StoryGraph Reads The World

Hey fellow reading gays! I’m not sure how well known/ popular this is, but there is a reading challenge to read 10 books from 10 different countries on StoryGraph. (Although I only completed 5…) It put so many new books on my radar, some which devastated me. I mean DEVASTATED. These are the books:

-There’s a few TW for some of the books, including death, incest, and sexual assault-

Brazil: Island Of The Dead, Lya Luft

This one was weird… It follows a family grieving the loss of the son/bother, who sort of committed suicide by riding a horse too fast. The son was a gay boy, but there’s sort of an incest scene involving him, his twin sister, and another boy. It was really well written, and I liked the metaphorical imagery, but I wouldn’t recommend it to everyone.

Haiti: The Art Of Death, Edwidge Danticat

I didn’t actually know this was written by a Haitian woman until she mentioned it in text! I was expecting a how-to book on writing about death, but it turned out to be more of a memoir. Heavy TW for death- I enjoy reading about death, but even this could be too much. She covered the slow death of her mother via cancer, and the sudden mass deaths of the Haitian earthquakes. If this is a topic you’re interested in, I recommend it, as it covers various mass deaths as well as personal deaths and deaths in literature.

India: Cobalt Blue, Sachin Kundalkar with Jerry Pinto translating

This was a book I picked up knowing it was something of a gay classic, but not much besides that. It’s told in two parts- part one is the brother’s perspective as he’s writing directly to “you,” the visitor he became enamoured with. The second part is told in diary format by the sister- who was allowed to be more openly in love with the visitor. “The visitor” remains unnamed, mysterious, even to the point where you can’t tell if he was in love with one or both or neither. It reminded me a lot of Call Me By Your Name, without the graphic sex stuff.

I Will Never See The World Again, black text against bright blue sky

Turkey: I Will Never See The World Again, Ahmet Altan, transcribed by Yasemin Çongar

This book… Everyone and Everything Must Read This Book. It is a series of writings written by Ahmet while in prison. He was swept up in something like a riot, but was then charged with something that was the polar opposite. The judge obviously didn’t care. He was a journalist, and has so many good things to say about writing, confinement, and the general human condition.

South Korea: How To Write An Autobiographical Novel, Alexander Chee

This was literally my favourite book of the year. Alex’s memoir goes through queer activism in SF, the MFA in writing experience, and tarot. If a book could be my soulmate, this would be it. He writes beautifully, without a filter. Like if an elder say down and started talking to you about their life.

~Books I Didn’t Get To ~

Russia or Ukraine- it was originally planned for Russia but was changed to include an option to read from Ukrainian authors.

Owls Of The Eastern Ice, Johnathan C. Slaght

A Novel About A Good Person, Emma Andiievska

You Don’t Know What War Is, Yeva Skalietska

New Zealand

Island Of The Lost, Joan Druett

Tauhou, Kōtuku Titihuia Nuttal

The Moth Keeper, K. O’Neill

Palestine

Boycott! The Academy And Justice For Palestine, Sunaina Maira

Jokes For The Gunmen, Mazen Maarouf, translated by Jonathan Wright

Almond Blossoms & Beyond, Mahmound Darwish, translated by Mohammad Shaheen

Vietnam

The Land I lost, Huynh Quang Nhuong

Zen and The Art Of Saving The Planet, Thích Nhất Hạnh

All The Flowers Kneeling, Paul Tran

Zimbabwe

The Fear, Peter Godwin

Send Her Back And Other Stories, Munashe Kaseke

Bones, Chenjerai Hove

Did you read for Read The World? Have you read any of the books on the list, or would you recommend a different book for one of the countries?

Reflections on 2022 & Plans For 2023

Even though I technically met (and exceeded) my reading goals for the year, I also feel like somewhat of a failure. I deliberately put my goal low, as I am a senior in uni and anticipated that I would be busy. But I didn’t even average out to a book a week.

That being said, I did read some amazing books that I never would’ve if I hadn’t participated in the StoryGraph Reads The World challenge. I didn’t hit all of the countries on the list, but I plan to read from those countries in 2023.

