it's the all-singing all-dancing 2018 reading challenge thread

[kropotkin]

1. The Book of Lost Things - John Connolly
2. The Fifth Season - N. K. Jemisin
3. The Brothers Ashkenazi - I. J. Singer
4. Chronicle of a Death Foretold- Gabriel Garcia Marquez
5. The Origin of Capitalism: A Longer View- Ellen Meiksins Wood
6. ‎ Burial Rights- Hannah Kent
7. ‎ Strike! - Jeremy Brecher
8. ‎ With the End in Mind- Dying, Death and Wisdom in an Age of Denial - Kathryn Mannix
9. ‎Hillbilly Eligy - J. D. Vance
10. ‎ The Golden Age- John C. Wright
11. ‎ American Pastoral- Philip Roth
12. ‎ Why We Sleep: the New Science of Sleep and Dreams - Matthew Walker
13. ‎The Invincible - Stanislaw Lem
14. The Phoenix Exultant - John C. Wright


Reading a bit slower this mobth, but in my defence I had a major job interview to prepare fo, and then celebrations to recover from since!

 

[May Kasahara]

I was also bemused by After Me Comes the Flood May Kasahara, especially after reading The Essex Serpent, which I loved.
Teenage is a good way to describe it.

Good to know that the Essex Serpent might still be worth a go - that was the one I was more interested in.

 

[BoatieBird]

1/65 - Chinua Achebe - Things Fall Apart
2/65 - Emily Bronte - Wuthering Heights
3/65 - Ruth Rendell - An Unkindness of Ravens
4/65 - Stephen King - Firestarter (1/10)
5/65 - Ruth Rendell - The Veiled One
6/65 - Joanna Cannon - The Trouble With Goats and Sheep
7/65 - Jerome K. Jerome - Three Men in a Boat
8/65 - Ruth Rendell - Kissing the Gunner's Daughter
9/65 - Donna Tartt - The Secret History (2/10)
10/65 - Jon McGregor - Reservoir 13
11/65 - Ruth Rendell - Simisola
12/65 - Jonathan Franzen - Purity (3/10)
13/65 - Judy Blume - Forever
14/65 - Ruth Rendell - Road Rage
15/65 - William Boyd - Armadillo

16/65 - Stephen King and Richard Chizmar - Gwendy's Button Box

 

[Fozzie Bear]

1/30 Fyodor Dostoyevsky - The Idiot
2/30 Cyrus Bozorgmehr - Once Upon a Time in Shaolin: The Untold Story of Wu-Tang Clan's Million Dollar Secret Album, the Devaluation of Music, and America's New Public Enemy No. 1
3/30 Gary Budden - Hollow Shores
4/30 Chris Kraus - After Kathy Acker: A Biography
5/30 Victor Pelevin - Omon Ra
6/30 Stefan Szczelkun - Improvisation Rites: From John Cage's Songbooks to The Scratch Orchestra's Nature Study Notes - collective practises 2011-2017
7/30 Sol Yurick - Metatron
8/30 p.m. - bolo'bolo

9/30 Elizabeth Carola - Hot and other stories

OK-ish short stories set in noughties Hackney with inevitable activists, finance workers and people living on canal boats.

10/30 Jean Richards - I Haven't Had So Much Fun Since My Leg Fell Off: The North London Civil Servants Strike 1987/88

 

[Beats & Pieces]

44. Two Treatises Of Government - John Locke
45. Oedipus Rex - Sophocles (Re-read)

 

[BoatieBird]

1/65 - Chinua Achebe - Things Fall Apart
2/65 - Emily Bronte - Wuthering Heights
3/65 - Ruth Rendell - An Unkindness of Ravens
4/65 - Stephen King - Firestarter (1/10)
5/65 - Ruth Rendell - The Veiled One
6/65 - Joanna Cannon - The Trouble With Goats and Sheep
7/65 - Jerome K. Jerome - Three Men in a Boat
8/65 - Ruth Rendell - Kissing the Gunner's Daughter
9/65 - Donna Tartt - The Secret History (2/10)
10/65 - Jon McGregor - Reservoir 13
11/65 - Ruth Rendell - Simisola
12/65 - Jonathan Franzen - Purity (3/10)
13/65 - Judy Blume - Forever
14/65 - Ruth Rendell - Road Rage
15/65 - William Boyd - Armadillo
16/65 - Stephen King and Richard Chizmar - Gwendy's Button Box

17/65 - Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Of Love and Other Demons

 

[Voley]

That book about swearing's fucking great billy_bob, ta for that.

