Lisa (labfs39) loves lists

A new year, a new opportunity for list making. I am a longtime LibraryThing member, and I make my home in Club Read. I also participate in the Global Challenge, Reading Globally, Holocaust Literature, and Nobel Laureates groups. So what am I thinking, joining yet another group? Well, Kerry/avatiakh and some others have inspired me to try organizing my lists here in the Category Challenge, rather than bogging down my Club Read thread with them.

Some of my categories are challenges with set numbers of books for the year, but most are open-ended. My Chinese history project contains a list of suggested reading that I have been working on for a couple of years. Since I homeschool my nieces, I read a lot of children's literature, so that category may need tweaking.

Please bear with me as I learn the ropes in this new-to-me group!

Read around the World

Australia: A Fortunate Life by A.B. Facey

Belgium: I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman*

Bosnia: Guidelines for Accurate Reporting and Speaking about the Genocide in Srebrenica by Melina Borčak

Brazil: My Sweet-Orange Tree by José Mauro de Vasconcelos

Canada: The Boy on the Back of the Turtle by Paul Quarrington

Chile: The Twilight Zone by Nona Fernández*

Dominica: Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

England: The Hollow Land by Jane Gardam; Nicholas Nickelby and Great Expectations by Charles Dickens; All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker; Seascraper by Benjamin Wood; The Inheritors by William Golding; Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson

France: The Conquest of the Plassans, Sin of Abbe Mouret, Pot Luck, Ladies Paradise, A Love Story, The Belly of Paris, and Bright Side of Life by Emile Zola*, Guys Like Me by Dominique Fabre*

Germany: A Time to Hide by Marion Fredmann

United States: Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax, Amazing Mrs. Pollifax, and Elusive Mrs. Pollifax by Dorothy Gilman, Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O'Nan, North Woods by Daniel Mason, Replaceable You by Mary Roach, A Flower Traveled in My Blood by Haley Cohen Gilliland; Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka; A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park, Bear by Julia Phillips

Wales/England/Scotland: Clear by Carys Davies

* means translated

Paul's Americas Off the Beaten Track Challenge

January: Chilean Authors
✔The Twilight Zone by Nona Fernández (rec by Kevin/stretch)

February: Anglo-Caribbean Authors
✔Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys (Dominica)

March: Mexican Authors

April : Hispanic North Americans

May: Brazilian Authors
✔My Sweet-Orange Tree by José Mauro de Vasconcelos (own)

June: Nonfiction about the Americas
✔A Flower Traveled in My Blood (rec by qebo)

July: Cuban Authors
Finding Manana: A Memoir of a Cuban Exodus by Mirta Ojito (own)
Days of Awe by Achy Obejas (own)
Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy by Carlos Eire (own)

August: Franco-Caribbean Authors

September: Columbian Authors
The Informers by Juan Gabriel Vasquez (own)

October: First Nation North Americans

November: Argentinian Authors
A Little Luck by Claudia Piñeiro (wishlist)
The Woman from Uruguay by Pedro Mairal (wishlist)
The Moldavian Pimp (wishlist, rec by rebeccanyc)

December: Other Parts of the Continent

Real Life Book Club

✔January: Finding Me by Viola Davis — DNF
✔February: Isola by Allegra Goodman
✔March: Clear by Carys Davies
✔April: All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Witaker
✔May: North Woods by Daniel Mason
✔June: American Breakdown by Jennifer Lunden — DNF
July: The Night in Question by Susan Fletcher
August: Blue Nights by Joan Dideon
September: The Great Transition by Nick Fuller Googins
October: Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes
November: The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
December: My Katherine Mansfield Project by Kirsty Gunn

Émile Zola Group Read

✔September 2024: The Fortune of the Rougons
✔November 2024: His Excellency Eugène Rougon
✔January 2025: The Kill
✔March 2025: Money
✔May 2025: The Dream
✔July 2025: The Conquest of Plassans
✔September 2025: Pot-Bouille
✔November 2025: Au Bonheur des Dames
✔January 2026: The Sin of Abbe Mouret
✔March 2026: A Love Story
✔May 2026: The Belly of Paris
✔July 2026: Joy of Life
Sept 2026: L'Assommoir
Nov 2026: The Masterpiece
Jan 2027: La Bête Humaine
Mar 2027: Germinal
May 2027: Nana
July 2027: The Earth
Sept 2027: The Debacle
Nov 2027: Doctor Pascal

