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Grace's 125 in 2016
Bats of the Republic: An Illuminated Novel by Zachary Thomas Dodson
Unfortunately, my first read of 2016 is a disappointment. Bats of the Republic seemed like it could be so fun. The format, design, and structure of the book all invite you to piece through an enormous box of lost documents. Huge props to everyone who helped design and create this book. There are so many delightful details. My favorite is the actual letter in an actual envelope that you have to open at the end of the book. As you read the book, it constantly flips open to the page with the envelope, and you have to force yourself not to open it just as the characters do. It's really quite clever and marvelous.
Unfortunately, Thomas Dodson seems to have a lot of great ideas for how to present his story but no actual story. The story just...doesn't go anywhere. I kept on feeling like I must have skipped pages. Plot threads were dropped and the others arrived out of nowhere three quarters of the way through the novel. The dystopia was confusing and never felt believable. I normally love dual timeline stories, but in this case I felt like the existence of two timelines meant that they were both underdeveloped.
Most of all, once I got over all the novelty of discovering the intricacies of the amazing design of this book, the characters were boring as sin. With the exception of the characters in the novel within the novel, I never felt like I could even grab onto any of them.
Overall, I feel like this book contains so many amazing ideas in its presentation. But its content only exists to serve the vision for the unique design of the book. I was left feeling that it was a disappointment and a waste of some real ingenuity.
3/10
Music: Schnell from Sonata for Cello and Piano (1957) by Oliver Schnell; Performed by Christian Poltéra and Julius Drake
The beginning of this piece feels fresh, and exciting, and interesting. But it quickly becomes repetitive and doesn't really go anywhere or communicate any mood. Before I knew it, I'd tuned out. Which very much reflected my experience with this novel.
But as is the case with this novel, I am sure that there is someone out there who thinks that this is a delightful and innovative masterpiece.
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.
This is one of those audiobooks that I sort of wish I'd read for real rather than half listened to while I showered and cleaned the bathrooms. I'm not sure that I would have loved it, but I would have gotten more out of it.
My favorite thing about this book was that even though it could have been a total downer, it never went that way which I think would have been the easy choice. Yes, humanity is unfortunately doomed to repeat many of the same mistakes over and over again, as you begin to see in the very first section. But we also somehow manage to pull through every time, and endure, and make a case for ourselves despite everything. I also loved this book's approach to religion and science, which felt totally wacky and fresh and fascinating, despite the fact that this book is over 50 years old. I wish I'd listened more carefully so I got more than just a feeling for it, but oh well.
I'll hopefully make the time to reread this someday, I'm sad that Miller did not write anymore novels.
Rating: 5/10
Music: Oj djevojko Anadolko from Sevdah for Petronella (2013). Composed and performed by Nihad Hrustanbegović.
I love the way that this piece almost seems to double back on itself against its own will, the way that it holds such tension throughout. The way it keeps you guessing even when you think you have it figured out. That exemplifies so many of the things I enjoyed about this novel. But I also have a hard time getting emotionally involved in this piece, which was also the case with this novel. It almost felt like reading the best fake history textbook ever, which is actually really cool, but I just typically look for a bit more emotional involvement in my reading.
Boxers & Saints by Gene Luen Yang
I had some frustrations with this on, but overall I thought it was fascinating. The structure of the twin volumes shows how Vibania and Little Bao’s experiences growing up differed due to their gender without hitting the reader over the head with it. Yang's use actual personifications of famous Gods/Saints/Historical figures to dramatize how different ideologies (whether it be religion, nationalism, or anything else) can build you up just as easily as they can tear you down is particularly brilliant. It serves character, story, and theme and makes excellent use of the the medium (not sure this would have worked in prose).
There were things I didn’t care for (especially the ending of Saints, which I feel lessened the impact of both books and didn’t add much to the story) but overall I would definitely recommend this. I’m especially glad I read this now, as Yang was just named the Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, which is so exciting.
6/10
Music: Lachrimae antiquaet from Lachrimæ or seaven teares (1605) by John Dowland; Performed by Christopher Wilson, Fretwork
I has a very romantic and reverent tone, but it’s also very sad. I feel like it gets at how Vibania and Little Bao’s ideals eventually lead them down such tragic roads.
Some links about Yang being named the new Ambassador for Young People's Literature:
http://bookriot.com/2016/01/14/readin...
http://www.npr.org/sections/monkeysee...
The Diving Pool: Three Novellas by Yōko Ogawa; translated by Stephen Snyder
DORMITORY
Dormitory has the same wonderfully chilling tone and gorgeous writing as the other two stories. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite work for me the way the other two did. I felt like to took a really long time to get going, and once it finally did, it was just too late. It didn’t feel quite as finished as the other too, and was ultimately kind of forgettable. Though I probably wouldn’t be judging it so harshly if it hadn’t come after the other two novellas, which were both fantastic.
4/10
Music: Adagio molto from Sinfonia in B minor “Al Sancto Sepolcro” (year unknown) by Antonio Vivaldi (1678 - 1741); Performed by Berliner Philharmoniker; conducted by Herbert von Karajan
This piece is very nice, and gives off a suitably unsettling vibe, but I forgot about it the moment I finished listening to it.
PREGNANCY DIARY
This was one of the creepiest things I’ve read in a long time. It’s about a woman who decides to keep a diary of her sister’s pregnancy, except maybe the baby isn’t really her sister’s, or maybe it doesn’t exist at all, or maybe something even weirder is going on. The whole time you feel like SOMETHING is not right in a major way, but you’re never sure who or what is going on, and the possible presence of a baby (maybe?) really heightens the stakes. The details (it turns out that grapefruit jam can be very creepy) are absolutely fantastic. The diary format is also really great, since it basically functions as a countdown clock and heightens the suspense. And Ogawa’s prose is magnificent.
7/10
Music: Adagio (con rubato) from Litany: In Memory of Michael Vyner (1989) by Tōru Takemitsu; Performed by Noriko Ogawa
This piece has the keep you guessing quality of this plot of this story and the haunting and beautiful spareness of Ogawa's prose.
The Diving Pool
This is the first novella in the book, and it is by far my favorite. Reading it only a month after finishing Ogawa's most famous book (at least in the US) The Housekeeper and the Professor was a bit of a shock. While The Housekeeper and the Professor is about creating your own family and how it can enrich your life in so many ways, this novella tells the story of a girl who has sat at the center of a sort of almost-family all her life, who can't help but resent being on the outside of everything. It's turned her into a pretty terrible person who just isn't a very good person, and who can't help but feel sad about that, even as she slides deeper into immorality. You feel complicit in this girl's moral demise, even though there really isn't much character development. You're just gradually shown who this girl really is.
I also really loved the passages about diving in this book. It was some of the most gorgeous writing I've read in a long time. It made me very excited for the Olympics.
