100 Novels, Round 6

34 months since my last 100 novel recap. Longer-than-intended, but reflective of my actual reading habits in recent years. You’d think a global pandemic and year+ lockdown would be ideal for getting caught up on backlog, but not so much. I keep getting distracted by staying employed, maintaining healthy relationships, and house-hunting. Just kidding! I’ve just been playing video games for the last three years, and I make no apologies.

You’ll be unsurprised to learn that I’ve gotten even more serious about tracking and stats-crunching for what is now installment #6! The big shifts include a return to plays, a dip in short stories, and my first focused dive into 21^st century literature.

Demographics

Last round’s spotlight was on women authors and I maintained a strict minimum of a 1:1 ratio. So did I backslide when not consciously making that effort? Unfortunately, yes. Only 34 of the 100 novels from round six are written by women, better than most rounds, but still something to work on.

Ten new female favorites / recommendations, in no particular order:

1. James Tiptree Jr – Reclusive mastermind of sci-fi shorts often with feminist twists; assumed to be a man for most of her career.
2. Svetlana Alexievich – Nobel-prize-winning interviewer and oft-devastating chronicler of complex Soviet and post-Soviet issues.
3. Hanya Yanagihara – NYC fashion editor turned controversial best-seller; unafraid to tackle big scope, uncomfortable topics, and gay men.
4. Sally Rooney – A flagbearer for precocious, sincere, awkward, unsentimental Gen-Zers.
5. Namwali Serpell – Vastly ambitious Zambian up-and-comer; jubilantly mixing genres and influences.
6. Kim Soom – A voice for the long-suppressed testimonials of South Korean comfort women.
7. Sarah Pinsker – The best of the weirdly-prescient pre-pandemic prophets + bonus for making me actually resonate with musicians.
8. Duong Thu Huong – Vietnamese dissident with a knack for describing mouth-watering dishes I’ve never heard of, when not vividly depicting famine, poverty, war, avarice, and oppression.
9. Quarratulain Hyder – Under-sung Urdu writer whose broad canvas spans millenniums and bridges the Indian subcontinent’s diverse religions and cultures. 
10. Zoe Heller – An entertaining weaver of psychological drama with a touch of tabloid.

Countries

At least in terms of variety I was able to hit my ideal 1:1 ratio for US/UK vs international works. Here’s the breakdown by country:

USA: 37
UK: 13
Japan: 5
Canada, France, Germany: 4
Ireland: 3
India, South Africa, Spain: 2
Angola*, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belarus*, Brazil, Bulgaria*, Chile, Denmark*, Egypt, Ghana*, Greece, Italy, Kyrgyzstan*, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan*, Paraguay*, Russia, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Vietnam*, Zambia*: 1

Asterisks for the 10 new countries, which bring my lifetime total to 69. At 34, this is the most I’ve covered in a single round. Maybe the lockdown increased my motivation to see the world, if only on the page or in the imagination?

Time Periods

I mentioned a shift towards the 21^st century, accounting for ~1/3 of everything I read this round. The other end of the spectrum also had an uptick, albeit unplanned, with a record eight works dating earlier than 1800.

Conversely, this was my record low for 19^th and 20^th century literature, though the latter still dominates. I can’t help noticing that for both novels and plays, I’m rarely a big fan of super early ‘classics,’ though I still read them for education, context, and checking off lists. I find above-average success with recent works. One must be of one’s own time, etc., I suppose.

Adaptations

12 movie adaptations from this batch, but few notable standouts. The Piano Teacher and The Lost Honor of Katerina Blum (sorry, German literature!) are the only ones I might rank above their source material. The black-and-white Billy Budd and Black Rain movies are both strong in their own right.

Misc Observations

• I read more non-fiction than usual which I don’t list here. I made an exception for Secondhand Time, mostly to check off Belarus. Flagrant cheating.
• Started tracking length using vague categories: short (<250 pages), medium (250-450), and long (450+), partly because I realized this round features a conspicuous number of long reads.
• This might be the most genre fiction I’ve read in a round. As usual, sci-fi is my go-to genre.
• For the first time audiobooks accounted for over a quarter of my “reading.” I enjoy listening to them on commutes, during chores, and on disc golf road trips.

Arbitrary Awards

Overall favorite: Fifth Business
Best SF: Her Smoke Rose Up Forever
Best fantasy: Piranesi
Best crime fiction: Smilla’s Sense of Snow
Best romance: Normal People and Effi Briest
Best horror: Fever Dream
Best graphic novel: Through the Woods by Emily Carroll
Best play: The Flick by Annie Baker
Best short story collection: Her Smoke Rose Up Forever
Best obscurity: The Devil to Pay in the Backlands - Bisexual bandit in Brazil’s Old West reflects on a deal he may have made with a dark force he claims not to believe in.
Best premise: A General Theory of Oblivion – A woman walls herself into her rooftop apartment, while outside the Angolan War for Independence rages on for years.
Most wasted premise: Multiple Choice
Best story: Children of Time
Best character: Bring Up the Bodies
Best prose: Gilead
Best structure: Underworld and The Professor’s House
Best twist: The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag
Most difficult: I, the Supreme and Absalom, Absalom
Longest: Clarissa and The Tale of Genji
Funniest: The Siege of Krishnapur
Angriest: Confessions of Nat Turner
Weirdest: The Famished Road

