2025 Reading Challenge discussion
ARCHIVE 2017
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Cassandra | 125 Books in 2017
August Planned ReadingThe Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
All-New, All-Different Avengers, Volume 2: Family Business
Scott Pilgrim, Volume 3: Scott Pilgrim & The Infinite Sadness
Hawkeye, Volume 3: L.A. Woman
Wonder Woman, Volume 4: War
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
September Planned Reading
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
Seven Surrenders
Illuminae
The Well of Ascension
JANUARY SUMMARY(Summary format borrowed from Jackie B - thanks!)
Reading Challenges
Yearly
Overall Reading Challenge: 8/125 (6%)
Let's Turn Pages: 3,044/45,000 (7%)
Listopia: 1/30 (3%)
Serial Reader: 4/25 (16%)
Comics Serial Reader: 1/25 (4%)
Genre Bingo: 2/24 (8%)
Popsugar: 5/52 (9%)
Dewey Decimal: 0/10 (0%)
Quarterly
Books You Might Have Missed: 5/12 (42%)
Monthly
Myths From Around the World: 5/5 (100%)
January's Stars
� 0 books
★★ 1 book
★★� 3 books
★★★★ 3 books
★★★★� 1 books
Highlights and Lowlights
The best book I read this month was far and away An Untamed State. It was on my list of books to make sure to read last year, and I didn't get to it. I'm glad I made room for it. Even though it's a difficult read, it's important, and the story and forceful prose will stay with me for a long time.
The worst book this month was The Best American Short Stories 2016, which was a bummer because I was really looking forward to it. Short story collections are always a bit hit or miss, but this was definitely more of a miss for me.
Next Month's Plan
I'm a bit behind on a couple of my yearly challenges, and doing quite well on the quarterly challenge, so I'm going to try to knock out some of those yearly books.
Book #1The Best American Short Stories 2016 by Junot DÃaz.
Rating: 2 stars.
Finished January 1, 2017
311 pages.
I like short story collections, but this one was pretty hit or miss for me, and even the "hits" didn't really move me enough to make me like the collection as a whole. A couple favorites include Ted Chiang's "The Great Silence" and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's "Apollo". To be honest, even though Junot Diaz's introduction was an autobiographical story about his journey to writing short fiction, it was some of the most interesting writing in the book.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages.
good luck I like the idea of the summary =)
Thanks Blagica! I borrowed it from someone last year, but used it only a couple of months. I'm dropping the yearlong statistics thing I did for a couple of years to be more deliberate about this. Which reminds me I should go dig up who I borrowed it from so I can credit them. :)
Good luck with your reading challenges and your other challenges, Cassandra!
I agree with Blagica on your summary Cassandra - it's brilliant. I think I'm gonna have to borrow it too, so thank you for bringing it to my attention! And to Jackie too, of course. ;) :)
I love the summary style! I'm going to borrow it if you don't mind!
Thank you all! Please borrow anything you like - I'm sure Jackie won't mind either. :)
Book #2Summer Knight by Jim Butcher.
Rating: 3 stars.
Finished January 5, 2017
449 pages.
Compared to the other Dresden books, this is a major step up. It's still a bit goofy, and Dresden himself is still insufferable, but other characters start to make up for it. My favorite part of this series is the mythology that surrounds the creatures of the Nevernever and the politics of the White Council, and how they affect the mortal world. This book focuses almost exclusively on those things. Still a 3 stars from me, but I'm continuing to enjoy these books more and more.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Serial Reader, Genre Bingo, Popsugar.
Book #3Archangel by Sharon Shinn.
Rating: 4 stars.
Finished January 7, 2017
400 pages.
This was an extremely interesting premise, and Shinn builds a rich and compelling world from the people and themes of Christianity. It isn't a Christian book by any means, so it avoids being either preachy or offensive. The two main characters are both very stubborn and can sometimes get annoying, but they are complex people and their conflict is central to the story. The writing is extremely beautiful at times, and I love the sacredness of music in this world. There is romance, but I wouldn't say this is a romance book - it is a fantasy book with believable romance elements, which is my favorite kind of book romance.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Popsugar, Serial Reader, Myths from Around the World, buddy read.
Book #4Saga, Volume 6 by Brian K. Vaughan.
Rating: 3 stars.
Finished January 7, 2017
152 pages.
I still love the characters of Saga, and it's delightful to watch Hazel grow up. The art is still beautiful and interesting. Saga is still Saga, except I didn't feel like this volume moved things significantly farther than the volume before, and there weren't any particularly interesting subplots to carry it. I hope that the creators of Saga aren't running out of steam, because this is one of my favorite comic series.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Serial Reader.
