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

Pulitzer prize winners are often like that for me: "What's so great that this book won an award?" They seem to be books that capture the flavor of everyday American life, which I should love, but I find the award winners more often than not either confusing (Beloved) or boring (A Thousand Acres, March), and utterly forgettable (Interpreter of Maladies, A Visit from the Goon Squad, Olive Kitteridge, Gilead). The Color Purple and A Confederacy of Dunces, and To Kill a Mockingbird are the only ones that stick with me (although I've not read all of them, of course).

I finished my Peekaboo I See You selection: Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward. Oh. My. God. This is one of the few books I have wanted to start reading again from the beginning as soon as I finished it. There is so much going on, so intricate, I want to see things from the higher level that I didn't see before. The basic plot is that Leonie and her son Jojo are on a road trip to pick up Leonie's boyfriend and father to Jojo and Kayla (a toddler major character) Michael as he's released from Mississippi's notorious Parchman Prison and farm. A deeper family mystery of stuck souls emerges through the narrative of Richie, the ghost of a teen imprisoned with Leonie's father back in the day.

The book alternates between Leonie's, Jojo's and Richie's POVs, which I usually don't like, but worked for me here because it follows the same narrative stream and chronology, rather than using POV as a way to infodump. I found Jojo's voice a little hard to get used to for the first couple shifts. This book is gritty, raw and intense more or less throughout but not to a sickening point. It was very real in its depiction of the poverty-prison cycle, abusive families, and meth culture without being gratuitous.


3. Setting sail: A book taking place mostly or all on water. Nefarious, by Antonio Hopson.
4. I remember that!: A book about a historical event that took place in your lifetime. Columbine, by Dave Cullen Done
18. Peekaboo I see you: A book you saw someone else reading in public. Sing, Unburied, Sing, by Jesmyn Ward Done
19. What your great-grandparents read: A book written more than 75 years before you were born. A Study in Scarlet, by Arthur Conan Doyle
30. Lol random: Go to Gutenberg.org, click “Book Search,” click “Random” and pick any of the books that show up. The Man Who Was Thursday, by G. K. Chesterton Done
33. Where is that, again?: A book about a place you know little about. The Last Wild Men of Borneo, by Carl Hoffman
36. A real scream: A horror novel. The Haunting of Ashburn House, by Darcy Coates
37. Happy days are here again: A book published since 1945. A Glass of Blessings, by Barbara Pym
42. You might also like. . . : A book recommended by library or bookstore staff, online or in person. A Sport and a Pastime, by James Salter
47. I know exactly where that is!: A book taking place in a location you know well. That Kind of Mother, by Rumaan Alam Done
49. Pixies and Dryads and Elves, oh my!: A high fantasy. Sky in the Deep, by Adrienne Young Done
50. Like a novel, only real: Creative nonfiction. The Girl Who Smiled Beads, by Clementine Wamariya

Welcome to the challenge, RecoveringAndroid! I'm looking forward to seeing what you think of the books you've selected. I think a couple people have Three Body Problem on their lists.

You can do it, Siri! Editing books is exciting when the subject matter is interesting. I edited an amazing book that explained the housing bubble crash of 2008. I just wish I could remember the author and title (it was a self-pub ebook, so I wasn't able to find it by Googling). I also edited a text book on US water rights laws that was surprisingly engaging. Believe it or not, the US still honors some colonial open-oceans maritime rights laws from the 1600s (the olde tyme quotes driven mine spellchecker crazy). Of course, this book was written before the Waters of the US rule, which changed everything. The perils on non-fic; so much can change so quickly.

I wish you and your friend and family strength and peace too, oneblindmouse. Such bad stuff.

Good progress, Verboten! Keep it up.

I'm nearing the halfway point on Barbara Pym's A Glass of Blessings. Oof, this one is slow. What keeps me going is I figured out the theme somewhat early, and paying attention to how she's playing out and what works--and doesn't--about her approach. This is good as the story itself is so far a colossal yawner.

I got Chernow's Hamilton book not long after it came out, never got to it, then gave it away in 2012 when I massively downsized before moving overseas. I could have been one of the cool kids and loved it before everyone else did. My one shot at the vanguard. . . ruined.

My Happy Days selection (written since 1945), A Glass of Blessings by Barbara Pym, is done. It follows Wilmet as she entertains pursuing her Portuguese teacher, a man she met in Italy some years earlier during the war, who is now successful but of questionable character due to his inability to hold down a job for very long. Sorry folks, but the book isn't about very much more than that. Wilmet's husband Rodney isn't any more interesting, or interested in Wilmet's white-bread dalliances. There is a brief subplot of kleptomania, some C of E priests who might or might not revert to Roman Catholicism, and far too many other minor characters to keep straight without a cheat sheet. I mentioned earlier that this book is a yawner, and unfortunately doesn't redeem itself. I wished she would just have the damned affair and get some action going. The theme of the book seems to center on people fulfilling their "proper" roles as wives, widows, priests, husbands, and war-heroes-turned-Portuguese-instructors, what happens when life pushes people out of those roles, and what happens when people consciously reject the roles entirely out of will or necessity. I was disappointed in Wilmet's choices at the end, as well as Rodney's. This was a substitute I got on the Bookbub cheap for another book by this author (Excellent Women), and perhaps I got what I paid for.

I think I'll head off to Borneo next to escape the conventionality of 1950s English life.


3. Setting sail: A book taking place mostly or all on water. Nefarious, by Antonio Hopson.
4. I remember that!: A book about a historical event that took place in your lifetime. Columbine, by Dave Cullen Done
18. Peekaboo I see you: A book you saw someone else reading in public. Sing, Unburied, Sing, by Jesmyn Ward Done
19. What your great-grandparents read: A book written more than 75 years before you were born. A Study in Scarlet, by Arthur Conan Doyle
30. Lol random: Go to Gutenberg.org, click “Book Search,” click “Random” and pick any of the books that show up. The Man Who Was Thursday, by G. K. Chesterton Done
33. Where is that, again?: A book about a place you know little about. The Last Wild Men of Borneo, by Carl Hoffman
36. A real scream: A horror novel. The Haunting of Ashburn House, by Darcy Coates
37. Happy days are here again: A book published since 1945. A Glass of Blessings, by Barbara Pym Done
42. You might also like. . . : A book recommended by library or bookstore staff, online or in person. A Sport and a Pastime, by James Salter
47. I know exactly where that is!: A book taking place in a location you know well. That Kind of Mother, by Rumaan Alam Done
49. Pixies and Dryads and Elves, oh my!: A high fantasy. Sky in the Deep, by Adrienne Young Done
50. Like a novel, only real: Creative nonfiction. The Girl Who Smiled Beads, by Clementine Wamariya