. From Wonso Pond by Kang Kyong-ae. Dealing with life under colonial rule by Japan. All literature at this time was heavily censored, and you can tell there is a lot left unsaid. I enjoyed this a lot and would love to be able to read some stuff from this era that wasn’t censored, but I doubt anything even exists. 20. Feminism is for Everybody by bell hooks. I’ve read a little bell hooks before, and I wanted to read something else by her for the feminist reading challenge. This book is honestly better for someone who know nothing at all about feminism. While there were some new ideas, most of this felt like review for me. 21. No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy. I like McCarthy’s style. I read The Road last year and really enjoyed it, so I chose this for the movie challenge. From what I do remember of the movie, it seems it followed the book extremely closely. Really enjoyed this. 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. 21/40 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. 10/21 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 6/21 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. 11. Read a book published in 2019. 12. Read a book with an awesome cover. 18. Read a book involving sports. 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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Jul 10, 2019 02:08
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cryptoclastic posted:I just realized I never posted my June update. I am a less than stellar booklord. Sorry! There's a little, and it's full of hanja, so even if you can find it online in Korean it's doubtful it will have been updated to all hangul BUT the Daehan Maeil Shinbo (대한메일신보) existed for a tiny window (1904-1909) and was a paper free of censorship until it was seized that did run artistic pieces from time to time. The guy who ran it was British so he managed to use that as a loophole to avoid censorship for a little while--its pretty wild stuff seeing blatantly anti-Japanese editorials in that period. The English version was called The Korea Daily News, so you miiiight be able to find it uploaded or archived. There were several other literary magazines that do pop up in the 1920s, but pretty much all of them are forced to close by the 40s. Same issue with the Hanja barrier though. ETA: Actually, I said that then looked, and lo, the National Library has it online! Like all things Korea net, you need to use Internet Explorer, buuuuut here you go! Results for 1904 There's some English, it's tiny and hard to read, and the Korean is all Hanja, but there it is! felgs fucked around with this message at 03:14 on Jul 10, 2019 |
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Jul 10, 2019 03:07
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A human heart posted:did you read the le clezio book yet? I finally read this and it was great. I read it on a lake in Northern WI although I wish I had read it in like a Walmart supercenter for the full effect. I tried to get Lust by Jelinek but after being available all year it was checked out when I made my trip to the central branch library. I'll put it on hold tho. --- I am also getting my butt kicked but not so much by life events as just having a drastically different schedule than last year thanks to a new job/friends who live in the city/other activities. I am not going to get anywhere close to 100 books but I am going to try and do the book lord challenge still. After a brief skim I have a bunch checked off already but need to plan out some of the other key ones
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Jul 10, 2019 16:27
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FelicityGS posted:ETA: Actually, I said that then looked, and lo, the National Library has it online! Like all things Korea net, you need to use Internet Explorer, buuuuut here you go! This is a pretty awesome resource. Thank you so much! I’ll look over it more carefully when I get to a computer. I only know about ten different hanja so the Korean stories won’t be happening. I am actually curious if you have any book or novella suggestions for an intermediate level speaker. My Korean reading skills have flagged behind recently because I don’t study any more so I would like to sharpen them back up over the summer.
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Jul 12, 2019 01:58
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cryptoclastic posted:This is a pretty awesome resource. Thank you so much! I’ll look over it more carefully when I get to a computer. Jeeze, this is kind of tricky since I sort of just kept flinging myself into the deep end until I had enough of a general "literary" vocabulary built up that it stopped being painful. That said, here's the general path I used in a lot of  , in case it helps you:1. I started with webtoons and Korean translations of manga, because the pictures made it a lot easier to suss out some meaning. A lot of people recommend 치즈인더트랩/Cheese in the Trap, but I've never read it. Ones I have read are 양말 도깨비/Sock Goblin, 원펀맨/One Punch Man, 카드캡터사쿠라 클리어 카드/ Card Capture Sakura: Clear Card (ongoing  ), and a fair bit of cute one off comics by 최봉수/Choi Bongsu. Any time there was a word I didn't know, I'd jot it down, then throw it in my ANKI word flashcard set. Drill. Translations were generally pulled from Naver Online Dictionary, as I could comb through usage examples as well as find the word in the Korean dictionary to check pronunciation. If it shows up in the Korean dictionary with a star or two, it's a must learn.2. A little after finishing Sock Goblin, I started to read simple stuff aimed at 2nd and 3rd grade level. Same process of just reading, writing down words/phrases I wasn't familiar with that are important to understand the meaning, and drilling. Eventually they became ingrained, so I don't look up every freaking variation of "to look/see" Korean has, and generally know what their context is. Critical to this step is also looking up grammar I didn't know (typically with how to study Korean, but otherwise a "[grammar] grammar" search (ex: "하기로 하다 grammar") on Google and making little post it notes. You'll quickly pick up on words that show often, words that seem useful, and so on. One thing I like about H2SK is he notes when stuff tends to mostly show up in books, not speech. Re the bold: Don't look up every single adjective and adverb and tiny word. It'll drive you nuts. Around this level, it's much more useful to build out a foundation grammar/vocab for reading books. You probably already know this though! Some books: 구스범스/Goosebumps! I read a lot of Goosebumps, because they're that sweet spot of not very long but still engaging. Ito Junji translations are a good fit around here too. I'd warn you away from any sci fi/fantasy/Harry Potter stuff; it's frustrating as heck and no one talks like those are translated. 3. Start gradually transitioning to YA. I'm very fond of Sumino Yoru--또다시 같은 꿈을 꾸었어/The Same Dream Dreamt Again, 밤의 괴물/The Night Monster. Haven't read I Want to Eat Your Pancreas cause it sounds sad. 스파이크/Spike is a really neat parallel worlds modern day science fiction book that focuses more on a mystery and relationship than it does the science fiction, so is easier to follow; it was my first grown up book I actually enjoyed enough to push through and finish, so I remember it very fondly. Some recs from a friend of mine (I have not read these yet) are 오발탄 by 이번선, 동백꽃 by 김유정, and 꺼비딴 리 by 건좍용--he claimed they were of a similar level as the Sumino books, but again, I haven't read them yet. And of course, if you enjoy aimless too much slow burn lesbian awakening, 단아한 고양이 by 달그네!! And I do mean so much slow burn, the first book is really just a lot of them going back and forth and back and forth and being clueless.
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Jul 12, 2019 08:07
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Books by women: 11/24 Non-fiction: 2/12 Full reviews on Goodreads. The World of Lone Wolf series was OK. It's got some neat ideas but doesn't really do enough with them. If you like Lone Wolf, you'll probably like these as well. Lone Wolf at its best is far better and at its worst is far worse, so WoLW is probably, overall, on par with the average Lone Wolf book. And of course they're all available for free online. Side note: My Lone Wolf let's play is just starting book 29 today. I Call Myself A Feminist was fine, I guess, but I'm not the target audience for it. The Jeweled Dagger was enjoyable, but if you're looking for a mystery that will keep you guessing, this isn't it. The actual mystery doesn't really get going until a fair way through the book and when it does it's really obvious who's behind it. I read Never Let Me Go because it's on the year 12 VCE curriculum and I'm tutoring a student who's studying it. It was OK, but it didn't impress me. A lot of the details didn't seem like they held up to scrutiny. Also the protagonist was annoyingly passive and the story was pretty slow.
