Mount TBR Reading Challenge 2024 - My Wrap-Up

I chose wisely this year, electing to attempt Pike's Peak, the smallest mountain: 12 books. I have failed to summit Mont Blanc (24 books) in previous years, so I learned my lesson. It's hard for me to avoid being distracted by new books on a regular basis. What can I say? I like to zigzag.

This is my 8th year in this challenge (I skipped 2017 for some reason) and I enjoy it very much It's good motivation to make progress on my various prize lists and stay on task -- mostly.

Here's how it went this year:

1. The Stone Diaries - Carol Shields (Pulitzer Prize)

2. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay - Michael Chabon (Pulitzer Prize) 

3. The Vaster Wilds - Lauren Groff (Florida Book Award)

4. Half Wild - Robin MacArthur 

5. Please Look After Mom - Kyung-Sook Shin (Asian Literary Prize)

6. The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho 

7. The Night Watchman - Louise Erdrich (Pulitzer Prize)

8. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Junot Diaz (Pulitzer Prize)

9. Milkman - Anna Burns (Booker Prize)

10. Let Us Descend - Jesmyn Ward 

11. Pocketful of Poseys - Thomas Reed (Florida Book Award) 

12. March - Geraldine Brooks

Reviews are posted here or you can find them under the Reviews tab.   

There's a very satisfying variety here. And there are 4 Pulitzer winners, a Booker winner, an Asian Literary Prize winner, and 2 Florida Book Award medalists -- not bad progress on my reading lists -- and even those that aren't prize winners were well worth my time and effort. All in all, a very successful year.

I also must say that I read 24 books this year and that tempts me to set my sights on Mont Blanc in 2025. We shall see! 

Color Coded Reading Challenge 2024 - My Wrap-Up

There's just something so charming about reading by color. This was my 9th year of participation and it is just as fun as ever. 

I have to bend the rules a little bit to identify the "implies color" book, because I choose these books from my TBR pile, but so what? I will never be desperate enough to read "Gravity's Rainbow."  

Here's how it went:

1. Blue: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay - Michael Chabon (Pulitzer Prize) 

2. Red: Milkman - Anna Burns (Booker Prize) 

3. Yellow: The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho 

4. Green: The Night Watchman - Louise Erdrich (Pulitzer Prize)

5. Brown: Half Wild - Robin MacArthur 

6. Black: Please Look After Mom - Kyung-Sook Shin (Asian Literary Prize) 

7. White: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Junot Diaz (Pulitzer Prize) 

8. Another color (orange): The Orphan Master's Son - Adam Johnson (Pulitzer Prize) Substitute: Let Us Descend - Jesmyn Ward 

9. Implies color: The Stone Diaries - Carol Shields (Pulitzer Prize) (stone is a noun here, but also a color, okay?) 

Reviews can be found here or under the Reviews tab.

This was a really good year for reading that kept me coming back to the page, engaged and interested in what would happen next. I bailed out on the first orange book because of the subject matter (I was not ready to read about violent interrogation techniques in North Korea), but thanks to the others I traveled from the creative world of comic books and a fable of treasure-seeking to the claustrophobic world of civil war, from middle/lower class American white culture to Korean culture, and from Southern slavery to Native American culture to the contemporary immigrant experience. It was quite a ride!

Color Coded Reading Challenge 2024 - My Sign-Up

And here we are again! I enjoy this challenge so much, even though filling that last category is always a stretch. 

Other people really like this challenge, too. Fortunately, Bev at My Reader's Block keeps offering it. The rules are a little bit relaxed because the required colors can be part of the title or appear on the cover. That makes it easier for me to choose from the TBR shelves. 

Although I've been known to substitute at the 11th hour (which is allowed), here's my list. I didn't mean to go so heavy on the Pulitzer Prize winners -- it just happened but well, why not?

1. Blue: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay - Michael Chabon (Pulitzer Prize) (review)

2. Red: Milkman - Anna Burns (Booker Prize) (review)

3. Yellow: The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho (review)

4. Green: The Night Watchman - Louise Erdrich (Pulitzer Prize) (review)

5. Brown: Half Wild - Robin MacArthur (review)

6. Black: Please Look After Mom - Kyung-Sook Shin (Asian Literary Prize) (review)

7. White: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Junot Diaz (Pulitzer Prize) (review)

8. Another color (orange): The Orphan Master's Son - Adam Johnson (Pulitzer Prize) Substitute: Let Us Descend - Jesmyn Ward (review)

9. Implies color: The Stone Diaries - Carol Shields (Pulitzer Prize) (stone is a noun here, but also a color, okay?) (review)

The Color Coded Reading Challenge 2019 - My Sign-Up

Well, that was fast! No sooner did I finish this challenge for 2018 than I decided to go ahead and put in for next year.

