pammab's 2022 challenge

Back again, belatedly!

My challenge this year is to complete 5-in-a-row on my own personalized Bingo card. Creating my own Bingo card gives me room to both set ambitious goals that will push me where I'd like to be pushed, while also leaving me freedom to take a path of least resistance. I won't read card-only.

I've taken this approach in 2020 and 2021 successfully -- I'm hoping it works for me in 2022 as well! I took away most of the "easy" squares so I'm still only targeting 1 BINGO (not an entirely full card).

--

Despite the best of intentions, I find myself ebbing and flowing in LT (and general internet) activity -- especially this past year, as I struggle to focus on books of length or substance -- so please don't be offended if I disappear for a stint! I still think of people here often, and I'm always wishing you the best.

I tend to read a lot of speculative fiction, just about anything except high fantasy/magical realism/grit or edgy settings, and I read a sizeable amount of nonfiction (mostly of a social/psychological bent). I've been steering far away from darkness, depression, and such, and putting down books that aren't either light or completely engrossing, and I try to track what I put aside as well. I particularly appreciate engagement with (all) religion, education, social identity, and culture.

Ratings:
I rate according to this scale:
1 - Eek! Methinks not.
2 - Meh. I've experienced better.
3 - A-OK.
4 - Yay! I'm a fan.
5 - Woohoo! As good as it gets!

Two stars don't mean I hated it! It just means the book wasn't especially shiny when I read it. In fact, back when I wasn't screening tightly and abandoning freely, I tended to end up with a bimodal distribution, with a small peak around 2 and a larger peak around 4.

The card...



Books used...

• Mur Lafferty
  
• religion -- Comfort Me With Apples by Catherynne Valente
  
• Black author -- Ikenga by Nnedi Okorafor
  
• burst your bubble -- Debunking the 1619 Project: Exposing the Plan to Divide America by Mary Grabar
  
• Elizabeth Bear
  
• Robin Hobb
  
• Nobel laureate -- Never Let Me Go by Ishiguro
  
• 20 new recipes
  
• The Body Keeps the Score
  
• meditation or Buddhism
  
• tangible better future -- Local Is Our Future: Steps to an Economics of Happiness by Helena Norberg-Hodge
  
• Incomplete Solutions
  
• grape vines -- The Grape Grower: A Guide to Organic Viticulture
  
• Bonhoeffer
  
• new skill -- Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor
  
• in-person book club
  
• Agatha Christie
  
• massage / stretch -- The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook: Your Self-Treatment Guide for Pain Relief by Clair Davies
  
• indigenous
  
• David Foster Wallace
  
• Ann Leckie -- Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
  
• Ivan Coyote -- Care Of: Letters, Connections, and Cures by Ivan Coyote
  
• T. Kingfisher
  
• buildings -- How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They're Built by Stewart Brand
  
• Planetfall
  

Completed books

★★★★★
4. The Grape Grower: A Guide to Organic Viticulture by Lon J. Rombough
21. House on Endless Waters by Emuna Elon
29. A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine
33. The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook: Your Self-Treatment Guide for Pain Relief by Clair Davies
38. Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson

★★★★½
13. Comfort Me With Apples by Catherynne Valente
17. Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

★★★★
2. An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson
7. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel A. van der Kolk
8. Local Is Our Future: Steps to an Economics of Happiness by Helena Norberg-Hodge
10. It Starts with the Egg by Rebecca Fett
14. Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
15. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
19. Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie
23. Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor
30. How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They're Built by Stewart Brand
34. Prescriptive Stretching by Kristian Berg
37. Care Of: Letters, Connections, and Cures by Ivan Coyote

★★★ and ★★★½
1. Ikenga by Nnedi Okorafor
3. The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story via Nikole Hannah-Jones
5. Feed by Mira Grant
9. Moebius Noodles by Maria Droujkova, Yelena McManaman and Ever Salazar
12. Dumplin' by Julie Murphy
16. The Broken Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin
20. Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie
24. The Carbon Footprint of Everything by Mike Berners-Lee
25. Ancestral Night by Elizabeth Bear
26. No Hard Feelings: The Secret Power of Embracing Emotions at Work by Liz Fosslien and Mollie West Duffy
31. The Other Black Girl: A Novel by Zakiya Dalila Harris
32. Acupressure's Potent Points: A Guide to Self-Care for Common Ailments by Michael Reed Gach
35. Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
36. In Transit: Being Non-Binary in a World of Dichotomies by Dianna E. Anderson

★★ and ★★½
6. Debunking the 1619 Project: Exposing the Plan to Divide America by Mary Grabar
11. The Truths We Hold: An American Journey by Kamala Harris
18. News of the World by Paulette Jiles
28. Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer

½ and ★ and ★½
22. Unwinding Anxiety by Judson Brewer
27. An Unrestored Woman by Shobha Rao

Fiction options (books that have caught my eye recently -- potential TBR)