Top Books of 2022

I Will Never See The World Again, Ahmet Altan

This is the true story of a Turkish writer imprisoned on false charges. He writes beautifully and philosophically, covering his thoughts on writing, morality, and life in a cage. This is my absolute favourite book of this year, but only a few thousand people have this added on GoodReads. Even if this doesn’t sound like something you’d normally read, please pick it up and give it a try.

The Atlas Six, Olivie Blake

It’s hard to say what I loved about it without mentioning the flaws. We get to know many characters, and they are all equally complex and compelling. The issue with that, until one or more people do something horrible. More horrible than usual. This isn’t my favourite dark academia- If We Were Villains continues to reign in that spot, followed closely by Bunny- but it is the best dark academia book that I’ve read in a while.

How To Write An Autobiographical Novel, Alexander Chee

TW- mentions of child sexual abuse

This is a collection of essays that spoke to me on my deepest levels. Alex marched in San Francisco against HIV/AIDS, explored tarot in college and went through the MFA experience. This is what actually got me seriously interested in MFAs although I don’t think I will actually be able to go to one just because of the cost and exclusivity. Each essay focuses on a particular time or topic, exploring it in depth before moving on to another. Anyone who is queer and loves writing will love this.

2023- ???

I still don’t know what I’m going to be doing after graduation, so I don’t want to set a firm reading goal. But I do want to explore periods of history that went uncovered in school, starting with the Vietnam war.

January- Vietnam War

The Living and The Dead, Paul Hendrickson

This is labeled as a biography of Robert McNacmara, a name I’ve heard but I really have no idea of who he was beyond being involved in the government in the ’60s. His name is dropped in movies about the Pentagon Papers, which was a document that exposed the extent of the US’ involvement in the Vietnam war.

A Bright And Shining Lie, Neil Sheehan

This looks somewhat similar to The Living And The Dead, only it focuses on a solider who died within the larger context of how the war started.

Kill Anything That Moves, Nick Turse

This is also very similar-looking to the other two. I originally wanted to get a book specifically by a Vietnamese author, but my library is somewhat small and limited. I know my library doesn’t have these books, but here’s some other books that I found that I might look up in the future:

The Sorrow Of War, Bảo Ninh- A fictional account of a solider who collects bodies in the aftermath of battle.

Bloods, Wallace Terry- Covers Black soldiers, who died at significantly higher rates than their white counterparts.

The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien- this is a novel that explores the roles of fear, courage, and imagination in the war.

February & Beyond

I’m still formulating the eras I want to explore. I know I want to look into wars and conflicts that don’t center the US or the western world, but given that I’m doing this because I know very little about it, I don’t know what to look into. Do you have suggestions? What has gone on in eastern or southern countries that has amassed fascinating books? What do people learn about in history in places outside the western world?

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Like most people, I revert to my Garfield “Ugh, I hate Mondays.” But today I thought I’d update you on some books through this tag hosted by The Book Date.

Recent Books – I Strongly Recommend Both!

They Called Us Enemy, George Taeki

I Will Never See The World Again, Ahmed Ahmet

Currently Reading

Olive’s Ocean, Kevin Henkes- There seems to be a tonal shift from the first two chapters, which talks about the death of a young person, to the rest of it, which talks about a vacation. The writing is still beautiful tho!

Welcome To Night Vale, Joseph Fink & Jeffrey Cranor – no, I haven’t heard the podcast, as I’m HOH. But I LOVE the book.

Reading Next

Cultish, Amanda Montell

Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? Caitlin Doughty

I don’t normally read this much nonfic, but they fit the season and I’ve wanted to read them for a while.

Rory Gilmore Reading List-2022

It’s that time of the year, when uni students are back at school, desperately trying to establish a routine, oblivious to the fact that neurodivergency makes it neurochemically impossible. I did this last year, and since then I’ve read X books… Can you spot the difference?

