The 2018 AW Reading Challenge. Now with added breadth and depth.

And finished a second book, Carl Hiaasen's Scat, YA humor/contemporary fiction. When their biology teacher disappears during a field trip to a Florida wildlife preserve, two students investigate - and find themselves tangled in a plot involving arson, oil, a delinquent classmate, and a self-styled eco-terrorist... not to mention the rare Florida panther. The characters were unique, and it was fun now and again, but something about it felt... formulatic. Similar, and slightly less successful, than a previous YA Hiaasen title I've read, Chomp. The lead boy MC was also a little dumber, TBH. I didn't feel the characters and plot threads came together as well this time around. Not bad, but I found myself thinking about how it compared to Chomp more than enjoying it on its own. If this is how all his YA tales read, I think I can stop right about here.

Might take a Challenge break for a book or two. We'll see; gotta get some Stuff done today before I pick up another book.

Updated list:
Get on with it already: A book that’s been on your TBR (to be read) list for over a year.
- Illuminated Manuscripts, Janice Anderson
+ Scat, Carl Hiaasen - STARTED 1/16, FINISHED 1/19
- Midnight for Charlie Bone, Jenna Nimmo
(Honestly, I could've filled the challenge twice over with this category alone...)

Freebies: A book you (legally) obtained without paying for.
- Writing with Power, Peter Elbow
- The Girl who Drank the Moon, Kelly Barnhill
TBA

Who was that, again?: A book about a person you know little about.
- The Black Count, by Tom Reiss
- The Invention of Nature: Alexander Von Humboldt's New World, Andrea Wulf
TBA

Doorstoppers: A book more than 600 pages.
- The Shadow of What Was Lost, James Islington
+ The Grace of Kings, Ken Liu - STARTED 1/8, FINISHED 1/15
- Words of Radiance, Brandon Sanderson

Chris P said:

I'm slowly working my way into It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis while I plod through a quite dense nonfic that's not part of the challenge. It Cant Happen Here is about the rise of a totalitarian regime in the United States. Of course it's tempting to compare the book to the Trump administration, and parts of it are eerie, like how they called saurkraut "liberty cabbage" during the Great War with Germany ("Y'all want Freedom Fries with that?). However, Lewis' main point, as voiced by one of his characters early on, is the the US has always been ripe for a dictator president as evidenced by the mania and bizarre things we've done in the past.

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Sounds an interesting book, Chris.

Mrsmig: How disappointing! I was hoping you'd come back with rave reviews of The hidden life of owls, but I see that it's title is more interesting than its content.

Hope you enjoy your next book more.

I’ve just finished The Buried Giant by Kazuo Shiguro, under the category Vast Critical Acclaim. I have to say I struggled with this book as it was not at all what I’d expected, being more allegory and fantasy than straight fiction, and I found it very slow, although I liked some of the questions it posed. After the Romans leave, Britain is being fought over by the Ancient Britons and the steadily multiplying Saxon invaders. An elderly couple of Britons set off through the misty countryside on a quest to see their son. This is a story about enduring marital love, loss, denial, memories, war, vengeance, honour and trust, set in a mysterious landscape peopled by Arthurian knights, pixies, ogres and a she-dragon whose breath gives rise to the pervading mist that robs everyone of their memories. Can memory loss be beneficial under certain circumstances, for example if it wipes out pain, or prevents revenge? A strange book.

However, only when I’d finished the book did I realise that although the author was the winner of the 2017 Nobel Prize for Literature, the book itself didn’t in fact win any literary awards. So does it qualify under the category Vast Critical Acclaim, or should I replace it with a book that was awarded a literary prize (as opposed to the author)? What do my fellow challengers think?

oneblindmouse said:

However, only when I’d finished the book did I realise that although the author was the winner of the 2017 Nobel Prize for Literature, the book itself didn’t in fact win any literary awards. So does it qualify under the category Vast Critical Acclaim, or should I replace it with a book that was awarded a literary prize (as opposed to the author)? What do my fellow challengers think?