9/10
Music: La Terrace des audiences du Clair de Lune from Preludes Bk. II by Claude Debussy (1913); Performed by Noriko Ogawa
I heard this piece last weekend, when I went to an event at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and heard pianist and teacher Scott Foglesong play this piece. There isn't a recording of him playing this particular piece available, but there is a wonderful recording of the Japanese pianist Noriko Ogawa (who also played the Takemitsu piece I used for Pregnancy Diary) playing it.
This piece seems almost resigned the ugliness of the world, yet it can't help but admire the beauty of it as well. It is unsettling and haunting and gorgeous in such unexpected ways, just like Ogawa's prose. I'm so glad I found it.
Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf
This was a very nice palate cleanser. Not very surprising or memorable, and truly quite cliche, but a touching study of the meaning of intimacy that felt very authentic and was quite short. I'm glad that I listened to this one on audio though, since this book is apparently too cool for quotation marks, which I always find enormously distracting. Overall, I don't think this novel would have made much of a splash at all had it not been published posthumously. But, nevertheless, it convinced me to put another one of Haruf's books on my to-read list.
6/10
Music: Nicht zu langsam from Piano Quartet in g minor (ca 1870/1884) by Hans Sommer; Performed by Trio Imàge and Hartmut Rohde
This piece is very paint by numbers, but it is still very pleasant, well-constructed, and never loses your interest even though it didn't feel truly special to me. I feel like I've heard better versions of this piece before.
The Book of Aron by Jim Shepard
If I had more time and interest, I'd give this another shot. I listened on audio and the narrator was really generic and I missed a lot. But this just never grabbed me. It was nice to learn about a different side of the Holocaust but the execution of the book just didn't do anything for me (at least on audio).
2/10
Music: Moderato from Sonata for Piano (1954) by Bohuslav Martinů; Performed by Rudolf Firkušný
"Modern" and "serious" and boring (to me).
The Turner House by Angela Flournoy
I am of two minds about this one. One on hand, I really think that this either should have been longer and better developed all sides of the story (all the kids, and I felt like Viola and Francis' stories in the 1940s definitely got short shrift) or been maybe a bit shorter and delved deeper into Cha-Cha, Lelah, or Francis and Viola's story (but not Troy. I was not into him). The entire reading experience felt like a constant compromise, which was frustrating because what Flournoy does give us is so good. The characters are rich, the writing is great, and the family dynamics are so specific and wonderful.
On the other hand, I'm amazed that Flournoy managed to even kind of pull this off. About two thirds of the way through, I was feeling really frustrated, and I felt like the book was just so overextended, and I thought there was no way she could pull off a satisfying ending. But Flournoy manages it, and closing section pf the book is very moving and does tie everything together better than I could have hoped.
In the end, this isn't the book that I, personally, wanted, but it's still very good. Even my complaints (I wanted more! The characters were too interesting!) are compliments. I am really looking forward to seeing what Flournoy does with her next project.
7/10
Music: Pièce pour l'oeuvre du Vêtement du blessé, L 133 (1915) by Claude Debussy; Performed by Noriko Ogawa
This piece is so short that I feel like it never has a real chance to do anything. It feels so undercooked, but what you do get is interesting enough that I'm willing to forgive a lot.
A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal by Ben Macintyre
I listened to this one (the narrator is really great). It seems like the author was working out of his comfort zone a bit (looks as if he's mainly a WWII guy, and the Cold War is pretty different). He never was able to make the cypher that is Kim Philby interesting to me. MacIntyre is on the right track in focusing on the friends he betrayed (and also his poor wife) and the general culture that allowed him to get away with everything. But I was just kind of annoyed that this ultimately unknowable man was taking so much real estate way from characters and ideas that I found more compelling. That being said, it looks like John Lee narrated MacIntyre's other books and I'll definitely be checking those out on audio. Lee was picture perfect. And spies are always fun, even when the book is imperfect.
5/10
Music: Prélude, Fugue et Variation by Cesar Franck (1860-62); Performed by Philippe Laubscher
I feel like this piece gets at the impersonal, impenetrable duplicity of Philby and the melancholy stories of those closest to him.
I really love your books review with attached music suggestions. I often listen to music whilst I read so I like your pairings. Good luck with all your challenges
Ellen Rory wrote: "I really love your books review with attached music suggestions. I often listen to music whilst I read so I like your pairings. Good luck with all your challenges"Thank you so much! I've mostly just been doing this for fun and it's nice to know that someone is paying attention. The music pairings really have forced me to give every book another look.
There has recently been some discussion in the romance community about treating diversity as a "Challenge," and how that is insulting and insensitive. Reading books by people of color is not a chore, or something to congratulate yourself for. It's something that you should be doing anyway.The first year that I really started reading at the ridiculous pace I do now, only 10% of the books I read were by people of color, which...eeek. Since then I've started trying to read more books by people of color. And there is no good reason why I wasn't doing this in the first place. Sometimes these books are challenging because of their content, or their style or tone, or your own reading style/level. Sometimes they're even challenging because they're just really bad. But as long as you're willing to truly listen and have some humility, they're not challenging because of of who writes them. I've read 9 books so far this year, and the 3 that were the most fun and thought-provoking were all written by people of color. Reading those books was not a challenge. It was a privilege.
So that part of the challenge thread is going away. I will still monitor how I'm doing on this front personally, as a reminder of how I'm doing and how far I have to go. I was at around 23% in 2015 which really isn't close to good enough.
Here are some links with some background on the controversy that prompted this:
The article that started everything (read the comments):
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/feature...
And the second article that really made everything go nuts:
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/feature...
People's responses to that:
http://www.courtneymilan.com/rambling...
http://ht.ly/3aGrGn
http://www.suleikhasnyder.com/2016/01...
Cold-Hearted Rake by Lisa Kleypas
I am of two minds about this one.
I haven't read any Lisa Kleypas in over a year, and I'd forgotten exactly how good a writer she is. The first couple of chapters of this book in particular were some of the best writing I've read in a long time, in any genre. The prose is so rich and yet so easy to read. It's really amazing.
Some of the other things I liked: the supporting cast is fully fleshed out. I always like romances with lots of good supporting characters and subplots, and Kleypas does that beautifully here. I also liked that Kathleen (the heroine) and her sister-in-law Helen (the heroine for book 2) felt believably sheltered. Sometimes when you read historical romance (or historical fiction in general) it's easy to forget that not everyone can drop the ideals they grow up with, however messed up they may be, at the drop of a hat. Kathleen's struggles to let go of the sexist and harmful ideals that she grew up with were very moving, especially in the first half of the book.
Unfortunately, I felt like these struggles ended up dragging on for too long. Whereas in the first half of the book, it feels like Kathleen is clinging to for real, character driven reasons, in the second half of the book it feels like she is clinging to propriety because there needs to be more conflict. It felt like her character stagnated, and Kleypas kind of lost me. I felt the same way about the hero, whose development I thought stagnated and then came all at once in time for the ending.
