* = personal favorite
Jon Ronson - So You've Been Publicly ShamedJonathan Abrams - All the Pieces Matter: The Inside Story of The WireDavid Gerard - Attack of the 50 Foot BlockchainTressie McMillan Cottom - Thick and other essaysGrady Hendrix - Paperbacks from Hell* Vincent Bevins - The Jakarta MethodJohn Berger - The Red Tenda of Bologna* Lilian Faderman - The Gay RevolutionDan Davies - Lying for MoneyBart D. Ehrman - Misquoting Jesus* Robert Caro - The Power BrokerFrederick Crews - Freud: The Making of an Illusion (currently reading)
* Charles Portis - Masters of AtlantisJean Rhys - Wide Sargasso SeaMagda Szabó - AbigailOctavia E. Butler - KindredMartha Wells - All Systems RedJeff VanderMeer - Hummingbird Salamander (2021)Jason Shiga - DemonHarry Kemelman - Friday the Rabbi Slept LatePaul Halter - The Seventh HypothesisMasako Togawa - The Master KeyStefan Zweig - ChessDaryl Gregory - The Album of Dr. Moreau (2021)Mat Johnson - PymNnedi Okorafor - BintiPatricia Lockwood - No One Is Talking About This (2021)
I had a resolution to do 50 this year but I only made it to 27. No biggie.goodreads page: https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2021/5253329
― adam t. (abanana), Thursday, 23 December 2021 07:44 (two years ago) link
Have been adding books I bought to goodreads as Currently Reading since I actually possess them with that intention in mind. Not total long finger like Want To Read or some such. So may be able to work out which is what for a change.Though maybe do need to swap to a non Amazon related equivalent.
― Stevolende, Thursday, 23 December 2021 08:11 (two years ago) link
no lime tangier's list is the only one posted so far that i've EVER read anything from.
and is curious because of the runs of similar authors. i've never tried that (although already have plans for a reread of the bridge trilogy early in new year)
― koogs, Thursday, 23 December 2021 09:32 (two years ago) link
JUst bought Kindred yesterday cos it was cheap in the local bookseller. Got Parable of teh Sower a coupll eof weeks ago. & read Dawn the first part of her Xenogenesis trilogy earlier this year. Have it asanomnibus of the trilogy. Foun dit really good.So not sure why I didn't get further into the book. Got a load of Toni Morrison this year too but didn't finish anything
& had read teh Jon Ronson though don't think it was last year.
― Stevolende, Thursday, 23 December 2021 10:06 (two years ago) link
I highly recommend going on runs of the same author. I like getting into their world a bit.
― we need outrage! we need dicks!! (the table is the table), Thursday, 23 December 2021 14:55 (two years ago) link
Closing in at 140 books.
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 23 December 2021 14:57 (two years ago) link
yeah I binged on Natalia Ginzburg in the spring, my discovery of the year.
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 23 December 2021 14:58 (two years ago) link
If I find an author I really like I prefer to stretch out over years the pleasure of discovering all their works. Halfway through my 77th of the year, if I find some short ones I might make 80.
― two sleeps till brooklyn (ledge), Thursday, 23 December 2021 15:06 (two years ago) link
I usually like to have some recovery time from an author after 1 or 2 books.
I'll probably hit 57, plus a dozen or so graphic novels. I might have gotten to 60, but foolishly picked up a thousand-page Robert Jordan book to end the year.
― jmm, Thursday, 23 December 2021 15:14 (two years ago) link
I'm on 57 too - with hopefully a couple more before the year is out. One consequence of getting the rona was more time to read.
I used to read exclusively one author when I was a nipper but can't even countenance the idea these days. For better or worse, I much prefer to read sporadically and diffusely.
― Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Thursday, 23 December 2021 15:22 (two years ago) link
Is higher than like 40 or so at the expense of other media or do you speed read and still get the full enjoyment etc.
― Stevolende, Thursday, 23 December 2021 15:41 (two years ago) link
I love it all.
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 23 December 2021 15:58 (two years ago) link
I'm also a bachelor and fancy free.
I've never been able to fathom reading 50 books in a year, one a month is my minimum to feel good about my life, so this was a good reading year for me (after a slow start).
― change display name (Jordan), Thursday, 23 December 2021 16:05 (two years ago) link
I read pretty widely and diffusely, too, but I think that with poetry— especially more innovative or experimental work— there's more of a reason to stay with a writer for a string of books. With a novel or book of short stories, a reader can usually get a reasonable idea of a writer's style, preoccupations, etc. With many poets, one book doesn't get the reader as far. But maybe that's just my experience.
― we need outrage! we need dicks!! (the table is the table), Thursday, 23 December 2021 16:06 (two years ago) link
with poetry I don't even count the volumes among the books I've read; I often read a dozen or so before deciding to continue.
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 23 December 2021 16:07 (two years ago) link
I should say, too, that one of the reasons why my numbers are so high is that there are entries that are chapbooks— 10-20 page little things. I include them because sometimes, those little books add up to more than much longer books, in terms of impact and time spent reading.
― we need outrage! we need dicks!! (the table is the table), Thursday, 23 December 2021 16:07 (two years ago) link
Two small kids don't leave much time in the evening for any media but I read for on average maybe 45 minutes every night almost every night. I used to sometimes take a break between books, this is the first year I've pretty much read non stop.
― two sleeps till brooklyn (ledge), Thursday, 23 December 2021 16:11 (two years ago) link
I don't speed read but I am a quick reader. I might have sped read a couple of books that were rubbish but I to find out how they ended.
― two sleeps till brooklyn (ledge), Thursday, 23 December 2021 16:30 (two years ago) link
i often wake up to find i managed only a page and a half the night before.
mornings are more useful for me, and those 2-3am between sleeps times.
― koogs, Thursday, 23 December 2021 17:35 (two years ago) link
Mornings are my best, too— I can often read 30-50 pages of a novel during my breakfast and coffee time.
― we need outrage! we need dicks!! (the table is the table), Thursday, 23 December 2021 17:38 (two years ago) link
Poetry depends on the poems, really.
