aoife

So, in my last post, I said that I would read around the UN Security Council as part of my Read Around the World challenge. Anyone want to join me? There are 15 members: 5 permanent and 10 that serve 2 year terms. Looking at this list I am freaking out a bit since not much is coming to mind. I am more than willing to take suggestions! This list is mainly for me, but if you want to rec something, rec away! Really, rec away! XD

I bookmarked some items at my library and they have a variety of books, music and movies, so hopefully I can get most of the items locally. I will probably have to do Interlibrary loan for a few of the countries unless I cheat and just use a juvenile book that overviews the country. We'll see how it goes.

• Bolivia (2018) https://www.goodreads.com/genres/bolivia


• China (permanent member) **DONE. Am going to cheat and use a book I read last year: Lotus by Lijia Zhang


• Côte d’Ivoire (2019) Slim pickings: https://www.goodreads.com/genres/ivory-coast


• Equatorial Guinea (2019) https://www.goodreads.com/genres/equatorial-guinea


• Ethiopia (2018) https://www.goodreads.com/genres/ethiopia


• France (perm) https://www.goodreads.com/genres/france Been meaning to read The Nightingale for a while, but I should probably read something by a French author. _profiterole__profiterole_ , any suggestions? My library has quite a few French graphic novels, so I might use one of those.


• Kazakhstan (2018) https://www.goodreads.com/genres/Kazakhstan Apples are from Kazakhstan looks interesting and my library actually has a copy of it! Shocker! Worldcat lied to me!


• Kuwait (2019) https://www.goodreads.com/genres/Kuwait


• Netherlands (2018) https://www.goodreads.com/genres/netherlands


• Peru (2019) https://www.goodreads.com/genres/peru


• Poland (2019) https://www.goodreads.com/genres/poland The Zookeeper's Wife looks good if I can't find something by a Polish author in English.


• Russia (perm) Thinking of reading A Country Doctor's Notebook by Mikhail Bulgakov or some of Chekhov's short stories. I <3 Chekhov, but will take suggestions.


• Sweden (2018) https://www.goodreads.com/genres/sweden May use something by Fredrik Backman


• UK (perm) **DONE. I'm going to use The Importance of Being Earnest for the time being. Might replace it with an England-set book by an English author.


• USA (perm) Will just use some random thing that I read.

Will update with Ireland - Spellbook of the Lost and Found the next time I update this map.

( Covers - Image Heavy. Click on the pictures to go to the book's Goodreads page. )

Click on the month headings to see my musings/book discussion. Feel free to join in here or on the monthly post for any book.

( January 2016 - November 2016 )

December (I am writing this up in March 2017, so these books are a bit fuzzy, unfortunately.)
91. As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride by Cary Elwes - The Princess Bride is one of my favorite movies, so of course I loved reading Cary's memoir of the filming.  He was also able to get most of the cast to participate, so it felt more like a cast memoir, in a way.
92. Loosed Upon the World: The Saga Anthology of Climate Fiction edited by John Joseph Adams - This was a pretty long anthology, but there were a lot of new-to-me authors that I noted to remind myself to check them out further.  If you want the author list, let me know and I'll see if I can dig up the paper where I wrote them down.  From what I recall, the sttorie tended to fall into three camps: the world is on the verge of sucking, the world officially sucks but is not too bad yet, and Defcon Suckage - Everyone is Screwed.  Needless to say, I wasn't really a fan of Defcon Suckage.  I often find dystopian tales far too bleak.  My favorite "genre" if you will was corporate climate fiction.  XD  Yes, that is a thing.  One of my faves was about a company that harvested icebergs.  But one of my favorite stories wasn't corporate-related but weather related...bad storms would pick up drugs somehowand if you got caught out in them, you could OD.I think that one was by Tobias Bucknell, but don't quote me on that.
93. Singletasking: Get More Done One Thing at a Time by Devora Zack - One of my goals for work (we have to do yearly goals for our performance reviews/raises) was to read/listen to a book in our online business library.  I waited until the last minute, so I picked this short audiobook.  I am rotten at paying attention when it comes to audiobooks, but the basic gist is that our brain is not suited to multitasking.


Goodreads said that I finished 94 books, but that doesn't match up with my LJ total.  I don't feel like troubleshooting again--I accidentally counted A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet twice and it took forever to find that one, so we'll say I read 90+ books this year, which almost doubled my Goodreads 2016 goal of 50 books.  I set 50 books as my goal again on Goodreads for 2017, but I think I won't be reading as many books this year due to my late start.