Reading Globally Quarterly Theme Reads

January-March: Read the Continents
Africa:
Asia:
Europe: The Conquest of Plassans by Emile Zola (France)
North America: Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys (Dominica)
Oceania: A Fortunate Life by A. B. Facey (Australia)
South America: The Twilight Zone by Nona Fernández (Chile)

April-June: The Francophone World
1. A Love Story by Emile Zola
2. La Parure by Guy de Maupassant
3. Guys Like Me by Dominique Fabre
4. The Belly of Paris by Emile Zola
5. Bright Side of Life by Emile Zola

July-September: Anthologies and Short Fiction from Around the World
1.

October-December: The Hispanophone World
1.

Books to Read on Chinese History

General
The Gate of Heavenly Peace: The Chinese and Their Revolution, 1895-1980 by Jonathan Spence
The Search for Modern China by Jonathan Spence

Dynasties
Empress Dowager Cixi by Jung Chang (on shelves, rec by mabith)
Two Years in the Forbidden City by Princess Der Ling (rec by lilisin)

WWII and Communist Revolution
The Tragedy of Liberation by Frank Dikötter
✔The Rape of Nanking: the forgotten holocaust of World War II by Iris Chang
Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-45 by Barbara W. Tuchman
The Long March: The True History of Communist China's Founding Myth by Sun Shuyun
The Women of the Long March by Lily Xiao Hong Lee
Red Star Over China: The Classic Account of the Birth of Chinese Communism by Edgar Snow (rec by dchaikin)
Zhou Enlai: The Last Perfect Revolutionary by Wenqian Gao (rec by SassyLassy)
Maoism: A Global History by Julia Lovell (rec by wandering_star)
Quotations of Chairman Mao aka Little Red Book

Recommended by R.F. Kuang
Shanghai 1937: Stalingrad on the Yangtze by Peter Harmsen
Comfort Women: Sexual Slavery in the Japanese Military during World War II by Yoshimi Yoshiaki
The Comfort Women: Japan's Brutal Regime of Enforced Prostitution in the Second World War by George Hicks
Forgotten Ally: China's World War II, 1937-1945 by Rana Mitter
China at War: Triumph and Tragedy in the Emergence of the New China by Hans van de Ven
The Battle for China: Essays on the Military History of the Sino-Japanese War of 1937-1945 edited by Mark Peattie

The Great Famine (1958-1962)
✔Mao's Great Famine by Frank Dikötter (rec by mabith and Sassy)
✔Hungry Ghosts by Jasper Becker (rec by mabith)
Tombstone: The Great Chinese Famine, 1958-1962 by Yang Jisheng (rec by SassyLassy)
The Corpse Walker: Real Life Stories by Liao Yiwu (rec by SassyLassy)

The Cultural Revolution (1966-1976)
The Cultural Revolution by Frank Dikötter (on shelves)

Memoirs/Bios
✔In Search of My Homeland: A Memoir of a Chinese Labor Camp by Ertai Gao
✔Grass Soup by Zhang Xianliang
✔Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang (rec by mabith, rec by cindydavid4)
Big Sister, Red Sister, Little Sister: Three Women at the Heart of Twentieth-Century China by Jung Chang (rec by mabith)
No Wall Too High: One Man's Daring Escape from Mao's Darkest Prison by Xu Hongci (rec by lilisin)
A Chinese Life by Li Kunwu (graphic novel) (rec by avatiakh)
✔Feather in the Storm: A Childhood Lost in Chaos by Emily Wu (on shelves)
No Tears for Mao: Growing up in the Cultural Revolution by Niu-niu (on shelves)
Colors of the Mountain by Da Chen (on shelves)
Chinese Lives: An Oral History of Contemporary China by Zhang XinXin (on shelves)
✔Red Scarf Girl : A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution by Ji-li Jiang (on shelves)
The Private Life of Chairman Mao by Zhisui Li (on shelves, rec by wandering_star)
✔1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows by Ai Weiwei (on shelves, rec by rocketj)
A Gang of One: Memoirs of a Red Guard by Fan Shen (rec by BLBera)
Red Azalea by Anchee Min (rec by RidgewayGirl)
Life and Death in Shanghai by Nien Cheng (rec by Dikotter)

