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Ben Nevis posted:19. How to Relax by Thich Nhat Hanh - Spoiler alert: The answer is basically breathing. Unfortunately, that's pretty much all he says. Pay attention. Be mindful. Breathe. I've read two of his books and neither were helpful.
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May 12, 2022 09:50
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26. Men Explain Things to Me, Solnit Discussing patronizing of women and violence perpetrated against them, eye-opening and horrifying. 27. A Field Guide to Herms, Biddle Brief discussion of some of the worst/most common injuries and diseases, tongue in cheek. 28. A Brief History of Time, Hawking Discussion of high-falutin concepts in an understandable way; a classic for a reason. 29. Yearbook, Rogen Seth does drugs and is frank about some celebrities. 30. Utilitarianism, Mill A defense of this tenet, stressing the point that utilitarianism is about pleasure, and nobility of actions engenders this. 31. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass Somewhat sanitized matter of fact account of his slavery and escape, very moving and infuriating at what he and so many others had to endure.
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May 16, 2022 18:54
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how was Yearbook by Rogen? His personality in all his media makes him seem like an extremely affable guy but I can’t quite tell if that book is fun or just full of paint-by-numbers celebrity memoir poo poo
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May 16, 2022 20:34
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I hit 26 books today, putting me on good track for 52, without having to resort to living Animorphs like last year lol
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May 19, 2022 01:48
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I forgot about this thread. I don't remember what books I've read.
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May 19, 2022 01:53
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I'd recommend keeping a list!
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May 19, 2022 01:54
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I definitely have not been doing the monthly thing in this thread. In fact, this is my first post. Granted, that color challenge last year killed my booklord years-long streak, but... Total goal: 100. I'm at 59 at the end of May, so I think that is probably achievable.
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May 31, 2022 20:22
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I finished another seven books during May... 45 - Debt: The First 5000 Years, by David Graeber. A long, winding and frustrating book with occasional moments of greatness. Graeber is a great polemicist, an impassioned writer and advocate for humanistic and holistic approaches to world affairs. His assertions about the cruelty and moral suffering caused by global finance - in particular the last hundred years of US- and IMF-led capitalist hegemony - are difficult to disagree with. The final chapter in particular had me nodding along eagerly and sharing his zeal for radical change and even overthrow of the status quo. However, there are a lot more chapters in this book, and many of them are puzzling and wishy-washy. As far as being a champion of anthropology as a scholarly discourse, as Graeber hopes to be, this book falls short, despite its lofty ambitions. 46 - Rohan at the Louvre, by Hirohiko Araki. Been wanting to read this for a while! Araki's wunderkind manga artist visits the Louvre in search of a mysterious painting, tied to a story from his youth. Spooky stuff ensures, with a great build-up and a good amount of spectacle as things are revealed. The artwork is appropriately beautiful, with the added colour really enhancing the mood of each page. It's a good horror story, and I'm glad to own it as a cool piece of cultural detritus. 47 - HHhH, by Laurent Binet. Excellent historical "novel" that blends fact, fiction, and the writer's anxious drive for telling the full truth of such important events. Two assassins and their target are meticulously profiled as their lives inexorably converge, and the writing is absolutely gripping. Binet captures the vain frenzy of academic curiosity really well, as gripping scenes are broken up by fretting over authenticity and tracking down yet more sources. The climax of the book pivots on the absurdity of happenstance colliding with meticulous planning. It's really drat good and I've recommended it to half a dozen people already. 48 - Invincika, by Varun Sayal. I was given a free copy of this book in return for an honest review. In alternate-universe India ruled by a craven idiot monarch, the protagonist is a young acolyte just awakening to her immense power, and finding herself tasked with missions that have world-saving stakes. Unfortunately, the characters and scenarios are not particularly exciting, and the action is written as if it is describing an MCU fight scene, complete with digital backlot. There are some cool ideas - an antagonist with mind-control powers imposes her will on others, but there are "rules" to this ability that only become apparent at plot-convenient moments. There are some satisfying twists, but the overall story never really grabbed me. Despite being told the stakes I didn't really feel invested until things picked up in the final few scenes. However, I didn't have a bad time with this. As stated, things do improve toward the end, though. 49 - Night Flight, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. BOTM. I was taking my time with it deliberately to make the eighty-odd pages last longer. There are some lovely images and some exciting and powerful moments, like the final approach to Buenos Aires and the beautiful descriptions of the towns and lights and so on. But I have been left feeling completely blank. I understand the historical context, and that in the 1930s airmail and aviation in general were still a source of wonder and exhileration for the average reader. So perhaps it's just a generational/cultural gap? I don't know. Maybe if I'd read this as a young teen I would have been more excited by it. 50 - The Name Of The Rose, by Umberto Eco. Oh my gosh, this book rules. 14th-century murder mystery, postmodern detective shenanigans, extremely beautiful prose. A memorable and well-drawn cast, each with hidden and sometimes hideous depths (performed impeccably by the audiobook narrator Sean Barret). Eco's writing shows a deep, abiding interest in language, faith, power and systems of control. As the mysteries (and bodies) stack up, and things go to hell, I was completely gripped. One thing I wasn't prepared for was just how funny this book is: the levels of gossip, drama and rumourmongering among the cast reaches high school levels of pettiness, but with deadly stakes that make it all the more absurd and tragic when things come to a head. The descriptions of the abbey and its inhabitants are vivid and intricate, and I really enjoyed my time spent with them. A wonderful novel. 51 - What Even Is Harmony, by NOD. A novel about schizophrenia. Clearly heavily autobiographical, or at least inspired by the author's experiences, it follows the aftermath of a psychiatric hospital stay and her long journey toward stability. There are footnotes and interstitial short chapters to elaborate on the author's thought processes and experiences to the reader, and they help give a fuller picture of this slice of a self-described "mad woman"'s life. A lot of the moment-to-moment prose focuses on physicality and her presence in embodied space, contrasting the certainty of her inanimate surroundings with the unreliable/unknowable humans she interacts with. There are some very sweet scenes and conversations; there are also some moments of deep longing and sadness. NOD has emphasised her desire to write truth, and this felt like I was being shown a candid and true vision of her piece of the world. 1. Set a goal for number of books and/or another personal challenge. - 51/60 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are not written by men. - 15 - 2, 4, 13, 15, 17, 18, 31, 32, 34, 35, 36, 38, 43, 44, 51 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 25% of them are written by writers of colour. - 18 - 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 19, 26, 31, 35, 41, 43, 46, 48 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are written by LGBTQ writers. - 11 - 1, 13, 17, 18, 34, 36, 38, 39, 41, 43, 51 5. Read something originally published... f. At least 250 years ago g. At least 500 years ago 6. Read two works by the same author 8. Read an issue of a story-focused/literary magazine (there are many available online entirely for free!) 9. Read an anthology or collection containing the work of more than one author 11. Read something about exploration 13. Read something about film or television 16. Read something about mountains 18. Re-read something you love 22. Read something that will teach you something new (and briefly tell us what you learned!) Gertrude Perkins fucked around with this message at 03:48 on Jun 2, 2022 |
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Jun 2, 2022 03:28
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Gertrude Perkins posted:51 - What Even Is Harmony, by NOD. A novel about schizophrenia. Clearly heavily autobiographical, or at least inspired by the author's experiences, it follows the aftermath of a psychiatric hospital stay and her long journey toward stability. There are footnotes and interstitial short chapters to elaborate on the author's thought processes and experiences to the reader, and they help give a fuller picture of this slice of a self-described "mad woman"'s life. A lot of the moment-to-moment prose focuses on physicality and her presence in embodied space, contrasting the certainty of her inanimate surroundings with the unreliable/unknowable humans she interacts with. There are some very sweet scenes and conversations; there are also some moments of deep longing and sadness. NOD has emphasised her desire to write truth, and this felt like I was being shown a candid and true vision of her piece of the world. What Even is Harmony is my novel. You can read the whole thing on the website http://whatisharmony.com/ To be clear, it's not an autobiography, it is fiction, just some of the feelings and a few moments share a "truth" with my own experiences. Thanks for taking a shot on it Gertrude Perkins!