Spec fic/science fiction/fantasy
-- Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty
-- And Then There Were (N-One) by Sarah Pinsker (mathgirl40's choice over All Systems Red) -- at https://uncannymagazine.com/article/and-then-there-were-n-one/
-- The Wrong Stars - Great found-family light-hearted science fiction, with an interesting set-up, and tropey but satisfying alien adventures! (Arifel, santathing 2019)
-- The Wheel of the Infinite by Martha Wells (AurumCalendula, santathing 2019)
-- Planetfall -- colonists, religion, first contact, biology, relateable characters (mathgirl and JayneCM)
-- Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett (loved by avanders, santathing 2020)
-- Flyaway by Kathleen Jennings (TheDivineOomba, santathing 2020)
-- The Untold Tale by J. M. Frey (elusiverica, who recommended Gideon the Ninth)
-- Retribution Falls by Wooding (via christina_reads, found family, Fireflyeque)
-- The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki (mathgirl40)
-- Klara and the Sun by Ishiguro
-- Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki (mathgirl40)
-- The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie (mathgirl40)
-- The Quantum Magician (mathgirl40)

YA
-- Out of Salem - spec fic zombie YA trans novel (kjgormley)
-- Interim Errantry by Diane Duane
-- Future Leaders of Nowhere by O'Beirne (sequel loved by elusiverica, who recommended Gideon the Ninth)
-- Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr
-- The Witch of Blackbird Pond
-- Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao (majkia blown away)

General adult - guessing lighter
-- Depart, Depart by Sim Kern (very strong rec from whitewavedarling)
-- And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
-- Howard Engel (mysteries and then memoir of head injury -- VivienneR)

General adult - guessing heavier
-- A Thousand Splendid Suns (via lkernagh)

Placeful fiction
-- Moloka'i via LittleTaiko (Hawaii, leprosy)
-- Whiskey when we're dry (new western, deltaqueen50, kindly prostitutes, booze, lgbtq)
-- Upright Women Wanted badass libraries (JayneCM)
-- Terra Nullius -- Claire Coleman for fiction colonization of Australia, PICK UP BLIND; via JayneCM)
-- When Christ and His Saints Slept by Sharon Kay Penman (Tess_W, fuzzi)
-- A Toast to Tomorrow (pamelad) by Manning Coles -- ludicrous, missing memory, Nazis, amnesia

Short stories
-- Paper Menagerie (owned)
-- Strange Weather: Four Short Novels by Joe Hill (rec from mathgirl40)
-- Not For Use In Navigation: Thirteen Stories by Iona Datt Sharma (AurumCalendula, santathing 2019)
-- Incomplete Solutions - a favourite collections from 2019, Nigerian speculative fiction writer; I particularly loved some of the longer SF pieces, including the title novella "Incomplete Solutions". (Arifel, santathing 2019) (owned)
-- Dreams and Swords by Katherine V. Forrest

auf Deutsch
-- Die Verwandlung (Kafka) (owned)
-- Erich Kästner
-- Nirgendwo in Afrika 334p by Zweig
-- Baba Dunjas Letzte Liebe 130p by Bronsky
-- Ringel, Rangel, Rosen or Vorbei ist eben nicht vorbei by Kirsten Boie -- abridged audiobook on audible

Non-fiction options

Native American
-- Neither Wolf Nor Dog (susanna.fraser)
-- The Inconvenient Indian (rabbitprincess)
-- Empire of the Summer Moon via tess_schoolmarm

Politics
-- Jesus and John Wayne by Du Mez (threadnsong)
-- When They Call You a Terrorist by Patrisse Khan-Cullors (RidgewayGirl)

Food/cooking
-- Real Vegetarian Thai (wisemetis)
-- Teff Love
-- The Greek Vegetarian by Diane Kochilas via mooingzelda - absolutely brilliant. Lots of great recipes involving beans, pulses etc, as well as cheese-reliant ones
-- The Green Roasting Tin by Rukmini Iyer via mooingzelda - recipes from around the world separated into quick/medium/slow and vegetarian/vegan
-- Fresh India by Meera Sodha via mooingzelda - brilliant

Religion/philosophy
-- Discerning Religious Life (christina_reads) - discernment of religious vocation, Catholic, questions to reflect on and the meaning of that choice in daily life
-- God in search of man by Heschel
-- Beyond Religion (scaifea)
-- The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Tess_W)
-- Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha

Sociology
-- Leisure: The Basis of Culture by Josef Pieper
-- Tomboy Survival Guide
-- Raised by Unicorns (access)
-- Unconditional Parenting
-- The Address Book by Deirdre Mask (cbl_tn)
-- Australia Day by Stan Grant (pamelad)
-- Educating by LaRee Westover (Tess_W)
-- The Courage to Care by Carol Rittner (Tess_W)
-- Privilege: The Making of an Adolescent Elite at St. Paul's School by Shamus Khan
-- Class: A Guide Through the American Status System by Paul Fussell
-- The Open-Hearted Way to Open Adoption by Lori Holden
-- Rethinking Sex by Emba
-- Poisoner In Chief

Education
-- Classroom Instruction That Works
-- Never Work Harder Than Your Students
-- Troublemakers: Lessons in Freedom from Young Children at School

Professional development/self-help
-- Bayesian Data Analysis by Gelman
-- Influencer
-- Crucial Accountability
-- Impro
-- Conversationally Speaking (access)
-- Resilient Management by Hogan
-- Rebel Ideas by Syed
-- Radical Candor by Scott
-- The Culture Code by Coyle
-- PeopleSmart by Silberman and Hansburg (eight discrete interpersonal skills for facilitating discussions, recommended in Not Light, but Fire)
-- An Elegant Puzzle: Systems of Engineering Management by Larson
-- Communicating Sequential Processes by Tony Hoare