― mardheamac (gyac), Thursday, 23 December 2021 17:44 (two years ago) link
Most of my reading this year was rereads, which I don’t include in my total. Also read a lot of short stories (not included) and so basically my actual list of new reads is pretty short at this point, but I hope to read more next year.The Blue Ticket - Sophie MackintoshThere Are Little Kingdoms - Kevin BarryTomie- Junji ItoAbandon The Old In Tokyo - Yoshihiro TastsumiTokyo Girls Bravo - Kyoko OkazakiThe Water Cure - Sophie MackintoshVox - Christina DalcherNormal Sheeple - Ross O’Carroll-Kelly (this run of reads and rereads inspired by this essay, which was one of the best things I read this year)Operation Trumpsformation - Ross O’Carroll-KellyBraywatch - Ross O’Carroll-KellySchmidt Happens - Ross O’Carroll-KellyThe Midwich Cuckoos - John WyndhamThe Silent Woman - Janet Malcolm
― mardheamac (gyac), Thursday, 23 December 2021 17:55 (two years ago) link
I thought chapbooks were 25-75 pages. All the ones I've seen were.
― Christine Green Leafy Dragon Indigo, Thursday, 23 December 2021 17:57 (two years ago) link
Christine, they can be quite long, or quite short.
gyac, I don't really care what you think.
― we need outrage! we need dicks!! (the table is the table), Thursday, 23 December 2021 17:59 (two years ago) link
Seeing as how a 30 page chapbook could take my three days to get through and a whole novel could take me an afternoon, and with the same amount of time spent reading, idea that my list is "cheating" is bollocks.
― we need outrage! we need dicks!! (the table is the table), Thursday, 23 December 2021 18:01 (two years ago) link
Sorry, not clear in that post, but whatever.
Yes, your post offended me, because it's wrong.
another year of retirement, another ridiculous assortment
3 Nicholas Blake novels6 Andrea Camilleri novels4 John Dickson Carr novels4 Donna Leon novels18 Ross Macdonald novels (a reread of the Lew Archer series)2 Giorgio Scerbanenco novels3 Simenon novels (completing a reread of the Maigret series)3 Manuel Vázquez Montalbán novels2 Seishi Yokomizo novels
Bosco, Death Going Down Boucher, Rocket to the MorgueBude, Death Makes a ProphetBurton, The Secret of High EldershamClarke, Childhood’s EndCrispin, The Moving ToyshopGoethe (tr. Luke), Faust Part 2Green, The Circular StudyHendrix, The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying VampiresJodorowsky & Moebius, The IncalJoshi (ed.), American Supernatural TalesKing, FirestarterLe Guin, The Lathe of Heaven Lodwick, Brother DeathMatsumoto, A Quiet PlaceMetcalfe, The Feasting DeadMeyrink, The GolemMillar, Fire Will FreezeMillar, The Devil Loves MePriestley, Salt Is LeavingPriestley, Saturn Over the WaterShimada, Murder in the Crooked HouseStevens (Bennett), The Heads of Cerberus
Alter & Cosman, A Lion for Love: A Critical Biography of StendhalBarthes, MythologiesBenshoff (ed.), A Companion to the Horror FilmBrotherstone & Lawrence, Scarred for Life: Volume One, The 1970sCohen, Pathways of Karate DevelopmentGarth, Tolkien and the Great WarGreen & Svith (eds.), Martial Arts in the Modern WorldHanegraaff (ed.), Dictionary of Gnosis & Western EsotericismHutton, The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British IslesHutton, The Triumph of the MoonJoshi, Unutterable Horror: A History of Supernatural Fiction, vols. 1 and 2Marcuse, One-Dimensional ManMol, Classical Fighting Arts of JapanNakasone & Mabuni, An Introduction to Karate-doPopoff, Who Invented Heavy Metal?Rée & Urmson (eds.), The Concise Encyclopedia of Western Philosophy, 3rd ed.Said, OrientalismStendhal, LoveStendhal, Memoirs of Egotism Stendhal, Rome, Naples and FlorenceSullivan, Elegant Nightmares: The English Ghost Story from Le Fanu to BlackwoodYoung & Schmidt, All Gates Open: The Story of Can
― Brad C., Thursday, 23 December 2021 18:15 (two years ago) link
no lime Tangier - I love those books by Strindberg. Very underrated writer of prose.
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 23 December 2021 18:43 (two years ago) link
I can't believe Table cheated with his list. Stand in the corner and think about what you've done.Fwiw, I wish I *could* be less dissolute and more systematic in my reading (and listening) but I ping and bounce all over the bloody place and that seems to be that.
― Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Thursday, 23 December 2021 19:26 (two years ago) link
I'm currently at 30 or 31, but will wait until year-end to post my list. I'm hoping I can read maybe one more.
― o. nate, Thursday, 23 December 2021 19:34 (two years ago) link
Arlie Russell Hochschild - Strangers In Their Own LandMark Yarm - Everbody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of GrungeJames Ellroy - The Big NowhereYanis Varoufakis - Another NowMohsin Hamid - The Reluctant FundamentalistRoisin Kiberd - The Disconnect: A Personal Journey Through The InternetGarth Ennis - Preacher: Book 5Mark Harris - Pictures At A Revolution:Five Movies and The Birth of New HollywoodThomas Ligotti - My Work Is Not Yet DoneAnne Rice - The Vampire Lestat
― Saxophone Of Futility (Michael B), Thursday, 23 December 2021 20:08 (two years ago) link
Patrick Wyman - The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance and Forty Years That Shook The World 1490-1530
― Saxophone Of Futility (Michael B), Thursday, 23 December 2021 20:10 (two years ago) link
Lolly Willowes (O052) - Sylvia Townsend WarnerPattern Recognition - William Gibson (R)The Card - Arnold BennettShift - Hugh HoweyThe Owl Service - Alan GarnerDark Entries - Robert Aickman (+)Seeds Of Time - John WyndhamSlade House - David Mitchell (+)The Last Day of a Condemned Man - Victor HugoThe Man Who Was Thursday - G K ChestertonAutumn - Ali SmithBleak House - Charles Dickens (R)Ramble Book - Adam BuxtonXX - Ryan HughesThe Old Man And The Sea - Earnest Hemingway (+)The Sea, The Sea - Iris MurdochThe Sea Wolf - Jack LondonInverted World - Christopher PriestThe Story Of Your Life and Others - Ted ChiangOne Thousand Ships - Natalie HaynesAmber Fury - Natalie HaynesAlcestis - EuripidesAgamemnon - AeschylusDeath’s End - Cixin LiuChildren Of Ruin - Adrian TchaikovskyElla Minnow Pea - Mark DunnDriftglass - Sam DelanyThe Road - Cormac McCarthyThings Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe24 Jigsaw - Ed McBainThe Monarch Of The Glen - Neil GaimanBlack Dog - Neil GaimanBody In The Library - Agatha ChristieAn Event In Autumn - MankellUnder the Greenwood Tree (1872) - Thomas Hardy (+)The Castle Of Otranto - Horace WalpoleO009 Nightmare Abbey - Thomas Love Peacock1848 Mary Barton - Elizabeth GaskellSmall Island - Andrea LevyAccidental Tourist - Anne Tyler (R) (+)The Honjin Murders - Seishi YokomizoAnna Of The Five Towns - Arnold Bennett (+)Slaughterhouse V - Kurt Vonnegut (R)Sketches By Boz - Charles Dickens
(R) = reread(+) = favourites, probably
― koogs, Thursday, 23 December 2021 22:35 (two years ago) link
<3 thomas love peacock, though i seem to recall he doesn't come out particularly well from the portrait meredith painted of him in the egoist.