Bev at My Reader's Block runs a pleasantly relaxed challenge and I enjoy the way it pushes me to read my chosen books without giving me too many rules to follow. As one example of this, the colors can be in the book titles or appear on the cover. That makes it easy to mine my TBR pile for books that will work.

Sign up here if you want to join in. 

My books:

Red: Chinaman - Shehan Karunatiliaka (DSC Prize) Substitute: Pennant Race - Jim Brosnan (review)
Yellow: Whiteman - Tony D'Souza (Florida Book Award) (review coming soon)
Green: Mud Season - Ellen Stimson (review)
Blue: A Fable - William Faulkner (Pulitzer Prize) Substitute: A Thousand Acres - Jane Smiley (Pulitzer Prize) (review)
Brown: The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love - Oscar Hijuelos (Pulitzer Prize) (review coming soon)
Black: Please Look After Mom - Kyung-Sook Shin (Asian Literary Prize) Substitute: Circe - Madeline Miller (review coming soon)
White: Abide with Me - Elizabeth Strout Substitute: Tinkers - Paul Harding (review)
Any other color: Pink: Rebecca - Daphne de Maurier  Substitute: The Magnificent Ambersons - Booth Tarkington (review)
Implied color: Shadow: The Shadow of Sirius - W.S. Merwin (Pulitzer Prize) Rainbow: The Colors of All the Cattle - Alexander McCall Smith (review)

The Color Coded Reading Challenge 2018 - My Wrap-Up

Whoo hoo! I'm finished!

True to form, I read the last book a while back but have just now posted that one last review.

Here's what I read this year, and a nice variety it is, too. Lots of prize winners, plus a couple of books that had been on my TBR list for a long time, despite the fact that they didn't win anything. Settings ran the gamut from Florida to China, while subject matter ranged from monarch butterflies to near-fatal depression to Japanese garden design and mysterious events during World War II. A little fiction, a little poetry -- this mixed bag was all good and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Blue: Flight Behavior - Barbara Kingsolver (Orion Book Award finalist)
Red: The Boat to Redemption - Su Tong (Asian Literary Prize)
Yellow: A Travel Guide for Reckless Hearts: Stories - N.M. Kelby (Florida Book Award)
Green: The Garden of Evening Mists - Tan Twan Eng (Asian Literary Prize)
Brown: The Body Artist - Don DeLillo
Black: Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness - William Styron
White: The Finkler Question - Howard Jacobson (Booker Prize)
Any other color: Orange: Three Sisters - Bi Feiyu (Asian Literary Prize)
Implied color: Light: The Light Around the Body - Robert Bly (National Book Award for Poetry)

My reviews are under the Reviews tab, if you're interested.

I really enjoy this challenge -- it's low intensity and has a little bit of the thrill of the chase built into it. The fact that I've always had an affinity for things organized around the color spectrum probably has something to do with it, too. Displays like this make me happy (even when they're not made out of cute shoes).

Photo: Zappos

I can't wait to sign up for next year!

Selected Views

Tan Twan Eng's The Garden of Evening Mists languished on my shelf for quite a while, patiently waiting for me to make time to slip into its hushed world. I bought a flight of the Man Asian Literary Prize winners with the intention of broadening the cultural scope of my reading. So far this has been the most successful (meaning: enjoyable) of the four winners I have read: Ilustrado (review), The Boat to Redemption (review), and Three Sisters (review).

The story is narrated by a recently retired judge, Teoh Yun Ling, who has returned to a place from her past after having been diagnosed with aphasia. Before the disease robs her of her ability to speak and to understand speech, Yun Ling wishes to write a memoir, and to process past experiences from the Japanese occupation of Malaya. While staying in the home of a friend and his wife, she also meets with a Japanese professor who is studying the life and work of a famous artist and gardener, Aritomo, formerly gardener to the Japanese Emperor. And Arimoto himself is her neighbor. Although the war ended years ago, its echoes and tensions remain.

