Reading Harder in 2018 (Part 2)

A storm came in last night and cooled things down a bit.  We've got the house opened up trying to drop the temperature on the main level (where there is no A/C) down a few degrees.  It has been sprinkling off-and-on this morning and it's overcast.  Seems like a perfect day for a book blog.

This morning while Tom was out walking the dogs (a fun, wet romp was had by all) I finished my 24th, and final, book for the Book Riot Read Harder 2018 Challenge.  I wrapped up the challenge reading a book from my own collection -- Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky.  My last remaining challenge was to read a book of genre fiction in translation.

So -- here it is -- the second half of my reading challenge.

Read Harder Part 2

This portion of the challenge included read: a book published posthumously; a classic of genre fiction (i.e. mystery, sci-fi/fantasy, romance); a comic written and illustrated by the same person; a book set in or about one of the five BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China or South Africa) countries; a western; a book of colonial or postcolonial literature; the first book of a new-to-you young adult or middle grade series; a comic that isn't published by Marvel, DC or Image; a book of genre fiction in translation; a book with a cover you hate; a mystery by a person of color or LGBTQ+ author; and an essay anthology. 

Structuring this post like my earlier one I'll start first with the books that I read from my own collection.  I already mentioned Suite Francaise, which wasn't exactly what I was expecting but turned out to be so much more.  The book is essentially two books.  The first one -- Storm in June -- follows a number of characters fleeing Paris leading up to the German invasion during WWII.  The second book - Dolce - focuses on residents of a village being occupied by German troops and the tenuous relationships between the occupiers and the occupied.  The incredible part of this book is actually the story of how it got published.

Irene Nemirovsky was born in Kiev in 1903 -- the daughter of a successful Jewish banker.  Her family fled to France during the Russian Revolution, where she grew up and became a bestselling author.  She fled Paris in 1940 with her husband and two young daughters, seeking shelter in a small village, the setting in Dolce.  She wrote Suite Francaise during this period.  She was eventually arrested and sent to Auschwitz, where she died in 1942.  For decades her daughters didn't realize that their mother's notebooks, which they thought were journals and couldn't bring themselves to read, were actually the novel she had been writing.  Sixty-two years after her death the book was published in France.  Two years later, in 2006, it was translated into English.  It is an amazing piece of literature but carries with it so much truth.  I highly recommend it. 

The other book from my shelves was Candice Millard's The River of Doubt, which is an amazing book about Theodore Roosevelt's journey down an unexplored portion of the Amazon River in 1914.  He almost died on the journey and was never the same afterwards.  I learned so much about South America exploration, the Amazon, jungle life, the indomitable Theodore Roosevelt, and this period in the former President's life.  For example I didn't recall that he ran unsuccessfully for a third term -- his first term was actually completing the term of President McKinley, who was assassinated.  Nor that Roosevelt was shot before giving a speech in Wisconsin and went on to speak with the bullet still inside him and with his bloody shirt still on.  What a book!  

Then it was on to my Amazon "Wish List".  Two books met the challenge but I'm saving one for the end of this blog.  I read Alison Bechdel's graphic novel, memoir Fun Home for read a comic written and illustrated by the same person.

I first learned of this book listening to one of Anne Patchett's talks posted online.  As an independent bookseller and voracious reader, she recommends a lot of books during her speaking engagements.  Here is a link to one of my favorites.  I think I've shared this link before.             

Earlier this month I was in the library scanning the graphic novel shelves -- a section of the library I had never visited before this challenge -- looking for a book to meet my final comic/graphic novel challenge.  A comic not published by Marvel, DC or Image.  I came across a book called How to tell if your cat is plotting to kill you. 

Having had cats most my life, it was a title I couldn't resist.  I checked it out and it was a very quick, light read.  It helped balance out some of the heavier reading I was doing. 

I turned to a few classics to check off some of the other challenges.  Reading True Grit for western, Heart of Darkness for colonial literature, and Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None. 

