#there were other authors I read at least two books for but storygraph starts to limit you and picks one at random

[sofipitch]

Not sure if I'm going to finish my last book before the end of this year and it wouldn't change much anyways so here's my 2022 Storygraph wrap up:

Last year I read 84 books, this year 122 which is a major increase but I graduated (you can see it on the time period graph in May) and one of the jobs I currently have I can listen to audiobooks while at work which is what I do about 95% of the time

[azuisreading]

Upon a Waking Dream by J.S. Bailey

Open these pages and delve into new worlds where… -A Flat Earther gets abducted by aliens. -A college dropout gets by with a little help from her imaginary friend. -A woman obsessed with her favorite actor creates a new universe just to meet him. -A magic pen bridges the gap between generations. -Thirteen isn’t an unlucky number…or is it? Upon a Waking Dream contains twelve science fiction and fantasy tales from the mind of J. S. Bailey, ten of them never before published.

Review

I was lucky, I won a giveaway on StoryGraph and received this book in my inbox and, well, I said to myself that I had to read it before its release date, but you’re reading this review because I wanted to write it.

You should know by now that this is a collection of fantasy and science fiction short stories, and this is what I have to say about each one of them:

The first was unbelievable… The nerve of the people- or maybe is the hypocrisy? It’s just… You still find this kind of person anywhere. And I liked how the mind can expand due to knowledge, but… Agh, I say that it was karma. I can’t say anything more without spoiling.

The second was… infuriating. Yeah. The protagonist had the thing that wanted most and was unhappy! Does it surprise me? No! People never are happy when they have what they want and seeing this happening when they were having a pretty beautiful outcome brought out the worst in me. I don’t remember feeling that annoyed 😂 I find funny how mad I felt with this. If it hadn’t had a happy ending, I wouldn’t find it that funny…

The third was… a fresh breeze. While reading, I had the same conclusion the author shares in her notes at the end and I had the “AHA! I knew it!” moment. Though what happens in the story is a bit very much intense. I think that has the most action of all the stories. But I loved it. What if…?

I still feel bad for the luck of the dudes on the fourth one, I wanted them –or at least one of them– to go on with their lives and do all the things they wanted to, but… I think this was the story that grounded me the most because… no matter how dumbfounded you are with the occurrences, that’s life… And I will not deepen more on this because I will sadden myself and no thank you.

The fifth one was… the poor guy. What would your life be like if you were living like that? For no good reason on top of that. I don’t know, it seems unlikely (to be able to live) for me, but he’s doing a great job. Goddess bless his reflex sometimes.

In the sixth, I saw so much stubbornness and boldness that I almost wasn’t able to believe it! It was ridiculous! Well, at least to me. This story helped me to remember the length the human being goes to when we’re mentally set on things… There’s nothing that can change our minds, uh?

I share the author’s opinion (on her notes) about the seventh one. I don’t understand, it doesn’t make sense. But what is worse is that… well, this story moved things inside me and wasn’t really positive. I was repulsed by how things were there and I will be happy if I’m able to forget it someday.

Did you have an imaginary friend when you were little? I did! His name was Leo, short of I-no-longer-remember-what-was-his-name. But this eighth story is about them and what could happen if they [Redacted] and [Redacted]… Yeah, right, no spoiler 😂

I don’t want to know what could happen if each and every one of us were right about what gives luck and what does not, even- no, especially if we contradict each other. I think something very close to the ninth story. I understand the lady's thought, but I wanted to know!

The tenth story goes around an object I didn’t know I needed until I found it there! And I LOVED its use. It was like… it can bring two people that are very far away, pretty close… And I really liked it.

The eleventh one was bittersweet. If you don’t think TOO much about it, you probably will like it. I liked it… until I get too drawn to the depths of it and I start feeling bad. But it’s a great story, just be a bit cautious, your mental health will appreciate it.

I’m finishing now, I swear. I found the last one sad in a nostalgic way, but it was a beautiful story nonetheless. I can say a lot of things about that one, but then you probably wouldn’t find the beauty of it on your own way, so let’s leave it til here ^^

It was a journey I loved, upon a waking dream.