Yun Ling was the only survivor of the Japanese internment camp where she was placed with her sister, and has never fully come to terms with that experience. Yun Ling's cathartic attempt to build the Japanese garden she promised her sister, trying to instill hope in her, is complicated by Yun Ling's tense relationship with Arimoto, cultural and racial frictions left over from the war, and contemporary political unrest in the countryside, compounded by rumors of buried treasures, looted from occupied territories during the war. The past is very much present as Yun Ling pursues her goal.

This is an intricately plotted novel with many unusual twists and turns. To the author's credit, he creates a story steeped in history and politics without making detailed knowledge essential to the reader's understanding. I am not sure that I appreciated the full effect of this novel, but I certainly received an introduction to the complex aftermath of the Japanese occupation. The issues of wartime ethics and survival throw long shadows into the lives of those who lived through that time; their peacetime relationships cannot be navigated without an awareness of all that's gone before.

As the principles of Japanese gardening require the balanced use of natural elements, selected and arranged to create a desired effect, so this novel gracefully combines Yun Ling's personal experience and desires with the elements that surround her. The effect -- like a Japanese garden -- is artificial, but very, very real.

Excerpt:

The sprinklers came on, releasing the smell of the sun-roasted grass into the air. The leaves discarded by the guava tree in the centre of the garden had been raked into a pile. Behind the courts, the Gombak and Klang rivers plaited together, silting the air with the smell of earth scoured from the mountains in the Titiwangsa range up north. most people in Kuala Lumpur couldn't bear the stench, especially when the river was running low between monsoon seasons, but I had never minded that, in the heart of the city, I could smell the mountains over a hundred miles away.

I sat down on my usual bench and opened my senses to the stillness settling over the building, becoming part of it.

After a while I stood up. There was something missing from the garden. Walking over to the mound of leaves, I grabbed a few handfuls and scattered them randomly over the lawn. Brushing off the bits of leaves sticking to my hands, I stepped away from the grass. Yes, it looked better now. Much better.

Note: This book counts toward the Color Coded Reading Challenge (green) and the Mount TBR Reading Challenge.    

Better, in a Terrible Way

It must have been truly awful to be a woman in China in the 1970's -- and certainly before and probably after, as well. In Three Sisters, Bi Feiyu traces the lives of three young women as they grow up in a family of eight and strive to balance the traditional demands and challenges of Chinese society with the requirements of political correctness.

To say that what they face are "demands" and "challenges" vastly understates what they must undergo, just as "political correctness" fails to do justice to the intricacies of modern China's doctrinal requirements.

Yumi, the eldest sister, assumes the role of family matriarch early, while tasked with caring for the baby boy her parents finally succeeded in having after seven tries. Mature beyond her years, Yumi must cope with her father's blatant philandering, her mother's passivity (or perhaps exhaustion), her wayward sisters, and her own desire to chart her life by making a successful marital match from the introduction period arranged for her with a military pilot. Though thwarted at every turn, Yumi still  manages to progress . . . but not to escape the damage done to her personality and values by the cultural system she's born into.

Yuxiu, the third sister, is beautiful, flirtatious, and a little bit wild, in stark contrast to the sober and responsible Yumi. Her life's prospects are derailed by a gang rape and subsequent unmarried pregnancy -- two events that spell social and emotional doom in a society that prides itself on equality, modernity, and political purity of intention, but still operates with many of the traditional beliefs that devalue women and consider them property.

Youngest sister Yuyang is a strong student, poised to succeed without drawing much attention to herself. But again, the potent combination of sexual dominion and political intrigue provides the means to complicate her life and challenge her emotional health. Yuyang is chosen as an informer against her classmates, but that role brings her dangerously close to her teacher, who takes advantage of her innocence. She survives, perhaps with less damage than her sisters, but will never be the same.

This novel drew me into the lives of the sisters and offered insight into the workings of modern China. It is terrible to observe the toll the patriarchal system takes on these young women, particularly in light of the official pronouncements for correct, respectful behavior that are included from time to time. What irony! The pronouncements of the new political structure do nothing to change the age-old patterns of human behavior -- they merely form a veneer that conceals the devastating workings of the old order.

