The yearly book list!! I must say I'm almost ashamed to post this... I only hit 50 this year! That may not sound bad, but it's the lowest since I started counting half-way through 2006. And I'm not even in school! No excuse.
But I did achieve a (more important) reading goal than cramming as many novels as possible into the year... this is my second year of aiming to read fewer books by white people. In 2009 I missed the mark, with about 1/3 written by people of colour, and my goal for 2010 was to make it 1/2 or more... check mark! This year it's 25/50. My ongoing goal is for my future reading to be half (or less than half!) books by white people.
By the way, I'm extra convinced that this goal is worthwhile because it actually takes effort. If you pick up a random book in the library, because you like the cover or the title or whatever, the author usually turns out to be white. That sucks. This goal has broadened the topics I read about in an amazing way! I've read lots of great books I would otherwise have missed out on. Out of the books I encountered by looking for authors of colour, my picks are Reading the Ceiling by Dayo Forster and The Unknown Errors of Our Lives by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. So far I'm also liking Walter Moseley (let's be honest, I have a few chapters of Cinnamon Kiss left to read) and definitely recommend him if detective fiction is your thing.
Anyway, without further ado:
Linden MacIntyre - The Bishop's Man
Ami McKay - The Birth House
Haruki Murakami - Norwegian Wood
David Leavitt - The Indian Clerk
Julia Alvarez - In the Time of the Butterflies
Jodi Picoult - Handle With Care
Larissa Lai - Salt Fish Girl (reread)
Octavia E. Butler - Kindred (audio)
Sabiha Al Khemir - The Blue Manuscript
Alexander Chee - Edinburgh
Rose Tremain - Evangelista's Fan (short stories)
Malcolm Gladwell - Blink
J. M. Coetzee - Disgrace
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni - The Unknown Errors of Our Lives (short stories)
Siew Siang Tay - Handpicked
Jhumpa Lahiri - The Namesake
Elizabeth Kostova - The Swan Thieves
Emma Donoghue - The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits
Julith Jedamus - The Book of Loss
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni - The Mistress of Spices
Jeanette Winterson - Gut Symmetries
Lisa Diamond - Sexual Fluidity (non-fiction)
Qiu Xiaolong - Death of a Red Heroine
Romesh Gunesekera - Reef
Jodi Picoult - Plain Truth
Jodi Picoult - Change of Heart
Dayo Forster - Reading the Ceiling
Louise Erdrich - The Plague of Doves
A. J. Jacobs - The Know-it-all
Sophie Gee - The Scandal of the Season
Maggie Stiefvater - Shiver
Jeffrey Eugenides - Middlesex (reread)
Toni Morrison - The Bluest Eye
Alicia Erian - Towelhead
Emma Donoghue - Slammerkin
Jaspreet Singh - Chef
Manuel Sjyrco - Ilustrado
Emma Donoghue - Kissing the Witch
Jhumpa Lahiri - Unaccustomed Earth
Arvind Adiga - The White Tiger
David Ebershoff - The 19th Wife
Kathleen Tessaro - The Debutante
Joanna Kavenna - The Birth of Love
Kuwana Haulsey - Angel of Harlem
Katherine Howe - The Last Book of Salem
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Half of a Yellow Sun
Paulette Gittins - The Secret World of Annette Robinson
Kazuo Ishiguro - Never Let Me Go
John Grisham - The Pelican Brief
Walter Moseley - Cinnamon Kiss
02 January, 2011
03 December, 2010
So much for a post a day...
A Japanese Macaque, fresh from the bath in Yudanaka, Nagano Prefecture, Japan. 11th October 2010.
08 October, 2010
29 September, 2010
20 September, 2010
16 September, 2010
After dark...
I forget the date but some time in August, next to the African restaurant in Newtown, Sydney.
08 September, 2010
Blinded
A couple of Thursdays ago, in a classroom at WEA Sydney, where I am taking a two-month photography course. Shooting manual at last!
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