2025 Reading Challenge discussion

I set my goal for 70 this year because it turns out the library system here has lots of Graphic Novels and Trade Paperbacks of comic books. I also read novels (I'm all over the board on genre, but I'm also impatient, so yes, I'm one of those who will quit reading a book halfway through...life's too short!), spiritual books (I'm a religion nerd, and I'm not picky about what religion or spiritual path I'm reading about), and assorted other non-fiction stuff, mostly in what we call the humanities: history, philosophy, politics, etc. I'm often in the middle of 2 to 5 books at once, but I won't post it in this thread until I've finished reading it. I also ramble. Sorry. I've got forty-something books to add (I'm going to surpass my goal) and I aim to focus on that tonight instead of the chores I should be doing.

1. Locke & Key, Volume 5: Clockworks by Joe Hill
(***** 1/6/15) I started this comic book series in 2014 and finished it early this year. This falls in the "horror comic" genre.

2. Dinner With Friends by Donald Margulies
(** 1/21/15) I know plays rely on dialogue, but there's a way to do it that isn't entirely explicating. For me this felt awkward to read, stilted almost. More subtlety would have been nice, perhaps, not just people yelling at each other. I did think the ending was nice.

3. Blankets by Craig Thompson
(***** 1/28/15) Autobiographical "first time falling in love" book. I am in love with Thompson's drawing style and openly honest writing.

4. Locke & Key Vol. 6: Alpha & Omega by Joe Hill
(**** 2/2/15) The final book in the main part of this horror comic. The entire series is unforgettable.

5. A Guide to Hindu Spirituality by Arvind Sharma
(**** 2/3/15) I actually started this book sometime in 2014. I've been on an India kick lately. Then I moved last summer, and lost the book. I found it again earlier this year, with joy, and was able to finish it. My review: As has been pointed out, the title is misleading here. I'd suggest "A Guide to the Metaphysics of Advaita Vendanta." That said, this is a really nice book. It's short, but it took me awhile to read it. (Don't be concerned that my reading dates comprise about seven months. I had moved in that time and misplaced the book for several months.) It is well organized and progresses logically. As a book primarily philosophical, I did read it more slowly than other genres I enjoy. Each paragraph, and often each sentence, needed to be absorbed. I have other books I want to read that cover a wider variety of traditions. If you wish to learn about the specifics of how Advaita Vedanta views the universe, I wholeheartedly recommend this text.

6. Locke and Key: Grindhouse by Joe Hill
(* 2/4/15) A story set in the same location as the Locke & Key series, but with different characters. This felt completely unnecessary to me. It probably sold a lot of copies, but I felt no emotional impact whatsoever.

7. The Tale of One Bad Rat by Bryan Talbot
(*** 2/5/15) Unique tale of a girl on the streets, with a (view spoiler)[happy ending (hide spoiler)] if I recall correctly. Anyway, an uneven story, but worth checking out.

8. Saga of the Swamp Thing: Book One by Alan Moore
(**** 2/19/15) Perhaps the book that sparked the saving grace of DC comics, the Vertigo imprint. Vertigo opened up permission to comic book creators to write for an adult audience, with adult themes, often in the horror genre, but not exclusively. It's also nice to read comics where the characters seem real, which is doubly awesome when the main character is, well, a swamp thing!

9. Fables: The Deluxe Edition, Vol. 1 by Bill Willingham
(**** 2/21/15) This edition contains what are the first two trade paperbacks in one hardcover edition. Great art, good storytelling, very imaginative. For some reason, even though I have no real problems with it - see my rating - I have little urge to continue reading this long-running Vertigo series. Maybe at some point. I'm pretty sure the library has all the books.

10. My Friend Dahmer by Derf Backderf
(**** 2/22/15) Autobiographical graphic novel by a guy who went to high school with Jeffrey Dahmer. Good read. (I realize that my list is male-centric. This isn't planned or a bias on my part. I'm actually just realizing it!)

11. The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 1: The Faust Act by Kieron Gillen
(**** 2/22/15) I don't know how to describe this book. Fame meets super-powers I guess. Anyway, great art and writing, and fun to read. I'm keeping an eye out for Vol. 2.

12. Pride of Baghdad by Brian K. Vaughan
(** 2/22/15) A fast read of a predictable story with really nice art by Niko Henrichon. I can't say I recommend it. Looks like I was on a reading bender on 2/22/15!

13. East of West, Vol. 1: The Promise by Jonathan Hickman
(** 2/24/15) Depressing, violent, humorless. This is all I wrote in my review: "Perhaps someone can tell me who, other than Solomon, I should empathize with in this book." To find out who Solomon is, I guess you'd have to read this, but I can't advise it. The art is the reason I gave this two instead of one.