xposts: the strindbergs are a revisit in light of reading the very good lagercrantz biography. i should really read more of his plays than i have done, but it is his fiction/quasi-fiction that i find myself most drawn towards.
re the runs of similar authors mentioned above: i guess that's always been my method? whether genre, epoch, theme, whathaveyou... never really given it much consideration ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
― no lime tangier, Thursday, 23 December 2021 23:45 (two years ago) link
like the Otranto i had nightmare abbey down as early horror and like the Otranto it was nothing of the sort so was mostly disappointed.
i do notice i had a few duplicate authors myself including 2 where i read them back to back.
― koogs, Friday, 24 December 2021 00:02 (two years ago) link
ha, yeah: apart from some of his settings there is very little gothic/horror about tlp!
― no lime tangier, Friday, 24 December 2021 00:23 (two years ago) link
Remain in Love by Chris Frantz
The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante
Alright, Alright, Alright: The Oral History of Dazed and Confused by Melissa Maerz
A History of Bones by John Lurie
Please tell us about these!
― dow, Friday, 24 December 2021 04:15 (two years ago) link
Also, koogs meant to post about ed mcbain on here---my local library shop suddenly has a ton of him; how is he?
― dow, Friday, 24 December 2021 04:16 (two years ago) link
he pretty much invented the ensemble cast police thing like homicide and NYPD blue and each book reads like an episode of one of those (and i would love to see the TV adaptations they did in the 50s). they are of their time though, so sexist and racist language ahoy. I've been reading them mostly in order and this was about the 20th and i don't plan on stopping. nice quick reads too.
(the Martin Beck books that were posted, Roseanne etc, are the cool Swedish cousin of these)
― koogs, Friday, 24 December 2021 07:56 (two years ago) link
Books:
Fatal Subtraction: How Hollywood Really Does Business - Pierce O'Donnell & Dennis McDougal 2/5The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov (Pevear & Volokhonsky translation) 4/5The Wine Dark Sea - Robert Aickman 4/5The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.- Arthur Conan Doyle 4/5The Forever War - Joe Haldeman 4/5Thirteen - Steve Cavanagh 2/5The Big Sleep - Raymond Chandler 4/5Nicholas Ray: The Glorious Failure of an American Director - Patrick McGilligan 3/5Cotters' England - Christina Stead 3/5A Man Lay Dead - Ngaio Marsh 2/5The Very Best of Fantasy & Science Fiction: Sixtieth Anniversary Anthology - Gordon Van Gelder (editor) 4/5The Woman in the Window - A J Finn 1/5The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood - Sam Wasson 3/5Catch 22 - Joseph Heller 4/5Guardians of Time - Poul Anderson 3/5Fair Warning - Michael Connelly 2/5More Than Human - Theodore Sturgeon 3/5England's Hidden Reverse - David Keenan 4/5Elric - Michael Moorcock (Fantasy Masterpieces collection) 4/5Red Harvest - Dashiel Hammett 4/5Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA and the Secret History of the Sixties - Tom O'Neill 4/5Rosemary's Baby - Michael Newton (BFI Film Classics) 3/5Rosemary's Baby - Ira Levin 4/5Groovy Bob: The Life and Times of Robert Fraser - Harriet Vyner 4/5At the Mountains of Madness and Other Novels of Terror - H P Lovecraft 3/5Fall: The Mystery of Robert Maxwell - John Preston 3/5The Law of Innocence - Michael Connelly 3/5The Unlimited Dream Company - J G Ballard 4/5The Hollow Man - John Dickson Carr 3/5An English Murder - Cyril Hare 4/5
Graphic Novels:
Izngoud the Relentless - Goscinny & Tabary 3/5izngoud Rockets to Stardom - Goscinny & Tabary 3/5Essential Avengers 8 - Shooter, Byrne, Perez et al 3/5Age of Ultron - Bendis & Hitch 3/5Amazing Spider-Man: Election Day - Guggenheim, Romita Jr et al 2/5Captain America: Reborn - Brubaker et al 3/5Captain America Vol 2 - Brubaker & Davis 3/5Iznogoud and the Jigsaw Turk - Goscinny & Tabary 3/5Izngoud's Fairy Tale - Goscinny & Tabary 3/5Iznogoud's Nightmares - Goscinny & Tabary 3/5Iznogoud I Want to be Caliph Instead of the Caliph - Goscinny & Tabary 1/5Daredevil: The Devil, Inside and Out - Brubaker & Lark 4/5Fantastic Four: Unstable Molecules - Sturm, Davis & Sikoryak 3/5The Invaders: The Eve of Destruction -Stern, Manley et al 2/5The Invincible Iron Man: The Five Nightmares - Fraction & Larocca 2/5Ultimate Spider-man 14: Warriors - Bendis & Bagley 3/5The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire 1 - Butterworth and Lawrence 4/5Catwoman: Trail of the Catwoman - Brubaker & Cooke 4/5Catwoman: Relentless - Brubaker, Stewart & Pulido 3/5Morbius Epic Collection 1: The Living Vampire - Gerber, McGregor, Thomas, Conway, Kane et al 3/5Ultimate X-Men 7: Blockbuster - Bendis & Finch 3/5Ultimate x-Men 8: New Mutants - Bendis & Finch 3/5Ultimate Spider-man 20: And His Amazing Friends - Bendis & Immonen 3/5Ultimate Spider-man: Ultimatum - Bendis & Immonen 3/5The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire 2 - Butterworth, Lawrence & Embleton 4/5Ultimate Spider-man: Death of Spider-man - Bendis & Bagley 3/5Ultimate Spider-man: United We Stand, Divided We Fall - Bendis, Marquez, Larraz 3/5Spider-Men - Bendis & Pichelli 3/5Uncanny X-Men: The Extremists - Brubaker, Larocca, Keith 2/5Pulp - Brubaker & Phillips 3/5Immortal Hulk 1: Or is he Both? - Ewing, Bennett et al 4/5 (UK collection)Manhunter Deluxe Edition - Goodwin & Simonson 4/5
― Ward Fowler, Friday, 24 December 2021 08:02 (two years ago) link
The Old Man And The Sea - Earnest Hemingway (+)The Sea, The Sea - Iris MurdochThe Sea Wolf - Jack LondonYou should've added The Sea by John Banville in the middle here.
