Never mind the virus here's the 2022 reading challenge thread

[BoatieBird]

1/52 - Sarah Waters - Fingersmith
2/52 - Claire Keegan - Small Things Like These
3/52 - Richard Osman - The Man Who Died Twice
4/52 - Truman Capote - Breakfast at Tiffany's
5/52 - Matt Haig - The Midnight Library
6/52 - Patricia Highsmith - A Dog's Ransom
7/52 - Claire Douglas - The Couple at No. 9
8/52 - Daniel Mason - The Piano Tuner
9/52 - Zadie Smith - On Beauty
10/52 - Stephen King & Richard Chizmar - Gwendy's Button Box (reread)
11/52 - Minette Walters - The Cellar

12/52 - Barbara Vine - The Chimney Sweeper's Boy

 

[Smokeandsteam]

1/39 - Mark Andrews: Paint My Name in Black and Gold
2/39 - Allan Glenn: Stuart Adamson: Through a Big Country
3/39 - Len McCluskey: Why You Should be a Trade Unionist
4/39 - Dick Hebidge: Subculture: The meaning of style
5/39 - Walter Benjamin: Illuminations
6/36 - Jeremy Seabrook: What Went Wrong
7/36 - Raymond Williams: People of the Black Mountains

Immersive history/fiction about the lived experience of working class communities - through time - in the Welsh borders. Brilliantly written as always with Williams.

 

[PursuedByBears]

1/45 David Katz - People Funny Boy: the genius of Lee Scratch Perry
2/45 Onjali Q Rauf - The Star Outside My Window
3/45 Joe Abercrombie - The Trouble with Peace
4/45 P G Wodehouse - Something New
5/45 Thomas Harding - White Debt: the Demerara Uprising and Britain's legacy of slavery
6/45 Terry Pratchett - Men At Arms
7/45 Art Spiegelman - Maus
8/45 Andrea Levy - Small Island
9/45 Bex Hogan - Viper

10/45 Robert Jordan - Crossroads of Twilight

The absolute nadir of the Wheel of Time series. Nothing happens. At all. For almost 800 pages. If the Amazon Prime series makes it this far they can save some time and money by adapting this book in two or three scenes. At least there's only one book to come in my punishment reread that Robert Jordan wrote himself, which I seem to remember is better than this one, and then the three written by Brandon Sanderson after Jordan's death which aren't brilliant but are markedly better than this.

 

[colbhoy]

1/9 - Phantom by Jo Nesbo

 

[nogojones]

1/45 Maya Angelou - Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas
2/45 Donna Tartt - The Goldfinch
3/45 Julia Buxton - The Political Economy of Narcotics
4/45 Sally Rooney - Beautiful World, Where Are You
5/45 Becky Chambers - Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
6/45 Cindy Milstein - Taking Sides
7/45 Phillip K. Dick - The Transmigration of Timothy Archer

8/45 Jim Thompson - Recoil - Not one of his best
9/45 Joseph Conrad - The Secret Agent - OK, but got a bit bored half way through.

 

[PursuedByBears]

1/45 David Katz - People Funny Boy: the genius of Lee Scratch Perry
2/45 Onjali Q Rauf - The Star Outside My Window
3/45 Joe Abercrombie - The Trouble with Peace
4/45 P G Wodehouse - Something New
5/45 Thomas Harding - White Debt: the Demerara Uprising and Britain's legacy of slavery
6/45 Terry Pratchett - Men At Arms
7/45 Art Spiegelman - Maus
8/45 Andrea Levy - Small Island
9/45 Bex Hogan - Viper
10/45 Robert Jordan - Crossroads of Twilight

11/45 Katherine Applegate -The One and Only Ivan

 

[petee]

1/9 Draper, Roots of American Communism. 500+ pages, the level of detail is stunning, I don't know how much of it I'm going to retain and it's not like the prose alone is making it worthwhile. But it seems still to be the basic (though not only) text on that era.

 

[Me76]

1/40 Just Like You, Nick Hornby - dl
2/40 A Place Called Winter, Patrick Gale
3/40 Blood Men, Paul Cleave,
4/40 The Middlesteins, Jami Attenberg- dl
5/40 the Midnight Library, Matt Haig
6/40 Born Lippy, Jo Brand
7/40 All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr- dl
8/40 The Secretary, Zoe Lea
9/40 The Flatshare, Beth O'Leary
10/40 Americanah, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
11/40 Gwendy's Button Box, Stephen King and Richard Chizmar
12/40 Gwendy's Magic Feather, Richard Chizmar
13/40 Gwendy's Final Task, Stephen King and Richard Chizmar
14/40, Find the Girl, Nic Roberts
15/40, Queenie, Candice Carty Williams

16/40 The Madness of Grief, Panayotis Cacoyannis
Loved this, even if I did find it a little bit confusing at times. But beautiful.

