SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

Continuing my new tradition of casual reading in 2024. I'll be happy just to be able to participate in a few group reads.

Formative SFF Forum: 1/12
Read All the Books: 2/11
Alphabet Challenge:
Title: 0/26
Author: 0/26

Ursula Le Guin reading list: 35

Formative SFF Forum: 1/12

January: The Giver

February: The Last Cuentista - read 2/13

March: Inkheart

April: Charlotte’s Web

May:

June:

July:

August:

September:

October:

November:

December:

Read All the Books!
I'd just like to keep up with the shelf - adding at least 12 books that are group books I read this year or new group books that I've already read.

Total Group Books Read: 168

Group books read in 2024: 1
The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi

Group books re-read in 2024: 1
The Lathe of Heaven

2024 group books: 4/24 (1 read 2024, 3 read previously, 1 currently reading, 1 tbr, 3 maybe)
(view spoiler)[My Real Children - maybe
The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi - read 2024
These Burning Stars - maybe
Thistlefoot - maybe
The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport - read 2023
The Bone Ships
Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach - read 2019
The Fox Wife - currently reading
The Tusks of Extinction - tbr
Strange the Dreamer - read 2019 (hide spoiler)]

TBR from the shelf:
(view spoiler)[ The Golem and the Jinni
Alif the Unseen
The Aeronaut's Windlass
Too Like the Lightning
Blackfish City
Mexican Gothic
The Book Eaters
Deeplight (hide spoiler)]

Group Books Read Previously: (169)
(view spoiler)[2023:
Vita Nostra
Island of Doctor Moreau
Spear
The Marrow Thieves
The Space Between Worlds
The Spear Cuts Through Water
Neom
The House of the Spirits
Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries
Terra Nullius
Djinn City
Spirits Abroad (re-read)
Jinn-Bot of Shantiport (2024 group pick)

2022:
Nettle and Bone
Klara and the Sun
Sorrowland
Echo Wife
Quantum Magician
Midnight Riot
Spinning Silver (re-read)
Ninefox Gambit (re-read)
Wild Seed (re-read)
Legends and Lattes (2023 group pick)

2021:
The Best of All Possible Worlds
Hench
She Who Became the Sun
Black Sun
A Master of Djinn
The Steerswoman
Winter's Orbit (2022 group pick)
Elatsoe (2023 group pick)

2020:
Regarding Ducks and Universes
The Ten Thousand Doors of January
The Book of Phoenix
Elysium
The Sword of Kaigen
Catfishing on CatNet
The Three-Body Problem
The Ghost Bride
The City We Became
The Vanished Birds
Moon of the Crusted Snow
A Night in the Lonesome October
The Dawnhounds
Six of Crows
The Bone Shard Daughter
Gideon the Ninth
Shadowshaper
Prey of Gods (2023 group pick)

2019:
Parable of the Sower
The Changeling
Kindred
Flowers for Algernon
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Children of Time
The Calculating Stars
Wild Seed
A Canticle for Leibowitz
City of Bones
The Farthest Shore
Karen Memory
A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe
Planetfall
Spinning Silver
Semiosis
Witchmark
Warchild
The Mere Wife
The Outside
Gods of Jade and Shadow
The Raven and the Reindeer
The Lathe of Heaven
The Left Hand of Darkness
The Dispossessed
Ninefox Gambit
A Wizard of Earthsea
The Tombs of Atuan
Dreamsnake (2020 group pick)
Servant of the Underworld (2020 group pick)
Raven's Tower (2022 group pick)
Amatka (2023 group pick)
Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach (2024 group pick)
Strange the Dreamer (2024 group pick)

2018:
Jade City
Rosewater
Babel-17 (re-read)
The Poppy War
Broken Monsters
Three Parts Dead (re-read)
Redshirts
The Word for World is Forest
His Majesty's Dragon (re-read)
Slaughterhouse-Five (re-read)
An Unkindness of Ghosts (2019 group pick)
Brown Girl in the Ring (2019 group pick)
Stories of Your Life and Others (2023 group pick)
Thief (2023 group pick)

Prior to 2018:
China Mountain Zhang
The Traitor Baru Cormorant
Babel-17
Ancillary Mercy
Nimona
Among Others
Ninefox Gambit
The Obelisk Gate
All the Birds in the Sky
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
Sabriel
A Darker Shade of Magic
The Grace of Kings
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
A Natural History of Dragons
The Library at Mount Char
The Eyre Affair
Starship Troopers
Three Parts Dead
Uprooted
The Fifth Season
The Goblin Emperor
Ancillary Sword
Guards! Guards!
The Eye of the World
The Hobbit
The Killing Moon
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Annihilation
The Lathe of Heaven
Dawn
Ancillary Justice
Zoo City
Embassytown
Brave New World
Cat's Cradle
Mort
The Diamond Age
The Princess Bride
The Lies of Locke Lamora
Frankenstein
A Scanner Darkly
Watership Down
The Forever War
Soulless
Ready Player One
The City & the City
Anansi Boys
Oryx and Crake
Leviathan Wakes
Charmed Life
Eon: Dragoneye Reborn
Doomsday Book
Cold Magic
Fahrenheit 451
American Gods
The Dispossessed
The Man in the High Castle
Kushiel's Dart
Assassin's Apprentice
The Time Machine
The Fellowship of the Ring
The Handmaid's Tale
The Tombs of Atuan
Left Hand of Darkness
Good Omens
Dragonflight
I, Robot
Watchmen
His Majesty's Dragon
The Road
Stranger in a Strange Land
The Color of Magic
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Dune
A Game of Thrones
Ender's Game
Slaughterhouse-Five
Snow Crash
A Wizard of Earthsea
Wool
Shadowshaper (2020 group pick)
Everfair (2021 group pick)
Howl's Moving Castle (2022 group pick)
Contact (2023 group pick)
Spirits Abroad (2023 group pick) (hide spoiler)]

Circadian Challenge

UTC -11
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UTC 0
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2024 Alphabet Challenge :

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Author: 0/26
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Ursula Le Guin reading list : 31/52
BR thread

I decided mid-October 2019 that I needed to give myself more time for this challenge, so now it's an on-going thing.

