2023 Read All The Books: A Decade of AtTENding the Shelf

[Dj]

Word War I meets Battle Tech and Darwin's nightmares. It is an interesting mix of strangeness and the real to make for an interesting read. There are things in it that make for some wake-up calls while you're reading it. Like Germany wanting the war. I wonder how they will deal with that in a later book, but it is mostly character-focused so that is something that only comes up from time to time.

All in all a good read especially for those who like their stories a character twist or three.

Leviathan

[Dj]

Wow! Now it makes sense. LOL. A great story and one that is done in a style that may be one of the best I have seen in years. It has some flaws, but for the most part, they are small and easily overlooked. I can see why it needed to be made into a movie. The animation style may not be for everyone but it works along with the story.

So glad this book came up as a reading challenge.

Nimona

[Stephen]

More Than Human. A real classic, and very enjoyable.

8/10

[Marc]

OMG, why did I wait so long to read Parable of the Sowers?? it was freakin amazing! I was tossing around ideas of writing a book like that, and now I can let that go, she's by far a better writer than I. She only beat me by a decade or so! Gotta buy her next book and read that one soon!

Last book is Gene Wolf's Shadow of the Torturer. Which I am starting now...

[Dj]

It is a Great Day for Science. Okay so that line comes from an online comic but it could be a tagline for this book as well. This is a throwback to when Sci/Fi was more Science than Fiction. There is some character development, but not much and there is some in-depth character interaction, but it is mostly the science that moves this book forward.

With that being said there are some things about this book that would make it less open to readers for more modern Sci/Fi books, and there is the one glaring, wait what crises that comes up that left me shaking my head and wondering how that would be an issue. Even with that moment, it was a very good read.

Project Hail Mary

[Dj]

An interesting book that twists the premise of a thief for hire. A wonderful look at the way politics can play out in a feudal society a fun read and an author that I will be looking for more work. It will be fun to see if they can keep this freshness up.

The Thief

[Marc]

Ooh, I didn't realize Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was on the list... I guess I have 11 on my list now, 10 read, 1 to go!

so here's my new list! (* means read)
1) Ubik - Phillip K Dick *
2) Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes *
3) The City We Became - NK Jemisin *
4) A Scanner Darkly - Philip K Dick *
5) Station Eleven - Emily St John Manden *
6) Spinning Silver - Naomi Novik *
7) Babel-17 - Samuel R Delany *
8) Parable of the Sower - Octavia E Butler *
9) The Word for World Is Forest - Ursula K Le Guin *
10) Shadow of the Torturer - Gene Wolfe
11) Frankenstein - Mary Shelley *

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Wowowow. Some truly superlative books on that list, Marc!

DJ, The Thief totally surprised me with how it used common tropes for something new! Glad you also enjoyed it.

[Dj]

Allison wrote: "Wowowow. Some truly superlative books on that list, Marc!

DJ, The Thief totally surprised me with how it used common tropes for something new! Glad you also enjoyed it."

That is the nice thing about reading through the club Library. It is new. Not always to one's liking but generally always new. It is a joy to find something new that you like as well.

[Stephen]

I just finished Oryx and Crake. A very good book. Not a particularly enjoyable read.

I’ve now read 9/10 books for the challenge. The 10th book I had selected was Reap the Wild Wind, but having looked at the first few pages I don’t think I want to read it right now. I’ll go with Stories of Your Life and Others instead.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Those are very different feels, hope this one works better for you! I have a suspicion at least some of the stories you'll like very much :)

[Stephen]

Allison wrote: "Those are very different feels, hope this one works better for you! I have a suspicion at least some of the stories you'll like very much :)"

Thank you!

[Dj]

Stephen wrote: "I just finished Oryx and Crake. A very good book. Not a particularly enjoyable read.

I’ve now read 9/10 books for the challenge. The 10th book I had selected was [book:Reap the Wil..."

Thanks for that update, I am reading Oryx and Crake now and have been struggling through it I have been hoping it would become more readable soon but it seems it will be unlikely now. I do find it interesting just not an enjoyable read.

[Marc]

And, I'm done! finished my 11th book!

Shadow of the torturer was a great book, but I am kinda let down, seems like it was supposed to be a flat out amazing book, and, while it was entertaining, it wasn't the be-all-end-all some people made it out to be. I'm going on with the series though, now reading Claw of the Concilator

[Stephen]

Dj wrote: "… I have been hoping it would become more readable soon…”

The second half of the book is more “readable” I think, with retrospective plot development and explanation.