Tiananmen Square
Leaden Wings by Jie Zhang (rec by Eliz_M)
Bullets and Opium: Real-Life Stories of China After the Tiananmen Square Massacre by Yiwu Liao (rec by lilisin)

Historical Fiction
A Dictionary of Maqiao by Shaogong Han (on shelves)
✔Half of Man is Woman by Xianliang Zhang (on shelves, rec by Eliz_M)
Naked Earth by Eileen Chang (rec by SassyLassy)
Raise the red lantern : three novellas by Tong Su (on shelves, rec by steven03tx)
Nanjing Requiem by Ha Jin (on shelves)
The Concert by Ismail Kadare (rec by SassyLassy)
Cocoon by Zhang Yueran
The Good Earth by Pearl Buck (on shelves)

Other
Prison Diary by Hồ Chí Minh (rec by LolaWalser)
Kingdom of Characters by Jing Tsu (rec by rv1988)
Fly, Wild Swans: My Mother, Myself and China by Jung Chang

Holocaust Literature

1. A Time to Hide by Marion Seidemann Fredman (JNF, 4.5*)

Nobel Laureates in Literature

1. William Golding - The Inheritors

Children's Literature: A selection of books I read with my nieces this year.



Children's Fiction:
1. The Unmapped Sea by Maryrose Wood — Listening
2. The Iliad by Gillian Cross
3. 12 picture books by Bill Peet
4. 14 picture books by Jan Brett
5. Ivy and Bean by Annie Barrows (books 1-5)
6. The Odyssey by Gilian Cross
7. Rain Player by David Wisniewski
8. Verdi by Janell Cannon
9. Crickwing by Janell Cannon
10. The Llama's Secret by Argentina Palacio
11. Ming's Adventure with Confucius in Qufu by Li Jian
12. The Show-Off Monkey and Other Taoist Tales by Mark W. McGinnis
13. Swatch: The Girl Who Loved Color by Julia Denos
14. Carmine: A Little More Red by Melissa Sweet



Children's Nonfiction:
1. Treasury of Greek Mythology by Donna Jo Napoli
2. The Story of Science: Aristotle Leads the Way by Joy Hakim
3. The Sea-Ringed World: Sacred Stories of the Americas by María García Esperón
4. A Time to Hide by Marion Seidemann Fredman
5. We Are All Born Free: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Pictures
6. I Have the Right to be a Child by Alain Serres
7. Every Human Has Rights by Mary Robinson
8. The Life of the Buddha by Heather Sanche
9. I Once Was a Monkey: Stories Buddha Told by Jeanne M. Lee
10. What Do We Know About the Nazca Lines? by Ben Hubbard
11. Lady of the Lines: How Maria Reiche Saved the Nazca Lines by Sweeping the Desert by Michaela MacColl
12. Confucius: Great Teacher of China by Demi
13. Kuan Yin: The Princess Who Became the Goddess of Compassion by Maya van der Meer
14. I Am We: How Crows Come Together to Survive by Leslie Barnard Booth
15. The Beetle Book by Steve Jenkins
16. Tomatoes on Trial: The Fruit v. Vegetable Showdown by Lindsay H. Metcalf
17. Everyday Life in Ancient Greece by Anne Pearson
18. The First Olympics of Ancient Greece by Lisa Simons
19. Bedtime Math by Laura Overdeck

Graphic Works

1.

Short Works

1. Abscond by Abraham Verghese
2. The Drover's Wife by Henry Lawson (available online)
3. 3 Days, 9 Months, 27 Years by John Scalzi
4. The Union Buries Its Dead by Henry Lawson (available online)
5. Introduction to Huckleberry Finn by Toni Morrison (available online)
6. Shtetl Days by Harry Turtledove (available online)
7. The (Mis)Fortunes of Saint Ilia’s School for Gifted Girls, In No Particular Order by Catherine Tavares (available online)
8. The Toynbee Convector by Ray Bradbury, read by LeVar Burton
9. The Vatican by Ben Loory read by Santino Fontana
10. I Love Betty by Kaitlyn Greenidge, read by Nathan Hinton
11. La Parure by Guy de Maupassant
12. Lift Me Up by Milly Johnson
13. Lovers at the Museum by Isabel Allende
14. Six People to Revise You by J.R. Dawson (available online)
15. Missing Helen by Tia Tashiro (available online)
16. On Venus, Have We Got a Rabbi! by William Tenn (available online)
17. 10 Visions of the Future; or, Self-Care for the End of Days by Samantha Mills (available online)
18. My Evil Mother by Margaret Atwood
19. Xingu — a Short Story by Edith Wharton (available online)