Other
-- All Together Now: A Newfoundlander's Light Tales for Heavy Times (VivienneR)
-- Nicholas and Alexandra by Massie for Russian history, recommended by DeltaQueen50 in prep for approaching Russians as part of suggestion by Tess_W of getting more appreciation with more history
-- Diary of a Young Naturalist by Dara McAnulty (nature, autism) (JackieK)
-- A River in Darkness by Masaji Ishikawa -- Japanese repatriated folks to North Korea, memoir, shortish (LittleTaiko)
-- Why Buildings Fall Down
-- The Backyard Berry Book
-- Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen by Sarah Bird

Welcome to my thread! Sorry I'm late. :) I owe a handful of reviews from the first half of the year, which will be forthcoming soon as well.

Welcome back!

Thank you, Pam!

1. Ikenga
Nnedi Okorafor
2022.01.06 / ★★★ / (review)

An extended metaphor of puberty and grief. Aimed middle grade readers and set in Nigeria, Nnamdi becomes a kind of superhero as he tries to make peace with his father's murder, and starts to see some grey in what had been a black-and-white world. I can definitely see this appealing to its target group, and it also worked pretty well for me as an adult.

2. An Enchantment of Ravens
Margaret Rogerson
2022.01.17 / ★★★★ / (review)

Isobel is a master at portraits, which puts her in high demand among fairies who love human craft. She falls in love with one of the fairies she draws; they eventually travel & adventure together despite their (of course) unlawful love, sharing the enmity of another fairy and political fairy in-fighting.

I quite liked it as I read it on audiobook, but I had entirely forgotten the plot a few months later when I sat down to write the review and needed to read some reviews to remember. I'd file this one as "cute generic fairy tale YA romance".

3. The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story
Nikole Hannah-Jones and others
2022.01.22 / ★★★ / (review)

The 1619 Project is a 2021 book based on the New York Times' 2019 long-form journalism endeavor engaging slavery, race, and caste and connecting them to our world today. The contributors are a who's who of fiction, non-fiction and poetry.

I read selections from this work for a group discussion (the preface "Origins", and chapters 1 "Democracy", 2 "Race", 3 "Sugar", 17 "Progress", and 18 "Justice", plus a few more). The group hasn't decided to finish the rest of the book, and I haven't been enticed to pick it up either. There's nothing wrong with the book, but I wasn't surprised by the history (with one exception* -- apparently my education was deeper in this area than I expected) and I wasn't taken with the fiction or poetry. I did really savor the images and captions, and would strongly recommend everyone who sees this book to spend a few minutes perusing those before deciding whether this book might be a good fit for you.

(* exception: I learned slaveholders redefined legal descent for slaves to be matrilineal, which not only reinforced dehumanization but also actively incentivized rape)

4. The Grape Grower: A Guide to Organic Viticulture
Lon J. Rombough
2022.01.22 / ★★★★★ / (review)

Phenomenal practical reference on grapes & viticulture. While reading, I was quickly convinced from my knowledge in adjacent areas that Rombough really is an expert in what he is discussing. I can't imagine a more complete or useful compendium of information about tending grape vines for fruit.

5. Feed
Mira Grant
2022.02.02 / ★★★ / (review)

A group of intrepid young bloggers in the near, zombie-containing future are selected as embedded journalists for a presidential campaign. The campaign leads to (deadly) shenigans.

So quaint! The most remarkable part of this 2010 book is now its wide-eyed, early internet vision that the future would elevate journalistic integrity by having all journalists publicly registering their bias -- and then the best would win out. I remember that vision so clearly, but I'd lost track of its innocent idealism in the last ten years.

As a story, this book succeeds primarily with great worldbuilding. The characters are good. The plot had me at a loss for the first half, but as soon as I realized the book was a political thriller, it became predictable. Not a bad book but not a great one -- perfect for folks who like political thrillers, action, and/or zombies.

Welcome back! Great to see you :)

Yay, welcome back! I also liked An Enchantment of Ravens quite a bit, and I think Rogerson's other book, Sorcery of Thorns, is even better.

Welcome back! I look forward to your reviews!

Good to see you here!

6. Debunking the 1619 Project: Exposing the Plan to Divide America
Mary Grabar
2022.02.14 / ★★ / (review)

I know some folks who have gotten very irate at The 1619 Project; they claim that The 1619 Project has been "debunked". I started this book wanting to understand what is "debunkable" and get to a better understanding of what each side is arguing. I didn't finish this book, because it didn't seem to have any content -- it was almost exclusively repeated manifestations of "the mythos we were teaching in the mid-20th century is the right mythos", peppered with minor quibbles that seemed to me like missing the forest for the trees. Since I already know the mid-20th century mythos inside out, this book didn't deliver any of the stretch I was hoping for. I'm disappointed that all I got from this book is "hmm, do my favorite polemics also just feel this weak to non-believers".

7. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma
Bessel van der Kolk M.D.
2022.02.16 / ★★★★ / (review)

Fascinating book about the impact of trauma on the mind and on personal development, with a side dose of treatment options.