 

[Sue]

1/29 Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart.
2/29 The Sunlight Pilgrims by Jenni Fagan
3/29 Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
4/29 Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel
5/29 The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel

6/29 The Passenger by Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz.

In 1938 Berlin, a prosperous Jewish businessman narrowly escapes arrest and travels around Germany as he tries to work out what to do next.

The author managed to leave Germany and was killed in 1942 at 27 when his boat was torpedoed as he was returning to the UK from Australia where he'd been sent as an internee. Interesting to read a contemporary take on the fear and everyday hatred experienced by Jewish people at that point. (It's a novel but presumably informed by his own experience.)

 

[braindancer]

1/20 - Leviathan Wakes - James S.A. Corey
2/20 - Caliban's War - James S.A. Corey
3/20 - Abbadon's Gate - James S.A. Corey
4/20 - The Promise - Damon Galgut

 

[pseudonarcissus]

9/12 The Sea, The Sea – Iris Murdoch


8/12 Harsh Times - Mario Vargas Llosa
7/12 Talking at the Gates, a Life of James Baldwin - James Campbell
6/12 Slouching Towards Bethlehem - Joan Didion
5/12 A Dutiful Boy: A memoir of secrets, lies and family love - Mohsin Zaidi
4/12 To the End of the World: Travels with Oscar Wilde - Rupert Everett
3/12 White on Black on White - Coleman Dowell
2/12 The Charterhouse of Parma - Stendhal
1/12 The Shortest History of Germany - James Hawes

 

[hitmouse]

9/12 The Sea, The Sea – Iris Murdoch

What did you think of it?

1/30 Taylor Jenkins Reid - The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
2/30 Joan Didion - The White Album (re-read)
3/30 Saidiya Hartman - Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments
4/30 Joan Didion - After Henry (another re-read, first published in UK as Sentimental Journeys)
5/30 Flannery O'Connor - The Violent Bear It Away
6/30 Joan Didion - Play It As It Lays (re-read)
7/30 Iris Murdoch - Under the Net (re-read)
8/30 Joan Didion - South and West

9/30 Yaa Gyasi - Homegoing

Big, multi-generational novel set across several centuries in the Gold Coast/Ghana and the US.

10/30 Koshka Duff (ed) - Abolishing the Police

I appreciated them having a glossary, but then the glossary was just a webpage rather than in the book, which undermines it a bit. Despite being all by academics I found it all fairly accessible except for one particular chapter. The introduction by Duff and the chapter by Sarah Lamble were the stand-outs imo, and Duff's one was much improved by the presence of Sean Bonney, who's one of those writers I wish I'd appreciated more when he was alive. It's all online for free if anyone fancies reading it and can do that kind of reading online. A very nice-looking book as well, fwiw.
Starting Jane Holgate - Arise (a book about unions, not an Amebix biography in case anyone was hoping for that) next.

 

[imposs1904]

1/52 In and Out by Mat Coward
2/52 And Away . . . by Bob Mortimer

3/52 In the Thick of It: The Private Diaries of a Minister by Alan Duncan

No, I don't know why I read it either.

 

[BoatieBird]

1/52 - Sarah Waters - Fingersmith
2/52 - Claire Keegan - Small Things Like These
3/52 - Richard Osman - The Man Who Died Twice
4/52 - Truman Capote - Breakfast at Tiffany's
5/52 - Matt Haig - The Midnight Library
6/52 - Patricia Highsmith - A Dog's Ransom
7/52 - Claire Douglas - The Couple at No. 9
8/52 - Daniel Mason - The Piano Tuner
9/52 - Zadie Smith - On Beauty
10/52 - Stephen King & Richard Chizmar - Gwendy's Button Box (reread)
11/52 - Minette Walters - The Cellar
12/52 - Barbara Vine - The Chimney Sweeper's Boy (reread)

13/52 - Margaret Atwood - The Edible Woman

 

[Biddlybee]

1/24 - Hope Not Fear - Hassan Akkad
2/24 - Revenge - Yoko Ogawa
3/24 - Men Who Hate Women - Laura Bates

 

[shifting gears]

1/26 - Michael Moorcock - The Whispering Swarm
2/26 - Albert Camus - The Outsider
3/26 - Douglas Stuart - Shuggie Bain
4/26 - Edna O’Brien - Girl
5/26 - The Secret DJ - Book Two
6/26 - David Keenan - Xstabeth
7/26 - Wendy Erskine - Sweet Home
8/26 - Walter Greenwood - Love on the Dole

9/26 - Arthur C. Clarke - Rendezvous with Rama

This was an incredible read, set in the future with a team of astronauts exploring a mysterious huge alien spacecraft that does not conform to the laws of physics as we know them. Just reading the Wiki blurb on it after I finished it and it looks like a film is in development with Villeneuve at the helm which has got me quite excited!