Next up:
Always Coming Home: Author's Expanded Edition
Tehanu
Tales from Earthsea
The Other Wind
Other Earthsea stories (The Daughter of Odren, Firelight (theparisreview.org/fiction/7176/firel...), Earthsea Revisioned)

Finished:
1. Out Here: Poems and Images from Steens Mountain Country
2. No Time to Spare: Thinking About What Matters
3. Hive of Dreams: Contemporary Science Fiction from the Pacific Northwest - dnf ~60%, but did read both Le Guin stories
4. The Lathe of Heaven
5. Conversations with Ursula K. Le Guin
6. Ursula K. Le Guin: The Last Interview: and Other Conversations
7. Blue Moon Over Thurman Street
8. Wild Angels
9. Going Out with Peacocks and Other Poems
10. Incredible Good Fortune: New Poems
11. Rocannon's World
12: Planet of Exile
13: City of Illusions
14: Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching
15: The Left Hand of Darkness
16: Mythmakers and Lawbreakers: Anarchist Writers on Fiction
17: The Dispossessed
18: A Fisherman of the Inland Sea
19: The Telling
20: Four Ways to Forgiveness
21: The Birthday of the World and Other Stories
22. The Wild Girls
23. Pity and Shame
Calx (static1.squarespace.com/static/50a3e7...)
24: The Wind's Twelve Quarters
Lullaby for a Lost World
25: The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction
26: Buffalo Gals and Other Animal Presences
27: A Wizard of Earthsea
28: Way of the Water's Going: Images of the Northern California Coastal Range
29: The Tombs of Atuan
30: The Farthest Shore
31: Lavinia

The Rest of My List:
Very Far Away from Anywhere Else
Steering the Craft: Exercises and Discussions on Story Writing for the Lone Navigator or the Mutinous Crew
The Eye of the Heron
Malafrena
Orsinian Tales
Unlocking the Air and Other Stories
The Compass Rose
Words Are My Matter: Writings About Life and Books, 2000–2016, with A Journal of a Writer's Week
King Dog
Searoad
Changing Planes
The Wave in the Mind: Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader and the Imagination
Dreams Must Explain Themselves
Catwings series
Gifts
Voices
Powers
The Beginning Place
poetry (Finding My Elegy: New and Selected Poems, So Far So Good Final Poems: 2014-2018, Late in the Day: Poems 2010–2014)

Recommendations for other works :
A Dreamer's Tales
Alpha Ralpha Boulevard - read 1/27
The Unicorn in the Garden - read 1/27
Martian Time-Slip
The Book of the New Sun
Sarah Canary
Cosmicomics
The Elephant's Journey
New Utopian Politics of Ursula K. Le Guin's the Dispossessed
Aurora: Beyond Equality
Star Songs of An Old Primate
We
Islandia
The Invincible
Solaris
The Aleph and Other Stories
Aniara: An Epic Science Fiction Poem
The Dazzle of Day
He Who Shapes

2024 challenges in other groups:

Ongoing challenges in other groups:

WBtM Bookopoly (started 2023): https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Previous challenges in other groups:

2022
WBtM World Tour: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

2021
WBtM Mix and Match Challenge: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

WBtM SSotW Challenge: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

WotF Mix Tape Challenge: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Radical Reading Personal Challenge: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

2020:
COMPLETE - WBtM Diversity Reading Challenge 2020: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
(view spoiler)[1. A book featuring an animal:
✔Dogs of War

2. A book with religion as a key theme:
✔Sisters of the Vast Black
✔The Affair of the Mysterious Letter

3. A book with social class as a key theme:
✔The House of Sundering Flames

4. A book exploring issues of gender identity:
✔Lord of the Last Heartbeat

5. A book exploring issues of sexual orientation:
✔Sacred Fire
✔Her Body and Other Parties

6. A book exploring issues of mental health:
✔After Atlas
✔Before Mars

7. A book written by an African author:
✔David Mogo, Godhunter

8. A book written by an Asian author:
✔The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday

9. A book written by an author from South or Central America:
✔Midnight Robber
-The Marvellous Equations of the Dread: A Novel in Bass Riddim

10. A book written by an indigenous author:
✔Moon of the Crusted Snow

11. A book written by an author with mental or physical disabilities:
✔The Trans Space Octopus Congregation: Stories

12. A book written by a plus-sized author:
✔Come Tumbling Down (hide spoiler)]

COMPLETE - 2020 WotF Reading Challenge: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
(view spoiler)[✔1. Far Future Earth: The Night Masquerade
✔2. Time Travel or Alternative history: Regarding Ducks and Universes
✔3. MC is LGBTQIA: Catfishing on CatNet
✔4. MC is over the age of 40: A Matter of Oaths
✔5. Set in space: Sisters of the Vast Black
✔6. Pre or Post Apocalyptic: The Book of Phoenix
✔7. Author is a person of colour: Midnight Robber
✔8. Explores gender roles or Gender Identity: Midnight Robber
✔9. Explores Artificial intelligence or Enhanced humans: Elysium
✔10. A Literary dystopia: Clay's Ark
✔11. Fantasy in a future setting: The Prey of Gods
✔12. Set on an alien planet: Cards of Grief (hide spoiler)]