I am surprised I only rated this book at 3.5 stars immediately after finishing it, because I have found myself thinking back to it repeatedly these past few months. I'm bumping it up because this is that rare kind of non-fiction that I expect to have a life-long impact. For this book, the impact is on how I interact with people, children, and public/social policy.

8. Local Is Our Future: Steps to an Economics of Happiness
Helena Norberg-Hodge
2022.02.19 / ★★★★ / (review)

A short book that argues that local community is the antidote to everything that ails society right now. The focus is on locally grown food, connection through conversations, engagement in civic life, meeting and loving people who are different from you because they are part of your community.

This is by far the most successful of the suite of books I've been reading the past few years that try to imagine how we can get ourselves to a "better" (less demanding, less constrained, less angry, less depressed) world. There are tangible actions to be found here, and the prescription has the resonance of truth. That said, the author is enough of a stereotype that I have some reservations (white girl who got to know a remote people during the '70s and made it her life's work to proselytize for their unmodernized culture).

9. Moebius Noodles
Maria Droujkova, Yelena McManaman and Ever Salazar
2022.02.28 / ★★★ / (review)

A short book full of multi-page spreads of games to do with kids that surreptitiously teach or reinforce math concepts. The games are differentiated for one year olds through upper elementary schoolers. The content is things like: Be a human mirror of the kid, then have them mirror you (symmetry). Go on a search for things that naturally come in pairs, groups of three, and so on (numbers). Choose a particular relationship like "chicken --> chick; sheep --> lamb" and take turns on who is giving inputs & who is giving outputs (functions). Draw a grid and choose a personal characteristic to vary along each axis, then draw a character in each cell (grids).

Somehow I simultaneously thought this book had so many good ideas that it wasn't clear which game would be best to try out first, and that it also seemed surprisingly short and had some filler/repetition (especially of "draw a grid and have different axes do different things" and "play with symmetry"). The games I tried worked great on the kids I tried them on, though! They were giggling and really enjoying themselves.

I'd recommend this book without hesitation to the right audience, which I think has three forms: (1) parents who are intimidated by math but nevertheless want math to be fun for their kids, (2) people who love math and want to share it but struggle to relate to kids, and (3) folks who do unstructured work with preschoolers & elementary schoolers and would like some educational games in their back pocket (nannies, summer camp counselors, that kind of role). People who are comfortable with both math and kids might find this book interesting to flip through but mostly unremarkable.

>14 rabbitprincess:
>15 christina_reads:
>16 Tess_W:
>17 MissWatson:
Thank you for the warm welcome back! It's really touching that you both found this thread & commented so quickly.

>15 christina_reads:
I adored Sorcery of Thorns too! I actually think I found this author from you. I was hoping An Enchantment of Ravens would be a sequel to it, but it turned out An Enchantment of Ravens did stand just fine on its own, even if it wasn't as memorable as her other world and characters for me.

>18 pammab: Currently reading The 1619 Project and am agreeing with parts and not agreeing with others. I am trying to lay my bias as a history professor aside as much as possible. I'm reading each author once, laying the book aside, and then going back and re-reading each author again. Thus far, Hannah Jones' assertations concerning the cause for the Revolutionary War and her "facts" about the first African slaves in North America is the most troublesome for me. There were African slaves in the U.S. as early at the 1520's in St. Augustine, Florida; brought by the Spanish. When basic "facts" such as this are in error, this causes problems (for a lot of historians) with the veracity of the remainder of the information. I don't know who edited or fact-checked this book, but I'm going to try to find out; although I would agree the first slaves in the ENGLISH colonies were here in 1619 and did change the landscape of America. I will probably read this a 3rd and 4th time and then try to do some more background reading concerning this issue. I admire your attempt to "get the other side", which I find invaluable in most situations.

P.S. I'm most interested in where you created your bingo card. I have long wanted to create my own, but I can't find a site that is then copyable (is that a word?) to html here on LT. Can you share?

>22 pammab: Haha, then I am even gladder that you enjoyed An Enchantment of Ravens! It looks like Rogerson is writing a series now -- the first book, Vespertine, is on my library holds list. I'm excited to see how it will measure up to her previous books!

>23 Tess_W:
You should write a short book! Your explanation made so much more sense than anything I've gotten elsewhere.

I think that lets me put my finger on the disconnect as well. It seems like it is in whether one reads 1619 Project as history that leads inexorably to an alternative narrative (falsifiable/objective truth), or as re-imagining a narrative/revalorizing common knowledge with supports from history (subjective/cultural truth). It deliberately tries to blur the lines between these, but it's the second -- and if that's the frame, arguing the specifics of the history is not the way to undermine its thesis. I'm not even sure that it is possible to attack something whose whole point is to introduce new perspectives on known themes (nice trick, that ;)).

I don't have a bingo website, though I'd love one too! I'm building it in a basic graphics editor and uploading it & changing the link each time I update (which is why it's not very frequent).

>24 christina_reads:
Adding Vespertine to my list as well! Thanks for the heads up. :)

10. It Starts with the Egg
Rebecca Fett
2022.03.05 / ★★★★ / (review)

Eggs begin meiosis three to four months before they are recruited for ovulation, and during that time they are particularly vulnerable to environmental and other toxins. This book argues that you can improve your fertility by reducing the environmental damage caused in those last 3-4 months, by eliminating exposure to heated plastics/BPA/phthalates/etc., and by taking supplements.