TIOLI Challenge

January
#10: Read a book with a connection to my mother, Dorothy — The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax by Dorothy Gilman
#11: Read a book connected to your reading intentions for 2026 — The Conquest of the Plassans, The Twilight Zone, The Sin of Abbe Mouret
#16: Read a book by an author who died in 2025 — The Hollow Land by Jane Gardam

February
#7: Read a book featuring letters from RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS — Great Expectations
#8: Read a book whose title or author's name contains the letters "ing" — Amazing Mrs. Pollifax
#9: Read a book originally written in a Romance Language — I Who Have Never Known Men
#10: Read a book originally published in a Commonwealth of Nations country — Clear
#11: Read a Book by an Australian author — A Fortunate Life
#14: Read a book with the color yellow somewhere on the front cover — Ladies' Paradise
#15: Read a book with a full name in the title — Elusive Mrs. Pollifax
#16: Read a book by an author from the Commonwealth Caribbean Countries — Wide Sargasso Sea (Dominica)
#20: Read a book for the Two by Two challenge — Pot Luck

April
#9: Read a book whose title reads as a Dreadful Warning — A Time to Hide
#11: Read a work by an author whose first and last initials are from the 13 least commonly used letters of the English alphabet — Guidelines for Accurate Reporting and Speaking about the Genocide in Srebrenica — Melina Borčak

May
#5: Read a book that has a Q or a Z in the title or the author's name — Zola
#17: Read a book translated from Portuguese — My Sweet-Orange Tree
#20: Read a book set in Republic of Ireland or United Kingdom — Seascraper

June
#1: Read a book by an author whose published name has three parts — A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park
#7: Read a book by an author you've read at least three times before — Bright Side of Life (12th book by Zola)
#8: Read a book with a word from a Marvel Cinematic Universe work in the title — Replaceable You
#13: Read a book that matches a category on the 2026 Seattle Public Library Summer Book Bingo Card — The Inheritors
#17: Read a book with all the letters in WATER in the title — Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
#18: Read a book of Non-Fiction about The Americas — A Flower Traveled in My Blood

July
#1: Read a book with a one-word title beginning with a letter from the first half of the alphabet — Bear

Audiobooks

1. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens, narrated by Simon Vance
2. Finding Me by Viola Davis, narrated by the author (DNF)
3. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, narrated by Simon Vance
4. Clear by Carys Davies, narrated by Russ Bain
5. Seascraper written and narrated by Benjamin Wood
6. Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O'Nan, narrated by Jonathan Davis
7. Replaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy written and narrated by Mary Roach

E-books to Read

An asterisk means I hope to read sooner rather than later. The list is organized by the order in which the books were purchased.

2022
North to Paradise: A Memoir by Ousman Umar
Where the Desert Meets the Sea by Werner Sonne
American Seoul: A Memoir by Helena Rho
Light to the Hills by Bonnie Blaylock
Local: A Memoir by Jessica Machado
*This Time Next Year We'll Be Laughing by Jacqueline Winspear
The Singing Trees by Boo Walker (accidental purchase)

2023
Bird of Paradise by Ada Leverson (public domain)
The Limit by Ada Leverson (public domain)
*The Hired Man by Aminatta Forna
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
Kamusari Tales Told at Night (Forest Book 2) by Shion Miura
Where Waters Meet by Zhang Ling (First Reads)
The Wren and the Swordfish Pilot by Stella Hutchinson (First Reads)
Elizabeth's Star by Rhonda Forrest (First Reads)
The Lost Girl from Belzec by Ravit Raufman
Ester and Ruzya: How My Grandmothers Survived Hitler's War and Stalin's Peace by Masha Gessen
The Quiet American by Graham Greene
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Guernsey Saga by Diana Bachmann (First Reads)
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami
*A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes
Scorpio by Marko Kloos (First Reads)
Freydis by Gunhild Haugnes (First Reads)

