2023 Reading Challenge

ayayrawn said:
23. Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke and Other Misfortunes by Eric LaRocca - Had this recommended as a shocking, viral horror story, so decided to give this collection a shot. Unfortunately pretty terrible. Bad prose, corny execution.

24. It Came Frim the Closet: Essays by Various - An essay collection on queer readings of horror films by a number of writers. Fun and enlightening!

25. Bag of Bones by Stephen King - My yearly King read for the holiday season and sadly thought this one kinda sucked too. A cool vibe (haunted beach house in western Maine) but EXTREMELY dated and capital P problematic in more ways than one. And too long. Love the King but probably will take a break from him next year.

26. Capitalism Realism by Mark Fisher - A great, short look at the potential for alternatives to our current hellscape.

27. Faithful and Virtuous Night by Louise Glück - Read The Wild Iris earlier this year and enjoyed, so decided to read another since she recently passed away. Lovely, evocative poetry.

28. Notes From Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky - This was a fascinating, dence little read. Kind of hilarious, but also runs the gammit in terms of how you feel for this poor little loser. Will be reading more Dostoevsky soon.

Currently reading They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us by Hanif Abdurraquib, one of my favorite current writers. Think I will be closing out the year with Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita and some Mary Oliver poetry. Also need to pick an audiobook to enjoy on Spotify. TBD!
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29. They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us by Hanif Abdurraquib. Great stuff as usual from Hanif. This is his first work, so I don't think it's as realized as his mote recent stuff, but still very moving and insightful looks at kusic and culture.

30. Devotions by Mary Oliver. This was a gorgeous and delightful collection of poetry. Recommend for anybody looking for a sense of peace.

I've read a little more than half of The Hundred Years' War on Palestine the last month and a half but haven't finished yet. Slow going due to the difficult nature of the subject, but will complete soon.

Also plan on readin a lot more poetry next year. Have a bunch from the library right now!
 
Mr Moore said:
Book 60: Small Things Like These - Claire Keegan
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Following the recommendation from @Ericj32 I gave this one a whirl and I concur, it is a really impressive piece of succinct but serious writing. The Magdalene Laundries were something I was totally unaware of but it comes as no surprise that this was allowed to go on. The short tale ends with an uncertain but hopeful note for just one of the poor girls made to suffer at the hands of the Catholic nuns.
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Glad that you enjoyed it! It looks like it’s being made into a film with Cillian Murphy as the father, and also starring Ciarán Hinds and Emily Watson. It might be the rare film that doesn’t have to leave anything out from the source material, haha.
 
Really late drop in, here. I was useless on this thread, and only made it through 16 books last year. Some of these tripped me up (Starting with The Passenger, actually. RIP Cormac). And then I went through some periods where I just couldn't pick up a book. Anyway, this was it:
  1. The Passenger - Cormac McCarthy
  2. Lark Ascending - Silas House
  3. The Town of Babylon - Alejandro Varela
  4. Mosquito Coast - Paul Thoreaux
  5. Brief History Seven Killings - Marlon James
  6. There There - Tommy Orange
  7. Trust - Hernan Diaz
  8. Tenth of December - George Saunders
  9. Stella Maris - Cormac McCarthy
  10. Rabbit Redux - John Updike
  11. The Guide - Peter Heller
  12. The River - Peter Heller
  13. The Gospel of the Hold Steady: How a Resurrection Really Feels
  14. Crook Manifesto - Colson Whitehead
  15. Luster - Raven Leilani
  16. Stay True - Hua Hsu
 
Mr Moore said:
Book 2: Eileen - Ottessa Moshfegh
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I enjoyed this atmospheric and at times creepy tale of a young woman suffering a troubled home life with her drunk father, pushing her way through her day job at the local young correctional facility full of bad boys. When a brash, beautiful new educator joins the facility and takes an interest in Eileen that nobody else seemingly ever has, our protagonist's world starts to spiral. Well written and crafted story, narrated 50 years after the events outlined took place, it did feel throughout like what it was, a debut novel but with a whole lot of promise. I'll have no hesitation reading more from this writer.
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Just saw this had a movie release. I hope they do it justice, it definitely has potential to be a compelling feature.
 
Bull Shannon said:
Book 34: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, by Taylor Jenkins Reid
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I'm a sucker for Taylor Jenkins Reid, and this novel seems like the inflection point in her career, the book booktok adores (if every Criterion Closet video includes one mention of Being There, every booktok suggestion video must flash Seven Husbands). I enjoyed it for the most part; a journalist is invited into a reclusive Hollywood starlet's home to write her tell-all biography, with her seven highly-publicized marriages as the skeleton of the tale. The ending was rather silly imo; I prefer Daisy Jones and the Six.

Book 35: Chain-Gang All-Stars, by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
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In rare form and spurred on by my utter unfamiliarity with anything on the yearly goodreads poll, I have picked up a buzzy new release. In a not-so-unfamiliar (elbows you slyly) near-future, prisoners can compete in televised gladiatorial battles for their freedom. This felt like a short story or novella padded out to novel length, and while there are many characters and perspectives shared, there's kind of just one story here. The writing is sharp and propulsive, but there's an emphasis on worldbuilding over story and didactic circumstances take precedence over character.

Book 36: Foucault's Pendulum, by Umberto Eco
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I read this in the background of the previous two, as it was work to get through. I don't mean to be dismissive, and maybe I should have been flipping through wikipedia to verse myself on some of the subjects discussed, but it felt like the point was to throw the reader into discursive discussions of historical theory and have a bit of a laugh over the imperceptible line between a logical conclusion and a fantabulist conspiracy. The bulk of the text consists of long discussions about history and is quite dry.
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Book 37: The Mysteries, by Bill Watterson and John Kascht
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I've actually spent the last three weeks reading Don Quixote (nearly done with part 1, will take a break between parts so I imagine you won't see an update to the 2024 thread until next month), but snuck this one in Christmas morning as it was a gift from my sister.

I heard muted response to this book once it came out. That's understandable; there's very little to this story, just 72 pages of an illustration paired with a sentence or two. It's really good, however; I thought it was a clever little fable which reminded me of the sort of story Calvin might tell in class and utterly vex Miss Wormwood. There's something of a climate fable here, though I'd zoom out further and say it's a nihilist/absurdist rumination of the Search for Meaning. Very glad to have this on my shelf.
 
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