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Welcome to the Reading Jamboree - the best place to keep track of the books you read in 2015. Set a goal, start a list, and get reading!


To get things started, here is my 2015 list!

Completed

1. Walking on Water by Richard Paul Evans -A- (1/10)

2. Cousin Bette by Honore de Balzac -K-, -C- (2/7)

3. Take this Bread: A Radical Conversion by Sara Miles (2/8)

4. Gods and Beasts by Denise Mina -A- (2/16)

5. Love in the Present Tense by Catherine Ryan Hyde -A- (2/24)

6. The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing: Traitor to the Nation Vol I by M.T. Anderson -A- (3/18)

7. The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch -A- (4/8)

8. Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch -A- (4/25)

9. Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline -A- (5/1)

10. My Sister's Grave by Robert Dugoni -K- (5/8)

11. The Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch -A- (6/2)

12. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline -A- (6/5)

13. Political Suicide by Michael Palmer -A- (6/21)

14. Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton (7/14)

15. Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver -A- (7/20)

16. Edge of Eternity by Ken Follett -A- (8/10)

17. Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton (8/11)

18. Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg (8/14)

19. We are all Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler -A- (8/29)

20. Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan -A- (9/6)

21. Prime: A Genesis Series Event by Andrew Reiner -K- (9/6)

22. The Good Neighbor by A.J. Banner -K- (9/6)

23. The Patron Saint of Lost Dogs by Nick Trout -A- (9/6)

24. All Fall Down by Jennifer Weiner -A- (10/1)

25. All Dogs Go to Kevin: Everything Three Dogs Taught Me by Jessica Vogelsang -A- (10/12)

26. DATA JACK: A Detective Jack Stratton Novel (Jack Stratton, #5) by Christopher Greyson -K- (11/12)

27. The Bridge by Karen Kingsbury (11/22)

28. The time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger -A- (12/10)


In progress:




Next up:

The Aeronaut's Windlass (The Cinder Spires, #1) -A- by Jim Butcher





-A- = Audio book

-R- = Reread

-K- = On my Kindle

-C- = Read for the Nightly Reading Challenge

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1. Feed by Mira Grant (1/6)

2. Blood Magic by Eileen Wilks (1/8)

3. Festive in Death by JD Robb (1/13)

4. Embassytown by China Mieville (1/20)

5. The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon (1/27)

6. Blood Challenge by Eileen Wilks (2/1)

7. Unbinding by Eileen Wilks (2/10)

8. Witness by Nora Roberts (2/13)

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Completed

1. Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk -- Ben Fountain (K)

2. Lost Cat -- Caroline Paul (K)

3. Confessions of a Bad Teacher -- John Owens (K)

4. Swamp Cat -- Jim Kjelgaard ®

5. Storm Surge: Hurricane Sandy, Our Changing Climate, and Extreme Weather of the Past and Future -- Adam Sobel (K)

7. Rabid: A Cultural History of the World's Most Diabolical Virus -- Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy (K)




In progress:

1. The Plutonium Files -- Eileen Welsome

2.



Next up/On My "To Read" List

1. How We Got to Now

2. The Looming Tower

3. The World Without Us

4. Nothing -- Jeremy Webb

5. Death & Sex


-A- = Audio book

-R- = Reread

-K- = On my Kindle

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  • 2 weeks later...

1. The Lily and the Lion, by Maurice Druon

2. Dr Strange: The Oath, by Brian K Vaughan

 

Six of seven Accursed Kings books done. Don't get me wrong, for the most part I'm really enjoying them, but I'm also ready for them to be over. Also, this is the first Dr Strange comic I've ever read, and I really enjoyed it.

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Hey I'll do this I suppose.
Completed
1. A Clash of Kings - George R.R. Martin -R- (N) (I finished it this year, but didn't start it this year... counting it anyway!)
2. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince - J.K. Rowling -R-
3. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J.K Rowling -R-
4. A Storm of Swords - George R.R. Martin -R- (N)
In progress:
1. A Feast for Crows - George R.R. Martin -R- (N)
2. A Dance With Dragons - George R.R. Martin -R- (N)
Next up/On My "To Read" List

1. The Cuckoo's Calling - Not J.K. Rowling (N)

2.

-R- = Reread
-N- = On my Nook
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3. Festive in Death by JD Robb (1/13)

 

Pretty OK. Glad it wasn't a serial killer one, which was definitely the trend there for awhile. Mostly I just read these because it's like sitting down with an old friend and catching up on their life- nothing too unexpected, but enjoyable nonetheless.

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1. Jay Faerber, Fran Bueno, Patrick Gleason, et al., Noble Causes: Archives vol. 1. Almost like a super-hero soap opera, about a normal woman who marries into a well-known super-family who have to deal with villainy, underworld rulers, treacherous robots, alternate Earths, adultery, and public relations. The more we got to know the characters, the better it got.

 

2. George R. R. Martin, editor, Wild Cards: Busted Flush. Martin's pretty awesome shared-world super-powers series that began when I was in junior high was relaunched a few years ago with some of the same contributing authors (Victor Milan, Melinda Snodgrass, Walton Simons, John Joseph Miller) and some newer faces. Like Game of Thrones, characters tended to get murdered a lot, so only a few people in this volume have been around for a while. Basically, the winners of the super-hero reality show in the previous volume are conscripted onto the U.N.'s super-team to fight war on two fronts: ripped-from-the-headlines insurgents in Africa, and a dopey teenager in Texas who can explode like a literal nuke. There's a hero who has two identities with different powers and genders, one lady with the power of super-reproduction, super-zombie-control, super-Egyptian-god-hosting, super-seances, super-bubbles, super-drumming, super-turning-into-bee-swarms, super-Marxism, and more more more.