Previous:
LGBTQ/GSM FSF Long Term Bingo: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
(view spoiler)[(https://bingobaker com/play/1812554/97a9c201c5a321484534c4b8c2f4bcea - interactive card)







✔Week 1 - Favorite genre: The Serpent Sea (high fantasy) - Read 12/6 ★★★★
✔Week 2 - New author: Testing Pandora by Kaia Sønderby - Read 12/10 ★★★★★
✔Week 3 - Unusual cover: The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps - Read 12/16 ★★★★★
✔Week 4 - Free book: Between the Firmaments (https://www.thebooksmugglers com/2018/10/between-the-firmaments-by-jy-yang-part-one.html) - Read 1/5 ★★★★
✔Week 5 - 10+ years old: The Door Into Fire (1979) - Read 1/17 ★★★★
✔Week 6 - Next in a series: The Door Into Shadow (book #2 in Tale of the Five) - Read 1/22 ★
✔Week 7 - 5 star read from a friend's shelves: Witchmark - Read 1/26 ★★★★
✔Week 8 - Magical/sci-fi creature in title: Stories of the Raksura, Volume 2: The Dead City & The Dark Earth Below (Raksura) - Read 2/10 ★★★★
✔Week 9 - Start on a holiday: The Glamour Thieves (Feb 9 = National Develop Alternative Vices Day) - Read 2/10 ★★★
✔Week 10 - Author outside your country: The Devourers (India/Canada) - Read 3/3 ★★★★
✔Week 11 - Oldest on shelves: Beyond Binary: Genderqueer and Sexually Fluid Speculative Fiction (since 4/30/13) - Read 2/24 ★★
✔Week 12 - Released the month I was born: Luck in the Shadows (September) - Read 3/2 ★★★
✔Week 13 - What is THAT on the cover: The Last Sun (why are his eyes glowing and what even is happening with the cape/carpet behind them?) - Read 3/14 ★★★
✔Week 14 - Stand alone: A Country of Ghosts - Read 3/27 ★★★★
✔Week 15 - Re-read: Full Fathom Five (read 2015) - Read 3/28 ★★★★
✔Week 16 - Group bookshelf: When Fox is a Thousand - Read 4/8 ★★★★
✔Week 17 - Picked by a friend: Deadline (picked by Janeylou) - Read 4/11 ★★★★
✔Week 18 - Third book on TBR: The Light Brigade - Read 5/12 ★★★★★
✔Week 19 - Picked for cover: Alice Payne Arrives - Read 4/24 ★★★★
✔Week 20 - Favorite author: Ninefox Gambit (Yoon Ha Lee) - Read 5/21 ★★★★★
✔Week 21 - Favorite character: Raven Stratagem (intergalactic rebels + AI critters) - Read 5/23 ★★★★
✔Week 22 - Book over 400 pages or 2 books in a series: Revenant Gun (427 pages) - Read 5/27 ★★★★★
✔Week 23 - Published 2016: The Raven and the Reindeer (Feb 7) - Read 5/31 ★★★★
✔Week 24 - Same initial: The Legend of the Golden Raven (A) - Read 5/24 ★★★ (hide spoiler)]

LGBTQ/GSM FSF Summer Challenge: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
(view spoiler)[S: Amatka (smokestack, read to[/with] a pet)
U: This Is How You Lose the Time War (upside down bird, read in the desert)
M: The Breath of the Sun (mountain, read in the backyard)
M: Foundryside (moon, read in the moonlight)
E: Magic for Liars (eye, read and laugh)
R: Help Wanted (raven, read with morning coffee) (hide spoiler)]

SFF180 Space Opera September 2019: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
(view spoiler)[1: Read a space opera novella - To Be Taught, If Fortunate
2A: Read two space operas by women - Warchild and Finder
2B: Read a space opera by a diverse author featuring a diverse protagonist and/or major characters - Binti
3: Read a space opera published before you were born and
4: Read a space opera 500 pages or longer - Downbelow Station (hide spoiler)]

WBtM 2019 Diversity Reading Challenge: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
(view spoiler)[1) Hispanic/Latinx author: Gods of Jade and Shadow
2) LGBTQIA+ main character: This Is How You Lose the Time War
3) Black author: The Ballad of Black Tom
4) Asian author: Servant of the Underworld
5) LGBTQIA+ author: Revenant Gun
6) Indigenous/Native American author: Trail of Lightning
7) Elderly main character: The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe
8) People of colour in STEM: To Be Taught, If Fortunate
9) Immigrant or a refugee: Wild Seed
10) Main character is not human: A Flight of Broken Wings
11) Superhero comic or graphic novel with a female lead: Ms. Marvel, Vol. 1: No Normal
12) A book in which the main character looks different than you: The Deep
13) MC is gay: Silver in the Wood
14) MC is lesbian: Deadline
15) MC is bisexual/asexual: Every Heart a Doorway
16) MC is transgender: The Vela
17) MC is disabled: A Civil Campaign
18) MC does not have the ideal(ized) body type: They don't make plus size spacesuits (hide spoiler)]

LGBTQ/GSM FSF Four in a Row: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
(view spoiler)[1. Four books published in four consecutive years
✔Spectred Isle (2017)
✔Exit Strategy (2018)
✔Silver in the Wood (2019)
✔Finna (2020)

