The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky

This book was an enjoyable take on adolescence. I think the author was trying to create a kinder, gentler Holden Caufield, sort of updating The Catcher in the Rye (which is referenced in the book) for a late 20th century audience. Initially the letter format sort of annoyed me, but I soon got used to it and ended up enjoying it, as opposed to reading a more conventionally structured book; I think it works well for conveying a first-person narrative of adolescence when one is an "outsider" in some way. Although I'm not in the YA target audience, I can see how this book would be valuable to young people, and I'm sure I would have loved it had I been able to read it when I was younger.

The Bat - Jo Nesbø

This is the first Harry Hole novel, and I am happy to say I enjoyed it. The mystery kept me reading, and the Australian setting was unexpected but worked well. I liked Inspector Hole as a character, although I wouldn't mind reading about him on his home turf.

One thing that bothered me a little was that many of the characters talked in riddles from time to time. To be fair, this is called out in the text itself, so it's not a flaw, it's a deliberate choice, and in the context of the story it works. I am a fan of clear communication, however, so I didn't like it, and it would have driven me nuts if I were Inspector Hole.

I have the next book in this series ready to go so I will be reading that one this month also. I think I will enjoy this series - definitely a winner if you're a fan of mysteries, police procedurals, and/or Scandinavian crime books!

Quiet As They Come - Angie Chau

Found this book in the library and couldn't resist, seeing as how I need a book with a title starting with the letter Q for the Alphabet Soup challenge this year. And I was not disappointed! Although it's short stories, not my favorite book format, the stories follow the same characters, so this is actually refreshing - we get to hear things from different perspectives and the end result is more like a novel. Recommended.

LGBTQIA Books Reading Challenge

Hooray, I found another Quiltbag challenge for 2016! This one is hosted by Alexia at Pretty Deadly Reviews, and you can read all the details and sign up here.

I'm going to go for the lowest level, Red, which is 5 books, because with all the series reading I have to do this year I am not sure if I will be reading books with a main character that will count for this challenge, so I'm going to play it safe. I know I have one book that will definitely count, and I'm sure there will be at least four more - or four more that I can discover.

I'll keep track of the books I read for this challenge in this post as I read.

1. The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky (one of the main characters is a gay teenager; story deals in part with his struggle to have a relationship with another closeted gay teen)
2. Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen - Jazz Jennings (author is transgender; book is autobiography about growing up as a transgender girl, becoming an activist, etc.)
3. Rethinking Normal: A Memoir in Transition - Katie Rain Hill (author is transgender; book is autobiography about growing up as a transgender girl, becoming an activist, etc.)
4. Some Assembly Required: The Not-So-Secret Life of a Transgender Teen - Arin Andrews (author is transgender; book is autobiography about growing up as a transgender boy, becoming an activist, etc.)
5. Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American Family - Amy Ellis Nutt (nonfiction book about trans woman)
6. Luna - Julie Anne Peters (LGBT author; book is about a trans woman)
7. Always - Nicola Griffith (LGBT author; main character is a lesbian)

Orange Is the New Black - Piper Kerman

Another mixed-feelings book. Something in the author's tone reminded me too much of this book and also this book; the author's insane level of privilege was just layered on too thick for me. She tells us over and over and over again about her many many visitors, and how much her family loves her and supports her no matter what, and that perfect strangers (friends of friends of her wonderful friends) sent her heartwarming letters and boxes bulging with books, and how NO ONE thinks she (an expensively educated blonde white girl) looks like she belongs in prison, etc. Prison sounds awful, no doubt about it, and it's clear that drug-related sentencing desperately needs reform in the US. However, in my opinion this message gets lost because all we really hear about is how successful the author is at prison life. Everyone wants to be her best bud! No one ever rips her off or gets one over on her! She even loses so much weight (because she spends a lot of time running on the prison's track, doing yoga, etc.) that her tons of visitors rave about how nice and skinny she is! 

The last straw for me was when she went on about how angry she was at the woman who got her into the prison predicament. That would be fine, if this woman had hoodwinked her or something - but she willingly participated in drug smuggling and money laundering. So what is there to be angry about? You knew what you were doing was illegal, and didn't care until it caught up with you.

You know what - I confess that this type of thing makes me irrationally angry because I was raised in the kind of "family" where the smallest mistake resulted in all h3ll breaking loose. For example, I frequently received an hours-long screaming fit followed by days or weeks of the "silent treatment" because I did something "horrendous" like loaning a school friend less than $1 for a snack. I would NEVER have received ANY support from these people had I been busted for shoplifting a 50 cent item, let alone being indicted by the Feds for drug-related charges. So yes, I bring a lifetime of bitterness to books where people have what I never will. 

Sorry, readers, I apologize for this outburst. 