― two sleeps till brooklyn (ledge), Friday, 24 December 2021 08:34 (two years ago) link
(xp to koogs)
ha, yeah, i said as much at the time. but a) it was too expensive and too unknown to do that for the small amount of lols and b) i tend do blocks of a month and the 3 filled the month as it was, the middle one being an especially slow read.
― koogs, Friday, 24 December 2021 08:50 (two years ago) link
ira Levin has a good hit rate i think. his trick of putting the twist ending in the middle has served him well, it lets him write about the fallout of that for another 100 pages. i remember being amazed by the twist in A Kiss Before Dying.
the thing i remember of Rosemary's Baby is all the potential names they keep using for the unborn baby - andyordebbie
― koogs, Friday, 24 December 2021 08:57 (two years ago) link
I read Michael Newton's new BFI monograph on Rosemary's Baby (slightly disappointing after his brilliant entry on Kind Hearts and Coronets) and then went back to the film, and then read the novel for the first time. The film really is one of the most faithful adaptations of a book, ever - nothing is added, and almost nothing taken away (just a tiny amount of non-essential backstory, really). The masterstroke of Rosemary's Baby the novel (and by extension the film) is the modern-day, even 'modish' setting, and the way that the Satanists are old and uncool - and lethal.
Agree that Levin's hit rate is pretty astonishing, and that the big twist in A Kiss Before Dying is all-time, although I can't find a good word to be said for his very late sequel to Rosemary's Baby.
― Ward Fowler, Friday, 24 December 2021 11:08 (two years ago) link
I did a double-take for a moment there, thinking it said “Michael Nesmith’s new BFI monograph.” #onethread
― Santa’s Got a Brand New Pigbag (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 24 December 2021 13:18 (two years ago) link
I have a running list, I’ll post it in a few days.
― Legalize Suburban Benches (Raymond Cummings), Friday, 24 December 2021 13:35 (two years ago) link
My full list of 75 (including business/software books I read for work that are presumably of no interest) is on goodreads. Quite a lot fewer books than last year, mostly due to my reading two volumes of Caro on LBJ and the 1000+ pp Gotham.
Here's my favorites (in order read)
FICTION
Assembly by Natasha BrownA Lie Someone Told You About Yourself by Peter Ho DaviesThe King at the Edge of the World by Arthur PhilipsKudos by Rachel CuskStubborn Archivist by Yara Rodrigues FowlerA Thousand Ships by Natalie HaynesThe Mezzanine by Nicholson BakerThe Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le CarrePiranesi by Susanna ClarkeThe Fisherman by John LanganNorth and South by Elizabeth GaskellContact by Carl SaganButcher's Crossing by John WilliamsThe Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley RobinsonSmiley's People by John le CarreHamnet by Maggie O'FarrellTransit by Rachel CuskThe Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
NON-FICTION
Means of Ascent by Robert CaroThe Path to Power by Robert CaroThe Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World by Vincent BevinsNotes from an Apocalypse: A Personal Journey to the End of the World and Back by Mark O'ConnellHow the 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump by Spencer AckermanMinor Feelings by Cathy Park HongGotham by Edwin Burrows and Mike Wallace
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Friday, 24 December 2021 17:55 (two years ago) link
After not reading much at all in 2020, I made up for it a bit in 2021 with a lot of escapism
Finished:
Natalie Zina Walschots - HenchErin Hunter - Warriors: Fire and IceJenny Odell - How to Do NothingGabor Mate - ScatteredErin Hunter - Warriors: Forest of SecretsErin Hunter - Warriors: Rising StormTiffany Pitts - ParallaxMartha Wells - All Systems RedMartha Wells - Artificial ConditionMartha Wells - Rogue ProtocolMartha Wells - Exit StrategyMartha Wells - Network EffectViolet McNeal - Four White Horses and a Brass BandPhilip Pullman - The Secret CommonwealthMichaelangelo Matos - Can't Slow DownJonathan Meiburg - A Most Remarkable CreatureNancy Mace - The 36-hour DayRose Szabo - What Big TeethOliver James - Contented DementiaDavid Hill - The VaporsKevin Wilson - The Family FangMartha Wells - Fugitive TelemetryElissa Altman - MotherlandRussell Barkley - When an Adult You Love Has ADHDAnita Robertson - ADHD & UsConnie Willis - Take a Look At the Five and TenJohn Steinbeck - Cannery Row*John Steinbeck - Sweet Thursday*Jen Gunter - The Menopause ManifestoHaven Kimmel - She Got Up Off the CouchEdward Hallowell - Driven to DistractionArielle Schwartz - A Practical Guide to Complex PTSDKC Davis - How to Keep House While DrowningRussell Barkley - Taking Charge of Adult ADHDHaven Kimmel - The Used WorldNaomi Kritzer - Catfishing on CatNetNaomi Kritzer - Chaos on CatNetAmanda Montell - WordslutK.J. Parker - Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled CityFrancine Shapiro - Getting Past Your PastAdam Chandler - Drive-Thru DreamsMelissa Orlov - The ADHD Effect on MarriageSteven Petrow - Stupid Things I Won't Do When I Get OldGrady Hendrix - The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying VampiresRachel Miller - The Art of Showing UpGrady Hendrix - My Best Friend's