BOOKS read, Jul-Dec

[bironic]

Continued from here.

I've got an unfinished set of book and movie reviews titled "Lightning Round" because it was going to be super quick. It's dated September 23. Ha ha ha. Here is the list anyway. If and when I finish that post, I'll add the links here. ETA: Link added!

24 novels incl. 4 kids’ books, 3 novellas + 1 partial, 7 graphic novel volumes, 4 short story collections + 1 partial, 3 nonfictions, 3 poetry collections, 1 play:

31. An Unkindness of Ghosts - Rivers Solomon
32. Trail of Lightning - Rebecca Roanhorse
33. Guardian angels & other monsters - Daniel H. Wilson
34. Jonny Appleseed - Joshua Whitehead
35. New Poets of Native Nations - ed. Heid Erdrich
36. *Art and Fear - David Bayles & Ted Orland
37. A Closed and Common Orbit - Becky Chambers ♥
    
    ** START OF AUTUMN READING CHALLENGE** -- mini-reviews of the below books here
     
38. Spinning Silver - Naomi Novik ♥
39. *Whereas - Layli Long Soldier
40. Strange Practice: A Dr. Greta Helsing novel - Vivian Shaw ♥
41. Rogue Protocol - Martha Wells
42. Forget the Sleepless Shores - Sonya Taaffe (acquaintance) -- incomplete
43. Monstress vols. 1 & 2 - Marjorie Liu & Sana Takeda et al
44. Record of a Spaceborn Few - Becky Chambers
45. *On the Other Side of Freedom - DeRay Mckesson
46. Two Mates for the Dragon - Zoe Chant et al
47. Dreadful Company - Vivian Shaw
48. The Halloween Tree - Ray Bradbury, illust. Joseph Mugnaini
    (+ A Halloween Treat/Edward Gorey's Ghosts - Edward Gorey)
49. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian - Sherman Alexie, illust. Ellen Forney ♥
50. The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas ♥
51. *When my brother was an Aztec - Natalie Diaz
52. The Smoking Mirror - David Bowles
53. Unbeatable Squirrel Girl vol. 8 - Ryan North & Erica Henderson et al ♥
54. The Marrow Thieves - Cherie Dimaline
55. Exit Strategy - Martha Wells
56. ✓ The Phantom of the Opera - Gaston Leroux transl. Lowell Bair
57. Descender vol. 6: The Machine War - Jeff Lemire & Dustin Nguyen et al
58. ✓ Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? - Edward Albee ♥
59. ✓ If on a winter's night a traveller (Se una notte d'inverno un viaggiatore) - Italo Calvino transl. William Weaver
60. Saga vols. 8 & 9 - Brian K. Vaughan & Fiona Staples et al ♥ for 9
61. ✓ Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri
62. My Teacher Is an Alien - Bruce Coville (reread) ♥
63. My Teacher Fried my Brains - Bruce Coville (reread)
64. My Teacher Glows in the Dark - Bruce Coville (reread)
65. Monstress vol. 3 - Marjorie Liu & Sana Takeda et al
66. The Vampire Diaries: The Awakening - L.J. Smith (reread)
67. The Vampire Diaries: The Struggle - L.J. Smith (reread)
68. ✓ *Out on the Wire - Jessica Abel
69. ✓ The Turn of the Screw - Henry James
70. The Vampire Diaries: The Fury - L.J. Smith (reread)
71. The Vampire Diaries: Dark Reunion - L.J. Smith (reread)
    
    ** END OF AUTUMN READING CHALLENGE**
     
72. The Tea Master & the Detective - Aliette de Bodard -- incomplete
73. My Teacher Flunked the Planet - Bruce Coville (reread)
74. The Stars Are Legion - Kameron Hurley
75. How Long 'Til Black Future Month? - N.K. Jemisin ♥

*nonfiction
✓ Operation Read More Books You've Owned For Ages


Total for the year:

• 35 novels
• 8 novellas + 1 partial
• 12 graphic novel volumes
• 6 short story collections + 1 partial
• 9 memoirs & nonfiction
• 3 poetry collections
• 1 play

a.k.a. 74 complete + 2 partial, a.k.a. about 25 more books than usual.

Quick-and-dirty demographics:

• Women & nonbinary: 39 authors/poets + 4 coauthors/illustrators, 31 books
• Native: 28 authors/poets, 8 books
• Other non-white: 5 authors + 2 coauthors/illustrators, 7 books
• Translations: 2 books + some poems

As always, happy to talk about any of these.

Comments

[kuwdora]

I have a 2 hr commute in the morning and evening (4 hr total)...work schedule is varying these days so I'm back down to 2 or 3 hours. I have been too grumpy to read anymore on my commute even though I mean to do so. I've even got some awesome audiobooks that I keep trying to get through but there's some mental block going on that's keeping me from really getting back into reading. I once read the entire Vorkosigan saga in an entire month.

I have Ninefox Gambit and Ann Leckie's latest published thing that I got at the bookstore last month. Also I have to return overdue library books I never read and pay the fines. And also I keep meaning to re-read my memoir-in-progress so I can work on editing/revising that section by section (it's 80,000 words now).

[bironic]

Wow, I had no idea your commute was so long. No wonder you're grumpy. (I mean, along with an array of other anxiety- and depression-inducing things, not to make a joke about it.) Sorry you've got the block when you're excited to read or listen to this stuff. Is the Ann Leckie book Provenance?

*\o/* cheerleader pompoms for your ongoing memoir project.

[kuwdora]

yes, I've been doing this commute for +2 years now. I am DONE. and have been using all my other non-vidding, non-painting, non-sleeping/eating/depression time to be looking and applying to work. I hate cover letters.

and it is Provenance! have you read it? I don't think I saw it on your list.

[bironic]

Ah, it was late 2017. I didn't review it, but I thought it was perfectly fine. There were a couple of characters I loved a lot, although they didn't have huge roles. The story improved when Ann Leckie read an excerpt aloud when she came to town - I hadn't realized just how much of a comedy it was meant to be.

>> and have been using all my other non-vidding, non-painting, non-sleeping/eating/depression time to be looking and applying to work

Ugh. Yuuuup, that is how it goes. Unhappy job + job search just kills joy.