I'm torn. The audience for fertility books is mostly pretty desperate, so I like that its interventions are much cheaper than medicalized fertility treatment. I don't like that the studies it cites seem suspiciously tied to a particular clinic, or that that clinic and the author seem to have ties to some of the (expensive!) brand-name supplements it suggests. The book was published in 2014 so the science has presumably advanced as well.

That said... this content does seem to make a difference. I know men whose sperm quality went up and couples who had exceptionally low rates of abnormal IVF embryos after implementing the suggestions. This book also linked the multiple food allergies of a child in my life to the phthalates of extensively used scented baby lotions, an association that is blatant now that I know about the study showing the link. I suppose I think literally everyone should follow the recommendations for what to avoid, and folks seeking increased fertility may want a second opinion on supplements.

11. The Truths We Hold: An American Journey
Kamala Harris
2022.03.19 / ★★½ / (review)

Perfectly acceptable political autobiography of Kamala Harris. A friend said "this reads like her application to be vice president", and that's exactly right. The humanizing touches feel studied and repeatedly retold, it's very clear she is trying to leave a particular kind of impression, and anything remotely controversial that can be scrubbed away is scrubbed away (my favorite example here is religion -- Harris frames herself as having strong moral convictions, but there's almost nothing here about where they come from or what wrestling she's done). But then again, the book served its purpose. I did learn a lot about Kamala Harris, and I do expect to see her on the national stage for the rest of her life.

12. Dumplin'
Julie Murphy
2022.04.06 / ★★★ / (review)

A fat teenager in Texas decides to join her small town's beauty pageant, which her mother had won and now runs, while trying to work through dating and friendships.

This book belongs in high school libraries -- lots of good YA themes here, with strong, loveable, complex female characters. Very easy and enjoyable read. Nothing deep here; it's a light book.

13. Comfort Me With Apples
Catherynne M. Valente
2022.04.14 / ★★★★½ / (review)

Picked this one up on a whim, only on the strength of recognizing the author's name. I was extremely impressed with it. But I am sure I'd have been underwhelmed if I had known anything at all about it before I started it, and that it won't be to most people's liking. So uh. Pick it up if your fiction tastes are like mine, but don't ask me why? Erfh.

For my notes and anyone who's read it: This is ever-so-slightly sacrilegious Bible fiction, which tells an origin story that fits together some of the weirder parts of the Bible, but it also is a kind of Stepford horror story/comment on modernity. Really excellent, but all its punch comes from not knowing where it is headed/what I just said.

It's great to see you back!

>30 DeltaQueen50: Thank you! It's great to see you too.

14. Gideon the Ninth
Tamsyn Muir
2022.05.08 / ★★★★ / (review)

Gideon wants off her planet. She's grown up alone, orphaned, with her only peer the sociopathic heir to the planet's necromancy title. The ninth planet in the Nine Houses System is cold and dark, and Gideon is doing anything she can to escape. Then she's tricked into being the brawn on a multi-house deadly necromantic puzzle hunt.

Delightful. I've never seen anything quite like this book -- lots of female main characters, lots of mysteries with good plotting, lots of unreliable narration, lots of (tame) lesbianism, great worldbuilding, and a very dark magical world. Plus the audiobook narrator is fantastic -- easily in my top 3 narrators ever.

(Thank you to everyone who suggests ideas on SantaThing, which brings unexpected oddities like this to people who enjoy them!)

15. Never Let Me Go
Kazuo Ishiguro
2022.05.14 / ★★★★ / (review)

From her mid-life position as a carer, Kathy reflects on her life and upbringing at an elite school that groomed her and her peers to have all their organs harvested in their 20s and 30s.

Lots of great themes here, foremost that of duty. Definitely a literary novel in which every character choice and reflection has a larger thematic purpose. Readers seems to be either awestruck by the thematic depth ("such an adult novel") or frustrated by the way that depth manifests ("why don't they rebel"). For me, I felt like the story was extremely well-executed but the themes were pretty pedestrian -- I had the sense this was a book that would have engaged me best in high school. Would recommend widely regardless.

16. The Broken Kingdoms
N. K. Jemisin
2022.05.22 / ★★★ / (review)

The sequel to A Hundred Thousand Kingdoms starts ten years later and focuses on a new character, an artist who sells trinkets to the religious tourists and pilgrims to the tree that is the source of magic in this world.

Great world, interesting meta-level choice of blind narrator, pretty weak plotting/didn't leave much of an impression. I wanted to like this more than I found I did. Not bad, mind -- just not as captivating as some of what I've read from Jemisin. Maybe it would have stood up better if I'd read it sooner on the heels of the first.

17. Ancillary Justice
Ann Leckie
2022.06.05 / ★★★★½ / (review)

Breq decided twenty years ago on a impossible goal. She's been traveling across space and risking her life toward that accomplishment every since. Will she succeed? What made her so hellbent on this target?

