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2018 Reading Challenge
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2018 Reading Challenge
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Sacramento Public Library wrote: "In 2018 we invite you to take the Sacramento Public Library reading challenge! We are offering up a list of 24 types of books that is aimed at broadening your reading horizons. If you choose to par..."Sounds fun. I will give it a try in 2018
Review: The Maltese Falcon – Dashiell HammettI just noticed this one hits an astounding four of the categories. That feels a bit like the equivalent of writing a high school essay in double-spaced 26 point font – but my intent was only to read “a classic of genre fiction” and given that I have no interest in detective novels, or even mysteries, it seemed like a good choice for the horizon-broadening aspect. But it’s also the basis for a popular film, by an author I’ve never read, and I listened to it as an audiobook. (This last was a good choice, as the narrator [from 2004] does quite a number of pretty good 1930’s voices; very much the stock ones you’d expect, but it’s fun enough.)
I suspect this is one of those Citizen Kane things, where something was so influential that you can’t get the proper feel for how revolutionary it was at the time. Some reading on the subject shows that Hammett was one of the first to do psychologically realistic crime fiction – previous incarnations tended to be essentially morality tales. A lot of the characters seem like stock ones (e.g. there’s a very standard femme fatale) but again I wonder if the book was influential enough that it provides a goodly chunk of the DNA for the archetypes in the first place. Sam Spade is probably the archetypical “noir” detective, or near enough as makes no matter, to use a bizarrely out-of-place turn of phrase.
One thing that stands out is that Spade does almost no investigating – he searches the femme fatale’s hotel room when she’s not there, and investigates a false lead at a house in Burlingame (one great thing I didn’t realize about the novel: it’s set in San Francisco, which I grew up near and love with all my heart) but that’s about it; the rest of the time it’s just running into people, threatening and/or punching them, wondering what is going on and complaining about how confusing it is. I imagine that’s about how that would go in real life, so no problems there.
The gender subtext is more interesting than the plot itself: Spade is basically an emotional cripple, prone to petulant outbursts of violence against real or perceived slights, who admits at one point that he has no idea how to relate to women “except THAT way.” The femme fatale (who does indeed “relate” with him at one point) is less interesting to me than his secretary; the comradely way they interact almost makes her seem like his only friend, though he does call her “angel” and such constantly, and often touches her shoulders or waist in this sort of non-sexual yet patronizing way.
There’s also a very thinly implied gay relationship between supporting characters, which I was mildly flabbergasted to learn the publisher wanted to excise from the novel, if only because it’s just barely there in the first place; it could easily exist only in Spade’s imagination and snarky comments.
So…neither the book nor the genre are not my favorite thing, and the gender role stuff can get pretty depressing, but I got more into it than I would’ve thought. I may even try to watch the movie; given that movies are another thing I have almost no interest in, I suppose that’s a decent accomplishment for the book in and of itself.
Review: Tomboy Survival Guide – Ivan CoyoteThis book checks off two of the categories: it’s by someone who identifies as LGBTQIA, and it’s from an SPL recommended reading list (specifically, from the one of the “Let’s Talk About: Gender” lists in 2017.) I could also be slightly scuzzy about it and count it as “a book that has been nominated for a literary prize” – specifically, the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction, but I had to look that up to find it out, and that doesn’t sit entirely sit right.
Anyway, it’s an episodic memoir-cum-essay collection – a lot of reminiscing about growing up in the Yukon, and a lot of reflecting on gender issues. Coyote specifically identifies as non-binary (using the singular they as a pronoun) and even now, with transgenderism as mainstream and well-known as it’s ever been (such as it is) I think that particular perspective is often forgotten, or not understood at all – people may disagree, but I find it easy enough to understand a boy or girl whose “subconscious sex” (as the trans activist/writer/biologist Julie Serrano puts it) is girl or boy; it’s a bit more complicated to understand about someone who doesn’t fit into either sharp-edged little box. And I was glad to read that.