1.) 1984 by George Orwell- DNF
2.) The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
3.) Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll   6/12
4.) The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
5.) An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
6.) Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
7.) Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
8.) Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank  10/12     9.) Archidamian War by Donald Kagan
10.) The Art of Fiction by Henry James
11.) The Art of War by Sun Tzu
12.) As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
13.) Atonement by Ian McEwan
14.) Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy
15.) The Awakening by Kate Chopin
16.) Babe by Dick King-Smith
17.) Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women by Susan Faludi
18.) Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
19.) Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

20.) The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath  12/12 LOVE
21.) Beloved by Toni Morrison
22.) Beowulf: A New Verse Translation by Seamus Heaney
23.) The Bhagava Gita
24.) The Bielski Brothers: The True Story of Three Men Who Defied the Nazis, Built a Village in the Forest, and Saved 1,200 Jews by Peter Duffy
25.) Bitch in Praise of Difficult Women by Elizabeth Wurtzel
26.) A Bolt from the Blue and Other Essays by Mary McCarthy
27.) Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
28.) Brick Lane by Monica Ali
29.) Bridgadoon by Alan Jay Lerner 30.) Candide by Voltaire
31.) The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer
32.) Carrie by Stephen King   6/12
33.) Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
34.) The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger   9/12 Well written, but misogynistic 
35.) Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White  11/12 SAD.
36.) The Children’s Hour by Lillian Hellman
37.) Christine by Stephen King
38.) A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens 
39.) A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

40.) The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse
41.) The Collected Short Stories by Eudora Welty
42.) The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty by Eudora Welty
43.) A Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare
44.) Complete Novels by Dawn Powell
45.) The Complete Poems by Anne Sexton
46.) Complete Stories by Dorothy Parker
47.) A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
48.) The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas Père
49.) Cousin Bette by Honor’e de Balzac

50.) Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
51.) The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber
52.) The Crucible by Arthur Miller
53.) Cujo by Stephen King  8/12
54.) The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
55.) Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende
56.) David and Lisa by Dr Theodore Issac Rubin M.D
57.) David Copperfield by Charles Dickens 
58.) The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
59.) Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol

60.) Demons by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61.) Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
62.) Deenie by Judy Blume
63.) The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson started but had to return to the library
64.) The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band by Tommy Lee

65.) The Divine Comedy by Dante
66.) The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells
67.) Don Quijote by Cervantes
68.) Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhrv
69.) Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson Good, I guess? It wasn’t enthralling or anything but it had it’s moments.

70.) Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales & Poems by Edgar Allan Poe I read this in the back of His Hideous Heart and found out that my favourite story is The Pit & The Pendulum
71.) Eleanor Roosevelt by Blanche Wiesen Cook
72.) The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe
73.) Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters by Mark Dunn
74.) Eloise by Kay Thompson
75.) Emily the Strange, Roger Reger, 12/12 LOVE
76.) Emma, Jane Austen
77.) Empire Falls, Richard Russo
78.) Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective, Donald J. Sobol
79.) Ethan Frome,  Edith Wharton

80.) Ethics, Spinoza
81.) Europe through the Back Door, 2003, Rick Steves
82.) Eva Luna, Isabel Allende
83.) Everything Is Illuminated, Jonathan Safran Foer
84.) Extravagance by Gary Krist
85.) Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury 10/12
86.) Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore
87.) The Fall of the Athenian Empire by Donald Kagan
88.) Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World, Greg Critser
89.) Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson 90.) The Fellowship of the Ring: Book 1 of The Lord of the Ring, J. R. R.
Tolkien, 7/12
91.) Fiddler on the Roof, Joseph Stein
92.) The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Mitch Albom
93.) Finnegan’s Wake, James Joyce
94.) Fletch, Gregory McDonald
95.) Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes
96.) The Fortress of Solitude, Jonathan Lethem
97.) The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand
98.) Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
99.) Franny and Zooey,  J. D. Salinger, 10/12

100.) Freaky Friday, Mary Rodgers 9/12
101.) Galapagos, Kurt Vonnegut
102.) Gender Trouble, Judith Butler
103.) George W. Bushism: The Slate Book of the Accidental Wit and Wisdom of our
43rd President, Jacob Weisberg- Never, Ever reading this one!
104.) Gidget by Fredrick Kohner
105.) Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen
106.) The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels
107.) The Godfather: Book 1 by Mario Puzo
108.) The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
109.) Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Alvin Granowsky 8/12

110.) Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
111.) The Good Soldier by Ford Maddox Ford
112.) The Gospel According to Judy Bloom
113.) The Graduate by Charles Webb
114.) The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
115.) The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald 4/12 Want to reread to see if being nonmandatory helps
116.) Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
117.) The Group by Mary McCarthy