 

[Nanker Phelge]

1/19 - Mark Kermode - The Good, The Bad and the Multiplex
2/19 - Mark Kermode - It's Only a Movie
3/19 - Mark Kermode - Hatchet Job
4/19 - William Goldman - The Big Picture: Who Killed Hollywood and Other Essays
5/19 - Jah Wobble - Memoirs of a Geezer
6/19 - Carrie Fisher - Wishing Drinking

 

[billy_bob]

That book about swearing's fucking great billy_bob, ta for that.

Isn't it? Best book I' ve read in a good while, and all the better because I had few expectations about it - just picked it up using an online discount I get because of my line of work.

10/50 Colson Whitehead - The Underground Railroad
11/50 Henry Marsh - Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery

(Also both very good - I'm having a good run at the moment)

 

[butchersapron]

17 - Perry Anderson: The Merciless Laboratory of History - Gregory Elliott
18 - Hobsbawm: Histories and Politics - Gregory Elliott
19 - Out of Apathy: Voices of the New Left Thirty Years on - Seth Moglen and Adam Steinhouse

 

[Beats & Pieces]

46. Oedipus At Colonus - Sophocles (Re-read)
47. The 18th Brumaire Of Louis Bonaparte - Marx (Re-read)

 

[Nanker Phelge]

1/19 - Mark Kermode - The Good, The Bad and the Multiplex
2/19 - Mark Kermode - It's Only a Movie
3/19 - Mark Kermode - Hatchet Job
4/19 - William Goldman - The Big Picture: Who Killed Hollywood and Other Essays
5/19 - Jah Wobble - Memoirs of a Geezer
6/19 - Carrie Fisher - Wishing Drinking
7/19 - Alan Bennett - The Lady in the Van

 

[May Kasahara]

1. Tim Ecott - Neutral Buoyancy
2. Susan Cooper - The Dark Is Rising
3. Naoki Higashida - The Reason I Jump
4. Jon Ronson - The Men Who Stare At Goats
5. Sarah Perry - After Me Comes The Flood

6. Joss Whedon and lots of others - Buffy the Vampire Slayer S8 omnibus vol.1. Absolutely wonderful to be back with the gang <happy sigh>

 

[BoatieBird]

1/65 - Chinua Achebe - Things Fall Apart
2/65 - Emily Bronte - Wuthering Heights
3/65 - Ruth Rendell - An Unkindness of Ravens
4/65 - Stephen King - Firestarter (1/10)
5/65 - Ruth Rendell - The Veiled One
6/65 - Joanna Cannon - The Trouble With Goats and Sheep
7/65 - Jerome K. Jerome - Three Men in a Boat
8/65 - Ruth Rendell - Kissing the Gunner's Daughter
9/65 - Donna Tartt - The Secret History (2/10)
10/65 - Jon McGregor - Reservoir 13
11/65 - Ruth Rendell - Simisola
12/65 - Jonathan Franzen - Purity (3/10)
13/65 - Judy Blume - Forever
14/65 - Ruth Rendell - Road Rage
15/65 - William Boyd - Armadillo
16/65 - Stephen King and Richard Chizmar - Gwendy's Button Box
17/65 - Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Of Love and Other Demons

18/65 - Patricia Highsmith - This Sweet Sickness

 

[Beats & Pieces]

48. Common Sense - Thomas Paine

 

[marty21]

1/76 The Thirst - Jo Nesbo
2/76 Alt-America : The Rise of the Radical Right in the Age of Trump. David Neiwert
3/76 Pursuit of Honour - Vince Flynn
4/76 American Assassin - Vince Flynn
5/76 Ardennes 1944 - Anthony Beevor
6/76 The Last Nazi - Andrew Turpin
7/76 The Old Bridge - Andrew Turpin
8/76 Surviving the Evacuation : Book 12 Britain's End . - Frank Tayell.
9/76 The Late Show - Michael Connelly
10/76 Kill Shot- Vince Flynn
11/76 The Last Man - Vince Flynn

********
12/76 Order to Kill - Vince Flynn & Kyle Mills

 

[Lorca]

I just bought David Keenan's 'England's Hidden Reverse - A Secret History of the Esoteric Underground' for a fiver off ebay (it's usually quite expensive)! It's broadly about the history of the bands Coil, Current 93 and Nurse With Wound. I'm looking forward immensely to reading it, though it's a hefty tome, flicking through it already looks fascinating.

