Reading Envy 076: Borderlands (Reading Goals 2017)

Jenny sits in a corner alone at the Reading Envy pub and reflects on the goals of 2016, establishes new goals for the new year, and finishes up a few book speed-dating projects.

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 076: Borderlands.


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Relevant links:
Original 2016 reading goals
Africa2016 reading report (this is where the top five are listed)

Goals for 2017:

1. Read books from the borders, from people who are displaced or forced out, and maybe indigenous groups. 
2. Host a Reading Envy readalong of East of Eden by John Steinbeck
3. Read about mythology
4. Actually read books from book subscriptions I have
5. Explore indie/micro/small presses

Speed-Dating Round 5 of 2016

Wave by Sonya Deraniyagala
The Weight of Mercy: A Novice Pastor on the City Streets by Deb Richardson-Moore
Time and Again by Jack Finney
A Circle of Quiet by Madeleine L'Engle
Agent Zigzag by Ben Macintyre 
Boston Noir: Stories edited by Dennis Lehane
Old Filth by Jane Gardam
Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler
My Sergei: A Love Story by Ekaterina Gordeeva
The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith


Speed-Dating Round 6 of 2016

Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood
A Short History of a Small Place by T.R. Pearson
Edible Stories: A Novel in Sixteen Parts by Mark Kurlansky
Bluebeard's Egg: Stories by Margaret Atwood
Skinned Alive: Stories by Edmund White
House Rules by Rachel Sontag
Devils in the Sugar Shop by Timothy Schaffert
Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich
The Reading Promise: My Father and the Books We Shared by Alice Ozma
Zeitoun by Dave Eggers


Stalk me online:

Jenny at Goodreads
Jenny on Twitter
Jenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy 

2016 Reading Wrap-Up: Africa2016

I have been working on a project to read a book from every country for several years now. For 2016, I turned my focus to Africa and made quite a bit of progress, although there are still some holes in that map. In the image, the orange represents countries I had read books from years previous to 2016, the green represents countries I read for the first time in 2016, and the orange with green stripes indicates countries where although I had previously read books from those countries, I read additional books this year. The full list of 37 titles from 2016 is below, and I'd be happy to send a link of my full list to anyone who requests it. Links with the year in parentheses will take you to my review in Goodreads while title links will take you to Amazon.

There are a few countries I still need ideas for - Benin, Gabon, and Niger. Any ideas?

My top reads from Africa for this year would be:

1. The First Wife: A Tale of Polygamy by Paulina Chiziane
2. Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor
3. Cockroaches by Scholastique Mukasonga
4. Walking with Abel: Journeys with the Nomads of the African Savannah by Anna Badkhen
5. New-Generation African Poets: A Chapbook Set (tatu) edited by Kwame Dawes

I'm particularly proud of this year's list because it has more female authors than male, and more native authors than non-native. An increase in translated literature by small presses has really helped, and I can't wait to see what they bring us in 2017.

Algeria
The Stranger by Albert Camus (read 2011 and 2016)
The Meursault Investigation by Kamel Daoud (read 2016)

Angola
A General Theory of Oblivion by Jose Eduardo Agualusa (read 2016)
The Book of Chameleons by Jose Eduardo Agualusa (October 2016)

Cabo Verde (Cape Verde)
Historia, Historia by Eleanor Stanford (read 2016)

Cameroon
Mystique: A Collection of Lake Myths by Beatrice Bime (read 2016)

Democratic Republic of the Congo & Republic of the Congo
Broken Glass by Alain Mabanckou (read December 2016)

Egypt
The Queue by Basma Abdel Aziz (read 2016)

Ghana
Wife of the Gods by Kwei Quartey (read 2016)
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi (read 2016)

Kenya
The Book of Secrets by M.G. Vassanji (read 2016)

Mali
Walking with Abel by Anna Badkhen (read 2016)
The Cruelest Journey by Kira Salak (read 2016)
The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu by Joshua Hammer (read 2016)

Mozambique
The First Wife by Pauline Chiziane (read 2016)

Nigeria
Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor (read 2016)
The Icarus Girl by Helen Oyeyemi (read 2016)
Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor (read 2016)

Rwanda
Our Lady of the Nile by Scholastique Mukasonga (read 2016)
Cockroaches by Scholastique Mukasonga (read 2016)