ExorcismJackson Galaxy - Total Cat MojoHarriet Lerner - Why Won't You ApologizeShankar Vedantam - The Hidden BrainNaomi Kritzer - Little Free LibraryGrady Hendrix - The Final Girl Support GroupCarmen Maria Machado - In the Dream HouseJackson Galaxy - Cat DaddyNick Harkaway - The Gone-Away WorldAmaryllis Fox - Life UndercoverGrady Hendrix - HorrorstorAmanda Montell - CultishJimmy Carter - The Virtues of AgingLaura Parnell - Tapping InMary Roach - FuzzGrady Hendrix - Paperbacks from HellDeborah Copaken - LadypartsStephen Porges - The Pocket Guide to Polyvagal TheoryCalvin Kasulke - Several People Are TypingK Eason - How Rory Thorne Destroyed the MultiverseCrystal Fleming - How to Be Less Stupid about RaceGrady Hendrix - We Sold Our SoulsNedra Tawwab - Set Boundaries, Find PeaceAlan Floyd - Vagus Nerve and Polyvagal TheoryCandace Gorham - On Death, Dying, and DisbeliefCatherynne Valente - Comfort Me with ApplesRichard Powers - The OverstoryTove Jansson - The True DeceiverJ B MacKinnon - The Day the World Stops ShoppingLouise Fitzhugh - Harriet the Spy
Stalled:
Gary Taubes - The Case for KetoAlison Weir - Mistress of the MonarchyKevin Roose - FutureproofBecky Chambers - The Long Way to a Small, Angry PlanetChina Mieville - Three Moments of ExplosionNaomi Kritzer - Cat Pictures Please and other storiesTara Branch - Radical CompassionFaith Harper - Unfuck Your BrainKen Wilbur - The Spectrum of Consciousness
Bailed:
Linda Abbit - The Conscious CaregiverArielle Schwartz - The Post-Traumatic Growth GuidebookClayton Christensen - How Will You Measure Your LifeRuss Harris - The Confidence Gap
*reread
― Jaq, Saturday, 1 January 2022 19:20 (two years ago) link
"The Road into the Open - Arthur Schnitzler"
Didn't know this was a novel - how was it?
― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 1 January 2022 21:20 (two years ago) link
I thought it was a great read, capturing Viennese twilight culture, antisemitism and debates within the Jewish community with nuance. Really effective at creating a tone for the period. The dilettante aristocrat composer protagonist is unsympathetic, but well drawn.
― bulb after bulb, Saturday, 1 January 2022 22:52 (two years ago) link
Thanks.
― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 1 January 2022 23:01 (two years ago) link
JANUARY
Ali Smith – WinterRobert V. Remini – Andrew Jackson and the Course of American FreedomGraham Greene – The ComediansSylvia Plath – The Bell JarJohn Le Carré – A Legacy of SpiesShakespeare – CymbelineGarth Greenwell – CleannessColin Tóibin – All a Novelist NeedsDavid S. Reynolds – Abe: Abraham Lincoln in His TimesNatalia Ginzburg – Happiness, As SuchNatalia Ginzburg – Valentine and SagittariusDaniel Mendelsohn – An Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic
FEBRUARY
Muriel Spark – The BachelorsHilary Holladay – The Power of Adrienne Rich: A BiographyAli Smith – SpringWallace Shawn – The Designated MournerKarl Ove Knausgaard – My Struggle: Book FourLewis L. Gould – The First Modern Clash over Federal Power: Wilson versus Hughes in the Presidential Election of 1916Naguib Mahfouz – The Thief and the DogsScott Eyman – Cary Grant: A Brilliant DisguiseMelissa Maerz – Alright, Alright, Alright: The Oral History of Richard Linklater’s Dazed and ConfusedElizabeth Bowen – Friends and RelationsCraig Fehrman – Author in Chief: The Untold Story of Our Presidents and the Books They Wrote
MARCH
Walter Kempowski – Marrow and BoneJean Stafford – The Collected Stories of Jean StaffordVirginia Woolf – The Voyage OutUrsula K. Le Guin – The Lathe of HeavenCurzio Malaparte – The SkinTom Paulin – MinotaurDavid Michaelis – EleanorWilliam Gass – On Being Blue: A Philosophical InquiryBeverly Cleary – Dear Mr. Henshaw…* Jean Stafford – The Mountain Lion
APRIL
Robert Elder – John Calhoun* Percy Bysshe Shelley – The CenciJohn Banville – SnowOctavia Butler – KindredGrahame Greene – The Ministry of FearMark Harris – Mike Nichols: A LifeMichel Foucault – The Uses of PleasureDamon Galgut – Arctic SummerRoberto Bolaño – Distant Star
MAY
Edward White – The Twelve Lives of Alfred HitchcockAnthony Trollope – The WardenLiva Baker – The Justice from Beacon Hill: The Life and Times of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.Susan Howe – My Emily Dickinson* E.M. Forster – MauriceThomas Bernhardt – The LoserAnnie Zaleski – Rio* F. Scott Fitzgerald – The Great GatsbyOctavia Butler – FledglingGraham Greene – The Honorary Consul* Shakespeare – MacbethNatalia Ginzberg – The Heat of the CityJoel Silbey – Party over Section: The Rough and Ready Presidential Election of 1848Thomas Mann – Reflections of a Nonpolitical Man
JUNE
Teju Cole – Open CityElizabeth Taylor – A Wreath of RosesJohn Le Carré – A Most Wanted ManEdith Wharton – The TouchstoneMichael Holt – By One Vote: The Disputed Presidential Election of 1876Richard Greene – The Unquiet Englishman: A Life of Graham GreenVladimir Nabokov – The Real Life of Sebastian KnightJames Lacey – The Washington War: FDR’s Inner Circle and the Politics of Power That Won World War IIShakespeare – Henry IV, Part TwoRalph Ellison – JuneteenthIris Murdoch – The Black PrinceCharles Mann – 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
JULY