2. Four consecutive letters of the alphabet (author)
✔Come Tumbling Down (Seanan McGuire)
✔Catfishing on CatNet (Naomi Krizter)
✔A Matter of Disagreement (EE Ottoman)
✔Lord of the Last Heartbeat (May Peterson)

3. Four consecutive letters of the alphabet (title)
✔Bloodline
✔The City We Became
✔(Of) Dragons, Feasts and Murders
✔Elysium

4. Four existing countries
✔Karen Memory (US)
✔The House of Sundering Flames (France)
✔The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal (England)
✔The Prey of Gods (South Africa)

5. Choose from sff genres: Space opera
✔A Matter of Oaths
✔Network Effect
✔The Vanished Birds
✔Sisters of the Vast Black

6. Four books whose title starts with the last letter of the previous book.
✔Hoarfrost
✔The Deep
✔Pet
✔The Empress of Salt and Fortune

7. Repeat one of the previous challenges, or come up with your own - Four books published in consecutive months of the year
✔The Affair of the Mysterious Letter (June)
✔This Is How You Lose the Time War (July)
✔Drowned Country (August)
✔A Ferry of Bones & Gold (September) (hide spoiler)]

2018 SFFBC challenges:

2018 SFFBC TBR challenge - COMPLETE 20/20
(view spoiler)[1. The 13th book (from my TBR in random order):Elephants and Corpses
2. A book written by an author who is/was still in diapers or over-the-hill: The Jewels of Aptor
3. A book with humor or horror: Viscera
4. 300-350 pages: Santa Olivia
5. A book that reminds you of home: Fair Play
6. Suns, skies, stars, or planets on the cover: Five-Twelfths of Heaven
7. Chosen for the cover: Beasts Made of Night
8. "Missed it by that much" - a book you really wanted to read but didn't have time for: The Stone Sky
9. Based on the blurb or blerg: A Woman of the Iron People
10. A non-U.S. or UK publication/setting: The House of Binding Thorns
11. Gold on the cover, in the title, or in the author's name: Crucible of Gold
12. A book with a vehicle on the cover, from a carriage to a spaceship: The Black God's Drums
13. An author's debut novel: An Unkindness of Ghosts
14. Make a list of 5-7 books and use "Eeny Meeny Miny Moe" to choose one: A Conspiracy of Stars
15. A book from a genre that's outside your comfort zone: Beyond Shame (this brand of dystopia, not so much the erotica/romance side of it)
16. A book with a mystery or romance: Snowspelled
17. Standalone novel: Baker Thief
18. A book with a character you would marry, shag, or kill: Tone of Voice
19. Genre-bender: The Only Harmless Great Thing
20. A book with an animal, vegetable, or mineral on the cover: The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion (hide spoiler)]

2019 SFFBC challenges:
In 2019, I finished my read all the book challenge, my personal challenges for both the Seven Kingdoms and the Hexarchate, and the TBR challenge. I didn't finish the Time Traveler challenge - I anticipate eventually finishing Star Maker, but I don't have plans at the moment to read any book from the 1910s. I modified my Le Guin challenge partway through the year to make it an ongoing project. As a result of moving, I gave away a number of books, but otherwise purchased more books than I read.

2019 SFFBC Read All The Books - COMPLETE
Pre-2019 group books read in 2019: 12/12
(view spoiler)[Parable of the Sower
The Changeling
Kindred (group re-read)
Flowers for Algernon (group re-read)
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Children of Time
The Calculating Stars
Wild Seed
A Canticle for Leibowitz (group re-read)
City of Bones
The Farthest Shore
Karen Memory (hide spoiler)]

2019 group books read in 2019: 10
(view spoiler)[A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe
Planetfall
Spinning Silver
Semiosis
Witchmark
Warchild
The Mere Wife
The Outside
Gods of Jade and Shadow
The Raven and the Reindeer (hide spoiler)]

Group books re-read in 2019: 6
(view spoiler)[ The Lathe of Heaven
The Left Hand of Darkness
The Dispossessed
Ninefox Gambit
A Wizard of Earthsea
The Tombs of Atuan (hide spoiler)]

Seven Kingdoms vs Heptarchate challenge - COMPLETE
Seven Kingdoms: 21/21
(view spoiler)[Stark 1: Black Leopard, Red Wolf (there's a wolf and I think "dire" is an apt descriptor for the book)
Stark 2: Kiss of the Fur Queen - the coming of winter is an on-going theme
Stark 3: The Raven and the Reindeer - wintery setting and incorporation of Sami mythology
Lannister1: The Forgotten Beasts of Eld - one of the titular beasts is a lion
Lannister2: Between the Firmaments - (view spoiler)[the main character is a feline shapeshifter who roars, and the payment of a debt drives another character's actions (hide spoiler)]
Lannister3: A Country of Ghosts - set in the mountains. And it's a political novel about anarchism, so there is also discussion of economy.
Baratheon1: Spinning Silver - (view spoiler)[Miryem's crown (hide spoiler)]
Baratheon2: The Mere Wife - so much fury
Baratheon3: Witchmark - (view spoiler)[some sibling rivalry, but even more rebellion. (hide spoiler)] Plus Miles's military history.
Tyrell1: The Rosewater Insurrection - there's a rose in Rosewater
Tyrell2: The Ballad of Black Tom - (view spoiler)[Black Tom grows strong by making a deal with Lovecraftian horrors (hide spoiler)]
Tyrell3: Stories of the Raksura, Volume 2 - a lush setting and (view spoiler)[sentient flora and fauna (hide spoiler)]
Martell1: The Last Sun - the sun is right there in the title
Martell2: The Raven Tower - (view spoiler)[despite years of forced servitude, the Strength and Patience of the Hill hasn't given up. Also, that name is pretty much the epitome of unbent, unbowed, unbroken. (hide spoiler)]
Martell3: Who Fears Death - set in the desert and with lots of gender politics
Greyjoy1: Deep Magic - the creepy and powerful underwater king
Greyjoy2: Skin Folk - there are a lot of ghosts and spirits and other people/creatures who die but aren't really gone in these stories
Greyjoy3: Murder on the Titania - sky pirates carrying out raids. Also some revenge.
Targaryen1: The Door Into Shadow - dragons!
Targaryen2: Tooth and Claw - also with dragons, so fire and blood are both common
Targaryen3: Planetfall - (view spoiler)[Ren's anxiety and OCD (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