Phrases that I liked so much that I marked them while reading

«This collection is dedicated to G. S. Jennsen, whose stories helped me dream again.» — Dedication.

«No wonder these folks seemed so peaceful. Ordinary aliens probably would have vaporized me already.» — Letter from Glomsuet.

«Chloe staggered back a step and must have had some gaping look on her face, for when Tom swept into the restaurant lobby, he grinned at her and said, “You don’t have to act so surprised. I don’t have that bad of a reputation, do I?” “I—I’ve heard things,” Chloe said. “People talk.” “People are full of shit. Table for two, please!”» — The Man of Her Dreams.

«He didn’t cower under her scrutiny, for he feared nothing, especially not her.» — Jay.

«“So, you’re leaving?” “That’s right. I wanted to thank you again for your kindness—it means a lot. Please, never change that about yourself.”» — Jay.

«“Here, read this and tell me what you think.” Paulo took the folded black paper from him and read it. “I think they don’t know how to spell, and English isn’t even my first language.”» — How to Make Money Fast.

«“Let me get this straight,” he said. “Someone stole something from you, and you want me to steal it back from them.” “You understand, then.” “Will this involve breaking and entering?” “Yes. Possibly. There’s no guarantee.” “And you want me to do it because you’d rather I got caught than you.” “Getting caught would be most disastrous for us. You wouldn’t understand.”» — How to Make Money Fast.

«If angels exist—and they must, for Larry is here, isn’t he?—then they hail from a higher dimension than we do. For whatever reason, Larry has descended into our mere three-dimensional space to befriend me. Or annoy me, or whatever.» — Larry.

«“If you ask me, all numbers are just numbers.”» — Thirteen.

«“Maybe we should go that way,” Francis said, pointing toward a park bench in the distance. “Why that way?” “Because I’m learning to make independent decisions in uncertain situations.”» — The Last to Pass.

«“Food and Coffee,” read a sign over one storefront. “Haircuts,” read another. “I think I might know why it seems a little weird here,” Frances said as he spotted another storefront sign that read, “Liquor.” “What’s that?” Tanvi asked, squinting upward as she took in the sights. “The people here don’t have any imagination. That’s why the only thing in the park was a bench, and why the stores on this street make me want to fall asleep looking at them.” “That’s an interesting assessment to make about an entire culture, given that we’ve only seen half a kilometer of it. And that music was imaginative.” Francis shrugged. “Maybe. But mostly it sounded sad.” “I never pegged you as someone who pays attention to aesthetics.” “I studied art in college.” Francis felt his face flush. “The department head told me his guinea pig could draw better than me.” “Sorry to hear that.” Tanvi planted her hands on her hips as she continued to survey the area. “I wanted to be a psychologist, but apparently you have to be nice.”» — The Last to Pass.

«“Sometimes I forget there’s other people out there, living their own lives.” He tilted his head toward the sky, blinked, and shook his head.» — The Last to Pass.

«Of all the millions of planets they could have made an emergency landing on, they’d had to pick the most antisocial one in the galaxy, hadn’t they?» — The Last to Pass.

«“So I’ll have to ask you again—where did you get the tiara?” “It was a present from—” “Izzy and Grandma Esther. So you’ve said. Now you need to tell me the truth.” Kenzie stared helplessly up at her mother. What did she want her to say? Kenzie was telling the truth, and saying anything else would be a lie.» — The House with an Inside but No Outside.

«Yet already, Kenzie felt sad as if a burning bright light above her had gone out for good.» — The House with an Inside but No Outside.

«Have you ever wondered what might happen if Jesus showed up at church? Me too.» — Story Notes - Jay.

«People might be surprised to learn that I did, in fact, have a normal childhood. Whether or not this means I was a normal child is another question entirely.» — Story Notes – The House with an Inside but No Outside.

