Reader Harder List: 2018 Reading Challenge

Last year, Etudesque posted a book challenge list from PopSugar that I meant to update throughout the year and then managed to update all of twice. Whoops.

This year she's posted a list courtesy of Book Riot called Read Harder that I will attempt to remember this year. Or I'll do what I did before and forget about it until the last week in December.

1. A book published posthumously
2. A book of true crime
3. A classic of genre fiction (i.e., mystery, sci fi/fantasy, romance)

• And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. It was a reread but STILL COUNTS

1. A comic written and illustrated by the same person
2. A book set in or about one of the five BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa)
3. A book about nature
4. A western
5. A comic written or illustrated by a person of color
6. A book of colonial or postcolonial literature
7. A romance novel by or about a person of color
8. A children's classic published before 1980
9. A celebrity memoir
10. An Oprah Book Club selection
11. A book of social science
12. A one-sitting book
13. A first book in a new-to-you YA or middle grade series
14. A sci-fi novel with a female protagonist by a female author
15. A comic that isn't published by Marvel, DC or Image
16. A book of genre fiction in translation
17. A book with a cover you hate
18. A mystery by a person of color or LGBTQ+ author
19. An essay anthology
20. A book with a female protagonist over the age of 60
21. An assigned book you hated (or never finished)

OK so, when I saw how short the list was I was thinking "Yeah, I got this." And then as I looked at it closer I realized "Shit, yeah, this IS gonna be hard." Hence the name, I suppose. 

Well, one down at least. Let's see how the rest of the year goes

I swear, I'll get around to writing another real review soon. Scout's honor and all that. 

2017 Reading Challenge - check in 2

So a hundred years ago (or like, April but really, 2017? Every week is at least a year) I snagged a Reading Challenge thing posted by Etudesque who grabbed it from PopSugar. I thought I'd update the list every couple months. How adorably optimistic of me. Instead I apparently started a draft for "check in 2" and then promptly forgot about it. #MyLifeStory

It's almost the end of the year so let's see where I'm at and how much I have to go to complete this by end of year. You know, something I will definitely be able to do.

1. A book recommended by a librarian
2. A book that's been on your TBR way too long
3. A book of letters
4. An audiobook
• Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
5. A book by a person of color
• Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
6. A book with one of the four seasons in the title
7. A book that is a story within a story
8. A book with multiple authors
9. An espionage thriller
10. A book with a cat on the cover
• We Are Never Meeting in Real Life by Samantha Irby
11. A book by an author who uses a pseudonym
12. A bestseller from a genre you don't normally read
13. A book by or about a person who has a disability
14. A book involving travel
• All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai (time travel is travel, right?)
15. A book with a subtitle
• Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman by Lindy West
16. A book that's published in 2017
• Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward (released in Sept)
17. A book involving a mythical creature
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
18. A book you've read before that never fails to make you smile
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
19. A book about food
• The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
20. A book with career advice
• Feminist Fight Club by Jessica Bennett
21. A book from a nonhuman perspective
• A Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. Maybe? I mean, some of the characters are not human and we get their perspective. Right? Maybe
22. A steampunk novel
23. A book with a red spine
• I'm Judging You: The Do Better Manual by Luuvie Ajayi
24. A book set in the wilderness
• State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
25. A book you loved as a child
26. A book by an author from a country you've never visited
• Rich People Problems by Kevin Kwan (Singapore)
27. A book with a title that's a character's name
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
28. A novel set during wartime
• World War Z by Max Brooks
29. A book with an unreliable narrator
• Grotesque by Natsuo Kirino
30. A book with pictures
31. A book where the main character is a different ethnicity than you
• The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl by Issa Rae
32. A book about an interesting woman
• Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud: The Rise and Reign of the Unruly Women by Anne Helen Petersen
33. A book set in two different time periods
• Locke & Key by Joe Hill & Gabriel Rodriguez
34. A book with a month or day of the week in the title
• Atlanta Burns by Chuck Wendig
35. A book set in a hotel
36. A book written by someone you admire
• We Were Eight Years in Power by Ta-Nehisi Coates
37. A book that's becoming a movie in 2017
38. A book set around a holiday other than Christmas
39. The first book in a series you haven't read before
• John Dies in the End by David Wong
40. A book you bought on a trip
41. A book recommended by an author you love
42. A bestseller from 2016
• The Road to Little Dribbling by Bill Bryson. At least, I assume it was a best seller.
43. A book with a family member term in the title
• The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin ('wives' count right?)
44. A book that takes place over a character's life span
• Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore
45. A book about an immigrant or refugee
46. A book from a genre/subgenre that you've never heard of
47. A book with an eccentric character
48. A book that's more than 800 pages
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
49. A book you got from a used book sale
50. A book that's been mentioned in another book
51. A book about a difficult topic
• White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America by Nancy Isenberg
52. A book based on mythology

So not that bad. 28. And there's still time, you never know. 