Senegal
Xala by Ousmane Sembene (read 2016)

Sierra Leone
Ancestor Stones by Aminatta Forna (read December 2016)

South Sudan
Beyond the River Wei by Binyavonga Wainanga (read 2016)
There is a Country: New Fiction from the New Nation of South Sudan by various (read 2016)

Sudan
The January Children by January Elhillo (read December 2016)
Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih (read 2016)

Swaziland
When Hoopoes Go To Heaven by Gaile Parkin (read 2016)

Tanzania
Memoirs of an Arabian Princess from Zanzibar by Emily Ruete (read December 2016)

Uganda
Child of Dandelions by Shenaaz Nanji (read 2016)
All our Names by Dinaw Mengestu (read 2016)
The Gravity of Sunlight by Rosa Shand (read 2016)
Thirty Girls by Susan Minot (read 2016)

Zimbabwe
Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller (read July 2016)

Multi
New-Generation African Poets (tatu) ed. By Kwame Dawes (read April 2016)
New-Generation African Poets (nne) ed. By Kwame Dawes (read December 2016)
Passages: Africa (PEN America) (read December 2016)
Water: New Short Story Fiction from Africa edited by Nick Mulgrew (read November 2016)

Books I Read in August 2016 (197 - 222)

Pictured: 5-star reads in August

197. Falling by Jane Green (review copy audiobook; my review)
198. Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor (library book; my review)*
199. Watching Edie by Camilla Way (review copy audiobook; my review)
200. Xala by Ousmane Sembene (interlibrary loan; my review)
201. Meat by Opal Carew (eARC from NetGalley; my review)
202. The Garden Party and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield (eARC from Edelweiss; my review)*
203. The Invisible Life of Ivan Isaenko by Scott Sambach (eARC from NetGalley; my review)
204. Work Like Any Other by Virginia Reeves (library book; my review)
205. Indelible by Adelia Saunders (eARC from Edelweiss; my review)
206. Wolf in White Van by John Darnielle (library book; my review)
207. Mathilda by Mary Shelley (Serial Reader; my review)
208. Angel Catbird Vol. 1 by Margaret Atwood (eARC from Edelweiss; my review)
209. The Girls by Emma Cline (own from BOTM; my review)
210. My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout (library book; my review)
211. The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester (own; my review)
212. The Seventh Elephant by Alexis Stamatis (own; my review)
213. The Guest Room by Chris Bohjalian (own in audio; my review)
214. My Own Cape Cod by Gladys Taber (interlibrary loan; my review)
215. My Antonia by Willa Cather (interlibrary loan; my review)
216. The Last Wish by Andrzei Sapkowski (own; my review)
217. Indiana by George Sand (own on Kindle; my review)
218. A Whole Life by Robert Seethaler (eARC from NetGalley; my review)
219. The Rain in Portugal: New Poems (eARC from NetGalley; my review)
220. If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo (interlibrary loan; my review)
221. Lady Susan by Jane Austen (Serial Reader; my review)
222. The Many by Wyl Menmuir (library book; my review)


Abandoned:
The Blazing World by Margaret Cavendish
Hystopia by David Means
Eileen by Ottesa Moshfegh
Storm Rose by Corina Bomann

Library Books Mid-August 2016

This post is brought to you almost entirely by one reading rabbit hole and one prize long list.

Bound to Violence by Yambo Ouologuem
Xala by Sembene Ousmane
The Yambo Ouloguem Reader by Yambo Ouologuem
Wolf in White Van by John Darnielle
Desertion by Abdulrazak Gurnah
Hystopia by David Means
Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh
Work Like Any Other by Virginia Reeves
Genii of the River Niger by Jean-Marie Gibbal
Kaidara by Amadou Hampate Ba
Ladivine by Marie NDiaye
(not pictured: Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor)

I recently read Walking with Abel by Anna Badhken, which tells the story of one group of Fulani cowboys in their annual nomadic journeys in Mali. She had done a lot of research and I ended up adding a lot to my reading list, some of which I brought home. Although I haven't read any of it, that is why I have the two Ouologuem titles, the Gibbal, and the Ba.

The Man Booker long list was announced in July, and I checked out what my public library had available - the Means, the Moshfegh, and the Reeves.