[bookswritinghappiness]

Title: Always and Forever, Lara Jean • Author: Jenny Han Series: To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (#3) • Number of Pages: 325 • Rating: 3.5/5 Published: May 2, 2017 • Read: May 5, 2021 - October 16, 2021

Content Warnings: death of parent, sexual content, alcohol

Goodreads Synopsis: Lara Jean is having the best senior year. And there’s still so much to look forward to: a class trip to New York City, prom with her boyfriend Peter, Beach Week after graduation, and her dad’s wedding to Ms. Rothschild. Then she’ll be off to college with Peter, at a school close enough for her to come home and bake chocolate chip cookies on the weekends. Life couldn’t be more perfect! At least, that’s what Lara Jean thinks . . . until she gets some unexpected news. Now the girl who dreads change must rethink all her plans—but when your heart and your head are saying two different things, which one should you listen to?

My Review: I’m not sure whether it’s because of my reading slump or because I just really love John Ambrose McClaren, but I didn’t like this one quite as much as I liked P.S. I Still Love You. Regardless, I’m glad I read it this past summer in particular - even though I was going into grad school rather than undergrad, I felt like I was right back in my senior year of high school, trying to figure out what the heck my future’s supposed to look like; my version of events didn’t involve a boyfriend or planning a family wedding, but I could still relate to Lara Jean’s fears and indecision, even four years out of high school. It was also quite fitting that I just happened to bring this book with me when I visited Colonial Williamsburg, where Lara Jean considers going to school, with my family this past August - I’m not gonna lie, I was taking note of places that I should visit!

It’s kind of difficult to put my finger on exactly what makes me like this book less than the others. It really did have all of the right ingredients for a great finale, but I think it needed to focus on a couple major conflicts rather than introducing multiple conflicts from every which way. The stuff with Margo, Kitty, and the wedding, and the stuff with not getting into UVA and Lara Jean establishing her own journey were most important to giving Lara Jean the ending she deserves, and everything else just felt like a distraction from that to me.

Despite that, though, there was so much to like! I’ve started reading with audiobooks alongside print books recently, and the narrator for this series did a phenomenal job. I have so much respect for actors and voice actors because I felt so immersed in the story and the dialogue and I felt like I was really in a room with Lara Jean, Kitty, Chris, Margo, and Peter - it added so much to my experience of the book as a whole, and I wish I’d read the first two books with audio as well. I also loved watching Lara Jean find her own sense of independence and discover her own identity separate from Peter, even though he certainly doesn’t make that easy for her and acts like an asshole about it. And, of course, I’m a sucker for a happy ending, especially when it involves sappy reconciliation at a family wedding : )

This was such a soft and sweet read, and although it’s not my favorite of the series, I’m looking forward to watching the movie!

PS: I realized after finishing the book that I saw the actor who narrates the audiobook in an Off-Broadway play in October - small world, huh?

Always and Forever, Lara Jean on Goodreads This Review on Goodreads My Goodreads Always and Forever, Lara Jean on Storygraph This Review on Storygraph My Storygraph

Purchase this book from Bookshop using my affiliate link to support indie bookstores while helping me earn a commission at no extra cost to you!!

[lenskij]

The StoryGraph's Translation Challenge 2021 - a reflection

Today I just finished this 10 prompt reading challenge! I had so much fun doing it, especially since I’ve for years wanted to expand my reading beyond the same old and familiar I’ve been reading until now, but I didn’t come around to actually do it until I came across The StoryGraph's Translation Challenge 2021.

The rules are: pick a book for each prompt that has been translated from a language that isn’t English. For myself, I added another rule - it can’t be translated from any language I speak, either. I also wanted to find an individual book for each prompt - if there was a book that would fit in two prompts, I counted it for only one of them and chose another for the other.

I wanted to share my little translation journey with everyone here, hence this post. The prompts, what book I chose for each, and my thoughts on them are below the cut!

Also: I’m always on the lookout for non-English books! Bonus points if they’re from outside of Europe ^w^ Hit me up with your recommendations!