Heptarchate: 21/21
(view spoiler)[Shuos1: When Fox is a Thousand - the legend of what happens when fox is a thousand is tied to stories of the nine-tailed fox
Shuos2: Ninth Step Station - lots of spy drones
Shuos3: The Glamour Thieves - the protagonist has an adorable pet fox
Kel1: Finders - one of the main characters is named Ash
Kel2: Children of Time - (view spoiler)[I like the metaphor of sparks and fire for the virus-induced development of sentience in spiders (hide spoiler)]
Kel3: The Light Brigade - military
Rahal1: The Devourers - wolf
Rahal2: A Fisherman of the Inland Sea - a variety of stories by one author
Rahal3: Parable of the Sower - ascetic/communal lifestyle
Nirai1: Revenant Gun - (view spoiler)[the protagonist is literally a voidmoth (hide spoiler)]
Nirai2: The Calculating Stars - (view spoiler)[partly because the stars aren't visible in their sky and partly because I think this is a good metaphor for the diversity of individuals who are vital to the space effort (hide spoiler)]
Nirai3: Provenance - I think Ingray definitely counts as resourceful! And the gates permit FTL travel.
Andan1: Bryony and Roses
Andan2: The King of Attolia - (view spoiler)[Gen appears silly at first, but is awfully sharp (hide spoiler)]
Andan3: A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe - Nilah's body mods are pretty important, plus there is some romance happening
Vidona1: Servant of the Underworld - ahuizotl = "spiny aquatic thing" in Nahuatl (stolen from Ariana)
Vidona2: Trail of Lightning - (view spoiler)[she kills her partner in order to defeat her enemy (hide spoiler)]
Vidona3: The Tea Master and the Detective - (view spoiler)[a character has been imprisoned, a character has been a teacher, and there is discussion of religion (hide spoiler)]
Liozh1: Help Wanted - (view spoiler)[the plot centers on the protagonist's quest to buy a mirror for a friend (hide spoiler)]
Liozh2: Parable of the Talents - This story is told through multiple viewpoints with different perspectives of a single story
Liozh3: Children of Ruin - the backdrop is ruined civilization, and there are many elements of ethics (hide spoiler)]

2019 TBR Challenge - COMPLETE 20/20
(view spoiler)[1. Oldest book: Beowulf
2. Work of art: Out Here: Poems and Images from Steens Mountain Country
3. Novella or short story collection: Skin Folk
4. Title is a question: Who Fears Death
5. Ugly cover (and please share it!): The Door Into Fire
6. Has inspired other art forms: Downbelow Station
7. Your initials are in the title: Karen Memory
8. A book recommended to you: Tooth and Claw
9. A book that intimidates you: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
10. Reminds you of a song: A Killing in the Sun
11. Buddy read (do not need to participate): The Mere Wife
12. Book with a luck symbol: Witchmark
13. The 6th book: The Ruin of Angels
14. Last in a series: Revenant Gun
15. One Hit Wonder: Flowers for Algernon
16. Hidden Gem: City of Bones
17. Someplace you want to go: The Edge of Worlds
18. Get On the Bandwagon: All Systems Red
19. Words in title in alphabetical order: Black Leopard, Red Wolf
20. Graphic or illustrated novel: LaGuardia

Explanations:
1. Without a doubt, the oldest thing I'm going to read this year.
2. Le Guin poems and illustrations plus photographs.
3. I picked this to read with an IRL book group.
4. Someone else came up with this idea, but I liked it so I borrowed it.
5. Just one of those ridiculous pulpy 80s sff covers - I have no idea how it actually relates to the book at all.
6. Jemppu's amazing fanart
7. All of my initials are in the title
8. Recommended when I was looking for a book to read with a friend. I didn't end up picking it for that, but it looked interesting for me.
9. I have tried so many times to read this book. It is long and hard to get into.
10. This title made me think of "Island in the Sun" by Weezer.
11. I've dropped out of a couple BRs that I was thinking of putting here, but this one I'm pretty confident I'll get to. Plus it goes with Beowulf.
12. One meaning of "witch mark" is an etching on a building that was supposed to protect against witches and bring good fortune.
13. 6th book in the Craft Sequence.
14. The last Machineries of Empire book!
15. Almost all of the Daniel Keyes books listed in GR are related to Algernon, and the couple that aren't, are not SFF.
16. Lesser known work by Martha Wells.
17. I would love to see the Raksuran world. Especially if I could fly.
18. Wen has convinced me that I should read this as soon as I'm done with the Raksura, and it seems like everyone's been talking about this series recently.
19. I am super excited for this to come out, and coincidentally the title is in alphabetical order.
20. I am very very very excited to read this. (hide spoiler)]

Time Traveler Challenge: 11/13
(view spoiler)[500s: Beowulf
1900s: Sultana's Dream
1910s:
1920s: R.U.R. (BBC radio play adaptation)
1930: Star Maker - currently reading
1940s: The Sword of Rhiannon (1949)
1950s: A Canticle for Leibowitz
1960s: Rocannon's World (1966)
1970s: Kindred (1979)
1980s: The Door Into Shadow (1984)
1990s: Kiss of the Fur Queen (1998)
2000s: Skin Folk (2001)
2010s: Ninth Step Station (2019) (hide spoiler)]

Owned book challenge
Net change: ignoring the many books I gave away when I moved, +5

2020 SFFBC Challenges
In 2020, I'm going to continue to work on reading books I already own and the books I've prioritized at the top of my tbr stack. I'll also keep reading Ursula Le Guin, hoping to finish my 52 book goal from 2019.