Ancillary Justice is best of breed political sci-fi. It's a slowly revealed high stakes plot, contains excellent worldbuilding rife with implicit reflections on gender and identity, and boasts highly novel characters -- so novel, in fact, the idea of "embodied spaceship AI" has been on the resurgence since this novel's publication in 2013. These are classic '70s sci-fi themes with modernist trappings -- genderless language rendered in English with female pronouns, one consciousness having multiple physical bodies, self-aware spaceships, living multiple millennia. The story addresses core human themes: What does it mean to be divided in oneself, and how does that affect others? How do we construct identity? What is the good life, and what is appropriate to sacrifice to achieve it? Is there really a moral distinction in legislating behavior versus legislating thought? This book is definitely an example of the "humanities questions through spec fic" genre that so often speaks to me; I will pick up more by Ann Leckie.

And I'm caught up! I've been fighting to care about News of the World, though I thought I'd love it, so I may soon have an abandonment review to boot -- but this is it for the first half of the year. :)

>29 pammab: Taking a BB for Comfort Me with Apples. I've read only one of Catherynne M. Valente's other works, Space Opera, but I did enjoy it very much, so I'd like to read more of her work.

>35 pammab: Great review of Ancillary Justice. I really liked this series and am sorry to see there aren't any new books at the moment, though I did love The Raven Tower, which is not part of this universe.

>37 mathgirl40: I will make a note of The Raven Tower!

18. News of the World
Paulette Jiles
2022.06.13 / ★★ / (review)

A veteran transports a Kiowa girl against her will to her white family.

Abandoned about a third of the way through. I didn't find this audiobook nearly as engaging as I'd expected. It has all the hallmarks of something I'd love -- historical, wholesome, embedded in relationships and placefulness -- but it was so slow that I never really engaged. The girl Johanna's story also was too heartbreaking to lure me in.

>39 pammab: Ha! I also rated it a 2! I almost abandoned it! It's rating on LT is 4.19 and I saw people rave about it......

19. Ancillary Sword
Ann Leckie
2022.06.21/ ★★★★ / (review)

Second in a trilogy -- Breq is now a Fleet Captain, a role gifted by her emperor nemesis Anaander Mianaai, and heads out to protect the station to which she has the strongest ties.

Devoured! Some good stuff here on marginalization and power.

>40 Tess_W:
I know! I think maybe my expectations were too high. The audiobook narrator was great, and I can see everything I wanted to like in it.... Maybe just the wrong time for me.

20. Ancillary Mercy
Ann Leckie
2022.07.14 / ★★★ / (review)

Third in a trilogy -- Breq is now a Fleet Captain, a role gifted by her emperor nemesis Anaander Mianaai, and the narrative arc between them proceeds.

A letdown from the first two, which were nearly attached to my palm from first to last page. I suspect I was reading more for the ideas than the characters. Denouements don't introduce new ideas, and the character and plot development felt pretty pedestrian. The book & series are definitely worth finishing! But it was not on par with the same experience that the first two books in the trilogy gave me.

21. House on Endless Waters
Emuna Elon
2022.07.11 / ★★★★★ / (review)

Contravening his promise to his dying mother, an famous Israeli author visits Amsterdam. On display at the Jewish Historical Museum there, he finds a pre-WWII photograph that shakes his world -- the photograph shows his mother, father, sister, and a baby boy who is not him, smiling at a wedding. The experience kicks off his next book, and ours, mingling timelines and characters.

Stunning. Excellently translated from the Hebrew, heartbreaking, and very literary.

22. Unwinding Anxiety
Judson Brewer
2022.07.17 / ★ / (review)

I picked this book up on the strength of glowing recommendations, but I quickly abandoned it. Pompous narration, irrelevant anecdotes, weak pop science "arguments", shilling for tie-in products, nothing redeeming for me.

23. Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art
James Nestor
2022.07.28 / ★★★★ / (review)

All about breathing. Lots of unbelievable anecdotes (curing severe scoliosis by breathing!), some believable anecdotes (treating emphysema by breathing with undamaged regions of lung!), and only a wee bit of science. James Nestor is not dissuaded by lack of science -- and frankly I'm not either. But my existing attitudes veer vaguely crunchy, so I'm culturally predisposed to his message and approach. I'm walking away with a couple useful health takeaways and more party stories.

A fun read. Not quite up to the level of Why We Sleep and Good Calories, Bad Calories overall, but if you read opinionated pop science for entertainment or to explore your health rather than for knowledge, it rates in their league.

24. The Carbon Footprint of Everything
Mike Berners-Lee
2022.08.06 / ★★★½ / (review)

This is not a book to read straight through -- it's a book to thumb through. But it's possibly the most worthwhile book to thumb through that I've ever engaged.

Rather than provide a narrative, the book is structured by 1-2 page vignettes about activities and objects that carry carbon load, grouped into orders of magnitude. A few themes come through loud and clear: Take fewer flights. Drive less. Reorient to cleaner and renewable energy. Avoid meat, and avoid vegetables from cold storage, hothouses, or airplanes. Avoid buying almost anything new. An idea that surprised me though it wasn't reinforced was a strong endorsement of electric bikes -- obvious, in retrospect.

There's certainly enough here for me to inform & re-evaluate my choices, which is the actionability I was seeking. (It seems to always be the case, though, that preaching the gospel is repetitious and doesn't lend itself to long-form nuance.)

Sorry you didn't care for News of the World but with so many books out there, I think you are wise to set it aside and move on.

