2024 Reading Challenge

Bull Shannon said:
Book 12: There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension, by Hanif Abdurraqib
View attachment 201565
I was born in the 80s, and came into grade school during the height of Michael Jordan worship and the cultural dominance of basketball. I had parents whose instinct was to pull us kids away from anything popular for reasons they didn’t understand, but while the narrative at home was we shouldn’t worship people who “bounce a ball for a living” (my dad, a Black republican, had nothing but time for “pull your shorts up” respectability policing), I still understood the cachet the ball held on the schoolyard and to this day envy the constancy and drama of sports fandom.

With There’s Always This Year, Hanif Abdurriqib unravels the sport, its history and conventions, and threads it between the individual experience, the wider Black experience, and most importantly, the interchangeability of one’s identity with the identity of location. This is a book about accepting your hometown (a place inherently thrust upon us and a part of our identity that exists the furthest away from choice), leaving it, coming back, and what it means when others leave, whether pulled away by opportunity or force.
Click to expand...

I bought this one immediately upon release but I've yet to crack it open as I've been drowning in library books. Really looking forward to it though! Hanif is one of my absolute fabourite modern writers.
 
avecigrec said:
I bought this one immediately upon release but I've yet to crack it open as I've been drowning in library books. Really looking forward to it though! Hanif is one of my absolute fabourite modern writers.
Click to expand...
It's well worth one's time; I might recommend spacing out reading it, as the essay format allows it and the density of emotion and thought can be a little overwhelming. It's something to savor. I can't think of anyone else writing on this level right now.
 
Book #5: Let’s Pretend That Never Happened (A Mostly True Memoir) by Jenny Lawson

IMG_4760.jpeg

I needed a pick me up after the bummer of a book my last pick was so I googled “funniest books ever” and this was often mentioned on those lists so I went with it. Definitely an absurd story by a rather wacky person. Wasn’t laughing out loud as many reviewers were but I’d be lying if I said a smile was never not on my face while reading. What really got me though was the heart in this book. The best moment comes in a middle chapter that is really sad but she tells it in a great way that doesn’t ruin the flow of the “comedy” book but also just lets the sadness exist. My biggest problem with comedy tv is when they are afraid to let a sad moment just be sad, and I like that she lets sad moments sit, she’ll tell jokes but she doesn’t distract from that sadness.

Rating - 3.5/5
 
avecigrec said:
I've seen a few friends reading this series via Goodreads and been curious. Gonna have to check it out!
Click to expand...

I highly recommend it! All 5 are super quick reads but are all great and super heart warming. I also highly recommend the Netflix adaptation which i probably prefer as a whole
 
Chugging along and reading way less than I'd like. Two more:

4. Brooklyn Crime Story by Jonathan Lethem: This one is barely a story and not about crime. I've had a soft spot for Lethem since Motherless Brooklyn and Fortress of Solitude, but (for me, anyway) not much has come close to those. This is another ode to Brooklyn written as a tapestry of short (kind of) interweaving stories that intersect (or don't) over decades. It was ok, but I had trouble picking up momentum with all of the different storylines.

5. Prophet Song by Paul Lynch: This one on the other hand, wow. I'd hesitate to say too much, as I don't want to color any other views. This is a tour de force about an Irish family dealing with an increasingly oppressive government. Incredibly well written, it's hard not to be drawn in and see how Lynch has been influenced by what's going on around the world. Definitely recommend this one, even if it is not an easy read in a lot of ways.
 
mgp said:
Chugging along and reading way less than I'd like. Two more:

4. Brooklyn Crime Story by Jonathan Lethem: This one is barely a story and not about crime. I've had a soft spot for Lethem since Motherless Brooklyn and Fortress of Solitude, but (for me, anyway) not much has come close to those. This is another ode to Brooklyn written as a tapestry of short (kind of) interweaving stories that intersect (or don't) over decades. It was ok, but I had trouble picking up momentum with all of the different storylines.

5. Prophet Song by Paul Lynch: This one on the other hand, wow. I'd hesitate to say too much, as I don't want to color any other views. This is a tour de force about an Irish family dealing with an increasingly oppressive government. Incredibly well written, it's hard not to be drawn in and see how Lynch has been influenced by what's going on around the world. Definitely recommend this one, even if it is not an easy read in a lot of ways.
Click to expand...
I keep looking at Prophet Song and then put it aside
 
mgp said:
5. Prophet Song by Paul Lynch: This one on the other hand, wow. I'd hesitate to say too much, as I don't want to color any other views. This is a tour de force about an Irish family dealing with an increasingly oppressive government. Incredibly well written, it's hard not to be drawn in and see how Lynch has been influenced by what's going on around the world. Definitely recommend this one, even if it is not an easy read in a lot of ways.
Click to expand...

jamieanderson1968 said:
I keep looking at Prophet Song and then put it aside
Click to expand...
On my list too. My dad has been banging on about how good it is for the past 6 months. Looking forward to getting around to it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mgp
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top