the grand 2015 reading challenge thread

[imposs1904]

1/52 The In Between Time by Alexander Baron
2/52 King Mob : A Critical Hidden History by David Wise with Stuart Wise & Nick Brandt

3/52 Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathanael West

 

[Patteran]

1) Language in the News, Discourse & Ideology in the Press - Roger Fowler.
2) Hold Everything Dear, Despatches on Survival & Resistance - John Berger.
3) The Continuum Concept - Jean Liedloff

 

[treefrog]

Aiming for 25 this year, currently on my 4th:
A Wife on Gorge River by Catherine Stewart
Expecting Better by Emily Oster
In the shadow of the banyan by Vaddy Radner

Currently halfway through The Man in the High Castle by Philip K Dick. Going to try and get a good spread of authors too, and cut down on rereads.

 

[rich!]

11. The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All, Laird Barron
12. GRR Martin & Gardner Dozois eds, Dangerous Women, Part 2.
13. City of Bones, Cassandra Clare
14. Midnight at the Well of Souls, Jack Chalker
15. Exiles at the Well of Souls, Jack Chalker
16. Never Alone, Never Again, Bored Beyond Belief (f/f)
17. Quest for the Well of Souls, Jack Chalker.

18. Sigrid Ellis & Michael Damien Thomas eds, Queers Dig Time Lords
19. Andrew Roberts ed, Great Commanders of the Medieval World

 

[billy_bob]

6/20: Grace McCleen - The Offering

Skillfully written novel about mental illness, religion and emotional domination. McCleen has an interesting back story herself which presumably partly informs the book: http://www.gracemccleen.com/index.html

 

[rich!]

11. The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All, Laird Barron
12. GRR Martin & Gardner Dozois eds, Dangerous Women, Part 2.
13. City of Bones, Cassandra Clare
14. Midnight at the Well of Souls, Jack Chalker
15. Exiles at the Well of Souls, Jack Chalker
16. Never Alone, Never Again, Bored Beyond Belief (f/f)
17. Quest for the Well of Souls, Jack Chalker.
18. Sigrid Ellis & Michael Damien Thomas eds, Queers Dig Time Lords
19. Andrew Roberts ed, Great Commanders of the Medieval World

20. Nathan Ballingrud, North American Lake Monsters.
Which was another set of really creepy and disturbing short stories.

(This thread is doing wonders for getting me to finish things )

 

[marty21]

1/60 - 'Til Death - Ed McBain
2/60 - How to Connect with Nature - Tristan Gooley
3/60 - The Dead Women of Juarez - Sam Hawken

4/60 - Jericho: Season 3 Civil War - Dan Shotz,Robert Levine,Jason Burns

not sure if we have had this discussion, it's a graphic novel - read it because I watched the tv series which was cancelled after a season and a bit and then revived as a graphic novel. Never read a graphic novel before, sort of works as I was familiar with the characters from the TV series

 

[tufty79]

1. The Girl With All The Gifts - M. R. Carey
2. Mark Z. Danielewski's House Of Leaves
3. The Millionaire's Death Club - Mike Hockney
4. The Child Thief - Dan Smith

5. Midwinter Sacrifice - Mons Kallentoft
6.Lean On Pete - Willy Vlautin

 

[toggle]

1. Mike Cronin - The failure of British fascism
2. Raymond E Feist - Rides a Dread legion
3. Robin Hobb - Dragon keeper
4. Terry Pratchet - Unseen Academicals
5. Campagna and Campiglio - What are we fighting for?
6. Dunleavy et al. - Voices of the people
7. Conan Doyle - A study in Scarlet
8. Stuart Bell - The conservative party and british politics
9. Robin Hobb - Dragon haven
10. William Morris - News from Nowehere
11. Philippa Gregory - The white Queen
12. Raymond E Feist - Exile's return
13. Catherine Hall - White, male and middle class
14. D. H. lawrence - lady Chatterley's lover
15. Raymond E Feist - Flight of the nighthawks
16. jack London - call of the wild
17. jack london - white fang
18. H Rider haggard - King Solomon's mines

19. Neil gaimin - American gods
20. Rodney Bolt - the impossible life of Mary Benson
21. Gorden marsden - Victorian values
22. Phillipa Gregory - The other Boleyn girl
23. mark Guy pearse - the pretty ways o providence

 

[rich!]

21. Inside the House of Money, Steven Drobny.

 

[MrSki]

21. Inside the House of Money, Steven Drobny.

Are you aiming for 365?

 

[imposs1904]

1/52 The In Between Time by Alexander Baron
2/52 King Mob : A Critical Hidden History by David Wise with Stuart Wise & Nick Brandt
3/52 Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathanael West

4/52 The Beiderbecke Affair by Alan Plater (Reread)

 

[seventh bullet]

1. Soviet Cinema: Politics and Persuasion under Stalin - Jamie Miller

2. Stalin's Industrial Revolution: Politics and Workers, 1928-1932 - Hiroaki Kuromiya

3. Moscow, the Fourth Rome: Stalinism, Cosmopolitanism and the Evolution of Soviet Culture, 1931-1941 - Katerina Clark

 

[rich!]

Are you aiming for 365?

I'll probably slow down in the next couple of weeks. Just started a book that's over 400 pages and not read it since this morning

 

[rich!]