2017 Reading Challenge - check in 1

Etudesque posted about a PopSugar 2017 Reading Challenge checklist and I like lists so I thought perhaps I'd check in at the end of each quarter and see where I'm at. I'm not actually super concerned with checking things off this list, but hey, perhaps this will help with picking next read

1. A book recommended by a librarian
2. A book that's been on your TBR way too long
3. A book of letters
4. An audiobook
• Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
5. A book by a person of color
• Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
6. A book with one of the four seasons in the title
7. A book that is a story within a story
8. A book with multiple authors
9. An espionage thriller
10. A book with a cat on the cover
11. A book by an author who uses a pseudonym
12. A bestseller from a genre you don't normally read
13. A book by or about a person who has a disability
14. A book involving travel
• All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai (time travel is travel, right?)
15. A book with a subtitle
• Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman by Lindy West
16. A book that's published in 2017
• Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward (to be released in Sept I think)
17. A book involving a mythical creature
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
18. A book you've read before that never fails to make you smile
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
19. A book about food
20. A book with career advice
• Feminist Fight Club by Jessica Bennett
21. A book from a nonhuman perspective
22. A steampunk novel
23. A book with a red spine
24. A book set in the wilderness
25. A book you loved as a child
26. A book by an author from a country you've never visited
27. A book with a title that's a character's name
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
28. A novel set during wartime
29. A book with an unreliable narrator
30. A book with pictures
31. A book where the main character is a different ethnicity than you
• The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl by Issa Rae
32. A book about an interesting woman
33. A book set in two different time periods
34. A book with a month or day of the week in the title
35. A book set in a hotel
36. A book written by someone you admire
37. A book that's becoming a movie in 2017
38. A book set around a holiday other than Christmas
39. The first book in a series you haven't read before
• John Dies in the End by David Wong
40. A book you bought on a trip
41. A book recommended by an author you love
42. A bestseller from 2016
43. A book with a family member term in the title
• The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin ('wives' count right?)
44. A book that takes place over a character's life span
45. A book about an immigrant or refugee
46. A book from a genre/subgenre that you've never heard of
47. A book with an eccentric character
48. A book that's more than 800 pages
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
49. A book you got from a used book sale
50. A book that's been mentioned in another book
51. A book about a difficult topic
52. A book based on mythology

OK, 13 out of the 52. Let's see what the next few months bring.

Smooth Criminals reading selection

It has taken me forever to pick out some books and sign up for Ben's Smooth Criminal reading challenge because a) challenges are scary and I already signed up for one and b) I was waiting for other people to pick out their books for this challenge so I could mooch off of their choices.

This is my tentative list, subject to change as my whims demand.

Hardboiled Classic
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammet

Noir Classic
Double Indemnity by James M. Cain

Prison Book
The Green Mile by Stephen King

Book written by a writer who did time
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

Book with psychopath as protagonist
The Collector by John Fowles

Gothic novel
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

Classic where plot revolves around a crime
I'm still working on this one...

The "why the hell am I doing this to myself" book
This is the only book for this challenge I knew right away: Franzen's The Corrections. It intimidates me and has been sitting on my shelf for over a year now, mocking me. I will win.

Back to the Classics - My tentative reading list

While I procrastinate on writing my review of Colson Whitehead's Zone One, I figured I'd start putting together a list of books to read for the Back to the Classics challenge. This has proven to be more difficult than I thought. Below is my tentative list of choices. The ones that have a little story around them (because I can't stop talking) are the ones I'm fairly sure of. The ones that are a list of titles are some suggestions so I don't forget them, but those are very much up for debate. And yes, I know there's only one option under Romance but it's still tentative. I can't think of any romances so suggestions are welcome.

Any 19th Century Classic
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
The War of the Worlds by HG Wells

Any 20th Century Classic 
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Reread a classic of your choice
Slaughterhouse-Five by Vonnegut. I read this when I was about 16, loved it, and then read a bunch of other Vonnegut (Breakfast of Champions being a favorite). But I haven't read the guy in awhile and it seems to make sense to go back to the beginning. Well beginning for me.

A Classic Play
Twelfth Night by Shakespeare. I was originally thinking of reading Midsummer but realized I should probably pick something I haven't read, not something I've read a bajillion and 12 times.

Classic Mystery/Horror/Crime Fiction -  
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I read a few pages of this when I was trying out the iBooks app on my iPod. Now seems like a good opportunity to actually finish it.

Classic Romance
Emma by Jane Austen

A Classic translated from its original language to your native language
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. I would have never come up with this one except my good friend has been bugging me to read this for awhile and he offered to lend me his copy for the challenge. So how could I pass that up?