Excerpt:

Before she left home, Yuxiu swore that once she walked out the front door, she would never again set foot in Wang Family Village. She'd be ashamed to show her face in this place. She had no interest in settling scores with its residents. If everyone is your enemy, it is the same as having no enemies. When there are too many lice, you stop scratching.

Yuxui accepted what had befallen her. She could let everyone off the hook but the little whore Yusui. Thanks to her, Yuxiu was no longer able to hold her head up in Wang Family Village. If the little whore had never uttered those evil, hurtful words, none of this ever would have happened. The girl would have to pay, especially since she was her own sister. This was one score Yuxiu was determined to settle. And once she'd made up her mind, she swung into action. 

Note: This book counts toward the Color Coded Reading Challenge (any other color: orange) and the Mount TBR Reading Challenge 2018.   

Skimming the Shallows

Let me begin by saying that I don't care for the picaresque genre.

I first became aware of that fact when reading Candide in college. While everyone else seemed to be having a rollicking good time, I couldn't understand what was so great about a novel that moves quickly from scene to scene, contains broadly comic elements (such as the woman with only one buttock), recounts horrible events (shipwreck, earthquake, Spanish Inquisition, etc.) without giving them their due, and concerns itself mostly with justifying the questionable behavior of the narrator, all while apparently desiring to be taken seriously. It seemed more like a sketch of a novel, with fast paced narration that moves quickly and superficially over events.

Su Tong's The Boat to Redemption could be described in the same way, with the added twist of being set in cultural revolution-era China. Narrator Dongliang, a young man bearing the nickname Kong Pi ("empty ass" or perhaps "empty fart," as one review suggests), lives with his disgraced father on a boat that's part of a barge fleet. The people who inhabit the barges make up a separate society from those who live on land, and Dongliang's forays into the town are complicated by the social friction between the two groups.

Dongliang lives in the shadow of his disgraced father, who bears the dual shame of making his reputation on being the son of a famous revolutionary martyr and then being found out as a fraud, and being discovered to have had extramarital affairs with various women. In response, Dongliang's father attempts to cut off his own penis, resulting in a mutilated member that's the frequent subject of commentary throughout the story, even as he seeks the reinstatement of his good reputation.

Against this backdrop, Dongliang falls in love with a beautiful orphan girl, Huixian, who joins the household for a while. The romance never comes to anything, however, as Huixian is discovered by a party official as the perfect person to play Li Tiemei, a hero of the revolution, in local pageants. Her  waxing, then waning celebrity takes her away from the boat people and eventually lands her in the town barbershop with an uncertain future.

If all this sounds complicated, it is. It's also sprawling and boisterous and undisciplined, moving quickly from scene to scene of confrontations, chases, brawls, and other adventures without providing much depth of feeling. There are plenty of insults, sexual comments, and descriptions of the seedy side of life, but they generate little engagement. Even Dongliang's father's plight, while sympathetic, seems played for laughs. 

For a while I kept thinking that something more resonant would happen -- Dongliang seems to have a connection with the river, for example, hearing its voice calling, "Come down, come down" -- but while the river's call is important to the story, the full effect never materializes. At least Candide ended with a memorable phrase that could be interpreted with multiple depths of meaning: "Cultivate your garden." This tale, unfortunately, stays on the surface. 

Excerpt:

Panicked, I turned and ran. But Huixian took off after me. I knew why she was chasing me, but not why I was running away. Whatever the reason, by overreacting I caused a bizarre scene, as people on all the barges started running, turning the fleet into a rocking runway. They were chasing each other up and down the sides of the barges, shouting, "Don't run! Don't run!" But no one stopped. I kept looking back, afraid that Huixian might fall in. I needn't have worried, for she had an astonishing sense of balance. Like an avenging demon she kept after me, her feet virtually flying on what for her were unfamiliar boats.

I calmed down once I made it back to barge number seven, where I pulled back the tarp and said to the girl, "Go ahead, look for yourself. Your mama won't be hidden on our boat, unless she turned into a brick. If she didn't, she won't be in there."

The people who had been running after Huixian stopped when they reached our barge and watched as I jumped down into the hold and started tossing the damaged bricks up on deck, one at a time. "Go ahead, look," I shouted, "and tell me which one of those is your mama."

Note: This book counts toward the Color Coded Reading Challenge (red) and the Mount TBR Reading Challenge 2018.       

