my 2021 TBR

I'm late posting (and ive already finished one in my list), but I rather enjoyed doing the challenge last year before the pandemic interrupted...so I wanna try again :)

i still don't have my books with me after moving abroad, but i have a new kindle, so my list is pretty ebook heavy...

>> Completed:
1. The Cows by Dawn O'Porter (5/5)
2. Out by Natsuo Kirino (4.5/5)
3. Born a Crime by Trevor Noah (5/5)
4. The Impossible Girl by Lydia Kang (3.5/5)
5. The Etymologicon by Mark Forsyth (4/5)
6. Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto (4.5/5)
7. The Lucky Dress by Aimee Brown (4/5)
8. The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge (5/5)
9. On Luna Time by Amber Crawley (4/5)
10. Codename Villanelle by Luke Jennings (5/5)
11. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo (5/5)
12. Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry (4/5)
13. The Gustav Sonata by Rose Tremain (4.5/5)
14. Red Threads of Fortune by JY Yang (4.5/5)
15. This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar (5/5)

>> TBR:
Six of Crows
Rachel's Holiday
The Lucky Dress
The Constant Rabbit
Red Sister
Red Threads of Fortune
Crime and Punishment
Kitchen
Essex Serpent
Out
Early Rising
The Cows

>> Alternates:
Noumenon
This is How You Lose the Time War
The Impossible Girl
Howl's Moving Castle
Golem and the Djinni
Wuthering Heights
The Gustav Sonata
The Lie Tree
On Luna Time
The Etymologicon
Born a Crime
Codename Villanelle

so...i actually finished The Cows at the end of January...

this might be the first time i awarded 5 stars to a book from this genre. i loved the humour, and how it made the issues the characters are dealing with more readable without distracting from the seriousness of the themes...its not a perfect book, but i felt for these ladies and i cried at the end.

(i accidentally 'permanently' deleted this from my kindle after reading!!! but now im hoping to buy an actual copy once i find an open bookstore ^_^)

Better late than never; and it's how I first started, a couple of months in, back in 2011 (has it been that long already ??). You must be following some genres I don't know, I only recognize a few of these titles. That'll be part of the reveal as you read them. :)

Welcome and congratulations on already finishing a challenge book. Even better that it was one that you enjoyed so much. I recognize some of the titles on your list and look forward to finding out your thoughts on them.

thanks Cecrow and LittleTaiko ^_^

yeah, looking at my list it does seem too random...but i really just wanted to post it quickly so i can put it out there before my laziness takes over again!

i hope to add more details as i go along

just finished Out by Natsuo Kirino

the closest book comparison i can make is that this is like the girl with dragon tattoo, except instead of a nordic/scandinavian cyber punk female protagonist dealing with violence, gore, and misogyny, its a group of middle aged japanese women working for a boxed-lunch factory dealing with violence, gore, and misogyny.

the author (a woman...i had to check) does not really give a typical exposition of the women's motivations, thoughts, and feelings during their ordeals...a lot was left for me, the reader, to fill in on my own. i think its because of this that i never really lost my curiosity about the characters while at the same time i feel like i was able to connect with them at a raw level and wanted to support (most of) them even when i still havent figured out my own moral stance about their affairs.

an intense read, overall, and satisfying. i need a palette cleanser after this.

one more thing...after the deep sense of claustrophobia evoked by the lives the characters' live, i found that the book title is very apt.

>6 riida:, I'm intrigued by Japanese fiction but can't really stomach the violent stuff, guess that's a pass for me. Sounds interesting though.

>7 Cecrow: Cecrow: i know what you mean...i try to avoid the violence when i can, and to be honest, i went into Out blind so it shocked me a bit more than i expected, but there are definitely more gratuitous books out there. still, reader be warned.

that said, there are definitely beautiful japanese fiction that are not at all gory. yoko ogawa's The Housekeeper and the Professor is a recent favorite and ive been recommending it to anyone who asks (or even to those who dont ^_^)

i cant believe i've actually caught up to my 1-a-month-average goal for this challenge, having started late. there's a particular kind of happiness that come from ticking off a book from your personal mount TBR :)

i have just finished listening to the audiobook for Born a Crime, and i'm blown away by the quality of the writing, the production, and the performance (by the author himself). its my first five star audiobook experience.

as a minority (in more ways than one) living in the western world, and being raised by parents who came from poverty, i could relate to a lot of trevor's experiences, although i wouldnt claim complete understanding of the life he lived. i did pick up a couple of things from this book though...

