edgewood's 50 Book Challenge for 2020
Snak50 Book Challenge
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1edgewood
Fifty books seems manageable. I'll limit my counting to prose & poetry, and long graphic novels. (I read a lot of comics collections, and they are usually quick reads, so not counting them.) Five of my books will be re-reads. I'll also count books begun in previous years and finished in 2020.
So far this year:
So far this year:
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The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin's classic essays on racism.
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The Raven Tower, a recent fantasy novel by Hugo winner Ann Leckie. Read for my science fiction book club.
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The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club. I don't read much mystery, but I greatly enjoy Lord Peter Wimsey.
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Winter Tide, a modern retelling of Lovecraft's mythos from the sympathetic viewpoint of the "monsters". I look forward to reading the second book in this series.
2edgewood
5. The Overneath, the latest collection by Peter S. Beagle. Consistently good fantasy stories in a variety of modes.
6. Nova, the last of what I think of as Samuel R. Delany's early sf novels. (His next work, several years later, would be Dhalgren.)
7. Letters from Amherst: Five Narrative Letters, Delany's letters to friends as he begins his teaching stint at UMass Amhearst.
8. Agency, the latest novel from William Gibson, set in both an alternate present in San Francisco and a future London of a parallel timeline.
9. Imaginary Numbers, the latest (9th!) in Seanan McGuire's "InCryptid" urban fantasy series, which follows an extended family of cryptozoologists in their quest to protect (and protect humanity from) cryptids (from jackalopes to gorgons & chupacabra!).
6. Nova, the last of what I think of as Samuel R. Delany's early sf novels. (His next work, several years later, would be Dhalgren.)
7. Letters from Amherst: Five Narrative Letters, Delany's letters to friends as he begins his teaching stint at UMass Amhearst.
8. Agency, the latest novel from William Gibson, set in both an alternate present in San Francisco and a future London of a parallel timeline.
9. Imaginary Numbers, the latest (9th!) in Seanan McGuire's "InCryptid" urban fantasy series, which follows an extended family of cryptozoologists in their quest to protect (and protect humanity from) cryptids (from jackalopes to gorgons & chupacabra!).
3edgewood
10. Strong Poison, a classic Lord Peter Wimsey mystery by Dorothy L. Sayers.
11. Feel Free: Essays, a recent collection by Zadie Smith.
12. American Hippo, an alternate history caper by Sarah Gailey. There was an actual suggestion in the US Congress, during an early 20th century meat shortage, to import hippos to the Mississippi River. It never happened (thank gods), but this author wondered What If? She has a squad of five likable scoundrels, who ride domesticated hippos, hired to round up deadly feral hippos. A violent but fun book.
13. Ivory Apples, a modern fantasy by Lisa Goldstein.
14. The Odyssey, in the 2017 translation by Emily Wilson.
15. The Solitudes, the first in John Crowley's four volume Aegypt cycle. 3rd or 4th time I've read it; some passages give me chills.
11. Feel Free: Essays, a recent collection by Zadie Smith.
12. American Hippo, an alternate history caper by Sarah Gailey. There was an actual suggestion in the US Congress, during an early 20th century meat shortage, to import hippos to the Mississippi River. It never happened (thank gods), but this author wondered What If? She has a squad of five likable scoundrels, who ride domesticated hippos, hired to round up deadly feral hippos. A violent but fun book.
13. Ivory Apples, a modern fantasy by Lisa Goldstein.
14. The Odyssey, in the 2017 translation by Emily Wilson.
15. The Solitudes, the first in John Crowley's four volume Aegypt cycle. 3rd or 4th time I've read it; some passages give me chills.
4edgewood
16. Tigana, a fantasy novel inspired by a fragmented, Renaissance Italy. Great characters and story.
17. Freedom Is a Constant Struggle, recent political essays by Angela Davis.
18. Swords and Deviltry, sword & sorcery stories in Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series.
19. Grave Secrets, a crime novel in Kathy Reichs' series featuring forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan.
20. Gods of Jade and Shadow, a fantasy set in Mexico during the Jazz Age, wherein ancient Mayan gods are awakened. Take a road trip with a death god!
21. Mort, the first novel I've read in Terry Pratchett's vast Discworld series. Quite good--clever, funny & moving. I'll need to check out more of this series.
22. Report From Planet Midnight, short stories & and an interview with Nalo Hopkinson.
23. Middlegame, a stand-alone fantasy by Seanan McGuire. An engrossing story, but I couldn't quite buy into the motivations of the villain.
24. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, a long, immersive novel set & in the prose style of Regency England, wherein the practice of magic is revived.
25. Playing Changes : Jazz for the New Century, an overview of the major trends and players in jazz in the 21st century so far. A lot of interesting sounding music for me to catch up with!
26. The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home, a novel in the world of weird podcast Welcome to Night Vale. As with the podcast, equal parts humor & horror.
27. Mumbo Jumbo, a difficult-to-classify novel by Ishmael Reed, set in the Harlem Renaissance, dealing with racism, secret societies, and Afrocentric histories.
It's mid-year, so I think I'm on track to finish 50 books this year!