Sustained tension: Fever Dream and The Reluctant Fundamentalist
Most fun: This Is How You Lose the Time War
Most depressing: One Left and Black Rain
Most energetic: This Is How You Lose the Time War
Most emotional: A Little Life
Most ambiguous: Manon Lescaut
Most decadent: The Line of Beauty
Most disappointing: Hummingbird Salamander
Best title: The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years

Key

** Excellent
* Very Good
[blank] Fair to Good
^ Bad

The List 

1021: The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu (Japan)
1499: La Celestina by Fernando de Rojas (Spain) ^
1688: Oroonoko by Aphra Behn (UK) ^
1731: Manon Lescaut by Antoine Prevost (France)
1748: Clarissa by Samuel Richardson (UK) ^
1761: Julie, or the New Heloise by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Switzerland)
1766: The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith (Ireland) ^
1771: The Expedition of Humphry Clinker by Tobias Smollett (UK)
1808: The Marquise of O and Other Stories by Heinrich von Kleist (Germany) *
1827: The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni (Italy)
1839: Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens (UK) *
1888: Under the Yoke by Ivan Vazov (Bulgaria)
1891: Billy Budd by Herman Melville (USA) *
1894: Effi Briest by Theodor Fontane (Germany) **
1901: Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann (Germany) **
1902: The Wings of the Dove by Henry James (UK) **
1906: Doctor Glas by Hjalmar Soderberg (Sweden) **
1913: Swann's Way by Marcel Proust (France) *
1915: Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham (UK) **
1919: Within a Budding Grove by Marcel Proust (France)
1925: The Professor's House by Willa Cather (USA) *
1926: Lolly Willows by Sylvia Townsend Warner (UK) *
1931: The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck (USA)
1935: Untouchable by Mulk Raj Anand (India)
1936: Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner (USA) **
1937: Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata (Japan) ^
1938: Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre (France) ^
1938: The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thorton Wilder (USA) *
1940: And Quiet Flows the Don by Mikhail Sholokhov (Russia)
1942: The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag by Robert A. Heinlein (USA) *
1946: Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis (Greece) ^
1946: Delta Wedding by Eudora Welty (USA) *
1948: No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai (Japan)
1954: I Am Legend by Richard Matheson (USA) ^
1956: Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz (Egypt)
1956: The Devil to Pay in the Backlands by Joao Guimaraes Rosa (Brazil) **
1959: River of Fire by Qurratulain Hyder (India) *
1961: The Ship Who Sang by Anne McCaffrey (USA) ^
1962: The Time of the Doves by Merce Rodoreda (Spain)
1965: Black Rain by Masuji Ibuse (Japan) *
1965: The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski (USA)
1967: Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron (USA) **
1969: The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born by Ayi Kwei Armah (Ghana) *
1970: Fifth Business by Robertson Davies (Canada) **
1972: The Manticore by Robertson Davies (Canada)
1972: The Word for World Is Forest by Ursula K. Leguin (USA)
1973: The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrell (Ireland) **
1974: I, the Supreme by Augusto Roa Bastos (Paraguay) *
1974: The Lost Honor of Katerina Blum by Heinrich Boll (Germany)
1974: Dog Soldiers by Robert Stone (USA) **
1975: World of Wonders by Robertson Davies (Canada) *
1976: Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy (USA)
1976: Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice (USA) *
1979: A Dry White Season by Andre Brink (South Africa)
1979: Ghost Story by Peter Straub (USA)
1980: The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years by Chinghiz Aitmatov (Kyrgyzstan) *
1981: The Conservationist by Nadine Gordimer (South Africa) **

1981: Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree Jr. (USA) **

1982: Software by Rudy Rucker (USA)
1983: The Piano Teacher by Elfriede Jelinek (Austria)
1988: Paradise of the Blind by Duong Thu Huong (Vietnam) *
1989: A Time to Kill by John Grisham (USA)
1991: Synners by Pat Cadigan (USA) ^
1991: The Famished Road by Ben Okri (Nigeria) *
1992: Smilla's Sense of Snow by Peter Hoeg (Denmark) *
1992: Black Water by Joyce Carol Oates (USA) *
1995: American Tabloid by James Ellroy (USA) *
1997: Underworld by Don DeLillo (USA) **
2001: The True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey (Australia) *
2002: Light by M. John Harrison (UK) *
2003: Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller (UK) **
2003: Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson (Norway) *
2004: The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst (UK) *
2004: Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (USA) **
2005: Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link (USA) *
2006: World War Z by Max Brooks (USA) *
2007: The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid (Pakistan)
2008: Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (Canada)
2008: Anathem by Neal Stephenson (USA)
2010: 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami (Japan)
2012: A General Theory of Oblivion by Jose Eduardo Angulusa (Angola) **
2012: Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel (UK) **
2013: Secondhand Time by Svetlana Alexievich (Belarus) *
2014: All the Light We Cannot Sea by Anthony Doerr (USA) *
2014: Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin (Argentina) *
2014: Multiple Choice by Alejandro Zambra (Chile)
2015: Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky (UK) **
2015: A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara (USA) **
2016: The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle (USA)
2016: One Left by Kim Soom (South Korea) *
2017: Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado (USA) *
2018: The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal (USA)
2018: Normal People by Sally Rooney (Ireland) **
2019: This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal el-Hotar and Max Gladstone (USA) *

2019: A Song for a New Day by Sarah Pinsker (USA) **
2019: The Old Drift by Namwali Serpell (Zambia) **
2019: Wanderers by Chuck Wendig (USA)
2020: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett (USA) *
2020: Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (UK) **
2021: Hummingbird Salamander by Jeff VanderMeer (USA) ^

70 plays this round, a new personal best. I read almost twice as many women playwrights than I’d previously read, filling in some of my blind spots. As with the novels, I focused more on 21^st century than in the past. Only Kleist shows up on both list.