5/10
Music: Rondo: Allegro moderato from Piano Concerto No. 2 in A minor (1816) by Johann Nepomuk Hummel; Performed by Stephen Hough, English Chamber Orchestra; conducted by Bryden Thomson
This piece is generally optimistic and cheery yet still contains a lot of conflict and tension. The beginning is very interesting, and I felt like the "climax" went on forever and was very repetitive. But I'm still curious to hear the rest of this concerto (just as I will definetely be checking out book 2, Marrying Winterborne)
Grace wrote: "There has recently been some discussion in the romance community about treating diversity as a "Challenge," and how that is insulting and insensitive. Reading books by people of color is not a chor..."I had never really thought about this statistic until recently. I pick my books based on several things but I rarely look at how the author looks and if its not got a full first name I would never check if it was make or female. Having catalogued my books for this year very few are. I am going to look for more as I really enjoyed the ones I have read, but I've never paid attention to any of that. I also noticed that nearly all the books I've read are authors from the UK or the US, so I'm going to try and diversify that as I must be missing out on some great reads.
Ellen Rory wrote: "Grace wrote: "There has recently been some discussion in the romance community about treating diversity as a "Challenge," and how that is insulting and insensitive. Reading books by people of color..."This was me for a very long time too. But I feel like since it is so hard to get published and succeed as a person of color, or a religious minority, or if you're heterosexual/cisgender/just not a man, etc. (especially in the US) that I feel like trying to read more inclusively is really the least we can do.
Yes, I hate to miss out on a good book too. It's a shame because I would read a book by a purple alien from Mars who worshipped rocks if it was a good book! It's just something I would never check, it's only because I'm doing the reading spreadsheet that I am finding these things out.
Let me know if you find some good ones!
A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler
I thought that this was very lovely. The family dynamics are all very well sketched out, and the voices of the different characters all feel distinct. I just felt like two separate books crashed together. More than half the book focuses on one family, and then a sort of gimmick is introduced halfway through, and I felt like Tyler should have picked a lane (although maybe this is just because I had heard about the gimmick beforehand and was really looking forward to it). I felt like this book was really strong on a sentence and character level, but less so on a structural level, so it lost a star.
6/10
Music: Andante from Harp Concerto in C major (1771) by Ernst Eichner; Performed by Annie Challan, Antiqua Musica Orchestra; conducted by Marcel Couraud
This piece does a really good job of conveying all the things I loved about this book. It seems so benign (it's the harp, after all) but there's a real resigned hidden darkness to it. A lot of this book is about how we can't really change our fate and how the people we love can trap us, how we're doomed to repeat so many of the same mistakes, and how we can never truly know the people we're closest too. This beautiful and deceptively melancholy piece conveys that beautifully.
Ellen Rory wrote: "Yes, I hate to miss out on a good book too. It's a shame because I would read a book by a purple alien from Mars who worshipped rocks if it was a good book! It's just something I would never check..."
Good for you. However, I am trying to make a conscious effort to read books written by people who have a different background from me. I'm achieving this using an Around the World challenge-- either books based in other countries, or authors born ther.e I'm finding that helps a lot with my understanding of other peoples and cultures.
The Story of My Teeth by Valeria Luiselli; translated by Christina MacSweeney
Even though this book is very repetitive and kind of formless, I was still interested until the last section, when Luiselli lost me. It took me out of the book and I don't understand why it was necessary.
A lot of people will love this book. But me...I was more interested in the process of how she wrote it than the actual book, which is never a very good sign (it was written collaboratively by correspondence with the workers at a juice factory). I enjoyed the tone and dark humor, but I couldn't get into the story. I felt like there wasn't enough going on once you got past the (cool) initial hook. But this book is also really not for me, since I don't have much patience for experimental fiction. I enjoyed it more than I usually enjoy these types of books though. I liked the voice.
This was a 5/10 read (would recommend it to the right person) until the last section, which pissed me off and knocked it down to a:
4/10
Music: Allegro molto from Ungarische Tänze [Hungarian Dances] (1869) by Johannes Brahms; Performed by Hector Moreno, Norberto Capelli
The beginning of this piece captures the darkly humorous and macabre tone of the book very well. But the latter half is much too technical for my tastes. More about the process than the emotions. But others will disagree! As is the case with this book.
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
I have read Hamlet before, and it was interesting to read it again.
My experience this time wasn't as electrifying as the first time I read it. When I read Hamlet for the first time, I was about fifteen. I'd been to Shakespeare Camp about 7 times, and I had a book with the plots of all Shakespeare's plays that I was obsessed with. I loved the drama, the intricacy of the plots, the characters. But I don't think that I fully got the full scope of what Shakespeare was capable of until I read Hamlet, even though I understood about 10% of it at the time. It was funny! It was poignant! There were all these puzzles in the language to figure out! There were, for heaven's sake, sex jokes! It was so big and exciting and also so much more familiar than I ever thought it would be.
Reading it this time around was really different. Part of it was that I saw the Benedict Cumberbatch National Theater Live production back in November, and reading it this time around just paled in comparison to seeing the real thing (seriously, if you have the chance, go see it. I LOVED it, and I say this as a major Cumberbatch skeptic).
My experience with the character of Hamlet in particular this time around was especially different. When I was fifteen I was just so dazzled by how smart he was. I enjoyed the race to keep up with him. I found him cool and tortured and unknowable and by the end I had what was probably my first literary crush. But now I sympathize more with his friends. Hamlet is annoying and infuriating in the way that all brilliant people can sometimes be. But I also empathized more with Hamlet. Now I actually understand what he's talking about on an emotional level most of the time. I understand how much pain he's in. The guilt, the anger, the depression, the doubt, the fear, the grief, all at the same time. It's a lot. And I understand that now because I've been through it some of it too. I really loved the Act 1 and 2 soliloquies on this reread, which I just glossed over before.
Overall, I was less dazzled by my experience with Hamlet this time around, but my experience with the play is probably far deeper because of it. And it showed me how much I've changed in the 8 years since I last read this, which was amazing to see.
8/10
Music: Moderato from Symphony No. 5 by Dmitri Shostakovitch; Performed by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and Conducted by Leonard Bernstein
One thing I feel like this piece gets at is how effective Hamlet is as a piece of genre: horror, thriller, espionage, it's really got it all, which I'd never thought about before. This piece is also so intellectually muscular, which is a lot of what I feel distinguishes Hamlet from the other tragedies. But it's also very melancholy. I'd forgotten how sad Hamlet can be.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
I haven't reread Harry Potter in years but I started rereading it last year after discovering the Unspoiled Podcast's Coverage of it. The podcast's host (Natasha) has a friend (Roshawn) who managed to stay completely ignorant of the Harry Potter series until she started. Prior to starting, she knew that Harry went to a magic school, had two friends (one boy and one girl) and that he played a sport on brooms. So they have been reading it from the beginning. It has been a blast listening to her get swept away. Even if you listen to nothing else, it's worth listening to the episode in which they cover the whole graveyard scene and Natasha then proceeds to read the Veritaserum chapter live on the air.