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Finished
1. The Winter Long (October Daye #8) - Seanan McGuire
2. Authority (Southern Reach trilogy #2)- Jeff VanderMeer (audio)
3. The Drunken Botanist - Amy Stewart
4. Station Eleven - Emily St John Mandel
5. Acceptance (Southern Reach trilogy #3) - Jeff VanderMeer
6. Imago (Lilith's Brood #3) - Octavia Butler (audio)
7-?. Girl Genius - volumes 1-6ish - Kaja Foglio and Phil Foglio; I have no clue how to number these, since I'm re-reading them on the internet rather than in their bound form. I

Currently Reading:
Cold Magic - Kate Elliott
Natasha's Dance: A Cultural History of Russia - Orlando Figes
The rest of Girl Genius (Err, I don't think it's possible to put this series down once you start.)

 

Comments:
October Daye series - Whyyyyyy aren't there more of these? I started the first one at the beginning of December and I want more. It's urban fantasy with a main character who has other woman friends, a realistic (and surprisingly healthy) relationship progression, and who suffers real consequences of her actions. No one is a Mary Sue. No one is a sterotype and all of the characters grow and change within the series, not just October.

Lilith's Brood series - This was my first set of books by Octavia Butler. I'm not sure why I had never picked up anything by her before, but now that I have, I feel like something has altered in my relationship to sci-fi. I've been so bored with sci-fi recently. Everything just seemed more of the same. These books brought me back to my initial love of the genre. They're different, they're experimental. They are based in both a deep knowledge of humanity and (surprisingly) of genetics. I will probably re-visit them in the future. Bloodchild and Parable of the Sower are next on my to-read list. For people who enjoy audiobooks, the narrator for this series was perfect.

 

The Drunken Botanist - This would have been much better if I didn't already have a strong botany and liquor history knowledge. As it was, it was a quick read and a nice refresher, but nothing particularly novel or mind-blowing.

Southern Reach trilogy - I... don't know what to think of these yet. I'll have to do more thinking on them. I enjoyed them. I listend to them compulsively. I just don't know how I feel about them as a whole.

Station Eleven - I loved this book. Finally, post-apocalyptic fiction that feels oh-so-real and takes women's stories seriously both as text and as meta-text.

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4. Embassytown by China Mieville (1/20)


This was a hard book to read. Not in the sense that it wasn't good, but more in the sense that the author was working with some Really Big Ideas and it took a lot of concentration to wrap my head around said ideas. The basic idea is humans spread across the galaxy and settled in quite harmoniously with various different alien races. On one planet, waay out at the very edge of mapped space there's a planet where the alien race (colloquially called Hosts) use two mouths to speak. One mouth is the cut, one is the turn. But that's only part of the twist. They don't understand anyone who tries to speak with them (even when speaking simultaneously, one person cut, the other turn) because these Hosts aren't exactly communicating via sound- instead, they express true meaning when they speak. Because of this, they cannot lie. Eventually humans figure out how to speak with them by raising clones who are psychically linked, only then when the "ambassadors" are of essentially one mind can the Hosts understand humans. Anyways. The main character is a part of language, the Hosts speak her all the time and are quite fond of the simile she represents. And then the **** hits the fan. Totally bizarre, original and fascinating story. Much like his other book I loved, The City and the City. (and I'm really not doing justice to the nuances of Language- read it for the more immersive experience)



5. The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon (1/27)



An equally fascinating, though utterly different, story. Chabon manages to write comparisons, similies and metaphors in perhaps the most beautiful fashion I ever have read. I wanted to keep reading it just so I could hear him describe the way milk mixes into his tea (like a ribbon trapped in a marble) or an old yid's skin (slightly green, like the white of a dollar bill) unto eternity.


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  • 2 weeks later...
1. Walking on Water by Richard Paul Evans

I listened to this without realizing that it was the third in a series until I had already started. I enjoyed it quite a bit, and I didn't feel like I needed to go back to the previous ones to be fully immersed in the story. It's about a man that decides to walk across the country after his wife dies and his life falls apart. It made me laugh and cry.


2. Cousin Bette by Honore de Balzac

Gosh, what a slog. I know that the classics focus on social intrigue, but I just couldn't bring myself to care about any of it. And the women were either evil or spineless. So glad I'm finished with this one.


3. Take this Bread: A Radical Conversion by Sara Miles

This is a book about a women who didn't grow up in the church, but who began attending a nontraditional church on a whim and became a leader in her church community by implementing a food pantry. It was a bit repetitive in some spots, but overall a good read.


4. Gods and Beasts by Denise Mina

This was a random grab at the library. It wasn't until I started listening to it that I realized it was another installment of a series I had picked up before. The main character is a female detective in Scotland. It was a decent detective novel, but I probably won't actively seek out others in the series.


5. Love in the Present Tense by Catherine Ryan Hyde

I loved this book. It tells the story from the perspective of a number of different characters, switching between them by chapter. You learn the story slowly through flashbacks, which I found interesting. The young boy character reminds me a bit of Owen Meany, so of course I fell in love with him right away. So glad I randomly picked this up at the library!

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9. The World of Ice and Fire, by George Martin and others

 

Been reading this one off and on since Christmas. The best world building book ever. Helps fill in a lot of gaps and the void between actual books. SOMEDAY we'll get the Winds of Winter, but I have less hope for A Dream of Spring...

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10. Lyra's Oxford, by Philip Pullman

11. Once Upon a Time in the North, by Philip Pullman

 

Two short, one sit reads in the His Dark Materials world. A lot of fun to visit again. I hope he manages to finish the Book of Dust at some point relatively soon. Between waiting for this and Martin, I've lost over a decade of my life.

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