2024 Reading Challenge

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Forget 50 if you want, keep track of the books you read here.

This is a book thread where literati wax lyrical on the reading material they consume while attempting to read 50 books in the year (or whatever your goal might be).
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Books are discussed, reviewed and recommended and occasionally condemned. Open to all.

 

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1) Starting the year off with Construção Brasileira: Arquitetura Moderna e Antiga 1652 - 1942, an English & Portuguese language monograph of the MOMA exhibit of the same name presented in 1943.

This one is a survey of major landmarks and moments in Brasilian architectural history, and touches a bit on how American architects' interest in what the Brasilians were doing became a vector for American political interests in Brasil and vice-versa.

 

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1. Celine, by Peter Heller

A wealthy artist and part time private investigator is hired to investigate the disappearance, and presumed death by grizzly bear, of a young woman’s father some years earlier.

 

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2. The Last Of His Kind, by David Roberts

An autobiography of Bradford Washburn, who was among the finest mountaineers of his generation, and a pioneer of aerial photography of wilderness.

 

[Geoffrey Firmin]

Prophet Song by Paul Lynch

Winner of the 2023 Booker Prize. At first I thought it was going to Orwell revisited, but no. Much more attuned to the current wave of autocratic nativist strongman regimes but much darker.
Something is rotting in the state of Eire as the Party is subverting society in the name of freedom much more Hitlerian as opposed to Orwells dystopia.

Interesting stylisation in terms of writing and characterisation.

 

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3. Think Again: The Power Of Knowing What You Don’t Know, by Adam Grant

 

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4. Outdoor Kids In An Inside World, by Steven Rinella

 

[SixOhNine]

I started the Alex Verus series at the end of last year and just finished it last night, so a total of 12 books over the past three months or so. I enjoyed them a lot, and my taste doesn't usually run toward the urban fantasy subgenre, but these hit for me.

Thanks to @venividivicibj for the recommendation.

 

[venividivicibj]

I started the Alex Verus series at the end of last year and just finished it last night, so a total of 12 books over the past three months or so. I enjoyed them a lot, and my taste doesn't usually run toward the urban fantasy subgenre, but these hit for me.

Thanks to @venividivicibj for the recommendation.

Have you read Harry Dresden? It’s what turned me on to Alex Verus.

 

[SixOhNine]

Have you read Harry Dresden? It’s what turned me on to Alex Verus.

Tried a few times, but I always stall out partway into the first chapter of the first book. I know a lot of people really like them, but for whatever reason, I'm not hooked.

 

[venividivicibj]

Tried a few times, but I always stall out partway into the first chapter of the first book. I know a lot of people really like them, but for whatever reason, I'm not hooked.

Fair enough. I do like how he incorporates multiple religions/mythologies (Norse/Christian/'traditional myths') - but you do have to like the semi-ridiculous plots

 

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5. Where The Falcon Flies, by Adam Shoalts

 

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6. 2034: A Novel Of The Next World War, by Elliot Ackerman and Admiral James Stabridis

US versus China, with a side of Iran vs Russia. This is a reasonably well written story, mercifully short on technical details.

 

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7. Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer

 

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8. All The Wild That Remains: Edward Abbey, Wallace Stegner, and The American West, by David Geissner