I checked out the NDiaye and Gurnah for some Goodreads readalongs, the Ousmane for my Africa2016 project (although I'd previously read a book set in Senegal), the Darnielle because I started seeing his upcoming book in Litsy and realized I never read the last one, and the Okorafor after seeing her read from its sequel.

New Books In, July 2016

The Folly by Ivan Vladislavic
Absolute Solitude: Selected Poems by Dulce Maria Loynaz
The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski
In Praise of Defeat: Poems by Abdellatif Laabi
Circling the Sun by Paula McLain
A Dangerous Place by Jacqueline Winspear
The Radiance of Tomorrow by Ishmael Beah
The Librarian by Mikhail Elizarov
The Geometry of Love by Jessica Levine
The Big Book of Science Fiction edited by Ann VanderMeer and Jeff VanderMeer
The Girls by Emma Cline
Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt
The Ethnomusicologists' Cookbook edited by Sean Williams
The Ethnomusicologists' Cookbook Volume II edited by Sean Williams
The Vegetable Butcher by Cara Mangini

July was a great month for books! It was my birthday month, and many of these are birthday gifts - the McLain, Winspear, Beah, Elizarov, Williams (x2), and Mangini. Many of those were from my wishlist so that's always awesome, and the Beah and McLain will be good books for my Africa 2016 reading project.

Two of the books were purchased because I knew I'd see the authors and wanted to get them signed: the VanderMeer(s) and Heuvelt.  I always buy the VanderMeer anthologies and have a big shelf of them, but this time I've actually started reading some of the stories.

 

The Cline was July's Book of the Month pick, the Levine was a Goodreads giveaway, and the trio of Vladislavic, Loynaz, and Laabi were a generous gift from Archipelago Press. Two of them will be great for my Africa 2016 reading project!

Mid-Year Reading Goal Check-In

A lot of readers in Litsy have been reporting on their goals, picking best reads for the year, etc. I started to get curious about the progress I have made on my reading goals, and decided to both investigate and share it with you. If you want to go back and listen to me discuss more behind the initial intent behind the goals, check out Episode 048 of the podcast.

Goal 1: Read a book from the countries left in Africa (from my ongoing "read a book from every country" project)

I'm encountering a minor version to what happened last year, when I got stuck reading books from New Guinea for four months - instead of reading one book in every country, I have read several books for many of the countries I aim to read. So while I've read 20 books for this challenge, I have only covered 11 countries. 31 to go if I'm going to read all the countries I've never read from. Five a month? I'm not sure that's going to happen, but here is what has:

Algeria

The Stranger by Albert Camus (February 2016)

The Meursault Investigation (April 2016)

Ghana

Wife of the Gods (June 2016)

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi (June 2016)

Kenya
The Book of Secrets by M.J. Vassanji (February 2016)

Mali

The Cruelest Journey: Six Hundred Miles To Timbuktu by Kira Salak (March 2016)

The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the World’s Most Precious Manuscripts by Joshua Hammer (March 2016)

Mozambique

The First Wife: A Tale of Polygamy by Paulina Chiziane (April 2016)

Nigeria
Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor (January 2016)

Rwanda

Our Lady of the Nile by Scholastique Mukasonga (February 2016)

Cockroaches by Scholastique Mukasonga (June 2016)

South Sudan

Beyond the River Yei (January 2016)

There is a Country: New Fiction from the New Nation of South Sudan (January 2016)

Sudan

Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih (March 2016)

Swaziland

When Hoopoes Go to Heaven by Gaile Parkin (May 2016)

Uganda
Child of Dandelions by Shenaaz Nanji (February 2016)

All Our Names by Dinew Mengestu (January 2016)

The Gravity of Sunlight by Rosa Shand (January 2016)

Thirty Girls by Susan Minot (January 2016)

Multi

New-Generation African Poets ed. By Kwame Dawes (April 2016)

Goal 2: Read some of my shelf of anthologies (perhaps develop strategies for this)

FAIL. I have made it through one anthology, and that was one I purchased after making these reading goals. Sigh.

Goal 3: Don't be a hoarder - complete six more book speed dating projects to make decisions about books I'm not sure about

I haven't been so great about not adding more books, but to be fair (to me) that wasn't the goal. I have done one speed dating project every two months, so for 2016, I have done three. I will work on another one sometime in July.