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Jul 30, 2019 11:34
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July! 55. The Imperfectionists - Tom Rachman 56. All Creatures Great and Small - James Herriot 57. Soldier of the Mist (Latro #1) - Gene Wolfe 58. Daisy Jones & the Six - Taylor Reid Jenkins 59. Soldier of Arete (Latro #2) - Gene Wolfe 60. East of Eden - John Steinbeck 61. Krakatoa - Simon Winchester 62. Lost Children Archive - Valeria Luiselli 63. The Art of Fielding - Chad Harbach 64. Educated - Tara Westover In whole, I was happy with the books I read over the month. Art of Fielding, the BOTM, was excellent, but the real pleasure to reread was East of Eden, one of my favorite books of all time. Steinbeck just does so much with that book - the spiritual, the mythic, the personal - and it's a masterpiece. Lost Children's Archive was another quite excellent book with an unusual style - small vignettes of narration over the course of an ill-fated road trip, telling of a disintegrating marriage, parenthood, and (timely enough) the children at the border. (I should note, she started this in 2014.) All Creatures Great and Small (recommended by my wife) was a delightful memoir of James Herriot's experiences as a veterinarian in a rural part of England. (Lots of birthing cows.) Krakatoa was an excellent and informative read, not just details about the eruption and aftermath of the infamous volcano, but with plenty of derails on such topics as colonialism, Darwinism, and rising fundamentalism in Indonesia. Finally, Educated was a spectacularly good memoir about the author's survivalist family, her eventual path to college and education, and the collision course between the two. Other books were pretty good - Latro in the Mist (which I had in an omnibus edition) was the usual sort of Wolfe novel, unreliable narrator and all. Daisy Jones & the Six was really fluffy, but enjoyable: an oral history of a fake 70s band that drew a lot of inspiration from Fleetwood Mac. And The Imperfectionists, a set of short stories that somewhat dovetail into a novel, was an impressive debut for Rachman, who's grown on me lately. (His most recent book,The Italian Teacher, from last year, I really liked.) 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. (64/50) 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. - Jenkins, Luiselli, Westover 44% 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 26% 4. Read a book by an author from every continent ( 5. 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). - Art of Fielding 8. Ask another poster to issue you a wildcard, then read it. 9. Get a recommendation from a friend or loved one. - All Creatures Great and Small 10. Read a book by a local author. 11. Read a book published in 2019 - Daisy Jones and the Six 12. 13. Reread a book. - East of Eden, Art of Fielding 14. Read a poetry collection. 15. 16. Read a play. 17. Read a book about feminism. 18. Read a book involving sports. - Art of Fielding 19. 20. 21. 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.
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Aug 1, 2019 05:33
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July Update I read quite a lot near the beginning, then midway through got caught up in our finals/camp stuff I had to do. Also started a personal translation project, which has rather slowed me down for doing anything else, but I'm making progress here and there. That said, I do like what I read! So here they are: 19. Uncovering Grammar by Scott Thornbury -- A fairly short book that makes the case that grammar isn't so much rote memorized as slowly uncovered and constructed by ESL learners. A very fascinating read that supported a fair bit of what I've personally come to think about how English grammar works, with some neat things that I want to try to use in the classroom. Definitely would recommend it to any other EFL/ESL teachers. 20. The Iliad: A New Translation by Caroline Alexander/Homer - I unironically loved this translation a lot more than I expected to; Caroline's translation choices were very easy to digest and I felt did the poem a great service. I'd bounced off a ton of other translations of the Iliad before; this one actually got its teeth into me and made me cry all over again about Patroclus. 21. Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain by David Gerard - A quick read; it was fun seeing some of the bitcoin disasters I wasn't familiar with. 22. Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer - Absolutely wonderful. I went in thinking it was mostly scifi, so the horror element really caught me off guard and was delightful. Just loved the terrifying, beautiful, and strange characteristics of nature it conveyed so well, and a lot of the running themes about identity. Really strongly recommend this. I watched the movie after and was pretty surprised by how different it was, but it definitely had the same core themes that the book dives into, so if you enjoyed that, go read this too. Will try and pick up the next book in the series when I can. That's all for this month really. No Korean books because I decided to do a personal translation of 듀나/djuna's 민트의 세계/Mint's World to see what one of Korea's modern science fiction writers is all about (and it turns out it's super good), which means it takes forever to get through even a couple paragraphs. Changing my list to just show what needs to be done still, mostly for my sake. 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. 22 of 30 so far; 9 of 10 Korean books complete 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written not by men. 6 of 22; 27% 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 11 of 22; 50% 4. Read a book by an author from every continent ( 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. to read: Peter Darling 14. Read a poetry collection. - got a book, just gotta read it 15. Read a collection of short stories. - to do: 아직 우리에겐 시간이 있으니까/Because We Still Have Time 16. Read a play. 17. Read a book about feminism. 18. Read a book involving sports. 20. Read something that has been banned, censored, or challenged. 21. Read something in the public domain. - To do: The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins 2019 So Far 1.The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South by Michael W. Twitty 2. The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo 3. 흉가/The Haunted House by Shinzo Mitsuda 4. 돌이킬 수 없는 약속/The Unbreakable Promise by Gaku Yakumaru 5. The WoW Diary: A Journal of Computer Game Development by John Staats 6. Invitation to a Beheading by Vladimir Nabokov 7. 책을 지키려는 고양이/The Book-Guarding Cat by Sōsuke Natsukawa 8 & 9. 신세계에서 1 & 2/From the New World 1 & 2 by Yusuke Kishi 10. 고양이 식당/Cat Restaurant by Bongsu Choi 11. The Authoritarians by Bob Altemeyer 12. 박물관의 고양이/The Museum's Cats by Ma Weidu 13. A Horizon of Jostling Curiosities by Sam Keeper 14. A Bodyless and Timeless Persona by Sam Keeper 15 & 16. 단아한 고양이 1/The Graceful Cat 1 by 달그네/Dalgune 17. Who Killed the World: Solarpunk after the Apocalypse by Sam Keeper 18. Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl by Andrea Lawlor 19. Uncovering Grammar by Scott Thornbury 20. The Illiad: A New Translation by Caroline Alexander, Homer 21. Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain by David Gerard 22. Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
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Aug 1, 2019 06:12
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FelicityGS posted:22. Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer - Absolutely wonderful. I went in thinking it was mostly scifi, so the horror element really caught me off guard and was delightful. Just loved the terrifying, beautiful, and strange characteristics of nature it conveyed so well, and a lot of the running themes about identity. Really strongly recommend this. I watched the movie after and was pretty surprised by how different it was, but it definitely had the same core themes that the book dives into, so if you enjoyed that, go read this too. Will try and pick up the next book in the series when I can. I also really enjoyed it. You should be aware the next two are very different creatures--not saying they are bad, but the wonder surrounding wtf was going on in the first falls away IMO
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Aug 1, 2019 06:16
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Bilirubin posted:I also really enjoyed it. You should be aware the next two are very different creatures--not saying they are bad, but the wonder surrounding wtf was going on in the first falls away IMO Yeah, a quick skim of the summary after I finished Annihilation made me suspect that was the case, which is part of why I didn't get Authority right away. Still looking forward to them though!