2024
Mr. Britling Sees It Through by H. G. Wells
The Lone Winter by Anne Bosworth Greene (book club selection, public domain)
The Great Escape: Nine Jews Who Fled Hitler and Changed the World by Kati Marton
Operation Columba—The Secret Pigeon Service: The Untold Story of World War II Resistance in Europe by Gordon Corera
The Tiger in the Attic by Edith Milton
Lovers at the Museum by Isabel Allende (short story)
A Light through the Cracks: A Climber's Story by Beth Rodden (First Reads)
To Keep the Sun Alive by Rabeah Ghaffari (First Reads)
The Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield
North Woods by Daniel Mason
The Curious Secrets of Yesterday by Namrata Patel (First Reads)
Thirteenth Child by Mark DeMeza (First Reads)
Songdogs by Colum McCann
Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien (First Reads) — Started
White Mulberry by Rosa Kwon Easton (First Reads)
What the Light Touches by Xavier Bosch (First Reads, Catalan)
The Paris Assignment by Rhys Bowen

2025
A Parthenon on Our Roof by Peter Barber
The Prince and the Plunder by Andrew Heavens (book bub deal)
Irena's Children: A True Story of Courage by Tilar J. Mazzeo (book bub deal)
Abscond by Abraham Verghese (short story)
*Stone Blind: A Novel by Natalie Haynes
*Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
Old God's Time by Sebastian Barry
The End of Drum-Time by Hanna Pylväinen Started
*The Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste
*Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
*3 Days, 9 Months, 27 Years by John Scalzi (short story)
*Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law by Mary Roach
On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder
The Measure by Nikki Erlick
*Strange Weather in Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami
The Last Father-Daughter Dance: A Short Story by Lisa Wingate
*A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders
I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys
*We Do Not Part by Han Kang
*Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar

2026
Isola by Allegra Goodman
There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak
Our Spoons Came from Woolworths by Barbara Comyns
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
The Unworthy by Roy Jacobsen
Daughters of the Bamboo Grove by Barbara Demick
The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi
Across the Cold Ground by Oisin McGann (short story)
The Mauritanian by Mohamedou Ould Slahi
Three Apples Fell from the Sky by Narine Abgaryan
Zuleikha by Guzel Yakhina
Guiding Emily: A Tale of Love, Loss, and Courage by Barbara Hinske
Dancing in the Mosque: An Afghan Mother's Letter to Her Son by Homeira Qaderi
Moon of the Turning Leaves by Waubgeshig Rice
In the Shadow of Enlightenment: A Girl's Journey through the Osho Rajneesh Cult by Sarito Carroll
Lift Me Up by Milly Johnson
The Moon Goddess's Smile by Catherine C. Wu
Goodbye, Antoura: A Memoir of the Armenian Genocide by Karnig Panian
A Girl Returned by Donatella Di Pietrantonio
Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice
Not Even My Name: A True Story by Thea Halo
MiJa by Mark Atkinson
A Flower Traveled in My Blood by Haley Cohen Gilliland

Welcome to the group. It does seems to be a good way to manage your lists. This was the first group I joined when I signed up to LT. Wishing you a good reading year.

Oh, how wonderful! So nice to see you here! Welcome to the Category Challenge!

Welcome, Lisa. You have some fabulous lists!

I hopped over here to see what you are up to and you do have some great lists, Lisa. I might have to think about hopping over here.

>16 avatiakh: I know I'm not living up to the category challenge, but I start to feel hemmed in if I have too many expectations built into my reading. I prefer open ended ones like "read a book by a Chilean author" or even TIOLI where I just slot my reading into the month's categories as I can after the fact. Only Zola and my book club are prescribed. Maybe after being in the Category Challenge group for a while I'll be more adventurous.

>17 MissBrangwen: Thanks, Mirjam. It's nice that I'll get to have more contact with you.

>18 DeltaQueen50: Thank you. I see you on the TIOLI threads, and we share a fair number of books. I'll check out your CC thread.

>19 BLBera: Thanks, Beth. I feel a little spread out, as I've always kept my lists on Club Read, but I'm sure I'll get used to it. Some folks here have amazing categories and photos too.