I’ve been wondering if this “MaddAddam” trilogy was conceived as such. Developments at the end suggest this was the case. Though this novel is certainly self-contained.

[Chris]

For those who are ambivalent about Oryx and Crake, I thought the second book (and the third) was better. I wouldn't have guessed it from the first book, but the series ended up being a favorite.

[Kaia]

Marc wrote: "And, I'm done! finished my 11th book!

Shadow of the torturer was a great book, but I am kinda let down, seems like it was supposed to be a flat out amazing book, and, while it was entertaining, i..."

Congratulations, Marc!

[Kaia]

I made my goal of 30 books (+1)! I think next year I will not challenge myself to read so many because it started to feel like work at some point. I enjoyed or really enjoyed almost all of the books I chose, so it was definitely worth it for this year, though.

5 Stars:
-The Vanished Birds (Simon Jimenez)
-The Spear Cuts Through Water (Simon Jimenez)
-The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia (Ursula K. Le Guin)
-Remnant Population (Elizabeth Moon)
-The Calculating Stars (Mary Robinette Kowal)
-The Lathe of Heaven (Ursula K Le Guin)
-Ninefox Gambit (Yoon Ha Lee)
-The Marrow Thieves (Cherie Dimaline)
-We Are Legion (We Are Bob) (Dennis E Taylor)
-Brown Girl in the Ring (Nalo Hopkinson)
-The Bear and the Nightingale (Katherine Arden)

4 Stars:
-Way Station (Clifford D. Simak)
-Planetfall (Emma Newman)
-The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress (Robert Heinlein)
-Memory of Water (Emmi Itaranta)
-The Mere Wife (Maria Dahvana Headley)
-Catfishing on CatNet(Naomi Kritzer)
-The Children of Gods and Fighting Men (Shauna Lawless)
-The Prey of Gods (Nicky Drayden)
-Remarkably Bright Creatures (Shelby Van Pelt)
-Neom (Lavie Tidhar)
-Rivers of London (Ben Aaronovitch)
-Legends & Lattes (Travis Baldree)
-The Terraformers (Annalee Newitz)
-Witchmark (C.L. Polk)
-Here and Now and Then (Mike Chen)
-The Bone Shard Daughter (Andrea Stewart)

3 Stars:
-The Princess Bride (William Goldman)
-Foreigner (C J Cherryh)
-Contact (Carl Sagan)
-Stories of Your Life and Others (Ted Chiang) – though some of the individual stories were definitely 5 stars

[Hank]

30 in one year is amazing

[DivaDiane]

Yes, truly amazing, Kaia!!

[Ellen]

Way to go Kaia!

[Meredith]

That's great Kaia!

[Kaia]

Thanks, everyone!

[Stephen]

I finished Stories of Your Life and Others, which gets me to 10/10. Challenge completed. Here is the list:

Nettle & Bone
Sunshine
More Than Human
Dreamsnake
Oryx and Crake
Moon of the Crusted Snow
Stories of Your Life and Others
Hyperion
A Night in the Lonesome October
Snow Crash

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

perfect finish!!

[Kaia]

Congratulations, Stephen!

[Stephen]

Thanks!

[Cheryl L]

Stephen wrote: "I finished Stories of Your Life and Others, which gets me to 10/10. Challenge completed."

That's awesome, Stephen!

What did you think of Oryx and Crake? I started it and have put it down because the beginning is so dark.

[Stephen]

Thanks Cheryl.

With respect to Oryx and Crake, I think it’s a strong and witty satirical story of messed up people in a society not entirely unlike our own creating a catastrophe. It is pretty dark all the way through. Atwood does run riot with blackly comic descriptions of genetically engineered creatures, given amusing names. I started the book and abandoned it years ago, and this time through I was again sometimes reluctant to return to it. In particular I found the portrait of the unhappy family in the early part of the book unpleasant to read. I found I was more interested in the second half of the novel. At this point I’m glad I read it.

[Dj]

I am throwing in the towel for finishing any more books on the Group Library list for 2023, but it was a banner year for me. I finished my hoped-for 25 and actually got a little more than 30 done, here they are.