118.) Hamlet by William Shakespeare 8/12– My favourite Shakespeare!  121.) A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers 9/12 
122.) Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
123.) Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders by Vincent Bugliosi and
Curt Gentry
124.) Henry IV, part I by William Shakespeare
125.) Henry IV, part II by William Shakespeare
126.) Henry V by William Shakespeare
127.) High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
128.) The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
129.) Holidays on Ice: Stories by David Sedaris 130.) The Holy Barbarians by Lawrence Lipton
131.) House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III (Lpr)
132.) The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
133.) How to Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer
134.) How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss 12/12
135.) How the Light Gets in by M. J. Hyland
136.) Howl by Allen Gingsburg
137.) The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
138.) The Iliad by Homer read sections of it for a class, and some parts were confusing- why was Achilles in the Underworld but Heracles in Olympus?

139.) I’m with the Band by Pamela des Barres
140.) In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
141.) Inferno by Dante Also read for a class- could be boring in parts but others were super descriptive
142.) Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee
143.) Iron Weed by William J. Kennedy
144.) It Takes a Village by Hillary Clinton
145.) Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
146.) The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
147.) Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
148.) The Jumping Frog by Mark Twain
149.) The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

150.) Just a Couple of Days by Tony Vigorito
151.) The Kitchen Boy: A Novel of the Last Tsar by Robert Alexander
152.) Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain
153.) The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
154.) Lady Chatterleys’ Lover by D. H. Lawrence
155.) The Last Empire: Essays 1992-2000 by Gore Vidal
156.) Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
157.) The Legend of Bagger Vance by Steven Pressfield
158.) Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis
159.) Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
160.) Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them by Al Franken 161.) Life of Pi by Yann Martel 8/12
162.) Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
163.) The Little Locksmith by Katharine Butler Hathaway
164.) The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen
165.) Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
166.) Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton
167.) Lord of the Flies by William Golding 0/12 HATE, BURN ALL  COPIES
168.) The Lottery: And Other Stories by Shirley Jackson
169.) The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

170.) The Love Story by Erich Segal
171.) Macbeth by William Shakespeare
172.) Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
173.) The Manticore by Robertson Davies
174.) Marathon Man by William Goldman
175.) The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
176.) Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter by Simone de Beauvoir
177.) Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman by William Tecumseh Sherman
178.) Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
179.) The Meaning of Consuelo by Judith Ortiz Cofer 180.) Mencken’s Chrestomathy by H. R. Mencken
181.) The Merry Wives of Windsdor by William Shakespeare
182.) The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
183.) Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
184.) The Miracle Worker by William Gibson
185.) Moby Dick by Herman Melville
186.) The Mojo Collection: The Ultimate Music Companion by Jim Irvin
187.) Moliere: A Biography by Hobart Chatfield Taylor
188.) A Monetary History of the United States by Milton Friedman
189.) Monsieur Proust by Celeste Albaret

190.) A Month Of Sundays: Searching For The Spirit And My Sister by Julie Mars
191.) A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
192.) Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
193.) Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall
194.) My Lai 4: A Report on the Massacre and It’s Aftermath by Seymour M. Hersh
195.) My Life as Author and Editor by H. R. Mencken
196.) My Life in Orange: Growing Up with the Guru by Tim Guest
197.) Myra Waldo’s Travel and Motoring Guide to Europe, 1978 by Myra Waldo
198.) My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult
199.) The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer

200.) The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
201.) The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri – DNF, enjoy the writing style but hate babies. Loved In Other Words by same author.
202.) The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin
203.) Nervous System: Or, Losing My Mind in Literature by Jan Lars Jensen
204.) New Poems of Emily Dickinson by Emily Dickinson 12/12 I LOVE THIS WOMAN.
205.) The New Way Things Work by David Macaulay
206.) Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
207.) Night by Elie Wiesel
208.) Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
209.) The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism by William E. Cain, Laurie A. Finke, Barbara E. Johnson, John P. McGowan