Bill Goldstein – The World Broke in TwoDamon Galgut – The PromiseLauren Berlant – Cruel Optimism* Edith Wharton – The Custom of the CountryJane Bowles – Two Serious LadiesSue Roe – The Private Lives of the ImpressionistsNeil McCormick (editor) – U2 by U2Paul Bowles – The Spider’s HouseSerhii Plokhy – Nuclear Folly: A New History of the Cuban Missile CrisisJeremy D. Popkin – A New World Begins: The History of the French RevolutionKarin Roffman – The Songs We Know Best: John Ashbery’s Early LifeRonald Firbank – ValmouthJ.C. Ackerley – We Think the World of You
AUGUST
Ruth Harris – Dreyfus: Politics, Emotion, and the Scandal of the CenturyÉmile Zola – Thérèse RaquinJonathan M. Metzl – Death by Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America’s HeartlandLeonard Gardner – Fat CityColm Tóibín – The Heather BlazingV.S. Pritchett – The Gentle Barbarian: The Life and Work of TurgenevElena Ferrante – The Lost DaughterDonald A. Richie – Electing FDR: The New Deal Campaign of 1932Stephen Kinzer – Overthrow: America’s Century of Regime ChangeSally Keane – Good BehaviourJon Savage – Teenage
SEPTEMBER
William Faulkner – Go Down, Moses (1942)Elizabeth Taylor – Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont (1971)A.J. Baime – The Accidental President (2008)Paul Mariani – The Broken Tower: The Life of Hart Crane (1999)Yuko Mishima – Confessions of a Mask (1949)Diane Middlebrook – Her Husband: Hughes and Plath – A Marriage (2004)Gail Crowther: Three-Martini Afternoons at the Ritz: The Rebellion of Sylvia Plath & Anne Sexton (2021)* Saul Bellow – Herzog (1964)Dorothy B. Hughes – In a Lonely Place (1947)Charles Portis – True Grit (1971)William di Canzio – Alec (2021)Robert S. Levine – The Failed Promise: Reconstruction, Frederick Douglass, and the Impeachment of Andrew Johnson (2021)
OCTOBER
Gordon Merrick – One for the GodsJay Wright – The Presentable Act of Reading AbsenceJoy Williams – The Quick and the DeadJoy Williams – EscapesColm Tóibín – The MagicianJanet Malcolm – Forty-one False Starts: Essays on Artists and WritersIngeborg Bachmann – MalinaClinton Heylin – Despite the System: Orson Welles Versus the Hollywood StudiosJefferson Cowie – Stayin’ Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working ClassRobert Walser – The TannersAdam Winkler – We the Corporations
NOVEMBER
Jefferson Cowie – The Great Exception: The New Deal and the Limits of American PoliticsRachel Kushner – The Strange Case of Rachel KRachel Kushner – The FlamethrowersJohn Hollander – Reflections on Espionage* Toni Morrison – BelovedElena Ferrante – The Lying Lives of AdultsChristina Stead – Miss Herbert (The Suburban Wife)Allen C. Guelzo – Robert E. Lee: A LifeRebecca West – Henry JamesGeoffrey O’Brien – Sonata for JukeboxDwight MacDonald – Against the American GrainJ.D. Salinger – Franny and ZooeyRobert H. Jackson – That Man: An Insider’s Portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt
DECEMBER
Gabriel Garcia Marquez – Clandestine in ChileShirley Hazzard – The Evening of the HolidayTony Judt – Ill Fares the LandShirley Hazzard – The Transit of VenusSusan Butler – Roosevelt and Stalin: Portrait of a PartnershipAnna Kavan – IceRebecca West – Black Lamb and Grey FalconAda Ferrer – Cuba: An American StoryAdolfo Bioy Casares – The Invention of Morelbell hooks – Here We StandEve Babitz – Slow Days, Fast Company* Ernest Hemingway – The Garden of EdenMarc Morris – The Anglo-Saxons
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 2 January 2022 14:32 (two years ago) link
What did you think of Franny and Zooey, Alfred?
― dow, Sunday, 2 January 2022 23:07 (two years ago) link
Me:
Mort Piranesi Sometimes therapy is AwkwardBee questThe Year of Reading Dangerously Me - Elton John Big SkyWhy Therapy WorksTranscriptionMiss Pym Disposes (gave up)Ascension - Oliver HarrisHow to change everything - Naomi KleinA Wizard of Earthsea Life the universe and everythingThe Pigeon TunnelTombs of AtuanFirst love - Riley Harriet the SspyThursday Night murder clubThe shadow of the torturerBeautiful world where are youThe Long SecretWeirdstone of BrisingamenThe High WindowThe Man Who Died Twice
Read less this year because of being a stay-at-home dad with a toddler, migraines, and doing the 2nd year of an MSc (the essays, the essays)
Highlights:- Probably the Elton John biog and the Harriet the Spy books- Being impressed by Kate Atkinson and Gwendolyn Riley and excited to read more of their work - I wasn't expecting much from either- Finally reading and loving Le Guin- Regretting to inform you that Richard Osman's books are quite entertaining
― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 3 January 2022 17:30 (two years ago) link
― dow, Sunday, January 2, 2022 6:07 PM
A genuine surprise.
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 3 January 2022 20:25 (two years ago) link
these 100+ lists are both impressive and scary.
― adam t. (abanana), Monday, 3 January 2022 21:23 (two years ago) link
Ah! How so? (C'mon, spill.)
― dow, Tuesday, 4 January 2022 01:16 (two years ago) link
I've often seen Alfred's impressive cranium on WDYLL threads, so his lengthy list merely serves as an unnecessary confirmation of the self-evident. I shudder to think what breathtaking marvels would be revealed if James Morrison were to post to WDYLL!
― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Tuesday, 4 January 2022 01:22 (two years ago) link
I also have a pretty large head, fwiw.