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Aug 1, 2019 06:18
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It was not the most productive month, but I did finish 7 books. And some were fairly long too. I knocked out challenge 24, I unambiguously completed challenge 5, and read (another) BOTM and finally crossed Art of Fielding off my list. It was light on genre, atypical for a summer month for me. Unfortunately, I fell off my streak of >50% women authors. I'm debating whether to be deliberate about correcting that or let things fall as they may. I finished on a good run of 2 particularly fine books as well. I've also now finished 3 different Sport books. If anyone needs a rec, I'm ready! It looks like I've got 9 challenges left, so it's time to start being a little more intentional. I've got my play queued up as well as a book by an indigenous author. I've got a few things in mind for Feminist as well as a book I to finish that I've been meaning to. I'm definitely at sea on poetry. And obviously I need a wild card. 52. Confessions of a Fox by Jordy Rosenberg - This is real interesting. It's 2 stories in one. In the framing narrative Dr Voth discovers an old manuscript. Told primarily through footnotes, it explores issues with academia and with being a trans man. The other is the manuscript, a "contrahistory" of Jack Sheppard, the famous thief and escape artist is present here a being a trans man as well. It outlines a lot of the issues of the era, both gender and capitalist, through sort of a historical adventure. It's a pretty well put together book that's comedic and surprising. I feel it flounders a little at the end, but it was a really enjoyable and keeps you guessing. 53. The Infatuations by Javier Marías- I think someone recommended another book by Marías in the lit thread, and this was the most interesting looking on the library had. A woman observes the perfect couple daily in the cafe. When the husband is brutally murdered, she feels compelled to meet the wife. She gets into a relationship with a family friend and finds out that everything about the murder was not as it seemed. Rather than a mystery or thriller as you might believe from that description, it really mulls over the nature of culpability. It raises some interesting questions, but has a distinct tendency towards long discursive paragraphs that tend to suck the immediacy out of it and made it drag. 54. The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach - BOTM! A good sports book. College baseball, people trying to grow up, a promising prospect and his psychic struggles. For more details check the thread. I enjoyed this. 55. Who Censored Roger Rabbit? by Gary K Wolf - The source of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? This is a rather different book. Like all the movie took were the names and some basic relationships as well as the idea of a hardboiled type mystery in a world inhabited by toons and people. The mystery is entirely different. The characterizations, particularly of Roger and Jessica are really quite different. The mystery is fairly good, in terms of twists and turns. The toon stuff is odd. Like they talk in literal speech bubbles that hang around after they've been said. I'm not sure why. It suffers in comparison to the film, but is interesting anyways. 56. The Black Jersey by Jorge Zepeda Patterson - There's foul play at the Tour de France! Competitors injured, poisoned, in one case even murdered. Who is doing it? Will our narrator Marc be the next victim? And that's not all. Marc is under intense pressure from his girlfriend and his mentor who believe that he's a better cyclist than Steve, his bro and lead cyclist on the team. Can Marc solve the crime before his team is knocked out? Will he continue to support Steve or will he try to seize his moment and try to win the yellow jersey himself? It's a decent mystery and I feel like I learned a lot about cycling. It really picked up at the end and it ends with a bit of a poser that kept me thinking. 57. The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead - This follows Elwood, a studious young man thrown into corrective school when he hitched a ride with a man who happened to have stolen a car. It chronicles the abuses of the system and some of the ways that impact the kids long after they leave. I'm assuming here everyone knows you ought to read Whitehead. 58. Haunting Paris by Mamta Chaudhry - After the death of her partner, Sylvie picks up his research for a long lost niece that takes her back to the darkest days of Paris and the roundup of the Jews during WW2. It's an emotional novel, one really invested in showing the lingering effects of Nazi's. It's also a love letter to Paris, frequently dwelling on architecture or Louis the Saint or Bastille Day as part of a larger point. It's invested in the thought that bad things happen when your forsake the ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity. It wasn't written about the situation on the American border, but it's really hard not to draw some comparisons when you get to chapters about the Vel D'Hiv. Not what I was expecting, but a really pleasant surprise. A rather good end to the month. Ben Nevis posted:1. Ice by Anna Kavan
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Aug 2, 2019 15:24
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I got six books read last month! I'm getting back up to speed. I'm going to finish off my stack from the library and then double down on finishing up my challenges. Any recommendations for plays to read, or a book from Oceania? 34. Sujata Massey - The Widows of Malabar Hill. Pedestrian Indian women's mystery. 3/5. 35. Richard Lee Byers - The Reaver. Mundane swords and sorcery. 3/5. 36. Joshua Whitehead - Jonny Appleseed. Intimate, revealing personal novel about two-spirit people. 4/5. 37. Sarah Rayne - Deadlight Hall. Effective, layered Gothic haunted house horror. 4/5. 38. Crimespotting: An Edinburgh Crime Collection. Collection of Edinburgh crime short stories. Standouts: Atwood, Rankin, Brookmyre, Anderson. 4/5. 39. Liz Harmer - The Amateurs. Local, insightful humane post-apocalypse. 4/5. 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. 38/50 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. 24/38 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 9/38 4. Read a book by an author from every continent ( 14. Read a poetry collection. 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. 24. Read a book that is the basis for a movie/tv show you have already seen.
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Aug 2, 2019 23:38
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Summer and a conference. And a new game. So I'm not reading so much these days July! The Souls of Black Folks by W. E. B. du Bois--written in the ashes of Reconstruction and the rise of Jim Crow. Every American should read this. 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. 17/20 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. 5/17 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 4/17 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. 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. 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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Aug 6, 2019 03:16
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I’ve been doing really poorly with my personal goal of actually sharing my reading notes here. Between job searches, emails, and drafting killer resume/cover letter combos, I haven’t had much drive to share here. But I’m keeping up with the reading itself; it’s a great bit of escapism for me. So without further delay, here’s what I’ve read in the last three months! 20. Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt - A charming children’s novel about mortality, 3/5 21. Mostly Void, Partially Stars by Joseph Fink - Welcome to Night Vale: great atmosphere, lacking in actual story, 2/5 22. Sunny by Jason Reynolds - Good young adult book about letting go of of guilt (and the discus), 3/5 23. Lu by Jason Reynolds - Strong finish to the Track series, 3/5 24. Six Cups of Coffee by Maria Parloa - A 130 year old book about coffee preparation? It’s a caffeinated blast from the past! 2/5 25. A Beautiful, Terrible Thing: A Memoir of Marriage and Betrayal by Jen Waite - I felt voyeuristic reading this awkward true story about a collapsing marriage, 2/5 26. Scary Stories Treasury by Alvin Schwartz - Gosh, 25 years later and those illustrations by Stephen Gammell still freak me out, 3/5 27. Foundations of Flavor: The Noma Guide to Fermentation by Rene Redzepi & David Zilber - Great information, cool cover, really upped my kombucha game, 4/5 28. Studies in the Art of Rat-Catching by H.C. Barkley - A charming look at a lost profession, 3/5 29. City of Truth by James K. Morrow - A good mix of absurd humor and satire, 3/5 30. Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein - A classic, 4/5 31. A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein - Also a classic, 4/5 32. Falling Up by Shel Silverstein - Almost a classic, but not quite, 3/5 33. The Murders of Molly Southbourne by Tade Thompson - Interesting doppelganger concept, maybe the recent sequel develops the story more, 3/5 34. Love, Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli - I enjoyed this one much more than the first Stargirl, 3/5 35. Merciless Gods by Christos Tsiolkas - Increasing ick factor and shock moments per story took away from my appreciation of the collection, 3/5 36. Beowulf translated by Seamus Heaney - I forgot how many Christian references were in this story, 3/5 37. The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle - Recommended to anyone who enjoys a Cthulhu story, 4/5 38. Controlled Burn: Stories of Prison, Crime, and Men by Scott Wolven - Standard noir fare: sparse writing, gritty characters, moral ambiguity, 3/5. 39. Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language by Amanda Montell - Good review of the biases of English language and how language is a tool of power; but not so much on the practical “taking back” side of things, 2/5 40. A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman - Randomly picked this from a little free library and was pleasantly surprised, 4/5 41. Woodsong by Gary Paulsen - I love the humble, simple writing in Paulsen’s memoirs, 4/5 42. The Moth Presents All These Wonders: True Stories about Facing the Unknown - Lovely collection of Moth stories, 4/5 43. Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller - I can see why this is a classic; there was a lot going on in the play, 3/5 44. The Main in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick - Better than the Amazon series, I say, 4/5 45. Symbiont by Mira Grant - There was surprisingly little action for a zombie book, 1/5 46. Shout by Laurie Halse Anderson - Strong messages about sexual violence and a powerful companion to Speak, 3/5 My top three books from the lot would be Foundations of Flavor, The Ballad of Black Tom, and The Man in the High Castle. Foundations of Flavor is a great resource for anyone who wants to learn more about the processes of fermented foods, and it really helped me branch out in my fermentation experimentation and creation station. Letting a SCOBY munch on coffee? Revolutionary! The downside is that the second half of the book is restaurant-grade stuff that’s well above my level. The Ballad of Black Tom was a really refreshing take on the Cthulhu mythos. LaValle does a great job of telling a creepy cosmic horror story while also turning Lovecraft’s xenophobia and racism around. And then, The Man in the High Castle was very different than the Amazon series. While the series hit me with thrilling plot twists and strong imagery (huge swastikas tend to be attention grabbers), the book was much more subtle and let me actually think about the story and its themes, which is pretty cool. Challenge Progress 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. 46/50 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. 11/44 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 11/44 4. Read a book by an author from every continent (N. America, S. America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania). 4/6 7. Participate in the TBB BotM thread at least once in 2019. 8. Ask another poster to issue you a wildcard, then read it. (Received but not read) 9. Get a recommendation from a friend or loved one. (Received but not read) 10. Read a book by a local author 19. Read something biographical. 22. Read one book you didn’t finish in a previous attempt. 23. Read a book about art. clamcake fucked around with this message at 00:04 on Aug 9, 2019 |