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Jun 2, 2022 13:43
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Finished 8 books in May! Some good stuff all around with just one that was, to me, a little 'meh.' 29. All the White Spaces by Ally Wilkes After his two older brothers die in World War I, a young trans man convinces an old friend to help sneak him aboard an Antarctic expedition. There are ghosts, and like many real-life Antarctic expeditions, things go very badly. There are definitely a lot of beats and characters inspired by the Shackleton expedition where the Endurance sank (but in this one, it catches on fire instead!) which is neat if you're a dweeb about Antarctic exploration (like I am). Some good creeping dread and lots of horrific frostbite. 30. Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica (translated by Sarah Moses) In a world where a virus has rendered all animal flesh and products deadly to humans, the meat industry pivots to breeding humans as a source of livestock. The main character is a manager at a major slaughterhouse who has some misgivings about the industry he makes a living from. A really brutal and nasty book (I mean this as a compliment) about how far people are willing to go, and who/what they're actually willing to exploit to serve their own desires. 31. Last First Snow by Max Gladstone Technically the fourth in the Craft Sequence series, but (as far as I understand), the first chronologically. I picked up the audiobook for this a handful of years ago based on some Book Barn conversations about it. This was my 'meh' book for the month. While the concept of lawyers and bureaucrats who are also magicians is neat, I wasn't really invested until the action picked up a bit over halfway through. I do already have a few of the other books on Audible (and it is WAY too late to refund them) so I might give one of them a shot eventually, but it's not the top of my list. 32. Exhalation by Ted Chiang If you like "high concept" but highly relatable sci-fi, do yourself a favor and check out Ted Chiang's stuff. I haven't seen any of the movies based on his stories, but I can see why they've already adapted a handful of them. Chiang does a great job of not only introducing interesting technologies, but really exploring what it means when people interact with them and the impact they have both on individuals and on society at large. Just a really solid collection and I plan to check out more of his stuff. 33. Anoka by Shane Hawk Subtitled "A Collection of Indigenous Horror" -- it sure is! This is a breezy 84 pages of short stories. While some of the stories tread pretty well-worn horror ground, Hawk really excels at adding some unique horror imagery and concepts to the mix. I'm pretty sure this was his debut collection, and I don't think he's been writing for too long if my memory of a podcast interview I heard serves. I really look forward to seeing how he develops because he's off to a strong start. 34. Helpmeet by Naben Ruthnum I've half-jokingly said that I'm part of the "horrific Victorian-era surgery/medicine" fandom, and this book was catnip. A nurse whose doctor husband has been wasting away from a mysterious illness works diligently to care for him. The illness (and wow is it gruesome) turns out to not be all that mundane. The ending has some very interesting gender stuff happening. Another breezy read at 94 pages. Check it out if you're a fan of medical/body horror! 35. The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee This was actually the scariest thing I think I read this month. It goes through the history of cancer, from the slow understanding of what it even is, to the various treatments used through time (both successful and not). It's incredible how far the understanding and treatment of cancer has come in the last 30 years. Really engaging and while it gets sort of technical occasionally, it's never dry or confusing. 36. Your Mind is a Terrible Thing by Hailey Piper A sci-fi horror novella with great B-movie vibes. Alto is an incredibly anxious communications specialist on a space ship transporting corpses. It's a routine journey until the rest of the crew disappears and giant feral brains start attacking them (both physically and psychically). There's a lot of Carpenter/Cronenberg-esque goopy monster and corpse blob sequences, but there's also a core of empathy to the whole thing that gives it more depth than the B-movie trappings would lead you to assume. 1. Set a goal for number of books and/or another personal challenge. Total: 36/52 Nonfiction: 7/10 Moby Dick: 1/1  2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are not written by men. ~20/36 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 25% of them are written by writers of colour. ~10/36 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are written by LGBTQ writers. ~16/36 5. Read something originally published... a. In the past year [Light from Uncommon Stars - 2021] b. At least 5 years ago [Ninefox Gambit - 2016] c. At least 25 years ago [The Sparrow - 1996] d. At least 50 years ago [Master and Commander - 1970] e. At least 100 years ago [Moby Dick - 1851] f. At least 250 years ago g. At least 500 years ago 6. Read two works by the same author 7. Read something by a disabled author 8. Read an issue of a story-focused/literary magazine (there are many available online entirely for free!) [Seize the Press, Vol. 1] 9. Read an anthology or collection containing the work of more than one author [Book of Queer Saints] 10. Read something from a genre you rarely or never read [Romance - Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics] 11. Read something about exploration [Icebound] 12. Read something about transformation [Wingspan of Severed Hands] 13. Read something about film or television 14. Read something fictional, based (however loosely) on a historical event [Master and Commander] 15. Read something written by an author living in the opposite hemisphere from you where you currently live/the one you'd call home (North/South and/or East/West - Bonus Points* for both axes!) [Tender is the Flesh] 16. Read something about mountains [Buried in the Sky] 17. Read something you've been meaning to read for a while, but haven't yet [Moby Dick] 18.Re-read something you love [We Have Always Lived in the Castle] 19. Read something scary [Tell Me I'm Worthless] 20. Look through some other Book Barn threads (or the Discord) and pick a book suggested or discussed there to read (Bonus Points* if you also post in that thread to discuss the book once you've read it!) [The March North] 21.Ask someone in this thread for a Wildcard to read OR read something that was explicitly recommended to you either by someone you know, or by someone in another thread in The Book Barn (Bonus Points* if you do both!) [Murderous Dr. Cream] 22. Read something that will teach you something new (and briefly tell us what you learned!) [Icebound - Did you know that polar bear livers contain so much Vitamin A that it's toxic for a human to eat it? The Barents expedition found that out the hard way!]
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Jun 3, 2022 03:02
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Sandwolf posted:how was Yearbook by Rogen? His personality in all his media makes him seem like an extremely affable guy but I can’t quite tell if that book is fun or just full of paint-by-numbers celebrity memoir poo poo I enjoyed it; it had that same sense of affability he emanates, and was a very easy and quick read. It's the kind of book you'd probably read in one or two evenings, in a relaxed and chill atmosphere. I'd recommend it, if you like his style.
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Jun 3, 2022 15:57
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32. The Social Contract, Rousseau 33. The Violinist's Thumb, Kean 34. The Republic, Plato 35. The Hobbit, Tolkien 36. I'll Take Your Questions Now, Grisham 37. Rigged, Hemingway 38. Caste, Wilkerson 39. Hidden Figures, Shetterly 40. Foucault's Pendulum, Eco 41. The Path Between the Seas, McCullough 42, Upstairs at the White House, West 43. Humans: A Brief History of How We F***ed It All Up, Phillips
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Jun 3, 2022 16:05
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Oh good, I'm real late again. But I was travelling on 6/1, so just now getting around to this. I did read a story collection by various authors, so that's good. And a book at the hundred years mark. So I checked out a book from the library for Mountains, but it's a coffee table book. Undecided on whether to continue. I realized looking over things for the last 5 that I've not read a 5 star book this year. Some god ones, but nothing's gotten over that hump. Hopefully the back end of the year has some stronger books. 24. Defenestrate by Renee Branum - An interesting little book about a pair of twins from a family with a long history of falling to their death, sometimes out of windows. The brother has fallen non-fatally, and his sister reflects on their times together, important falls, and wonders whether he attempted suicide. It's a messy life for them with a difficult family situation and struggles of each twin to individuate. I enjoyed this. The relationships felt real to me, and a lot of the tidbits about falling, from pratfalls to "The Most Beautiful Suicide" to Lucifer were interesting and the sort of digression I enjoy. 25. The Book of the Most Precious Substance by Sara Gran - If I said this was Club Dumas meets 50 Shades of Gray, I don't think I'd be wrong. If you like the secret book genre, but always wanted it "sexier" this may be the book for you. 26. Turn of the Screw by Henry James - A governess thinks the kids see ghosts. Super scary a century ago, maybe. 27. She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan - A gender swapped bit of Chinese history. I admit, I didn't know anything about the start of the Ming Dynasty, and did look it up. Overall, I think this was a solid book, would recommend. 28. Comfort Me With Apples by Catherynne Valente - A sort of Stepford Wives inspired story set in a rather restrictive HOA. Interesting overall. 29. Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan - A short book about a hardwoking family man over Christmas and his encounter with the home for wayward girls. Very much read to me as a "Remember the abuses that happened" sort of thing. 30. City of Incurable Women by Maud Casey - So Casey has taken records of a women's asylum in 19th century Paris. She constructs linked stories around some of the women featured, with bits of case notes and pictures interspersed. It's OK. It didn't all come together as well as I'd hoped. 31. The Future is Female ed. Lisa Yasnek - Had on my shelf for ages. 25 sci-fi stories from like 1928 through the 70s written by women. It finishes with Tiptree and Le Guin, but most of the authors weren't that familiar to me. Chronologically, it's interesting to see some trends with concern over the bomb or maybe the environment. Solid overall, and there's some authors I'll look up to check out. Ben Nevis posted:1. Noor by Nnedi Okorafor
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Jun 8, 2022 17:09