The Color Coded Reading Challenge 2018 - My Sign-Up

I love the Color Coded Reading Challenge and am back this year, using the TBR shelf exclusively. Yay for that!

Bev at My Reader's Block is a friendly and efficient hostess who's also an avid and accomplished reader, so if you're so inclined, join in for some extra incentive and whole lot of inspiration!

The rules (posted here) are easy to follow. Basically, you read a book with any shade of the required colors either in the title or featured prominently on the cover. You also get two "freebies" of your own choice: a color that's not on the list and a color that's implied (rainbow, spectrum, etc.). 

Colors, here we come!

Blue: Flight Behavior - Barbara Kingsolver (Orion Book Award finalist) (review)
Red: The Boat to Redemption - Su Tong (Asian Literary Prize) (review)
Yellow: Something to Answer For - P.H. Newby (Booker Prize) Substitute: A Travel Guide for Reckless Hearts: Stories - N.M. Kelby (Florida Book Award) (review)
Green: The Garden of Evening Mists - Tan Twan Eng (Asian Literary Prize) (review)
Brown: The Body Artist - Don DeLillo (review)
Black: Lincoln in the Bardo - George Saunders (Booker Prize) Substitute: The Road - Cormac McCarthy) (Pulitzer Prize) Substitute: Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness - William Styron (review)
White: The Finkler Question - Howard Jacobson (Booker Prize) (review)
Any other color: Orange: Three Sisters - Bi Feiyu (Asian Literary Prize) (review)
Implied color: Light: All the Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr (Pulitzer) Substitute: The Light Around the Body - Robert Bly (National Book Award for Poetry) (light is all the colors, get it?) (review)

Finished At Last

This book turned out to be my reading year nemesis in 2016. I'd hoped to finish strong, but I bogged down at the end, thanks to my difficulty with this novel.

Ilustrado is my first Man Asian Prize winner and I'm reserving judgment until I read a few more of the winners. However, my initial impression echoes my reaction to the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature winners I've read so far: I wanted to broaden my reading horizons, and I've done that, but it hasn't been successful. (You can read a little more about that here, if you're so inclined.) I think it's entirely my fault that I don't "get" these books, which are recognized by others as being excellent novels. I blame my weak and narrow knowledge of the countries and cultures involved; that's a good enough reason to think about coming out of my comfort zone in the future. And now, how about a review?

This novel begins with the discovery of the body of poet and literary light Crispin Salvador in the Hudson River. There's some question whether his death was murder or suicide, as Crispin's student and acquaintance Miguel--it's rather a stretch to call him a friend, because he seems present in Crispin's life more by default than by design--tries to track down a missing manuscript and construct a biography-in-progress. The unknown contents of the manuscript, rumored to be an expose of the corruption of Filipino aristocracy, provide a possible motive.

The murder angle soon dissipates, however, in this novel that flips constantly, reminding me of the various snippets one views while channel surfing. (I know I'm onto something here, because there's even a scene where Miguel channel surfs and reports what he sees.) Miguel narrates his own story of his journey to Manila, including such personal details as the painful end of his relationship with Madison in New York, the possibility of another with Sadie, a girl he meets by chance in Manila, his own family history, and verbatim accounts of interviews he conducts as part of his research.

Sometimes this narration is in first person. Sometimes it's in third person--or maybe that other Miguel traveling through Manila is supposed to be someone else. The narration is constantly interrupted by excerpts from Crispin's novels and political writings, snippets from newspaper reports, political blogs, and message boards (supposedly verbatim, including the spam), interview transcripts, conversations that read like a play script, and samples from the biography-in-progress--all in different typefaces. Some of the writing is excellent; I particularly liked one of Crispin's efforts, a sort of fantasy thriller a la Jurassic Park, in which a boy and a girl are cornered by some fierce toothy creatures. It thoroughly caught my attention for the few paragraphs it lasted.

Eventually all this mishmash coalesces into a family saga and dovetails sharply into a meditation on the role of the artist and the artist's bond with the audience, in which the past and the present and the various narratives meet at the exact moment that black words are typed onto the white page. It's a very nice moment, but it was a long time coming.