-472: The Persians by Aeschylus (Greece) ^
-414: The Birds by Aristophanes (Greece) ^
-417: Electra by Sophocles (Greece)
-405: The Bacchae by Euripedes (Greece)
-195: Menaechmi by Titus Plautus (Italy) ^
1429: The Well Cradle / Izutsu by Zeami Motokiyo (Japan)
1599: As You Like It by William Shakespeare (UK) ^
1613: The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster (UK) *
1626: Tis Pity She's a Whore by John Ford (UK)
1675: The Country Wife by William Wycherley (UK) *
1677: Phedre by Jean Racine (France) *
1730: Games of Love and Chance by Pierre Marivaux (France) *
1810: The Prince of Homburg by Heinrich von Kliest (Germany)
1882: An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen (Norway) *
1892: The Weavers by Gerhart Hauptmann (Germany) *
1900: Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov (Russia)
1905: Major Barbara by George Bernard Shaw (Ireland) **
1907: The Bonds of Interest by Jacinto Benavente (Spain) **
1921: The Gas Heart by Tristan Tzara (France) ^
1928: Machinal by Sophie Treadwell (USA) *
1929: The Bedbug by Vladimir Mayakovsky (Russia)
1931: Tales from the Vienna Woods by Odon von Horvath (Hungary) ^
1935: Murder in the Cathedral by T.S. Eliot (UK)
1935: Waiting for Lefty by Clifford Odets (USA) ^
1936: You Can't Take It with You by George Kaufman (USA) ^
1939: The Little Foxes by Lillian Hellman (USA) *
1939: The Time of Your Life by William Saroyan (USA)
1943: Life of Galileo by Bertolt Brecht (Germany) *
1951: Eli: A Mystery Play of the Sufferings of Israel by Nelly Sachs (Germany)
1952: The Chairs by Eugene Ionesco (France) ^
1952: The Lark by Jean Anouilh (France) **

1956: All That Fall by Samuel Beckett (Ireland)

1958: A Taste of Honey by Shelagh Delaney (UK) *
1958: The Zoo Story by Edward Albee (USA)
1960: The Sultan's Dilemma by Tawfik al-Hakim (Egypt) *
1965: The Homecoming by Harold Pinter (UK)
1965: Saved by Edward Bond (UK) *
1965: The Memorandum by Vaclav Havel (Czechia) **
1969: What the Butler Saw by Joe Orton (UK) *
1975: The Nature and Purpose of the Universe by Christopher Durang (USA)
1976: For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf by Ntozake Shange (USA) **
1976: Streamers by David Rabe (USA) *
1978: Plenty by David Hare (UK) **
1978: Cloud 9 by Caryl Churchill (UK) *
1982: The Real Thing by Tom Stoppard (UK) **
1983: Night, Mother by Marsha Norman (USA) *
1986: The Other Shore by Xingjian Gao (China) ^
1989: The Heidi Chronicles by Wendy Wasserstein (USA) **
1990: Dancing at Lughnasa by Brian Friel (Ireland) *
1991: Lost in Yonkers by Neil Simon (USA) **
1995: Blasted by Sarah Kane (UK) *
1997: The Weir by Conor McPherson (Ireland) *
1998: Copenhagen by Michael Frayn (UK) **
2000: Proof by David Auburn (USA) *
2001: Topdog/Underdog by Suzan-Lori Parks (USA) *
2003: The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh (Ireland) **
2004: Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl (USA)
2004: Doubt: A Parable by John Patrick Shanley (USA) **
2005: Blackbird by David Harrower (USA) *
2009: Ruined by Lynn Nottage (USA) *
2009: The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Diety by Kristoffer Diaz (USA) *
2009: The Shipment by Young Jean Lee (USA)
2012: Disgraced by Ayad Akhtar (USA) *
2012: Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play by Anne Washburn (USA)
2012: The Effect by Lucy Prebble (USA) **
2013: Chimerica by Lucy Kirkwood (UK) **
2013: The Flick by Annie Baker (USA) **
2017: The Ferryman by Jez Butterworth (UK) *
2017: What the Constitution Means to Me by Heidi Shreck (USA) **
2018: Fairview by Jackie Drury (USA) **

100 Novels, Round 5

Every 100 novels I take a moment to journal what I’ve read, how my reading habits have changed, and crunch some stats. Last round was back in July 2016. I’m back now (Oct 2018) to report on round 5.

Last round I focused on ancient classics and plays. This round I focused on female authors and short stories. A few thoughts on both follow.

Only 29% and 22% of the novels in the previous rounds were written by women. I don’t think of myself as consciously sexist (I’m sure not many people do), but my overall novel reading is very gender skewed. I explicitly try to keep a varied and balanced diet of genre, style, date, country of origin, race, gender, sexual orientation, etc., but I’ve probably put more focus on nationality than anything else. (Admittedly, my “balanced diet” claims break down when it comes to non-fiction, an aversion which I can't defend, but isn't about to change.) Reading older books pre-dating when women had even remotely equal opportunities to write and publish, years of “classics” as defined by pre-culture war gatekeepers, and differences in how books are marketed that continue to this day, are my go-to excuses.