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Aug 8, 2019 20:24
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It turns out vacation doesn’t make me read more, it just makes me go outside. Only three books last month, but all of them were good. July 22. Pavane for a Dead Princess by Park Min-gyu. Story about a guy and his relationship with an ugly girl. Big critique of modern Korea’s focus on looks and capitalism. I enjoyed this. 23. 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C. Mann. Was the June BotM and had been on my list forever. Long but very interesting and eye opening. 24. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. Definitely don’t want to live here. I hear the sequel is coming out this year, but I’m not sure I want to read it. Dark stuff. 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. 24/40 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. 11/24 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 7/24 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. 11. Read a book published in 2019. 12. Read a book with an awesome cover. 18. Read a book involving sports. 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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Aug 9, 2019 03:30
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In July/August I read nine books: 40 - Happy Fat: Taking Up Space In A World That Wants To Shrink You, by Sofie Hagen. part autobiography, part Fat Liberation/Feminism 101, part self-love and self-respect guide. Hagen's writing is filled with empathy and anger, and she goes out of her way to make the book as inclusive and intersectional as possible (although this can mess with the pacing and flow). There is a radicalism in how she describes herself, and collates decades of research and activism into an easily-digestible manifesto. Hagen's stories from her own life are often funny, often candid, but also really quite upsetting. The book also includes interviews with other activists and creatives, who talk about their own experiences with body image as well as how society treats those who do not conform to the white/male/skinny/cis/hetero/non-disabled vision of "Health". 41 - The Drowned World, by JG Ballard. A vision of a slow, inexorable apocalypse of heat and water and lizards. One of Ballard's first novels, this feels less polished than his later books I've read: the supporting cast are broadly-drawn archetypes (or even stereotypes), and the prose style sometimes defaults to messy action scenes. However, there are still some wonderful passages and images throughout, as well as a gripping central theme. Part survival thriller, part thesis on mankind's inevitable devolution, I liked this a lot despite its dated shortcomings. 42 - Descender, vol. 1: Tin Stars, by Jeff Lemire, Dustin Nguyen & Steve Wands. First of all, the artwork is beautiful. Dustin Nguyen's watercolours add a real atmosphere to locations and characters alike, and help ground the familiar science ficion tropes in a fresh style. The story itself isn't the most original or gripping, but it's a fun take on the AI-life-form / unknowable-alien-threat themes that in the hands of lesser writers or artists would feel played out. I was thoroughly entertained throughout, and I'll probably read the rest of the series. 43 - Looking For Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria, by Noo Saro-Wiwa. This is equal parts travelogue, autobiography and cultural critique, from a very interesting perspective. The daughter of Ken Saro-Wiwa, a political activist and writer who was murdered by the Nigerian government in 1995, the author documents her relationship with the country, the people, the culture and politics. One major theme is Saro-Wiwa's liberal, secular sensibilities (having grown up in London) clashing with Nigerian societal norms, particularly evangelical christianity. A recurring maxim of hers is: "Nothing ever lasts in Nigeria". I learned a lot from this book, and I wouldn't have minded it being significantly longer. I'll probably explore her other work too. 44 - Assimilate: A Critical History of Industrial Music, by S. Alexander Reed. One of the most enjoyable and in-depth books about music I've ever read. Reed's knowledge, empathy and critical insight sizzle throughout, and for a book that can get quite heavy in its subject matter, it's always readable and fun. I learned an enormous amount, about music I already was familiar with and about artists I'd never heard of. The ongoing conversations within "industrial music" and its fans are laid out with respect and excitement in equal measure. 45 - I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou. A powerful and important book, made even more powerful in the audiobook read by Angelou herself. She was a comsummate storyteller, full of beautiful prose and stark emotional beats. As with a lot of classic literature, I can't really say anything new, but I will be tracking down the rest of her work, since I've slept on it for so long. 46 - Glow, by Ned Beauman. A satisfying techno-thriller romp through London's underworld, full of corporate misdeeds, exploitation, false identities and a good dog. Beauman is clearly heavily influenced by William Gibson's work, and the story here could have been a side-plot from any of his Blue Ant trilogy. The pacing is pretty janky, and there's a lot of clumsy exposition, but there are some great ideas here, and characters I was drawn to more than expected, particularly Win. I found myself more interested in the backstories of each character than the actual goings-on in the present, though. Beauman also really, really likes similes. Long similes, Blackadder-length similes. Often they're quite entertaining, and sometimes they're laborious. There's plenty to like here, and despite its flaws I was thoroughly into this book. 47 - Kraken, by China Miéville. Miéville crams about fifty different weird, wonderful and unpleasant ideas into an arcane thriller that starts with "what happened to this huge embalmed squid" and climaxes with trying to stop the apocalypse. Along the way there's everything from a general strike of magical familiars, to a working Star Trek phaser, to police-procedural ghosts, to "Chaos Nazis" and every flavour of cult and obsession along the way. It's fantastically self-indulgent, and the plot is slippery and unwieldy. Miéville drags the reader along on a 500-page theme park ride populated with his every obsession and self-consciously smart idea. This is a book which uses the phrase "squid pro quo", and I loved it, but I can totally see others bouncing hard off this thing. 48 - The Open Door, by Latifa Al-Zayyat. Powerful coming-of-age novel set against the backdrop of Egypt's struggle for independence. The protagonist Layla's own self-determination is constantly under threat from a deeply conservative society and cultural norms, and her fight for personal fulfilment is written to echo her nation's. Love, war, death, desperation, misery, and long conversations about dressmaking and the place of a woman in mid-20th-Century Egyptian society. Clearly this was a very important book, and even though the prose style didn't do much for me, I'm really glad I got to experience it. 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. - 48/52 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 1/3 of them are not written by men - 23 - 2, 3, 7, 11, 12, 14, 19, 21, 22, 23, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30, 33, 34, 35, 36, 40, 43, 45, 48 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 1/3 of them are written by someone non-white - 18 - 4, 7, 9, 10, 16, 17, 21, 26, 27, 31, 33, 35, 36, 37, 38, 43, 45, 48 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, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 33, 34, 35, 42, 44, 45 [*]S. America - [*]Europe - 2, 4, 5, 8, 12, 22, 23, 24, 27, 32, 39, 40, 41, 46, 47 [*]Africa - 31, 37, 43, 48 [*]Asia - 9, 10, 17, 21, 36, 38 [*]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. 10. Read a book by a local author. 13. Reread a book. 16. Read a play. 18. Read a book involving sports. 21. Read something in the public domain. 22. Read one book you didn’t finish in a previous attempt.
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Sep 1, 2019 15:49
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August Update It was summer break so I read exactly one book and filled the rest of my time with art classes, backlogged video games, and some other personal projects. However, that one book I read was both very good and part of my challenge! 23. Peter Darling by Austin Chant - An absolutely wonderful queer Peter Pan retelling/sequel. I love what Chant did with the concept of Neverland and the fairies. It's extremely well paced and a lovely exploration of transness. Just a good feel good book; the friend who recommended it says that Chant's working on a sequel? I certainly hope so. If someone could, I'd like a wild card for a book from either S. America, Africa, or Oceania. To Do: 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. 23 of 30 so far; 9 of 10 Korean books complete 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written not by men. 26% 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 48% 4. Read a book by an author from every continent ( 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. Complete! 14. Read a poetry collection. - got a book, just gotta read it 15. Read a collection of short stories. - to do: 아직 우리에겐 시간이 있으니까/Because We Still Have Time 16. Read a play. 17. Read a book about feminism. 18. Read a book involving sports. 20. Read something that has been banned, censored, or challenged. 21. Read something in the public domain. - To do: The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins 2019 So Far 1.The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South by Michael W. Twitty 2. The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo 3. 흉가/The Haunted House by Shinzo Mitsuda 4. 돌이킬 수 없는 약속/The Unbreakable Promise by Gaku Yakumaru 5. The WoW Diary: A Journal of Computer Game Development by John Staats 6. Invitation to a Beheading by Vladimir Nabokov 7. 책을 지키려는 고양이/The Book-Guarding Cat by Sōsuke Natsukawa 8 & 9. 신세계에서 1 & 2/From the New World 1 & 2 by Yusuke Kishi 10. 고양이 식당/Cat Restaurant by Bongsu Choi 11. The Authoritarians by Bob Altemeyer 12. 박물관의 고양이/The Museum's Cats by Ma Weidu 13. A Horizon of Jostling Curiosities by Sam Keeper 14. A Bodyless and Timeless Persona by Sam Keeper 15 & 16. 단아한 고양이 1/The Graceful Cat 1 by 달그네/Dalgune 17. Who Killed the World: Solarpunk after the Apocalypse by Sam Keeper 18. Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl by Andrea Lawlor 19. Uncovering Grammar by Scott Thornbury 20. The Illiad: A New Translation by Caroline Alexander, Homer 21. Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain by David Gerard 22. Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer 23. Peter Darling by Austin Chant
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Sep 2, 2019 01:04
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1. 2. 3. 4.
