Reading List 2016
- The Southern Reach Trilogy: Annihilation, Authority, and Acceptance, by Jeff VanderMeer
- Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell
- Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie
- A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing, by Eimer McBride
- Viviane, by Julia Deck
- The Way of Kings, by Branden Sanderson Nope; sorry
- Rock ‘n’ Roll, by Tom Stoppard
- Being and Nothingness, by Jean-Paul Sartre
- Dhalgren, by Samual R. Delaney (I did a little excited dance when this came in the mail)
- Emma, by Jane Austen (How have I not read this before? I have read P&P, S&S, Persuasion, and Northanger Abbey.)
- The Parallax View, by Slavoj Zizek
- The System of the World, by Neal Stephenson OMG
- The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien
- The Two Towers (finished 1/19) and The Return of the King (finished 1/30), also by J.R.R. Tolkien
- The History of Human Sexuality, by Michel Foucault
- “The Library of Babel,” by Jorge Luis Borges (yes okay, it is a short story)
- A Visit from the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan
Off-list reading:
- Texts from Jane Eyre, by Mallory Ortberg
- The Princess and the Pony, by Kate Beaton
- Cecil, the Pet Glacier, by Matthea Harvey
- “The White Album,” by Joan Didion
- Angels in America, by Tony Kushner (reread)
- Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?: A Memoir, by Roz Chast. Reviewed.
- Fun Home, by Alison Bechdel. Reviewed.
- Are You My Mother?, by Alison Bechdel
- Tomboy, by Liz Prince
- In the Blood, by Suzan-Lori Parks
- Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Parts One and Two, by Jack Thorne, based on a story by J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany, and Jack Thorne
- Alan Mendalsohn: The Boy from Mars, by Daniel Pinkwater
- Equal Rites, by Terry Pratchett
- Wyrd Sisters, by Terry Pratchett
- The Wee Free Men, by Terry Pratchett
Reading List 2017
- Dhalgren, by Samuel R. Delany
- Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula K. LeGuin
- My Journey to Lhasa, by Alexandra David-Neel
- Neuromancer, by William Gibson
- Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell
- The Secret History of Wonder Woman, by Jill Lepore
- Silence, by Shusaku Endo Someday I’ll think of a good summary for this one.
- Natural History of Dragons, by Marie Brennan
- Alexander Hamilton, by Ron Chernow
Good luck to me, I guess.
Off-list reading:
- The Steel Remains, by Richard K. Morgan. Reviewed.
- Arrival (Originally Published as Stories of Your Life and Others), by Ted Chiang. Standouts in this short-story collection include “Stories of Your Life,” “Hell Is the Absence of God,” and “Tower of Babylon.” Chiang’s obsession with knowledge and how having it changes the knower doesn’t make the stories at all similar.
- The Cold Commands, by Richard K. Morgan. I almost didn’t finish this, but the last 30ish pages were good enough that I was satisfied with my choice to push through. This and the next in the series are really one book split into two, so the plot feels a bit thin–Ringil gets a lot of hero’s journey-type events (including an awesome King Arthur-type shtick with a sword and a lady in a lake), but Archeth and Egan don’t really get a chance to change. This is a problem, since it means Gil spends about half of the book’s nearly 500 pages wandering around sulking about how much he misses Seethlaw. Which–dude, you killed Seethlaw, so settle the fuck down. Positives: Gil has two lovers who don’t die, and there’s at least two women who aren’t slaves/whores/someone’s girlfriends (but one is a goddess, so I don’t know where that leaves us). Cons: No progress on Egan’s plot from last time; there’s some rape that felt largely like it reinforced existing stereotypes about men and women; most of the actual stuff that gets set up (the gun on the mantle) will not happen until the next book.
- Making Money, by Terry Pratchett.
- American Gods, by Neil Gaiman. Amazing.
- The Ocean at the End of the Lane, by Neil Gaiman. OMG.
- The Happiest Baby on the Block: The New Way to Calm Crying and Help Your Newborn Sleep Longer (fully revised and updated second edition), by Harvey Karp. If only it were so easy.
- What to Expect: The First Year, by Heidi Markoff, Sharon Mazel, and Arlene Eisenberg. AKA “You’re worried, but are you worried enough?”
- Secrets of the Baby Whisperer: How to Calm, Connect, and Communicate with Your Baby, by Tracy Hogg, with Melinda Blau. Some useful ideas. A lot of overdone British sass.
- Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, by Dr. Marc Weissbluth. Either the books are getting more helpful or my son is just getting to be a better sleeper as he gets older and my interference isn’t really doing anything one way or the other.
- Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson. 🙁