210.) Novels 1930-1942: Dance Night/Come Back to Sorrento, Turn, Magic
Wheel/Angels on Toast/A Time to be Born by Dawn Powell
211.) Notes of a Dirty Old Man by Charles Bukowski
212.) Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck 1/12 DESTROY THIS BOOK
213.) Old School by Tobias Wolff
214.) On the Road by Jack Kerouac
215.) One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
216.) One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez DNF F this sexist sex book
217.) The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life by Amy Tan- rereleased as Where The Past Begins
218.) Oracle Night by Paul Auster
219.) Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood 12/12

220.) Othello by Shakespeare
221.) Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
222.) The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan
223.) Out of Africa by Isac Dineson
224.) The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
225.) A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
226.) The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition by Donald Kagan
227.) The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky LOVE
228.) Peyton Place by Grace Metalious
229.) The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde 12/12 DARK LOVE 230.) Pigs at the Trough by Arianna Huffington
231.) Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi 
232.) Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk Legs McNeil and Gillian
McCain
233.) The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby
234.) The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker
235.) The Portable Nietzche by Fredrich Nietzche
236.) The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O’Neill by Ron Suskind

237.) Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen  9/12
238.) Property by Valerie Martin
239.) Pushkin: A Biography by T. J. Binyon 240.) Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
241.) Quattrocento by James Mckean
242.) A Quiet Storm by Rachel Howzell Hall
243.) Rapunzel by Grimm Brothers 7/12
244.) The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe 9/12
245.) The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
246.) Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi DNF- haven’t read enough books referenced
247.) Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
248.) Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin
249.) The Red Tent by Anita Diamant 250.) Rescuing Patty Hearst: Memories From a Decade Gone Mad by Virginia Holman

251.) The Return of the King by J. R. R. Tolkien
252.) R Is for Ricochet by Sue Grafton
253.) Rita Hayworth by Stephen King
254.) Robert’s Rules of Order by Henry Robert
255.) Roman Holiday by Edith Wharton
256.) Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare 1/12 SEEK AND DESTROY
257.) A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
258.) A Room with a View by E. M. Forster
259.) Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin

260.) The Rough Guide to Europe, 2003 Edition
261.) Sacred Time by Ursula Hegi
262.) Sanctuary by William Faulkner
263.) Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford
264.) Say Goodbye to Daisy Miller by Henry James
265.) The Scarecrow of Oz by Frank L. Baum
266.) The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
267.) Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand
268.) The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
269.) The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd 9/12 270.) Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette by Judith Thurman
271.) Selected Letters of Dawn Powell: 1913-1965 by Dawn Powell
272.) Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
273.) A Separate Peace by John Knowles
274.) Several Biographies of Winston Churchill
275.) Sexus by Henry Miller
276.) The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
277.) Shane by Jack Shaefer
278.) The Shining by Stephen King
279.) Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

280.) S Is for Silence by Sue Grafton
281.) Slaughter-house Five by Kurt Vonnegut
282.) Small Island by Andrea Levy
283.) Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway
284.) Snow White and Rose Red by Grimm Brothers 8/12
285.) Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World by Barrington Moore
286.) The Song of Names by Norman Lebrecht
287.) Song of the Simple Truth: The Complete Poems of Julia de Burgos by Julia de Burgos

288.) The Song Reader by Lisa Tucker
289.) Songbook by Nick Hornby 290.) The Sonnets by William Shakespeare
291.) Sonnets from the Portuegese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
292.) Sophie’s Choice by William Styron- DNF during HS, might reattempt
293.) The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
294.) Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov
295.) Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach-Took a long time, but was full of fascinating information
296.) The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
297.) A Streetcar Named Desiree by Tennessee Williams
298.) Stuart Little by E. B. White 7/12 299.) Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
300.) Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust
301.) Swimming with Giants: My Encounters with Whales, Dolphins and Seals by Anne Collett
302.) Sybil by Flora Rheta Schreiber
303.) A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
304.) Tender Is The Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
305.) Term of Endearment by Larry McMurtry
306.) Time and Again by Jack Finney
307.) The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
308.) To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway
309.) To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee 4/12

