iamFOXFIRE'S TBR 2017

My first attempt at this challenge! I didn't really prepare a primary and alternate lists. I figure I'll just read them as they strike my fancy.

1. Our Andromeda

2. Neverwhere (September)

3. Throne of the Crescent Moon (January 2018)

4. The Three Body Problem

5. Feminism and Evolutionary Biology (December)

6. The Girls Who Went Away

7. The Crucible (January)

8. Oreo (September)

9. Them by Joyce Carol Oates (April)

10. Go Tell It On The Mountain (February)

11. The Wind Up Bird Chronicles

12. A Void (March)

13. Americanah (December)

14. House of Leaves (February 2018)

15. The Elements of Color

16. Pain, Parties, Work

17. Who Murdered Chaucer? (March 2018)

18. Iroquois Diplomacy on The Early American Frontier (October)

19. Bilgewater (July 2018)

20. Fighting for Life (November)

21. Sor Juana (February)

22. Venice Against the Sea (April 2018)

23. Six Days of War (February 2018)

24. Indigo : in search of the color that seduced the world

I'm trying to read a bit more non-fiction than I usually do this year and there are some fiction books that have been on my list for ages yet I haven't gotten around to yet! Very excited to start reading. How is everyone else feeling this year? As a newbie, I'd appreciate any tips you guys have about how to stay motivated and on task. I usually get distracted and don't finish my reading challenges.

I've been intrigued by the Asian origin of those first two, and I gotta read some James Baldwin eventually. That's the only Murakami I've read and I thought it was great. I was less impressed with House of Leaves, but the approach is interesting. Sor Juana is the classic biography, haven't read that but I've read Hunger's Brides, a fictional take on her life that was really good.

I've read 24/24 three years running, but I'm not sure it's entirely a good thing. When I'm staying that dedicated I'm liable to get more caught up in page count and keeping on pace than I am in enjoying what I'm reading. This year I probably won't make it, with a new approach of "reading comes first, challenge comes second". The only time the list should matter, I think, is when you're deciding what to read next and want to remind yourself of your reading goals.

I have yet to run into someone who has read The Wind Up Bird Chronicles and not thought it was great! It's been on my TBR for years because I only hear good things about it. House of Leaves does seem like it might be hit or miss--something that unconventional usually is! I read The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin so I'm familiar with his writing style and I'm really looking forward to an actual novel.

Hunger's Brides sounds really interesting. It's funny how these reading challenges are supposed to shrink your TBR pile but I find my growing even faster with all the great recommendations from everyone around here.

"Reading comes first, challenge comes second" might need to become my own personal mantra. I tend to get caught up in the competition of reaching goals and then find myself not actually enjoying the reading itself!

Lots of interesting titles on your list. I look forward to seeing what you think of A Void. I also liked The Wind Up Bird Chronicle.

I sometimes read lots of my books on this challenge and sometimes read hardly any of them. For me, I think it helps to mix it up topic-wise. And length-wise. My reading slows as the year goes on, so I don't want only long books left.

Welcome and happy reading!

I read Oreo last year so look forward to seeing what you think about it

Welcome! The Crucible should be quite the interesting read in our current "post-truth" era. I remember thinking that Neverwhere was pretty good, although I'm not generally a huge Neil Gaiman fan. And I've had a copy of them floating around forever, so am curious to hear what you have to say about it.

Good luck and happy reading! :D

I was trying to read two a month so I'm a bit behind schedule! Sor Juana proved to be much more dense than I was expecting but it was a challenge I'm glad I took on.

>6 artturnerjr: The Crucible was a bit intense because of that! I saw the movie years ago but I didn't really remember much about it expect that I enjoyed it so it's been on my list to read. Reading it now was a bit horrifying (though I guess you are supposed to be horrified by it).

>7 iamFOXFIRE:, there's a good dramatic series about Juana Inez on Netflix now (with liberties taken), if you don't mind reading English subtitles on a production filmed in Spanish.

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juana_In%C3%A9s

>8 Cecrow: That's so awesome! I will have to check it out. I knew about the movie and I'll be watching it soon since I just finished the book. Since reading it, I'm interested in anything related to her. I wish her full works were translated into English.

Phew! Another one down. I was starting to feel a bit behind my goals there.