I get the impression that one would be lucky to know this person; they seem thoughtful and kind. And funny – I have a feeling they probably don’t get enough credit for being funny. It’s not uproarious humor, but it’s grounded in quiet, astute observations. Like this description of a previously annoying coworker at a “ladies only” party on a TV show they were working on:
"One of the actors was named Jamie, and she was gorgeous in that airbrushed kind of Hollywood way that always left me feeling underdressed and unfinished. The only interactions I ever really had with her were taking her prop watch on and off at the beginning and end of each shooting day, and occasionally when she needed something for her character or a scene. At work, she always spoke to me in her private school British accent like I was the hired help, which technically I was. Not all of the talent, as we called the actors, treated the crew like we were less than, but Jamie certainly did. I had never liked her, and I was pretty sure she didn't even know my name.
“But that night she was wearing jeans and a plain t-shirt, hardly any makeup, and was merrily forcing tequila shots on everyone, punctuated by her throwing one back herself every five minutes or so. She was cracking jokes and even let out a fart when she leaned over the arm of the couch to pass a shot glass to the third assistant director. I had never seen drunk and farting Jamie before, and I liked her a lot better than I did her on-set, at-work persona.”
I wouldn't say this book broadened my reading horizons exactly; I mean I'm one or two of LGBTQIA myself, and it's not like I was unaware of gender issues, or unsympathetic to trans people. But it is the kind of thing that I usually INTEND to read and then never get around to, so it was good to read this and feel slightly more like the person I always think of myself as, if that makes any sense.
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"But it is the kind of thing that I usually INTEND to read and then never get around to, "
Reading challenges are excellent for offering motivation for doing that sort of reading, aren't they? We're glad to know this challenge led to a rewarding experience for you. Hurray!
I read the Táin Bó Cúailnge. (That’s the Toyn Bo Cooling-ee, according to the translator. [Yeah, you’re welcome.] I would’ve bet on the “toyn bo cwahl-nyeh” as the pronunciation, but I tend to trust the professional translator squad, cuz what do I know and all.)I read this because it’s:
A) Something I’ve always meant to read
B) From a country I would like to visit someday
I’m not entirely sure how this is viewed as part of the Western literary/poetical canon, though I do gather that it’s kind of a big deal, but for my own impression: you know when young teenage boys watch stuff like wrestling and ultimate fighting and whatnot and go, “Ohhhhh!!!” at an obnoxious volume every time someone gets hit in the face? This book was kinda the ancient Irish literature equivalent of that. It is perhaps the single most brutal story I’ve ever read in terms of body count and and of graphic descriptions of compiling said body count.
I noticed lots of florid descriptions and long poetical declamations interspersed with laconic descriptions of major events; the introduction, which I read after the book itself, tells me that this is because the Táin Bó Cúailnge as we know it is an amalgam of several different versions throughout history.
We challenge you to READ at least 12 of the following:
A book from a Sacramento Public Library recommended reads list
A book by an author who has visited Sacramento Public Library
A book recommended by an author
A book related to a topic in the news
A book that is the basis for a movie or tv show
A book by or about a woman of color
A book from a country you’ve always wanted to visit
A book by an author you’ve never read
A classic of genre fiction
A book you regret not reading/have always meant to read
A book inspired by true events
A book by or about a person who identifies as LGBTQIA
A cozy mystery
A book about food
A non-fiction bestseller
A book set in Africa
A book for teens by a debut author
A book featuring immigration in the narrative
A book nominated for a literary prize (such as National Book Award, Man Booker, PEN America Literary Award, etc)
Listen to an audiobook
A graphic memoir
A work of historical fiction
A book recommended on social media
A book for children by an author of color
Notes:
Yes you can read the same book for multiple challenges!
Yes, books for all ages work (except for the age specified challenges)
Most importantly try to pick books that challenge YOU instead of what you usually read
Happy Reading!