>48 DeltaQueen50: I have been looking for some nice calm fiction, and mostly finishing unhappy or disturbing non-fiction with some fiction. Not sure what this says about me! But I'll keep looking for something to scratch the itch. Maybe it's time to dip back into YA.

25. Ancestral Night
Elizabeth Bear
2022.08.14 / ★★★½ / (review)

Lesbian space pirates. That said, our main character is trying very hard to not be a lesbian space pirate, and there is quite a bit of political philosophy here around what makes a good life and society, what makes a self, and how our environments inform our being.

I liked this book. But since I also couldn't have immediately told you what it was about 2 weeks later, I'm not sure it's particularly lasting. Lots of interesting ideas and alien characters, philosophical execution much better than average but not awe-inspiring, and large numbers of setups for plot double-crosses that didn't come. Worth the investment, but I'm satisfied with my experience in this world and don't feel a need to pursue the sequel.

26. No Hard Feelings: The Secret Power of Embracing Emotions at Work
Liz Fosslien and Mollie West Duffy
2022.08.18 / ★★★ / (review)

Career non-fiction -- what it says on the tin, executed well with very clear take-aways and a lot of synthesis of the best ideas of the currently in-vogue leadership style. Feels like the sort of book that would be worthwhile in a employer-based book club for new managers. There's nothing wrong with it. I've rated it 3 stars only because it didn't particularly impress or surprise me (most in this genre doesn't).

27. An Unrestored Woman
Shobha Rao
2022.08.26 / ★½ / (review)

In six pairs of short stories set in India and Pakistan in 1947, Shobha Rao explores the most painful parts of the human experience -- love thwarted, indifference magnified. These are young stolen mothers whose babies belong to the wrong country, gay and straight men and women who can't have their loves, trafficked prostitutes who attack their madam, and more in that vein.

I came into this expecting historical fiction about Partition, especially about the experiences of women and girls migrating across the India-Pakistan border to live in the country of the "right" religion. I didn't get Partition history at all -- this book is story after story of melodramatic hardship. Partition is part of the backstory, but only one story really needed Partition to provide its core -- the rest are just about impossible lives and trafficking. The book was too depressing and too ahistorical for me, so I was happy to return it without finishing the final 20 pages. That said, others seem to adore this book, so your mileage may vary.

28. Too Like the Lightning
Ada Palmer
2022.08.26 / ★★ / (review)

Self-conscious and 18th/19th century stylistics -- I abandoned this one, like its similarly lauded brethren Johnathan Strange & Mr Norrell and Quicksilver.

29. A Desolation Called Peace
Arkady Martine
2022.09.18 / ★★★★★ / (review)

Phenomenal sequel -- continuing on the core themes of identity in the presence of colonialism and technology blurring identity boundaries (cloning, biologic consciousness sharing, technological consciousness sharing), with a first contact plot and similar depth of politics and variety in themes to the first in the series. Brilliantly drawn, and even better than A Memory Called Empire.

30. How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They're Built
Stewart Brand
2022.09.21 / ★★★★ / (review)

Architecture book that takes a "buildings through time" perspective, boasting a huge variety of annotated side-by-side photographs. I really enjoyed the way this book broadened my perspective. I've been especially enjoying looking at neighborhoods of different ages since starting this one. I'd recommend How Buildings Learn to anyone interested in how buildings change, what makes buildings or spaces endure, or seeing the commonplace in an entirely new light.

31. The Other Black Girl: A Novel
Zakiya Dalila Harris
2022.09.25 / ★★★½ / (review)

Nella has been the only Black employee at a boutique publishing company since she started two years ago at her dream employer. Wagner Books has few opportunities for promotion for anyone, pays poorly, and it can't seem to retain employees of color. Nella hopes she'll have an ally when she meets her newly hired Black peer Hazel -- but then she starts getting anonymous notes telling her to leave Wagner.

This book was billed as a thriller, but it's more genre-bending than that. There's a lot of psychological thriller-style doubt of motives, as in Jordan Peele's 2017 movie Get Out or the book Lovecraft Country, but it's also got workplace chicklit vibes and speculative fiction/magical realism vibes. It's a book with something serious & substantive to say about race and the workplace, which delivers heartily though it struggles a bit in execution (this is Harris's first book, and I suspect a lot of content was written and then cut, trying to get the story to say what she wanted, causing some uneven pacing). I particularly appreciated how well the author developed even side characters into distinct personalities. There's a lot to think about or discuss in this book (like how the main plot device has to be cast in "consent" terms to make sure all readers perceive it as evil) -- a good choice for a book club.

32. Acupressure's Potent Points: A Guide to Self-Care for Common Ailments
Michael Reed Gach
2022.10.01 / ★★★ / (review)

Acceptable discussion of acupressure. Content seemed minimal (lots of point repetition). Organized by malady, which I find tenuous/mystical (but it assists in making the repetition less visible). I thought it overpromised and underdelivered; for instance, it inflated its malady count by treating a few with a single generic acupressure point alluded to in half a paragraph (like that one in the web between thumb and palm). No orientation to Chinese medicine theory or how its systems relate to Western medicine. Weak discussion of why you should believe this book.

The sweet spot reader for this book is someone who is already devoted to acupressure but pretty naive about it, who has easy access to this book (like through a library or garage sale). This book isn't bad, but I don't think it's worth seeking out.