Ursula Le Guin reading list: 31

Read All the Books - COMPLETE
Group books read in 2020: 16/15
(view spoiler)[ Regarding Ducks and Universes
The Ten Thousand Doors of January
The Book of Phoenix
Elysium
The Sword of Kaigen
Catfishing on CatNet
The Three-Body Problem
The Ghost Bride
The City We Became
The Vanished Birds
Moon of the Crusted Snow
A Night in the Lonesome October
The Dawnhounds
Six of Crows
The Bone Shard Daughter
Gideon the Ninth (hide spoiler)]

Group books re-read in 2020: 1
(view spoiler)[ Shadowshaper (hide spoiler)]

2020 TBR challenge - COMPLETE 20/20
(view spoiler)[1. Inspired by a meme: The Murders of Molly Southbourne
2. Nominated for 2+ awards (didn't win): On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
3. Small publisher: Seven of Infinities
4. Relationship between humans/animals: Dogs of War
5. Recommended by a public figure: Don't Call Us Dead
6. Steal from someone else: Network Effect
7. Makes you wonder: A Night in the Lonesome October
8. Fits a past SFFBC nomination theme: The Prey of Gods
9. #ownvoices: Moon of the Crusted Snow
10. Won a smaller or regional award: Her Body and Other Parties
11. What a title?!: The Trans Space Octopus Congregation: Stories
12. Published in a memorable year: Of Dragons, Feasts and Murders
13. #relatable: After Atlas
14. Seven or Twenty: The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday
15. Dialect, slang, or pidgin languages: Lagoon
16. Pushing the boundaries: For colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf
17. The next [insert popular series here]: David Mogo, Godhunter
18. LOLed IRL: The Affair of the Mysterious Letter
19. Seen in an ad or on social media: The City We Became
20. Hindsight is 20/20: Gideon the Ninth

Reasons for my picks:
1. I had 16 other books on my "currently reading" shelf when I started this. I feel like that guy from the distracted boyfriend meme
2. Nominated for the National Book Award, the Kirkus Prize, and GR Choice Award
3. Subterranean Press
4. Dogs and Adrian Tchaikovsky! This book has been on my TBR for ages, and I finally got my library to order it from ILL for me.
5. recommended by Noname
6. double steal - stolen from Meredith who stole it from Anna!
7. Reading this one chapter a day left me with so many questions about what was going on!
8. Sci-fi benders
9. written by an indigenous author about indigenous experiences
10. won the Bisexual Book Award for Fiction in 2017
11. Trans! Space! Octopus! Congregation!?
12. It was published this year
13. I very much relate to Carlos's distaste for trivial human interactions, and right now especially how weird it is to have to engage in face-to-face interaction when you aren't used to it
14. The Lord of Tuesday is/was one of seven powerful djinn
15. Much of the dialogue is written in Nigerian dialect
16. The format is pushing my boundaries, and the content is boundary-pushing in general
17. The next American Gods
18. The blurb for this book is ridiculous and wonderful, and Alexis Hall is definitely a writer who can make me laugh
19. this has been all over my Twitter
20. among other things, because I have been resistant to trying this book again but ended up really liking it (hide spoiler)]

Series challenge: 2/4
(view spoiler)[This was suggested late in the year, so I only put a few books on the list, but I intend to add more next year.

✓1) Planetfall by Emma Newman:


2) Queen's Thief by Megan Whalen Turner


3) Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
✓
currently reading:
(hide spoiler)]

Short fiction challenge: Happy/Sneezy
(view spoiler)[Collections/Anthologies/Magazines: 14
(view spoiler)[Her Body and Other Parties
FIYAH Issue 1
Apex #120
The Trans Space Octopus Congregation: Stories
Of Wars, and Memories, and Starlight
... And Other Disasters
Sabrina & Corina: Stories
Uncanny #29
Exhalation: Stories
Robot Uprisings
Beastgirl & Other Origin Myths
Jackalope Wives and Other Stories
Strangest of All
The Future of Work on Wired (hide spoiler)]

Short fiction: 329

✔Sleepy: Read 1 piece of short fiction
✔Bashful: Read 12 pieces of short fiction
✔Happy: Read 12 short fiction collections/anthologies
✔Sneezy: Read 52 pieces of short fiction
Doc: Read 52 short fiction collections/anthologies
Grumpy: Read 365* pieces of short fiction
Dopey: Read 365* short fiction collections/anthologies (hide spoiler)]

Top of the TBR: 37

Owned books: -3
(view spoiler)[Owned book challenge
I would like to have fewer unread physically owned books at the end of the year than I have at the start. (Honestly I don't really care how many unread ebooks I have, so I'm not counting them for this challenge.) Does not count textbooks, cookbooks, or poetry chapbooks not listed in GR.