1. A translated fantasy or sci-fi novel

Stanisław Lem: Солярис (Solaris) Translated from Polish to Russian by Д. Брускин

This book has been living on my sister’s bookshelf for years, and while I was visiting her I read it. It didn’t impress me in any way, it felt like any regular old sci-fi, although a bit creepy (and just a lil dash of sexism).

2. A book written by a Black woman in translation

Marie NDiaye: La Cheffe (La Cheffe) Translated from French to Swedish by Maria Björkman

This is a lovely novel, even if it focused on French food - and the detailed descriptions reminded me that French food is overrated. I loved the character la Cheffe, it was highly enjoyable to read about her relationship to people and her profession, and the narrator had sweet heart eyes that shined through the text.

3. A translated book originally published before 1950

Choderlos de Laclos: Farliga förbindelser (Les Liaisons dangereuses) Translated from French to Swedish by Arvid Enckell.

This prompt was the easiest to fulfill, and I had several choices for it. I've spoken about this book elsewhere on this here blog - it's morbidly fascinating to read about terrible, terrible people.

4. A translated non-fiction book

Romaric Godin: Klasskriget i Frankrike (La guerre sociale en France) Translated from French to Swedish by Johan Wollin

For this prompt, I went to a local bookstore and asked the seller for help. She had to dig around for a while before she found something that wasn't originally written in English - like she pointed out, most academics choose to write in English, even if they're not native speakers.

I picked this one because I've seen snapshots of the yellow wests in the news, but I know barely any of the context. Although the book is short, it's a pretty detailed overview of recent French economic history, with an emphasis on explaining why and how French neo-liberalism ended up looking like it is today (and why French neo-liberalism is different from the neo-liberalism in the rest od Europe). This tickled my inner economics nerd.

5. A translated novel 500 pages or longer

Isabel Allende: Andarnas hus (La Casa de los Espíritus) Translated from Spanish to Swedish by Lena Anér Melin

Another book that has been sitting on my sister's shelf! I absolutely loved it - a family saga, in a time of social change. Look, my favourite part about any book is when the characters feel like humans, even if they're not relatable, I can still understand them.

6. A book translated from Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish or Icelandic

Vigdis Hjorth: Arv och miljö (Arv og miljø) Translated from Norwegian to Swedish by Ninni Holmqvist

In my case, it meant a book translated from either Danish, Norwegian or Icelandic (I do have to pepper in the fact that I'm a polyglot, after all). It's my sister who recommended it to me, and she was right when she said this was good! I loved the three separate timelines, the prose, and the family drama.

7. A translated book by a South American author

María Sonia Cristoff: Håll mig utanför (Inclúyanme afuera) Mariana Enríquez: Det vi förlorade i elden (Las cosas que perdimos en el fuego)Translated from Spanish to Swedish by Hanna Axén

What? Two books?? Yes, when I searched the library catalogue it spit out these two - because they have the same translator - and since they both seemed interesting I checked both of them out.

Unfortunately, these are the two books of this challenge that I liked the least. The first one didn't have a premise that worked with me - the main character chose to listen more than she spoke for a year as an experiment, and as an introvert, to whom this is how I've always lived my life, it was hard for me to understand what the big deal was.

The second was just my personal taste - these short stories had bloody ghosts, and ended abruptly without quite resolving the story - that creepiness just doesn't vibe with me.

8. A translated book by a Chinese author

Eileen Chang: Ett halvt liv av kärlek (Banshengyuan) Translated from Chinese to Swedish by Anna Gustafsson Chen

After quite a slow start I suddenly was drawn into this book. It's such a lovely read on when life doesn't always work out the way you want, and you still do your best to be happy. It felt very real, without being a 'happily ever after', or it's opposite of endless tears - that sweet middle ground spot.

9. A book translated from Arabic

Rajaa Alsanea: Flickorna från Riyadh (Banāt al-Riyāḍ) Translated from Arabic to Swedish by Tetz Rooke

I found this when messing around with the "similar books"-algorithm on Storygraph (I've just finished Unmarriageable, and liked it a so much I wanted to find something similar). When this one popped out I noticed the Arabic author name, and checked it out from the library. I've actually never read any book set in the Middle East, and I loved seeing a glimpse of life there (naturally, this isn't a comprehensive illustration - the main characters were all from well-off families). The most interesting thing was how the characters adjusted their behaviour as they travelled between Europe and Saudi Arabia - the social rules are different depending on where you are (and if you meet a fellow Saudi in London, your day is ruined - because suddenly you have to behave in accordance to Saudi rules).