Great blessings to you and your reading in the new year. Welcome to the challenge.

Welcome to the group! I very much look forward to seeing your reading for the year. Are you planning to or have read Fly, Wild Swans? I read Wild Swans when it was first published and still think about it. Definitely time for a reread.

Welcome to the group. I can see that I might get a lot of inspiration in your reads. Particularly the "off the beaten track" category. Might go check out your thread in Club Read also.

>22 JayneCM: Thanks, Jayne. I have not read Fly, Wild Swans and I hadn't even heard of it. Definitely adding it to my list!

>23 dudes22: For the last few years, PaulCranswick has done a geographical challenge that I have enjoyed: Africa, Asia, Europe, and now the Americas. I love reading translated literature and literature from around the world, so these challenges help that goal with both prompts and suggestions.

>24 labfs39: - I've added a category for translated literature this year so I'll be watching what you read.

Good luck with your 2026 reading!

Welcome to the challenge. I’ll be interested to see your readings about China!

>25 dudes22: >26 Tess_W: >27 MissWatson: Thank you!

>15 labfs39: It's only January 4th, and I've already changed up one of my categories. Instead of tracking my nonfiction, I am posting a list of my unread e-books in hopes that I will cross off more than I buy. Last year I purchased 25 and read 12. Hmm...

Welcome to the Category Challenge! I may go check out Paul’s geographic challenge. I’m working on African authors this year, but I’m also reading Portuguese language literature, so I’d have Brazil covered at least.

>30 Charon07: I scooted over to your Categories thread, and oh my! The iris photos are gorgeous (it's my favorite flower), and the way you matched them to your categories is so clever. I can see I'll need to up my game for next year. I also saw that Too Loud a Solitude is one of the short novels on your list. I love that book and hope you enjoy it too.

I just added some of my favorite African books to the African and African Diaspora List. Many of them are ones I read for Paul's Africa Challenge a few years back. I look forward to seeing which books you read.

>31 labfs39: I actually just read Too Loud a Solitude in December, and I can see why it was on Tookie’s Short Perfect Novels list. Thanks for the link to the African and African Diaspora list. I’m trying to find books from more countries, so that will be a good resource.

I finally finished my first book of the year. World events have impinged on my sanity. I included this in my Read around the World category (France), Zola Group Read, and Reading Globally Quarterly Theme for the European continent.

Welcome the the Category Challenge! It's been a while between Nobel Prize winners, so I'll be keeping an eye out for your recommendations.

Read for Paul's America's Challenge (Chilean authors), the Reading Globally continents challenge (South America), and Reading around the World (Chile).

>35 labfs39: I have The Twilight Zone on my shelf. Maybe I will get to it this month. I always have good intentions for the challenges,... I really liked the other novel by her that I've read.

>36 BLBera: Was the other book you read Voyager: Constellations of Memory? I think I might look for that one.

>35 labfs39: Great review! I'll add this one to my wish list.

>38 MissBrangwen: It's an interesting one. I'm looking forward to reading more of her work. Its seems as though memory is a common theme in her writing.

>37 labfs39: It was Space Invaders, Lisa. It sounds like The Twilight Zone is closely related thematically.

>40 BLBera: Yes, I think the two are similar and both use pop culture, and all of her books seems to wrestle with issues of memory. I'm looking forward to reading more by her.

A comfort read after my last book. Included in my Reading around the World category (England).

Continuing my recent mania for revisiting classics on audiobook. Added to my audiobook list.

For the Zola group read challenge:

>44 labfs39: That’s a great review.

>45 MissWatson: Thanks, Birgit. I posted some quotes and more musings on my Club Read thread.

Another for the Zola group read. One more and I'll be caught back up to the group!

Read for Paul's Americas challenge (>3 labfs39:). I also switched it into the North America slot for the Continents challenge (>6 labfs39:).

Another audiobook
Narrated by Simon Vance
Originally published 1861, this narration 2008, 18 hours

Another entry in the Zola challenge
Translated by Brian Nelson
Originally published 1883, this translation 1995, 438 p.

Read for the TIOLI challenge (read a book by an Australian). Also added to the Read the World and the Read the Continents challenges.

Published 1981, 331 p.

>51 labfs39: I'm definitely adding this one to my WL. I hadn't heard of it before!