I had never read Agatha Christie before so the challenge seemed like a good excuse to final do it.  I took this book on our trip to Tuscany in July and ended up reading it to Tom on the drive and in our room at night.  We both really enjoyed the book and it definitely kept us guessing on whodunit.  We were both surprised.  

Another classic was L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables.  This is a book I actually own.  It was given to me by my grandmother.  I am a huge fan of the Canadian mini-series films made in the 1980s staring Megan Follows but I have actually never read the book.

Using the challenge of reading the first book in a new-to-you YA series, I finally read this classic.  I didn't technically count it as part of my bookshelf reading because my copy is in long-term storage so I had to get a copy from the library.  The writing is rich in detail and feeling.  It's a book that just makes you feel good.  I'm glad I finally made a point of reading the start of Anne's story.

Here's a little story on read "a mystery by a person of color or LGBTQ+ author."  Doing some research online I came across the recommendation of Rita Mae Brown's Rubyfruit Jungle.  A book that is in fact by a LGBTQ+ author but is NOT a mystery.  It's more of a fictionalized memoir.  I went ahead and finished the book and figured it wouldn't be part of the challenge but when I saw some of the different cover art the book has had over the years -- I realized I really didn't like one of them.  So I went ahead and slid this book into read "a book with a cover I hate."  I don't know that I'd actually use the word hate but it's definitely a cover I don't like.  

So this still left me with the mystery challenge.  After some more searching on the web, I came across the name Ausma Zehanat Khan and her debut novel The Unquiet Dead.  She is a Canadian but I believe her ancestry is Iranian.  She is a human rights lawyer and the way she incorporated the war crimes that occurred in the Balkans in the 90s is really phenomenal.  I loved this book.  It stayed with me for a while and I already have her second book sitting on my shelf to read.

Two more challenges to go.  For read an essay anthology I did some searching through my local library system and one of the anthologies on the shelves was "Best American Travel Writing."  I really enjoy nonfiction and travel writing so this seemed like a perfect fit.

I went to the library to check out whichever edition they had on the shelves.  It turned out to be the 2002 edition, edited by Frances Mayes.  One of my favorite authors.  Even more perfect!  I took this book on our trip to Dublin in June.  The essays highlighted familiar and unfamiliar places.  I 'traveled' to Rome, New York City in the aftermath of 9/11, Mongolia, a county fair in Mississippi, the border lands between Mexico and Texas, the Sahara Desert, Acapulco, central Africa, Uganda, Vietnam, Malaysia, Salt Spring island, Cambodia, Israel, Menorca, Papua New Guinea, Greece and Boliva.  They say traveling changes you and opens up your world view.  I think the same can be said of reading.  

Reading travel writing while traveling.

Bringing things to a close will be Ernest Hemingway's beautiful memoir A Moveable Feast.  A book that has been on my Amazon Wish List for a while.  Each chapter sheds a little light on what the young aspiring author's life was like in 1920s Paris -- before he was famous, when he was very poor, and when he was married to his first wife, Hadley Richardson.  If you read and loved Paula McLain's book The Paris Wife, I highly recommend this book.

Definitely one of my favorites from the challenge

This is the book that Hemingway was writing when he killed himself and his fourth wife Mary Hemingway ensured it got published.  The last part of the book is a powerful summary of Hemingway's reflections on his rise to fame, the intrusion of fame seekers, and the end of his marriage.

In it Hemingway writes of Hadley -- "I wished I had died before I ever loved anyone but her."  And I really liked his closing reflection on Paris: "There is never any end to Paris and the memory of each person who has lived in it differs from that of any other. ... Paris was always worth it and you received in return for whatever you brought to it.  But this is how Paris was in the early days when we were very poor and very happy."      

There you have it.  My final twelve.  The challenge was definitely a success.  I certainly read outside of my normal reading box -- expanding my preferences and finding some books and authors I loved.  I'll be looking forward to the 2019 challenge.  But for the next few months I look forward to reading whatever sounds good at the moment.  Keep reading!

Mission Accomplished!