2021 50 Book Challenge

[LonerMatt]

Spoiler: List

1. Death's End
2. Piranesi
3. Living Sea of Waking Dreams
4. Uncanny Valley
5. War of Maps
6. A Constellation of Vital phenomena
7. The New Wilderness
8. Attack Surface
9. Gods of Jade and Shadow
10. The Galaxy and the Ground Within
11. Gallowglass
12. Cultural Warlords
13. A Song for A New Day
14. The Secret Life of Addie LaRue
15. Terra Nullius
16. Fall of Koli
17. A Desolation called Peace
18. Gideon the Ninth

18. Gideon the Ninth

Necromancers in space face an unusual once-in-a-lifetime potential challenge/opportunity. A lot of fun, a bit over-written (especially in the difference between the narrative voice and the protagonists' voice), but pretty interesting. Working my way through the sequel atm and finding it much harder going.

 

[Fueco]

20. Tangled Up In Blue: Policing The American City, by Rosa Brooks

A Georgetown law professor decides to join the volunteer ranks of Metropolitan Police Department (Washington, DC) as a patrol officer.

This book is mostly a memoir, but also contains interesting thoughts about how to rework police departments to better serve the public.

 

[Geoffrey Firmin]

20. Patient X The Case-Book of Ryunosuke Akutagawa by David Peace.

Interesting fictional biography of the Japanese Modernist author. The book is divided into twelve chapters and is informed by fact, memoir of colleagues & friends and the fiction, essays and letters of Akutagawa.

It was only when I started reading this that I found out his short stories Rashomon and In a Bamboo Grove inspired and formed the basis for the 1950‘s film by Kurosawa.

Prompted me to order a book of Akutagawa short stories. Highly recommended.

 

[Fueco]

21. Nobody Hitchhikes Anymore, by Ed Griffin-Nolan

A man in his 60s decides to set out to somewhat recreate a hitchhiking trip across the country that he and a friend had done 40 years earlier.

This serves not just as a memoir about his trip, but also as a look at home divided (or not) America really is and some of the characters he meets on the road from Syracuse to San Francisco.

 

[Geoffrey Firmin]

21. The Scarecrow by Michael Connelly

LA Noir this time round from the perspective of a journalist and a FBI profiler. Entertaining and disturbing.

 

[FlyingMonkey]

18. Gideon the Ninth

Necromancers in space face an unusual once-in-a-lifetime potential challenge/opportunity. A lot of fun, a bit over-written (especially in the difference between the narrative voice and the protagonists' voice), but pretty interesting. Working my way through the sequel atm and finding it much harder going.

I really disliked the first one for the same reasons you give, but I actually thought the second one was an improvement although I had no idea what was going on half the time. I think I wrote about them in last year's challenge.

20. Patient X The Case-Book of Ryunosuke Akutagawa by David Peace.

Haven't read this yet, although David Peace is one of my favourite authors, and I've loved what he's written since he moved to Japan. Tokyo Year Zero is still my favourite of these novels. He has a unique style which I love, but which drives some people crazy.

I've been reading loads as usual this year, I just haven't felt like listing them or writing about anything. Most recently I've been streaming through Andrea Camillieri's Inspector Montalbano crime novels, set in Sicily. I'm on about 22 and there are, I think, 6 to go - Camillieri died in 2019, and the last one is due out soon. They are best described as 'superior pulp.' Grumpy protagonist, lots of cynical politics, more than a few femmes fatales and everyone is always eating, drinking and smoking like a champion.

 

[Fueco]

22. Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon

 

[Geoffrey Firmin]

Haven't read this yet, although David Peace is one of my favourite authors, and I've loved what he's written since he moved to Japan. Tokyo Year Zero is still my favourite of these novels. He has a unique style which I love, but which drives some people crazy.

I read Tokyo Year Zero and being impressed by it in particular the urban sounds the tok tok tok hammering background noise and odd sentence structure of the book, never knew it was part of a trilogy.

 

[Fueco]

23. World Of Wonder: In Praise Of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishment; by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

A collection of stories about various plants and animals along with stories from the author’s life.

 

[Geoffrey Firmin]

23. World Of Wonder: In Praise Of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishment; by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

A collection of stories about various plants and animals along with stories from the author’s life.

Does Basil get a mention...

 

[Numbernine]

22. Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon

The television series is so bad in so many ways it's almost fascinating.

 

[Geoffrey Firmin]

22.Hummingbird Salamander by Jeff Vandermeer

This is the way the world ends not with a bang but slow steady pandemic and conspiracy inspired decay with four seasons in one day.

I have to say that the ending was not what I was expecting,,,inspired, intense and timely.

 

[LonerMatt]

Spoiler: List

1. Death's End
2. Piranesi
3. Living Sea of Waking Dreams
4. Uncanny Valley
5. War of Maps
6. A Constellation of Vital phenomena
7. The New Wilderness
8. Attack Surface
9. Gods of Jade and Shadow
10. The Galaxy and the Ground Within
11. Gallowglass
12. Cultural Warlords
13. A Song for A New Day
14. The Secret Life of Addie LaRue
15. Terra Nullius
16. Fall of Koli
17. A Desolation called Peace
18. Gideon the Ninth
19. Harrow the Ninth

19. Harrow the Ninth

The 2nd book, like Flying Monkey said most of the book makes no sense at all. What's wrong with this author that she hates ANY exposition? It's like a constant barrage of insanity and sort of just an impossible book to grasp, deliberately.

I wished the book was legible because there's some good creepy stuff in it and some genuinely interesting mythology, but accessing that side of the novel is made impossible.

 

[Fueco]

24. A Brief History Of Earth, by Andrew H. Knoll

A brief history of the natural history of the Earth as currently understood by scientists. This is pretty good, but a little to basic if actually want to gain a better understanding.

 

[Fueco]

The television series is so bad in so many ways it's almost fascinating.

I enjoy the show, but the book is a bit much. I don’t think I’ll read any more of them.