― we need outrage! we need dicks!! (the table is the table), Tuesday, 4 January 2022 13:28 (two years ago) link
Jorgenrique Adoum - Prepoems in PostSpanishRabih Alameddine - KoolaidsSinan Antoon - The Baghdad EucharistAmiri Baraka - The System of Dante's HellDodie Bellamy - Bee ReavedHassan Blasim - The Corpse ExhibitionAnne Boyer - My Common HeartMolly Brodak - Bandit: A Daughter's MemoirJulie Carr - 100 Notes on ViolenceSelected Poems and Prose of Paul CelanMary Crow - BordersPeter Culley - The Age of Briggs & StrattonPeter Culley - HammertownKevin Davies - The Golden Age of ParaphernaliaSamuel Delany - Dhalgren (reread)Jim Dicksinson - I'm Just Dead, I'm Not GoneGe Fei - The Invisibility CloakSesshu Foster - City of the Future (reread)Sesshu Foster - Atomik AztexFederico Garcia Lorca - Selected Poems Andre Gide - Urien's VoyageJohannes Göransson - Poetry Against AllJudy Grahn - love belongs to those who do the feelingLinda Gregg - The Sacraments of DesireDorothea Grossman - Museum of RainPeter Handke - Three by HandkeJim Harrison - Song of UnreasonJim Harrison - The Essential PoemsFanny Howe - The QuietistFanny Howe - Radical Love: 5 NovelsThe Selected Poetry of Vicente HuidobroZora Neale Hurston - Their Eyes Were Watching GodKazuo Ishiguro - Klara and the SunDenis Johnson - The Name of the WorldDenis Johnson - Train DreamsRonald Johnson - The Book of the Green ManHettie Jones - DriveJohn Keene - AnnotationsWilliam Kennedy - IronweedJohn Koethe - rotc killsEugene Lim - Search HistoryEugene Lim - Dear CyborgsKelly Link - Get in Trouble: StoriesBernadette Mayer - SonnetsJoyelle McSweeney - FletSemezdin Mehmedinovic - My HeartDunya Mikhail - The War Works HardSayaka Murata - EarthlingsEileen Myles - Not MeAlice Notley - Negativity's KissMichael Ondaatje - The Collected Works of Billy the KidCelia Paul - Self PortraitMarge Piercy - Woman on the Edge of TimeSam Riviere - Safe ModeCamille Roy - Honey MineFrederick Seidel - Going FastDanzy Senna - Where Did You Sleep Last Night?Choi Seungja - Phone Bells Keep Ringing for MeGary Snyder - Earth House HoldMagda Szabo - The DoorJean Valentine - Door in the Mountain: New and Collected Poems, 1965-2003Ocean Vuong - On Earth We're Briefly GorgeousNikki Wallschlaeger - WaterbabyNikki Wallschlaeger - Pizza and WarfareSimone White - Dear Angel of DeathJohn Edgar Wideman - The Homewood Trilogy
(inclusion not necessarily an endorsement, of course)
― zak m, Wednesday, 5 January 2022 03:11 (two years ago) link
Have already finished 3 or 4 books since teh start of teh year and started 4 or 5.Will see if that goes anywhere.But some great stuff anyway, more bell hooks, Anita Loos who I hadn't read before and think I missed a book by recently which now grates, George Schuyler who is amazingly against the tide and stuff.
― Stevolende, Wednesday, 5 January 2022 09:09 (two years ago) link
No One Is Talking About This, Patricia LockwoodWar, So Much War, Merce RodoredaTrue Believer: The Rise and Fall of Stan Lee, Abraham RiesmanHow Much of Thee Hills Is Gold, C. Pam ZhangThe Seven Veils of Seth, Ibrahim al-KoniConversations in Sicily, Elio VittoriniFever Dream, Samantha SchweblinEleven Sooty Dreams, Manuela DraegerCompass, Mathias ÉnardA House and Its Head, Ivy Compton-BurnettThe Invisibility Cloak, Ge FeiKin, Miljenko JergovicIn Memory of Memory, Maria StepanovaGold, Frankincense, and Myrrh, Slobodan NovakA Girl's Story, Annie ErnauxA Castle in Romagna, Igor StiksGötz and Meyer, David AlbahariHammers on Bone, Cassandra KhawA Private Venus, Giorgio ScerbanancoThe Cyclist Conspiracy, Svetislav BasaraCroatian War Nocturnal, Spomenka StimekWhere There's Love, There's Hate, Adolfo Bioy Casares & Silvina OcampoEEG, Dasa DrndicVoices in the Evening, Natalila GinsburgL'Amante Anglaise, Marguerite DurasNothing But Blackened Teeth, Cassandra KhawBetween Life and Death, Yoram KaniukThe Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. LeGuinI Belong to Vienna, Anna GoldenbergA Woman's Story, Annie ErnauxFires on the Plain, Shohei OokaNazi Literature in the Americas, Roberto Bolaño My Heart, Semezdin MehmedinovicPhone Bells Keep Ringing for Me, Choi SeungaA Heritage and Its History, Ivy Compton-BurnettVanish in an Instant, Margaret Millar
― J Edgar Noothgrush (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Wednesday, 5 January 2022 13:43 (two years ago) link
Don't know most of those authors, but!---Ivy Compton-Burnett (twice), Adolfo Bioy Casares & Silvina Ocampo, Ursula K. LeGuin (and one of her stone cold classics at that), Roberto Bolaño, and Margaret Millar to boot (even Patricia Lockwood, whom I don't think I've ever read, but whose name somehow attached itself to a startling woman of authoritah in a recent dream)---that's my kind of list already---better check the other items on it---
― dow, Wednesday, 5 January 2022 15:35 (two years ago) link
I need to read more Duras too.
― dow, Wednesday, 5 January 2022 17:44 (two years ago) link
I almost bought the Ocampo last week! NYRB rock.
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 5 January 2022 17:49 (two years ago) link
dow, I strongly recommend Annie Ernaux. She's a memoirist. I avoid memoirs! But she is genuinely special -- there is something unrelenting in her self-examination. And addictive. I expect to read a bunch more of hers.
― J Edgar Noothgrush (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Thursday, 6 January 2022 00:43 (two years ago) link
Intriguing---will def. check her out, thanks.
― dow, Thursday, 6 January 2022 01:51 (two years ago) link
The Jakarta Method - Vincent BevinsThe Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes Nimona - Noelle Stevenson 1974 - David Peace The Pear Field - Nana Ekvtimishvili No One Is Talking About This - Patricia Lockwood Lying For Money - Dan Davies Nordic Fauna - Andrea Lundgren Shuggie Bain - Douglas Stewart Summer Lightning - PG Wodehouse The Bloody Chamber - Angela Carter Age of Anger - Pankaj Mishra Yesterday - Juan Emar Sea of Ink - Richard Weihe Love's Work - Gillian RoseDarryl - Jackie EssThe Hothouse by the East River - Muriel SparkTyll - Daniel KehlmannNovels in Three Lines - Félix Fénéon
Of this the best were No One Is Talking About This, Darryl and the Jakarta Method. The worst by some distance was Shuggie Bain, a however many hundred page book about a boy who loves his mammy where we learn nothing about the boy other than that he loves his mammy.
