#Reading Challenges REFERENCE 2021

1. A little too early to pop open the bubbly?
2. I don’t think so.
3. After a year we all want to forget
4. …I am excited and eager to start afresh.
5. Books will get me to a sunnier Summer 2021 where we all
6. can enjoy all the things
7. …we used to take for granted!

 

January – December 2021:

1. 19th C Classic: Iola Leroy   REVIEW – F. E.W. Harper (1892)  – READ
   
2. 20th C Classic: The Ways of White Folks: Stories  – Langston Hughes (1934) – READ
   
3. Classic by woman: Their Eyes Were Watching God: A Novel – Z. N. Hurston (1937) READ
4. Classic new Author: Palace Walk: The Cairo Trilogy –  Naguib Mahfouz (1956) – READ
5. Children’s Classic: The House of Dies Drear – Virginia Hamilton (1968)- READ
   

Leftover….

1. Humorous Classic: Not Without Laughter by Langston Hughes (1930)
2. Travel Classic: The Lonely Londoners – Sam Selvon (1956)
3. Classic Play: Funnyhouse of a Negro  – Adrienne Kennedy (1964)
4. Classic favourite Author: Notes of a Native Son – J.Baldwin (1955)
5. Classic animal in title: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings – Maya Angelou(1969)
6. Classic in translation: The River Between – Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o (1965)
7. Classic BIPOC Author: The Bluest Eye – Toni Morrison (1970)

 

#AWW2021

1. Tara June Winch   The Yield – REVIEW
2. Miranda Tapsell – Top End Girl – READ
3. Karen Wyld – Where the Fruit Falls – READ
4. Nardi Simpson – Song of the Crocodile (ordered from AUS) READ

Leftover….

1. Ali C. Eckermann – Too Afraid to Cry: Memoir of a Stolen Childhood
2. Kirli Saunders – Kindred (ordered from AUS)

 

February: #BlackHistoryMonth

1. The Dead Are Arising – Les Payne – REVIEW
   
2. How to Make a Slave and Other Essays  – Jerald Walker   REVIEW
3. A Black Women’s  History of the United States – Daina Ramey Berry  REVIEW
   
4. Dying of Whiteness – Jonathan Metzl   REVIEW
5. A Promised Land – Barack Obama  REVIEW
6. The Awkward Black Man – Walter Mosley  REVIEW

Leftover….

1. Another Country – James Baldwin

 

March:  #ReadingIreandMonth21

1. Poem:  “Still”  – Felicia Olusanya (aka FeliSpeaks)  #ReadingIrelandMonth21 READ
2. Anseo – Úna-Mingh Kavanaugh  REVIEW  #ReadingIrelandMonth21
3. Why the Moon Travels – Oein DeBhairduin  REVIEW   #ReadingIrelandMonth21
4. Ulster American – David Ireland  REVIEW  #ReadingIrelandMonth21
5. Irish Short Stories – J. McGahern, W. Trevor, C. Keegan   REVIEW #ReadingIrelandMonth21

 

April:  #Poetry Month

1. Jay Bernard – Surge READ
   
2. Jericho Brown –  The Tradition   REVIEW
3. Shane McCrae – The Guilded Auction Block  READ
4. Yusef Komunyakaa – Neon Vernacular  halfway READ…

 

Leftover….

1. Danez Smith – Homie
2. Danez Smith – Don’t Call Us Dead
3. Fiona Benson – Vertigo and Ghost
4. Borderland Apocrypha – Anthony Cody –
5. The Essential Gwendolyn Brooks – G. Brooks

 

May: 

1. Viet Thanh Nguyen – The Committed –  READ
2. Daphne A. Brooks – Liner Notes for the Revolution  600 pp…too long, sorry.
3. Hisham Matar – The Return  – American born British-Libyan writer  YES   #NonFicNov (biography)
4. Robert Jones jr. – The Prophets – READ
   
5. Zadie Smith – White Teeth  NO
6. Cathy Park Hong    YES  – Minor Feelings (essays) Korean American poet, writer  #ReadDiversely  #NonFicNov (autobio)
   