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I managed to finish eight books in June: 52 - Manhunt, by Gretchen Felker-Martin. Post-apocalypse gorefest in a near-future where testosterone turns people into vicious, feral animals. A pair of transgender women fight for survival in a collapsed society under threat from packs of feral men and roaming, militarised TERFs. Felker-Martin can write some great gore and some gripping action, eager to rub her reader's face in each scene of horrific viscera or stomach-turning hatred. As subtle as a boot to the face, if that boot had already stamped on a dozen previous faces. Less an allegory and more a logical conclusion of anti-trans rhetoric, mixed in with extra-nastified themes from zombie stories and Torrey Peters' Infect Your Friends And Loved Ones. Clearly written for catharsis and fun as much as to piss off the right people, and it works well at all of these. Even as someone who very rarely enjoys a post-apocalypse story, I enjoyed a lot of this, and got to really like some of the characters. Of course, as a cis guy, I'd be one of the doomed, slavering hordes, so. 53 - Digger: The Complete Omnibus, by Ursula Vernon. A charming, slow-burn epic in the vein of stories like Bone or a less florid Redwall tale. A lone wombat accidentally digs herself a long way from home, and meets a strange and fun cast of friends and foes as she gets roped into dangerous quests with deadly stakes. Vernon has a great sense of character voices, and builds a vibrant but lonely-feeling world around Digger without getting too bogged down in grand worldbuilding or capital-L Lore. Isolated and displaced in geography and maybe in time, a lot of the narrative features clashing cultural norms and how to navigate them. I enjoyed this a lot, and it has made me want to properly explore the rest of Vernon's work. I also know a good number of people I'd recommend this to - in the canon of modern graphic novels it feels like a hidden gem. 54 - The Burnout Society, by Han Byung-Chul. A short philosophical exploration of burnout, depression, attention and idleness. Drawing on Nietzsche, Freud, Agamben, Arendt and others, Han diagnoses the 21st century culture of individualised hyper-attention and constart self-exploitation with deep psychic malaise and a stifling of possibility. Focusing on the specific individual psychological/philosophical experience, he only hints at the explicit neoliberal capitalist forces behind the drive toward this state of being - I imagine he addresses these materialist forces in later work. It is interesting to read a piece like this written in 2010, before the modern resurgence of social justice movements and anticapitalist writing. 55 - Orlando, by Virginia Woolf. Beautiful gender- and time-slipping novel about romance, identity, creativity and beauty. It's also very funny, as Woolf uses the framing device of a biography to play around with structure and pacing. Even in Orlando's worst moments, the inner world Woolf writes is so engrossing that it's hard not to be completely taken in. I could gush for a long time about this, but I'd just be repeating what countless other people have already said. This book made me smile a lot. 56 - All My Darling Daughters, by Fumi Yoshinaga. Very sweet manga story of multigenerational romance, love and pain. Different characters' stories stand alone but are woven together into a rich and affecting exploration of the small kindnesses and cruelties that make up life experience. The artwork is simple but very pretty; the writing has joy and tragedy that feel taken from real people and experiences. 57 - The Conference of the Birds, by Attar of Nishapur. Epic sufi poem about the pursuit of the divine and the absolute self-negation necessary to achieve oneness with God. Told in allegories and parables, the poetry is quite beautiful and features some powerful, memorable imagery. I am not surprised that this is held in high esteem; I understand the comparisons I've seen to the Canterbury Tales (there's even a surprise fart joke!). However, as a reading experience, the stories are so repetitive and the constant reassertion of the tenets of sufism (particularly the renouncement of all desire and self-regard in the face of divine perfection and unity) turn into a real slog. Perhaps I should have rationed this out for longer, but by the time I was halfway through I felt I had experienced everything this had to show me. Maybe if I were a more spiritual person I would have got more out of this; as things stand I will continue to regard it as an important and influential poetic epic that I am unlikely to revisit. 58 - Little Brother, by Cory Doctorow. An exhilerating time capsule of the late Bush era, this is an angry and impassioned YA novel and polemic screed against government overreach, perversions of justice, surveillance culture and the Department of Homeland Security as an entity. Written with techno-libertarian fervour, Doctorow captures the mindset of the young and the liberal of the mid-late 00s, and works to induce and reflect the reader's outrage and paranoia to spur them to action (or at least to learning better infosec). The book itself isn't excellent - it owes as much to 24 as it does to William Gibson, and from a 2022 lens it feels almost...quaint? That said, if I had read this when it came out, when I was the same age as the protagonist, I would have been really enthralled. 59 - Sayonara, Gangsters, by Genichiro Takahashi. I've no idea who recommended this to me or why - it's been on my to-read list for many years. But I finally read it and drat, I loved it. A novel half-told in comedy skits, a postmodern exploration of the power and failures of language and names, of companionship and love and education. It's very strange and silly in an endearing way, but when tragedy happens it can be absolutely heartbreaking. Is it political? Kind of? Someone more knowledgeable than me could certainly situate it within the swelling Japanese bubble economy and the neoliberal drive complicating and destroying traditional ideas of identity and purpose. But I mostly just enjoyed the ride, the breezy pace and absurdist humour. 1. Set a goal for number of books and/or another personal challenge. - 59/60 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are not written by men. - 19 - 2, 4, 13, 15, 17, 18, 31, 32, 34, 35, 36, 38, 43, 44, 51, 52, 53, 55, 56 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 25% of them are written by writers of colour. - 22 - 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 19, 26, 31, 35, 41, 43, 46, 48, 54, 56, 57, 59 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are written by LGBTQ writers. - 11 - 1, 13, 17, 18, 34, 36, 38, 39, 41, 43, 51, 52, 55 5. Read something originally published... f. At least 250 years ago 6. Read two works by the same author 8. Read an issue of a story-focused/literary magazine (there are many available online entirely for free!) 9. Read an anthology or collection containing the work of more than one author 11. Read something about exploration 13. Read something about film or television 16. Read something about mountains 18. Re-read something you love
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Jun 30, 2022 23:29
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Finished 7 books in June! My horror streak ebbed but I ended up going hard into the non-fiction toward the back end of the month. 37. The Mud Ballad by Jo Quenell A gross little novella about some conjoined twins and their doctor who end up leaving the circus sideshow they'd been employed by for a nasty little railroad town. This qualifies more as "weird" than outright horror, I think, but it definitely gets gross. There's black magic, reanimated corpses, a lethal pig vs. feral child army throwdown, mimes, etc. There's a lot packed into just 142 pages. 38. Tripping Arcadia by Kit Mayquist This is billed as "a gothic novel" and is tagged as horror in most places but it's more of a thriller than anything. It's set in the current day, about a woman who dropped out of med school and ends up being a sort of physicians assistant for a disgustingly rich family. The younger brother is mysteriously ill, the father throws extravagant, drug-fueled parties for his fellow absurdly rich people. There is lots of poisoning involved. Not bad for a debut novel, but I did wish it was a little shorter since it sort of dragged through most of the first half or so. 39. Raven Stratagem by Yoon Ha Lee The sequel to Ninefox Gambit. I really enjoyed this. It does suffer a bit from second-book-in-a-trilogy syndrome where it feels like it's setting things up for the third book more than anything else, but there was an interesting twist at the end and I ended up starting the third book immediately. This introduced a lot of interesting new characters and some neat weird magic/technologies that were sort of one-off set pieces but that I hope show up or get explored more in the third book (I'm doing audiobooks, and those take me a bit longer). 40. Wrath Goddess Sing by Maya Deane It's the Illiad, but Achilles is a trans woman! The book goes beyond that pretty quickly though and a lot more focus is put on Achille's fraught relationships with the gods, her friends (Patroclus' wife Meryapi gets a lot of screen time -- Patroclus is barely around), and a road trip that takes them all the way to Egypt, and eventually they go to the moon... it mostly makes sense in context. It's also an early development and I think one of the most interesting twists to the story (but I'll tag it anyway) that Helen is the incarnation of an incredibly powerful deity and is the one who is actually benefitting from the bloodshed of the war as it makes her stronger. If that all sounds interesting, it's worth checking out! 41. The Facemaker: A Visionary Surgeon's Battle to Mend the Disfigured Soldiers of WWI by Lindsey Fitzharris Nonfiction and what it says in the title. A pretty fast-paced rundown of some of the incredible surgical developments done by Dr. Harold Gillies and others in the wake of the horrors of mechanized warfare. There's a lot of frank description of the horrific carnage that came with World War I and a before-and-after selection of photos of some of the patients (though they're easy enough to find on Google, it's nice to have the context of who those men actually were and what happened to them). A really good, if at times harrowing, read. 42. Island of the Lost: Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World by Joan Druett Nonfiction about the wrecks of the Grafton and Invercauld which left survivors on opposite ends of the Auckland islands in the same year, and how those survivors... survived (or didn't). The Grafton group (thanks to the buck wild depth of knowledge one of the crew members had) manage pretty well, making their own soap, cement, and even building a forge to make their own carpentry tools. Really interesting, especially for how apparently unknown the story of the castaways is. 43. Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson's Lost Pacific Empire: A Story of Wealth, Ambition, and Survival by Peter Stark Apparently at one point almost every schoolkid in the US learned about Astoria, and the story about the efforts to establish an American fur trading post at the mouth of the Columbia river is absolutely fascinating (and infuriating as most things to do with colonialism and westward expansion tend to be). I probably learned more about the early years of the U.S. from this one book than I ever learned in grade school (not that that's a high bar, sadly). Really riveting story and well presented, though I wish there was a bit more about Marie Dorian who comes off as the toughest member of the whole expedition. 1. Set a goal for number of books and/or another personal challenge. Total: 43/52 Nonfiction: 10/10 Moby Dick: 1/1 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are not written by men. ~24/43 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 25% of them are written by writers of colour. ~11/43 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are written by LGBTQ writers. ~20/43 5. Read something originally published... a. In the past year [Light from Uncommon Stars - 2021] b. At least 5 years ago [Ninefox Gambit - 2016] c. At least 25 years ago [The Sparrow - 1996] d. At least 50 years ago [Master and Commander - 1970] e. At least 100 years ago [Moby Dick - 1851] f. At least 250 years ago g. At least 500 years ago 6. Read two works by the same author [Ninefox Gambit and Raven Stratagem - Yoon Ha Lee] 7. Read something by a disabled author 8. Read an issue of a story-focused/literary magazine (there are many available online entirely for free!) [Seize the Press, Vol. 1] 9. Read an anthology or collection containing the work of more than one author [Book of Queer Saints] 10. Read something from a genre you rarely or never read [Romance - Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics] 11. Read something about exploration [Icebound] 12. Read something about transformation [Wingspan of Severed Hands] 13. Read something about film or television 14. Read something fictional, based (however loosely) on a historical event [Master and Commander] 15. Read something written by an author living in the opposite hemisphere from you where you currently live/the one you'd call home (North/South and/or East/West - Bonus Points* for both axes!) [Tender is the Flesh] 16. Read something about mountains [Buried in the Sky] 17. Read something you've been meaning to read for a while, but haven't yet [Moby Dick] 18.Re-read something you love [We Have Always Lived in the Castle] 19. Read something scary [Tell Me I'm Worthless] 20. Look through some other Book Barn threads (or the Discord) and pick a book suggested or discussed there to read (Bonus Points* if you also post in that thread to discuss the book once you've read it!) [The March North] 21.Ask someone in this thread for a Wildcard to read OR read something that was explicitly recommended to you either by someone you know, or by someone in another thread in The Book Barn (Bonus Points* if you do both!) [Murderous Dr. Cream] 22. Read something that will teach you something new (and briefly tell us what you learned!) [Icebound - Did you know that polar bear livers contain so much Vitamin A that it's toxic for a human to eat it? The Barents expedition found that out the hard way!]