This round I decided to maintain at least gender parity; finishing 55% women. I was curious to see if my overall quality ratings would change, more for what it would say about me than about the authors. Two thirds of the books I rated as “excellent” were by women (above what chance would predict), but also two thirds of the books I rated as “bad.” I suspect at least two things were at play: I was reading a lot of masterpieces that I’d previously overlooked because of personal or cultural gender bias, but also taking gambles on less likely bets trawling for overlooked greats. I have very little insight into which works I am failing to connect with because of a gender barrier in how I approach or appreciate literature so feel free to weigh in.

Books let us briefly walk in the shoes of others, but I believe there is also value in ensuring that everyone experiences the recognition of familiar people, practices, and circumstances in books read during schooling. I’m interested in opinions on how curricula and canons can develop with this in mind. Current discourse treats this as a zero-sum game, but some balance is clearly possible. For me, this round included resonating with new favorites Sigrid Undset, Nella Larsen, Eileen Chang, Isabel Allende, and Elena Ferrante while still enjoying “traditionally masculine” (and sometime publicly asshole-ish) authors like Norman Mailer, Tom Wolfe, and Marlon James.

As for short stories, here, once again, is a whole medium that I've disregarded and maligned (see previous victims: graphic novels and plays), and to whom I now issue a formal apology. Really diving into short stories, understanding their history, seeing how they differ in pacing, effect, and construction, and experiencing some of the form’s highlights, has been highly rewarding. While I scrupulously logged hundreds of individual stories (because, duh, this is me), I’ll save that for another post. For now I'll just mention that I finally read Rock Springs, the Pulitzer prize-winning short story collection set in the titular town where I briefly lived between rounds 2 and 3. It was fine.

My book club attendance is in a slump at the moment with the only semi-regular gig being Chance’s book club. The ratings there have batted a bit below average, including my own selections, but the friends, discussions, variety, and themed-food compensate.

The stats:

US: 37

UK: 24

Canada, New Zealand, Russia: 3

Austria, Chile, China, France, Japan, Nigeria: 2

Algeria, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Belize, Botswana, Germany, Guatemala, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Mexico, Norway, Poland, Senegal, South Korea, Ukraine: 1

This was my first time reading novels from New Zealand, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Belize, Botswana, Guatemala, Jamaica, South Korea, and Ukraine. I’m at 59 countries, on my way to my goal of 100, despite an increasing tendency towards English-language novels.

I’ve seen movie adaptation of only 10 of these books, a record low. Of these, I would only strongly recommend three: Rebecca, Arrival (based on Story of Your Life), and The Handmaiden (based on Fingersmith).

Overall favorite: The Naked and the Dead

Best SF: The Wall & The Stories of Your Life and Other Stories

Best fantasy: The Name of the Wind

Best crime fiction: Rebecca & A Brief History of Seven Killings

Best romance: The Bone People, Kristin Lavransdatter & (with only a tinge of guilt) The Time Traveler's Wife

Best horror: The Willows

Best graphic novel: Beautiful Darkness

Best play: How I Learned to Drive

Best short story collection: Interpreter of Maladies & Burning Chrome

Best obscurity: The Seven Who Were Hanged (a Russian silver age novella revisiting Tolstoy’s themes from The Death of Ivan Ilyich. A wealthy politician, five terrorists, a criminal sociopath, and a violent madman confront death.)

Best premise: S. (Two aficionados of a reclusive author begin a friendship in the margins, literally, of his mysterious adventure tale), Beggars in Spain (Genetics creates a generation that no longer needs sleep), & Death and the Penguin (An obituary writer and his adopted penguin, a refugee of a Soviet state-run zoo, become entangled with the mafia)

Most wasted premise: The Invisible Library

Best story: Possession

Best character: Oblomov

Best prose: The Shipping News

Best structure: The Luminaries & The President

Most difficult: Blood and Guts in High School & 2666

Longest: 2666 & Kristin Lavransdatter

Funniest: The Code of the Woosters

Angriest: A Thousand Acres

Weirdest: The Palm-Wine Drinkard

Most fun: Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk

Most depressing: The Seven Who Were Hanged & Rickshaw Boy

Most energetic: Like Water for Chocolate & Satanic Verses

Most emotional: The Neapolitan Quartet (sidenote: the individual volumes are in a 4-way tie for worst cover art) & Half a Lifelong Romance

Most ambiguous: The Luminaries

Most decadent: Concerning the Eccentricities of Cardinal Pirelli

Most disappointing: Primeval and Other Times

Best title: Some Prefer Nettles

Key:

** Excellent

* Very Good

[blank] Fair to Good

^  Bad  

The List:

1353: The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio (Italy) ^

1778: Evelina by Frances Burney (UK) ^

1794: The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe (UK) ^

1818: Persuasion by Jane Austen (UK) *

1846: The Devil's Pool by George Sand (France) ^

1852: Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe (USA)

1859: Oblomov by Ivan Goncharov (Russia) **

1873: The Enchanted Wanderer by Nikolai Leskov (Russia) ^

1876: Daniel Deronda by George Eliot (UK) *

1890: The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen (UK)