I recorded about each of them, so you can hear my thoughts:

Speed Dating 2016 #1
Speed Dating 2016 #2
Speed Dating 2016 #3

Goal 4: Reflective reading - experiment with journaling, video reviews, etc.

I definitely worked a lot with this although most of it is not something I can show. I absolutely prefer to record my thoughts in audio over video.

Goal 5: Read genres I usually ignore - crime and romance, maybe others
Heck yeah. I have read more romance this year than any other time in my life. That discussion is in the same episode as speed date #2, "The Wall of Romance." When I gave my students this project, I picked up a sportsing book.  I have read a few more crime novels this year, although I'm not sure if it's more than normal, and it is likely not the titles I had in mind when I made the goal.

Library Books Mid-June 2016

I resurfaced from teaching my reading class on June 1, and went overboard at all the libraries! I need to get through these soon or I will have to return them unread, especially the interlibrary loan titles.

A General Theory of Oblivion by Jose Eduardo Agualusa

Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller

Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter

The Book That Changed My Life: Interviews with National Book Award Winners and Finalists edited by Diane Osen

Walking with Abel: Journeys with the Nomads of the African Savannah by Anna Badkhen

The Secret Lovers by Charles McCarry

Pond by Claire-Louise Bennett

The Queen of the Night by Alexander Chee

Generation Loss by Elizabeth Hand

The Visiting Privilege: New and Collected Stories by Joy Williams

Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling by Ross King

Two of these novels are for my Africa 2016 reading project - the Agualusa is from Angola and was also a nominee for the Man Booker International Prize this year. The Badkhen is non-fiction and looked good. I can't remember where I saw it mentioned, but I requested it from the library immediately.

I had pulled the King off the shelf when I was contemplating books in genres I don't usually read (and ended up with Amish romance and sports), and this is a book that comes up often in my book club. They read it before I joined them, but it stuck. I'm sure I'll like it once I get into it (why is non-fiction so hard to start?) I'm not sure I'll end up really reading the Osen but will definitely skim it for the titles. That was one that was near another book in the library and came home with me.

Some books were because of frequent mentions - Williams, Chee (also the June pick of one of my Goodreads groups), and Fuller. Fuller was also recommended by Nathan Ballingrud, the Hand (and maybe the Bennett) was recommended by Jeff VanderMeer, and the McCarry is just the next Paul Christopher book in my attempt to work through those spy novels. 

Library Books Mid-February 2016

The Book of Secrets by M.G. Vasanji
Coolhaus Ice Cream Book: Custom-Built Sandwiches with Crazy-Good Combos of Cookies, Ice Creams, Gelatos, and Sorbets
Speak by Louisa Hall (read my review)
Sugar in the Blood: A Family's Story of Slavery and Empire by Andrea Stuart (read my review)
Voyage of the Sable Venus: and Other Poems by Robin Coste Lewis
Elephant Company: The Inspiring Story of an Unlikely Hero and the Animals Who Helped Him Save Lives in World War II by Vicki Constantine Croke
Hyena and the Moon: Stories to Tell from Kenya
Charlie All Night by Jennifer Cruisie (not pictured; eBook) (read my review)
In Between the Sheets by Ian McEwan (not pictured; eBook)


The Croke and Stuart are book club selections for my local book club (International Center of the Upstate), and the Vasanji is for one of my online book clubs (Great Africa Reads.)

Speak and Coolhaus were picked up at the public library when I had to go to update my account. Because I updated my account I was able to download the Cruisie as part of my romance reading project.

I heard about the McEwan on the Books on the Nightstand podcast and downloaded it from the library where I work. I had the Lewis on hold forever since it was on the longlist for the National Book Award for poetry, which it went on to read. Hyena is part of my ongoing Africa 2016 reading project.

Reading Envy 050: Open to Suggestion

I had so much to say I recorded a bonus episode for the 50th episode of Reading Envy! I discuss my questions about romance novels, talk about three books I read set in Uganda, and reflect on my first book speed dating project of 2016.