Classic Award Winner
The Confederancy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk
The Hours by Michael Cunningham

Classic set in a country you (realistically speaking) will not visit during your lifetime
The Hobbit by Tolkein. I might hate myself for this. I read the first 2 LotR books and really tried to make it through RotK and couldn't do it. But I've had The Hobbit sitting on my shelf for years so I should just suck it up and read it.

Classics challenge or where I give in to (more) blogging peer pressure

Since starting this blog I have avoided challenges. I'm bad at doing stuff when I'm supposed to do it. I ever wrote a blog post titled Why I avoid challenges. I'm going to get over this or else fail spectacularly and learn my lesson but either way I'm going to be joining Sarah's Back to the Classics challenge. I have a few reasons for joining:

A lot of book bloggers I liked have decided to play along and I wanted to play too. (Hey you guys! Wait up!)
The challenge runs for the whole year. I can finish 9 books in a year.
My last 2 reading months have been pathetic and I need to fix this. And apparently me telling myself  "do this better" isn't cutting it.

I haven't picked the books out yet but here are the categories. If anyone has any recommendations, please let me know! Also you should join in the challenge. PEER PRESSURE

Any 19th Century Classic
Any 20th Century Classic
Reread a classic of your choice
A Classic Play
Classic Mystery/Horror/Crime Fiction
Classic Romance
A Classic translated from its original language to your native language
Classic Award Winner
Classic set in a country you (realistically speaking) will not visit during your lifetime


I really hope I don't get to December of next year and realize I've hardly done any reading. Fingers crossed!

One last challenge book...

Just one more

I finished Beijing Coma on the 27th and could easily have decided that the challenge was over and I could move on to other things, like that TBR stack I mentioned. But I didn't. Perhaps emboldened by the completion of Beijing Coma or because the month isn't actually over and I didn't want to quit, I picked up another book for this China Rican challenge. I skipped over another Puerto Rican book because I've been having a hard enough time finding titles, let alone titles that I want to read. Plus, even if I did find something, I'd have to buy it. Instead I went with another Chinese book for a couple reasons.

First up, China Pop by Jianying Zhu was already sitting on the shelf. In college, Boyfriend took a couple Chinese classes: language, culture, philosophy. So he has some Chinese books laying around the house. No Chinese lit, but things that qualify for this challenge. So it was easy to get. Plus it has bright colors and is about pop culture, which means it sparked my interest. The more trivial the topic, the more interesting I find it. There must be some inverse mathematical formula that can be applied there, but I'll let some of my smarter friends figure that out. I asked him how the book was and he shrugged his shoulders and said pretty boring. Super. Hopefully he's wrong.

Second, this picks up discussing Tiananmen Square, the horrors that happened there and the cultural move from that point onward through China's shifting identity. And I need that because my reaction to the ending of Beijing Coma was similar to my reaction to Orwell's 1984: I wanted to hide under the covers with my fingers in my ears and pretend nothing like that could ever happen. I'm pretty sure I turned on the TV after I finished the book, but I was just blankly staring at the images while trying to process what I'd just read. I needed something to show me not everything is dark and evil and there is hope, even if it's wrapped up with a Chinese soap opera.

So yeah, the challenge that I debated giving up on not long ago. I extended it. Because I'm a glutton for punishment apparently. Review to come soon.

Why I avoid challenges

I am 65% of the way through Ma Jian's Beijing Coma which translates to 468 pages out of 720 and I really wish now Kindle would just put little page numbers on here in addition to the location and percentage stuff. I need at least 3 different indicators of how far along a book I am when I don't have the weight of the book in front of me. Anyway, what I'm saying is, I'm not going to have a review of this anytime soon. I know I tend to post multiple times about a book while I'm reading it, but believe it or not, I do tend to do that only if I have something to say. Or at least I think I have something I want to say. Whether you think I did is really a different matter. I have lots I want to mention but so far it mostly has to do with how little I know about this period of Chinese history, even though I was alive for most of the time period described. Don't worry, I'll go into how pathetic I am in that post. Right now though what I'd like to do is take a little break from Beijing Coma so I have a new, less-depressing book and maybe something I can post about. I don't have a problem breaking up a book like this. I did it with Strange & Norrell and that book wasn't even depressing. Just ridiculously long.

Here's my problem though: I'm doing this China Rican reading challenge. But I don't really want to break up Beijing Coma with another book for this challenge. See I haven't really been able to find, well, any books I can use for the Puerto Rican part of this challenge. I only have the 2, the one I already read When I Was Puerto Rican and I heard about another one called The Time It Snowed in Puerto Rico. I read about the "snow" one on someone else's blog and honestly, they didn't have great things to say about it. It was OK but not really worth it. I added it to my list in the hopes that I'd find something better. But I haven't yet. And When I Was Puerto Rican was alright but a bit of a let down as well. So I don't really have another challenge book I can use to break up Beijing Coma, at least nothing I'm looking forward to reading.

