Buried Alive by Myra Friedman William Morrow & Company, 1973 [Challenge # 12 : A book where music features prominently, or about musicians.] As a singer Janis Joplin is, unfortunately, something of a museum piece now. Her icon status has faded with the decades, unlike her contemporaries Aretha Franklin and Dolly Parton, both of whom …
Narwhals: Arctic Whales in a Melting World by Todd McLeish University of Washington Press, 2013 [Challenge # 22 : A book taking place mostly or all on water.] My first choice for this category, Blackfish City, didn’t work out, so I subbed Narwhals one after noticing I had saved it to my Seattle Public Library …
To Sleep with the Angels by David Cowan and John Kuenster Ivan R. Dee, 1996 [Challenge # 47 : Nonfiction on any subject.] The 1958 Our Lady of the Angels Catholic school fire traumatized a generation of Catholic schoolchildren. To Sleep with the Angels: The Story of a Fire, by David Cowan and John Kuenster, …
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi Pantheon Books, 2003 [Challenge # 29 : A graphic novel or comic book.] I finally got around to reading Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel Persepolis which served as the graphic novel for this year’s reading challenge. It retread a lot of the ground I had just visited when I read Reading Lolita …
Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi Henry Holt and Co., 2019 I was impressed by Tomi Adeyemi’s Children of Blood and Bone when it came out in 2018. It was something different, an African-based culture handled in a Western fantasy way. There’s a monarchy, magic-users who are persecuted, swords and armor, and exotic …
The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie Orbit Books, 2019 Ann Leckie’s fantasy novel The Raven Tower came out last year and received immediate buzz because of its unique structure and voice. Told in second person (that is, an unseen narrator addresses the main character as “you” and tells this You everything the You thinks and …
Like 2018 and 2017, it’s been a mixed bag; but I must say that by challenging myself I am reading books that I never would otherwise, like reading Lolita in Tehran and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. It’s also given my the opportunity to tackle those I was thinking about reading but never have, …
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson Random House, 1972 (originally published in Rolling Stone magazine in 1971) [Challenge # 28 : A book everyone else seems to have read but you have not.] I’ve heard a lot about Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson, so that made …
The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson Random House, 2004 [Challenge # 6: An alternate history] Kim Stanley Robinson’s alternate history novel The Years of Rice and Salt caused a sensation in the SF world when it came out in 2004. In this timeline, the Black Plague kills off the entire population …
Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi Random House, 2004 [Challenge # 48: A book mentioned or discussed inside another book.] Reading Lolita in Tehran is a book I remember seeing heavily promoted in past years, but I never thought to read it myself. It’s not often that I read a …