33. The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook: Your Self-Treatment Guide for Pain Relief
Clair Davies
2022.10.01 / ★★★★★ / (review)

Clair Davies' book offers pain relief through self-massage of often highly unexpected places, like relieving spinal back pain through massaging a spot on the belly between navel and hip. Diagrams of referred pain make it straightforward to find the most relevant sections to you, and the introductions include strong discussions of both why and how to perform trigger point massage. It clearly distinguishes when to start at home and when to see a doctor with heuristics that make sense, like time limits and checklists to distinguish muscular vs. organ-based pain (organ-based is impossible to treat at home and dangerous to wait on). It calls out common false diagnoses by doctors for particular referred pain patterns from tight muscles. It includes direct, sensible, and useful safety & access instructions for the points it recommends. It's an owner's manual for your body.

This book is a revelation. It works. Literally everyone should have access to a copy. I can't rave enough at how profound this book is. It is head and shoulders above everything else in the self-treatment space.

34. Prescriptive Stretching
Kristian Berg
2022.10.01 / ★★★★ / (review)

Kristian Berg's book contains a roughly 2-page spread for each muscle discussed, and it includes all the major muscles from around the body. It stands out for its clear color diagrams illustrating the muscles to be stretched and its notes on common mistakes.

Consult this book if you've been told to stretch a muscle or muscle group. If you're trying to treat pain on your own, you may want to start with The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook instead; it makes a strong argument that even the targeted stretching that Berg's book enables is not enough on its own and that stretching is most fruitful once the acute pain stage is over (which my experience upholds).

35. Harrow the Ninth
Tamsyn Muir
2022.10.02 / ★★★ / (review)

Wanted to love this sequel, but really struggled with the second person, and couldn't get into the story.

36. In Transit: Being Non-Binary in a World of Dichotomies
Dianna E. Anderson
2022.10.06 / ★★★½ / (review)

Some nice history, but I didn't find this book particularly compelling. I expect that's mostly because I was reading Ivan Coyote at the same time, and in contrast Anderson came off as both a distanced intellectual and a provocative troll (Coyote is a storyteller who clearly tries to find the way by leading with love -- Anderson shares enough of themself to humanize their book as well, but I didn't finish the book liking them).

This book will give readers a broad 2022-accurate introduction to trans and non-binary orthodoxy, touchstones, and contentions. I think it's a nice introduction and I particularly enjoyed its discussion of allyship. But as a decades-long consumer of long-form writing on queer, trans and non-binary issues, I personally didn't get much from this book. I think I was hoping for something more nuanced than the doctrine, and hoping for unexpected connections to the "world of dichotomies" advertised in the title.

37. Care Of: Letters, Connections, and Cures
Ivan Coyote
2022.10.09 / ★★★★ / (review)

Ivan Coyote, a stage storyteller famous for representing LGBTQ experiences especially experiences related to gender identity, responded to the instantly evaporated gigs of the 2020 pandemic by answering fanmail -- especially the substantive fanmail that they'd been putting off. They got permission to publish a subset of the correspondence in this book.

This was my first book by Ivan Coyote, and the fanmail conceit makes it a strange one to start with. Nevertheless I was impressed, and I will definitely seek their work out in more traditional forms. There's earnestness and wisdom here -- a theme throughout is the idea of elders, which is clearly something Coyote is chewing on -- and I found the storytelling format extremely powerful at expressing experiences and motivations that I usually see dryly intellectualized. It's hard for me to imagine someone being unmoved by Ivan Coyote's stories and presence; this is work that melts hearts.

38. Vespertine
Margaret Rogerson
2022.10.15 / ★★★★★ / (review)

A YA fantasy set in a religious world of saints, possessions, and harmful spirits -- a world whose connection between physical death and soul release was broken when a king tried to defeat death many years ago. In this setting, a friendless girl just wants to stay a nun in the provincial convent where she first found safety. As the world falls apart and becomes more dangerous, Artemisia is called by her venerated Gray Lady to play a central role.

Absolutely brilliant. I tried to keep this one at hand, and I thought about it whenever it wasn't at hand. The worldbuilding is phenomenal, the plot is well-paced and has neither holes nor problematic tropes, and the characterization was wonderful (our protagonist has flat affect and struggles with people, in part from prolonged childhood trauma; she is just one of many rich and enjoyable characters). This is Rogerson's best book yet.

>63 pammab: I need to get to Vespertine soon, as I really liked both An Enchantment of Ravens and Sorcery of Thorns.

>64 christina_reads: Oh yes, you should! At this point I'll eagerly read anything Rogerson writes. :)

>53 pammab: >54 pammab: I read with interest your comments on these two books as I had similar reactions.

I'd first read Too Like the Lightning several years ago and recall liking it then, or at least being impressed by its inventiveness. However, I tried rereading it this year before reading Seven Surrenders and I just didn't have the patience to get through it. I abandoned it after 25% and needless to say, I didn't read its sequel either.

As for Martine's books, I liked but didn't love A Memory Called Empire but thought A Desolation Called Peace was phenomenal.

>62 pammab: I've not read this book, but Ivan Coyote's Tomboy Survival Guide and Rebent Sinner were 5-star reads for me!