6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 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. goodreads
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Sep 2, 2019 18:37
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Chugging along with four more books for my August update: 47. Slaughterhouse: The Shocking Story of Greed, Neglect, and Inhumane Treatment Inside the US Meat Industry by Gail A. Eisnitz - This was a hard book to read at times. It’s well-written and straightforward in presenting the conditions in industrial slaughterhouses. But the scenes it depicts are hellish--like, literally at least 7 things you'd find in Dante’s Inferno. I’m glad there’s a lot more public awareness about animal cruelty and worker safety in these places now, but I’m really curious to know how much has actually changed in the meat industry in the 22 years since this book was originally published. 48. Monster by Walter Dean Myers - I couldn’t put this book down. It’s solid young adult lit about a teen on trial for muder. It’s got an engaging story with realistic characters, and I think it does a fair job of showing how the legal system can strip away a person’s sense of humanity. Add some classic themes of guilt vs. innocence and intent vs. mistakes, and you’ve got some good stuff in the mix. The presentation of the book being a screenplay written by the protagonist as a coping mechanism for his trial certainly helped speed the reading along. 49. The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith - My wildcard recommendation. I finished it, but I’ll admit it took some effort. I felt the pacing was really slow, and the characters didn’t seem to have much definition. But maybe this was on purpose to show the slow, dragging lives that the characters live? That said, I can appreciate why the book was influential in its day, and it was fun to compare Carol’s road trip with Therese to the zany cross-country adventures in Lolita. 50. Eerie Tales from Old Korea, compiled by Anthony of Taize - I’d call this collection a mixed bag, but it’s definitely an interesting set of folk tales that I’d never heard before. The stories were collected by two Christian missionaries who worked in Korea in the 1880s, so the fact that respected Korean culture enough to find these stories is really cool. The first section’s translator, though, definitely took some liberties in making the stories more relatable to his English audience at home. Challenge Progress 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). 4/6 7. Participate in the TBB BotM thread at least once in 2019. 9. Get a recommendation from a friend or loved one. (Received but not read) 10. Read a book by a local author 19. Read something biographical. 22. Read one book you didn’t finish in a previous attempt. 23. Read a book about art.
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Sep 2, 2019 23:35
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Books by women: 12/24 Non-fiction: 2/12 Full reviews on Goodreads. The two books I managed to finish this month are both utter garbage that should never be read by anyone.
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Sep 3, 2019 05:11
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Why the absolute gently caress did you hurt yourself with HPMoR?
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Sep 3, 2019 13:55
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Wow, turns out I'm like three months behind on recording my reading "accomplishments". I'll keep this brief! June! 63. The Book of Cthulhu - ed. Ross Lockhart - some very solid cosmic horror short stories, both inspired by classics and deconstructing them. One of the better collections in the genre. 64. Japanese Tales of Mystery and Imagination - Edogawa Rampo - I loved this, definitely a descendant of Rampo's namesake in terms of storytelling. Actually has a lot of similarities to Junji Ito, in little ways. 65. Soul of a New Machine - Tracy Kidder - surprisingly enjoyable retelling of an early 80s computer company mashing together a flagship machine that has more or less been forgotten to time. 66. Man with No Name - Laird Barron - Yakuza revenge fantasy with some cosmic horror elements. Interesting at times but not Barron's best by a long shot. 67. Mazirian the Magician - Jack Vance - First book in Tales of the Dying Earth, actually a collection of connected short stories. I've discovered I really like pulpy, classic fantasy and this really ticked that box. 68. Full Fathom Five - Max Gladstone - third (or fifth) book in the Craft Sequence. Definitely my least favorite so far, it took forever to really develop the story, and even then I felt like the delivery was a dud. 69. Ship of Fools - Richard Paul Russo - sci-fi horror on a dilapidated colony ship, discovering alien worlds. This had so many great aspects, but the story kind of petered out at the end. 70. The Burn Palace - Stephen Dobyns - found out about this one because it was recommended by Stephen King, and I read it because I'd never heard of it. Felt very much like a King novel, but in the best possible way. 71. The Big Sleep - Raymond Chandler - I really enjoyed this, haven't actually seen the movie but I could see how some aspects might do better in a visual medium. July! 72. The People Who Eat Darkness - Richard Lloyd Perry - true crime book covering the disappearance of young British women in Japan. Mostly very good (and unsettling) but the writer sometimes paints Japan (and Japanese men) in uncomfortably broad strokes. 73. Storm of Locusts - Rebecca Roanhorse - Second book in the series, basically Urban Fantasy with a Navajo twist. I liked it better than the first book, as it strays a little more from standard UF formulas, and dips into some of the post-apocalyptic aspects of the setting. 74. Assassin's Quest - Robin Hobb - Last book in the Farseer trilogy. This was a very good ending to the trilogy, though I genuinely feel like the book was far, far longer than it need to be. Huge sections dragged, spending way too much time focusing on the same internal conflicts. The whole trilogy would probably be one of my favorites if some of the fat had been trimmed. 75. A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle - my first foray into reading Sherlock Holmes. Half the book was a very fun "mystery", half was... a side-story in Utah? It was weird to finally read this after watching the new Sherlock, I actually enjoyed it less than I expected. 76. The Sign of Four - ACD - okay, if I thought Scarlet was weird... This is about where I realized that a lot of Sherlock Holmes were less mysteries than adventure stories (which, tbf, they are mostly called that), and that some of them are full of very dated bullshit. Still a fairly fun read. August! 77. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - ACD - I mean, obviously I'm enjoying them enough to keep reading them. Still lots of oddball story aspects, and if I read many more mentions of tobacco ash and boxy-toed boots with just this shade of mud, I may flip a table, but they're a fun mindless read. 78 Last First Snow - Max Gladstone - Fourth (or first) book in the Craft Sequence. An improvement on the last book, but either Gladstone writes boring battle scenes or I'm losing patience with them in general as I get older, because I found myself skimming a lot of those. 79. Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes - ACD - I don't remember which stories are in which collection. TLDR is there are some standout Holmes stories, and you've almost certainly heard of them, and there's a reason you haven't heard of the rest. 80. Lovecraft Country - Matt Ruff - Very good, and I'm excited for the adaptation. I would have liked it a little more if it'd been more of a cohesive plot (as is, it's a bunch of heavily-connected short stories, in a way) but the observatory story was fantastic. 81. The Hound of the Baskervilles - ACD - I actually read this last year or earlier this year, now that I think about it. This is the one Holmes I could see myself re-reading occasionally. 82. Murder at the Vicarage - Agatha Christie - My first Miss Marple, after years and years of Poirot mysteries. I'm undecided on how I feel about Miss Marple. They're still fun mysteries, but don't grab me as much as other books by Christie. 83. The Obstacle is the Way - Ryan Holiday - Another glorified self-help book, but I don't mind the way Holiday writes them. I read Ego is the Enemy earlier this year, and I think this one is much better. He distills Stoic philosophy reasonably well. quote:Remaining Challenges:
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Sep 3, 2019 16:27
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Arivia posted:Why the absolute gently caress did you hurt yourself with HPMoR? It was a Let's Read thread started in 2015. It took four people (JosephWongKS, Added Space, Xander77 and me) and over four years to get through it.