10. A book translated from a language spoken in India

Vivek Shanbhag: Ghachar ghochar (Ghāchar ghōchar) Translated from Kannada to English by Srinath Perur; translated to Swedish by Peter Samuelsson

At first I was cranky about that this is a translation of a translation - but in the acknowledgements I read that it was the author's request that the book is to be translated from English. I assume it's because the English translator already has made the inevitable tradeoffs between language and form, which the author approved, and so the Swedish translator wouldn't have to make the decisions all over again.

This was a short book, just over a hundred pages. It barely had any plot, but it didn't need any - the description of the family members' relationship to each other was juicy enough.

In conclusion

This challenge was a great opportunity for me to also try genres I never would have tried otherwise - I was limited to what my library had, and especially for the smaller languages, it's a limited choice. I've been talking about this translation challenge to everyone I know because I've had so much fun! And the best part is - it's only ten prompts. That means I wouldn't need to scram to finish it in time, even while also reading the regular same old books I do still want to read. While I'm waiting for the 2022 challenge, I'll be doing another round for these prompts - I've already checked out a short story collection originally written in Tamil, and a nonfiction about Syrian resistance originally written in Arabic :)

[vera-dauriac]

2, 4, 17 and 20 end of year book ask!

2. Did you reread anything? What?

Oh, I reread a bunch of stuff. I always do. Some of my rereads were favorites I picked for book clubs at work, like I, Claudius and The Body, and others were preparation for new books in the series, like this first two War for the Rose Throne books.

4. Did you discover any new authors that you love this year?

I read my first two Colm Toibin novels (The Magician and House of Names), and it turns out he’s every bit as good as people I trust have told me for years. Go figure.

17. Did any books surprise you with how good they were?

Last year for The StoryGraph’s translation challenge, I started Magda Szabó’s The Door and bailed on it. A friend told me I really ought to give her novel Abigail a shot anyway. Coming from a friend I trust, I assumed I would at least like it enough to finish it, but I hadn’t expected it to be one of the very best things I read this year.

20. What was your most anticipated release? Did it meet your expectations?

This question is super complicated. Because my most anticipated book was The Wisdom of Crowds, the final book in Joe Abercrombie’s The Age of Madness series. However, I had a terrible feeling that, in spite of usually loving Abercrombie, I would end up hating this book. In the end, I kind of loved and hated it, so expectations met, more or less?

Thanks so much for asking! Folks should feel free to send me more from this list.

[accidentalspaceexplorer]

It is finally the end of 2020, so it’s time to look at my reading stats for the year!

Overall, I’m happy with how much I read this year, since I exceeded my goal of 100 by a good margin, but I didn’t actually like what I read this year as much. Including my ratings for the books I DNF’d this year, my average rating was 3.82/5, which is much lower than last year’s total (4.13/5). Overall, I think this happened for a couple of reasons: the pandemic meant that I wasn’t checking things out from the library for like three months so I wasn’t getting as many things I was excited about, I was more focused on my goals this year (more on that later), and I read more things outside of my comfort zone. I did read some really awesome stuff though, and I’ll have my favorites for this year up soon, but I also read a lot of stuff I didn’t like as much.

Other stats:

I DNF’d 15 books this year

I re-read 14 books this year

74% of the books I read were by female authors

I read 6 books by nonbinary and genderqueer authors

25% of the books I read were by authors of color

42% of the books I read had LGBTQIA+ representation in them

I read 9 nonfiction books

My top 3 genres were fantasy (49 books), romance (36 books), and science fiction (28 books)

It is now time for the aforementioned check-in with my goals! I have a separate post that I’ve previously used to track my goals here but I’m going to talk about the final results down below (spoiler alert I didn’t do them haha)

I definitely didn’t do very well on the goals I set for myself this year. Part of that is that each individual goal is reasonable but without doubling anything, I wanted myself to read at least 115 books to meet my goals. Given the number of books I read this year, it was doable, but it would have required me to be on top of my goals from the beginning of the year and read like no mood books, which is pretty unreasonable I think. Next year I will be setting up my goals very differently! (A separate post will be going up soon about that.)