 

[BoatieBird]

1/52 - Sarah Waters - Fingersmith
2/52 - Claire Keegan - Small Things Like These
3/52 - Richard Osman - The Man Who Died Twice
4/52 - Truman Capote - Breakfast at Tiffany's
5/52 - Matt Haig - The Midnight Library
6/52 - Patricia Highsmith - A Dog's Ransom
7/52 - Claire Douglas - The Couple at No. 9
8/52 - Daniel Mason - The Piano Tuner
9/52 - Zadie Smith - On Beauty
10/52 - Stephen King & Richard Chizmar - Gwendy's Button Box (reread)
11/52 - Minette Walters - The Cellar
12/52 - Barbara Vine - The Chimney Sweeper's Boy (reread)
13/52 - Margaret Atwood - The Edible Woman

14/52 - Peter Swanson - Rules for Perfect Murders

 

[yield]

1/10 The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss.

Should've ticked all of the boxes for me. High fantasy, interesting world building etc. But the constant change of perspective was grating and they could've done with a better editor. Too much of nothing happening.

 

[pseudonarcissus]

What did you think of it?

Loved it and exasperated with it in equal measure…how could she be so passive? (Could a male author get away with writing a character like Hartley?)
I then read the Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe. Another book about a narcissistic asshole madly in love..except young Werther topped him self in such a way as to inflict maximum pain on his beloved.

I’m done with romanticism

 

[pseudonarcissus]

10/12 The Sorrows of Young Werther - Goethe

9/12 The Sea, The Sea – Iris Murdoch
8/12 Harsh Times - Mario Vargas Llosa
7/12 Talking at the Gates, a Life of James Baldwin - James Campbell
6/12 Slouching Towards Bethlehem - Joan Didion
5/12 A Dutiful Boy: A memoir of secrets, lies and family love - Mohsin Zaidi
4/12 To the End of the World: Travels with Oscar Wilde - Rupert Everett
3/12 White on Black on White - Coleman Dowell
2/12 The Charterhouse of Parma - Stendhal
1/12 The Shortest History of Germany - James Hawes

 

[hitmouse]

Loved it and exasperated with it in equal measure…how could she be so passive? (Could a male author get away with writing a character like Hartley?)
I then read the Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe. Another book about a narcissistic asshole madly in love..except young Werther topped him self in such a way as to inflict maximum pain on his beloved.

I’m done with romanticism

Yeah, Murdoch and gender is an interesting question. Although obviously male authors can and do get away with writing crap female characters all the time, but I might well feel more ambivalent about enjoying her if she was male? Suppose there is also an argument to be made that we only see Hartley through the narrator's eyes, and he might well not be the most reliable?

 

[pseudonarcissus]

Yeah, Murdoch and gender is an interesting question. Although obviously male authors can and do get away with writing crap female characters all the time, but I might well feel more ambivalent about enjoying her if she was male? Suppose there is also an argument to be made that we only see Hartley through the narrator's eyes, and he might well not be the most reliable?

Murdoch? First instinct was the other one
I'm sure Hartley was very deliberately created and I'm not saying a crap character. I'm also allowing for the first person narrative...my instinct was that Charles was sinister because he seemed to be attracted to the passive, unassertive, option, when he appeared to have had relationships with strong characters...imagine being stalked by someone that sneaked into your house and smashed mirrors and vases..how cool is that?
The only deliberate things Hartley ever did appeared to be escaping from Charles...twice...yet somehow I didn't find her a sympathetic character...and maybe that's true of a lot of some "abused" women, they have been conditioned to be passive and submissive, which makes them less sympathetic and to attract victim blaming.
sorry, I've been working offshore and just got home, so it's the first glasses of wine for a few weeks.
It's a good book because it got me thinking, and us talking. What should be my next Iris Murdoch?

 

[hitmouse]

It's a good book because it got me thinking, and us talking. What should be my next Iris Murdoch?

Dunno, there's absolutely loads of them and I've liked everything I've read by her. Under the Net is one I've re-read recently and I think the only one of hers I've read twice, that's relatively short and a bit more of a yarn? Flight from the Enchanter, Fairly Honourable Defeat and Accidental Man are all ones I remember being very good as well.

