Book List 2021

[bearshorty]

Books I've Read (with date finished)
1.Winterfair Gifts by Lois McMaster Bujold [Vorkosigan Saga], 71pp (Jan 2).
2.The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro, 213pp (Jan 8).
3.My Russian Grandmother and her American Vacuum Cleaner: a family memoir by Meir Shalev [translated from Hebrew], 212pp (Jan 17).
4.Blood of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski [translated from Polish, in Russian], [Witcher Book 1] 459pp (Jan 20).
5.Mythos by Stephen Fry, 383pp (Jan 30).
6. The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli[translated from Italian], 213pp (Jan 31).
7.The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary, 326pp (Feb 4).
8.Love, Kurt: The Vonnegut Love Letters, 1941-1945 by Kurt Vonnegut, ed. by Edith Vonnegut, 215pp (Feb 5)
9.Charlotte's Web by E.B. White, 184pp (Feb 12).
10.Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell, 428pp (Feb 15).
11.Text by Dmitry Glukhovsky [in Russian], 460pp (Feb 24).
12.Awakenings by Oliver Sacks, 470pp (Feb 27).
13.Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold [Vorkosigan Saga], 258pp (Mar 6).
14.Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall, 426pp (Mar 15).
15.The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu [translated from Chinese], 373pp (Mar 23) [Hugo Book]
16.Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro, 243pp (Mar 25).
17.Hamster Princess: Ratpunzel by Ursula Vernon [Book 3], 229pp (Mar 30).
18.Anxious People by Fredrik Bachman [translated from Swedish], 310pp (Apr 3).
19.A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine [Teixcalaan 2], 480pp (Apr 16).
20.Blackout by Connie Willis, 617pp (Apr 18) [Hugo Book]
21.Just As I Am: a memoir by Cicely Tyson with Michelle Burford, 399pp (Apr 28).
22.Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells [Murderbot], 117pp (May 2).
23.Hamster Princess: Giant Trouble by Ursula Vernon [Book 4], 213pp (May 5).
24. All Clear by Connnie Willis, 642pp (May 13) [Hugo Book]
25.Девочка, с которой ничего не случится by Kir Bulychev, 46pp (May 14) [in Russian].[reread]
26.Midnight Library by Matt Haig, 288pp (May 16).
27.The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie, 409pp (May 30).
28.Diplomatic Immunity by Lois McMaster Bujold [Vorkosigan Saga], 316pp (Jun 9).
29.The Choice: Embrace the Possible by Edith Eva Eger, 272pp (Jun 16).
30.Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch [Rivers of London 4], 293pp (Jun 26).
31.Coraline by Neil Gaiman, 194pp (Jun 27) [reread]
32.Kate in Waiting by Becky Albertalli, 387pp (Jun 29).
33.Hildegard of Bingen: The Woman of her Age by Fiona Maddocks, 344pp (Jul 7).
34.The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, 235pp (Jul 12) [reread].
35.Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge, 415pp (Jul 20) [Hugo book].
36.Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A.Milne, 160pp (Jul 28) [reread].
37.The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson, 323pp (Jul 30).
38.Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling) [Cormoran Strike 5], 1000pp (Aug 12).
39.Jhereg by Stephen Brust, 172pp (Aug 22).
40.Beezus and Ramona by Beverly Cleary, 183pp (Aug 26).
41.The Sandman Act I by Neil Gaiman [Audible audiobook, for Sandman books 1 to 3] (Aug 30).
42.Crosstalk by Connie Willis, 499pp (Aug 31).
43.Shirley Jackson: A rather haunted life by Ruth Franklin, 499pp (Sept 5).
44.Captain Vorpatril's Alliance by Lois McMaster Bujold [Vorkosigan Saga], 487pp (Sept 12).
45.The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi, 370pp (Sept 25) [Hugo book]
46.Заповедник Сказок [Fairy Tales Sanctuary] by Kyr Bulychev, 156pp (Sept 26) [in Russian].[reread]
47.The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik, 388pp (Oct 11) [Scholomance 2].
48.Денискины рассказы и о том как всё было на самом деле [Denis' Tales and about how it all really was] by Victor and Denis Dragunskiy, (Oct 12).[in Russian] [partial reread]
49.Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman, 120pp (Oct 25).
50.Metamorphoses by Ovid, [translated from Latin by Rolfe Humphries], 392pp (Oct 26).
51. Notes on Grief by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, 84pp (Oct 27).
52.Hyperion by Dan Simmons, 552pp (Nov 4)[Hugo book].
53.Космоолухи: Рядом Том 1 [Kosmoolukhi Nearby Volume 1] by Olga Gromyko, 455pp (Nov 19). [In Russian]
54.Космоолухи: Рядом Том 2 [Kosmoolukhi Nearby Volume 2] by Olga Gromyko, 461pp (Dec 2). [In Russian]
55. From Memory to Written Record: England 1066-1307 by M.T. Clanchy, 334pp (Dec 10).
56.Will by Will Smith with Mark Manson, 412pp (Dec 14)
57.The Promise by Damon Galgut, 239pp (Dec 19).[Booker]
58.The Sandman Act II by Neil Gaiman [Audible audiobook, for Sandman books 4 to 6] (Dec 21).
59.Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, 291pp (Dec 29) [reread].
60. Beowulf translated by Maria Dahvana Headley, 136pp (Dec 31). [translated from Old English]