1. life is tough, complicated, and unfair. but that's not all there is.
2. i liked trevor noah before...now, i like like him
3. i do not understand racism enough. i do not understand inequality enough. i do not understand violence at all.
4. you can teach a man to fish all you want, he still needs an actual fishing rod
5. language is effective in bridging divisions
6. trevor's mom is a remarkable woman

>9 riida: That was a great book and audio performance. I love listening to memoirs narrated by the author. It feels like they are telling you their story.

>10 Narilka: yeah...i think this may now be my new preferred way of consuming memoirs :)

just finished The Impossible Girl

a serial killer, grave diggers, a cross dressing heroine. and a surprising number of occasions for the characters to eat oysters. set in late 19th century new york. its not really very gory, in spite of all the dissections (the author, it turns out, has a medical background). its also peppered with interesting historical and anatomical facts. good fun read. i had to deduct half a star because its a mystery you simply watch unfold, as opposed to the way i like my mysteries--puzzles for me to solve. its not a whodunit, and i guessed the culprit by the end of the first act.

i would not mind checking out other works by the author.

just finished: The Etymologicon

this is a very difficult book to describe...although the subtitle really says it all: A Circular Stroll Through the Hidden Connections of the English Language. The author starts with the word 'book', describes its etymology and developmental history, and meanders his way (in that typical british fashion) into how it etymologically relates to other seemingly unrelated words, and so on, and so forth...and before you know it, he's filled an entire book's worth of trivia you didnt know you didnt know.

mostly, i find it difficult to describe because i cannot remember any of it...well, two things stuck with me:

1. butterflies are so named because their poo is yellow, like butter (i dont know why of all the interesting facts in this book, this is the one i did not forget)

2. Buffalo is not just a name for the bovines, its also a name for a handful of north american towns. It also previously meant the verb 'to bully' or 'bullies'. Which means that this sentence makes sense somehow:

"Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo"

Very fun read :)

just finished: Kitchen

i told my friend that i've picked up this book to read. she said she's familiar with it and has actually read it five times already. now i understand why.

its a slice-of-life story (actually, 3 novella's rolled into 1), of people living their daily lives while struggling with immense grief, lost, and loneliness. its a very quiet book, no dramatics, no hysterics, but it packs a wallop. i can definitely see myself re-reading this again.

>14 riida:, now that sounds like some Japanese fiction I would like.

>15 Cecrow: yeah, i would highly recommend it ^_^

>14 riida: - I did enjoy that quite a bit when I read it last year. If you want another quiet slice of life book set in Japan then I would recommend Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata. The main character is perfectly content to work in a convenience store and is often befuddled by how to be "normal."

>17 LittleTaiko: thanks! already i love the premise ^_^

just finished: The Lucky Dress

weddings, meet cutes, beautiful people falling in and out of love, other beautiful people helping/getting in the way, tragedy of errors, malicious pettiness all around...tropes we all know too well, but oh do i eat it up!! my feminism card takes a hit every time i read one of this puff pieces, but i cannot stop reading!! i got teary eyed, starry eyed, and hungry for bacon-cheeseburgers.

just finished: The Lie Tree

when i acquired this book a long time ago, i thought it was a YA fantasy with a tantalizing premise and book cover. I was wrong about the YA fantasy bit, and usually this sets up a wrong expectation that spoils the reading experience for me. this was thankfully not the case here.

the author's prose is beautiful. i kept drawing comparisons with the movie 'pan's labyrinth' and the book 'the binding', but i feel this was better. i loved the characters, but specially Faith, a precocious 14-year old girl living in times when women were looked down on, and young women have it even harsher. it really made me want to see Faith prove her courage and cleverness. On top of this, the narration of the audiobook by Emilia Fox was absolutely sublime! Her performance really pulled me into the book and characters. it was better than watching a movie (although i would not mind a movie adaptation of this book).

i loved this quote too:

“Faith had always told herself that she was not like other ladies. But neither, it seemed, were other ladies.”

>20 riida:, that sounds interesting. I don't like copy-cat tactics (i.e. something's a hit, so a bunch of other authors pile on with something similar to milk the cow), but if the quality is such that it tops what came before then that's a different story ... pun intended!