310.) The Tragedy of Richard III by William Shakespeare
311.) A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
312.) The Trial by Franz Kafka
313.) The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters by Elisabeth Robinson
314.) Truth & Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett
315.) Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
316.) Ulysses by James Joyce
317.) The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath 1950-1962 by Sylvia Plath
318.) Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
319.) Unless by Carol Shields 320.) Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann
321.) The Vanishing Newspaper by Philip Meyers
322.) Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
323.) Velvet Underground’s The Velvet Underground and Nico (Thirty Three and a Third series) by Joe Harvard
324.) The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
325.) Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
326.) Walden by Henry David Thoreau 3/12 BORING
327.) Walt Disney’s Bambi by Felix Salten
328.) War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
329.) We Owe You Nothing – Punk Planet: The Collected Interviews edited by Daniel Sinker

330.) What Colour is Your Parachute? 2005 by Richard Nelson Bolles
331.) What Happened to Baby Jane by Henry Farrell
332.) When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka
333.) Who Moved My Cheese? Spencer Johnson
334.) Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf by Edward Albee
335.) Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire DNF
336.) The Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum 7/12
337.) Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë 
338.) The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
339.) The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

Writers Of The Future ~ Closing Arguments

If it seems like it’s been a bit since my last WOTF post, it’s because I couldn’t figure out how to sum up Scott Card’s pep talk on ending your story- he basically says that we’ve done the hard work already. We’ve set everything up, and now it’s time to defeat the bad guy and tie up the loose ends. Not very helpful, right?

And then there’s just a page with the definition of suspense.

suspense n.

1: the condition of being anxious and uncertain

2: the growing excitement felt as a story, play, etc., builds to a higher point

Webster

Now comes a decent article on suspense- add in the details! Slow down the action scenes, just long enough to give the reader room to feel dread and wonder what will happen.

If you were to take all the suspense out of a story, no matter how many unusual facts and characters you had in it, I don’t think it would be read very far.

If you were to take every blow of action out of a story and still leave its suspense (this is possible, because I’ve done it), you might still have a fine story, probably a better story than before.

L. Ron Hubbard

Most readers don’t just want to watch people fight. They want to care about the characters. and root for them. While you probably established motivations and such earlier, you want to still be able to feel what the characters are feeling and worry over the outcome.

The best way to do that is to slow down the action and add in bits that make you think that maybe- just maybe- our protag isn’t going to win. At least, not without pain, cunning, and timing.

You Are A Factory

L. Ron Hubbard is famous for two things: Writing and cult making. In this essay it’s really apparent- he approaches writing the same way a businessman would approach his product. He tallied up the number of words he wrote for each genre, and divided it by the number of words that ended up being sold.

He then goes through different factors of a business- supply and demand, in which you must be aware of who’s going to buy what, and how much competition you have.

The Plant- some of this, like typewriter ribbons, doesn’t necessarily apply anymore. But it is still important to have a comfortable, professional-ish space to work in. A place you can write for hours in without destroying your mental health. Hubbard wrote in his living room- I write on my bedroom desk or at the library. Stephen King has- or had- a home office. (His house is being converted into a writer’s retreat!)

Raw material- aka research! Go down to the place you whish to write about, and interview the people who work there. This might not be feasible for all types of stories, but try to find a similar place. With the Wild West, you might only have museums, but visiting the museum is better than doing no research at all.

Type of work- whatever you write best, find several different markets for it. That way if one turns you down, you can simply consult your list for the next best place to send it to. I have a masterdoc of everything I’ve submitted in the past year, including rejections. At the bottom of the page I keep a running list of possible places to submit, and their nearest deadlines.

Quality vs Quantity- Here he really shows that he does not have set writing hours. If he can think of nothing to write, he goes out for inspiration. If he feels like writing, he writes through the night and through illness. His idea is that if you do not feel like writing, you won’t be able to write anything of quality.

I personally disagree with this to an extent- if you don’t make yourself write, you will never get used to writing. But you do need to recognize when you need to go out for some inspiration.

Write sincerely and you are certain to write better and better.

L. Ron Hubbard

That wraps up the Writers Of The Future Workshop series! If you want to submit to the contest you can do so at writersofthefuture.com. The next submission deadline is Sept 30th, but it’s open quarterly.

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Writers Of The Future ~ Drafting The Middle

Ahh, the middle. It can either be Catching Fire or it can be completely forgettable.