On to the actual goals now!

finish the books that have been sitting on my Goodreads currently reading list for years - the only one left is Clariel, which is one I was re-reading as an audiobook with my husband, so since he hasn’t been in the mood for it it didn’t happen. Otherwise I was successful! I’m actually really pleased that I managed to finish the rest of them. (6/7, success)

get my physical TBR bookshelf down to one shelf of books - this one didn’t quite happen. My physical TBR is now primarily on one shelf, with the second shelf being devoted to my library TBR and a few of the physical TBR books I’d really like to get to soon. (fail)

read more romance novels - in 2019 I read 33 romance novels, and this year I read 36! By percentages it’s a failure because I read a lot more books this year, but by flat number it’s a success so I’m taking that one haha. (36/34, success)

read through the first twenty-two books on my Goodreads TBR (up through The Collapsing Empire) - I got so close on this one, but didn’t end up finishing The Collapsing Empire before the end of the year sigh. (21/22, fail)

review every book I read - I didn’t quite make it to this one, although I am planning to catch up soon. There are probably 7 books that I read for the first time this year that I haven’t writtten any kind of review for. Weirdly, almost all of them are books that I loved. (120/127, fail)

read Harrow the Ninth - success! I loved it too. (1/1, success)

read Network Effect - success! I also loved this one. (1/1, success)

read more fantasy and sci-fi romance novels - last year, I read 4 fantasy and sci-fi romance novels, and this year I read 8, so I win! (8/4, success)

read more books by non-binary authors - I read 5 books by nonbinary authors this year and one by a genderqueer author, which is much better than I have been doing. (6/3, success)

read at least 5 books in translation - I only read 3: Daughter of Fortune, Persepolis 2, and Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead. (3/5, fail)

read 2 books in Spanish - I DNF’d Cien años de soledad, does that count? (.5/2, fail)

read The Laird of Duncairn - I just didn’t do this (0/1, fail)

read Zeus Grants Terrible Wishes - I also didn’t do this (0/1, fail)

find a book club I like - I started one with my friends, which was a great way to get around my problem of not liking the selections in the book clubs I was looking at. (1/1, success)

read 4 more Discworld books, up through Maskerade - I am currently listening to Maskerade, but we’re not done with it yet. (3.5/4, fail)

read 8 nonfiction books - I read 9, although I did DNF one. I did really enjoy some of the ones I read, although there were some definite misses as well. I read The Curve of Time, Because Internet, The Lost Kingdom of the Monkey God, Organizing Success, Wait Till Next Year, Storm in a Teacup, Knitting in the Old Way, Strangers in Their Own Land, and Persepolis 2. (8.5/8, success)

read 3 volumes of poetry - I only read 2 - Felicity and the princess will save herself in this one, neither of which I liked. (2/3, fail)

read Full Fathom Five - this book was really excellent! (1/1, success)

read another book by Guy Gavriel Kay - nope (0/1, fail)

catch-up on at least 3 series - I caught up on 5 and finished 4, although I did start 3 of those in 2020. I also started 15 series, so like...not ideal. However I technically did it haha (9/3, success)

Overall, that’s 10/20, which is not great. One of the things that I really noticed by the end of the year when I was really trying to catch up on the goals was that I had really made reading into a chore. I would catch myself thinking, “No I can’t read Take a Hint, Dani Brown, I have to read Daughter of Fortune next, because it’s on the list.” and that kind of thinking really saps the fun out of reading for me. So next year, I’m not setting concrete goals like read 3 ___ books or read more ____ books, although I am going to encourage myself to read certain categories of books. More on that in the goals post!