2018 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

I am going to join this challenge again next year.  It runs from January 1, 2018 through December 31, 2018.  Since I read much more historical fiction this year than expected I am going to go out on a limb and sign up for the Ancient History category.  Ancient History requires that 25 books be read.  Let's see if I can make it.

Wrap-Up of the 10th Annual Manga/Graphic Novel Reading Challenge

I signed up for this challenge at the Modern Age level agreeing to read 12 books for the challenge.  By the end of the year I ended up reading 31 books for the challenge!  My reviews are shown below:

Beardo:  The Art Degree Guarantee
Exit Wounds
The Undertaking of Lily Chen
Rolling Blackouts:  Dispatches From Turkey, Syria and Iraq
The Arab of the Future
Hostage
Insomnia Cafe

Wizzywig
2 Sisters
The Big Kahn
California Dreaming:  Cass Elliott Before the Mamas and the Papas
The Best We Could Do
Patience
Sam Zabel and the Big Pen
Soldier's Heart
A Game for Swallows
How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less
Weapons of Mass Diplomacy
The Arab of the Future 2
I Remember Beirut
Dare to Disappoint:  Growing up in Turkey
The Customer is Always Wrong
Lennon: The New York Years
Soviet Daughter
Threads From the Refugee Crisis
Killing and Dying
Safe Area Gorazde
Nanjing:  The Burning City
Red Rosa
The Attack
Girl in Dior

My favorite book:  Rolling Blackouts:  Dispatches From Turkey, Syria and Iraq.  I loved this new book from Sarah Glidden and her new graphic novel sub-genre, reportage comics.  I also need to give a shout-out to Zeina Abirached for her I Remember Beirut and A Game for Swallows.  Both of these books affected me deeply and I probably remember them the most along with Rolling Blackouts.  Dan Dougherty's Beardo series is one of my favorites too. 

My least favorite book:  Nanjing:  The Burning City.  There was no story written in the book and it was hard to follow the drawings.  

Wrap-Up of My Kind of Mystery 2017 Reading Challenge

I read 18 books for this challenge which had no required number of books for participants to read. I think that not having a reading goal was freeing for me and resulted in me reading more mysteries than if I was actively searching for mysteries.  The links to the reviews of the books that I read are below:

The Champagne Conspiracy
Coffin Road
The Seventh Plague
The Killing Ship
A Change of Heart
The Black Widow
The Lost Order
Runaway
The Obsidian Chamber
The Last Painting of Sara de Vos
Mercy
The Perplexing Theft of the Jewel in the Crown
The Prisoner
Use of Force
By Any Means

My favorite book:  Coffin Road.  You can't beat a Peter May mystery.

My least favorite book:  The Perplexing Theft of the Jewel in the Crown.  Boring!

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2017 Wrap-Up

I signed up for this challenge at the Renaissance Reader level wherein I agreed to read 10 books.  However, I actually read 19 books for the challenge!  Links to the reviews are as follows:

The Deadliest Sin
The Shogun's Daughter
Jade Dragon Mountain
The Tapestry
The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane
Midnight in St. Petersburg
The Scribe of Siena
The Tea Planter's Wife
The River of Kings
Valley of the Kings
The Butcher Bird
Plague Land
Pachinko
The Last Jew
The Vatican Princess
Dragon Springs Road
The Confessions of a Young Nero
The Empress of Bright Moon
The Moon in the Palace

My favorite book:  The Scribe of Siena.  This was a hard choice because I loved many of the books in this challenge.  However, this book was not only my favorite book of the challenge but my favorite book of the year.

My least favorite book:  The Valley of Kings.

2017 Reading Statistics

For most of my life I was an avid reader and for 8 years I wrote a blog called The Mystery Bookshelf on Blogger.  I know that during my blogging years I was reading between 120-130 books per year. For some reason, I just stopped reading for 4 years.  I do not know why.  I just got started reading again in 2017 and have read 81 books this year.  I am surprised that I read this many books.  In the beginning of the year I expected that I might be able to read 30-40 books if I tried hard.  I really did not know what to expect because I cannot figure out why I stopped reading.

However, I am still going to sign up for a few reading challenges next year.  I am going to skip the Craving the Cozies Reading Challenge as well as the What's in a Name Reading Challenge.  The Creativity Reading Challenge was cancelled soon after I joined earlier this year so that challenge is off also.  I am not sure about rejoining the New Author Reading Challenge.  I have found that as I search for books for other challenges I am finding new authors so there is no point in making a special effort for that challenge.  