Subtractions: 6
Owned books read: 6
The Night Masquerade
Dealing with Dragons
Searching for Dragons
The Three-Body Problem
Beastgirl and Other Origin Myths
A Night in the Lonesome October

Owned books dnf'd:

Unread books I got rid of:

Neutral:
Re-reads of owned books:

Purchases of previously read books: 1
This Is How You Lose the Time War

Previously read books given away or gotten rid of:

Additions: 3
New-to-me books purchased: 3
Beastgirl and Other Origin Myths
A Night in the Lonesome October
Solutions and Other Problems

Books I was given or won:

Net change: -3 (hide spoiler)]

2021 SFFFBC challenges
For 2021, I am going to backburner my Le Guin challenge (although I do hope to finish the Earthsea series) and focus on having fun with my reading. I'm setting a few goals, but I'll leave myself lots of flexibility within them, and also plan on lots of overlap.

Amazing Eights: 10/12
(view spoiler)[January
My card: Jack of Hearts - The Days of the Deer
Group pick: When Fox is a Thousand
My read: When Fox is a Thousand (1/10)

February
My card: Queen of Diamonds - A Spark of White Fire
Group pick: In the Vanishers’ Palace
My read: Space Invaders (2/7)

March
My card: Six of Clubs - The Grey House
Group pick: The Salvage Crew
My read: The Salvage Crew (9/24)

April
My card: Two of Clubs - Starfang: Rise of the Clan
Group pick: A Spark of White Fire
My read: Unauthorized Access (4/7)

May
My card: Ace of Spades - The Root
Group pick: Elatsoe
My read: Elatsoe (7/28)

June
My card: Nine of Hearts - The Wolf of Oren-Yaro
Group pick: Eartheater
My read: Eartheater (7/1)

July
My card: Six of Spades - Dinosaur Dreams (https://www.deafpoetssociety.com/petr...)
Group pick: The Unbroken
My read: Dinosaur Dreams (10/18)

August
My card: Seven of Diamonds - The Marvellous Equations of the Dread: A Novel in Bass Riddim
Group pick: Digital Divide
My read: Digital Divide (9/7)

September
My card: Eight of Diamonds - Folklorn
Group pick: Redemption in Indigo
My read: Redemption in Indigo (9/24)

October
My card: Four of Diamonds - The Apple-Tree Throne
Group pick: Cemetery Boys
My read: Cemetery Boys (10/24)

November
My card: (draw a card) Jack of Clubs - The Dangers of Smoking in Bed: Stories (extra pick - Iron Widow)
Group pick: Amatka
My read: Iron Widow and Mooncakes

December
My card(s): Three of Spades - The Gilda Stories and Four of Spades - Geometries of Belonging
Group pick: Monstress, Vol. 1: Awakening
My read: Monstress, Vol. 1: Awakening (hide spoiler)]

Read All the Books: 6/12
(view spoiler)[My goal in 2021 is to read 12 group books, from this year and previous years, that I have not previously read.

Group books read in 2021: (6/12)
Hench
The Best of All Possible Worlds
She Who Became the Sun
Black Sun
A Master of Djinn
The Steerswoman

Group books re-read in 2021: 0

2021 group books: 7/24 (7 read, 1 currently reading, 2 dnf, 8 tbr)
The Best of All Possible Worlds - read 2021
Fate of the Fallen - dnf
The Book of Koli
Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City
We Are Legion (We Are Bob)
The House in the Cerulean Sea - dnf
Everfair - read before 2018
Deeplight - tbr
Cage of Souls
Hench - read 2021
More Than Human
The Dragonbone Chair
Blindsight - tbr
The Library of the Unwritten - tbr
Velocity Weapon - tbr
The City of Dreaming Books
The Quantum Magician - currently reading
She Who Became the Sun - read 2021
We Are Satellites - tbr
Black Sun - read 2021
The Steerswoman - tbr
A Master of Djinn - read 2021
To Sleep in a Sea of Stars
Piranesi - tbr (hide spoiler)]

2021 TBR challenge: 7/20
(view spoiler)[2021 TBR Challenge: 7/20
1. Take a gamble: Harrow the Ninth
2. Red or black: Prison by Any Other Name: The Harmful Consequences of Popular Reforms
✔3. Behind the eight ball: The Best of All Possible Worlds
4. Charade:
5. Agreeable alliteration: Wicked Wonders
✔6. Jackpot: A Master of Djinn
7. Pawns:
8. An 8 or 21
9. Dealer's choice
✔10. X marks the spot: Xeni
11. Murrderrrrr: The Voyages of Cinrak the Dapper
12. Back from the dead: The Witness for the Dead
13. Features a game or puzzle
✔14. I have no gift for strategy: Winter's Orbit
✔15. Features best friends: Remote Control
✔16. Queen of hearts: Fireheart Tiger
✔17. Role-play: Fugitive Telemetry
18. Amazing race
19. Taboo: Comforting Thoughts About Death That Have Nothing to Do with God
20. Critical hit: Stormsong

Explanations:
1. I dnf'd the first book the first time I read it, and am only a few chapters in on my second try, but I'm taking a chance and planning to read book 2.
2. Red and black cover
3. Most of their people have been killed, and now they have to figure out how to keep their species alive
4. Charade
5. W-W
6. This is the book I am currently the most exciting about getting next year
7. Pawns
8. An 8 or 21
9. Dealer's choice
10. Cross-over from the alphabet challenge - this is my precious "x" book
11. Thank you, Anna!
12. The main character speaks to/for the dead
13. Features a game or puzzle
14. "Scandal-prone prince"
15. Her best friend is a fox!
16. Princesses and romance
17. Murderbot getting to act like an investigator from a drama!
18. Amazing race
19. Talking about death and grief is still a bit taboo in US society
20. Critical hit (hide spoiler)]