1907: The Willows by Algernon Blackwood (UK) *

1908: The Seven Who Were Hanged by Leonid Andreyev (Russia) **

1920: Cheri by Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (France)

1922: The Garden Party and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield (New Zealand) *

1922: Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset (Norway) **

1926: Concerning the Eccentricities of Cardinal Pirelli by Ronald Firbank (UK) *

1927: Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse (Germany) *

1928: The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall (UK) *

1929: Passing by Nella Larsen (USA) **

1929: Some Prefer Nettles by Junichiro Tanizaki (Japan) *

1931: The Waves by Virginia Woolf (UK)

1932: Radetzky March by Joseph Roth (Austria) *

1933: The President by Miguel Angel Asturias (Guatemala) *

1933: Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. Sayers (UK)

1933: The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein (USA) ^

1936: Nightwood by Djuna Barnes (USA) ^

1937: Ali and Nino by Kurban Said (Azerbaijan) *

1937: Rickshaw Boy by Lao She (China) *

1938: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (UK) *

1938: The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse (UK) *

1939: And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie (UK)

1941: Orphans of the Sky by Robert A. Heinlein (USA) ^

1948: Half a Lifelong Romance by Eileen Chang (China) *

1948: The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer (USA) **

1952: The Palm-Wine Drinkard by Amos Tutuola (Nigeria)

1953: Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke (UK)

1954: Nectar in a Sieve by Kamala Markandala (India) *

1956: A Death in the Family by James Agee (USA) **

1956: Zama by Antonio di Benedetto (Argentina) ^

1957: The Waiting Years by Fumiko Enchi (Japan) *

1957: The Assistant by Bernard Malamud (USA) *

1960: The Country Girls by Edna O'Brien (Ireland) *

1962: The Slave by Isaac Bashevis Singer (USA) *

1963: The Wall by Marlen Haushofer (Austria) **

1964: The Balkan Trilogy by Olivia Manning (UK) ^

1967: Ice by Anna Kavan (UK)

1969: Behold the Man by Michael Moorcock (UK)

1969: Them by Joyce Carol Oates (USA) **

1970: Time and Again by Jack Finney (USA) ^

1972: The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty (USA) **

1973: A Question of Power by Bessie Head (Botswana)

1981: So Long a Letter by Mariama Ba (Senegal)

1982: The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende (Chile) **

1982: Beka Lamb by Zee Edgell (Belize) *

1984: Blood and Guts in High School by Kathy Acker (USA) ^

1984: The Wasp Factory by Iain M. Banks (UK)

1984: Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter (UK) *

1984: The Bone People by Keri Hulme (New Zealand) **

1985: Fantasia: An Algerian Cavalcade by Assia Djebar (Algeria)

1986: Burning Chrome by William Gibson (Canada) *

1986: Replay by Ken Grimwood (USA) *

1987: Rock Springs by Richard Ford (USA)

1987: The Bonfire of the Vanitites by Tom Wolfe (USA) **

1988: Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood (Canada) **

1988: Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie (UK) *

1989: Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel (Mexico) *

1990: Possession by A.S. Byatt (UK) **

1991: Regeneration by Pat Barker (USA) *

1991: Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold (USA)

1991: A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley (USA) **

1993: Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress (USA)

1993: The Shipping News by Annie Proulx (USA) **

1995: The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay (Canada) *

1995: The Door by Magda Szabo (Hungary) *

1996: Death and the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov (Ukraine) *

1996: Primeval and Other Times by Olga Tokarczuk (Poland) ^

1997: Because They Wanted To by Mary Gaitskill (USA) *

1999: Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri (USA) **

2000: Pastoralia by George Saunders (USA)

2002: Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang (USA) **

2002: Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (USA) *

2002: Fingersmith by Sarah Waters (UK) *

2003: The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffengger (USA) *

2004: 2666 by Roberto Bolano (Chile) *

2005: Old Man's War by John Scalzi (USA)

2006: Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigeria) *

2007: The Vegetarian by Han Kang (South Korea) *

2007: The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (USA) *

2009: The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi (UK)

2011: Wool by Hugh Howey (USA)

2011: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (USA) ^

2012: Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain (USA) **

2013: The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton (New Zealand) **

2013: S. by Doug Dorst (USA) *

2014: A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James (Jamaica) *

2015: The Sellout by Paul Beatty (USA)

2015: The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman (UK) ^

2015: The Neapolitan Quartet by Elena Ferrante (USA) **

2015: The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin (USA) ^

2016: The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (USA) *

Plays

1518: The Mandrake by Niccolo Machiavelli (Italy) ^

1623: The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare (UK) *

1773: She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith (Ireland) *

1779: Nathan the Wise by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (Germany) **

1892: The Master Builder by Henrik Ibsen (Norway) *

1902: The Lower Depths by Maxim Gorky (Russia)

1908: The Blue Bird by Maurice Maeterlinck (Belgium) *

1924: Juno and the Paycock by Sean O'Casey (Ireland) ^

1953: Picnic by William Inge (USA) ^

1955: The Trojan War Will Not Take Place by Jean Giraudoux (France) *

1956: Look Back in Anger by John Osborne (UK) ^

1960: A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt (UK) *

1970: Dream on Monkey Mountain by Derek Walcott (Saint Lucia)