I used to reread Harry Potter every year (at least), but once I got to college I decided to stop so it would be extra special when I came back. This was a good call. Rereading Harry Potter with more distance has helped me better understand a lot of the complaints that people have about Rowling's prose, which can be very repetitive and pedestrian. But it has also hammered home all the things that she does so, so well and that I really think she gets enough credit for.
In the previous books, I was blown away by how efficiently she builds the world, how good she is at exposition, at giving each character a unique voice. In this book, I was especially impressed by exactly how good the mystery plot is, especially since I've now read so much genre fiction with really terrible mystery plots. Developing a proper mystery while still serving the fantasy and coming of age elements of the story is exceptionally difficult, and Rowling was already pretty good at it in book 1. But she gets better at it with each book, and Goblet of Fire is really her tour de force in this area. I actually think the mystery in this book is better than the one in The Cuckoo's Calling.
It also really hit me on this reread how much of a game changer this book is. This is where Rowling really starts accelerating the character development, increasing the heaviness and complexity of the themes, showing you new sides of characters you thought you knew. This is where the magic starts happening: where the audience starts aging with the characters.
It used to be that the first three books (especially book 3) were my favorite to reread. They made me feel like I was I kid again, they were so sun and adventurous and neat, with the mysteries all tied up and the clues for the later books all laid out. Because of that I really had forgotten a lot of what makes the last four books special. I'm so excited to continue to discover more as I reread the last three!
8/10
Music: Danse Macabre by Camille Saint-Saëns; Performed by the National Philharmonic Orchestra and conducted by Leopold Stokowski
This is one of my absolute favorite pieces of music, so I am not using it lightly. But this piece really conveys what it feels like to reread the Goblet of Fire, especially if you've already read it. It just doesn't stop, and you think it can't top itself and then the climax comes and it ties everything together in such an amazing and spectacular way. I think that the playful but also well, macabre, tone also suits Rowling's writing really well. And I like to think that the ending is Rowling basically dropping the mic.
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
I loved this. It was really depressing, but also funny and dazzling and sly. I still don't feel like I fully understand it, but the more I think about it the more I like it, which is nice. It's always nice when one's tendency to be over-analytical is rewarded.
This review is really hard to write since every time I think about this book or discuss it I change my mind about something. But I think that's why it's so, so brilliant.
The first few pages are so exhilarating. Wharton (or maybe her narrator persona) peels back the curtain on this world so efficiently. Immediately you feel like you know this world and these people inside and out. You know who these people are, who they think they are, and who they pretend to be. You feel very smart and cool.
Then she proceeds slowly and carefully to turn all that upside down, until you don't know what to think, even though you finished it a several days ago and read large chunks of it twice.
Overall, I'm just left with an impression that the of people in this society are stuck. These people are all so sad, and you are left with a sense that they will never truly escape, that if they try to all they'll do is swim upstream. That's what I'm sure of. Some people fully embrace and understand this and understand what being a part of this society means, and all the costs that come with it. And some people live in denial, try to fight against it to no avail. I can't decide which is more depressing.
9/10
Music: Nocturne No. 1 in B-Flat Minor by Frederic Chopin performed by Brigitte Engerer
The first few notes of this piece, that slow downward slope of notes--really captures the novel all on its own. I think that this piece does a good job of capturing the formal and sly tone of the novel. But I also like how it loops back on itself, repeating its themes, a little different each times, forcing you to reconsider it again and again. But this piece also really opens up in the middle, and things seem like they're going to change. And then it returns to the original theme again. And then it ends on an ambiguous note, leaving you wondering.
Jackie B. wrote: "I look forward to seeing what music you'd apply to Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. :)"I really wasn't sure what to pick but then I realized that one of my favorite pieces ever might be a perfect fit! Need to listen to it and double check :)
The Sellout by Paul Beatty
The number one reason to read The Sellout is without a doubt the voice. I'm not sure there's another book out there that does a better job capturing the way we talk and think right now. And some great big ideas about some of the biggest topics out there (race, America, class, education, etc.) are delivered using this spectacular voice. It is truly thrilling to read.
What makes the first half of the book especially thrilling is that these ideas are backed up by excellent character work. The first half of the book focuses on the main character's relationship with his father, a social scientist who essentially treated his son like an experiment. This relationship, which could feel so absurd, feels so horribly, painfully real. You feel the horror and pain of what it must be like to be raised in this kind of environment. Every idea, every political point, that Beatty makes in this section really lands with maximum impact because it is backed up by such a strong character work.
But the second half of the book shift focus from this relationship, and it started to lose me. I felt like the ideas ended up swallowing the characters. Two of the main characters who anchor the second part of the book are largely defined by cultural references and not their relationship to the main character (part of the problem was that, as a white woman, I didn't entirely understand these references). And I found the other main character (a love interest) to be very thin. I felt like I was reading an essay collection disguised as a novel. I might not have minded as much had Beatty not given me a taste of what he could do on a character and emotional level in the first part of the book. I really missed that book in the second half of this novel.
6/10
Music: Papillons Noirs from 2 Pieces pour Piano by Jules Massenet; Performed by Aldo Ciccolini
Even though this piece takes you on a ride to some unexpected places with such confidence, and it's a real treat. But I feel like there's an emotional resonance in the first half that peters out as it becomes more technical, which is a drag.
Daisy Miller by Henry James
I'm so fascinated by the fact that this was apparently made Henry James famous. I haven't read much James, but this seemed exceptionally uncharacteristic (meaning that the themes were super overt and the sentences were simple and I didn't have to read it three times). What I have loved about James in the past is that he is so infuriating. You really have to earn everything, to work your tail off to even keep track of what exactly is going on. And his maddening style worked especially well in stories like The Turn of the Screw and The Real Thing which are about how the blurry lines between fiction and reality and the unknowable nature of truth. Being confused is really part of the experience.
Which is why it was weird to read something so straightforward. Daisy Miller tackles some interesting themes, but I feel like other books address those themes in more interesting and deep ways.
4/10
Music: Stars and Sand by Mary Howe
I feel like this piece is trying to go for stakes and drama and depth and feeling. It just never arrives. I also think that it may be a little dated, which I think it also what is going on with this book. It would probably be more interesting if you read it through that lens.
Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare
After reading this and Hamlet, I'm really not sure how useful it is for me to read Shakespeare at this point in my life. Reading Hamlet was a more rewarding experience, since Hamlet is so dense and even if you go to see it so much of it gets cut anyway. But even though Much Ado About Nothing is probably my favorite comedy, I sort of feel like people are better off just watching the excellent movie version (available on Netflix!). Or going to see it for real, of course.