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I'd think you could take a mulligan on this one if you wanted to - it's an informal challenge anyway, and nothing wrong with "extra credit."

As for me, I started another Challenge book last night, Jenna Nimmo's MG tale Midnight for Charlie Bone. An ordinary boy begins displaying signs of his unusual, magic-touched ancestry when he hears voices from photographs. Though his mother is upset, his strange, witchy aunts and dour grandmother are delighted that he takes after his late father's side of the family, and are in a hurry to rush him off to a boarding school for the gifted. Some rough shades of Harry Potter if you squint hard enough, but so far it's its own story, a little creepier, and if Charlie isn't the most dynamic character yet, he's coming into his own. Looks like it'll read fast.

Updated list:
Get on with it already: A book that’s been on your TBR (to be read) list for over a year.
- Illuminated Manuscripts, Janice Anderson
+ Scat, Carl Hiaasen - STARTED 1/16, FINISHED 1/19 +
+ Midnight for Charlie Bone, Jenna Nimmo - STARTED 1/23
(Honestly, I could've filled the challenge twice over with this category alone...)

Freebies: A book you (legally) obtained without paying for.
- Writing with Power, Peter Elbow
- The Girl who Drank the Moon, Kelly Barnhill
TBA

Who was that, again?: A book about a person you know little about.
- The Black Count, by Tom Reiss
- The Invention of Nature: Alexander Von Humboldt's New World, Andrea Wulf
TBA

Doorstoppers: A book more than 600 pages.
- The Shadow of What Was Lost, James Islington
+ The Grace of Kings, Ken Liu - STARTED 1/8, FINISHED 1/15 +
- Words of Radiance, Brandon Sanderson

Sat Nam! (Literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

I think you can count it, oneblindmouse. If it bothers you once you've finished the rest of the books, you could shift it to extra credit and read something that was awarded instead.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal

Siri Kirpal said:

Sat Nam! (Literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

I think you can count it, oneblindmouse. If it bothers you once you've finished the rest of the books, you could shift it to extra credit and read something that was awarded instead. Blessings, Siri Kirpal

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Ok. I'll continue with the rest of my challenge, and find another award-winning book for afterwards.

Sat Nam! (literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

Chris, IIRC, your book was a translation. I think translations should count same as the original, because most of us aren't ever going to read Assyrian or Old Norse or Old French or old whatever. And that includes free translations.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal

I just finished The Sixth Extinction. I disliked the irritating chattiness -- pop-culture references, cringeworthy jokes, pointless tangents -- but otherwise found it an enlightening read. The human race has apparently been driving species extinct for 50,000 years -- including Neanderthals and at least two other archaic human species. And of course, we interbred with the latter. Anyone not of African ancestry, for example, has 1-4% Neanderthal DNA. I'm still getting used to that one.

1. Get on with it already: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
2. Freebies: The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle
8. Bits and pieces: Ghostly: A Collection of Ghost Stories edited by Audrey Niffenegger
11. Vast critical acclaim: The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
12. Support the home team: Force of Habit by Alice Loweecey
19. What your great-grandparents read: The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells
21. Loose ends: On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin DONE
22. No hablo: A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
26. No Cliff Notes this time: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
31. Just the facts, Ma’am: The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert DONE
32. Howdy, stranger: My Ántonia by Willa Cather
41. Run for the border: Playing for Their Lives by Tricia Tunstall
51. Tag, you’re it!: bdwilson picked The Three-body Problem by Cixin Liu

Just completed another one:
Freebies: Burial Rites by Hannah Kent (given to me by my sister).
The heartbreaking and haunting story of the last days of Agnes Magnusdóttir, condemned to death for the murder of her employer, and the last person to be executed in Iceland (1829). Kent’s debut novel is the result of many years’ research into the little-known life of Iceland’s most vilified murderess and arsonist, told with lyrical prose that brings to life the claustrophobic and brutal existence of the workers (virtually slaves) on Iceland’s isolated farmsteads, eking out an existence despite a harsh climate and an unforgiving landscape. The story of what really happened on the fateful night of the murders unfolds gradually over the months that Agnes lives with the family of a civil servant whilst awaiting her execution, and we learn that people are not always what they seem, and circumstances can twist behaviour. Even though I knew how the story would end, when I read the final sentence I put the book down and just cried and cried. I was reminded very much of Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace. Both are exceptional books and highly recommended.