 

[marty21]

1/76 The Thirst - Jo Nesbo
2/76 Alt-America : The Rise of the Radical Right in the Age of Trump. David Neiwert
3/76 Pursuit of Honour - Vince Flynn
4/76 American Assassin - Vince Flynn
5/76 Ardennes 1944 - Anthony Beevor
6/76 The Last Nazi - Andrew Turpin
7/76 The Old Bridge - Andrew Turpin
8/76 Surviving the Evacuation : Book 12 Britain's End . - Frank Tayell.
9/76 The Late Show - Michael Connelly
10/76 Kill Shot- Vince Flynn
11/76 The Last Man - Vince Flynn
12/76 Order to Kill - Vince Flynn & Kyle Mills

*********
13/76 Nucleus - Rory Clements

 

[Me76]

1/50 Naturally Gifted, Lisa M Hawkins
2/50 Cold Lake, Jeff Carson
3/50 Twilight, Stephenie Meyer
4/50 Someone to Save You, Paul Pilkington
5/50 Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, Gail Honeyman
6/50 The Godfather, Mario Puzo


7/50 Freedom, Jonathan Franzen - enjoyed and hated this in equal measure. All the characters are total dicks, but you want to know what happens to them. Crap ending though.

 

[Smokeandsteam]

1/39 High/Perchard (Eds) - The Deindustrialized World;
2/39 Jameson, Fredric - Postmodernism, or, the cultural logic of late capitalism;
3/39 Gest, Justin - The new minority: White working class poliics in an age of immigration and inequality;
4/39 Hall, David - Working Lives: the forgotten voices of Britain's post war working class;
5/39 Katznelson, Ira - City Trenches: Urban politics and the patterning of class in the US;
6/39 Goodhart, David - The Road to Somewhere: the New Tribes Shaping British Politics;
7/39 Dudley, Kathryn - The End of the Line: Lost Jobs, New Lives in Postindustrial America;
8/39 Spencer, K (& others) - Crisis in the Industrial Heartland: A Study of the West Midlands
9/39 Hall, S - Cultural Representations and Signifying Practises (Culture, Media and Identity)

 

[Smokeandsteam]

19 - Out of Apathy: Voices of the New Left Thirty Years on - Seth Moglen and Adam Steinhouse

This worth a read? It's on special offer at the Verso website but does it add to our understanding of the new left?

 

[ringo]

1/40 Days Without End - Sebastian Barry
2/40 The High Window - Raymond Chandler
3/40 An Artist Of The Floating World - Kazuo Ishiguro
4/40 The Steel Remains - Richard K Morgan
5/40 Simulacrum - Ken Liu
6/40 Here Comes The Sun - Nicole Dennis-Benn
7/40 Train Dreams - Denis Johnson
8/40 Voyage In The Dark - Jean Rhys
9/40 The Vesuvius Club - Mark Gatiss

 

[BoatieBird]

1/65 - Chinua Achebe - Things Fall Apart
2/65 - Emily Bronte - Wuthering Heights
3/65 - Ruth Rendell - An Unkindness of Ravens
4/65 - Stephen King - Firestarter (1/10)
5/65 - Ruth Rendell - The Veiled One
6/65 - Joanna Cannon - The Trouble With Goats and Sheep
7/65 - Jerome K. Jerome - Three Men in a Boat
8/65 - Ruth Rendell - Kissing the Gunner's Daughter
9/65 - Donna Tartt - The Secret History (2/10)
10/65 - Jon McGregor - Reservoir 13
11/65 - Ruth Rendell - Simisola
12/65 - Jonathan Franzen - Purity (3/10)
13/65 - Judy Blume - Forever
14/65 - Ruth Rendell - Road Rage
15/65 - William Boyd - Armadillo
16/65 - Stephen King and Richard Chizmar - Gwendy's Button Box
17/65 - Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Of Love and Other Demons
18/65 - Patricia Highsmith - This Sweet Sickness

