Category: Books

A Certain Justice was good, but I feel like I read it before even though my reading logs have it marked as unread. I even checked the last printed version and it’s not highlighted, so I either missed it or have read something extremely similar. I’m pretty sure I missed it somehow because the events and the ending seemed too familiar. Oh well! I liked it, and it satisfied a bunch of challenge categories, so I have no regrets.

Now for shelf #17!

No one will be surprised that I plan to read The City We Became and The World We Make by N. K. Jemisin. I may also read The Love Songs of W. E. B DuBois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers because I really want to read it, and while it’s nice to read a ton of books every month, I’ve noticed that focusing on that goal has caused me to avoid longer texts. The years I read fewer books overall are the years I read the most pages. It all evens out in the end.

Books I’ve Read:

• The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin
• The Obelisk Gate by N. K. Jemisin
• The Stone Sky by N. K. Jemisin
• Corregidora by Gayl Jones
• My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones
• Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor
• Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata

These took longer than usual to finish. When I started Smilla’s Sense of Snow, I couldn’t put it down, but the second half of the novel got really messy. It could have been because school was extremely stressful while I was trying to finish it (internet outages, end of the marking period, etc.) and I didn’t have a lot of time or energy to read every day, but a lot of the second half didn’t really make sense to me. Not in the “I didn’t understand what was going on” way, but in the plot hole/continuity/character arc way. I did spend a lot of time researching Denmark, Greenland, and all the social issues addressed in the book, so even though I didn’t love it, I’m better for having read it. Plus, it satisfied a lot of challenge prompts. (Beat the Backlist: 4-word title, travel by ship, and these woods hold secrets; The StoryGraph’s Genre Challenge 2024: A thriller or crime novel in translation)

Midnight Robber was tough to get through because I was unaware that it was going to take an extremely dark turn. The novel starts off pretty light, but then the main character experiences something devastatingly traumatic and it was a lot for me to process. I was tempted to DNF it and come back to it later, but because of how much I liked the main character, I needed to see her through to the end. I’m glad I did! Another reason I wanted to see it through was that it satisfied so many reading challenge categories. (Beat the Backlist: these woods hold secrets, between 300 and 400 pages, and second chances; The StoryGraph Reads the World 2024: Jamaica; The StoryGraph’s Genre Challenge 2024:A science fiction or dystopian book by a woman or nonbinary author)

Another reason it took longer than usual to get through Smilla’s Sense of Snow and Midnight Robber was that I HAD to read Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar before the book signing at The Midtown Scholar. It’s one of the best books I’ve ever read and it will probably have its own post (once I read it again).

Now for shelf #16!

I’m going to stick to P. D. James for this shelf because I need something lighter, and I want to start reading some of the books I got for my birthday! I usually double (or triple) up on books, but they can’t be similar at all. Plus, I don’t want any content surprises. I’ve read most of the Adam Dalgliesh novels and I’ve loved them all.

Books I’ve read:

• Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
• Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
• Brave New World Revisited by Aldous Huxley
• The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
• The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson
• Children of Men by P. D. James

I’m flying through these books, which isn’t surprising because I bought most of them because I really wanted to read them at the time. Woe from Wit was great, but because it’s humorous, I know it would be better to see it performed. I looked online, but all the performances I could find were in Russian. I can see why my former student recommended it to me.

I didn’t know much about Transcendent Kingdom before I started it. I bought it because Homegoing was brilliant. I read it in a little over a day because so much of it hit close to home. Like the main character, I’ve struggled with faith and I’ve had loved ones battle opioid addiction. What resonated with me the most was how the main character, Gifty, struggles with her relationship with her mother and recognizing her as a whole person. Gifty also grapples with racism, being an immigrant, and abandonment from her father. I always begin the year with “Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors” by Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop, and for me, this novel was all three. Every element of this novel was so well developed, and I couldn’t stop reading even when it was hard. Gyasi is now on my list of writers whose books I’ll buy immediately without question.

Finding out that my copy is autographed was a nice surprise!

Now for shelf #15!

I’ll be spending some time on this shelf because there are a few books that will take care of challenge categories, and I have too many bookshelves to trust that I’ll be able to circle back around before the year ends. I need to read Smilla’s Sense of Snow by Peter Høeg because it’s a thriller or crime novel in translation (The Story Graph’s Genre Challenge), and Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson because she’s Jamaican and it’s a work of science fiction written by a woman (The Story Graph’s Genre and Read the World Challenges). I like how the challenge categories are making decisions easy for me!