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Jul 1, 2022 16:41
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June was a decent month overall, though I only read 4. I guess that's the late report from May cost me a book. A lot of random stuff this month, mostly grabbed from the library at random. 32. King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner - 3rd book in the Queens Thief series. This is sort of Feel Good Fantasy, I'd say. This one is interesting, as you're mostly getting a 3rd person impression of Gen, our favorite thief. You know that he's going to pull it all off, somehow, you're just not sure what it is or how. A good impression of the new king, and a good depiction of the romance from the outside looking in. 33. God of Mercy by Okezie Nwoka - Feels a bit like a folk tale or something similar. In an African village, a young girl is cursed to be mute and a flood is coming, determined to be sent by the ones who cursed her. When she learns to fly, it's seen as a sign of the gods' favor but upsets the social order and disturbs her father, who decides to send her away. It feels dense. There's very much a struggle between tradition and the ravages of colonialism. Also the colonial abuses of Christianity. 34. Lurkers by Sandi Tan - My library had this in the Beach Read section. It also has a startlingly low good reads rating. Set in a neighborhood called Santa Claus Lane it follows 3 storylines. A first generation Korean girl whose mom is wanting to move them back to Korea after the father's death. A mother and her adopted Vietnamese daughter struggle to, I guess, know each other. And a aging gay horror novelist who struggles with his father. All outsiders, and all struggling with their families. The author's note at the end talks about wanting to write a coming of age novel for different ages, and here we sort of have different coming of age stories interwoven, teenage, 20s/30s and like 65. It's interesting, occasionally humorous, and better than the 3.2 rating. 35. Siren Queen by Nghi Vo - Was pretty hype to see a new Nghi Vo on the shelf. This is set in early Hollywood. Talking pictures, but only recently. Our heroine is trying to work her way out of her parents' laundry and into the film industry. She's facing anti-Chinese sentiment as well as homophobia. In a lot of ways it reminds me of 7 Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. Except here, the studios are literally magical, run by fey beasts in human shape, demanding blood. On the whole enjoyed this. Ben Nevis posted:1. Noor by Nnedi Okorafor
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Jul 1, 2022 22:02
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First half of the year report. Hey, better late than never, right? 1. All's Well - Mona Awad 2. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (HP #2) - J.K. Rowling 3. The Book of Emptiness and Form - Ruth Ozeki 4. The Trees - Percival Everett 5. Magpie Murders - Anthony Horowitz 6. Intimacies - Katie Kitamura 7. No One is Talking About This - Patricia Lockwood 8. The Labyrinth of the Spirits - Carlos Ruiz Zafon 9. Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban (HP #3) - J.K. Rowling 10. Several People are Typing - Calvin Kalsuke 11. Subdivision - J. Robert Lennon 12. Baltazar and Blimunda - José Saramago 13. The Echo Wife - Sarah Gailey 14. When We Cease to Understand the World - Benjamin Labatut 15. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (HP #4) - J.K. Rowling 16. A Psalm for the Wild Built - Becky Chambers 17. Death on the Nile - Agatha Christie 18. Our Country Friends - Gary Shteyngart 19. Great Circle - Maggie Shipstead 20. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (HP #5) - J.K. Rowling 21. Harsh Times - Mario Vargas Llosa 22. The Path Between the Seas - David McCullough 23. Shadow & Bone (S&B #1) - Leigh Bardugo 24. The Blacktongue Thief - Christopher Buehlman 25. The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu - Tom Lin 26. Possession - A.S. Byatt 27. Siege and Storm (S&B #2) - Leigh Bardugo 28. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (HP #6) - J.K. Rowling 29. Ruin and Rising (S&B #3) - Leigh Bardugo 30. The Great Eastern - Howard A. Rodman 31. The Bone Ships - K.J. Parker 32. Free Food for Millionaires - Min Jin Lee 33. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (HP #7) - J.K. Rowling 34. The Confession of Copeland Cane - Keenan Norris 35. Long Bright River - Liz Moore 36. Devil House - John Darnielle 37. Detransition, Baby - Torrey Peters 38. Saga vol 1 - Brian Vaughan & Fiona Staples 39. Apeirogon - Colum McCann 40. Dear Martin - Nic Stone 41. Saga vol 2 - Brian K. Vaughan & Fiona Staples 42. Saga vol 3 - Brian K. Vaughan & Fiona Staples 43. Call of the Bone Ship - RJ Barker 44. Saga vol 4 - Brian K. Vaughan & Fiona Staples 45. Saga vol 5 - Brian K. Vaughan & Fiona Staples 46. The Love Songs of WEB DuBois - Honorée Fanonne Jeffers 47. Anatomy - Dana Schwartz 48. Saga vol. 6 - Brian K. Vaughan & Fiona Staples 49. The Nameless City (Nameless City #1) - Faith Evans Hicks 50. Moon Witch, Spider King (Dark Star #2) - Marlon James 51. Saga vol. 7 - Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples 52. The Stone Heart (Nameless City #2) - Faith Evans Hicks 53. Saga vol. 8 - Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples 54. The Divided Earth (Nameless City #3) - Faith Evans Hicks 55. Saga vol. 9 - Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples 56. Born a Crime - Trevor Noah 57. Trust - Hernan Diaz 58. The Hummingbird’s Daughter - Luis Alberto Urrea 59. The Bone Ship’s Wake - RJ Barker 60. Beasts of a Little Land - Juhea Kim 61. Sea of Tranquility - Emily St. John Mandel 62. How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps her House - Cherie Jones 63. Tristam Shandy - Laurence Sterne 64. Cemetery Boys - Aiden Thomas 65. The Dragonbone Chair (Memory, Sorrow, & Thorn #1) - Tad Williams 66. Twelve Angry Men - Reginald Rose 67. The House in the Cerulean Sea - T.J. Klune 68. House Made of Dawn - N. Scott Momaday 69. Stone of Farewell (Memory, Sorrow, & Thorn #2) - Tad Williams 70. The Magic Fish - Trung Le Nguyen 71. To Green Angel Tower (Memory, Sorrow, & Thorn #3) - Tad Williams A pretty good number for just halfway through the year. (Yes, the Saga books are cheating a little bit. Don't care.) Best ones so far are The Hummingbird's Daughter (story of a 'saint,' the author's ancestor, who played a role in the Mexican Revolution), The Trees (mystery about dead white men being found with dead black men holding their detached testes), A Psalm for the Wild-Built (adorable hopepunk sci-fi about a monk and a robot), When We Cease to Understand the World (fictionalized biographic sketches of famous scientists), the Bone Ships trilogy (fantasy pirate poo poo), and Devil House (unreliable narration of a satanic-panic-murder case from the 80s). 1. Set a goal for a number of books and/or another personal challenge. (71/100) 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are not written by men. (46%) 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are written by writers of colour. (24%) 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 8% of them are written by LGBTQ writers. (12%) 5. Read something originally published... a. In the past year [Trust, Anatomy, Sea of Tranquility] b. At least 5 years ago [Dear Martin] c. At least 25 years ago [The Path Between the Seas] d. At least 50 years ago [Twelve Angry Men] e. At least 100 years ago f. At least 250 years ago [Tristam Shandy] g. At least 500 years ago 6. Read two works by the same author (read series by Williams, Rowling, and Bardugo) 7. Read something by a disabled author - Leigh Bardugo 8. Read an issue of a story-focused/literary magazine (there are many available online entirely for free!) 9. Read an anthology or collection containing the work of more than one author 10. Read something from a genre you rarely or never read (Anatomy: A Love Story…. YA romance) 11. Read something about exploration - The Bridge Between the Seas 12. Read something about transformation (Detransition, Baby - Torrey Peters) 13. Read something about film or television 14. Read something fictional, based (however loosely) on a historical event - The Hummingbird’s Daughter 15. Read something written by an author living in the opposite hemisphere from you where you currently live/the one you'd call home (North/South and/or East/West - Bonus Points* for both axes!) 16. Read something about mountains 17. Read something you've been meaning to read for a while, but haven't yet (Tristam Shandy) 18. Re-read something you love - The Memory, Sorrow, & Thorn series, Harry Potter 19. Read something scary 20. Look through some other Book Barn threads (or the Discord) and pick a book suggested or discussed there to read (Bonus Points* if you also post in that thread to discuss the book once you've read it!) 21. Ask someone in this thread for a Wildcard to read OR read something that was explicitly recommended to you either by someone you know, or by someone in another thread in The Book Barn (Bonus Points* if you do both!) 22. Read something that will teach you something new (and briefly tell us what you learned!)
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Jul 4, 2022 12:38
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Cool to see so much reading going on! I've been meaning to read Saga too, nice to see that there. I'll include some audiobooks and lots of comics too. Just been meaning to read more, making it a daily habit, much like mindfulness meditation mentioned above. Easier said than done at times, I fall off and get back into these habits, lots of reminders etc. So here's a mid-year attempt at reading some stuff. Name: Heavy Metal Personal Challenge: 20 books Booklord 2022: no It's a great title though, reminds me of Ravenlord, a great song by Stormwitch and Hammerfall. Can you hear the autumn wind blowing, Ravenlord is coming to stay! Ravenlord... takes you far away! That's metal. Here are my two books finished so far this year: 1. Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity (by David Lynch) Did the audiobook version, love David's voice. This was a good listen, always cool to hear his perspective. I enjoyed his longer audio autobiography Room to Dream even more too, but I always enjoy his stuff. And though not myself signing up for TM just yet, I am intending to meditate more, so it's good to hear how it has helped him. 2. Uncanny X-Men Vol. 8 (Marvel Masterworks, by Chris Claremont) This is great stuff, from Chris Claremont's historic X-Men run. This bit wraps up the Brood Saga, a Ridley Scott inspired bit of Alien mayhem. So much fun characterization, you really get to know everybody on the crew. Kitty Pryde who was introduced during the Dark Phoenix Saga being kind of a point of view character. And of course the rise of fan favorite Wolverine, bub. Artist Dave Cockrum is a master of visual storytelling too, very cool stuff. Chris is known for his flowery prose and having a lot more novelistic narration than we may be used to. But it works well here. Can take a while, but well worth it. Also includes an annual where they tango with Dracula for the second time. Heavy Metal fucked around with this message at 10:49 on Jul 14, 2022 |
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Jul 14, 2022 10:24