I'll probably slow down in the next couple of weeks. Just started a book that's over 400 pages and not read it since this morning

Worse - just started a readthrough/edit of a 35k word grant proposal. That really puts a crimp in the reading

 

[tufty79]

1. The Girl With All The Gifts - M. R. Carey
2. Mark Z. Danielewski's House Of Leaves
3. The Millionaire's Death Club - Mike Hockney
4. The Child Thief - Dan Smith
5. Midwinter Sacrifice - Mons Kallentoft
6. Lean On Pete - Willy Vlautin

7. Nemesis - Jo Nesbo

 

[BoatieBird]

1/60 - JM Barrie - Peter Pan*
2/60 - Joe Hill - NOS4R2
3/60 - Arthur Ransome - Swallows and Amazons*
4/60 - Belinda Bauer - Rubbernecker

5/60 - Roddy Doyle - The Guts

 

[el-ahrairah]

1. Kyme & Priestley, ed. - Tales Of Heresy
2. Steve Jackson & Ian Livingstone - Out Of The Pit
3. Mike Lee - Fallen Angels
4. Steve Jackson & Ian Livingstone - The Warlock Of Firetop Mountain
5. Stella Gibbons - Christmas At Cold Comfort Farm
6. Anne Lecki - Ancillary Justice
7. Rick Pristley - Slaves To Darkness
8. Shane McCarthy - All Hail Megatron
9. Luke Haines - Bad Vibes: Britpop And My Part In its Downfall
10. Shane McCarthy - All Hail Megatron V.2
11. Marc Gascoigne - The Trolltooth Wars

 

[inva]

1/51 - The Flemish House by Georges Simenon

 

[Me76]

1/50 Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk
2/50 The Child Thief, Dan Smith
3/50 Wanted, Nick Stephenson
4/50 The Graft, Martina Cole
5/50 Stardust, Neil Gaiman

6/50 Alys, Always, Harriet Lane - I think I may have missed something because I was reading this in small bursts as the main character suddenly got a bit dark without me noticing the transition point. It spoilt it for me a bit. Good otherwise.

 

[el-ahrairah]

1. Kyme & Priestley, ed. - Tales Of Heresy
2. Steve Jackson & Ian Livingstone - Out Of The Pit
3. Mike Lee - Fallen Angels
4. Steve Jackson & Ian Livingstone - The Warlock Of Firetop Mountain
5. Stella Gibbons - Christmas At Cold Comfort Farm
6. Anne Lecki - Ancillary Justice
7. Rick Pristley - Slaves To Darkness
8. Shane McCarthy - All Hail Megatron
9. Luke Haines - Bad Vibes: Britpop And My Part In its Downfall
10. Shane McCarthy - All Hail Megatron V.2
11. Marc Gascoigne - The Trolltooth Wars
12. Ian Watson - Chaos Child

 

[Kidda]

1/30 Inferno by Dan Brown
2/30 Saga by Brian Vaughan and Fiona Staples
3/30 Tales of the city by Armistead Maupin
4/30 Rapture by Jd Robb

 

[marty21]

1/60 - 'Til Death - Ed McBain
2/60 - How to Connect with Nature - Tristan Gooley
3/60 - The Dead Women of Juarez - Sam Hawken
4/60 - Jericho: Season 3 Civil War - Dan Shotz,Robert Levine,Jason Burns (Graphic Novel)
5/60 - jericho: Season 4 - Kalinda Vazquez (Graphic Novel)

 

[billy_bob]

7/20: Joe Sacco - Bumf

I'm not sure where we stand on graphic novels here? But I reckon it counts.

Not sure what I think of it though. Some vicious and well-aimed satire (Obama, looking oddly exactly like Nixon, turning up with a lone guard to a podium next to a huge crater in an otherwise deserted generic South-East Asian landscape, to mutter 'Our hearts go out to the families' to the wasteland before fucking off in a military helicopter) but too often a bit overboard on the deliberate excess of violence and naked fat people in hoods and masks. Not that I'm shocked or offended or anything, just find it blunts some of the attacks when it's so overdone.

 

[Callie]

1/12: John Steinbeck - The Grapes of Wrath

Second Steinbeck that I have read and enjoyed it and his style of writing. I'm not very good at critically assessing stuff but I'll stick it in the 'would read again/recommend' pile.

 

[8115]

Worse - just started a readthrough/edit of a 35k word grant proposal. That really puts a crimp in the reading

35k? Isn't that longer than a phD? Can't you just return it marked, tl;dr?

 

[QueenOfGoths]

1. "A Colder War" - Charles Cumming
2. "Sleepyhead" - Mark Billingham
3 "Lamentation" - CJ Sansom. I really, really like the Shardlake series of books and though this was a good addition I did think that at over 600 pages it was a little long.

 

[rich!]

21. Inside the House of Money, Steven Drobny.

22. Sea of Ghosts, Alan Campbell.

 

[rich!]

35k? Isn't that longer than a phD? Can't you just return it marked, tl;dr?

European collaborative research. I did 20 pages (30%) with comments and annotation, then went to sleep.

 

[billy_bob]

1/12: John Steinbeck - The Grapes of Wrath

Second Steinbeck that I have read and enjoyed it and his style of writing. I'm not very good at critically assessing stuff but I'll stick it in the 'would read again/recommend' pile.

What was the other one? I'd always liked the few Steinbecks I'd read, including Grapes of Wrath, but I've become evangelical about East of Eden since I finally got round to it last year. You should make it your 2/12