Books I’ve read:

• A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
• Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness
• The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness
• Time’s Convert by Deborah Harkness
• The Kiss by Katherine Harrison
• Hiroshima by John Hersey
• Lady Sings the Blues by Billie Holiday with William Duffy
• The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
• A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

Beowulf: The Script Book contains the original script for the Beowulf movie and the script that eventually made it to the screen with commentary by Roger Avary. For a variety of reasons, I was not expecting to stay up all night reading Beowulf: The Script Book, but that’s what happened. I love it when writers discuss their process, and I was fascinated by the differences between the two scripts and what Roger Avary went through to bring Beowulf  to the screen. I expected that reading two versions would be repetitive and possibly tedious, but I was quite wrong. Now I want to reread the original Beowulf and watch the movie. Maybe we’ll get more snow, and I’ll have extra free time!

Now for shelf #14

Because I’m indecisive, I plan to read two from this shelf: Woe from Wit by Alexander Griboedov and Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi. Woe from Wit was recommended by a former student and Transcendent Kingdom will take care of some reading challenge categories. 

Books I’ve read:

• The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
• The Miracle Worker by William Gibson
• The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass
• Less Is Lost by Andrew Sean Greer
• The Firm by John Grisham
• A Time to Kill by John Grisham
• The Last Great Dance on Earth by Sandra Gulland
• The Many Lives and Secret Sorrows of Josephine B. by Sandra Gulland
• Tales of Passion, Tales of Woe by Sandra Gulland
• Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
• Miss Kraft Is Daft by Dan Gutman
• Hijab Butch Blues by Lamya H

I’m a morning person, so even though we have a two hour delay, I was up at the usual time. I love having time to read and reflect in the morning, and I hate feeling rushed, so I’m enjoying every minute of this time. I finished Howards End yesterday morning, and I liked it more than I thought I would. It had a “rich people are horrible and ruin everything” vibe that made me think of The Great Gatsby, and Forster’s writing wasn’t quite as dense as other literature from that time period. Howards End was published in 1910, so it’s a bit past the Victorian era. For some reason, anything written in that time period has either been a massive struggle for me or a DNF. Even contemporary works set in that time period irritate me. I’m not sure why because I know there’s a lot of brilliant Victorian writing. It’s just not my thing. Howards End satisfies “published 100+ years ago,” “on your TBR 5+ years,” and “an unexpected inheritance” on the Beat the Backlist Challenge.

Now for shelf #13!

I’m sure people who know me well will be shocked that I haven’t read everything I own by Neil Gaiman, so I’ll get to work on that. I’m reading Beowulf: The Script Book because I’m in the mood for some classic fantasy, and I’ve always been curious about this adaptation. I’ve not seen the movie, so that will have to happen. This also satisfies a bunch of challenge categories!

Books I’ve read:

• American Gods 
• Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
• Fortunately the Milk by Neil Gaiman
• Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman
• The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
• Interworld by Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves
• Neil Gaiman’s Make Good Art Speech
• Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
• Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
• The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
• Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman
• Stardust by Neil Gaiman
• Trigger Warning by Neil Gaiman
• The Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains by Neil Gaiman
• The View from the Cheap Seats by Neil Gaiman
• Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia
• Grendel by John Gardner

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe was entertaining but definitely a product of the 80s. I must have seen the movie because as soon as I started reading, I remembered the basics of the plot. What I found most engaging was the structure and how the multiple points of view across different time periods pieced the main elements of the plot together. For my reading challenges, this will count as a book with a door on the cover, on my TBR 5+ years, between 300 and 400 pages, and 3+ points of view, so it was definitely a good choice in that sense.

Now for shelf #12

I’m  not sure why I started reading Howard’s End by E. M. Forster, because I had a lot of options on this shelf. It checks off most of the boxes for a book that usually ends up as a DNF, but I’m over 100 pages in, and I’m completely invested in some of these characters. There are exceptions to every rule, right? 

Books I’ve read:

• Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
• Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
• Somebody’s Daughter by Ashley C. Ford
• Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
• The Autobiography of Ben Franklin by Ben Franklin
• All I Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum
• It Was on Fire When I Laid Down on It by Robert Fulghum
• Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder
• An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon
• Written in My Heart’s Own Blood by Diana Gabaldon

When I have time to reorganize my shelves, I’ll probably make a separate section for autobiography/memoir. I don’t like that they are mixed in with fiction. I have no idea why I did that.