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Doing my July reads a little early since I know I won't finish anything I'm currently reading before tomorrow. I finished 9 books in July, already meeting my goal of 52 books for the year! A couple of stand outs, a lot of just OK books, too. 44. Fatal North: Murder and Survival on the First North Pole Expedition by Bruce Henderson Did you know that Ulysses S. Grant sent an ill-fated expedition to find the North Pole when he was president? Probably not, because it didn't go well! After the expedition leader abruptly dies, the whole venture falls into shambles and a large part of the expedition is left stranded, drifting on the polar ice pack, including women and children and, crucially, a few Inuit guides who were key in saving everyone from certain death. The back half or so is dedicated to the official naval inquest that happened, and it's a bit less exciting than the rest of the story, but interesting and informative overall. 45. Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao One of the few YA novels I've read recently and enjoyed. Very loosely based on Chinese historical figure Wu Zetian, but with Darling in the Franxx style mechs that take two people to pilot and often kill the female pilots by draining the life from them. Despite being a pretty explicit response to the aforementioned anime (I've only seen a couple episodes of it, but I can see why someone would feel inclined to do something.... different. with the base concept), this managed to not feel TOO anime. It got gritty and, while the character motivations were sometimes YA simplistic, I'm interested to see where the next book goes. 46. Godslayers by Zoe Hana Mikuta Speaking of TOO anime... I enjoyed the first book in this duology well enough. It was YA and anime (complimentary) but unfortunately the sequel was YA and anime (derogatory). The basic premise is a ragtag gang of wasteland kids work to take down the oppressive government that uses mechs to keep people in line. Nothing really feels like it happens in this for the first half, then suddenly WAY too much happens in the second half. There were a lot of egregious editing issues, too (e.g. somewhat early on, a character, let's say John is killed. The survivors immediately talk about how they will tell John that John is dead [??]. They inform the crew, including John, that John is dead. Except once or twice the name Bob is dropped re: the dead/alive character. And then it goes back to Schrödinger's John. Pretty amazed that somehow wasn't caught when it kept showing up!) Anyway, the first one was fun. Wish I'd skipped the sequel. 47. A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske Edwardian, gay magician + gay non-magician romance with a murder mystery (or is it more?) thrown in. If you liked Witchmark by C.L. Polk or hell, even The Magpie Lord romance series by K.J. Charles you would probably both enjoy this but also feel like you'd read it before. The mysteries in each of those are different, but the basic framework and setting is more similar than not (not a bad thing!). This was pretty breezy, the mystery keeps the plot moving along. Two or three pretty explicit sex scenes (I mention only because it's easy to forget it's that sort of romance book half the time) but you can skip probably those if you're not there for them and enjoy the rest of the story. 48. Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel I've been getting sucked into the Kindle reading challenges and this met the criteria for one of the dumb little badges you could earn. Wasn't exactly on my radar until about halfway in I realized I had seen someone on twitter dunking on some of the prose in this book (some of the writing is above average -- the dialog is not always good, though. Some instances, it's bad but they were brief I thought). This was OK? Definitely feels like the sort of "pop literary sci fi" book that gets big with non-SFF readers every now and then. I rolled my eyes a little at the end which was basically just All You Zombies by Heinlein, but a much more PG version. This was also super heavy-handed in being A Pandemic Novel -- Covid is mentioned by name more than once and there's more than one pandemic as a plot point. 49. Revenant Gun by Yoon Ha Lee Wrapped up the Machineries of Empire trilogy and really enjoyed these the whole way through. Definitely glad I read/listened to these pretty close together since the overall cast of characters was pretty big by the end. Neat technology, interesting civilization(s), intricate plots/twists without being convoluted. I'd definitely recommend this series to anyone who liked something like Ancillary Justice. 50. The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle I've had this one sitting in my audible library forever and finally got around to it. Pretty solid! It's 100% a response/inversion of the typical Lovecraft story (specifically, The Horror at Red Hook), told from the point of view (mostly) of a black character who gets wrapped up in some cosmic horror stuff. I know there's been a glut of "response fiction" to older, usually racist/sexist/etc. authors/stories in the past few years, but if you only check out one of them, I think Ballad of Black Tom is one of the better ones for sure. 51. Fevered Star by Rebecca Roanhorse Sequel to Black Sun. It's.... definitely the second book in a trilogy. A lot of time spent just sort of scooting characters around into place so they're ready for whatever happens in the third book. This was a pretty hefty 388 pages for how little really happens that amounts to anything at the end. One character saw some significant development from where things left off at the end of the first book, everyone else was more or less static except for maybe once chapter's worth of events. I'm bought in enough now that I'll probably get the third book to see how it ends, but this one was a bit of a shrug overall. 52. Sisters of the Forsaken Stars by Lina Rather Sequel to Sisters of the Vast Black. It's.... definitely the second book in a series! I also had a "oh, not again" moment reading this right after Fevered Star, hah. This wasn't bad by any means! It just felt like a pitstop on the way to somewhere more interesting. A lot of time spent just building up how important the events in the first book were and what consequences these Nuns In Space will have to face in the future. The living ships made of giant space slugs are still cool though! 1. Set a goal for number of books and/or another personal challenge. Total: 52/52 Nonfiction: 10/10 Moby Dick: 1/1 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are not written by men. ~30/52 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 25% of them are written by writers of colour. ~16/52 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are written by LGBTQ writers. ~24/52 5. Read something originally published... a. In the past year [Light from Uncommon Stars - 2021] b. At least 5 years ago [Ninefox Gambit - 2016] c. At least 25 years ago [The Sparrow - 1996] d. At least 50 years ago [Master and Commander - 1970] e. At least 100 years ago [Moby Dick - 1851] f. At least 250 years ago g. At least 500 years ago 6. Read two works by the same author [Ninefox Gambit and Raven Stratagem - Yoon Ha Lee] 7. Read something by a disabled author 8. Read an issue of a story-focused/literary magazine (there are many available online entirely for free!) [Seize the Press, Vol. 1] 9. Read an anthology or collection containing the work of more than one author [Book of Queer Saints] 10. Read something from a genre you rarely or never read [Romance - Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics] 11. Read something about exploration [Icebound] 12. Read something about transformation [Wingspan of Severed Hands] 13. Read something about film or television 14. Read something fictional, based (however loosely) on a historical event [Master and Commander] 15. Read something written by an author living in the opposite hemisphere from you where you currently live/the one you'd call home (North/South and/or East/West - Bonus Points* for both axes!) [Tender is the Flesh] 16. Read something about mountains [Buried in the Sky] 17. Read something you've been meaning to read for a while, but haven't yet [Moby Dick] 18.Re-read something you love [We Have Always Lived in the Castle] 19. Read something scary [Tell Me I'm Worthless] 20. Look through some other Book Barn threads (or the Discord) and pick a book suggested or discussed there to read (Bonus Points* if you also post in that thread to discuss the book once you've read it!) [The March North] 21.Ask someone in this thread for a Wildcard to read OR read something that was explicitly recommended to you either by someone you know, or by someone in another thread in The Book Barn (Bonus Points* if you do both!) [Murderous Dr. Cream] 22. Read something that will teach you something new (and briefly tell us what you learned!) [Icebound - Did you know that polar bear livers contain so much Vitamin A that it's toxic for a human to eat it? The Barents expedition found that out the hard way!]
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Jul 30, 2022 20:27
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quote:
I finished twelve books in July???? 60 - Brown Girl In The Ring, by Nalo Hopkinson. Caribbean magic in the urban wasteland of a future Toronto. A small story about a woman discovering her magical capabilities and connecting with her heritage while fighting off the efforts of evil and misguided opponents. There are some really exciting scenes, some grisly violence and gore, and the inciting incident pays off with an amusing (if a little too neat) conclusion. Rudy makes a particularly nasty antagonist, and the evolution of Ti-Jeanne's own abilities feels pretty good as things escalate toward the climax. 61 - Nameless, by Grant Morrison, & Chris Burnham. A gore-soaked space nightmare mishmash of occult weirdness, eldritch alien horrorterrors, and a miserable sweary Scotsman in the role of protagonist. Promo material described this as "nihilistic" and it's definitely that, in an explicitly anti-human "we are the virus!" way that has never gelled with me. A relatively simple story obfuscated by ten layers of hallucination and montage that really lets Burnham's art pop (though he draws regular human faces really awkwardly, everything else looks top-notch). Far from the best Morrison I've read, but it's a fun, depressive ride through cosmic hell. 62 - Stories Of Your Life and Others, by Ted Chiang. Wow. An absolutely superb collection of speculative fiction stories, told with masterful attention to detail and a confidence to follow ideas down strange and exciting paths. There are industrial golems, alien linguistics, a journey up the Towel of Babel, and a procedure to block the concept of beauty from the human brain, among others. There isn't a dud in the whole collection as far as I'm concerned, and "Understand" and "Story Of Your Life" stand out as particularly gripping. I knew the latter as the film "Arrival" already, which I loved, but the original story is different enough to be novel while still deeply moving. I can't recommend these enough. 63-5 - Qualia The Purple, by Tsunashima Shirou & Ueo Hisamitsu. What starts as an interesting, quirky SF premise - a girl who thinks other people look like robots - turns into a deep and intensely satisfying exploration of quantum physics, philosophy, love, death and fate. An extremely wild ride extrapolating extreme and difficult conclusions from "what if" principles, escalating to the point where the climax is surprising but inevitable at the same time. I'd never heard anyone talking about this until recently, and I devoured all three volumes in two days. A hidden gem. 66 - Dead Souls, by Nikolai Gogol. My first time reading classic Russian literature, and this was enormous fun. I wasn't expecting it to be quite so funny and engaging as it is, though obviously some specifics of the satire are lost on me. Chichikov has a gravitational pull as a protagonist and mysterious rascal; the rest of the cast are a memorable gallery of caricatures and wittily-drawn mannerisms. Some parts even made me laugh out loud, which is rare for me. I was very rpleasantly surprised by how accessible and enjoyable this was, and it's made me less hesitant about trying some other things from the Russian part of the "literary canon". 67 - Humble Pie: My Autobiography, by Gordon Ramsay. drat, what a miserable book. Ramsay recounts a brutal, traumatic upbringing with an abusive father and a turbulent home life, and an early football career plagued with injury and misfortune. Then his first forays into cooking, and training under some absolutely awful people. Obviously, it's a success story, as even when this was written Ramsay was a hugely successful chef and about to become a household name in the US as well. But this has some really harrowing stuff in it, and it's clear that when this was written he was still processing a lot of that. The last parts of the book are a lot less focused, and include some pretty unpleasant and awkward rants from Gordon about people he dislikes. There are a lot of idiosyncracies from his TV shows that make much more sense having read this, for better or worse. 