Book #5The Magicians by Lev Grossman.
Rating: 3 stars.
Finished January 14, 2017
402 pages.
It seems like people either love this book or hate it, and I didn't really fall into either camp. I like it - it's a solid tale that borrows heavily from Hogwarts and Narnia while still being original enough. Quentin, to me, is actually a fairly relatable character. I'm not depressed and have always been content with my life, but the message that getting everything you ever wanted doesn't make things magically better is more realistic than many fantasy stories. I wasn't planning to continue the series, but the ending piqued my interest just enough that I think I will.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Serial Reader, Listopia, Popsugar, Books You Might Have Missed, Myths from Around the World, TBR twins.
Book #6The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu.
Rating: 4 stars.
Finished January 25, 2017
450 pages.
This is a strong collection of short stories. It's not science fiction as much as it is speculative fiction - there's no attempt to explain the technology, it's all about putting forth a premise and then exploring how that affects the people and culture of the story. In general, I liked the stories toward the beginning of the collection better. As the collection progressed, the stories became more firmly rooted in Chinese culture and recent history, which was good, but a little less thought-provoking for me.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Books You Might Have Missed.
Book #7An Untamed State by Roxane Gay.
Rating: 5 stars.
Finished January 29, 2017
368 pages.
This is a hard book to read, but it is well worth it. The main characters, Mirielle and Michael, aren't perfect characters. They're flawed human beings. When Mirielle is kidnapped and finally returned after 13 days of horrifying abuse, they both struggle to understand what they need and how they can possibly come back together after being broken. Roxane Gay doesn't shy away from showing the reader the sharp ugliness of repeated trauma and PTSD, and that's important. As a woman, it's a challenging, emotional read but this story will stick with me for a while.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Popsugar, Books You Might Have Missed, Myths from Around the World.
I loved your summary! Can I steal it from you? :P (just few ideas :D)
Book # 8The Dark Forest by Liu Cixin.
Rating: 4 stars.
Finished January 31, 2017
512 pages.
This book is pretty different from The Three-Body Problem. Instead of a hard sci-fi mystery about an alien civilization, this is a somewhat bleak look at humanity's reaction to an existential threat. The scenarios are interesting, but Liu Cixin isn't great at writing characters. I relate more to some of the characters in this book than Three Body, but not by much. I did enjoy learning about the Dark Forest theory, and I'm glad that similar to when I read Three Body I didn't know about the theory before reading the book. This book takes a pretty hard turn in the last few pages, so I'm interested to see where the third book goes.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Genre Bingo, Popsugar, Books You Might Have Missed, Myths from Around the World.
Book #9The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood.
Rating: 4 stars.
Finished February 2, 2017
198 pages.
It's been a little while since I read The Odyssey, but I'm pretty familiar with it. That said, you don't really need to know anything about The Odyssey to enjoy this book. Atwood gives Penelope a strong voice. She's both fiesty and emotional, and isn't necessary the perfect image of marital fidelity and constancy that she is in Odysseus's tale. My favorite parts where when Penelope is hearing these sordid tales of her husband's whereabouts (he's just hanging out at a whorehouse), and then these fantastic reports about his trials and travels with goddesses and cyclopes, and is basically like "yeah, right." I also liked the focus on the maids in the story and the way Penelope is telling her story from the relative comfort of Hades.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Popsugar, Books You Might Have Missed, Spanning the Globe.
Book #10Ms. Marvel, Vol. 5: Super Famous by G. Willow Wilson.
Rating: 4 stars.
Finished Feburary 2, 2017
144 pages.
This is exactly what I expect and hope for with a Ms. Marvel comic. Kamala Khan as Ms. Marvel is delightful - like a normal geeky teenager desperately trying to do the right thing. As the newest avenger, she's getting stretched pretty thin trying to impress them, save the city, and be there for her friends and family. That's what makes these stories so relatable - at the heart of it, Kamala is just a person trying to find her way, just like all of us readers. I'm looking forward to the next installment!
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Popsugar, Serial Reader, Spanning the Globe.
Book #11The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon.
Rating: 4 stars.
Finished February 3, 2017
466 pages.
I really enjoyed the world that Samantha Shannon has built here. I can see similarities to other worlds and magic systems, but her world feels fully fleshed out. There is quite a bit of infodumping at the beginning, but my advice to readers is to hold on. Don't try to memorize all the classifications of voyants at the beginning. If you a voyant character is becoming central to the story, you're learn about their powers yet. While the writing is rough in places, the story had me racing through to the end, and I'll definitely read the next book.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Popsugar, Serial Reader, Books You Might Have Missed, Spanning the Globe, TBR twins.