On to 2018!

Craving the Cozies 2017 Reading Challenge Wrap Up

I signed up for this challenge at the Peckish level which required me to read 10 books.  Sadly, I only read 5 cozies.  I think that while I used to love this mystery sub-genre, it is not as interesting to me as it once was.  I still have favorite authors that I will always read such as Cleo Coyle, Laura Childs, Julie Hyzy, and Susan Wittig Albert.  However, I think that I will include these books in a mystery book reading challenge in the future since a cozy is technically a mystery.  Below are the links to the books that I read for this challenge:

The Perplexing Theft of the Jewel in the Crown
The Last Chance Olive Ranch
Pekoe Most Poison
The Champagne Conspiracy
Dead Cold Brew

My Favorite Book: Dead Cold Brew!  Cleo Coyle just knows how to write a great mystery.

My Least Favorite Book:  The Perplexing Theft of the Jewel in the Crown.  I just could not follow the plot and was bored to tears.

New Author Reading Challenge 2017 Wrap Up

I read 31 books from 28 new authors in 2017!  This is a great record.  The challenge did not have any required number of books to read which probably made me pull more books from my library shelf than if I was actively searching for new authors.  A subliminal message here!  Note that I did not include authors who wrote graphic novels in this category but if I had then I would have read 53 new authors this year.

The new authors that I read this year include  the following:

Suzanne Johnson:  The Photographer's Wife
Alex Berenson:  The Prisoner
Vaseem Kham:  The Perplexing Theft of the Jewel in the Crown
Vanora Bennett:  Midnight in St. Petersburg
Melodie Winawer:  The Scribe of Sienna
Dinah Jeffries:  The Tea Planter's Wife
Taylor Brown:  The River of Kings
Terence Coffey:  Valley of the Kings
Tahmima Anam:  The Bones of Grace
Yoojin Grace Wuerta:  Everything Belongs to Us
S. D. Sykes:  Plague Land; The Butcher Bird
Min Jin Lee:  Pachinko; Free Food For Millionaires
Dominic Smith:  The Last Painting of Sara de Los
Shilpi Somaya Gowda:  The Golden Son
Alex Dolan:  The Empress of Tempera
Jung Yun:  Shelter
Jess Lourey:  Salem's Cipher
Sonali Dev:  A Change of Heart
Simon Beaufort:  The Killing Ship
Janie Chang:  Dragon Springs Road
Margaret George:  The Confessions of a Young Nero
Donna Bijan:  The Last Days of Cafe Leila
Weina Dai Randel:  The Empress of Bright Moon; The Moon in the Palace
Nancy Bilyeau:  The Tapestry
Elsa Hart:  Jade Dragon Mountain
Wanda Brunstetter:  The Hawaiian Quilt
Laura Joh Rowland:  The Shogun's Daughter
Minal Khan:  Silk Tether
Karen Bartlett:  The Health of Nations
Shobhan Bantwel:  The Forbidden Daughter

My Favorite New Author:  Melodie Winawer.  I have to pick her because of all of the books that I read in 2017 The Scribe of Sienna is the one book that sticks out in my head as the best book that I read.  I read this book in July and with my middle age memory being what it is, The Scribe of Sienna has to be one fantastic book for me to remember it as I do.  There were 2 other authors whose books stood out in my mind also.  Min Jin Lee who wrote Pachinko and Free Food for Millionaires and Jung Yun who wrote Shelter.  Each of these 4 books I remember the most from 2017.

My Least Favorite New Author:  Taylor Brown.  He wrote The River of Kings which I just could not get into.

Girl in Dior

Girl in Dior is the story of the rise of the fashion label Christian Dior. Intermingled into the story is that of a fictional budding journalist Clara Nohant who becomes one of Dior's models and after marrying into British royalty, a customer.

The book is supposed to be a biography of Christian Dior.  While his life is covered, the addition of a fictional character, Clara, mars the story and I do not know why the author chose to add her to the story. Clara was not necessary to write a great graphic biography.

The illustrations are exquisite.  I would love to see some of them framed on my walls. The question for many will be whether the price of the book is worth the illustrations given a botched storyline.  For me, the answer is yes.  It was the beauty of the dresses illustrated that made me buy this book.