Books I mean to read

1. 4 books by Bujold - Winterfair Gifts, Falling Free, Diplomatic Immunity, Captain Vorpatril's Alliance
2. 5 books that won a Hugo for Best Novel
a. The Three-body Problem b. Blackout/All Clear c. Rainbows End d. The Windup Girl e. Hyperion
3. 3 history books - Clanchy, Edward III, plus 1 more
a. Hildegard of Bingen b. From memory to written record
4. Blood of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski [Witcher Book 1]
5. Text by Dmitry Glukhovsky
6. The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie
7. Jhereg by Stephen Brust
8. Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch [Rivers of London 4]
9. The Land Beyond the Sea by Sharon Kay Penman
10. Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells [Murderbot 6]
11. The Last Graduate: A Novel by Naomi Novik [Scholomance 2]
12. A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine [Teixcalaan 2]
13. Metamorphoses by Ovid
14. a book by Oliver Sacks
15. Kosmoolukhi: Nearby by Olga Gromyko
16. Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith
17. My Russian Grandmother and Her American Vaccum Cleaner: Family Memoir by Meir Shalev
18. Anxious People by Fredrik Bachman
19. Love, Kurt: Vonnegut love letters by Kurt Vonnegut

Comments

[justphoenix]

I've read a few Oliver Sacks books. They sound so good in theory, but they fell flat for me.

[bearshorty]

When I was in my early 30th and was teaching one part of Sacks- "Mind's Eye" book in a college writing class, I realized as I was reading for the first time that people can actually see stuff in their head. I thought when people say "picture this" or "visualize it" it was all metaphorical. All I see is black. I just know it without actually seeing it. Turns out I have aphantasia and it is pretty rare. But it blew my mind. Just the variety of human experience. I don't like all his books but I usually get enough interesting insight. His autobiography was pretty good too. His books on music and hallucinations were pretty interesting to me.

[hamsterwoman]

I am, of course, most excited by #7 on this list, but a lot of the rest of it is also relevant to my interests :D

Bujold -- you're actually into some Bujolds I haven't yet read -- I've been 'saving' "Winterfair Gifts" so that there would be some part of the Vorkosiverse I haven't yet read, and I've never read Falling Free either, despite owning at least one copy in the omnibuses somewhere.

It looks like you're sticking to internal chronological order for the main Vorkosigans, which I think is generally a good way to read it but I would personally tweak it a little in the end. I read CryoBurn and Captain Vorpatril's Alliance in publication order (i.e. in that order), and I'm glad that I did. (I'm also of the firm opinion that the Flowers of Vashnoi novella should be read after Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, when and if you get to those.)

Broken Homes is my favorite of the RoL books so far, and contains my favorite single scene. I'm really looking forward to your thoughts on it.

The Raven Tower was an odd book, but the more time passes, the more I realize I liked it more than I thought at the start. Curious to see what you make of it!

I've been meaning to try Meir Shalev for ages after my parents and some Israeli friends raved about him. I've heard the recommendation to read hm in Russian, and have one of the books in Russian sitting on my Kindle somewhere, but haven't read more than a couple of pages in probably at least that number of years...

And huh, another Kosmoolukhi book I've missed. Hope it's fun, and I really ought to catch up. (On Murderbot, too, speaking of rogue AIs :P)

I expect I will be reading the Scholomance sequel and the Teixcalaan sequel at some point, probably even next year, even though the first books frustrated me.