68 - Deep Sniff: A History of Poppers and Queer Futures, by Adam Zmith. A very sweet, if unfocused, exploration of queer history in the UK and USA, and the potential futures offered to us by different fictions and activist narratives. This book would work better as a series of articles, I feel, as the connective tissue often gets quite thin, but there are some really interesting facts and trivia peppered throughout, and Zmith's passion for queer liberation (and his experiences with ideas of masculinity) resonated with me strongly. 69 - Shadow Captain, by Alastair Reynolds. This book took me a long time to read, and it's a shame because I enjoyed the previous instalment so much. This sequel has some really great scenes and some cool SF ideas, but Reynolds's pacing is really disappointing. Some scenes felt like I was sleepwalking through what would otherwise have been interesting character moments. It does come together much more strongly toward the end...with a cliffhanger of sorts. I suppose I'll have to get the next one. 70 - I Wished, by Dennis Cooper. His latest and absolutely his best. A coda to his infamous and sickeningly good George Miles cycle, this is a heartbreaking collection of story-snippets and confessional writing. To hear Cooper tell it, is him at his most honest and vulnerable. What starts as seemingly standard fare for him quickly evolves into something much stranger and more beautiful. I would definitely not recommend this as your -first- Cooper novel, as the power of it depends on at least some familiarity with his earlier work. But for fans like me it was deeply affecting. 71 - No One Is Talking About This, by Patricia Lockwood. One of the funniest books I've read in a while, but also one of the most emotionally powerful. A woman whose live revolves around the countless remote cruelties of social media suddenly has to deal with something very difficult and very offline. Lockwood has equal flair for the silly and the sentimental, and this was an absolute joy (and tragedy). My challenges are going well: 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are not written by men. - 21 - 2, 4, 13, 15, 17, 18, 31, 32, 34, 35, 36, 38, 43, 44, 51, 52, 53, 55, 56, 60, 71 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 25% of them are written by writers of colour. - 27 - 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 19, 26, 31, 35, 41, 43, 46, 48, 54, 56, 57, 59, 60, 62, 63, 64, 65 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are written by LGBTQ writers. - 14 - 1, 13, 17, 18, 34, 36, 38, 39, 41, 43, 51, 52, 55, 61, 68, 70 5. Read something originally published... f. At least 250 years ago 6. Read two works by the same author 8. Read an issue of a story-focused/literary magazine (there are many available online entirely for free!) 9. Read an anthology or collection containing the work of more than one author 11. Read something about exploration 13. Read something about film or television 18. Re-read something you love
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Jul 31, 2022 23:43
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Man, I didn't read enough in July. Was travelling for a week and read literally nothing. I'm a handful of books behind my goal, so I'm cheating by focusing on quicker reads here in August. Hoping for a rebound here. I definitely need to focus in on challenges. I do have one about mountains checked out, so that's that at least. 36. My Favorite Girlfriend Was a French Bulldog by Legna Rodriguez Iglesias - Another my library had as a beach read. Goodreads rating 3.18, at time of recording. 15 linked stories to create an "unsparing, multigenerational portrait of her native Cuba." I don't think this quite got there. 37. Gambit by Rex Stout - Among my favorites in my favorite series. It's a clever crime and a clever solution and overall a good Nero Wolfe novel. 38. If an Egyptian Does Not Speak English by Noor Naga - So this is a book in three parts. The first, is the start of a relationship between an American-Egyptian woman who travels to Egypt to reclaim some culture and heritage, and "The Boy from Shobrakeit." No names are ever used. They basically alternate pages, with each bit headed by sort of a koan, a question to ponder while reading that page or so. The second is the story of their relationship, ditching the questions but adding fairly frequent footnotes explaining cultural bits about Cairo. The footnotes are of questionable authenticity, with the first claiming government informers all had the same moustache in Egypt. The brief final section is of a writers workshop examining the the previous two sections and the now removed third section. It's a possibly clever little book about class, privilege, abuse, and sort of Arab Spring as well. Ben Nevis posted:1. Noor by Nnedi Okorafor
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Aug 3, 2022 14:45
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i'm super behind on posting. up to 29/40 now. some of these i posted more notes in the what did you just finish thread. 15. The Bone Clocks - David Mitchell Good, not great. Sounds like I would probably like it more if I had read a lot of other David Mitchell books first? 16. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue - V E Schwab One of my favorite books I've read this year. Semi-sweet and semi-hosed up love story. 17. The Rhythm of War - Brandon Sanderson Good entry but not my favorite of this series. 18. Matrix - Lauren Groff I mourn what this book could have been, given the subject matter. It's just boring. 19. How to Stop Time - Matt Haig A generic, badly paced version of Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. I was going to read the Midnight Library because it's SO popular but I really didn't like this author's writing style... 20. The Third Pole - Mark Synnott Cool nonfic Everest/mountaineering book if you're into that stuff. The author is also currently sailing the Northwest Passage and posting updates and videos on his instagram. (Super interesting to be able to actively follow their journey.) Satisfies the 'read something about mountains' challenge. 21. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë A classic. Still hate Rochester. Also satisfies my 250 years ago challenge (pub 1847). 22. Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys UGH SO GOOD. If you are looking for an intensely beautiful postmodern book with the capital-L Literature trope of crazy lady, this is it. It's like 150 pages and every word/paragraph really matters. 23. The Buried Giant - Kazuo Ishiguro Eh. Not mad I read it but I’m already (ironically) forgetting a lot of the book. 24. A Gentleman in Moscow - Amor Towles Well written, really lovely book. Starts slow but is one of the emotionally satisfying books I’ve read this year. Highly recommend. 25. Educated - Tara Westover Memoir that everyone was talking about a few years ago. This woman’s life has been totally awful/nuts - glad she got out. 26. Texts from Jane Eyre - Mallory Ortberg Light, fast, and funny. A delight for any english lit major (me) or someone well versed in the Classics. 27. Winnie-the-Pooh - A. A. Milne 28. The House at Pooh Corner - A. A. Milne Read these two as part of my bookclub and I actually vastly prefer the Disney adaptations of the stories. 29. The Devourers - Indra Das Super gross book about werewolves in India. Not a fan but I can see why people love it? It is the ultimate grimdark but with a lot of progressive commentary on society at large. quote:1. Set a goal for number of books and/or another personal challenge. 29/40
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Aug 15, 2022 23:43
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I think I lost count but I think I'm gonna uh have like 10? Which is gonna The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury which is honestly a nice change of pace because I keep forgetting where I am with books I start and put them down. 
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Aug 30, 2022 23:50
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quote:
I finished five books in August: 72 - Red Tory: My Corbyn Chemsex Hell, by Huw Lemmey. The followup to CHUBZ retreads similar pornographic ground while skewing the radical potentials of sex and intoxication in a different direction. This book is more targeted and detailed in its political satire, with a larger cast of characters and a plot that ranges from espionage to week-long drug-fuelled sex parties to Red Scare paranoia. As with Lemmey's previous book, reading this in 2022 after the Sensible Moderates' brutal victory over hope has a different flavour. The central romance between Blairite liberal Tom and handsome, bearded radical Otto is complex but sweet and ultimately satisfying. Instead of a victory of "reason" over hearts and minds, Lemmey's hero yearns for a victory of the heart over the mind, of love and empathy over structure and procedure. 73 - An Unkindness of Ghosts, by Rivers Solomon. SF story set on a racially-segregated generation ship. The protagonists are various flavours of queer and neurodivergent, and the world they inhabit is one of cruelty, arbitrary rules, and other nasty apartheid features. There weren't many surprises as a long-term SF reader, but the setting felt lived-in and coherent. Solomon writes trauma and sadness very well, though their prose here can be clunky at times. There are several memorable scenes, but the full story didn't come together properly for me until the final chapters and the very good finale. 74 - House of Leaves, by Mark Z. Danielewski. An enormous, self-indulgent treasure hunt of a book that I enjoyed from cover to cover. A family move into a house, discover it's a little weird, and then the weirdness escalates while being documented. Then the documentary is written about in a pseudo-academic mega-essay by a mysterious blind recluse. And then that manuscript is found and annotated heavily by a mysterious and troubled man with a rough upbringing. They are all driven...insane? Trapped in the labyrinth of the house/film/book/study? It's fun! As an academic of sorts I very much enjoyed those aspects of the pastiche, and for a "haunted house" kind of story there are some fun and eerie parts. Not perfect by any means, but a really enjoyable experience and one I'll have to revisit with one of those deluxe colour editions I've heard about. 75 - That's Your Lot, by Limmy. Second collection of short stories, with as much social awkwardness and amusing twists as I expected. There are some great pieces here, especially the final tale 'Benidorm' which is an agonising tale of misjudged masculine banter. The highs here aren't quite at the level of his first collection, but I enjoyed every one of the stories and will probably come back to them when I need a grim chuckle. 76 - The Death of Ivan Ilych, by Leo Tolstoy. My first Tolstoy, this is a pretty and haunting short book about death and the degradation of a man's high-status life. There are beautiful, sad scenes, particularly the ending, and the prose is as detailed and empathetic as I had been led to expect. I didn't love this, but it definitely helped make me less wary of exploring his more major work in future. My challenges: 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are not written by men. - 22 - 2, 4, 13, 15, 17, 18, 31, 32, 34, 35, 36, 38, 43, 44, 51, 52, 53, 55, 56, 60, 71, 73 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 25% of them are written by writers of colour. - 28 - 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 19, 26, 31, 35, 41, 43, 46, 48, 54, 56, 57, 59, 60, 62, 63, 64, 65, 73 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are written by LGBTQ writers. - 16 - 1, 13, 17, 18, 34, 36, 38, 39, 41, 43, 51, 52, 55, 61, 68, 70, 72, 73 5. Read something originally published... f. At least 250 years ago 6. Read two works by the same author 8. Read an issue of a story-focused/literary magazine (there are many available online entirely for free!) 9. Read an anthology or collection containing the work of more than one author 13. Read something about film or television 18. Re-read something you love Remaining challenges: 4, 5f, 6, 8, 9, 13, 18 SOMEONE WILDCARD ME PLEASE!
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Sep 2, 2022 08:32
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Gertrude Perkins posted:
The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
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Sep 2, 2022 09:42
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I have read 64 of 100. And since the year is 2/3 over with, I'm only a little bit behind pace.
