Readathon17: Books 36-52 (the end)

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I am not even going to excuse myself this time. Low motivation to write I guess.

But I did finish the readathon! All 52 books and more than 50% was women writers.

But I decided I will not do it again next year. After 3 years of readathon, I felt kind of pressured to finish it and did not enjoy it some much. I have already read 2 books this year and I feel so much more relaxed. I will see how it goes and decide if I will re-join the readathon.

But let’s see what I read last year!

36. The Dinner, by Herman Koch

Readathon category: a book that was made into a movie in 2017

The book starts as if it would all take place during a dinner in a restaurant. You gradually find out what exactly is the relationship of the 2 couples that will have dinner. Kind of slow at first, but then my interest spiked up because of a mystery (what did the two teenage boys did?)

After a while, the structure kind of got lost, some chapters were full of flashbacks without really being tied to the dinner. I liked the fact that I gradually discovered (mild spoiler) that the narrator was not reliable.

I liked what the writer tried to do with this book. He had many good ideas, the narrator, the dinner structure. But I have a feeling he could have done all of these a little better. Maybe if the book was bigger, he would have more space to develop his ideas. I did not like that much the lack of moral dilemma about the homeless people. I was left with the feeling that this book suggests homeless people deserve to be punished. I guess this is because of the narrator, but maybe there could be more opposing views from other people in the book.

In any case, I read it in a day, it has some nice ideas, I would say read it. I don’t know if the movie will be as good as the book, I think you really have to read the narrators thoughts.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 1/2

37. The Cartoon Introduction to Philosophy, by Michael F. Patton and Kevin Cannon

Readathon category: a non-fiction book

The title says it all. An introduction to philosophy through cartoons. Ancient Greek philosophers, British philosophers of 1600-1800, and even more modern like Turing and even Chalmers are being introduced.

It is of course a very small introduction of the main philosophical ideas, but I think it was very well structured (not chronologically, but according to theories). Suitable for beginners.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 1/2

38. Paper Girls, Vol. 1-2 , by Brian K. Vaughan, Cliff Chiang, Matthew Wilson

Readathon category: a book with a means of transportation on the cover

I really liked it! The main characters are 4 teenage girls in the 80s that just go on their paper route, when many weird things happen. Sci-fi, very interesting so far, but I reeeeally hope they know where it is going… It is so promising now! I have no idea what is going on and I am very excited to find out. I don’t want to spoil it by saying more, but many things happen at once, probably not only time traveling but also other things. I am telling you, I am super excited and at the same time super worried it will be destroyed in the future 🙂

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

39. The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas

Readathon category: the debut of a writer

I believe all of you have heard of this book. It was a bestseller for months and was voted the best Young Adult of the year in Goodreads.
Starr is a black girl that lives in a neighborhood with gangs and drug dealers and random shooting but goes to school in a rich (mostly white) people private school. One day she witnesses the (without reason) shooting of her friend by a policeman. We have seen many stories like that happening in USA, black people getting shoot by policemen just because they are black and that automatically means that if they move, they must carry a weapon and they will shoot you, so let’s shoot them first.

The book is a Young Adult, a first-person narrative of a 17-year-old girl. It deals with an important matter and explains the point of view of black people on this (not that there should be any other point of view). The book doesn’t only stay in the shooting. I found very interesting the description of life in the “ghetto” and how black people feel in many situations (e.g. being the only black person in your classroom, some comments that can be hurtful etc.). I haven’t lived in USA and it was very informative to learn these things.

The book can be read very easily and it actually feels as if a 17-year-old wrote it. She still talks about friendships, boyfriends and clothes, always in the perspective of race. Some things were kind of “ideal” in this book, for example her family was very good, her (selected) friends were very mature and reasonable in the end. But it is ok, it is YA, it should be kind of optimistic.

I think everyone should read this book, especially if you have no idea about what it feels to be black in USA.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

40. My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, Vol. 1, by Emil Ferris

Readathon category: a book you chose because of the cover

I had no idea what this book is about, but I bought it because the art looked cool (I am using “cover” in the broader sense here)

So let me explain what it is about. It is not a horror book at all. That is what I thought and I wasn’t very excited to be honest, I thought it would be tacky drawings of monsters that would not be scary at all.
The book looks like the notebook of a girl about the age of 12 (Karen) who draws her everyday life. She lives in Chicago in the 60s with her mother and brother and as the title says, she likes monsters. One of her neighbors ends up dead and Karen starts investigating her death, learning more about herself, her family and the neighbors past life in Nazi Germany.

The book is indeed awesome. Not only the art is awesome and different (sometimes a little hard to understand), the way the story is told is also awesome. Emil Ferris is a true artist and I am not talking about her drawing, but about her writing.

The only thing I don’t like is that I now have to wait for the second part! And it ends in a cliffhanger!