There's plenty of wordplay and themes and gorgeous language and all that in Much Ado, but a lot of it is just spinning wheels. I found it hard to stay interested in any scenes that didn't include Beatrice or Benedick. Even those parts of the play only really come alive when you can see two actors with real chemistry. So reading this was frustrating. I felt kind of impotent the whole time.
But despite that, there are still so many things I love about this play. The structure of the twin love stories: one real, one false, is absolutely perfect. The love story between Beatrice and Benedick is, in my opinion, the only convincing one that Shakespeare ever wrote. It's the story of two brilliant but flawed people falling in love, discovering that they aren't the center of the world, and that that's actually is a wonderful thing (although really it's mostly Benedick who discovers this). It makes my sentimental heart swell up like a balloon every time. The language is magnificent, there were so many treats that I'd forgotten that I rediscovered this time around. But I think you're better off discovering them by hearing a real live person say them.
I love this play too much to just rate my reading experience of it, even though that probably isn't fair, so it's 4 stars or an:
8/10
Music: 1B from Appalachian Journey by Edgar Meyer; Performed by Yo-Yo Ma, Mark O'Connor, and Edgar Meyer
One of the reasons I decided to rate this play generously was that I spent FOREVER trying to find a piece that truly captured this play and is was really, really hard. The darkness, the joy, the cleverness, the romance. It's a lot to ask. So I just chose this piece, which is one of my favorites, and which I think really captures the rhythms of Beatrice and Benedick's sparring and coming of age. And I feel so happy when I listen to this piece. It's beautiful and fun and fast an makes you want to dance, but it also challenges you just enough so it never, ever, gets boring.
The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra by Helen Rappaport
This book annoyed the living daylights out of me.
The summary of this book claims that it is trying to undercut the "sentimental and idealized hagiography" of past biographies of the Romanovs. Which is confusing since this book is a textbook example of hagiographical non-fiction, one of my top literature pet peeves. This book details the minute details of the Romanovs' lives ad nauseum, to the point that it becomes repetitive, cloying, and counterproductive. Rappaport seems determined to prove that her subjects really were great and nice people. This is understandable. It's hard not to empathize with people you've spent years researching. But she repeats the same points so often that she actually starts to sound defensive. By the end of this book I was so sick of this perfect family. Especially since Rappaport failed to put them in any political context of any kind. Yes, the Romanovs were nice to each other and to other people. That's easier when you can lock yourselves away in the countryside and hide from your problems if you want. Thinking the best of people is easy when you've been sheltered from much of the ugliness that the world has to offer.
The Last Romanovs were fascinating, and there are reasons that so many books are written about them. To use a (very) overwrought metaphor, they were a nice but tragic family who locked themselves inside a snowglobe while ignoring the fact that it was hooked up to a timebomb. Who wouldn't want to write about that?
I think that the danger comes in idealizing the Romanovs, in romanticizing their supposed bravery in the face of hardship, as this book does repeatedly. I'm sure that at least some of the Romanov's were brave. I think that it's also easy to confuse bravery with ignorance. And they certainly faced plenty of hardship. But so did lots of people in Russia during that period. Romanticizing the Romanovs without providing any context not only undercuts what is interesting about their story, it suggests that they were special, and that Russia would have been better off under their rule.
I mean, one of the only times that peasants are even MENTIONED in this book is when Alexandra is talking about a obscure cure for infertility that some of them use. So they're basically "the magic people in the woods." Honestly.
1/10
Music: Andante from Symphony in D Major (1762) by Leopold Hofmann; Performed by Northern Chamber Orchestra; conducted by Nicholas Ward
Cloying, bland, unable to sustain any tension, interest, or depth.
Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir by Jenny Lawson
This book was fine. I enjoyed all the funny anecdotes and stories. I listened to the audio and thought that Lawson's narration was great although I was pretty ambivalent about the sung chapter titles and sound effects. I thought that the aspects of the book focusing on mental illness were by far the strongest, and at times I wished that the whole book was about that. I've read a lot of books about "crazy stories from my crazy life," but I've never read a book that talks about mental illness the way that Lawson talks about it here. Fortunately, Lawson has in fact already written the book I want (Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things) so I'm in luck. I feel like this book was more successful as an advertisement for Lawson's next book than as a standalone, so I can't go too high on the rating even though I will definitely read Furiously Happy.
4/10
Music: Allegro scherzando from String Quartet Nr. 7 in a Minor (1874) by Antonin Dvorak; Performed by Chilingirian Quartet
This piece flits all over the place in what seems at first like a fun, pleasant way. But another side of the piece is revealed rather quickly, even though it never takes over.
The Women of Brewster Place: A Novel in Seven Stories by Gloria Naylor
About five years ago, I read Gloria Naylor's Linden Hills, about a wealthy suburban black community, while under the influence of Senioritis. Nevertheless, the book left a very strong impression on me. It was strange and filled with haunting images that have stayed with me to this day despite the fact that I really didn't read the book as carefully as I should have. Then about a year ago, I found The Women of Brewster Place, which is set in the same area, (but in the impoverished part of town) in a pile of free books. And thanks to the reading challenge, I finally got around to reading another book by this wonderful author.
The Women of Brewster Place is more straightforward than Linden Hills, which is more obviously structured and based on Dante's Inferno and contains a ghost subplot (I LOVE literary ghost stories, so this was a big win). The Women of Brewster Place tells the story of seven different women who all live on this misbegotten street for different reasons. Five of these women receive their own stories, and then the last two share a story that starts to really tie everything together.
I found myself wishing that some of the stories were longer, as was the case with The Turner House. The book is so short! But after awhile I began to feel that the almost truncated nature of these stories actually served the larger narrative beautifully, making the injustice in these women's lives all the more clear. I also felt like I was just seeing a slice of each woman's life, only getting to know her a little bit, so that everything else could bleed into the other stories, creating a sense of community. This sense of community that Naylor created in the first five stories is crucial, since the final act of the book would fall totally flat without it.
Overall, I think that this book is a really, really impressive debut. Naylor's prose is really great, and right up my alley. But I wonder if it's a shame that this is the novel that Naylor is best known for (mostly because Oprah made it into a miniseries). I feel like Naylor is capable of even more. I look forward to reading more and finding out.
7/10
Music: Introduktion. Sostenuto con molta espressione from String Quartet (1923) by Kirt Weill; performed by Barndeis Quartet
I think that the somber tone of this piece as well as the way that it gets more complex and intense as it goes, with the instruments "unifying" more, on suits this book.