My updated challenge:

1. Howdy, stranger: The Road Home by Rose Tremain DONE
2. Do you read about a land down under? The People in the trees by Hanya Yanagihara DONE
3. Vast critical acclaim: The buried giant by Kazuo Shiguro DONE
4. Freebies: Burial rites by Hannah Kent DONE
5. Run for the border: Life in Mexico by Frances Erskine Inglis, Madame Calderón de la Barca
6. Anyward ho! Rambles in the footprints of Don Quixote by Henry David Inglis
7. War is hell: The Dust that Falls from Dreams by Louis de Bernières
8. The butler might have done it: Treason by the book by Jonathan Spence
9. Out of the park on first bat: The tiger’s wife by Téa Obreht
10. What your great grandparents read: Elizabeth: exiles of Siberia by Madame Cottin DONE
11. Get on with it already: Bone Mountain by Eliot Pattison
12. Loose ends: The man in the queue by Josephine Tey

Thanks, mrsmig. The truth is this month I've had more time on my hands than I really like. Long story short, it's been so stressful that I've escaped into reading. But I've still got several long books on my challenge, and I'll be travelling soon, so my reading rate will drop significantly. But I'd love to repeat last jear's double challenge. I love this thread, as it really incentivises me to read things I wouldn't read otherwise.

I took a 23andme genetic analysis and found out I had 306 Neanderthal genes, which is "88% more than other 23andme users." The highest anyone has on the site, I've heard, is 346.

I don't look Neanderthal at all.

The other results of the test were very boring. I did discover a long-lost cousin though and we are corresponding.

I'm currently reading The Worm Ouroboros. This was one of the seminal works of fantasy of the 20th century, in that it even inspired Tolkien and Lewis. It's written in Elizabethean-inspired prose so it's like reading a Shakespeare play. I'm way into more than I thought I would be. Something about the intricacy of the language, how it makes you stop and think.

Sat Nam! (literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

2.8% Neanderthal here, 2.1% Denisovan, according to the National Geographic test I took. And I do have the sloping brow.

Sounds interesting, oneblindmouse. I too read more books during one of the most stressful years of my life.

Cobalt Jade, The Worm Ouroboros, sounds interesting.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal

Finished The Lost World. Easily my least favorite Doyle story. I had to skim through some of the worst bits. I wanted monsters and dinosaurs -- and got sexism and violence. Yeesh. Oh well, can't win 'em all. I don't have anything else reserved for the challenge so I guess I'd better go do that now.

And oneblindmouse, I know what you mean. Stress is one of the reasons I'm reading obsessively lately. I can't even rely on my laptop for a distraction, as it's starting to fail and I can't afford to fix it. I feel lucky every time I get a chance to log in here and hang around AW.

1. Get on with it already: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
2. Freebies: The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle DONE
8. Bits and pieces: Ghostly: A Collection of Ghost Stories edited by Audrey Niffenegger
11. Vast critical acclaim: The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
12. Support the home team: Force of Habit by Alice Loweecey DONE
19. What your great-grandparents read: The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells
21. Loose ends: On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin DONE
22. No hablo: A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
26. No Cliff Notes this time: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
31. Just the facts, Ma’am: The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert DONE
32. Howdy, stranger: My Ántonia by Willa Cather
41. Run for the border: Playing for Their Lives by Tricia Tunstall
51. Tag, you’re it!: bdwilson picked The Three-body Problem by Cixin Liu