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

41. The Nao of Brown, by Glyn Dillon

Readathon category: a book that deals with mental health

I saw some bad comments about this book on Goodreads so I had low expectations.
I enjoyed it. I liked the art a lot and I connected with the story as well.

The main character is Nao, a Japanese-English young female artist living in London. She works at her friend’s store, she has a roommate, she goes to a buddhist center… pretty everyday stuff… Except that she may get a mental attack and start imagining she how she will kill the people around her. She imagines stabbing pregnant women with pencils, breaking the face of the person she is having a conversation with. This obsession is messing up her everyday life.

I don’t think this is the kind of book everyone will like. I connected with Nao, but if this doesn’t happen, you may find it kind of meh, just the everyday life of a girl with a weird issue. There is also a story within the story, some kind of anime Nao likes. An interesting fairytale kind of thing.
Don’t forget to look inside the jacket!

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

42. All the Birds in the Sky, by Charlie Jane Anders

Readathon category: a book from a genre you haven’t read before

Maybe I am cheating, but this book is a mix of fantasy/science-fiction/post-apocalyptic and more. I wanted to put it in the fantasy category, but I think this is a more appropriate category.

I had super high expectations about this book and I ended up not reading the last 100 pages.

Patricia (a witch) and Laurence (a science-genius) meet in high-school and then meet again as adults. I really like the high-school part! Both kids being bullied, trying to pursue magic and science, they become friends… everything was very nice.

But when they become adults, the book becomes like one of this modern tv-series (like “Girls” with magic and science), which I like, but I felt did not match the rest of the book. Too many people start showing up, roommates, friends, restaurants, dates, modern tablets… I don’t know, I did not enjoy it. And it had this type of science fiction that I don’t enjoy reading, the very modern one, where things are just slightly better than what we have now. I don’t know why, but I don’t like this kind of “science-fiction”. The magic part was good.
Maybe I just wasn’t in the mood. But this book didn’t make me concentrate! It was not as good as I thought it would be.
Anyway, three stars because the first half was very good!

⭐ ⭐ ⭐

43. Big Little Lies, by Liane Moriarty

Readathon category: a book that was adapted into a series

I was in a reading black hole. I couldn’t focus on anything and I had 6 books on my “currently reading”. So I decided to go for something like this book, an easy read.
And hallelujah! I read it in 4 days.

Story take place in Australia, a big plus for me, since I don’t remember ever reading something australian. The main characters are three mothers that take their 5-years olds in the same school. The story takes place in the first months of the school year. And there is a death, but you don’t know who died and how until the very last moment.
The story is about gossip and fighting between the mothers and family secrets in a small community. There are moments of surprise (I think I made a noise towards the end when something was revealed and I was reading it in public…). It deals with some serious matters. I did not agree with some of the opinions in the book, but generally it is ok and I especially liked how domestic violence is presented there.
I watched the series afterwards and it is very good. Probably the best Nicole Kidman ever.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

44. Spinning, by Tillie Walden

Readathon category: a book where the main character identifies as LGTBQ

This is the autobiography of Tillie Walden from the age 12 to 17. Tillie was a figure skating athlete (in a group, not solo). She was training twice a day, with school in between and going to competitions. Plus she knew since she was 5 that she is gay. The book describes her life, how she was competing but didn’t really like the whole skating life (she found the courage to quit at 17), how difficult it is to know you are gay so young but not having anyone to talk about it, how she came out…

The art is ok, usually I have no problem with the art in comic books because I understand that everyone has their own style. It is not super detailed (looks like the cover), but there are some parts that are drawn very good, It has that white-purple/blue color but she introduces once in a while some yellow and sometimes she changes the paneling style, which is interesting.

I liked the story, I can always identify with shy anti-social teenagers and I have a soft spot for athlete-children, I am against pressuring children so much. It is good to compete and of course to work out, but waking up at 4 and training twice a day on top of school and especially for medium level competitions (they were not olympiads, they were going to local competitions)… what is the point? If they like it, sure, do it, but how do you know what you like when this is your life since you were 7 or so?

Anyway, I liked it but I don’t know if many people will find it interesting.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

45. Welcome to Night Vale, by Joseph Fink & Jeffrey Cranor

Readathon category: a book with a purple cover

This book is based on the Welcome to Night Vale podcast, which describes the crazy and weird city of Night Vale.
I had listened to a couple of the podcasts before reading the book, but not many.
For those of you that haven’t listened, Night Vale is a city full of weirdness and the podcast is in the form of the radio news of the city. Examples: Angels live with an old lady, but you are not allowed to acknowledge their existence. There is a new dog park but noone is allowed to visit it. PTA meetings open rifts in space time. And other crazy stories.
There is a lot of creativity in the podcasts and in this book. I don’t remember reading anything else with such creative chit chat.
But that was also making it hard for me to focus on the main story. The “normal story” of this book could be told in less than half the pages. But all of the chapters were full of crazy details about Night Vale, which are funny and made me think many times “how did they come up with that?”, but are also distracting.
I had to download an audio book to help with focusing. After the half of the book, the chit chat becomes less and there is more focus to the main story.