In Search of Scandal by Susanne Lord
This was a very frustrating read. I feel like there was a really good book just underneath the surface here. On one level, this book is a really original and fascinating exploration of the role of bravery and adventure in romance. This book was really getting at a take on these topics that I've never seen in romance. It just never...quite...got there. Which was so frustrating! Similarly, I thought that the characterization of the heroine was really interesting and different, but it didn't feel consistent. And then there was this really amazing scene at the end that almost made up for everything, and then Lord didn't follow through on it. So I spent a lot of time being let down by this book, even though it's a really promising debut.
4/10
Music: Straw Hat Dance from The Little Mermaid Suite; Performed by Lang Lang
This piece is very nice, and I feel like I could have really liked it had it just been a little more focused. But it just didn't really create a mood or leave an impression.
Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold
This was my first outing with Bujold. I've heard a lot of good things about her, but this didn't blow me out of the water, even though I thought it was very good. But from what I understand, the series gets better as it goes along, so that's okay.
I thought that the characterization and the development of the relationship were both very strong. The book had a nice adventurous tone, but it wasn't very fast paced, which was a nice combination. But while I liked all these things, I just don't really have that many strong feelings one way or another. But I did enjoy this and will definitely continue with the series and see what Miles gets up to!
5/10
Music: De Vuelta y Media by Maximo Barbieri; performed by Musicas Recuperadas
I feel like the structure of the piece really gets at the almost episodic structure of this novel. But there's still a constant through-line of tension throughout that ties things together and kept me interested, which reflected my experience with this novel. The space politics were fun, but Cordelia and Aral's relationship was what kept me interested, which was great.
Grace wrote: "I really wasn't sure what to pick but then I realized that one of my favorite pieces ever might be a perfect fit! Need to listen to it and double check :) "Yes! You're so right; particularly once we get to the third and final task, that's perfect. I love this. Keep it up!
Grace wrote: "In Search of Scandal by Susanne Lord"
I am unfamiliar with the book, but I totally get the vibe of your review from listening to Straw Hat Dance. Great choice as always. I love reading your reviews.
I love the idea of pairing music and books! How is it working out for you? What is your method of discovering new classical pieces?
Jackie B. wrote: "Grace wrote: "I really wasn't sure what to pick but then I realized that one of my favorite pieces ever might be a perfect fit! Need to listen to it and double check :) "Yes! You're so right; par..."
It was so nice to use a more exuberant piece. I'd been reading a lot of depressing and/or subdued stuff and I was wondering if I'd EVER get to use something like Danse Macabre.
Jackie B. wrote: "Grace wrote: "In Search of Scandal by Susanne Lord"
I am unfamiliar with the book, but I totally get the vibe of your re..."
Thank you!
Cassandra wrote: "I love the idea of pairing music and books! How is it working out for you? What is your method of discovering new classical pieces?"Thanks so much! It was sort of a left field idea but it's been great so far. It's forced me to really give each piece a second look.
I mostly find pieces by browsing through the archives of the Daily Classical Music tumblr. But I also listen to a lot of albums on hoopla and youtube while I do my homework. And sometimes one of the few pieces I'm really familiar with is a good fit.
That's great! I'm glad that it's working well for you. :)
Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho
This novel is just so clever and specific and lovely. I loved how much of the world-building and character development was done just with the writing style. Cho uses a very traditional, faux-regency style of prose, the kind of prose from which character details seem to escape, like precious, forbidden, secrets. One gets the feeling that these details are so dangerous and important that the reader must go searching for them. And this conveys so perfectly the plight of our main characters: an emancipated slave trying to hold onto his position as the "Sorcerer Royal" and a South Asian woman of prodigious magical talent who is forbidden from exercising that talent in any way. These are people who often can't risk putting all their cards on the table. These are people who have never really felt seen in so many ways. The prose reflects that so brilliantly. And it makes the ending so, so satisfying.
This book is also exceptionally funny, and the development of the central relationship is absolutely perfect. It also features some really poignant moments between our main characters and their decidedly imperfect but nevertheless loving parental figures, which is right in my wheelhouse. There is so, so much to like here.
My one complaint is with Prunella's character arc. She really undergoes a dramatic transformation over the course of the book. But to me it felt that it happened in fits and starts, and it was ultimately not nearly as satisfying as it could have been. By the end, I wasn't even sure if Cho was going for an "it was inside her all along" approach or a more gradual development. That was frustrating. But I felt that Zacharias' character development was much stronger, and the development of their relationship was pitch perfect. So it wasn't as big a deal as it might have been.
8/10
Music: Danse Sacree et Sanse Profane by Claude Debussy; Performed by Anneleen Lenaerts and the Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra (conducted by Michel Tabachnik)
I love how this piece has an almost illusory feel to it. The use of the harp almost makes it feel like you're listening through a veil, which perfectly reflects the sly, fantastical nature of this book. But this piece is still very romantic and full of emotion. The strings and the harps also seem to kind of stay in "separate lanes" in the Danse Sacree before they "unite" a bit more in the Danse Profane, which I think reflects the story very nicely.
Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff
My biggest problem with this one was that I felt like Lotto and Mathilde (the main characters) never really got beyond archetypes. And this is a novel that should be driven by character, since it keeps on announcing itself as a deep dive into a marriage. But to me it felt like Groff kept on coming up with new fancy metaphors and sentences and never bothered to develop her main characters. So the book felt empty to me. Sure, there were some nice sentences and ideas, but for every one of those, there were at least three instances of needlessly purple prose and overextended metaphors.
2/10
Music: Toccata Undecima from Apparatus Musico Organisticus by George Muffat; Performed by Elisabeth Ullmann
This piece starts out very dramatic and self important. But it also doesn't have much in the way or tension or drama. Even when it got to the dramatic part halfway through, I could barely bring myself to keep listening.
Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
This book is so fun and addictive and suspenseful in such a low-stress way. It would be the absolute perfect airplane book. It's funny, the mystery AND the romance both hold up, and the epistolary aspect is used brilliantly.
But this book also articulates what it's like to be a teenager in ways that I've never really seen. What it's like to feel "locked into yourself," to feel as though you're not entitled to your own feelings, as though you must be ALL ALONE in this. The knowledge that you probably need to get out of your own head and the lack of any idea of how one does that. These issues are obviously a lot more acute and clear for closeted teenagers, but they apply to all teenagers (and often to adults) and Albertalli articulates all these issues in a way that feels simultaneously specific and universal. I was not at all surprised to read about her background as a therapist for teens. You can tell that she just knows the specifics of the teen psyche inside and out.
8/10
Music: Piano Sonata in A major, Hob XVI-46 by Joseph Haydn; Performed by Sviatoslav Richter
This piece is barely concealing inner complexities and turmoils as it tries its best to keep everything merry! merry! Then we get some more overt emotion in the middle before arriving at some genuine joy and harmony at the end. Which I think is very reflective of Simon's emotional arc.
Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling
I listened to the audio for this. It was uneven but still fun.