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Sep 2, 2022 09:44
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August was a big reading month. Falling behind, I deliberately focused on what I estimated to be quicker reads. I also managed to knock out a few challenges. And read some rather good books. I'm catching up and thing I can make it. I'm trying to figure out the last few challenges. If anyone reads this, I do need a wildcard. 39. The Immortal King Rao by Vauhini Vara - In a near future, struggling with the effects of climate change, the world is run by a board of corporations, and administrated by the Algorithm, which is basically social media of sorts. This was orchestrated by King Rao. The book traces him from childhood in India up through the present time. It's an entertaining read that takes bits of Indian family sagas and immigrant stories, and puts them in realistic tech dystopia. It's an important reminder to eat the rich. 40. The Refrigerator Monologues by Catherynne M Valente - Connected short stories about women who were killed to provide their super hero partners with a mission. Good read, probably best if you've familiar with the comics. 41. Comeuppance Served Cold by Marion Deeds - A heist novel set in a magical prohibition era Seattle. Fun little book. 42. The Last Witness by KJ Parker - A fellow has the ability to take memories from others. It's a great way to remove witnesses to a crime, but it does leave him as the last witness. Given the title, you'll not be surprised if that crops up somewhere. Pretty good read. 43. The Grief of Stones by Katherine Addison - The second in Addison's Witness for the Dead. A nice little slice of life, with the usual mystery and whatnot. It's very good. 44. When I Sing the Mountains Dance by Irene Sola - A connected series of stories, exploring a small town in the Pyrenees, focusing mostly on a family. It has stories from the perspectives of thunderstorms, ghosts, townspeople, even a dog. It really feels like like Sola wants you to get to know every bit of the town. It tells a really rich, textured story that I found enthralling from the get go. 45. Maus by Art Spiegelman - A graphic novel about the author talking to his father about his time during WWII including his time in Auschwitz. The framing of Art and his dad did a great job of laying out the generational trauma of the Holocaust. 46. Portrait of an Unknown Lady by Maria Gainza - An art critic spirals into depression when her mentor dies. In an effort to give herself something work towards, she tries to track down Renee, a renowned art forger from the 60s. This I thought was OK. 47. The Tain trans Ciaran Carson - For my "at least 500 year old" challenge I went real old, with Ciaran Carson's translation of The Tain Bo Cuailgne, The Cattle Raid of Cooley, an 8th century Irish epic in which Queen Mebd and King Aillil try and steal the famous Brown Bull from Ulster. The folk of Ulster have been laid low by a curse, but Cu Chulainn, a boy of 17, holds off the armies. There's a lot of that old epic feel with lists of warriors and whatnot. Also a lot of stories where Cu Chulainn kills people and then something gets named of the slain individual. Particularly fords. There's some really good dry humor throughout. A pretty decent read. 48. The Quarter Storm by Veronica Henry - A vodou mystery set in present day New Orleans. It's decent, not special. Ben Nevis posted:1. Noor by Nnedi Okorafor
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Sep 2, 2022 16:36
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Always impressed to see all those books! Maus has been on my shelf for a couple months, been meaning to read that.
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Sep 2, 2022 19:23
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I finished 6 books in August and had my first intentional DNF* since I think I was in middle school. 56. Sprinting Through No-Man's Land: Endurance, Tragedy, and Rebirth in the 1919 Tour de France by Adin Dobkin Wow I wanted to like this but it was just tedious and weird. Alternately too focused and completely out of left field. The underlying pitch is great -- veterans of WWI joining the Tour de France only months after armistice and having to travel through the devastated landscapes and ruined towns they'd just left. Unfortunately it just ends up tedious, too big of a mostly-contextless cast, and weird diversion chapters to people who have nothing to do with the racers or the race. The whole time I was wishing for a Jon Bois take on the story instead. 57. The Female Quixote by Charlotte Lennox My 250+ year old book! This was a delight. It doesn't have much to do with Don Quixote, but the main character is basically a naïve, barely-20-year-old in the 1750s who has severe fandom brainrot from reading too many French romance novels and thinks those stories are how the world really works. It does start to meander a bit after the halfway point, and has a really weird finish (to the point that some people even think the end was written by someone else), but this had me actually laughing out loud most of the time. 58. A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers The sequel to A Psalm for the Wild-Built about a burnt-out tea monk and an robot ambassador-to-humans. I wouldn't say this was as interesting or engaging as the first book was, but it was fine as a fluffy little novella with low stakes. The post-industrial, eco-conscious setting is interesting but I hope something more/bigger happens in the next book because this one felt pretty thin to me. 59. The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley This was a cool time travel adventure! A little bit of a Starship Troopers riff (in that it's a 'service guarantees citizenship' sort of dystopia, but the fascist overlords are also world-controlling corporations-as-governments) with a protagonist that sort of buys into the propaganda initially, but not enough that she can't change her mind (but in a believable, gradual way and not a didactic way). Less body horror than The Stars Are Legion, but it's definitely still there. 60. Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky I know Tchaikovsky is pretty prolific, but this is the first thing by him I've read. This was solid! And nicely-short. An anthropologist has been stuck on a (long, long ago) human-colonized planet with a medieval-like society for centuries. The tech he has is so advanced the locals think he's a sorcerer, and in some ways they're not entirely wrong. The antagonistic force in this is really interesting, and the language barrier between the main characters (who have alternating viewpoint chapters that) is nicely illustrated. 61. Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks This is the first Culture book, and the first one I've read (though I have read Banks' The Algebraist a while ago). This was fine? I have seen people say the later books are a lot better, and this definitely feels like it was just laying the groundwork for something else that could be a lot more interesting. As it was, this was a somewhat standard adventure plot with interesting set dressing. The one thing that did really bug me was a sequence with a corrupt cannibal prophet/cult leader that had some of the laziest fatphobia-as-horror I've seen in a long time (plus, the whole chapter is pretty skippable and doesn't impact the rest of the plot at all as far as I could tell). *And by DNF, I mean I quit completely after getting about 20% in. I didn't even skim to the end like I have with a few other books I wasn't fully enjoying. That said, it wasn't because I thought the book was bad, I just wasn't clicking with it AT ALL. It was Master of Poisons by Andrea Hairston. It's written in a really unique style and I'm sure that it'll end up being some people's favorite book for how intentionally different it is, but I just couldn't get in the groove with it. I might try again one day? Who knows! 1. Set a goal for number of books and/or another personal challenge. Total: 61/52 Nonfiction: 11/10 Moby Dick: 1/1 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are not written by men. ~33/61 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 25% of them are written by writers of colour. ~16/61 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 8% of them are written by LGBTQ writers. ~26/61 5. Read something originally published... a. In the past year [Light from Uncommon Stars - 2021] b. At least 5 years ago [Ninefox Gambit - 2016] c. At least 25 years ago [The Sparrow - 1996] d. At least 50 years ago [Master and Commander - 1970] e. At least 100 years ago [Moby Dick - 1851] f. At least 250 years ago [The Female Quixote - 1752] g. At least 500 years ago 6. Read two works by the same author [Ninefox Gambit and Raven Stratagem - Yoon Ha Lee] 7. Read something by a disabled author 8. Read an issue of a story-focused/literary magazine (there are many available online entirely for free!) [Seize the Press, Vol. 1] 9. Read an anthology or collection containing the work of more than one author [Book of Queer Saints] 10. Read something from a genre you rarely or never read [Romance - Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics] 11. Read something about exploration [Icebound] 12. Read something about transformation [Wingspan of Severed Hands] 13. Read something about film or television 14. Read something fictional, based (however loosely) on a historical event [Master and Commander] 15. Read something written by an author living in the opposite hemisphere from you where you currently live/the one you'd call home (North/South and/or East/West - Bonus Points* for both axes!) [Tender is the Flesh] 16. Read something about mountains [Buried in the Sky] 17. Read something you've been meaning to read for a while, but haven't yet [Moby Dick] 18.Re-read something you love [We Have Always Lived in the Castle] 19. Read something scary [Tell Me I'm Worthless] 20. Look through some other Book Barn threads (or the Discord) and pick a book suggested or discussed there to read (Bonus Points* if you also post in that thread to discuss the book once you've read it!) [The March North] 21.Ask someone in this thread for a Wildcard to read OR read something that was explicitly recommended to you either by someone you know, or by someone in another thread in The Book Barn (Bonus Points* if you do both!) [Murderous Dr. Cream] 22. Read something that will teach you something new (and briefly tell us what you learned!) [Icebound - Did you know that polar bear livers contain so much Vitamin A that it's toxic for a human to eat it? The Barents expedition found that out the hard way!]
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Sep 2, 2022 19:40
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Ben Nevis posted:August was a big reading month. Falling behind, I deliberately focused on what I estimated to be quicker reads. I also managed to knock out a few challenges. And read some rather good books. I'm catching up and thing I can make it. I'm trying to figure out the last few challenges. Piranesi by Susanna Clarke? Could count for Exploration!
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Sep 2, 2022 19:49
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Ben Nevis posted:If anyone reads this, I do need a wildcard.
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Sep 2, 2022 19:53
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Ok I think I found the note I was tracking my books read on. #12 I finished 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C: Clarke out of curiosity because I had it lying around and I actually found it actually a bit more compelling than the film version? It helped to have some PoV chapters and expanded details even if those details got a bit excessive at times. That said I thought the general course of the mission and ending made more sense because of them. So I thought it was worth a read even if it was shorter than I expected.
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Sep 5, 2022 22:38
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DurianGray posted:Piranesi by Susanna Clarke? Could count for Exploration! Read this and it's real good. taco show posted:A Tale for the Time-Being by Ruth Ozeki Have not read this. It's also very conveniently available at the local library. Thanks!
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Sep 5, 2022 23:58
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13: Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union https://www.amazon.com/Collapse-Soviet-Vladislav-M-Zubok/dp/0300257309 Might as well be a horror novel because everyone in this story basically makes the stupidest and worst decisions imaginable. Gorbachev cuts a genuinely deeply pathetic figure held hostage by events but Yeltsin really stands out as being a deeply stupid, power hungry rear end in a top hat who eagerly licks western taint in exchange for recognition. Other standouts are how incredibly racist and paranoid the slavic republics were about the non slavic peoples and republics of the USSR, what a tremendously satanic figure Dick Cheney is and the complete bankruptcy of neoliberal ideology. The final days of the USSR making GBS threads itself out of existence while begging for money to keep the lights on genuinely while all the frozen conflicts set themselves in place made me pretty angry. It was a good read would recommend if you want to be insanely angry after reading a book.