17. Freedom Is a Constant Struggle, recent political essays by Angela Davis.
18. Swords and Deviltry, sword & sorcery stories in Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series.
19. Grave Secrets, a crime novel in Kathy Reichs' series featuring forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan.
20. Gods of Jade and Shadow, a fantasy set in Mexico during the Jazz Age, wherein ancient Mayan gods are awakened. Take a road trip with a death god!
21. Mort, the first novel I've read in Terry Pratchett's vast Discworld series. Quite good--clever, funny & moving. I'll need to check out more of this series.
22. Report From Planet Midnight, short stories & and an interview with Nalo Hopkinson.
23. Middlegame, a stand-alone fantasy by Seanan McGuire. An engrossing story, but I couldn't quite buy into the motivations of the villain.
24. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, a long, immersive novel set & in the prose style of Regency England, wherein the practice of magic is revived.
25. Playing Changes : Jazz for the New Century, an overview of the major trends and players in jazz in the 21st century so far. A lot of interesting sounding music for me to catch up with!
26. The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home, a novel in the world of weird podcast Welcome to Night Vale. As with the podcast, equal parts humor & horror.
27. Mumbo Jumbo, a difficult-to-classify novel by Ishmael Reed, set in the Harlem Renaissance, dealing with racism, secret societies, and Afrocentric histories.
It's mid-year, so I think I'm on track to finish 50 books this year!
5edgewood
28. Naked Lunch, not really a novel but a collection of black-comedic vignettes (or "routines" as Burroughs puts it) with occasional medical opinions based on his opioid addiction.
29. And Go Like This: Stories, a recent short story collection by literary fantasist John Crowley. Some really moving works here.
30. What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia, a rebuttal of the victim-blaming best seller Hillbilly Elegy, celebrates a long history of popular activism in coal country.
31. Deep Roots, the second novel in a reimagining of H.P. Lovecraft's universe, from the sympathetic viewpoint of the "monsters" (focused on the fish-people from Lovecraft's classic "The Shadow over Innsmouth"). Not as compelling as her first novel in the series, Winter Tide.
32. Year of the Monkey, a sort of fantasia from Patti Smith, interspersing dream-like sequences with memoir, focusing on the illness and death of two old friends.
33. Chapel of Ease, 4th in a series of fantasy novels by Alex Bledsoe, following the Tufa, a human-appearing (most of the time) fae race settled in the Appalachias.
34. Love & Sleep, the second novel in John Crowley's Aegypt sequence, which I'm rereading.
35. Uprooted, a stand-alone epic fantasy by Naomi Novik.
36. The One Inside, the final novel from Sam Shepard. I read this because Patti Smith, in Year of the Monkey, is helping Shepard with this novel, as he suffers from ALS. I think the tone of his book influenced hers.
37. Daemonomania, the third in Crowley's Aegypt sequence.
38, This Is How You Lose the Time War, this year's winner of the Hugo Award for best novella. Clever, moving & violent.
39. Unfinished Business: Notes of a Chronic Re-reader, a collection of essays on various books and authors. Rereading a book later in life can bring different insights and emotions than when first read as a younger person.
40. The Ten Thousand Doors of January, a really enjoyable epic fantasy and love letter to portal fantasies in particular.
41. Endless Things, the 4th and final novel in Crowley's Aegypt sequence. I love these books!
42. Comet Weather, a modern rural fantasy set in Somerset UK.
43. Failed State, the second (or third, if you count Tropic of Kansas) of Christopher Brown's series of near-future dystopian legal thrillers.
44. Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders by Samuel R. Delany. It took me a while to get through this long sex & science fiction novel, but I'm glad I read it. Much of the first 400 (of 800+ pages) is transgressive (to my tastes) gay male sex scenes. But the main couple, and most of their friends & family, are likable and sympathetic, as they live out their lives on the sea coast of Georgia into the decades of the mid-late 21st century.
29. And Go Like This: Stories, a recent short story collection by literary fantasist John Crowley. Some really moving works here.
30. What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia, a rebuttal of the victim-blaming best seller Hillbilly Elegy, celebrates a long history of popular activism in coal country.
31. Deep Roots, the second novel in a reimagining of H.P. Lovecraft's universe, from the sympathetic viewpoint of the "monsters" (focused on the fish-people from Lovecraft's classic "The Shadow over Innsmouth"). Not as compelling as her first novel in the series, Winter Tide.
32. Year of the Monkey, a sort of fantasia from Patti Smith, interspersing dream-like sequences with memoir, focusing on the illness and death of two old friends.
33. Chapel of Ease, 4th in a series of fantasy novels by Alex Bledsoe, following the Tufa, a human-appearing (most of the time) fae race settled in the Appalachias.
34. Love & Sleep, the second novel in John Crowley's Aegypt sequence, which I'm rereading.
35. Uprooted, a stand-alone epic fantasy by Naomi Novik.
36. The One Inside, the final novel from Sam Shepard. I read this because Patti Smith, in Year of the Monkey, is helping Shepard with this novel, as he suffers from ALS. I think the tone of his book influenced hers.