First the not-so-good: There is a very long epistolary section in this book that just does not work at all on audio. It might have been fine in print, and it suffered a great deal in comparison to Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, but this section of the book totally lost me. There are also several sections of the book that I just forgot right after I listened to them. I didn't find the TV-insider sections that interesting, but that is also because I have recently become a bit disenchanted with the TV world after totally saturating myself in it for 6 years.
What I Liked: I liked that this book felt really different from Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?. You get the sense that by that Kaling changed quite a bit in the past few years, which I really liked. Heaven knows that I was a totally different person when I read her first book.
I LOVED the Harvard commencement speech section, which was by far my favorite. When I first saw that this was a thing I scoffed and judged her internally for trying to up her page count. But the speech is so thoughtful about the world we live in today, what it means to be in power and have responsibility, what it means to give good advice, so many other topics. What I loved about the speech was how clearly it was calibrated to that specific audience. It made me feel like I was in the room with her.
I love the title. When I first saw this book, I thought it looked sort of workshopped, but I actually think that this and The Age of Innocence are the best-titled novels I've read so far this year. The title brilliantly pokes at the central messages of this book, which I thought were great. Women are often taught to apologize for their accomplishments or authority (especially if they are not white/skinny). But Kaling quietly and insistently refuses to do this. What Kaling communicates is a hard-won certainty that she has worked hard and that she deserves her accomplishments. And so the title leaves the reader with a question that they ultimately have to answer for themselves. Which I think is really great.
6/10
Music: Fossils from Le Carnival des Animaux by Camille Saint-Saens; Performed by the Slovak Radio Symphony
I think that this piece does a really good job of conveying the rhythms and nuances of Kaling's humor. It's is really fun and breezy and sincere, but it also has a real edge and bite and unpredictability to it.
King Richard III by William Shakespeare
After reading Hamlet and Much Ado About Nothing, two plays with which I was already very familiar, I was honestly worried that reading Shakespeare wasn't exciting for me anymore. Reading those plays was fun, but it mostly just made me want to go see them. But then I read Richard III.
Richard III was my first history play, which is somewhat ridiculous considering my obsession with all the gossipy and dramatic parts of British history. And it was just so much fun. It's straight-up propaganda, but it's impossible to care about that in the face of all the awesome.
I thought I knew the story of this play backwards and forwards, but it was really nothing at all like I expected. This rich evocation of a totally corrupt society that must be punished for its crimes in the person of a villain who is only just human enough. The way in which the play complicates so may characters (Elizabeth, Richard, Buckingham), revealing sides to them that you don't expect, as it progresses. The murderers! Queen Margaret! The soliloquies! This was just so rad and pulpy and over the top and rich, and the fact that I knew a lot of the context beforehand just made it that much more delicious. Now I'm going to need to read all the history plays (though I'm pretty sure I can skip Henry VIII. I don't have high expectations of Henry VI parts 1-3 but I'll read them anyway for Margaret and Richard.)
Music: Allegro con brio from Symphony No. 5 by Ludwig van Beethoven; Gothenburg Symphony conducted by Gustavo Dudamel
For some reason I feel like this movement really expresses the frantic "society must be purged of its sins!!!" vibe of Richard III. It also is so over-the-top and dramatic and pulpy and so much more accessible than you anticipate.
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
I kind of love how amazingly snobby this book is. It's telling a gothic story, but in the most opaque, obfuscatory, and infuriating way possible. In the framing device, James pretty much makes fun of the reader's expectations of the book! I kind of love it.
Especially since even though this book is infuriating, (this is the second time I've read it and I now feel as though I understand 25% of it as opposed to 10%) it's still totally worth it, for me, at least. The unreliable narrator, all the fascinating ruminations on the nature and value of reality. And it's a really interesting exploration of what we expect from kids. And the ending is still one of my favorites.
Music: Funeral Music by Toru Takemutsu; performed by the Moscow Soloists
This piece is really, really mysterious and elusive. It sort of teases you, but refuses to make things too easy for you. But it is still holds your interest despite this and is creepy as all get out.
Sweetland by Michael Crummey
I'd listened to the audiobook for Michael Crummey's other well-known novel, Galore, awhile ago. It is narrated by John Lee, just like Sweetland. It was really not my cup of tea at all. I found it sort of ponderous and self-important. But I saw people raving about this one and decided to give things another go.
I liked this one better than Galore. The strongest element of the book is without a doubt the setting (one of my biggest problems with Galore was that the setting just never felt real to me, which is a big problem in a let's-explore-the-evolution-of-this-town-over-many-decades novel). Sweetland is a smaller story, about one guy and the dying lifestyle and place he's forced to give up. I liked the mournful tone, it really added to the novel for me. But this still wasn't enough to convince me to pick up anything else by Crummey, who apparently is just not for me.
5/10
Music: Adagio from Concerto for String Orchestra and Pipa by Tan Dun; performed by the Moscow Soloists
This piece I feel does a good job of conveying the peaceful setting as well as a melancholy in the face of the the threat of the modern world encroaching.
The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara
Hanya Yanagihara is such a fascinating writer. She structures her books so deliberately and so manipulatively, some might say sadistically. As a structure nut, I just can't help but be drawn to her work.
Her most recent novel, A Little Life, was structured so as to repeatedly make you feel safe or just numb and then pull the rug out from under you and make you feel unimaginable pain (I think that this is the book's especial genius, as it mimics the experience of living with trauma that the book describes). The People in the Trees, on the other hand, is structured entirely around one moment. The purpose of pretty much the entire book is to give this moment maximum impact. The book is written in a deliberately dry and academic tone, and she confuses you by forcing you to deal with two very unreliable narrators. There is a constantly mounting sense of uneasiness and dread throughout, but the tone serves to make you feel safe and detached. But things gradually escalate. And then you get the ending, when things really pay off. I raced to finish this book during my lunch break even though the ending was so repulsive and dreadful that I actually felt as though I might vomit. But at the same time it was masterful, mesmerizing, challenging, and beautiful. I'm never going to read this one again, and it did such a number on me that I had to take a break from literary fiction. But I loved it anyway, and I'm not going to forget it anytime soon.
8/10
Music: Prelude in C Sharp Minor or The Bells of Moscow by Sergei Rachmaninoff, performed by Evgeny Kissin
This piece is one of my absolute favorites. It's subtle yet drmatic, and it conveys the mounting sense of dread that Yanigahara is going for so beautifully. And the haunting ending is absolutely perfect for this book.
A Taste of Heaven by Penny Watson
This was a very nice diversion. I liked that the characters were older, it made the story feel less tired. Cooking Reality Show setting also worked really well. It heightened the stakes and helped streamline the heroine's emotional arc of overcoming her husband's death. I was initially worried about the setting, because though I love food, cooking, and television, I find cooking shows unbearably frustrating and boring. Who wants to just LOOK at food? But perhaps my favorite thing about this book was the way that it conveyed the joy inherent in the process of cooking. The unique sense of accomplishment that comes from of taking something that could be a chore and turning it into something personal. The familiarity of all the tricks you develop. The sense of accomplishment when it's all done. I've been bored by a lot of food writing in the past, but this book convinced me to give the genre another shot.