― calumerio, Thursday, 6 January 2022 21:42 (two years ago) link
I don’t know how I manage to do this every year but I was weighing out some brewer’s yeast & suddenly remembered that last year I read & forgot to log:Merlin Sheldrake - Entangled Life& my brain would not let me let this go uncorrected
― Nerd Ragequit (wins), Thursday, 6 January 2022 23:11 (two years ago) link
A week into 22 and I have not read a page so far, hopefully I get some sweet covid isolation time at some point
― Nerd Ragequit (wins), Thursday, 6 January 2022 23:13 (two years ago) link
i didn't think shuggie bain was *that* bad but it wasn't great
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Thursday, 6 January 2022 23:17 (two years ago) link
I love both Marguerite Duras and Paul Celan! Joan Crawford Loves Chachi that's an impressive list with many writers I've been meaning to read, especially In Memory of Memory, Maria Stepanova.
― JacobSanders, Thursday, 6 January 2022 23:57 (two years ago) link
calumerio, nice to see someone else read Rose. Glad you liked Jackie's book and the Jakarta Method, too.
― we need outrage! we need dicks!! (the table is the table), Friday, 7 January 2022 15:32 (two years ago) link
The Mabinogion (tr. Sioned Davies)Arthur Machen - The Great God PanClark Ashton Smith - ZothiqueClark Ashton Smith - PoseidonisArkady and Boris Strugatsky - Roadside PicnicKir Bulychev - Alice: The Girl From EarthKir Bulychev - Half a Life and Other StoriesKir Bulychev - Gusliar WondersYevgeny Zamyatin - WeGeorge Orwell - Nineteen Eighty-FourAldous Huxley - Brave New WorldKobo Abe - Inter Ice Age 4Kate Wilhelm - Where Late the Sweet Birds SangRuth Park - Playing Beatie BowRuth Park - The Harp in the SouthRuth Park - Poor Man's OrangeBertrand Russell - What I BelieveBertrand Russell - Why I Am Not a ChristianJoe Hill & Gabriel Rodríguez - Locke & Key: Keys to the KingdomJoe Hill & Gabriel Rodríguez - Locke & Key: ClockworksJoe Hill & Gabriel Rodríguez - Locke & Key: Alpha & OmegaBenjamin Myers - Under the Rock (put down halfway through, will finish at some point)
― in walked airbud (unregistered), Saturday, 8 January 2022 00:56 (two years ago) link
I remember L&J being really solid and wishing there were more good, long, discrete contained stories like that (ignoring the rubbish spin offs)
― Chuck_Tatum, Saturday, 8 January 2022 11:39 (two years ago) link
Locke and key I mean.
― Chuck_Tatum, Saturday, 8 January 2022 11:40 (two years ago) link
I watched teh tv series last month, has been a while since I ead the comics which I enjoyed at teh time and was one reason I watched teh tv show. Think I continued cos I started. Don't think I enjoyed as much as the comic anyway. Might give tehm another look if I can find the fiels sinced i read it on cbr.
― Stevolende, Saturday, 8 January 2022 11:54 (two years ago) link
Love's Work was good, but demanded more of me than I was able to give, intellectually and emotionally. I will go back to it.
Shuggie Bain was super bad, a relentless honking airhorn of "we were poor... but dammit we were unhappy too", in sore need of two more drafts and an editor. I did do an actual lol at a very minor character being called "Kier Weir", though, a welcome absurdity.
I don't think I have ever actually *liked* a protagonist in a book as much as I liked Darryl.
Anyway, I will continue lurking here, pinching ideas from youse all, though this year's resolution is read the books that I bought in 2021, rather than buy any new ones.
― calumerio, Saturday, 8 January 2022 13:57 (two years ago) link
this year's resolution is read the books that I bought in 2021, rather than buy any new ones.
I tried that a couple of years ago and, of course, failed. It was helpful, though. It did encourage me to cut back on purchases and clear some of the backlog of unread books, so on the whole I'm glad I made the resolution and consider it a success.
― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Saturday, 8 January 2022 17:01 (two years ago) link
unregistered- how are the Kir Bulychev books?
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 8 January 2022 18:50 (two years ago) link
great! I'm not too well-versed in Soviet SFF, but I'd recommend all three of those Bulychev collections. the biggest highlight for me was the title story of Half a Life. at heart it's a narrative of a woman's acts of self-sacrifice as she comes to empathize with the weird sentient beings who are imprisoned with her on an alien research vessel. a little mawkish, maybe, but there's a compelling interplay between the sentimental and the cynical as a group of emotionally stunted astronauts struggle to make sense of the woman's story and the now abandoned vessel
I also really like the cycle of short stories that makes up the second half of Gusliar Wonders, in which a Russian village becomes an unlikely point of first contact with various aliens and wizards and time travelers. it's similar in premise to Simak's Way Station, only funnier and with less faith in human nature. overall Bulychev seems fixated on the way unimaginative egotists react when confronted with the alien or the supernatural, and he has an acute ear for irony
Alice's Travels (the first novel in that Alice collection) is a fun children's interplanetary mystery, concluding with a slightly hokey, Scooby Doo-ish confrontation with space pirates. the cartoon adaptation is apparently regarded as a classic, and Bulychev is best known in Russia for his Alice books/films. afaik few of his other works have been translated into English aside from the post-apocalyptic novel Those Who Survive and the novella "Another's Memory" (collected in Earth and Elsewhere. Half a Life and Gusliar Wonders are both available at the Open Library
― in walked airbud (unregistered), Saturday, 8 January 2022 23:23 (two years ago) link
I'm kinda tempted to start working my way through the non-Strugatsky entries in Ted Sturgeon's Best of Soviet Science Fiction series:
https://i.imgur.com/O5HLz7d.jpg
(full list here)
― in walked airbud (unregistered), Saturday, 8 January 2022 23:28 (two years ago) link