It's hard to figure out how to rate this book.  I think anyone interested in fashion will like it because of the illustrations as well as the history of the House of Dior.  I just wish fiction wasn't added to this biography.

By Any Means

I have read all of the books in this Ash Rashid detective series and loved them all.  By Any Means was published in 2014 so I am a little behind in my reading.

In this installment of the series Ash is no longer working as a detective for the Indianapolis Police Department but has been reassigned to the community relations department. He primarily gives speeches to schools. However, on his way home from work one day he finds a car accident.  Since no other officers are available, Ash is told to stay at the scene until an officer can arrive. Ash is unable to not investigate so he begins asking questions to those who were in the area when the accident happened. He determined that these responses do not add up and begins to investigate what he feels is a homicide.

As usual, author Chris Culver outdoes himself with his writing.  It is fast paced with plenty of twists and turns and there is a cliffhanger ending. I also love that his protagonist is an American Muslim, albeit not much of a practitioner of his faith.  Ash is an alcoholic. This is a welcome addition to American fiction and normalizes the viewpoint of Muslims in our society.

A great read!

The Attack

When I bought this graphic novel I presumed it was about a terrorist attack in the Middle East, which it is.  However, the plot was much different than I expected.

Amin Jaafari is an Arab and a naturalized Israeli citizen living in Tel Aviv.  He is also a surgeon and lives a life of luxury compared to that of his fellow Arabs. When his wife Sihem is identified as a suicide bomber who killed 19 people in a restaurant, Amin has to comes to grips with how she decieved him. He had no idea that she had terrorist leanings. Amin then travels to Palestinian areas in order to discover how his secular wife became radicalized.

I loved this book. The author does not take a side in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, unusual in a book taking place in the Middle East. He shows both sides along with the stress and grief that they both share in this conflict. 

Red Rosa

Kate Evans' Red Rosa is a graphic biography of Rosa Luxemburg.  I was not familiar with Luxemburg before reading this biography but I found that she was a woman ahead of her time.  Rosa was a passionate socialist who did alot of writing and speaking to educate and inspire many people to her cause. She was the only woman of her era, the early 1900s, to have this power.

She was born and raised in Poland but also lived in Germany promoting her beliefs. She was tough enough to question the beliefs and actions of both Marx and Lenin. She also did not care for society's role for women and chose not to marry, prefer to have lovers instead. She was truly a woman in control of her life and I admire that.

As a feminist myself, I was surprised that I had not heard of Rosa Luxemburg before seeing this book.  She was certainly a female powerhouse of the twentieth century and belongs in studies on women's history.  Unfortunately, none of the courses I took in college mentioned her.

Ladies, this is a must read!

Nanjing: The Burning City

I was disappointed in Ethan Young's Nanjing. It is a wartime narrative of the fall of China's former capital city Nanjing to the Japanese in 1937. The book showcases 2 Chinese soldiers who were caught in the city after it was captured by the Japanese.

I did not learn much about the WWII fight commonly known as the Rape of Nanjing. Perhaps I am used to this type of story being told as a reportage comic which has tons of detail via the dialogue.  There is little dialogue in Nanjing and the artwork consists of black and white drawings in comic strips.

Unfortunately, I can only give this graphic novel 1 out of 5 stars. It just didn't teach me anything about this episode in history.

Safe Area Gorazde

Safe Area Gorazde is the story of the town of Gorazde in eastern Bosnia during the Bosnian War in the early 1990s.  It is told from the point of view of the reportage cartoonist Joe Sacco who was a U.N. journalist who traveled there 4 times during the war.  The U. N. had designated Gorazde as a safe area during the war but it was anything but safe. The community had been majority Muslim before the war began but most of them were slaughtered by the Serbs throughout the war.

The story is heavy on the fighting with interludes on silly teenage girls and parties with local residents. Much of the information on Gorazde comes from the author's guide Edin, a grad student.  Also, refugees arriving in Gorazde tell about the atrocities they saw in their hometowns, including mass executions, that they were forced to flee from. There is also information on Yugoslavia from the end of WWII to the beginning of the Bosnian War. After WWII the different ethnicities lived together peacefully under the authoritarian leadership of Tito. After Tito's death, Slobodan Milosevic took power and began inciting ethnic hatred.

While I had read much about this war while it was ongoing, I learned alot about it from the first person accounts that the author provided in the book.

The book offers a good history of this war. History lovers will want to check this one out.