6/10
Music: Tempo di minuetto from Symphony in G Major by Georg Christoph Wagenseil, performed by L'Orfeo Barockorchester; conducted by Michi Gaigg
To Marry an English Lord: Or How Anglomania Really Got Started by Gail MacColl and Carol McD Wallace
This was truthfully a lot better than I expected. I only read this because I bought the e-book on a lark awhile ago and I am stubborn. But not only is this book a fun trifle, it successfully strikes the balance between conveying that the American Heiresses were treated like pawns and put in untenable positions while still acknowledging their incredible wealth and privilege. So much non-fiction about women seems incapable of finding a middle ground between tragic victim of sexist circumstances/saint and spoiled brat/slut/villain. So this was truly refreshing. A nice palate cleanser to fill in some gaps in your Henry James or Edith Wharton.
5/10
Music: Bahn frei by Eduard Strauss; performed by Wiener Johann Strauss-Orchester; conducted by Willi Boskovsky
This is a fine depiction of the sort of wild flurry of pomp and circumstance that these women were both subjected to and required to maintain.
The Grownup by Gillian Flynn
This is a sour and clever little gem. I read this shortly after I finished The Turn of the Screw, so I was able to fully enjoy all the little meta touches. I love excellent genre works that take themselves apart and make you feel guilty for loving them. The Grownup takes the creepy house/crazy lady genre apart piece by piece until it comes to an awesome and mysterious conclusion that would make Henry James proud.
Music: In the Hall of the Mountain King from Peer Gynt by Edward Greig; performed by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
This one grabs your attention immediately and keeps it as the tension builds and builds until its totally bananas finale, which is very reminiscent of the structure of this story.
2024 Reading Challenge
Books mentioned in this topic
Private Arrangements (other topics)Dark Places (other topics)
A Tale for the Time Being (other topics)
Six of Crows (other topics)
A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Leigh Bardugo (other topics)E.L. Konigsburg (other topics)
J.K. Rowling (other topics)
Keigo Higashino (other topics)
Anchee Min (other topics)
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PERSONAL Challenges
-Review every book I read in this thread AND choose a piece of classical music that somehow captures or represents each book I read (I am also trying to become more musically literate this year)
-Read owned books: this is a purely selfish challenge. I want to sell the books I own at the used bookstore. I would clear some clutter and make a couple bucks. Unfortunately, my fondness for the gloriously impact free impulse shopping offered by the public library means that I rarely read books that I actually own. So, a brief list of the books I need to finish (there aren't THAT many; I hate clutter almost as much as I love the library):
For every book DNFed, two more books acquired during 2016 must be added to the challenge.
(Order: Borrowed from Grandma DEFCON 1 --> Green Apple will totally want this! --> Maybe Friends of the SFPL wants it? I just want to clear the clutter)
Read: The Women of Brewster Place, Special Topics in Calamity Physics, The Feast of the Goat, The Dancing Girl of Izu and Other Stories, The Story of my Boyhood and Youth, Literary Hills of San Francisco, Alif the Unseen, The Silver Star, Field of Blood, Goodbye Tsugumi, Red Azalea
DNFed: (Ada's Algorithm: How Lord Byron's Daughter Ada Lovelace Launched the Digital Age (the quality of writing was below my personal threshold.); Essential Muir: A Selection of John Muir's Best Writings (environmental writing is just not my favorite)
The Time in Between: The writing was so flat. Possibly a bad translation?
Fantasies of a Bollywood Love Thief: Mediocre writing, lots of schtickiness.
Love Walked In (gave away)
Unread: Two Lives, Niccolò Rising, Histories of the Kings of Britain, The Fox That Got Away, The Best American Short Stories 2006, The Testament of Mary, An Equal Music, At Swim, Two Boys, Cassandra: A Novel and Four Essays, All My Puny Sorrows
11/21 (not even close, but I plowed through 16 books on my shelves! Success!)
-Quarter 1 Challenge: 2016 Tournament of Books
Shortlist: 10/17
GOODREADS Challenges
TBR Randomiser Challenge: (16/16)
For every book DNFed, two more will be added
Read: The Diving Pool: Three Novellas, The Romanov Sisters, The Signature of All Things, The Tokaido Road, Winter's Bone, Master and Commander, The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, Alif the Unseen, How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America, My Brilliant Career, A Tale for the Time Being, My Man Jeeves, , Mrs. Dalloway, Twisted, I'll Give You the Sun, A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver
DNF: The Scarlet Pimpernel (I could not with this. The way that it treated the poor and the Parisians as inherently unworthy of sympathy or empathy, the constant need to defend the aristocrats. I'm not without sympathy for the aristocrats, but their plight is not any more tragic or interesting than anyone else's. The French Revolution sucked for pretty much everybody. I guess I'm still a French Major at heart, because all I kept thinking was that the French would NEVER stand for this. And I read it on Bastille Day! J'ai honte.)
The Diviners: I got a quarter of the way through before I gave up. Couldn't muster an interest in the characters, the plot, or the setting.
In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz: was looking for something with less of a personal narrative of a white oursider, more about the Congo itself and the people there.
And I'm gicing myself a bye on that last one and not adding anymore because it;s the end of the year so COMPLETED
-Listopia Challenge
The Great Classics You Have Not Read Yet
I really need to read more classics. I need to be upfront that books I read for school DO NOT count towards challenges so I don't shamelessly cheat (I'm taking a Shakespeare class this Spring that should cover this challenge by itself if I let it. But that would be sort of boring)
1/10 (The Turn of the Screw)
I didn't complete this one because of the "no books for school" rule. But I realized that I spend enough time reading classics as an English major.
Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Books
I'm trying to read a broader range of genres (I mostly stick to literary fiction and romance) and I figure that this is a good place to start. A huge portion of my favorite movies and tv shows from the past year were fantasy/sci-fi. But I don;t read the genre at all, outside of a couple of exception every year. (I usually find the world-building exhausting). But I figure I owe it to myself to give the genre a chance. (Only 1 book per series)
8/10 (A Canticle for Leibowitz, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Shards of Honor, Graceling, Alif the Unseen, The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Winner's Curse)
I didn't end up completing this one, but I read some awesome sci-fi and fantasy that is not on this list! (Saga, Six of Crows...)
-Around the World in Books Challenge: 20/20 COMPLETED
-From Fiction to Reality Challenge: 5/5 pairs; 10/10 books COMPLETED
-A-Z Character Challenge: (25/26) COMPLETED
-Let's Turn the Pages: 40,549/40,000 pages (100.01 %) COMPLETED