14. Good Dog by Graham Chaffee
(***** 3/1/15) I have a soft spot for dogs in fiction. Probably why I avoid such things: those books always end in death followed by Andrew sobbing! (view spoiler)[This one, however, has a happy ending. (hide spoiler)]. I love how the dogs in this graphic novel are portrayed here, with distinctive personalities. Still dogs, but certainly a bit of anthropomorphism without being ridiculous.

15. T-Rex Trying by Hugh Murphy
(*** 3/11/15) A quick book (I think it took me 20 minutes) based on the jokes you see online about T-Rexes having short arms. It's mostly funny, not a knock-out by any means, but worth a few chuckles.

16. Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits by Laila Lalami
(*** 3/12/15) Hey look, a novel! And a woman wrote it! In the U.S. we hear about people braving a relatively short but very dangerous passage of ocean between Cuba and Miami. Something similar exists for those who want to emigrate from Morocco to Spain across the Strait of Gibraltar. Four or five characters have different experiences in their attempt. Sometimes it's happy, sometimes not-so happy, but more importantly, this is indeed character based. I didn't make any notes, so I don't remember why this is a 3 instead of a 4, but it's a good read.

17. Orbiter by Warren Ellis
(* 3/13/15) Interesting science, but clumsy dialog, no dramatic tension whatsoever, zero character depth. An intriguing idea with no plot around it. Seemed to take forever to read because of this. (Indeed it took me a whole week to read a pretty short graphic novel, because I simply didn't care about it.)

18. Saga, Volume 3 by Brian K. Vaughan
(***** 3/18/15) This series is so good it's practically edible! Fiona Staples is an equal to writer Brian K. Vaughan here. There are no words...one of the best ongoing comic book series out there. I rely predominantly on the library because of tight finances these days, and I'm grateful there are so many good choices there.

19. Shaper by Eric Heisserer
(* 3/20/15) Issue #1 of a new series. Here's the review I wrote: It's a really lovely cover. But maybe I'm just way too old for this? Don't know. Teenage boy ready for adulthood discovers his entire existence and history is radically different than he thought. It takes him about one panel to accept this and jump into action, which I won't spoil for you, if you're truly interested. Jumpy narrative and, well, can't help it: "You're a wizard, Harry." It's been done before, much better. Who knows? This could improve over time. I hope it does.

20. Saga, Volume 4 by Brian K. Vaughan
(***** 3/22/15) See above. I'm looking forward to the next volume, when the library gets it.

21. Revival, Vol. 1: You're Among Friends by Tim Seeley
(**** 3/23/15) Not really a zombie comic. It's just that the dead don't stay dead. Really clever writing and quite captivating.

22. The Stranger by Albert Camus
(*** 3/28/15) I had read this in high school and wanted to revisit it. I liked it better when I was younger. My review: I suppose we call a book a classic because it has a message or resonance for time and place beyond that in which the text was originally created. That said, I suppose this book is a classic in those terms, when all we have to do is look at the media frenzy whenever there is a slightly unusual crime case today, in America or in Europe. The victims of scrutiny are indeed stripped naked before the absurdities of public opinion, both manufactured by the media and by small talk among peers. I found the main character's point of view to be intriguing and indeed it resonated with some things that I myself go through mentally. I cannot call him a sympathetic narrator, but I would call him trustworthy. I feel unsatisfied by the fact that the character's reaction to his own act of violence as well as the character's willingness to assist vile characters in their own small atrocities is not much examined. Furthermore, the issue of atheism comes into play at the end of the book and suddenly takes on more weight than it deserves from everything that came before. That final scene is almost overdone with melodrama. But the book is interesting, and honest for the most part, and ultimately, unfortunately, unsatisfying. Perhaps that's the nature of existentialism, but I kind of doubt it.

23. Revival, Vol. 2: Live Like You Mean It by Tim Seeley
(**** 3/30/15) The second volume of this really good series. Watching for the next one.

24. MIND MGMT, Vol. 1: The Manager by Matt Kindt
(***** 4/2/15) Another world, an underworld, psychic powers, and all I wrote in my review was this: From this volume alone, it's clear: Matt Kindt is a genius.

25. Happy! by Grant Morrison
(**** 4/2/15) I really like Grant Morrison. He gets too heady for me sometimes, as in mind-boggling. This was not that, but it was quite good. And ridiculously funny (and gritty). Like the best graphic novels, it's difficult to give justice in a way to make you want to read it, except to say, do so.

26. Marvel Knights: Spider-Man: Fight Night by Matt Kindt
(*** 4/5/15) To be honest, I only picked this up because it was the only other book by Matt Kindt at the library. It wasn't remarkable really, but it was enjoyable and trippy. Here's my review: The book started in a very intriguing way, then became pseudo moralistic as Peter Parker went into some pretty pedestrian nostalgia about Uncle Ben. I'm cool with experimentation and even unclarity. Unclarity is not a problem here, though the origin of Spider Man's lack of sanity is a bit hard to piece together. The insane artwork is brilliant. I intentionally chose to read this because of the quality of Mind MGMT. But in the end, I gave this 3 stars instead of 2 because of the visual feast.