The most important thing to remember is that Act Two has to stand on it’s own. It has to justify its existence. Every scene should further the plot and point towards the eventual ending, but there has to be new discoveries made.

WOTF describes a try/fail cycle. The protagonist thinks they know enough about the problem to solve it, but ends up making it worse and discovering the bigger picture.

I am going to write about a character that doesn’t fit in at her job. She decides to quit, but her boss hypnotizes her into staying. They thought the fundamental problem was within them, and their solution was to move on. But she discovers that she actually works for a cult, and can’t leave.

The end of act 2 should be some kind of revelation or cliffhanger- at the end of Catching Fire, Peeta tries to kill Katniss after being rescued. Thus we have a newer, personal problem that makes the Capitol all the more eviler. It gives fresh energy into the rebellion that carries it into the fall of the Capitol.

Try writing a try/fail cycle and let me know how it goes!

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Writers Of The Future ~ Day 4 ~ Drafting The Opening

Hey writers of the past, present, and future! I took a few days, but since I scheduled posting ahead of time you might actually be reading this day of.

Opening

Now we get to the actual drafting stage! David Farland takes us through different types of openings (Who is David Farland btw?)

1- Character opening. This is the stereotypical “Oh I woke up, and looked in the mirror” type opening, but it can also be used to establish their motivations, and why we should care about this person. In my last story, I opened with the main character recounting their most traumatic memory, which served as a jumping off point into finding out why this murder happened.

This would make the character interesting- they were somehow involved in this horrible event. But you can also go a softer route and make the character sympathetic- show them in pain, or doing something relatable/ likeable, like petting a cute puppy.

2- Conflict opening. This is pretty self explanatory- What is the Big Bad Problem? It could also be a little problem that somehow mirrors the larger problem, think Marvel movies. It gets the reader engaged, and shows them how our hero typically handles problems, and foreshadows why the “normal” way of solving things might not work in the future. And- if we go along with Marvel- it could show why they need to work as a team. Even when they disagree, they are fundamentally stronger together.

(You can replace “team” with anything- why the hero holds a certain value, why they’re in love with the villain, etc)

3- Setting opening– this one might be the toughest to pull off. Remember- you still need to be able to justify opening here. It’s not enough that spaceships are cool or that forests are pretty. This might work best for an nature protection narrative- the trees stand tall, sheltering a family of owls. The owlets are just starting to move around- they want to see what’s outside of their little enclave! 300 feet away, a human strikes a match to a grill, and tosses it onto a patch of dry woodchips- will the fire be controlled before it reaches the owlets?!

Bottom line- Hook the reader. Make the reader care, show them that there’s a story here.

Which kind of opening do you prefer?

Get a monthly haiku here! You can also donate to my glasses fund https://ko-fi.com/brittainxgoffy

Writers Of The Future ~ Day 3 ~ Dialogue

Hello… It’s the last day of Pride month for me, and I’m spending it reading a speech from someone who is not only homophobic, but is also ableist. Disappointed, but not surprised.

(Context: We’re going through dialogue and Scott Card had referred to a “Tourette’s Syndrome box when we want to use language calculated to offend or make us feel brave.”)

I think I have to take a step back from the workshop after this, as my glasses are in serious need of an update. If you would like to see how this series ends, please let me know.

Back to Scott Card, he taking us through so many examples of code switching- the way we speak to our moms vs the way we speak among sailors. The way we speak to a receptionist vs the way we speak with an intimate friend. We know what is acceptable language to use with each person.

He’s definitely not thinking about how neurodivergent people have to think about our words. Sometimes I become mute under stress, and I have to think and force each syllable out.

A good point that I’ve often heard: Use “said.” Don’t use “murmur” or “whispered” unless you’re trying to draw attention to the Way it’s being said. Unless you’re trying to distract from What is being said.

Another thing: you want the character’s relationships to show through dialogue. He tells the story of his grandma and grandpa, how his grandpa was notorious for telling bad jokes. Every time he’d repeat an old one, Grandma would groan and beg him not to tell that joke again. That is their relationship and history showing; think of Dan and Phil. They do the bants, they talk over each other. They are “best friends” with years and years of history. You can also tell each of their personalities from each other- Dan is depressed and gayforward, whereas Phil is a Northern Lad who refuses to swear. If you are ever struggling with dialogue between two people who are close, I suggest turning on DnP Games.