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Oct 2, 2022 02:43
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I finished 4 books in September (but I'm in the middle of about 5 more) and liked them all! 62. A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine The first in a duology about an ambassador (Mahit) from a small space station going to fill in for her suddenly-dead predecessor at the capital city of a giant Byzantine/Aztec-style space empire. The new ambassador has a 15-year out of date digital simulacrum of the previous ambassador installed in her brain (a normal thing on her station). Some intense politicking and catastrophe almost immediately kicks off and Mahit gets swept up in it. I dug this! I'm also a sucker for space ambassador stories. 63. Close to Shore: The Terrifying Shark Attacks of 1916 by Michael Capuzzo This took me a while to finish just because I kept nibbling at it (heh). Like the title says, it's about a series of shark attacks in New England just before the US entered WWI (the incident would go on to inspire Jaws). There's a good amount of shark biology research/explanation as a means of investigating why the shark did what it did, and why it might have gotten so lost in the first place. Pretty good overall though a bit slow in spots. 64. A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine The sequel to A Memory Called Empire (I actually read it pretty much right away, which is not something I do often for some reason). This was good, but at the same time I think you could just read the first book and not miss out too much if you skipped this. It deals extensively with (spoilers for the first book) the alien threat that was the catalyst for the end of the first book and there's a lot less focus on Mahit's point of view as it goes through a handful of other characters. Much different in focus and general events than the first was. 65. The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin I haven't had a bad experience with Le Guin yet, and this is definitely a sort of sci-fi classic for a reason. The basic premise is that there's a man who sometimes has events in his dreams come true, retroactively completely altering the world. He has little to no control over how this happens, so he ends up taking drugs to not dream, then getting put in a sort of compulsory drug rehab therapy. His therapist almost immediately starts taking advantage of his ability to change the world with dreams and things spiral out of control from there. Definitely worth a read, and it's a novella so it's a quick read! 1. Set a goal for number of books and/or another personal challenge. Total: 65/52 Nonfiction: 12/10 Moby Dick: 1/1 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are not written by men. ~36/65 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 25% of them are written by writers of colour. ~16/65 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 8% of them are written by LGBTQ writers. ~28/65 5. Read something originally published... a. In the past year [Light from Uncommon Stars - 2021] b. At least 5 years ago [Ninefox Gambit - 2016] c. At least 25 years ago [The Sparrow - 1996] d. At least 50 years ago [Master and Commander - 1970] e. At least 100 years ago [Moby Dick - 1851] f. At least 250 years ago [The Female Quixote - 1752] g. At least 500 years ago 6. Read two works by the same author [Ninefox Gambit and Raven Stratagem - Yoon Ha Lee] 7. Read something by a disabled author 8. Read an issue of a story-focused/literary magazine (there are many available online entirely for free!) [Seize the Press, Vol. 1] 9. Read an anthology or collection containing the work of more than one author [Book of Queer Saints] 10. Read something from a genre you rarely or never read [Romance - Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics] 11. Read something about exploration [Icebound] 12. Read something about transformation [Wingspan of Severed Hands] 13. Read something about film or television 14. Read something fictional, based (however loosely) on a historical event [Master and Commander] 15. Read something written by an author living in the opposite hemisphere from you where you currently live/the one you'd call home (North/South and/or East/West - Bonus Points* for both axes!) [Tender is the Flesh] 16. Read something about mountains [Buried in the Sky] 17. Read something you've been meaning to read for a while, but haven't yet [Moby Dick] 18.Re-read something you love [We Have Always Lived in the Castle] 19. Read something scary [Tell Me I'm Worthless] 20. Look through some other Book Barn threads (or the Discord) and pick a book suggested or discussed there to read (Bonus Points* if you also post in that thread to discuss the book once you've read it!) [The March North] 21.Ask someone in this thread for a Wildcard to read OR read something that was explicitly recommended to you either by someone you know, or by someone in another thread in The Book Barn (Bonus Points* if you do both!) [Murderous Dr. Cream] 22. Read something that will teach you something new (and briefly tell us what you learned!) [Icebound - Did you know that polar bear livers contain so much Vitamin A that it's toxic for a human to eat it? The Barents expedition found that out the hard way!]
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Oct 4, 2022 01:03
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https://twitter.com/alloy_dr/status/1577126864631783424?s=20&t=FojNdxuOSM-JLm7ChjLAbw
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Oct 4, 2022 03:46
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So read a few books last month. Definitely aided by taking a few mental health days, as well as some quick reads. I finished a book about exploration, a wild card, and finally wrapped up Challenge 5. Phew! I'm working on a literary magazine and I'm fundamentally on target to hit my goals. I need to figure out a something about transformation. I'm doing October's BOTM, so I reckon that counts for 20. Also challenge 7. I'm a bit at sea on that one. 49. Everyone Knows your Mother is a Witch by Rivka Galchen - For some reason I was expecting something vaguely YA-adjacent, like We Ride on Sticks perhaps. Maybe it's the purple color, or the taunting title. Nope, this is a fictionalized account of the witch trial of Johannes Kepler's mom. Pretty good, all told, just know what you're getting into. 50. Bad Boy Brawley Brown by Walter Mosely - An Easy Rawlins novel. Overall, it's a solid book in the series. Would recommend the series generally as well. 51. Stalking the Atomic City: Life Among the Decadent and the Depraved of Chornobyl by Markiyan Kamysh - A book by a guy who explores the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. He talks about destinations in the zone, drinking, and some adventures. There's a real HST/gonzo feel to things, with drugs, wild animals, bonfires in apartment buildings, that sort of thing. Overall somewhat interesting, but the tone wore thin and I never got a good sense of why, which is what I was hoping to learn. 52. Three Doors to Death by Rex Stout - I'd finished one book and was waiting for my Wild Card hold at the library, so a quickie Nero Wolfe. I've read this countless times. What I find striking is how well Stout does with the novellas. In part I attribute that to well done characters across the whole series, so you don't have to waste much time on Archie or Wolfe or even Marko. 53. A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki - Wild Card! An author on a remote Canadian island finds a a diary washed ashore. It's from a teenage girl talking about her problems and telling the life story of her great grandmother, a Buddhist monk. The story alternates between diary and reader, building to a potential suicide by the young girl. This was interesting. I did like the Buddhism components and the story overall. I did feel that the Ruth sections dragged a little, and between that and the time lag robbed some urgency from the diary. Wasn't crazy about the quantum, and the appendices seemed pretty extra. Enjoyed overall though. 52. 84, Charing Cross Rd by Helene Hanff - After WW2, a woman in New York writes to a small British bookshop to request books she can't find in America. This collection of letters over 15 years or so shows the friendship that develops between Ms Hanff and the staff. Absolutely delightful little book, touching and humorous. Also a quick read. Thoroughly recommend as a palate cleanser, an afternoon cheer up, or a quick bite for people who like books about people who like books. 53. A Mirror Mended by Alix Harrow - A second in the "Fractured Fable" series where Zinnia is tricked into helping an evil queen. Sorta. This was decent. I think the first may have been better. I'll probably read the next if there is one. I'd hope for a general step up though. 54. Candide by Voltaire- A little over 250 years old, and I'm pretty sure I was supposed to read in college. Boy, is he Anti-Semitic. Ben Nevis posted:1. Noor by Nnedi Okorafor
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Oct 4, 2022 23:06
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quote:1 - Croc and Roll, by Hamish Steele, George Williams & Ayoola Solarin I've slowed down a little, but I don't mind. I finished four books in September: 78 - Tell Me I'm Worthless, by Alison Rumfitt. Grim haunted house horror about prejudice, sexuality, gender and traumas of every stripe. Messy and complicated characters making bad decisions while trying to process horrendous experiences that they might not remember right. Also it's about England, and the rotten heart of nationalism. It's a hell of a book, definitely recommend if you want to be very uncomfortable. 79 - Neotenica, by Joon Oluchi Lee. Quirky and sweet and sometimes rather funny novella. A marriage of convenience where the reader sees every angle on the couple's sexual proclivities; clashes and meshes of different personalities to create different wholes when combined. I thought it started much stronger than it ended up, but I still enjoyed the ride. 80 - Alan Partridge: Nomad, by Alan Partridge, by Rob Gibbons, Neil Gibbons & Steve Coogan. The second Alan memoir, this one documenting an attempted walk "in the footsteps of [my] father". In typical Partridge style it's a rambling, self-serving mess, with a cavalcade of insecurities and rants and inappropriate, unnecessary details. It's very funny, especially the audiobook read in character by Coogan again, and provides a little more insight into why Alan is the way he is. A miserable and pathetic man staring down late middle age with a cloying desperation to be loved, and a personality that renders him incapable of not sabotaging himself. 81 - The Stars Are Legion, by Kameron Hurley. Very fun and satisfying SF about an amnesiac soldier, ambitious warring families, and an expanse of dying, organic worlds. It's very meatpunk, often intensely gross in the physicality of the characters and their surroundings. Hurley writes a cosmology that exhibits a warped, anatomical Gaia theory, where bodies and tools and worlds and life and death and memory are entangled in an awful churn, and cycles can only be broken through harnessing individual autonomy for a collective cause. Also it's cool and gross and exciting and sometimes grimly funny; it made me feel physically icky in the way that playing in mud or cutting raw meat does. 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are not written by men. - 24 - 2, 4, 13, 15, 17, 18, 31, 32, 34, 35, 36, 38, 43, 44, 51, 52, 53, 55, 56, 60, 71, 73, 78, 81 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 25% of them are written by writers of colour. - 29 - 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 19, 26, 31, 35, 41, 43, 46, 48, 54, 56, 57, 59, 60, 62, 63, 64, 65, 73, 79 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 25% of them are written by LGBTQ writers. - 19 - 1, 13, 17, 18, 34, 36, 38, 39, 41, 43, 51, 52, 55, 61, 68, 70, 72, 73, 78, 79, 81 5. Read something originally published... f. At least 250 years ago 6. Read two works by the same author 8. Read an issue of a story-focused/literary magazine (there are many available online entirely for free!) 9. Read an anthology or collection containing the work of more than one author 13. Read something about film or television 18. Re-read something you love Remaining challenges: 4, 5f, 6, 8, 9, 13, 18
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Oct 5, 2022 02:43
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3. Swag by Elmore Leonard. This book rules. My first of his, and there will be many more in my future. One of those books I started a long time ago, and ended up reading the last 100 pages over a couple days. Terrific crime spree caper tale with some cool characters and great dialogue. Just great smooth writing, so fast and breezy, he does so much with such little space. And the style of his really tight third person, it's terrific. I can see how Leonard is a fav writer of Tarantino, and I see influence on the Coens, maybe Scorsese, and Better Call Saul. It's great to know there's so much cool stuff like this out there, on par with my favorite movies.
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Oct 8, 2022 20:17
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14: Convenience Store Woman, by Sayaka Murata Real weird one because you can interpret it as a mediation on alienation under Capitalism or the story of someone deeply disturbed going through the motions. I felt like that some things might have gotten a little lost in translation on a couple of minor things but I felt that most of themes hit home. Really nice bits of misdirection at the end and the conclusion basically turns it into a horror novel. I would recommend it as a quick weekend read.
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Oct 9, 2022 04:10
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