Alphabet Challenge:
Title: 19/26
(view spoiler)[A: Act Your Age, Eve Brown
B: Breathe FIYAH
C: Crooked Kingdom
D: The Devil Comes Courting
E: Embodied: An Intersectional Comics Poetry Anthology
F: Feeding Frenzy
G: Gods & Lies
H: How to Be Less Stupid About Race: On Racism, White Supremacy, and the Racial Divide
I: If The Dress Fits
J:
K:
L: Local Star
M: A Master of Djinn
N: Never Have I Ever
O: The Old Guard, Book One: Opening Fire
P: Perfect on Paper
Q:
R: Remote Control
S: Space Invaders
T: The Taiga Syndrome
U:
V:
W: When Fox is a Thousand
X: Xeni
Y:
Z: (hide spoiler)]
Author: 20/26
(view spoiler)[A:
B: Octavia E. Butler - Octavia E. Butler
C: K.J. Charles - The Gentle Art of Fortune Hunting
D: T.J. Deschamps - Tam Lin
E: Mina V. Esguerra - So Forward
F: Crystal Marie Fleming - How to Be Less Stupid About Race
G: Cristina Rivera Garza - Taiga Syndrome
H: Allison Hurd - Feeding Frenzy
I:
J: George M. Johnson - All Boys Aren't Blue
K: Mikki Kendall - Hood Feminism
L: Larissa Lai - When Fox is a Thousand
M: Everina Maxwell - Winter's Orbit
N:
O: Nnedi Okorafor - Remote Control
P: Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha - Care Work
Q:
R: Greg Rucka - Old Guard: Opening Fire
S: George Saunders - Fox 8
T: Aiden Thomas - Cemetery Boys
U: Ngozi Ukazu - Check Please, Book 1
V: Nghi Vo - When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain
W: Rebekah Weatherspoon - Xeni
X:
Y: Isabel Yap - Hurricane Heels
Z: (hide spoiler)]

Series challenge:
(view spoiler)[2021 Series Bingo: 0/9




(view spoiler)[Favorite author: A Master of Djinn
Debut author: Gideon the Ninth
Harrow the Ninth
New-to-me author: Jade War
Jade Legacy
✔Fantasy: When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain - 1/24
Sci-fi: Fugitive Telemetry
Genre-bender: The Rosewater Redemption
Trilogy: Stormsong
Soulstar
Quartet: Mother of Souls
Floodtide: A Novel of Alpennia
Longer: Earthsea (hide spoiler)]

2021 Bonus Challenges: 1/12
🐅
(view spoiler)[1) has a dragon (or the word dragon) on the cover: you get the dragon 🐉
2) has a weapon (or the name of a weapon) on the cover: you collect the knife 🔪
3) has a person on the cover: you collect the dancer 💃
4) has a landscape on the cover: you collect the flower 🌺
5) has stars or planets on the cover: you collect the star ✨
6) has an fantastical/not real creature or the name of one on the cover: you collect the unicorn 🦄
✔7) has a real animal/name of one on the cover: you collect that animal's emoji 🐰🐒🐅🦅🦚🐟 etc. (repeatable)

8) features a murder investigation: you collect the detective 🕵️‍♂️
9) features an alien/vampire/zombie/ghost: you collect the 👽or 🧛‍♂️ or 🧟‍♀️ or 👻 (repeatable)
10) features a love story/couple/some romantic elements: you collect the hearts 💕
11) features space travel: you collect the UFO 🛸
12) features a very cold, icy environment or a very hot one: you collect ice ❄ or fire 🔥 (repeatable) (hide spoiler)]

Short fiction challenge: Bashful
(view spoiler)[I am including novellas in my count of short fiction, not collections (but the individual stories in each collection are also listed in my count of short fiction).

Collections/Anthologies/Magazines: 2
(view spoiler)[Breathe FIYAH
Octavia E. Butler: Kindred, Fledgling, Collected Stories (hide spoiler)]

Short fiction: 13

✔Sleepy: Read 1 piece of short fiction
✔Bashful: Read 12 pieces of short fiction
Happy: Read 12 short fiction collections/anthologies
Sneezy: Read 52 pieces of short fiction (hide spoiler)]

Ursula Le Guin reading list: 31 (no additional ULG read this year) (hide spoiler)]

2022 SFFBC challenges:
Read All the Books: 6
(view spoiler)[No set goal for 2022. We'll see how it goes.

Total Group Books Read: 145

Group books read in 2022: 6
Nettle and Bone
Klara and the Sun
Sorrowland
Echo Wife
Quantum Magician
Midnight Riot

Group books re-read in 2022: 3
Spinning Silver
Ninefox Gambit
Wild Seed (hide spoiler)]

Alphabet Challenge:
Title: 20/26
Author: 21/26

2023 SFFBC challenges:
Very casual reading year - this thread was not updated

Know Thy Shelf
13/64 (20%) Latinx authors

Read All the Books: 10
(view spoiler)[Total Group Books Read: 163

Group books read in 2023: 10
Vita Nostra
Spear
The Marrow Thieves
The Space Between Worlds
The Spear Cuts Through Water
Neom
The House of the Spirits
Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries
Terra Nullius
Djinn City

Group books re-read in 2023: 1
Spirits Abroad (hide spoiler)]

Alphabet Challenge:
Title: 20/26
Author: 20/26

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