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Posts from the ‘Challenges 2021’ Category

21
Dec

#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