37. Daemonomania, the third in Crowley's Aegypt sequence.
38, This Is How You Lose the Time War, this year's winner of the Hugo Award for best novella. Clever, moving & violent.
39. Unfinished Business: Notes of a Chronic Re-reader, a collection of essays on various books and authors. Rereading a book later in life can bring different insights and emotions than when first read as a younger person.
40. The Ten Thousand Doors of January, a really enjoyable epic fantasy and love letter to portal fantasies in particular.
41. Endless Things, the 4th and final novel in Crowley's Aegypt sequence. I love these books!
42. Comet Weather, a modern rural fantasy set in Somerset UK.
43. Failed State, the second (or third, if you count Tropic of Kansas) of Christopher Brown's series of near-future dystopian legal thrillers.
44. Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders by Samuel R. Delany. It took me a while to get through this long sex & science fiction novel, but I'm glad I read it. Much of the first 400 (of 800+ pages) is transgressive (to my tastes) gay male sex scenes. But the main couple, and most of their friends & family, are likable and sympathetic, as they live out their lives on the sea coast of Georgia into the decades of the mid-late 21st century.
6rocketjk
>5 edgewood: Did you think What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia was well done? I recently read Hillbilly Elegy and thought it was valuable in some ways but quite flawed. "Victim blaming" is definitely one of those flaws.
7edgewood
>6 rocketjk: I think it's a good counterpoint to Hillbilly Elegy, and gave me (not an Appalachian) a broader view of the region's history.
8edgewood
45. The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter, an enjoyable adventure (and first in a series) uniting the daughters of several Victorian Gothic characters (Jekyll/Hyde, Frankenstein, Dr. Moreau, etc.)
46. The Cold Dish by Craig Johnson. My wife & I loved the tv series Longmire, so I binge-read the first four crime novels on which the show was based, set in modern day Wyoming.
47. Death Without Company (Walt Longmire novel #2)
48. Kindness Goes Unpunished (Walt Longmire novel #3)
49. Another Man's Moccasins (Walt Longmire novel #4)
50. In Love with Art: Françoise Mouly's Adventures in Comics with Art Spiegelman, a short-ish, informative bio of the Raw editor, New Yorker art director, & Spiegelman's life & business partner. A really impressive person!
51. Intimations: Six Essays, short personal essays written early in the 2020 pandemic by British author Zadie Smith.
52. Dead Lies Dreaming, the 10th book in Charles Stross' wonderful Laundry series, which mashes up Lovecraftian horror with British spy thrillers.
53. Composing a World: Lou Harrison, Musical Wayfarer, a thorough look at the life and work of the American classical composer who incorporated Asian musical traditions, and was largely responsible for popularizing gamelan in the west. (I have to admit, I just skimmed over the highly technical chapter on non-standard tuning systems.)
54. Cometbus #59: Post-mortem, the latest issue of this venerable zine considers the legacy and lasting influence of "the underground" (punk rock, skateboarding, squats, and DIY generally) though interviews with some of its participants.
55. The Ministry for the Future, the most recent novel by Kim Stanley Robinson, is a near future story of the many possible approaches needed to avert climate disaster. Its many short chapters bounce around between science, economics, bureaucracies (good & bad), political uprisings, and likable characters, with thriller aspects. The first chapter is hardest, but necessary to the story, describing a catastrophic heat wave in India. This book was on Barack Obama's list of his 20 favorite books of 2020!
46. The Cold Dish by Craig Johnson. My wife & I loved the tv series Longmire, so I binge-read the first four crime novels on which the show was based, set in modern day Wyoming.
47. Death Without Company (Walt Longmire novel #2)
48. Kindness Goes Unpunished (Walt Longmire novel #3)
49. Another Man's Moccasins (Walt Longmire novel #4)
50. In Love with Art: Françoise Mouly's Adventures in Comics with Art Spiegelman, a short-ish, informative bio of the Raw editor, New Yorker art director, & Spiegelman's life & business partner. A really impressive person!
51. Intimations: Six Essays, short personal essays written early in the 2020 pandemic by British author Zadie Smith.
52. Dead Lies Dreaming, the 10th book in Charles Stross' wonderful Laundry series, which mashes up Lovecraftian horror with British spy thrillers.
53. Composing a World: Lou Harrison, Musical Wayfarer, a thorough look at the life and work of the American classical composer who incorporated Asian musical traditions, and was largely responsible for popularizing gamelan in the west. (I have to admit, I just skimmed over the highly technical chapter on non-standard tuning systems.)
54. Cometbus #59: Post-mortem, the latest issue of this venerable zine considers the legacy and lasting influence of "the underground" (punk rock, skateboarding, squats, and DIY generally) though interviews with some of its participants.
55. The Ministry for the Future, the most recent novel by Kim Stanley Robinson, is a near future story of the many possible approaches needed to avert climate disaster. Its many short chapters bounce around between science, economics, bureaucracies (good & bad), political uprisings, and likable characters, with thriller aspects. The first chapter is hardest, but necessary to the story, describing a catastrophic heat wave in India. This book was on Barack Obama's list of his 20 favorite books of 2020!