Favorite Book (5 stars): There are 18 that I rated with 5 stars on Goodreads in 2016, and I can't pick a favorite, so I'll stick them all behind a cut. These are not in any sort of order - it's just the order GR sorted them.
( These are a few of my favorite things.... )

Least Favorite (1 or 2 stars): The High Mountains of Portugal by Yann Martel (historical fiction, magical realism, cultural: Portugal)
I rated 14 books with 2 stars in 2016 on Goodreads, but I can definitively say that Martel's book was the worst of the bunch. XD

Well, let's see how I do with tracking my reading for this year. This is a scheduled post that I started in June...whoo knows what my reading future holds and/or if I will bother to keep up with this.  My thoughts on these books (if I had any), are linked in the month headings.  (ETA:  I didn't do a bad job of tracking my reading this year.  I think using monthly scheduled posts helped me keep much better track this time around.)



( April 2014 - December 2014 )

So, that was a bit underwhelming as far as totals go and way more genre stuff than I'd like, but it is a definite improvement over last year!  I think my goals for next year are to attempt to read a bit more widely.  That is, if I don't lose my reading mojo altogether (it has been a bit of a struggle).  Maybe throw in some more non-fiction since I only read one memoir/autobiography this year (The Imposter's Daughter), more books by people with more melanin and perhaps some foreign translations, or at least more books from authors that are not from the US/Canada/UK.  Although, I only seemed to read one book from a Canadian author (Alan Bradley) and two from England this year (Mike Carey, Justina Robson).  If I get ambitious, I might add back in page counts and genres as I've done with previous lists, but I don't want to get too crazy or anything.

FAVORITE BOOK: I think it may be a tie between River of No Return and A Discovery of Witches
LEAST FAVORITE BOOK: The Man in the Empty Suit, closely followed by Fangirl (although if I had finished it, Two to Go by Nick Earls might've have gotten the "least favorite" title, perhaps)

My past attempts for keeping yearly reading lists (2011-present) are HERE.

-----JANUARY------
1.  Steve Luxenberg - Annie's Ghosts: A Journey into a Family Secret; Hyperion, 2009, 401 pgs - non-fiction/biography 978-1-4013-2247-2
2.  Jennifer Crusie - Getting Rid of Bradley; Wheeler Publishing, 1994,  290 pgs (large print) - fiction  1-58724-282-6
3.  Donald E. Westlake - Watch Your Back! (a Dortmunder Novel);  Thorndike Press, 2005, 439 pgs (large print) - mystery  0-7862-7652-5

-----FEBRUARY------
4.  Jean-Dominique Bauby - The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Scaphandre et le papillon); Wheeler, 1997, 117 pgs (large print) - biography 1-56895-496-4
5.  Jim Butcher - Ghost Story (Dresden Files #13); ROC (New American Library/Penguin Group), 2011, 481 pgs - fiction  978-0-451-46379-1
6.  Susan Elizabeth Phillips - Natural Born Charmer;  William Morrow (HarperCollins), 2007, 394 pgs - fiction  978-0-06-073457-2
7.  Katherine Howe - The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane; Wheeler (Voice/Hyperion/Buena Vista), 2009, 631 pgs (large print) - fiction 978-1-4104-1895-1



-----??????------   (I seem to do well with this for about a month or two, then flake out)

#.  Seanan McGuire - Rosemary and Rue (October Daye #1); DAW (Penguin), 2009, 357 pgs - science fiction fantasy  978-0-7564-0571-7
#.  Janet Evanovich - Smokin' Seventeen (Stephanie Plum #17); Bantam (Random House), 2011, 308 pgs - mystery  978-0-345-52768-4
#.  Terry Pratchett - Unseen Academicals (Discworld #?); HarperCollins, 2009, 400 pgs - science fiction fantasy  978-0-06-116170-4
#.  Jennifer Crusie - Fast Women; Wheeler (St. Martin's), 2001, 536 pgs (large print) - fiction  1-58724-072-6
#.  Susan Isaacs - Past Perfect; Scribner (Simon & Schuster), 2007, 340 pgs - fiction  978-0-7432-4216-5
#.  Hester Browne - The Finishing Touches; Pocket (Simon & Schuster), 2009, 411 pgs - fiction  978-1-4165-4007-6
#.  Sophie Kinsella - Confessions of a Shopaholic (Shopaholic #1); Delta (Dell/Random House), 2001, 312 pgs - fiction  0-385-33548-2
#.  Donna Andrews - Murder with Puffins (Meg Langlow #2); Beeler (St. Martin's), 2000, 306 pgs (large print) - mystery  1-57490-415-9