>21 Cecrow: yeah, not a big fan of too much copy cat-ing either, or big book trends (that's why im usually late to the book wagons ^_^)

but nope, no copy cats here. in fact, i found this tale's conceit highly original (without spoiling anything: a tree that reveals truths if you feed it lies), and the author handled it skillfully. my comparison to pan's labyrinth and the binding is on the style of story telling, and how the fantasy elements were not the most important factors of the main plot.

i'm obviously still on a high from this book ^_^

just finished: On Luna Time

this is like the YA version of 'the time traveler's wife'...less intense, less sophisticated, more saccharine...oh the mushy sweetness! its innocent sweetness, though. like good, light cake. it is also not without a plot or a mystery that's beautifully developed. its not all about the romance, too, as the story also revolves around the strong familial relations between mothers and daughters. made me definitely want to read the whole trilogy.

first, though, i need a new yellow dress ;)

just finished: Codename Villanelle

its a very action packed, fast paced, little book about two women (one an elite assassin working for an international shadowy group, the other a mid-level British intelligence analyst) hunting each other.

not a lot more to say...i wish the characters of the two main characters have been explored more, but i guess there's only so much room in a 200-page book.

was a lot of fun to read! looking forward to the rest of the series

im almost done with my target of 12 TBRs \o/

...and it looks like my alternates are getting more love over my main list ^_^

Two per month, thats how you do it!

>26 Cecrow: yeah...the audiobooks made me do it ^_^ i used to be not a fan of audiobooks as i found them too slow or too distracting...but after having to leave my books in london during the lockdown, audiobooks have become my safe haven :)

btw, i've also finished my first zola! i listened to therese raquin, and i loved his prose!

finished Six of Crows

now i can watch the netflix series!

just finished: Essex Serpent

after nearly two months, i finally finished this book! not the book's fault. i am just not in a place where i can appreciate and devour the story. as such, much of its nuances went over me.

that said, i still give it 4 stars. i may be addled, but my instincts recognize a good story when it smells one. more historical slice-of-life than i expected. and as detached as i was, i could not help falling for the characters and wishing them the best possible endings.

PS...i cant believe this is my 12th book for this challenge! its my minimum target for the year, and it feels a certain kind of joy to actually be able to tick it off ^_^

That's the joy of challenges! I know what you imply, about appreciating a book without actually enjoying it. Also your one above, where I've often insisted on reading thd original before seeing the adapted version.

>29 riida: - I keep eyeing that one on my shelves and keep passing it by since I never seem to be in the proper mood. Happy to know that it will be worth my time, though maybe I'll wait just a bit longer.

I managed to finish another one! The Gustav Sonata

A very melancholic story. It reminds me of something I read or heard a while ago...that one of the most difficult things to do is to be a good person living an ordinary life (is there such a thing as an ordinary life??). The novel's titular character's answer is to "master one's self". It's very quiet, but very intense.

>32 riida:, nice, sounds like something I'd like.

just finished: Red Threads of Fortune

for a 200-ish page book, this has a denseness in it that made it a sludge of a read for me...not that it was a super serious kind of read, but somehow i'm not able to immerse myself into the Tensorate world as much as I usually would other fantasy worlds...it has a flatness to it, too, such that the reveals and twists do not land with the intended impact (to me anyway)

that said, its well written enough, and enjoyable (otherwise, i think i will just dnf the whole series). besides, the series has very intriguing premises; the Tensorate world is weird but in an almost folklore-futuristic flavour (with flying light crafts and dinosaurs running around); and this second volume has a better mystery at its heart, and also a more satisfying ending, than the first.

plus, i adore the the cover art of all four books! that alone will always earn it a half-star ^_^

amazingly, i managed to tick off one more book just before the year ends! \o/

just finished: This is How You Lose the Time War

i have just finished reading probably one of my best reads of this year! i have heard so much hype about this book, but i didn't realize how exquisite my own experience of it will be.

for a time-travel story, this reads like a Shakespearean play. its poetry for the speculative genre, and i don't think i've come across anything like it before (the 'Night Circus' maybe? but this was more gut-wrenching and satisfying for me).

Sounds amazing! Glad that you are ending the year on such a high note.