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Sep 3, 2019 16:51
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Only two books last month. Oops! I guess I use books as more as a method to wind-down after work. August 25. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. Interesting book, and I'm curious to read some of the author's other work. 26. Your Republic is Calling You by Kim Young-ha. Read this with the book club. I originally read it a long time ago. It was a lot more disjointed than I remembered it being, with tons of extra details that served no purpose. Still a fun, easy read. 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. 26/40 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. 11/26 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 9/26 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. 11. Read a book published in 2019. 12. Read a book with an awesome cover. 18. Read a book involving sports. 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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Sep 4, 2019 02:48
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August was a good reading month and I got a challenge knocked out as well. About half my books took the basic form of a mystery, for better or worse. Also another local-ish book. And with a lot of women in this one I'm back up to 50% women. I keep putting off this play. I could still use a wild card. 58. Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke - This is part of a local "[City] Reads One Book" program, where they try and get everyone to read the same book over the summer. This one turned out to be a good one. A mystery set deep in East Texas that ties into racial tensions in a small town that some day aspires to be a wide spot in the highway. They don't even have a Dairy Queen. It's also about the love you can have for a very imperfect place. It's described in some reviews as Rural Noir, and I think that hits it on the head. Would recommend. 59. This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal el-Mohtar and Max Gladstone - Two agents in the Time War, one fighting for the technologists and the other for the ecologists, start communicating with letters sent across various battlegrounds throughout time. They begin a cautious relationship that blossoms as they try to explore what options they have as agents. This was surprisingly good and a nice sci-fi love story type thing. Not quite what I was expecting but I enjoyed it. 60. Mapping the Interior by Stephen Graham Jones - A young boy thinks his dead father is coming to him in visions. Probably telling him to protect his younger brother who suffers from seizures and developmental delays. Or maybe it's more sinister. A horror novella that explores family and heritage. It's got some distinctly tense moments, and some bits gave me chills. Would recommend. 61. The Test by Sylvain Neuvel - Short and entertaining, it gives an interesting look at a dehumanizing immigration test. I enjoyed it, but found it a little predictable. Also a bit slim. 62. A People's History of Heaven by Mathangi Subramanian - In a slum outside Bangalore, mothers and daughters stand against bulldozers trying to remove their homes. That's sort of the frame. What mostly happens is the People's History, which over the course of the book. You get stories for some major events in each of the girl's lives and the mother's. How they all wound up in Heaven. It uses these stories to explore the role of women in Indian society and also through the girls to explore those who don't fit in well. Among the girls there's a blind one, a lesbian, a trans girl, and you see how those differences change how they interact and how society views them. It's a good book that flirted with the great. 63. A Morbid Taste for Bones by Ellis Peters - The first brother Cadfael mystery. When the monastery decides to acquire a Welsh relic, the people of the surrounding area aren't so keen on letting their saint's bones go. As one might anticipate, there's a murder and a mystery ensues, tinged with 12th century religion and superstition. Pretty solid read. I'll likely grab more. 64. Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk - In a small Polish town, people start to die mysteriously over the winter. As the weather warms up and people return to the vacation community, there are still more deaths. Many in the town believe these may be the animal's revenge for out of control hunters and poachers in the region. This is helped in no small part by our narrator, a somewhat nutty old lady who is an astrologist and the sort to write letters to the police complaining about her neighbors. As you might expect the author has a lot to say about man's role in nature and how we interact with the world around us. There's plenty of good humor in this as well. A really interesting read, and you probably ought to check it out. 65. Last Supper Before Ragnarok by Cassandra Khaw - The next (last?) of the Ruper Wong books. Rupert is recruited to try and save the world. Or at least, try to save our version of it by preventing the existing pantheons from being taken over by "copypasta gods," the creepy deities spawned on the internet. Somehow this is more travel book than you'd expect. Still enjoyable, but not quite as much so as the previous one's, I thought. It's more serious it seems. 66. Tears of the Trufflepig by Fernando A Flores - This was a very odd book. In the near future, the Texas border is rocked by the death of a major cartel head in Mexico when the ensuing power vacuum leads players from all over the world to try and fill the void and become the major blackmarket retailer for manufactured food and animals. A sudden influx of the previously believed to be extinct Aranana peoples has led to a market for shrunken heads, leading anyone who has indigenous blood to fear for their lives. On the edge of this, the rich are having clandestine dinners where they are being served black market extinct animals as supper. Moving through it all is our man Bellacosa, an agent who secures industrial machinery for his boss. When a piece he's made a downpayment on is stolen, he finds himself tossed in with shady goings on. Also, his brother has been kidnapped, possibly to be turned into a shrunken head for sale. There is very much a real PK Dick vibe to this. Everything seems not quite real and it leaves you doubting bits of reality. The ending let it down a little, but it was quite a ride. Ben Nevis posted:1. Ice by Anna Kavan
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Sep 4, 2019 17:34
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It is buried in my post, and hindsight I should have made it its own post--if someone could give me a wildcard I'd appreciate it! Ideally something from Oceanie, Africa, or South America, but obviously anything will do.
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Sep 5, 2019 00:08
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If y'all need something from Oceania, try this month's Book of the Month! Also female author and a few other categories. https://twitter.com/alloy_dr/status/1169645225360465920
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Sep 5, 2019 17:24
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:If y'all need something from Oceania, try this month's Book of the Month! Oh, awesome! I'll make my way over 
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Sep 5, 2019 23:51
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Holy jebus, I have been slacking and not updating this thread since April. Have been reading a reasonable amount of books though. So, update through the end of August. 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. 5. The Gone World, Tom Sweterlitsch. 6. The Passage, Justin Cronin. 7. Before Mars, Emma Newman. 8. Fiasco, Stanislaw Lem. 9. Winter Tide, Ruthanna Emrys. 10. Binti: The Night Masquerade by Nnedi Okorafor. 11. Semiosis by Sue Burke. . 12. Tiamat's Wrath by James S.A. Corey. 13. DEMON-4 by David Mace. New: 14. River of Bones by Taylor Anderson. #n in the Destroyermen series, where lots of poo poo hits lots of fans. Still enjoying this. 15. Permafrost by Alastair Reynolds. Fine little time-travelling novella. 16. The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal. #1 in the "Lady Astronaut" series. Alternate history where an early-1950s natural disaster makes it likely that the Earth will become uninhabitable in a century or so; so all available resources are thrown towards developing and expanding an international space travel and colonization program as fast as possible. Lead character is a female pilot who struggles with the prejudices of her era as well as her own internal problems in order to get to participate in the front lines of this effort. Good stuff, memorable characters. +1 woman 17. Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Sequel to Children of Time, this one focusing on the fate of a solar system seeded with uplifted octopuses. Octopi. Octopodes. Whatever. It was awesome. 18. Atlas Alone by Emma Newman. Another sequel/sidequel to Planetfall, this focuses on some rather dubious goings-on aboard the final (maybe) ship that escaped from Earth. Good. +1 woman. 19. Empress of Forever by Max Gladstone. Absolutely lunatic space opera where a woman from our near future is yanked into an extremely strange and hosed-up far future and is immediately thrown into a weird quest to... maybe... make things a bit less hosed-up. Enjoyed the crap out of this one. 20. Stay with Me by Ayobami Adebayo.. Love and jealousy and modernity vs. traditionalism in late 20th century Nigeria. Marvellous book. This was my wildcard; I've read a few other things from modern Nigerian literature and am by now pretty interested to read some more. +1 woman, +1 nonwhite. 21. 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C. Mann. What it says on the tin. A bit about history, a bit about archaeology, a bit about historiography. Very readable and engaging. Short version: There were a lot more people and civilizations than you think. 22. Perihelion Summer by Greg Egan. Disaster-SF novella where the Earth's orbit is altered enough to gently caress up the climate cycle and make a lot of previously safe and prosperous white Australian people into desperate boat refugees (or dead). Liked it. 23. Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor. Vaguely post-apocalyptic fantasy story involving (among other things) genocidal hatred between different future African ethnic groups. Very good. +1 woman, +1 nonwhite. 24. Exhalation by Ted Chiang. This guy is not terribly prolific, he's only done short stories and this is only the second collection, but man, he's got imagination and talent in spades. Read this. +1 nonwhite. 25. Pass of Fire by Taylor Anderson. n+1 in the Destroyermen series. Even more poo poo hits even more fans, and one major conflict is actually (more or less) concluded. 26. This is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar. Beautiful little semi-epistolary romance novel about how two time-travelling agents from different competing/hostile futures begin secretly communicating with each other via letters and fall deeply in love. +1 woman, +1 nonwhite. 27. The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling. SF-horror story about incredibly dangerous spelunking on an alien planet. Ultimately found the story somewhat disappointing, although there were several good scenes and haunting imagery in there, so I would be willing to consider reading another book by this author. +1 woman. 28. The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowal.. #2 in the "Lady Astronaut" series, where it is time for the first expedition to Mars, with 1960s technology. Nice. +1 woman. Booklord challenge: 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. - 28/40. 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. - 12/28 = 42%. 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. - 5/28 = 18% (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, Africa, Oceania 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). - 1491 8. Ask another poster to issue you a wildcard, then read it. - Stay With Me 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. - Tiamat's Wrath 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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Sep 6, 2019 09:34