1972: Information for Foreigners by Griselda Gambaro (Argentina) ^

1975: American Buffalo by David Mamet (USA) *

1978: Buried Child by Sam Shepard (USA) *

1997: How I Learned to Drive by Paula Vogel (USA) **

2004: Fat Pig by Neil Labute (USA)

Graphic Novels:

1989: Batman: Arkham Asylum by Grant Morrison (UK)

2004: We3 by Grant Morrison (UK)

2005: Cinema Panopticum by Thomas Ott (Switzerland) ^

2006: The Photographer by Emmanuel/Didier Guibert/Lefevre (France)

2006: Pride of Baghdad by Brian K. Vaughan (USA) *

2007: Laika by Nick Abadzis (UK)

2012: Dockwood by Jon McNaught (UK)

2014: Beautiful Darkness by Fabien Vehlmann/Kerascoet (France) **

100 Novels, Round 4

Hey all! Back after 2 years with another round of 100 novels. I wish I was reading more consistently, but this probably represents a pace I can actually maintain.

Over the course of round 3 I took part in my first two book clubs: Kelly Pappageorge’s excellent Women Authors book club and the small Vacek-Josh book club, consisting of only my father, brother, friend Josh and myself. With both Kelly and Josh having moved away, these closed shop, but other doors opened. I joined the St. Louis Science Fiction book club at the Clayton public library, met the wonderful Chance and joined his book club, and started GNIFty, a graphic novel and interactive fiction club, along with friends Sarah S. and Emre.

In addition, I enjoyed reading and discussing 2015’s Hugo nominees for science fiction with friends Ben and Katie W. It was the first year I’ve taken part in voting. Though it was inspired by a low-point in the SF community (a sabotage campaign by embittered right-wing internet trolls), it was fun to get back into my favorite genre. I managed 20 SF works and 6 fantasy; more than in recent memory.

This last round I also delved deeper into plays than ever before. For several months I was reading them exclusively, although I've found foreign plays very hard to track down in libraries. I’ve also made graphic novels a major part of my reading diet. I’ve decided to start listing them separately.

I fulfilled a goal of reading several major ancient classics by the likes of Homer, Virgil and Milton, as well as modern works that rely on an awareness of these and more prose poetry in general. I'd like to get into some ancient Eastern works at some point in the future (but they're all so long!).

The usual statistics:

US: 33

UK: 19

France: 5

Russia: 4

Canada: 3

Argentina, Australia, China, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Italy, Mexico, Sweden: 2

Belgium, Brazil, Croatia, Egypt, Finland, Iceland, India, Ireland, Japan, Kenya, Romania, Senegal, South Africa, Spain, Sudan, Switzerland, Zimbabwe: 1

This was my first time reading novels from Belgium, China, Croatia, Finland, Iceland, Kenya, Romania, Senegal, Sudan, Switzerland and Zimbabwe. At this point I’m half way to my goal of reading a novel from 100 countries. I’m seriously considering a Novel Atlas (similar to the Film Atlas), though it is a very long term project.

I’ve seen movie adaptation of 19 of these books. Of them, I might argue that Casino Royale, Tom Jones, and The Guide are better than their sources. The Ladies of the Bois de Boulogne (adapted from Jacques the Fatalist), several of the many Dangerous Liaisons adaptions and Doctor Zhivago are also quite good. The 15 hour Berlin Alexanderplatz miniseries, however, was a colossal waste of time.

I find that despite a conscious effort to read more women authors, authors of color and authors who identify as LGBT, I’m still not doing a terribly good job. Of the 100 novels in this round, only 29 are by women (which is at least up from 22 last round, despite being in a women author book club). I’ve recently started tracking my progress on two awesome lists: Feminista’s 100 20^th century novels by women and The Publishing Triangle’s 100 best lesbian and gay novels, which are filling in some of my blind spots.

Overall favorite: Voss

Best SF: Permutation City and The Sparrow

Best fantasy: American Gods and A Game of Thrones

Best crime fiction: Shadow without a Name and Kiss of the Spider Woman

Best graphic novel: Are You My Mother? and Ghost World

Best play: The Tragedy of Man (tragedy) and The Lieutenant of Inishmore (comedy)

Best romance: Dangerous Liaisons and The Passion

Best obscurities: Aniara (Swedish existentialist epic poem about a runaway spaceship) and Pointed Roofs (Unfairly neglected modernist work that gave birth to the “stream of consciousness” style)

Best premise: Zoo City (A Johannesburg detective and her sloth work a missing persons case in a future where criminals are bonded to animal familiars)

Most wasted premise: Accelerando

Best story: The Goldfinch and House of Suns

Best prose: Independent People and The Summer Book

Best structure: A Visit from the Goon Squad and I’m Not Stiller

Most Difficult: The Recognitions and The Death of Virgil

Longest: A Dance to the Music of Time (3013 pages)

Funniest: Cold Comfort Farm and The Napoleon of Notting Hill

Angriest: The Elementary Particles and Woman at Point Zero

Weirdest sex: Bear

Most fun: The Martian

Most depressing: The Land of Green Plums

Most energetic: The Sot-Weed Factor

Most emotional: Independent People

Most ambiguous: Pedro Paramo and The Southern Reach Trilogy

Most decadent: Against Nature

Most disappointing: The Castle

Best bookclub discussion of a book I liked: Are You My Mother?