How do you write dialogue? Share a lil snippet of dialogue from your WIP!

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Writers Of The Future ~ D2 ~ Outlining

Hello! Welcome, or welcome back! This is the third post in my Writers Of The Future Workshop series, but it’s still Wednesday for me. 2.17PM, to be exact.

I went in to the library, but the book I was hoping to get was checked out. Cultish centers around how cults and their leaders use manipulative language to get and keep their followers. I put in a request for it and got Anne Rice’s Violin instead. I’ve never actually read an Anne Rice book before because Interview With The Vampires is always checked out. I should just put in a request for it.

ANYWAYS back to the workshop.

Section 4: Outlines & Plotting

These people use a 7-point story structure:

1- The character- strengths & weaknesses.

2- Context- Where & When & Why

3- Problem- NOT the antagonist. The antagonist is there to bring the problem to the front of your mind- it is also their problem, but from a different angle. Maybe they think this form of government is awesome because they don’t know of any other way. Maybe they’re scared because they will have to find another way to live if this regime is toppled. But the REAL problem is the government, it’s structure, it’s hold on people.

4- Start the middle/ Protag attempts to solve this problem. Perhaps they run for office.

5- Protag fails, and realizes that the problem is much more complex. Maybe they won, but the system won’t let any of their measures pass, or they become corrupted by the system. Maybe they lost, and have to find a way to dismantle the system from the outside.

6- Transformation- Protag has to shed old beliefs and accept new ones. They have come to realize that the system is inherently corrupt, and the only way to change things is viva la revolution.

7- Ending is validated- we see some sort of action that says “yes, this character’s actions changed the world.” A new form of government might be put into place, or maybe it’s something smaller, like the antag coming to the protag’s side.

Have you outlined this way before? Are you normally a plotter or a panster?

Writers Of The Future Workshop ~ Day 2

Wednesday, the day before

Section 3: Research & Homework

This section opens with an essay on Jack London- he’d go to bars and buy a drink for a sailor. Besides being incredibly gay, (at one point it says “Jack London never allowed his interest in men to lag. And because of that, he grew to know men and could write about them and what they did and why.” it also proves that you cannot write about a subject unless you know them, really know them. You must be interested, and continue to be interested.

But now there’s the point- we aren’t interested in our homes. We don’t care about that neighbor, or the postman, or the grocery store clerk. We don’t find our everyday lives interesting, so we look to famous foreign cities we haven’t a hope of visiting. But then we get it wrong, and the locals jeer at us. So what to do?

Travel. Or “circulate” as Hubby puts it. (Yes, I’m calling L. Ron Hubbard “Hubby”) But this, DO NOT DO THIS. DO NOT TRAVEL. But you can still read and talk with people without risking anyone’s health. Get a penpal, or many penpals. Find workshops or other events hosted by people with Experience and Knowledge.

~ One of the things is to talk to someone, preferable smarter than you, about a subject you’re interested in. For this bit, I signed up a class on cults, which won’t start until August, but I talked to someone about starting it so I’m checking it off.~

The three elements for “Story Vitality” are “(1) a clear and recognizable character (2) in a detailed setting (3) who is doing something interesting.” He goes on to tell how he strolled down to the docks to find some Coast Guard officers to talk to, one who scoffed at him, and one who took him seriously. He was able to double the wordcount of the story he was writing with these details, just from a few hours at the docks.

“Writers are the laziest people on earth. And I know I’m the laziest writer.”

L. Ron Hubbard

One thing- get encyclopedias. I used to have a collection of secondhand encyclopedias that I would just flip through. It mentioned things like the Olympians, or electric vehicles. The course just mentions going through the library, finding offhand little bits that interest you, and making up stories to explain why that little bit is. Encyclopedias are really expensive, hence getting them secondhand. It also helped that it was aimed at teens.

I need a lil break, and you might too. I’m going to go to the library and come back in a few hours. We probably won’t finish the series before the deadline, but we’ll see how far along we get. Try doing this task with me: Go to the library, to the nonfiction section, and find a book on a subject you’re interested in but don’t know much about.

If you do the task, please comment! Which book did you get?