>51 labfs39: >52 MissBrangwen: I too gave it 4.5 stars because it is a fantastic book. (I hardly ever give 5 stars, like maybe 2 or 3 times a year.) A must-read.

>51 labfs39: I loved this book too. I chose it for a university human development paper where we studied an autobiography of our choice. I loaned it out numerous times to friends and family so eventually it never came back.

>52 MissBrangwen: I think you'll like it, Mirjam.

>53 NinieB: I'm the same with my stars, Ninie. It's an excellent book though.

>54 avatiakh: I would love to read your paper on it, Kerry. This book would lend itself well to that sort of analysis, I would think. According to the current cover being sold online, the book has sold over a million copies now.

I added this one to Canada, due to the author's nationality, but it takes place in Ecuador.

Published 1997, 247 p.

This one checked several boxes. I added it to Germany in Read Around the World, as well as to Holocaust Literature and Children's Literature.

Publisehd 2026, 94 p.

Another entry in the Zola group read, as well as the Reading Globally theme read: The Francophone World.

I read this for my RL book club. In round the world, I placed it under England, the author's nationality, despite it being set in Missouri.

Added to France and to the Global theme read, The Francophone World

Translated from the French by Howard Curtis
Originally published 2007, English translation 2015, 144 p.

Added to England and audiobooks

Published 2025, 176 p., 5 hrs and 22 min

Read for Paul's Reading the Americas challenge. It's my first book by a Brazilian author.

Translated from the Portuguese by Edgar H. Miller, Jr.; illustrated by Frank Bozzo
Originally published 1969, this translation 1970, 214 p.

>62 labfs39: I'm definitely adding this one to my WL for Brazil! What a pity that the other books in the tetralogy have not been translated.

>63 MissBrangwen: I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. A friend shared that the others haven't been translated into French either.

Rougon-Macquart no. 11
Translated from the French by Brian Nelson
Originally published 1873, this translation 2007, 287 p.

Crossed this one off my e-reader TBR list, as well as being the May selection for my RL book club.

Published 2023, 372 p.

Another book for the Zola group read. Also fits in the Francophone theme.

I enjoyed this book quite a bit and was glad that the things I feared would befall Pauline did not. I have to say I detest this cover, however.

Translated from the French by Andrew Rothwell
Originally published 1884, this translation 2018, 313 p.

An addition to my audiobook category:

And one for my short works category:

>69 labfs39: I have this one on my kindle, too, and am happy to see you enjoyed it. It will come in handy for the AlphaKIT (the alphabet challenge in this group). It's quite hard to find books with an x after all!

>68 labfs39: - The only book of hers I've read was Stiff and every time someone reviews one of her books, it reminds me that I really need to read another one. The funny part of reading that book is that I was reading it while I was waiting for the dermatologist to come into the exam room and when he (yes he) came in and saw what I was reading, he started a discussion while I was sitting there in my little paper wrap. Slightly awkward.

>70 MissBrangwen: I can imagine finding a title beginning with X is a challenge. Luckily this is short and fun.

>71 dudes22: every time someone reviews one of her books, it reminds me that I really need to read another one

Same here, and that's how I landed on Replaceable You. She's quite funny, and I like learning little tidbits about scientific/medical topics. The audiobook was fun, if you ever partake of them.

>69 labfs39: Adding Xingu to my TBR list -- love the quote!

Read for Paul's Around the Americas challenge

Published 2025, 512 p.

>74 labfs39: Great review, Lisa! I'm definitely adding this to my wish list.

>75 MissBrangwen: I hope you enjoy it, if you get to it. I was a little scared by the chronology at the beginning. I thought, oh no, I'm not going to understand all this history. But she does a great job of making it accessible without dispensing with context. I was also intimidated by the page length, but almost half the book is appendices (photos, author's notes, bibliography, etc.), at least in the Kindle version.

Published 2011, 129 p.

Although this one is set in South Sudan, I am not including it there, because the author is American.

Published 2010, addendum 2015, 122 p.

>77 labfs39: I wrote a comment, then the review disappeared! I think "we" is first person plural and "they" is third person plural.

>79 pamelad: LOL, you are absolutely correct. Luckily with this new method of posting reviews, I only need to make the correction in one place. Thank you for catching that!