Best bookclub discussion of a book I disliked: Geek Love

Best title: By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept

Key:

** Excellent

* Very Good

[blank] Fair to Good

^  Bad  

The List:

-710: The Iliad by Homer (Greece)

-700: The Odyssey by Homer (Greece) *

-19: The Aeneid by Virgil (Italy) *

1664: Paradise Lost by John Milton (UK) *

1749: Tom Jones by Henry Fielding (UK)

1780: Jacques the Fatalist by Denis Diderot (France) *

1782: Dangerous Liaisons by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos (France) **

1839: The Charterhouse of Parma by Marie-Henri Stendhal (France)

1840: A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov (Russia) **

1854: Walden by Henry David Thoreau (USA)

1883: Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (UK) *

1884: Against Nature by Joris-Karl Huysmans (France) *

1891: Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy (UK) *

1899: Dom Casmurro by Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (Brazil) *

1904: The Napoleon of Notting Hill by G.K. Chesterton (UK) *

1908: The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame (UK) *

1910: The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge by Rainer Maria Rilke (Czech)

1911: Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton (USA)

1914: Kokoro by Natsume Soseki (Japan) *

1915: Pointed Roofs by Dorothy Richardson (UK) *

1926: The Castle by Franz Kafka (Czech) ^

1929: Berlin Alexanderplatz by Alfred Doblin (Germany) **

1930: The Foundation Pit by Andrei Platonov (Russia) ^

1932: Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons (UK)

1932: Light in August by William Faulkner (USA) *

1934: Appointment in Samarra by John O'Hara (USA)

1934: Call It Sleep by Henry Roth (USA) **

1935: Independent People by Halldor Laxness (Iceland) **

1938: On the Edge of Reason by Miroslav Krleza (Croatia) *

1940: The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares (Argentina) *

1945: Pippi Longstockings by Astrid Lindgren (Sweden) ^

1945: By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept by Elizabeth Smart (Canada)

1945: The Death of Virgil by Hermann Broch (Austria) *

1946: Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake (UK)

1951: The Hive by Camilo Jose Cela (Spain) **

1951: Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar (Belgium) **

1952: The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson (USA) *

1953: Casino Royale by Ian Fleming (UK)

1954: I'm Not Stiller by Max Frisch (Switzerland) **

1955: Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo (Mexico) **

1955: The Recognitions by William Gaddis (USA) *

1956: Aniara by Harry Martinson (Sweden) *

1956: Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin (USA) *

1957: Voss by Patrick White (Australia) **

1957: Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak (Russia) *

1958: The Once and Future King by T.H. White (UK) ^

1958: The Guide by R.K. Narayan (India) *

1960: God's Bit of Wood by Ousmane Sembene (Senegal) **

1960: The Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth (USA)

1965: The River Between by Ngugi Wa Thiong'o (Kenya)

1966: Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih (Sudan) *

1966: To Each His Own by Leonardo Sciascia (Italy) *

1969: The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles (UK) **

1970: Moscow to the End of the Line by Venedikt Erofeev (Russia) ^

1970: Are You There God? It's Me Margaret by Judy Blume (USA)

1972: The Summer Book by Tove Jansson (Finland) **

1975: A Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell (UK) *

1975: Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El Saadawi (Egypt) *

1976: Kiss of the Spider Woman by Manuel Puig (Argentina) **

1976: Bear by Marian Engel (Canada) *

1977: Falconer by John Cheever (USA) *

1979: Kindred by Octavia Butler (USA) **

1979: On Wings of Song by Thomas M Disch (USA) ^

1980: The Color Purple by Alice Walker (USA) *

1984: Cassandra by Christa Wolf (Germany) *

1984: The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros (USA) **

1985: Eon by Greg Bear (USA) *

1986: The Sportswriter by Richard Ford (USA) *

1987: Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks (UK) ^

1987: The Passion by Jeanette Winterson (UK) **

1988: Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga (Zimbabwe)

1989: A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving (USA) *

1989: Cyteen by C.J. Cherryh (USA)

1989: Geek Love by Katherine Dunn (USA) ^

1994: Permutation City by Greg Egan (Australia) **

1994: The Land of Green Plums by Herta Muller (Romania) **

1996: A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin (USA) **

1997: The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell (USA) **

1998: The Elementary Particles / Atomized by Michel Houellebecq (France) *

2000: Shadow Without a Name by Ignacio Padilla (Mexico) **

2000: White Teeth by Zadie Smith (UK) **

2001: American Gods by Neil Gaiman (USA) **

2004: River of Gods by Ian McDonald (Ireland)

2005: Accelerando by Charles Stross (UK) ^

2006: Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out by Mo Yan (China)

2008: The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (China)

2008: House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds (UK) **

2010: Zoo City by Lauren Beukes (South Africa) *

2010: A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (USA) **

2011: The Martian by Andy Weir (USA) *

2011: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (USA)

2012: The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters (USA)

2012: The Drowning Girl by Caitlin R. Kiernan (USA) ^

2013: Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie (USA) *

2013: Life After Life by Kate Atkinson (UK) *

2013: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (USA) **

2013: The Fifth Wave by Rick Yancey (USA) *

2014: The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison (USA)

2014: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (Canada) *

2014: Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer (USA) *

Plays

-458: The Oresteia by Aeschylus (Greece)

-442: Antigone by Sophocles (Greece) *

-431: Medea by Euripides (Greece)