19/65 - Ruth Rendell - Harm Done

 

[iona]

1/25 A Clash of Kings - George R. R. Martin
2/25 A Life for the Stars - James Blish
3/25 The Triumph of Time - James Blish
4/25 A Storm of Swords: Steel and Snow - George R. R. Martin
5/25 A Storm of Swords: Blood and Gold - George R. R. Martin
6/25 A Feast for Crows - George R. R. Martin
7/25 The Crossing Places - Elly Griffiths
8/25 The Janus Stone - Elly Griffiths
9/25 The House at Sea's End - Elly Griffiths
10/25 King Rat - China Miéville
11/25 A Dance with Dragons: Dreams and Dust - George R. R. Martin
12/25 A Dance with Dragons: After the Feast - George R. R. Martin
13/25 Darkness at Noon - Arthur Koestler
14/25 Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood
15/25 MaddAddam - Margaret Atwood
16/25 The Woman in Blue - Elly Griffiths
17/25 The Chalk Pit - Elly Griffiths

 

[PursuedByBears]

1/30 Stieg Larsson - The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
2/30 China Miéville - October: The Story of the Russian Revolution
3/30 Michael Wolff - Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House
4/30 Philip Reeve - Mortal Engines
5/30 David Peace - Red Riding 1974
6/30 William Wordsworth - Selected Poems (ed. Stephen Logan)
7/30 Brandon Sanderson - Oathbringer

8/30 Frances Hardinge - The Lie Tree

 

[marty21]

1/76 The Thirst - Jo Nesbo
2/76 Alt-America : The Rise of the Radical Right in the Age of Trump. David Neiwert
3/76 Pursuit of Honour - Vince Flynn
4/76 American Assassin - Vince Flynn
5/76 Ardennes 1944 - Anthony Beevor
6/76 The Last Nazi - Andrew Turpin
7/76 The Old Bridge - Andrew Turpin
8/76 Surviving the Evacuation : Book 12 Britain's End . - Frank Tayell.
9/76 The Late Show - Michael Connelly
10/76 Kill Shot- Vince Flynn
11/76 The Last Man - Vince Flynn
12/76 Order to Kill - Vince Flynn with Kyle Mills
13/76 Nucleus - Rory Clements

******
14/76 The Survivor - Vince Flynn with Kyle Mills

 

[DotCommunist]

1/25 The Nightmare Stacks by Charles Stross
2/25 The Falls: A Luna Story by Ian McDonald
3/25 The Delirium Brief by Charles Stross
4/25 The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O by Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland

5/25 Ghosts of My Life by Mark Fisher
6/25 The Depature (owner series 1) by Neal Asher

 

[D'wards]

1/26 - Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction by Sue Townsend (reread)
2/26 - The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (reread)
3/26 - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
4/26 - 11.22.63 by Stephen King
5/26 - The Kenneth Williams Diaries edited by Russell Davies

 

[kropotkin]

1. The Book of Lost Things - John Connolly
2. The Fifth Season - N. K. Jemisin
3. The Brothers Ashkenazi - I. J. Singer
4. Chronicle of a Death Foretold- Gabriel Garcia Marquez
5. The Origin of Capitalism: A Longer View- Ellen Meiksins Wood
6. ‎ Burial Rights- Hannah Kent
7. ‎ Strike! - Jeremy Brecher
8. ‎ With the End in Mind- Dying, Death and Wisdom in an Age of Denial - Kathryn Mannix
9. ‎Hillbilly Eligy - J. D. Vance
10. ‎ The Golden Age- John C. Wright
11. ‎ American Pastoral- Philip Roth
12. ‎ Why We Sleep: the New Science of Sleep and Dreams - Matthew Walker
13. ‎The Invincible - Stanislaw Lem
14. The Phoenix Exultant - John C. Wright
15. ‎We - Yevgeni Zamyatin

 

[Dragnet]

1/25 - Lanark - Alasdair Gray

2/25 - Anarchism: Arguments For and Against - Albert Meltzer
3/25 - Ghosts Of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures - Mark Fisher
4/25 - The Power of Women and the Subversion of the Community - Mariarosa Dalla Costa & Selma James
5/25 - Racecraft: The Soul of Inequality in American Life - Karen E. Fields & Barbara J. Fields