I am happy I read this book and I will try to listen to the podcasts as well.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

46. Career of Evil, by Robert Galbraith (a.k.a. J.K. Rowling)

Readathon category: a book by a beloved author you haven’t read yet

I liked this the most out of the Cormoran Strike novels (although I read the other ones long time ago).
The case is personal for Stike and Robin, Robin is possibly in danger and the suspects are people from Strike’s past. The things these people have done in the past are horrible, two of them were perfect villains for me (the kind of people you would gladly punch – or more…) and the third is more of a personal villain for Strike.
You learn more about Robin’s past, the characters bond.
I don’t like that this is the end of the trilogy and I feel (after this ending) that it could go on.

In general, I couldn’t put it down!

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

47. Grotesque, by Natsuo Kirino

Readathon category: a book by an asian author (not named murakami)

This is the story of two prostitutes that were killed (in Tokyo). The story is mainly told by the sister of one of the prostitutes, with some chapters belonging to the prostitutes’ diaries and the suspects deposition (life story actually). The point of the book is not the crime, but the lives of these four people.

There were some boring parts. I liked the childhood story, the diaries and the life story of the suspect, but not the rest of the book, i.e. what is happening “now”. But in general it was a good book. All of the characters had some serious issues, psychologically speaking. Damaged. The book is a nice specimen of (what I consider) japanese literature.

Not as good as Out though.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 1/2

48. Solanin, by Inio Asano

Readathon category: a book with only one word in the title

This manga’s main character is Meiko, a young graduate working in a boring job and living with her boyfriend who is a band member. She decides to quit her job to find out what she wants to do, her boyfriend and his friends decide to pursue music more seriously. People after college that try to figure out life.

The art is amazing. The story is very realistic and, although we are talking about japanese people (a culture very far away from mine), I could totally relate. I especially liked the second half of the book, I read it in one hour.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

49. The Library Policeman, by Stephen King

Readathon category: a book taking place in a library

Meh… Not one of the best Stephen King books. Still an easy read of course, not boring, just nothing special.

⭐ ⭐

50. I Want to Kick You in the Back, by Risa Wataya

Readathon category: a book taking place somewhere you would like to live (Japaaan)

First I noticed the awesome cover. Then I saw it was a japanese author and she won the famous japanese award for first-appearing authors (you know, the one mentioned in 1Q84 🙂 )
So I bought it!
It is a novella about a teenage girl, a loner, who starts hanging out with another loner boy in high-school, who is totally obsessed with a top-model.
It was a nice book, it had some very good parts where the girl is wondering about her life, why she doesn’t like anyone, thoughts of a person that doesn’t like see how she can fit in society.
I would like for it to have more of a point at the end.
It is a story about teenagers, I liked reading it, but in the end… it felt like something more should have happened.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

51. Blindness, by José Saramago

Readathon category: a book that you started but then abandoned

(I abandoned it because i left for summer vacation and continued in November)

I had unfortunately watched the (very good) movie years ago and I knew what was coming.
An excellent book about what would happen (to the society and everyone individually) if people started going blind. Imagine that you can’t see and also everyone else can’t see. Would you care to be dressed? Would you mind defecating in “public”?
Even though the writing style looked like not my style – the dialogues are embedded in the text and I am a big fan of dialogues- in the end didn’t bother me at all, probably because there were no boring descriptions.

Read it and then watch the movie!

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 1/2

52. The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage: The (Mostly) True Story of the First Computer, by Sydney Padua

Readathon category: a book where the main character is a historic figure

The comic book starts with the actual story of Ada Lovelace (often referred to as the first programmer) and Charles Babbage, the man who tried to make the first computer (far from what a computer is now). It then continues with fantasy and funny adventures these two go into, interacting with other historical figures.
I had decided to give 3 stars because I couldn’t get much into it. Way overusing the footnotes (which is something Ada Lovelace did). It is not a comic book if you have to read so many footnotes! After a while, I started ignoring the footnotes (which provided actual historic info), I just read some of them randomly.

But in the end I decided that there has been a lot of work put into this comic book, clever work, a lot of imagination and research. It is a very interesting and smart way to make a comic book. Yes, the story can be boring for those not interested in biographies or the beginning of computers, but we must admit it is objectively a very good book.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

That was the end of the readathon2017.

Hopefully I will make another post for some other books I read in 2017 that I did not count in the readathon.

Overall female writers ratio: 31/52 (60%)

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