-411: Lysistrata by Aristophanes (Greece) ^

400: Shakuntala by Kalidasa (India) *

1510: Everyman by Anonymous (UK) ^

1592: Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe (UK) ^

1602: Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare (UK)

1605: Volpone, or The Foxe by Ben Jonson (UK) *

1619: Fuenteovejuna by Felix Lope de Vega (Spain) ^

1635: Life Is a Dream by Pedro Calderon de la Barca (Spain) **

1637: Le Cid by Pierre Corneille (France) *

1666: The Misanthrope by Jean-Baptiste Moliere (France) **

1677: The Rover by Aphra Behn (UK) *

1700: The Way of the World by William Congreve (UK) ^

1721: The Love Suicides at Amijima by Monzaemon Chikamatsu (Japan)

1746: Servant of Two Masters by Carlo Goldoni (Italy)

1773: The Barber of Seville by Pierre Beaumarchais (France)

1777: The School for Scandal by Robert Brinsley Sheridan (Ireland) *

1778: The Marriage of Figaro by Pierre Beaumarchais (France) *

1799: Wallenstein by Friedrich Schiller (Germany) **

1837: Woyzeck by Georg Buchner (Germany) *

1842: The Government Inspector by Nikolai Gogol (Russia) ^

1859: The Storm by Alexander Ostrovsky (Russia) ^

1861: The Tragedy of Man by Imre Madach (Hungary) **

1884: The Wild Duck by Henrik Ibsen (Norway) **

1891: Spring Awakening by Frank Wedekind (Germany) *

1895: An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde (Ireland) *

1897: Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand (France) **

1897: The Round by Arthur Schnitzler (Austria)

1904: Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie (UK) *

1907: The Playboy of the Western World by John Millington Synge (Ireland) *

1913: Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw (Ireland) **

1921: The Verge by Susan Glaspell (USA) *

1928: The Suicide by Nikolai Erdman (Russia) *

1930: Private Lives by Noel Coward (UK)

1932: Blood Wedding by Federico Garcia Lorca (Spain)

1934: Thunderstorm by Cao Yu (China) *

1934: The Children's Hour by Lillian Hellman (USA) *

1938: The Imposter by Rodolfo Usigli (Mexico) **

1943: The Wedding Dress by Nelson Rodrigues (Brazil) **

1944: The Caucasian Chalk Circle by Bertolt Brecht (Germany) *

1950: The Bald Soprano by Eugene Ionesco (France) *

1957: The Birthday Party by Harold Pinter (UK)

1959: A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry (USA) **

1962: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee (USA) *

1964: Tango by Slawomir Mrozek (Poland) *

1964: Marat/Sade by Peter Weiss (Germany) *

1970: The Burdens by John Ruganda (Uganda) *

1973: The Norman Conquests by Alan Ayckbourn (UK) *

1975: Death and the King's Horseman by Wole Soyinka (Nigeria)

1980: True West by Sam Shepard (USA) **

1982: Top Girls by Caryl Churchill (UK) **

1982: Master Harold… and the Boys by Athol Fugard (South Africa) *

1983: Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet (USA) *

1985: Fences by August Wilson (USA) **

1987: The Piano Lesson by August Wilson (USA) ^

1988: M. Butterfly by David Henry Hwang (USA) **

1990: Death and the Maiden by Ariel Dorfman (Chile) **

1990: Six Degrees of Separation by John Guare (USA) **

1991: Angels in America by Tony Kushner (USA) **

1993: Arcadia by Tom Stoppard (UK) **

1994: Art by Yasmina Reza (France) *

1995: Wit by Margaret Edson (USA) **

2001: The Lieutenant of Inishmore by Martin McDonagh (Ireland) **

2004: The History Boys by Alan Bennett (UK) **

2010: Clybourne Park by Bruce Norris (USA) **

Graphic Novels:

1959: Tintin in Tibet by Herge (Belgium)

1970: Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths by Shigeru Mizuki (Japan)

1986: Batman (compilation) by Frank Miller (USA) *

1992: Flood by Eric Drooker (USA) ^

1995: The Tale of One Bad Rat by Bryan Talbot (UK) *

1996: From Hell by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell (UK) **

1997: Ghost World by Daniel Clowes (USA) **

1998: Ethel and Ernest by Raymond Briggs (UK)

1999: Uzumaki by Junji Ito (Japan) *

2000: David Boring by Daniel Clowes (USA)

2000: Safe Area Gorazde by Joe Sacco (USA) **

2000: Blacksad by Juan Diaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido (Spain) **

2002: One Hundred Demons by Lynda Barry (USA)

2003: What I Did: Hey, Wait... / Sshhhh! / The Iron Wagon by Jason Saeteroy (Norway)

2003: Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (Iran) **

2003: Superman: Red Son by Mark Millar (USA) *

2005: Black Hole by Charles Burns (USA)

2006: The Arrival by Shaun Tan (Australia) *

2008: Heads or Tails by Lilli Carre (USA)

2009: Stitches by David Small (USA) *

2011: Daytripper by Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba (Brazil) **

2012: Are You My Mother by Alison Bechdel (USA) **

2013: Bad Houses by Sara Ryan and Carla Speed McNeil (USA) **

2013: The Property by Rutu Modan (Israel)

2014: Here by Richard McGuire (USA) *

2014: Seconds by Bryan Lee O'Malley (Canada) *

2015: The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage by Sydney Padua (UK) *