Excerpt:

And I forgave him [his lack of involvement in politics]. Even if I thought he was running away from something by living abroad. Maybe I excused him because he was a man who'd already made many a stand, perhaps one too many, and it was now the era for people like me to step up. Or maybe I admired him because he had graduated into a different role. When Crispin spoke about his writing, he wielded adroitly a life sharpened by learning, defending a ferocious belief that merely being in touch with today is limited, even juvenile--in the way that this morning's newspaper is revealed as tonight's fish-and-chips wrapping when works like One Hundred Years of Solitude . . . are picked off the shelf. A man with battered hands is shown to be a craftsman only when he puts them to work.

Color Coded Reading Challenge: Wrap Up

In a burst of enthusiasm (a/k/a deadline adrenaline), I reviewed 3 books in a single day and hereby declare this challenge completed! Of course, I also ran out of time to finish reading the last book, but hey, it happens.

Considering I only signed up for this challenge at the half-way point in June, I'm quite pleased that I managed to read and review 8.5 of the 9 books I chose in my sign-up post. The blue, red, yellow, green, brown, black, white, and "color of choice" pale aqua books were no problem. Then came the holidays and I completely bogged down in the "implied color" book. I'll finish it eventually, though.

This is a very fun challenge hosted with aplomb by Bev at My Reader's Block. Bev is the most prolific reader I know and her challenges are well-organized and fun. She's hosting this particular challenge again in 2017 (info here) and I am highly likely to join. Hope to see you over there!

Forthwith, a few superlatives from my colored reading:

The best book by far and a new personal favorite of mine was Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall. This kind of writing is what makes the Man Booker winners worth reading; I might never have discovered it otherwise, because it's not the sort of book I'd choose for myself. Now I'm eagerly awaiting the third book in the series. Barbara Kingsolver's The Lacuna was also a favorite in this group. No surprise there--the Orange winners are also consistently good.  

My least favorite (as of this writing) is a tie between Jeet Thayil's Narcopolis and Michael Syjuco's Ilustrado, which I have yet to finish. I find both of them too disjointed for my taste. I've considered whether there could be a deficiency in my Western background, as well, making it harder for me to understand Indian and Filipino culture, but I don't think that explains it entirely. It's certainly not a quality issue, either. Maybe I'm just not ready for modern fiction.

At any rate, I shall soldier on. I'm hoping to do a lot of reading and reviewing in 2017!

Mount TBR Reading Challenge 2016

This will do it for me this year. Really it will. I'll probably post a few more of the on-going lists, but this is it for challenges in 2016.

Unless something irresistible comes along, of course.

Overlaps are specifically allowed for this challenge, but I already committed to 9 books, so it didn't seem fair to choose only 12. Why not push ahead, yes? So I've chosen the Mount Blanc level of 24 books that have been "waiting in the wings for weeks...months...even years" -- as eloquently expressed by the sign-up post at My Reader's Block.

The last 5 slots are blank because yikes, I might need some oxygen along the way! Especially if my calculations are correct and when I finish that 19th book I'll have read all the Booker Winners -- cause for celebration at the end of a long road!

Sign-ups go through November 1st, if you're interested.

1. Heart of Palm - Laura Lee Smith (Florida Book Award) finished 6/18/16 (review)
2. Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel (Booker Prize) finished 7/5/16 (review)
3. The Lacuna - Barbara Kingsolver (Orange/Baileys Prize) finished 8/9/16 (review)
4. The Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller (Orange/Baileys Prize) finished 8/13/16 (review)
5. The Famished Road - Ben Okri (Booker Prize) finished 9/10/16 (review)
6. Narcopolis - Jeet Thayil (DSC Prize) finished 10/20/16 (review)
7. The Lowland - Jhumpa Lahiri (DSC Prize) finished 10/30/16 (review)
8. Tourist Season - Enid Shomer (Florida Book Award) finished 11/3/16 (review)
9. Ilustrado - Miguel Syjuco (Man Asian Prize) finished 1/16/17 (too late!) (review)
10. Life and Times of Michael K - J.M. Coetzee (Booker Prize)
11. Rites of Passage - William Golding (Booker Prize)
12. Schindler's Ark - Thomas Kenally (Booker Prize)
13. Holiday - Stanley Middleton (Booker Prize)
14. Something to Answer For - P.H. Newby (Booker Prize)
15. The Elected Member - Bernice Rubens (Booker Prize)
16. The Finkler Question - Howard Jacobson (Booker Prize)
17. Bring up the Bodies - Hilary Mantel (Booker Prize) finished 7/13/16 (review)
18. The Narrow Road to the Deep North - Richard Flanagan (Booker Prize)
19. A Brief History of Seven Killings - Marlon James (Booker Prize)
20. TBD The Survival of the Bark Canoe - John McPhee finished 7/14/16 (review)
21. TBD The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection - Alexander McCall Smith finished 7/15/16 (review)
22. TBD Islands in the Stream - Ernest Hemingway finished 9/10/16 (review)
23. TBD
24. TBD

The Color Coded Reading Challenge 2016

I'm late to the party, but . . . . Whatever.