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 050: Open to Suggestion

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Books mentioned:

The Gravity of Sunlight by Rosa Shand
All Our Names by Dinaw Mengestu
Thirty Girls by Susan Minot
Beyond the River Yei by Binyavanga Wainaina
There is a Country: New Fiction from the New Nation of South Sudan
Life Before Man by Margaret Atwood
The Town in Bloom by Dodie Smith
Abide with Me by Elizabeth Strout
The Age of Miracles by Ellen Gilchrist
The Icarus Girl by Helen Oyeyemi
Life Sentences by Laura Lippman
The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen
Visits from the Drowned Girl by Steven Sherrill
The Swimming Pool Library by Alan Hollinghurst
Crystal Rain by Tobias S. Buckell

Other mentions:

My Goodreads Romance shelf (based on recommendations I have so far)
Review of Thirty Girls by Susan Minot
Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi


Related posts:
The Original Reading Envy Speed Dating Project (with rules)
Speed Dating Round Two
Speed Dating Round Three
Speed Dating Round Four
Episode 035 - Speed Dating Books (technically round five)  
Episode 036 - The Reader Sense of Ann VanderMeer with guest Ann VanderMeer
Episode 047 - Sex with Elvis: Bonus Book Speed Dating Episode

Library Books Mid-January 2016: Let the Challenges Begin!

I brought so many library books home in the last month that I had to take two separate photos. The holidays are a great time to finish up reading projects for the year and start in on new ones. Between the usual energy that generates and a knee injury that kept me on the couch most of the first week of the new year, I was very happy to have these books at home.

 

Emma's War by Deborah Scroggins
Dear Thief by Samantha Harvey
The Story of My Teeth by Valeria Luiselli
Fortune Smiles: Stories by Adam Johnson
So You Don't Get Lost in the Neighborhood by Patrick Modiano
The Gravity of Sunlight  by Rosa Shand
Labyrinth of time: Five addresses for the end of the millennium by Krzysztof Penderecki
Thirty Girls by Susan Minot
The Soul of a New Cuisine: A Discovery of the Foods and Flavors of Africa by Marcus Samuelsson
The African Kitchen: A Day in the Life of a Safari Chef (Cookbooks) by Josie Stow
Beyond the River Yei: Life in the Land Where Sleeping Is a Disease by Binyavanga Wainaina
There Is a Country: New Fiction from the New Nation of South Sudan edited by Nyuel Luoth Tong
All Our Names by Dinaw Mengestu
Revolution in Higher Education: How a Small Band of Innovators Will Make College Accessible and Affordable by Richard A. DeMillo

I was able to finish the winners of the Nobel Prize for literature and the National Book Award from 2015 before the end of 2015 - that's the Modiano and the Johnson. I really enjoy Johnson but probably loved his last novel more. Four out of six of the stories were excellent.

I learned of the Luiselli and the Harvey from the longlist/watchlist from the Tournament of Books that happens in March. These were 2/3 of the first books I read in 2016. For both I felt I was reading something I hadn't read before, a little bit of freshness in there, probably a bit more successful for the Luiselli than the Harvey in the way that it is more varied and moves through stages.

I brought home the DeMillo after it spent a few weeks on my desk over the holidays. I was supposed to be reading and discussing a chapter a week over on Bryan Alexander's blog (he is hosting a readalong) but I got behind the first week of December. Since bringing it home I've read... one more chapter. Darn. I think the book is technically "done" as far as discussion goes, and I am late to the party for the second half.

When helping mark books for a collection weeding project in the music library, I ended up checking out the Penderecki to make sure it didn't get weeded. I haven't cracked the cover yet.

One of my major reading goals for 2016 is to finish reading a book from every country in Africa (you can hear more on my goals podcast episode) so many of these books are related to that project. The Scroggins, Tong, and Wainaina are from (the Republic of) South Sudan, a very new country in the scheme of things.  The Shand, Minot, and Mengestu are set in Uganda. The Shand and Mengestu are set in roughly the same time period, the overturn of the government in 1971, while the Minot is set during a traumatic event in 1996. (As I was putting this post together I read a lot of negative reviews about the Minot, making me wish I instead had the non-fiction version of the story which many people feel she "stole.") The cookbooks are for the African project too, although I was not too thrilled by either of these.

Which books are you excited to read, either from the library or that you have purchased?