7. Teju Cole  – Open City NO
   
8. Nafissa Thompson-Spires –Heads of Colored People – (12 short stories)  REVIEW
   
9.  Wallace Terry   YES  – Bloods  #BlackHistoryMonth  (1984) READ
   
10.  Walter Mosley  – The Long Fall (The First Leonid McGill Mystery)    READ

 

June:   #NationalBookAward

1. The Yellow House – Sarah H. Broom  (memoir) – NO
   
2. Wayward Lives – Saidiya Hartman (criticism) – READ
   
3. 2022 – Magical Negro – Morgan Parker (poetry) – YES  #ReadDiversely #PoetryMonth
   
4. 2022 – Know My Name – Chanel Miller (memoir) -YES #ReadDiversely  (American/Chinese) 30 yr
   
5. Everything Inside: Stories – Edwidge Danticat (fiction)…not now
   
6. LOT: Stories – Bryan Washington (finalist)..not now
   
7. 2022 – The Secret Lives of Church Ladies – Deesha Philyaw (finalist) YES #ReadDiversely  (won 2021 PEN/Faulkner)
   

 

July:   

1. Clint Smith – How the World is Passed (June 2021)  READ
   
2. The Awkward Black Man – Walter Mosley (short stories) 
3. Sweat – Lynn Nottage – 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Drama  Kindle #ReadDiversely
   
4. Ruined – Lynn Nottage – 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Drama  #ReadDiversely
5. Topdog/Underdog – Suzan-Lori Parks  #ReadDiversely
6. Disgraced – Ayad Akhtar  American playwright of Pakistani heritage #ReadDiversely
   
7. The Piano Lesson – August Wilson #ReadDiversely
   
8. While Justice Sleeps – Stacey Abrams (May 2021) (CF) NO
   
9. Sombody’s Daughter – Ashley C. Ford (June 2021) (memoir) #NonFicNov  #ReadDiversely
   
10. There There – Tommy Orange (debut novel)   REVIEW
    

 

August:  

1. Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion – Jia Tolentino (essays)
2. Trust Exercise – Susan Choi (fiction)
3. The Sixth Man – Andre Iguodala (memoir)
4. Girl, Woman, Other –  Bernardine Evaristo  – REVIEW
   
5. Solitary – Albert Woodfox
6. Lost Children Archive – Valeria Luiselli (fiction)
7. Afropean: Notes from Black Europe – Johny Pitts –  Leipzig Book Award 2021
8. Unworthy Republic – Claudio Saunt (Native American history)
9. Memoiral – Bryan Washington (fiction)

 

September:  Dutch Literature   …No, not now

1. Indo – Marion Bloem  (NL-Indonesian)
2. Mijn ontelbare identiteiten – Sinan Çankaya (NL-Turkish)
3. Wij slaven van Suriname – Anton de Kom (NL-Suriname)
4. Reizigers van een nieuwe tijd – Abdelkader Benali (NL- Moroccan)
5. Wie Was Ik – Alfred Schaffer (NL-Aruban) P.C. Hooft-prijs 2021 (poet)
   
6. Wees Onzichtbaar – Murat Isik (NL-Turkish)  Libris Prize 2018
7. De Tolk van Java – Alfred Birney (NL-Indonesian) Libris Prize 2017
8. Revolusi – David van Reybrouck (Belgian historian) – READ
   

 

October:  #TheEdithReadalong21   Not sure…

1. Grand Days
   
2. Dark Place
   
3. Cold Light
   

 

November: #AusReadingMonth2021…#Aus 2022?…not sure

1. Stan Grant – Talking to my country  READ
2. Archie Roach – Tell Me Why: The Story of My Life and My Music  READ/DNF
3. Stan Yarramunua – A Man Called Yarra
4. Tony Birch – White Girl
5. Omar Sakr –The Lost Arabs – READ
6. Omar Musa – Millefiori 
7. M. M. Morsi – The Palace of Angels 
8. Paul Collis – Dancing Home
9. Kim Scott – Taboo
10. Victor Steffensen – Fire Country: How Indigenous Fire Management