Nine books in 2016 (only 6 months for me, because yikes, it's already June), chosen because they have certain colors in the title or on the cover: shades of blue, red, yellow, green, brown, black, and white, plus one color of your choice, plus one with a word that implies color (rainbow, paisley, stripe, etc.).

This challenge is chosen in accordance with my personal rule -- newly enacted just today -- that I will not accept any challenges that require the reading of books that aren't already on my TBR List. The TBR List grows just fine on its own, thank you very much.

Anyone not filled up with challenge reading already is welcome to check out My Reader's Block and join in. Then at least I'll be ahead of one person!

Here's my list:

Blue: Heart of Palm - Laure Lee Smith (Florida Book Award) finished 6/18/16 (review)
Red: Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel (Booker Prize) finished 7/5/16 (review)
Yellow: The Lacuna - Barbara Kingsolver (Orange/Baileys Prize) finished 8/9/16 (review)
Green: The Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller (Orange/Baileys Prize) finished 8/13/16 (review)
Brown: The Famished Road - Ben Okri (Booker Prize) finished 9/10/16 (review)
Black: Narcopolis - Jeet Thayil (DSC Prize) finished 10/20/16 (review)
White: The Lowland - Jhumpa Lahiri (DSC Prize) finished 10/30/16 (review)
Choice: Tourist Season - Enid Shomer (pale aqua) (Florida Book Award) finished 11/3/16 (review)
Implied: Ilustrado - Miguel Syjuco (you have to illustrate with colors, or at least with black and white, right?) (Man Asian Prize) finished 1/16/17 (too late!) (review)

Jackpot

PaperbackSwap.com comes through again!

This beauty arrived in the mail yesterday. Not only is it an exciting addition to my Man Asian Prize collection and personal reading quest, it's a first edition book that I can confidently say is in fine/fine condition and worth between $10 and $40 on the used book market. And it has clearly never been opened, much less read.

There's something so special about a pristine book, one that crackles a little bit when you lift its cover for the first time.

Of course, I also love the comfort of a book that's been thoroughly but carefully read. 

New and old - each charming in a different way. We lovers of books know those charms well.

Asian Literary Prize Winners (Read and TBR)

This is a doable list, for sure!

Read about this prize at ManAsianLiteraryPrize.org. (Update: They lost their sponsor and were seeking another as of 2013. The 2012 award is the most recent one given.)

Green means I am still looking for it. Blue means I have it but it's still TBR.

2007: Wolf Totem - Jiang Rong (China) HB
2008: Ilustrado - Miguel Syjuco (Philippines)
2009: The Boat to Redemption - Su Tong (China)
2010: Three Sisters - Bi Feiyu (China)
2011: Please Look After Mom - Shin Kyung-sook (South Korea) 
2012: The Garden of Evening Mists - Tan Twan Eng (Malaysia)

List Readers, Take Note

I was very excited to learn of the Man Asian Prize, which has been around for a couple of years but just showed up on my radar. All the details are available here.

I have been wanting to learn more about non-Western cultures, and this looks like my chance to dip into novels written by citizens (or permanent residents, in some cases) of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, East Timor, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, North Korea, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, The Hong Kong or Macau Special Administrative Regions, The Maldives, The People's Republic of China, or Vietnam.

Once could certainly argue that these novels should stand alone, instead of having their own special category, as though they somehow don't measure up against other fiction from other geographical areas. I've certainly heard this argument about the Orange Prize, which is limited to female authors. There is some merit to it.

But if a special prize for Asian fiction brings recognition to these authors and books that they might otherwise not receive, well, maybe the compromise of principles is worth it. This prize certainly will induce me to read books that I would probably have overlooked without it.