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August! 65. And Still We Rise - Miles Corwin 66. Hard Rain Falling - Don Carpenter 67. LaRose - Louise Erdrich 68. The Shadow of What was Lost - James Islington 69. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof - Tennessee Williams 70. The Stand - Stephen King 71. Beloved - Toni Morrison 72. Persepolis I - Marjane Satrapi 73. Mason & Dixon - Thomas Pynchon 74. Death of a Salesman - Arthur Miller 75. The Nickel Boys - Colson Whitehead 76. La Belle Sauvage (Book of Dust #1) - Philip Pullman 77. And Still I Rise - Maya Angelou This started as a slow month, but I finished a bunch near the end, including one I’d been working on since June. That was Pynchon’s Mason & Dixon, 770 pages of a 1700s style mixed with Pynchon’s typical ornate diction. While I liked it, it was a task. I reread some favorites - The Stand I love and Beloved which I gained some new respect for, having read it over a decade ago and not appreciated it at the time. I tried to branch out a bit to hit more spots on my challenge - hence Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Death of a Salesman, and And Still I Rise. For my indigenous author, I picked Louise Erdrich, whose LaRose was absolutely stellar. And while it’s pretty boilerplate fantasy (I was counting the tropes off as I read) I couldn’t help but enjoy The Shadow of What Was Lost. It’s part of the Licanius trilogy and I’ve started on the second, the third being out in December. I will say, I kind of like the symmetry of "And Still We Rise" as first and "And Still I Rise" as the last of the books I read this month. 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. (77/50) 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. - 46% 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 29% 4. Read a book by an author from every continent ( 5. 6. Read at least one book by an indigenous author. - LaRose (Erdrich) 7. 8. Ask another poster to issue you a wildcard, then read it. 9. 10. Read a book by a local author. 11. Read a book published in 2019 - The Nickel Boys 12. 13. Reread a book. - La Belle Sauvage, Beloved, The Stand 14. Read a poetry collection. - And Still I Rise 15. 16. Read a play. - Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Death of a Salesman 17. Read a book about feminism. - And Still I Rise 18. 19. 20. 21. 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.
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Sep 6, 2019 20:38
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Can I join this thread super late? My goal is to read 30 books in 2019. Not very impressive, but realistic. I have a bad habit of reading nothing for several months and then going nuts reading as much as I can, which I'm trying to temper. I'm skipping the booklord challenge since I'm joining so late. My one rule is that the books either have to come from my existing collection or the local library. My book budget this year has been $0. My 2019 so far - I'll have more exhaustive write-ups for new books starting next month: 1. Stephen King - Doctor Sleep - One of the few modern King books I've read. Extremely corny villains, and the sequel aspect was undercooked and unnecessary. Bleh. 2. James S. A. Corey - Leviathan Wakes - The best word to describe this series is "consistent." They come out on time, each chapter is almost the exact same length, and if you like book one, you'll like book eight. 9th and final book comes out in 2020. 3. James S. A. Corey - Caliban's War 4. James S. A. Corey - Abaddon's Gate 5. James S. A. Corey - Cibola Burn 6. JY Yang - The Black Tides of Heaven - Promising start to a series, but my library never picked up the other volumes; I'm sure an omnibus will come out eventually. 7. Richard Lloyd Parry - The People Who Eat Darkness - True crime isn't really my thing. 8. James S. A. Corey - Nemesis Games 9. James S. A. Corey - Babylon's Ashes 10. Fumio Sasaki - Goodbye Things - Memoir of a 30-something Japanese minimalist. Offers a more stripped-down version of the KonMari method. Too much Steve Jobs worship for my taste, but a lot of the lessons from this book have stuck with me. 11. HP Lovecraft - The Shadow Over Innsmouth 12. HP Lovecraft - The Horror at Red Hook/Victor LaValle - The Ballad of Black Tom 13. James S. A. Corey - Persepolis Rising 14. James S. A. Corey - Tiamat's Wrath 15. Paul Tremblay - The Cabin at the End of the World - Short spooky little book with compelling characters and lots of dread, but the ending leaves a bad taste. 16. N. K. Jemisin - The Fifth Season - This series gripped me right from the beginning, but I got halfway through the third book and my interest totally fell apart. The narrative gets bogged down in the intricacies of a magic system that is poorly explained, and my eyes started glazing over at the 100th recitation of who could sess what. 17. N. K. Jemisin - The Obelisk Gate 18. Liu Cixin - The Three Body Problem - I don't know if there's ever been a bigger gap between my expectations of a book and the book itself. Enjoyed the hell out of it, currently waiting on the 2nd and 3rd books at the library.
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Sep 8, 2019 22:02
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Welcome! Added you to the list!
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Sep 9, 2019 13:25
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Jumping in at the eleventh hour with my list of already read books. I'm trying to read twenty for this year, and thirty is my stretch goal. I'm not likely to make said stretch goal due to including some massive high fantasy tomes (namely The Stormlight Archives). Audiobooks, nonfiction, and tiny volumes of poetry count. Unfinished books and rereads do not. My goal is to work on my "literary ADD" and follow-through and finish books before starting new ones, and to finally delve into high fantasy as a genre after not knowing where to start for years on end (I look at things like Wheel of Time and just feel paralyzed with how much there is to get through and how much fluff there's sure to be). Maybe I'll do the official booklord challenge next year. 1. Dreamland, by Sam Quinones 2. The Traitor’s Niche, by Ismail Kadare 3. Hillbilly Elegy, by J.D. Vance 4. Perelandra, by C.S. Lewis 5. The Stand, by Stephen King 6. Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury 7. The Holy Sonnets, from the Complete Works of John Donne 8. Salem’s Lot, by Stephen King 9. Laurus, by Eugene Vodolazkin 10. Total Money Makeover, by Dave Ramsey 11. Naked Economics, by Charles J. Wheelan 12. The Way of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson 13. The Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feeble Minded, by Mary McCully Brown 14. On Michael Jackson, by Margot Jefferson 15. Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh 16. A Shropshire Lad, by A.E. Housman 17. Words of Radiance, by Brandon Sanderson Right now I'm listening to an audiobook of Edgedancer, the next book in Sanderson's Stormlight Archives, and trying my best to bear through Kate Readings' hammy reading voice and Sanderson's obnoxiously quirky Whedonesque dialogue, as well as reading Anthony Trollope's Barchester Towers (I have a friend who says it gets hilarious further in the book so I guess I'm excited for that). ProperGanderPusher fucked around with this message at 02:29 on Sep 28, 2019 |
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Sep 28, 2019 02:22
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Added you to the list. You’ll hit that 20 with ease! I figure I’ll post my September update now since it’s always the 29th here September 27. Three Men in a Boat by Jermone K. Jerome. This was fun at times but ultimately it was still an old book about going up a river. 28. Brief Lives by Tim Learn. Book club book. 29. The Subtle Art of not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson. Some of the ideas in this were interesting but I disliked the presentation. I need to read more of my booklord goals! I’m the drat booklord, what kind of an example am I setting for you guys! I’ve picked out mower of the books I’ll read for my remaining challenges, I just need to read them. 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. 29/40 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. 11/29 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 9/29 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. 11. Read a book published in 2019. 12. Read a book with an awesome cover. 18. Read a book involving sports. 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. cryptoclastic fucked around with this message at 23:48 on Sep 29, 2019 |
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Sep 29, 2019 00:31
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January 1. Stephen King - Doctor Sleep 2. James S. A. Corey - Leviathan Wakes 3. James S. A. Corey - Caliban's War 4. James S. A. Corey - Abaddon's Gate 5. James S. A. Corey - Cibola Burn February 6. JY Yang - The Black Tides of Heaven 7. Richard Lloyd Parry - The People Who Eat Darkness 8. James S. A. Corey - Nemesis Games 9. James S. A. Corey - Babylon's Ashes March Nothing April 10. Fumio Sasaki - Goodbye Things May 11. HP Lovecraft - The Shadow Over Innsmouth 12. HP Lovecraft - The Horror at Red Hook/Victor LaValle - The Ballad of Black Tom 13. James S. A. Corey - Persepolis Rising 14. James S. A. Corey - Tiamat's Wrath June 15. Paul Tremblay - The Cabin at the End of the World July 16. N. K. Jemisin - The Fifth Season 17. N. K. Jemisin - The Obelisk Gate August 18. Liu Cixin - The Three Body Problem September 19. Philip K. Dick - The Man in the High Castle - I read Electric Sheep in elementary school and it was a little too "out there" for me, so I basically ignored PKD for the past 20 years. This book is fantastic, and I love PKD's prose. I immediately added a bunch of his other books to my to-read list. 20. Kim Stanley Robinson - Antarctica - Kind of disappointing after reading and loving a lot of KSR's other books. The stakes are low, it retreads a lot of ground from his other novels, and the usual politics ex machina ending feels unearned/naive in a way that didn't bother me in his more sci-fi work. 21. Eleanor Herman - The Royal Art of Poison (Audiobook) - This is a pop-history book, ostensibly about the use of poison, but mainly focused on how dog poo poo disgusting early-modern medicine and hygiene was. I've always had a morbid fascination with old timey medicine, and this book certainly fills that niche. It's a great for listening to in 10 minute bursts while you're driving, but I can't imagine sitting down and reading the whole thing without getting tired of the endless and sickening ways people used to "treat" their ailments.