>4 billiejean: I thought A Void was super entertaining. I loved that it didn't take itself too seriously and remained tongue-in-cheek through the whole story. It's basically a 300 page long literary exercise so I'm not sure I'd be able to recommend it to too many other people but I thought it was funny. That paraphrased version of The Raven was hilarious.

>2 Cecrow: If you are going to read some James Baldwin eventually, I do recommend Go Tell It On The Mountain! It was his first novel so it's very youthful and impulsive (if it makes sense to describe a novel like that? I'm sure you know what I mean...) and very engaging.

>10 iamFOXFIRE:, thanks; was looking into that one and Giovanni's Room.

Finally sat down and read them by Joyce Carol Oates. I got a few pages into it back in high school but the long blocks of text really tripped me up. At the time, I was doing a lot of reading in 5-10 minute bursts between classes so it was hard to follow the narrative. So glad I finally went back to it! Joyce Carol Oates is one of my favorite writers.

>12 iamFOXFIRE:

Nice! Oates is so insanely prolific that it can be difficult to know where to begin with her, but I recall seeing her say somewhere that she recommends both them and Blonde to first-time readers of hers.* I've been an admirer of hers since reading her excellent "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" when I was in college way back in the 1980s. Really need to read more of her stuff.

ETA: *here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joyce_Carol_Oates#Productivity

PS I've taken them out of the dusty corner of the bedroom where it was hiding and put it on my TBR shelf. Thanks for reminding me of it!

>13 artturnerjr: - Nice to know where to start with her. I've never read anything by her but feel like I should someday.

>13 artturnerjr:

It can be confusing to approach her work. There is just SO MUCH of it. I really loved Blonde and I hate to disagree with the woman herself but them for me was a bit lacking. Don't get me wrong, it's definitely a worthwhile read. The concepts she explores are really interesting (and important because working class lives are so often overlooked) but I don't think she was quite at the height of her literary powers yet when she wrote it. I couldn't help but compare it to her later work and I think some of the literary devices used in the novel she uses with much greater impact later in her career.

I always recommend Blonde or We Were the Mulvaneys as great jumping off points into her oeuvre. Of course, I'm also partial to Foxfire (in case you couldn't tell by my username).

Well, I managed to cross one more off the list: Oreo is done! Actually reminded me a bit of A Void which I read earlier in the year--must have been all the clever word play. Also in the same way that I enjoyed both of them a lot but I'd hesitate to recommend them to anyone because they're both bizarre and rather difficult reads. Definitely an acquired taste.

Still, Oreo was, as promised by every review I read of it, incredibly funny and I honestly loved all the allusions to greek mythology.

That was one that I felt I would have enjoyed more if I was more familiar with the myth. I always had a sense that I was missing something.

I get that! I wasn't familiar with the myth aside from the Minotaur part so I read the wikipedia page on Theseus when I was a little ways in and realized I was missing stuff.

Between that and all the Yiddish, I was constantly switching back and forth between the book and google.

Another one down! Neverwhere was a fun read and my first Neil Gaiman novel! I think the only other thing I've read by him is Snow, Glass, Apples, a wonderfully disturbing short story that is a retelling of Snow White. My only complaint about this book is that the villains were so much more interesting than the heroes.

I'm not much of a Gaiman fan but suspect that would be my pick if I read him again.

Just crossed Iroquois Diplomacy on the Early American Frontier off the list!

Such a fascinating read, I ended up putting a whole bunch of other books from the Penguin Library of American Indian History on a list to read at some point. I took a trip to the Museum of the America Revolution recently and was just awed by how informative it was. They really went in depth trying to show the perspectives of people beyond the British and the colonists. There was so much information on the position the revolution put Native Americans and enslaved peoples. So, that trip reignited an interest and bumped this book up the list for me!

Clearly written and engaging, it was a wonderful primer on an oft ignored subject.

Sounds good, with a fair perspective. Earlier this year, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee weighed me down. I don't know the Iroquois story but I hope they were dealt with more fairly than what happened in the west.

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is a rough one. I still haven't managed to get all the way through it.

Iroquois Diplomacy on the Early American Frontier stuck out to me because Native Americans tend to be portrayed either as villains/aggressors (in 'wild west' type stories) or helpless victims in history text books. The relatively unknown story is that there were a great number of savvy diplomats among the Iroquois who managed to keep peace with the colonists for about a hundred years or so.

Unfortunately, the book does take a turn at the end as the American Revolution wiped out a significant portion of their population and with so few numbers they didn't have the political sway they had prior to the war.