5 Star
Project Hail Mary

4 Star
Witchmark
Legends & Lattes
The Goblin Emperor
The Lathe of Heaven
Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City
Contact
War for the Oaks
Babel-17
Solaris
Flowers for Algernon
Watership Down
The Word for World Is Forest
The Windup Girl
Nimona
The Thief
She Who Became the Sun

3 Star
Furies of Calderon
The Fifth Season
Servant of the Underworld
I Am Legend and Other Stories
John Dies at the End
The Complete Grimm's Fairy TalesSpear
Doomsday Book
Leviathan

2 Star
The Sword of Kaigen
Ship of Magic
The Summer Tree
Opening Atlantis
Anansi Boys
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

1 Star
Consider Phlebas

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

woooow!!! great job indeed!

[Kaia]

Excellent, DJ! Congratulations!!

[CBRetriever]

nice work

[DivaDiane]

Wow, DJ!! Amazing job well done. I’m sad that you don’t seem to have liked Ship of Magic, but we all like what we like, right?

[Dj]

DivaDiane wrote: "Wow, DJ!! Amazing job well done. I’m sad that you don’t seem to have liked Ship of Magic, but we all like what we like, right?"

True enough, I am glad that mostly the books that I read this year were better than average for my enjoyment.

[Ivan Darryl]

success, DJ! that's a lot of books for a year, some of them were even longer than usual!

[Stephen]

Congratulations, DJ. Great list.

[DivaDiane]

I actually did quite well with this challenge! I read 15 books from the shelf most of which were from previous years and not current group reads. There were a couple where I anticipated the group read but can’t count toward this year’s challenge since I read them last year. On the other hand I was able to add 6 books that were group reads this year that somehow I had already read last year! I don’t seem to be able to read books at the same time as the group lately.

Recursion
Neom
The Thief
Legends & Lattes
The Book Eaters
Contact
The Ten Thousand Doors of January
The Marrow Thieves
The Witch’s Heart
The Spear Cuts Through Water
Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries
Ninefox Gambit
Touch
The mere Wife
Fuzzy Nation

Read previous to 2023:
Amatka
Spear
A Half-Built Garden
Elatsoe
Severance
Way Station

[DivaDiane]

Oh and I’m in the middle of The Terraformers, but got distracted by Starling House and I’m not sure I’ll finish it before the end of the year.

[Kaia]

Nice work on your challenge, DivaDiane!

[Dj]

Ivan wrote: "success, DJ! that's a lot of books for a year, some of them were even longer than usual!"

Yeah, that hour-long commute to work each way sure helped with the page count. I wonder if it will work out the same next year. But I took a large bite out of the Group Library so I am happy about that.

[Dj]

DivaDiane wrote: "I actually did quite well with challenge! I read 15 books from the shelf most of which were from previous years and not current group reads. There were a couple I anticipated the group read but can..."

Stephen wrote: "Congratulations, DJ. Great list."

Nice List.

[Ivan Darryl]

DivaDiane wrote: "I actually did quite well with challenge! I read 15 books from the shelf most of which were from previous years and not current group reads. There were a couple I anticipated the group read but can..."

Nicely done, DivaDiane. I'm also looking forward to our future group reads.

[Ivan Darryl]

Dj wrote: "Ivan wrote: "success, DJ! that's a lot of books for a year, some of them were even longer than usual!"

Yeah, that hour-long commute to work each way sure helped with the page count. I wonder if it..."

I like that you maximize your time pretty well. For me, it's hard to concentrate when I'm commuting, especially during rush-hours.

[Dj]

Ivan wrote: "Dj wrote: "Ivan wrote: "success, DJ! that's a lot of books for a year, some of them were even longer than usual!"

Yeah, that hour-long commute to work each way sure helped with the page count. I w..."

That is the advantage of having a really good mass transit system in Portland and no car. The Chauffer pays attention to traffic I just have to make sure to get my stop right. LOL.

[CBRetriever]

Dj wrote: "Ivan wrote: "That is the advantage of having a really good mass transit system in Portland and no car. The Chauffer pays attention to traffic I just have to make sure to get my stop right. LOL. "

many a time I rode past my stop on the Paris trains. The Portland ones seem a bit harder to miss though... Maybe because they're closer together?

[Marc]

almost 2024. what books are on the 2024 challenge?

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

The 2024 challenge is up! You can discuss it there:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[Aga]

I just saw, I’ve completed this one too.

[HeyT]

Looks like I managed to finish 24 bookshelf reads this year. I'm going to try and pull one more out before midnight so I can say I actually made progress rather than just break even with the new books added this year.