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Sep 29, 2019 21:05
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September Update I got three books read this month, and one of them finishes off the Korean part of my goal! If I buckle down I might actually finish the challenge.... 24. Color and Light: A guide for the realist painter by James Gurney - This book was recommended to me over and over for the last few years, and I finally decided to grab it--I've always found Gourney's knack for color and light amazing. This thing is dense with information, and I'm definitively going to have to go back and reference it as I need it. While directed at primarily traditional media, the stuff in here applies across the spectrum and I really do recommend it if you'd like to get a comprehensive overview of painting color and light. Turns out there's a reason everyone recommends it! 25. Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay - This was my TBB BotM read, though next month's Maltese Falcon is also quite tempting. I really enjoyed this a lot--the landscape of Australia itself feels like it's own presence, the characters are all well-written and feel like actual people, and the slowly unfolding effects of the girls' disappearance is genuinely interesting. Lindsay also has a wicked sense of humor. 6. 날씨가 좋으면 찾아가겠어요/I'll find you when the weather is good by 이도우/Dou Lee - I picked this up because I liked the cover and the book summary sounded interesting (plus it had overwhelming positive reviews). The main character needs a break from her life in Seoul and goes to stay with her elderly aunt in her hometown for the winter. Drama with the aunt ensues, she falls in love with her neighbor, works at a bookstore, and starts to integrate into a community that she mostly didn't notice as a teen before leaving. There's a lot of subtle touches on trauma, finding one's place, the type of connections we forge with others, and the love story is also extremely well-handled; the interest is actually genuinely interesting and likable, and it's pretty easy to see why the main character falls for him and him for her. This definitely had that Korean flair for sudden drama the biggest, but not only, bit of what the gently caress: the aunt committed man slaughter, killing the main character's abusive alcoholic father--which aunt and mom covered up; thus why aunt never goes to hospital and stays in the little house not drawing attention to herself, but it never feels out of touch with what could actually happen, and the characters are all well-realized and I'm really glad I decided to give it a chance. To Do: 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. 26 of 30 so far; 10 of 10 Korean books complete(!) 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written not by men. 42% 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 38% 4. Read a book by an author from every continent ( 6. Read at least one book by an indigenous author. 7. 8. Ask another poster to issue you a wildcard, then read it. 14. Read a poetry collection. - reading 15. Read a collection of short stories. - to do: 아직 우리에겐 시간이 있으니까/Because We Still Have Time 16. Read a play. 17. Read a book about feminism. 18. Read a book involving sports. 20. Read something that has been banned, censored, or challenged. 21. Read something in the public domain. - To do: The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins 2019 So Far 1.The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South by Michael W. Twitty 2. The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo 3. 흉가/The Haunted House by Shinzo Mitsuda 4. 돌이킬 수 없는 약속/The Unbreakable Promise by Gaku Yakumaru 5. The WoW Diary: A Journal of Computer Game Development by John Staats 6. Invitation to a Beheading by Vladimir Nabokov 7. 책을 지키려는 고양이/The Book-Guarding Cat by Sōsuke Natsukawa 8 & 9. 신세계에서 1 & 2/From the New World 1 & 2 by Yusuke Kishi 10. 고양이 식당/Cat Restaurant by Bongsu Choi 11. The Authoritarians by Bob Altemeyer 12. 박물관의 고양이/The Museum's Cats by Ma Weidu 13. A Horizon of Jostling Curiosities by Sam Keeper 14. A Bodyless and Timeless Persona by Sam Keeper 15 & 16. 단아한 고양이 1/The Graceful Cat 1 by 달그네/Dalgune 17. Who Killed the World: Solarpunk after the Apocalypse by Sam Keeper 18. Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl by Andrea Lawlor 19. Uncovering Grammar by Scott Thornbury 20. The Illiad: A New Translation by Caroline Alexander, Homer 21. Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain by David Gerard 22. Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer 23. Peter Darling by Austin Chant 24. Color and Light: A guide for the realist painter by James Gurney 25. Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay 26. 날씨가 좋으면 찾아가겠어요/I'll come find you when the weather is good by 이도우/Dou Lee
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Sep 30, 2019 01:19
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Ben Nevis posted:
The Cadfael stuff is all pretty drat solid and the television adaptations are pretty strong as well. I've sort of given up on my own challenge this year, although provided on when our son is born i might be able to make an actual dent on some of the stuff during paternal leave.
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Sep 30, 2019 02:05
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September! 84. The Return of Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle - I think these are getting weirder. It's been said that Doyle probably wrote the last two collections due to public demand and it kind of feels like it. Still fun, though. 85. At Fear's Altar - Richard Gavin - Collection of horror short stories, by an author I hadn't really encountered before. Stories ranged from good to pretty bad, with most being firmly mediocre. Probably a pass. 86. The Valley of Fear - Doyle - Not my favorite of the Sherlock novels, but probably not my least favorite either. Just fine! 87. Picnic at Hanging Rock - Joan Lindsay - Eerie, often funny, overall a very good read. I enjoyed the ambiguity of the story. 88. The Misenchanted Sword - Lawrence Watt-Evans - Fantasy comfort food at its best. This was a surprisingly cozy story, and was a fun read overall. 89. His Last Bow - Doyle - I don't really remember which stories were in which book. I enjoyed it, in any case. 90. Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe - Very, very good. I wish I had read this years ago. I know it gets criticized for being a bit dated these days, but I really enjoyed it. 91. Zone One - Colson Whitehead - Zombie apocalypse book as social commentary. That's reductive, but the book kind of stays in its lane in that respect. It was well written, but felt very repetitive, in a way that made me feel like maybe the idea didn't have the legs to support something novel-length. 92. Too Like the Lightning - Ada Palmer - What a bizarre combination of sci-fi ideas. I liked this book much better than I thought I would, it initially felt like it was trying to pack too much in one book. Ultimately I was really drawn in, in a way that surprised me. 93. Best Served Cold - Joe Abercrombie - Side story to the First Law books, which I liked a lot. I didn't enjoy this quite as much, though it was a fun little diversion. 94. Colossal - Andrew Hinderaker - A play about sports, masculinity, exploitation of college football players... A powerful play with a lot of laters. quote:Remaining Challenges:
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Sep 30, 2019 05:52
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Yo, anyone want to hand out a wild card?
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Sep 30, 2019 14:57
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