 

[pseudonarcissus]

Dunno, there's absolutely loads of them and I've liked everything I've read by her. Under the Net is one I've re-read recently and I think the only one of hers I've read twice, that's relatively short and a bit more of a yarn? Flight from the Enchanter, Fairly Honourable Defeat and Accidental Man are all ones I remember being very good as well.

thanks, Under the Net is lined up on the Kindle

 

[QueenOfGoths]

1. "The Thursday Murder Club" - Richard Osman.
2. "The Woman in the Window" - A. J. Finn.
3. "Snow" by John Banville
4. "The Lies You Told" - Harriet Tyce
5. "A Gift for the Dying" - MJ Arlidge
6. "One by One" - Ruth Ware

7. "The Platform Edge: Uncanny Tales of the Railways" - a British Library publication edited by Mike Ashley. Really enjoyable selection of short, eerie stories based around railways

 

[Fozzie Bear]

6/29 Phil A Neel - Hinterland: America's New Landscape of Class and Conflict.

Bigged up by a few people on here including LynnDoyleCooper - this is very cool indeed. Part marxist analysis, part travelogue. The descriptions of decaying rural America (where the author grew up) and the people in it are really involving. There are some passing mentions of obscure theorists but it's very readable and well written I'd say. I really enjoyed it.

It's part of a series edited by Paul Mattick - I'd be interested if any of the rest of them are as good...

 

[LDC]

6/29 Phil A Neel - Hinterland: America's New Landscape of Class and Conflict.

Bigged up by a few people on here including LynnDoyleCooper - this is very cool indeed. Part marxist analysis, part travelogue. The descriptions of decaying rural America (where the author grew up) and the people in it are really involving. There are some passing mentions of obscure theorists but it's very readable and well written I'd say. I really enjoyed it.

It's part of a series edited by Paul Mattick - I'd be interested if any of the rest of them are as good...

Paul Mattick is editor of the 'Field Notes' section in the Brooklyn Rail that's often very good in case people don't know. Neel's written some stuff in there as well.

Field Notes - MARCH 2022

The Brooklyn Rail is a journal committed to providing an independent forum for visual arts, culture, and politics throughout New York City and beyond.

brooklynrail.org

 

[hitmouse]

6/29 Phil A Neel - Hinterland: America's New Landscape of Class and Conflict.

Bigged up by a few people on here including LynnDoyleCooper - this is very cool indeed. Part marxist analysis, part travelogue. The descriptions of decaying rural America (where the author grew up) and the people in it are really involving. There are some passing mentions of obscure theorists but it's very readable and well written I'd say. I really enjoyed it.

It's part of a series edited by Paul Mattick - I'd be interested if any of the rest of them are as good...

Great book. "Intensely readable books by people who really like Bordiga" is a very niche category, and yet somehow he manages it.

 

[BoatieBird]

1/52 - Sarah Waters - Fingersmith
2/52 - Claire Keegan - Small Things Like These
3/52 - Richard Osman - The Man Who Died Twice
4/52 - Truman Capote - Breakfast at Tiffany's
5/52 - Matt Haig - The Midnight Library
6/52 - Patricia Highsmith - A Dog's Ransom
7/52 - Claire Douglas - The Couple at No. 9
8/52 - Daniel Mason - The Piano Tuner
9/52 - Zadie Smith - On Beauty
10/52 - Stephen King & Richard Chizmar - Gwendy's Button Box (reread)
11/52 - Minette Walters - The Cellar
12/52 - Barbara Vine - The Chimney Sweeper's Boy (reread)
13/52 - Margaret Atwood - The Edible Woman
14/52 - Peter Swanson - Rules for Perfect Murders

15/52 - Patricia Lockwood - No One is Talking About This

Read following a recommendation by hitmouse (I think?).
Not what I was expecting at all. The first part reads like an argument for getting rid of the internet, but the second half is something else.
Haunting, beautiful, sad. A book that will stay with me for a long time.

 

[marty21]

1. The Story of England - Michael Wood .
2. Broken Rails : How Privitisation Wrecked Britain's Railways - Christian Wolmar .
3. Black and British : A Forgotten History - David Olusoga.
4. Shackleton: A Biography - Ranulph Fiennes
5. The Secret Barrister: Stories of the law and how its broken - The Secret Barrister
6. The Nanny State Made Me : The Story of Britain & How to Save it. - Stuart Maconie
7. Conquistadors - Michael Wood.
8/75 Shadows Reel - CJ Box

9/75 Hope & Glory - Stuart Maconie