The Girl on the Train - Paula Hawkins

Got this book in a Yuletide gift exchange, and I had wanted to read it so that was fab. In the end, I enjoyed it; it was a fast read and a mind trip, and was skillfully done. Will it stick in my mind? No; but there's a place for quick and enjoyable and a place for lingering mind-changing classics, and I can enjoy all of the above. I will happily pass it on to some other bookish friends who also want to read it.  If you liked Gone Girl you should like this too.

The House on Mango Street - Sandra Cisneros

I've been wanting to read this collection of vignettes for a while, and finally made it happen. The very short stories are impressionistic; they give the reader data points that form a larger picture when the reader considers them later. It's a deceptively fast and easy read that creates a vibrant story.

Not on Fire, but Burning - Greg Hrbek

It's no secret that I'm a big fan of this author's writing - see my review of a previous book here. It was nice to read a longer format story so I could really revel in the writing. This story is a speculative fiction mind trip and it will keep me thinking for a long time. Hrbek neatly captures adolescent voices, including their inner voices, and it's easy as a reader to place oneself in the minds of the characters, even when they are doing things you don't like. This was a great way to start my 2016 reading - highly recommended.

2016 Reading Challenges

This post is just a list of all the challenges I am participating in for 2016, with links to the posts I made for each one to help me keep track of the books I read and etc. Click the links for more info about each challenge; my posts have links to the challenge sign-up posts on the hosts' blogs, etc.

Back to the Classics Challenge - read 12 classic books in specific categories

Mount TBR Challenge - read at least 60 books from the TBR pile

Color-Coded Reading Challenge - read 9 books in color categories

Read It Again, Sam - reread 16+ books

2016 Banned Books Challenge - read 3 - 5 banned or challenged books

Books in Translation - read 10 - 12 books translated from their original language of publication

French Bingo 2016 - get bingo by reading at least 5 books in various categories on the bingo card

Literary Loners Reading Challenge 2016 - read books about loners, introverts, etc.

Alphabet Soup Reading Challenge - read 26 books, each beginning with a letter of the alphabet

TBR Pile Challenge - read 12 books (and possibly 2 bonus books) that have been lingering on the TBR pile for far too long

LGBTQIA Reading Challenge - read 5 books with a LGBTQIA main character

Planet Earth Challenge - my ongoing challenge to read a book set in each country on Earth

If I join more challenges during the year, I'll update this post.

TBR Pile Challenge 2016

So I just found out the sad (for me!) news that Adam at Roofbeam Reader is not going to be hosting this challenge in 2016. I started this blog back in January of 2011 for the express purpose of participating in Adam's challenge. As I have related many times before, I am not a person who has awesome powers of stick-to-it-iveness in general, so in the back of my mind I suspected I'd lose interest in blogging and maybe read the 12 books I had chosen for the challenge during 2011 and that would be about it; I assumed I wouldn't blog any longer than a couple months or so. Although I was correct about completing the challenge, I am still blogging (mostly) regularly 5 years (!) later - in fact, I have written more than 700 posts. I have cleared at least 60 books from my TBR pile thanks to Adam's challenge over the past 5 years. Along the way I have really felt a sense of accomplishment from keeping my commitment to finishing the books I signed up for. I've also found some amazing books that were just waiting on my pile to be read. So I want to thank Adam for starting me down the path to book blogging and reading the books I actually own. I wish him all the best!

Before I discovered the challenge wouldn't happen in 2016, I had thought about which books to include and made a tentative list. It just seems really weird to not have this as a challenge, so I decided to make a list as a personal challenge just for fun. So without further ado, here are the 12 books I will be reading in 2016 as part of my unofficial TBR Pile Challenge, in no particular order.

1. The Cavalier in the Yellow Doublet - Arturo Pérez-Reverte - read May 2016

2. A Case of Two Cities - Qiu Xiaolong - read Apr. 2016

3. The Glass of Time - Michael Cox - read Nov. 2016

4. The Snowman - Jo Nesbø - read Mar. 2016

5. The Fire Engine that Disappeared - Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö - read Dec. 2016

6. Sea of Poppies - Amitav Ghosh - read Nov. 2016

7. The Woman Who Died a Lot - Jasper Fforde - read Dec. 2016

8. The Fifth Floor - Michael Harvey - read Nov. 2016

9. The Celestial Globe - Marie Rutkowski - read Nov. 2016

10. Always - Nicola Griffith - read Nov. 2016

11. The Silent Cry - Kenzaburo Oe - read Apr. 2016

12. The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher - Kate Summerscale - read Apr. 2016

BONUS BOOKS:

Adam's challenge always called for 2 alternates, but I'm going to call these books "bonuses" because I hope to read them anyway.

1. The Children's Hour - A.S. Byatt - read Nov. 2016

2. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee - Dee Brown. It's no mystery why this book has remained unread: I'm terrified that it will make me really angry. But that's a poor excuse to leave a book unread, so I need to get over myself and make it happen.

So there you have it - wow, I have a lot of book series to read in 2016 - should be fun!