Rabbit Hole #65: Hi! Remember Me? A Reading Update

Yeah. . . it's been a while. Five months. Gulp. Let's just ignore that little hiatus, shall we?

2017 Read Harder Challenge Update

A book about sports: Tales from the New Orleans Saints Sideline by Jeff Duncan

A debut novel: Bright Lines by Tanwi Nadini Islam

A book about books: A World Between Two Covers by Ann Morgan

A book by an immigrant or with a central immigration narrative: The Love Wife by Gish Jen

An all-ages comic: Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur by Amy Reeder

A travel memoir: Alibis--Essays on Elsewhere by André Aciman

A book you've read before: The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery; trans. from the French by Alison Anderson 

A book that is set within 100 miles of your location: The Grandissimes by George Washington Cable

A book set more than 5000 miles from your location: Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta

A book about war:  The Monuments Men by Robert M. Edsel and Bret Witter

A YA or middle grade novel by an author who identifies as LGBTQ+: Ash by Malinda Lo

A book that has been banned or frequently challenged: Grendel by John Gardner

A classic by an author of color: Quicksand by Nella Larsen

A superhero comic with a female lead: Ms. Marvel, Vol. 4 by G. Willow Wilson

A book in which a character of color goes on a spiritual journey: Boxers and Saints by Gene Luen Yang (both books)

A collection of stories by a woman: Operation Monsoon by Shona Ramaya

A collection of poetry in translation on a theme other than love: Rilke Shake by Angelica Freitas; trans. from the Portuguese by Hilary Kaplan 

A book wherein all point-of-view characters are people of color: Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi


I'm currently reading The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell for the fantasy novel challenge, so that leaves the following (books chosen and on my shelf!):

A nonfiction book about technology: Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly

A book set in Central or South America by a Central or South American author: I, Rigoberta Menchu by Rigoberta Menchu

A book published between 1900-1950:  Mules and Men by Zora Neale Hurston

An LGBTQ+ romance novel: The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin

A book published by a micropress: ??? (Anybody have any ideas? Anyone?)

That's 18/24 completed with five months left. Think I've got this. 

Rabbit Hole #62: 2017 Reading Goals

Time for the new year's reading resolutions. Just as with regular resolutions, it's tempting to want to fix/do/change ALL the things. However, I want to keep this manageable (and realistic), so I've limited myself to five.

1. Read 85 books--I read 87 last year, so I'm optimistic that this is doable. (I'm still amazed that my reading has increased since moving; I would have thought the opposite would be true.

2. Complete the 2017 Read Harder Challenge--Last year I tried to complete three different challenges, but I think it was just too much. This year's challenge also includes some tasks submitted by authors and not just the Book Riot staff, so that's a fun change. If you're interested, the link is here.

3. Read 30% non-American/British authors--This was one of my goals last year, and I failed miserably. Looking at my reading pile so far, I'm not sure if I'm going to hit it this year either, but I'm going to give it a shot!

4. Read my 12 Reads for 2017 books--I've already picked up 7 of these; now I just have to read them!

5. Do an author re-read--One thing that I used to do that I hardly do anymore is reread books. I've been looking at my shelves lately and realized that there are a lot of stories I'd love to dive back into, and while I'm not sure which author I'm going to choose for this, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Marion Zimmer Bradley and Gregory Maguire are all top candidates at the moment.


I really want to recommit to reading this year; I found myself sucked into endless Facebook and Twitter browsing, which ended up depressing me more than anything. So here's to a new year, new challenges, and new reads!

Rabbit Hole #59: 12 Reads for 2017

2016 isn't over yet (seriously, it's the year that will never end), but I'm already thinking ahead to my reading for next year. The books below aren't new releases; rather, these are ones that have been sitting on my list "to read some day." That list is ridiculously long and growing all the time, but here is a quick look at some of the ones I hope to read in the coming twelve months:

1. Hamilton by Ron Chernow--I'm in love with the musical, and Hamilton: A Revolution by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter was one of my favorite reads of this year. It's probably time to pick up the source material. 

2. The Great Gatsby Anthology: Poetry and Prose Inspired by F. Scott Fitzgerald's Novel--This collection put out by Silver Birch Press collects short works by over 80 authors that are all inspired by Gatsby. If you know me, you know how much I love the novel, so it's no surprise that this collection is calling my name. 

3.  A Portable Shelter by Kirsty Logan--Logan's The Gracekeepers was a beautiful, haunting novel based on myth and fairytale. This interconnected short story collection is centered around Scottish myths that two women tell their unborn child. 

4. Hogarth Shakespeare Series: Ok, this is a bit of a cheat; it's actually five books, not one (with more to come). These are retellings of Shakespeare plays by contemporary authors. The top two on my list are Hagseed by Margaret Atwood (The Tempest) and Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler (The Taming of the Shrew), but honestly, they all sound incredible. 

5. An Untamed State by Roxane Gay--Gay's best known work, the essay collection Bad Feminist, was one of my top reads of 2015. An Untamed State was her 2014 debut novel and centers around a Miami-based attorney who is visiting her family in Haiti when she is kidnapped by armed gunmen. 

6. Boxers and Saints by Gene Luen Yang--This graphic novel set has been on my radar for years, since I first read American Born Chinese. This duology follows two children, Little Bao and Four-girl, juxtaposing their very different experiences during the Chinese Boxer Rebellion.

7. An Indigenous People's History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz--As the fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline showed, most of America doesn't know (or doesn't care) about the indigenous people who were here long before most of our ancestors showed up. We learn U. S. history, but not our entire history. This is a book to help fill in the gaps.

8. Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul by Eddie D. Glaude, Jr.--Yes, racism is still a problem. We need to learn as much as we can in order to fight it. 

9. The Land of Forgotten Girls by Erin Entrada Kelly--This is a middle grade novel about immigration and family, centered around two Filipino girls abandoned by their father and living with their stepmother in Louisiana. 

10. Josephine: The Hungry Heart by Jean-Claude Baker--Josephine Baker is one of the most fascinating figures of the 1920s, but she was so much more than that. This is written by one of her "adopted" children, so it's part memoir/part biography. 

11. The Woman Who Would Be King: Hatshepsut's Rise to Power in Ancient Egypt by Kara Cooney--Egypt and a strong, powerful woman. I'm here for this biography.

12. There Was and There Was Not: A Journey Through Hate in and Possibility in Turkey, Armenia, and Beyond by Meline Toumani--In today's society where the "other" is so often demonized, we often refuse to listen.

True Story