Book #12The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman.
Rating: 3 stars.
Finished February 7, 2017
343 pages.
This book is full of characters making horrible decisions. I can understand why they're making those horrible decisions, but I still cringed every time. The beginning of the book was a little bit boring, but as I got more invested in the characters and the drama, it went a bit faster. The language and writing style is really beautiful, and I like that there aren't any subplots to distract from the main story. Toward the end, the bad decision making and coincidences became a little forced, but the ending was satisfying.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Genre Bingo, Popsugar, Books You Might Have Missed, Spanning the Globe, buddy read.
Book #13Beacon 23: The Complete Novel by Hugh Howey.
Rating: 3 stars.
Finished February 8, 2017
254 pages.
This book was kind of a rollercoaster for me. Each chunk of the serial was a bit too long or meandering, and I wasn't immediately hooked. By the end of most of the episodes, I was on board. Lather, rinse, repeat for the whole book. I did like the way the story wasn't about space - it was about war and PTSD. The ending was too pretty for my liking - tied up too nicely, where I think there could have been some questions left open.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Popsugar.
Book #14Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier.
Rating: 5 stars.
Finished February 16, 2017
544 pages.
This is a super dense book. It took me a while to get through it, even though in page count it isn't as long as some books. The pacing is steady (but slow) and builds to a really incredible and bittersweet ending. I cried like a baby through the last quarter of the book or so. It's been a long time since I've read a fantasy book that is as nuanced and heartbreaking and hopeful as this one. I really like the earthy magic and emphasis on fables and fairy tales. I was going to give this four stars because of the slow pacing, but it's impressive enough to deserve a full five stars.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Popsugar, Serial Reader, buddy read.
Oh, hey! How did I miss your reading thread?! (Really like the monthly summary, might use that idea in my own thread, going forward...)I agree with you on The Dark Forest. No spoilers for the 3rd book, but my favorite of the trilogy is still The Three-Body Problem.
As always, I'm intensely jealous of your reading speed, but it sounds like you're enjoying things! I always enjoy reading your thoughts at the end of each book--looking forward to seeing more throughout the year. :)
Please feel free to borrow anything from my thread!I am enjoying reading this year, but I'm already behind on my challenge. I'm trying not to sweat it too much!
Have you been enjoying your reading this year?
Pfft. It's February. You'll be fine. ;)You know, it feels odd to say 'Yes, I am enjoying it so far,' simply because I've been a little heavy on the non-fic already, but that's the truth. Might need to revise my Dewey-Decimal goals if this trend sticks.
Also, I've been out of the Fantasy loop for a while, but the more I look at your description of Daughter of the Forest the more curious I become. Might need to look into that.
I read Daughter of the Forest for a buddy read. It was on my to-read list but it wasn't a priority, and given the length of my to-read list I might never have gotten to it if not for the buddy read. I do recommend it, especially if you like fairy tales (the more hardcore ones not the Disney versions).I haven't read any non-fiction this year yet and I need to change that! Any good recommendations?
Book #15Outlander by Diana Gabaldon.
Rating: 1 star.
Did not finish - gave up February 17, 2017
450 pages read.
I just couldn't finish this one. I was hooked at the beginning, even before the time travel, because the writing was beautiful and made the mundane seem interesting. Claire is an interesting character and seems like an empowered woman. Jamie is an interesting character, and it's obvious why women swoon over him. The sex scenes start getting steamy - what's not to love in a fantasy romance book? Unfortunately, about halfway through the book, Claire and Jamie's relationship begins to become weird and abusive. There are several not-strictly-consensual activities, and consent isn't a thing you can "sort of" have - it's all or nothing to me. Worse than the abusive relationship itself, there doesn't seem to be any plot reason for the shift, and Jamie's character is still painted as the "good guy". I set this one aside for a while to see if I wanted to finish it, but I'm thinking it's not going to get any better. Bummer because this had so much potential!
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages.
* I don't always count DNF books in my challenge, but this one is so long that even halfway through was a significant effort - comparable to finishing most books. I'm only counting it for overall books and pages read, though, not individual challenge prompts.
I would like to say that I do have recs, but I'm not sure they're up your alley. First Women was decent, New Jim Crow was ok, Black Silent Majority was phenomenal, but also an extremely academic work, so you have to be interested in the topic in the first place. I'll keep you in mind, though. Anything in particular you're interested in?
I've read a lot of fantasy so far this year, but I'll read just about anything! I'll check out the books you mentioned.
Book #16The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin.
Rating: 4 stars.
Finished February 26, 2017
468 pages.
