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2020 50 Book Challenge

Fueco

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55. Radical Candor, by Kim Scott
 

Geoffrey Firmin

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36+37 A Walk Through Hell Volume 1&2 by Garth Ennis & Goran Sudzuka.
@California Dreamer provided a detailed review of the first volume a while back. All I can say is this is one of the most bent horror graphic novels I’ve come across.
 

TenTriply

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SPYGATE EXPOSED: The Conspiracy to Topple President Trump

Svetlana Lokhova (2020)

So refreshing to read writing by a Cambridge historian with a gentle weight, natural erudition, precision in what she knows while also careful and truthful about what she doesn’t know. Her scholarship combines so well with her personal experiences and history that she can write naturally and candidly; you want to spend a week interviewing her and know everything she does.

It is rare that I truly like someone’s writing; I am finicky and impatient when prose is tortured, and do not suffer books where every other sentence has entire clauses that are so predictable, so unoriginal, you can finish most of them in your head before you get to the end of the sentence. I am impatient with my own writing; I can hack things out quite easily — and quite well, I think — in online forums like this. But when I’m preparing 200-300 words for the New York Times, I will sit on it for months or years until I don’t get bogged or annoyed by anything.

Lokhova’s writing is never lazy; she has particular things to say, and she articulates her thoughts exactly. And yet she is so breezy and natural and easy and elegant. So fresh.

Lokhova was born in Moscow and is a leading authority on Soviet espionage. The book is “...an eyewitness account of America’s first presidential coup. An innocent woman, Svetlana Lokhova was pulled into this fabricated narrative through dishonest accusations — for instance, that she was General Flynn’s paramour and a Russian spy.”

We’re lucky to have experts around who have thoroughly researched every detail about Spygate. And even luckier to have people like Svetlana Lokhova who are eyewitness, know the subject, know the people involved, and willing to patiently pull all the details together for us. It is a real pleasure, though, simply to read a great story from the headlines.
 

Geoffrey Firmin

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38.Spark by Naoki Matayoshi

This novella (its only 156 pages) won the Akutagawa Prize in 2015..seriously? After reading it I fail to understand why.
 

Journeyman

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38.Spark by Naoki Matayoshi

This novella (its only 156 pages) won the Akutagawa Prize in 2015..seriously? After reading it I fail to understand why.

I haven't read it, but the subject matter is incredibly popular in Japan, so it's not surprising it was popular there.

Comedians are one of the main sources for "tarento" (talent) for Japanese TV shows and many comedians perform "manzai" comedy, in which they perform as a duo comprised of the "tsukkomi" (straight man) and "boke" (funny man or fool). There are large numbers of struggling comedians - and quite a few TV shows about struggling comedians - but ones who break into the big time are genuine celebrities. It's a much, much bigger part of the culture than it is here.
 

Geoffrey Firmin

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@Journeyman I found that trying to cram ten years in a series of vignettes into 156 pages never got to A the creative humour content of the career trajectory of the protagonist
B all they did was get on the piss C no real examples of the comedy work that gave them status.
 
Last edited:

Fueco

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56. Dubliners, by James Joyce
 

samtalkstyle

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28. Up in Honey's Room - Elmore Leonard

Possibly the best written novel I've read this year. Excellent pacing and intrigue. One of those types that's difficult to put down.
 

samtalkstyle

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29. Night School - Lee Child

Recently visited a friend and saw a heap of Child's books on his shelf, and it reminded me of how much I enjoyed the three Jack Reachers I read a few years ago.
Found this one in a thrift store, bought it, enjoyed it. I like the protagonist, the pacing and the storytelling of all the JR books I've read so far.
 

Geoffrey Firmin

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@Journeyman @FlyingMonkey wondering where to start with Ryu Murakami novels. Someone recommended Coin Locker Babies but it’s out of print.
 

LonerMatt

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1. The Tangled Land
2. The Test
3. Grace of Kings
4. Wall of Storms
5. Where there was Still Love
6. The Secret Commonwealth
7. Children of Ruins
8. Hunger
9. Legacy of Ash
10. When we were Vikings
11. The Yellow Notebook
12. A Couple of Things Before the End
13. Agency
14. Sword of Fire
15. How to Fix the Future
16. The Topeka School
17. Beijing Payback
18. The Lucky Country
19. A horse walks into a bar
20. The Hidden Girl and Other Stories
21. The Secret Scripture
22. Stone Sky Gold Mountain
23. The Return
24. The Lost Decade
25. Shop Class as Soulcraft
26. Makers
27. Between the World and Me
28. How to do nothing
29. Amusing Ourselves to Death

29. Amusing Ourselves to Death


An extension of Marshal McLuhan's "the Medium is the Message", Neil Postman wrote this in the 80s, a long and drawn out explanation of what was lost as serious materials, discussion and purposes shifted to the medium of the television. Contrasting the informed and focused literate Americans of the 19th and early 20th centuries with the increasing unfocused and time poor TV watchers, there's a bit of historical romanticism, but also a lot of truth. After all, what is TV good for? Fiction, immersion, speed and seduction - qualities that are great for entertainment and terrible for politics, education and social discussion.

One can only speculate how infuriated he'd be at social media compressing something as consequential as a debate into bite sized headlines of snappy language.
 

Fueco

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57. One Man’s Wilderness: An Alaskan Wilderness, by Sam Keith (from the journals of Richard Proenneke)

The story of a man who built a cabin in the Alaskan wilderness mostly from local materials and of his first 16 months living there (he went on to live there for most of 30 years).
 

samtalkstyle

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30. The Man in the Brown Suit - Agatha Christie

I always feel a little self-satisfied when I guess the villain in these books early in the story.
Great read.
 

LonerMatt

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Nov 2, 2012
Messages
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1. The Tangled Land
2. The Test
3. Grace of Kings
4. Wall of Storms
5. Where there was Still Love
6. The Secret Commonwealth
7. Children of Ruins
8. Hunger
9. Legacy of Ash
10. When we were Vikings
11. The Yellow Notebook
12. A Couple of Things Before the End
13. Agency
14. Sword of Fire
15. How to Fix the Future
16. The Topeka School
17. Beijing Payback
18. The Lucky Country
19. A horse walks into a bar
20. The Hidden Girl and Other Stories
21. The Secret Scripture
22. Stone Sky Gold Mountain
23. The Return
24. The Lost Decade
25. Shop Class as Soulcraft
26. Makers
27. Between the World and Me
28. How to do nothing
29. Amusing Ourselves to Death
30. The Bear

30. The Bear


Two people, a father and daughter, are the last humans left on the planet. Living in the mountains they have a seemingly lovely relationship and existence, running low on salt the pair travel to the ocean to gather more salt and the daughter ends up alone.

Guided by animals, with overtones of magic realism/animalistic spirituality the girl winds her way home.

Really liked this - simple, straightforward, poetic.
 

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