To top that off, I do have a pile of books that I really do want to read, just staring me in the face with these Disney eyes, asking why I'm ignoring them. I know lots of people have insane TBR piles, but I don't. When I say my TBR pile I'm referring to an imaginary list that I'd like to maybe get around to reading at some point. I don't typically have an actual, physical pile of books. This time however, I do have that stack*. And I want to read them, but none of them qualify for this challenge. Yeah, I know I made up this challenge. No one actually would care if I finished it. Hell, Boyfriend doesn't even really care. At one point I asked him what he thought of me doing this and he just laughed. Granted that was most likely his reaction to watching me run in circles while playing L.A. Noire** which really just means he ignored my question. Because I think that he likes that I'm doing it on some level, but really it doesn't matter to him all that much. He doesn't want to say it doesn't matter, hence the change in subject. Even though he doesn't care, and really precisely because no one cares, I don't want to cheat, because then I'm just cheating me. OK, so I'll stick to the challenge, but now the challenge is starting to feel like work. And I hate that.

I guess what I'm saying is, I'm glad I started this challenge because I read some books I very likely wouldn't have picked up and I have a whole bunch of Chinese authors on my TBR pile (the imaginary list one) to check out and I do think I'm learning slightly more about the countries and cultures. And I've cemented why I normally avoid challenges and that I'll most likely be avoiding them in the future.

*If you're curious, here's my current stack of books that is just waiting for me to finish up with this challenge so I can get to them:
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
Hogdoggin' by Anthony Neil Smith
Tokyo Vice by Jake Adelstein
Superfreakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner

**OK, the last game I just finished playing (replaying) was Luigi's Mansion so obviously I am a sporadic gamer. I've watched people play the GTA series but I've never done it myself. So what I'm saying is the controls are all new to me and quit laughing at me just because I get stuck between like every door and gate there is in this stupid game and omg did the suspect get away AGAIN because I still can't figure out how to read a map. Dammit.

China Rican reading month is here

Back in April I wrote a post declaring* that I was going to do my own little China Rican reading challenge in honor of the fact that I know pretty much nothing of Boyfriend's Chinese and Puerto Rican heritage. I feel like I should point out his knowledge on the topic is only slightly more developed than mine by whatever. I asked him what month he wanted and he picked June because it's warm out and that is all it takes to declare that month yours.

I never hoped to be able to find books written by China Rican authors so I settled for books written by either Chinese or Puerto Rican authors. Then I expanded it to include books written by Chinese-Americans or Puerto Ricans living in the US. Or books about those locations even if the author isn't from there. With the help of some fellow book bloggers I have a fantastic list of Chinese books, more than I'll ever get to this month but that are making it on my regular TBR list. Puerto Rican authors have been much harder to come by. I found a couple books and have them on my list but hopefully another will show up and I'll have some variety.

I'm starting with Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club because I already own it. The less money I have to spend the better. That review will be coming up shortly.

*Just writing that makes me think of The Office and "I declare BANKRUPTCY."

China Rican book requests

I'd like to walk you through a conversation between Boyfriend and I that took place while we were wandering around NYC this past March.

Boyfriend: What are all these signs for "her-story" for?
Me: It's Women's History month.
Boyfriend: What? It is? Black History month then Women's History month? Everyone gets their own month. Where's my month?
Me: Whiny boy month? Isn't that every month?
Boyfriend: Shut up, we need a China Rican month!
Me: So, is that studying the history of your family? I don't know if you're going to get a huge groundswell of followers for that.
Boyfriend: It's exclusive.

Admittedly he has a bit of a point. I can't say my Chinese history knowledge is super keen and my Puerto Rican history is even worse. I don't plan on picking up any history books to fill in the gaps, at least not at the moment, but I am willing to do something to support his fake history month. Now I don't expect to find any China Rican authors but I figure I'll read books about each half. So now I need to fill my literary deficiency and I'm hoping you guys can help.  Does anyone have any recommendations for books written by Chinese or Puerto Rican authors or else about China or Puerto Rico?

I own The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan.  I realize she's Chinese-American so it only kind of counts but I already have it so I'm going to re-read it for this little mini-challenge. I found a memoir called When I Was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago, which is about her growing up in rural Puerto Rico and then later moving to NYC. So both of the books are split between China/Puerto Rico and the US. At least there's a theme there. And Pete from What You Read recommended Ma Jian's Bejing Coma so that's another for me to be on the lookout for.

So if anyone has any recommendations, please send them my way because I'm really at a loss.  And if anyone would like to join me in this, Boyfriend has declared June as China-Rican month because he likes warms weather. Is there more that usually goes into deciding on a  [blank] history month?