This book dumps you right into a world that's just slightly odd. There's some nice fantasy worldbuilding, but early on the writing style threw me off and I had a hard time getting into it. Once I hit the first interlude, about 1/3 of the way through the book, I was totally hooked. I really love the portrayal of relationships in this book - it's very inclusive and mature without making a big deal out of it. I had to subtract a star for the rocky start, but I'm a big fan.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Serial Reader, Books You Might Have Missed, buddy read.
Book #17The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 4: Rising Action by Kieron Gillen.
Rating: 3 stars.
Finished March 2, 2017
144 pages.
This book is nonstop action, and honestly it's too much for me. I've complained in previous volumes that there wasn't enough progression in the story, but I think this volume should have been 50% longer with the same content to really do it justice. I keep reading this series mostly because I love mythology and the art is drop dead gorgeous, and that hasn't changed, but I wish they could iron out some of the writing issues.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Serial Reader.
Book #18Palimpsest by Catherynne M. Valente.
Rating: 4 stars
Finished March 7, 2017
It's really hard to describe this book. There isn't a lot of plot, and there isn't a lot of character development. The story focuses more on little slices of this mysterious city named Palimpsest, the experiences of the four main characters while they're there, and the things they will do to get back. Getting to Palimpsest requires having sex with another person who has the mark of Palimpsest - a map of the city somewhere on their bodies. These encounters, while frequent, aren't erotic... they're desperate and underscore the addictive quality of the city. I would classify this book as "new weird" but is also evocative of Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities, although this book focuses on only one such city.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Popsugar.
Book #19The Skull Throne by Peter V. Brett.
Rating: 3 stars.
Finished March 14, 2017
681 pages.
Maybe I had the wrong expectations of what this book was going to be, but I was a bit disappointed. The Daylight War focused on people and politics, with both Deliverers taking a backseat. It makes sense - that's what Arlen has always said, we should all be Deliverers - and the book was named The Daylight War after all. At the end of the third book, though, it seemed like the focus was swinging back around to the Deliverers and what they've been up to. Unfortunately, that wasn't really the case here, and we got more filler instead.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Serial Reader, Books You Might Have Missed.
Book #20Alex + Ada, Vol. 1 by Jonathan Luna.
Rating: 3 stars.
Finished March 15, 2017
128 pages.
I was pretty excited for this book, and I think this first volume sets up an interesting series, but it was a little flat for my liking. The art is fine, but nothing special. The dialog is weird, which sometimes feels purposeful, but not always. The main character Alex isn't very likeable, but I'm interested to see where Ada takes this series.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Serial Reader, Title IX.
Book #21Wonder Woman, Vol. 3: The Circle by Gail Simone.
Rating: 4 stars.
Finished March 16, 2017
160 pages.
This was a great soft reboot of Wonder Woman. Gail Simone writes a powerful and compelling heroine and manages to create a coherent backstory that resolves some of the inconsistencies in Wonder Woman's history. I didn't dig the Nazi fighting and the forced romance at the end knocked off a full star from my rating, but overall I really enjoyed this volume.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Serial Reader, Title IX.
Book #22Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman by Lindy West.
Rating: 4 stars.
Finished March 17, 2017
260 pages.
This was my first introduction to Lindy West, and I'll definitely seek out her work. Lindy is hilarious and unapologetic, tackling tough and taboo issues like fat-shaming, abortion, and rape culture. She talks about punching up in comedy and not punching down, and recounts her fights with other comedians over this particular issue. This book is part memoir and part essay collection. It flows very well and has just the right balance of personal experience, feminist philosophy, and really funny jokes.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Dewey Decimal, Popsugar, Books You Might Have Missed, Title IX.
Book #23The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket.
Rating: 3 stars.
Finished March 18, 2017
176 pages.
I reread this as an adult in preparation for the Netflix series. It's a super quick read, but I wasn't in love with this series as a kid, and it didn't get better for me with time. There were a couple of jokes I never would have gotten as a kid, which was a nice surprise, but overall the book was just "good".
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Serial Reader.
2025 Reading Challenge
Books mentioned in this topic
The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 5: Imperial Phase, Part I (other topics)Seven Surrenders (other topics)
Children of the New World (other topics)
A Man Called Ove (other topics)
Wonder Woman, Volume 4: War (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Kieron Gillen (other topics)Alexander Weinstein (other topics)
Fredrik Backman (other topics)
Neil Gaiman (other topics)
Warren Ellis (other topics)
More...
I'm not tracking statistics this year, but I do want to post a monthly summary of the books I've read, star rating breakdowns, and overall thoughts. I interspersed those updates in my posts for a couple of months last year, but I'd like to see them all together.