And cleared another one last night. Midnight for Charlie Bone, about an ordinary boy who discovers his magical "endowment" on his tenth birthday - hearing voices from photographs - and is whisked off to a somewhat sinister academy by his nasty aunts and grandmother, invites comparison with Harry Potter, though it's not really the same story. Charlie's a bit denser and flatter, for one thing, and the world Nimmo creates is less inviting than Rowling's universe; many "endowed" families are selfish and cruel and quarrelsome, like the relatives he never liked... the relatives who may have killed his father for marrying the "wrong kind." For all that, though, I couldn't help feeling Nimmo pulled her punches. The twists are rather obvious (to the reader, if not the characters), and Charlie himself isn't as instrumental in the conclusion as one would expect from a titular hero, but there are some nice ideas and a few decent characters scattered about. I think if I were younger - and perhaps hadn't read HP or several other MG fantasies - I'd have enjoyed it more. (It's more disappointing because I quite enjoyed Nimmo's dark, creepy story Griffin's Castle. By comparison, this felt sadly watered down.)

Next up... still deciding. May polish off the first category, or I may try to get a start on the Freebies.

Updated list:
Get on with it already: A book that’s been on your TBR (to be read) list for over a year.
- Illuminated Manuscripts, Janice Anderson
+ Scat, Carl Hiaasen - STARTED 1/16, FINISHED 1/19 +
+ Midnight for Charlie Bone, Jenna Nimmo - STARTED 1/23, FINISHED 1/27 +
(Honestly, I could've filled the challenge twice over with this category alone...)

Freebies: A book you (legally) obtained without paying for.
- Writing with Power, Peter Elbow
- The Girl who Drank the Moon, Kelly Barnhill
TBA

Who was that, again?: A book about a person you know little about.
- The Black Count, by Tom Reiss
- The Invention of Nature: Alexander Von Humboldt's New World, Andrea Wulf
TBA

Doorstoppers: A book more than 600 pages.
- The Shadow of What Was Lost, James Islington
+ The Grace of Kings, Ken Liu - STARTED 1/8, FINISHED 1/15 +
- Words of Radiance, Brandon Sanderson

Sat Nam! (literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

Leaps and bounds! Congrats on the speed, Brightdreamer.

Also, I just read the quote in your signature. Chuckles and nods head sagely.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal

Sat Nam! (Literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

Finished my first Get on with it Already! pick. I purchased Lila by Marilynne Robinson late in 2015/early in 2016 and started reading it in 2016, but decided I'd get more mileage out of it if I read it later when I was working on a different project. Glad I made that decision.

Lila is a book without apparent artifice. There are no chapters, no standard writerly structure. Nothing but a feather floating on a stream of consciousness. If you don't like stream of consciousness, if you don't like introspective books, you won't like this one. But I loved it.

What you do get is a fish out of water story. Lila has lived a hard and mostly migrant life, far removed from polite society. But she's a preacher's wife as she thinks this book. Her thoughts on religion and normal middle class life are as astonishing as her own less than normal life is. I don't think I've ever read a book that integrates deep thinking on religious topics into the core of its story as well as this one does. And I've read Gilead, Robinson's earlier book from the preacher's point of view. I think this is the better book. Highly recommended with the caveats above.

Current List is now:

3 by Alice Hoffman
Faithful
The Probable Future
The Dovekeepers

3 Get on with it Already!
Lila by Marilynne Robinson Done
The Painted Drum by Louise Erdrich or Jazz by Toni Morrison
The Forgotten Garden or The Distant Mirror by Kate Morton

3 Like a Novel, Only Real
Vita Nuova by Dante Alighieri Done
TBD
TBD

God's Mansion Has Many Rooms
Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms: Journeys into the Disappearing Religions of the Middle East by Gerard Russell
Upstaged/ /Seasons in the Sun
A Midsummer's Night's Dream by William Shakespeare
Howdy, Stranger
The Caretaker by A.X.Ahmad

Scheduled Extra Credit:
Bits & Pieces [to be read throughout the year]: The Collect Poems of Theodore Roethke
Tag, You're It: The Light Between Oceans (I didn't ask Chris or oneblindmouse, but both recommended it.)

Unscheduled Extra Credit:
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle Done

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal

Thanks, Siri, for a very interesting review. Lila looks like a fascinating read. I shall look out for it.