27. Echo: Atomic Dreams by Terry Moore
(**** 4/5/15) Volume 2 of Echo. Terry Moore's an interesting comic artist and writer. The main character here gets a crazy new wardrobe thanks to secret technology going wrong. I don't want to say too much. I need to read the next volume soon. It's fun, black and white, has bikers, a bit of X-Files in there.

28. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud
(***** 4/13/15) Literary theory, basically, about comic books...and it's masterfully done at a level understandable to most. I've been wanting to read this since it came out twenty-some years ago.

29. Nine Lives of Adam Blake by Ryan Gladney
(**** 4/22/15) A novel I read in Kindle format. It's about time, a different kind of reincarnation, love, sadness, joy. I really enjoyed it, and it helped that I'm a big fan of the philosophy of time. I guess that's a branch of metaphysics or something.

30. Trees, Vol. 1 by Warren Ellis
(**** 4/26/15) My review: Captivating and original, I wanted to even give this the full five stars. The one weakness, and hey, maybe it's my fault, is I had some trouble figuring out which character was which (do two of them look alike, or is it the same person, but no, it cannot be, because they are characters in different settings of the story), and I honestly don't understand one of the major plot points...but the more I think about it, I think I'm getting it. Okay, on reflection I'll call it a 4.5. It's a cruel story, but beautiful. Or maybe it's beautiful, but cruel. Either way, I look forward to volume 2!

31. Sex Criminals, Vol. 1: One Weird Trick by Matt Fraction
(***** 4/29/15) What a blast this is. So different from anything I've read out there. I hear they're going to make this into a TV series. There are so many little jokes scattered in the background that it actually took longer to read than I expected, because I didn't want to miss any of them.

32. Mao II by Don DeLillo
(***** 5/1/15) Don DeLillo is a master of the English language, and of keeping the most mundane occurrences fascinating by creating unique lenses through which to view them. At least as shown in this book. If you haven't experienced this text (or White Noise) as read by Michael Prichard, I recommend it. His is a subtle, flowing reading style. Mao II is a language-lover's dream. If one were to take the basic plot of the book and try to tell it as a simple story, it would fail. DeLillo here takes the novel as a work of art quite seriously, and uses all the writer's tools and the form itself to make each element inseparable from any other. I've encountered no novel quite like it. As one who is liable to fall asleep reading dense fiction, this is exactly the kind of book I prefer in audio format. There's no shame in it. I doubt I'd read some books otherwise!

33. Black Orchid by Neil Gaiman
(**** 5/3/15) Okay, so this is the trade paperback of the initial three-issue miniseries, but it's longer than a typical three issues, as each of the three was of a larger format. The art by Dave McKean is utterly breathtaking, and the story quite different. This became a short-lived Vertigo series afterward, which I have not yet read.

34. Cultural Literacy for Religion: Everything the Well-Educated Person Should Know by Mark Berkson
(***** 5/6/15) So this is actually a "Great Courses" class on DVD. If you're a nerd like me these things are heaven. Dr. Berkson here devotes equal time to the various major religions of the world and even covers some basics of smaller (but not insignificant) religions as well. The course really is set up to learn the basics, and to see the bigger picture. It had an impact on how I view religion too.

35. All-New X-Men, Vol. 1: Yesterday's X-Men by Brian Michael Bendis
(** 5/8/15) I have to admit that super-hero stuff is becoming less interesting as each year passes for me. Hey, I'm in my forties. I need more complexity, or something. I still like the mutants though, but this is so ho-hum I doubt I'll seek out any more Bendis mutant stories. Time travel never seemed so dull.

36. Heck by Zander Cannon
(***** 5/10/15) Kinda wow! Incredibly unique, very touching, crazy, worthy. I'm tired of the hell thing, honestly; I don't accept it as an interesting or enlightening religious teaching. Hence I groaned when I got that Hell would be a major theme of the book. Even worse, it utilizes the Dante vision of Hell. But yes, it's a metaphor, as explained by the writer in the epilogue of the book, and taking it as a fantasy land this is an incredible read.

37. When the Women Come Out to Dance by Elmore Leonard
(***** 5/14/15) First short story collection I've read in a long time. Leonard is a great writer. He holds the honor of having written the first and only western I've ever read. These stories are fantastic and sleazy and witty and engaging. Leonard has a thing for really nasty characters, while keeping his eye open for redemptive moments.

38. Hawkeye, Vol. 3: L.A. Woman by Matt Fraction
(*** 5/14/15) Enjoyable read, but confusing at times, with weird jumps mid-page. I don't really mind being challenged, but this story didn't seem to call for it. Anyway, I still adore the work these creators are doing.

39. Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis by Warren Ellis
(**** 5/15/15) My review, which addresses a complaint I noticed about the artwork in addition to my general impressions: Contrary to the contrarians, I found this to be an insightful read. Not only a good mutant story, about mutations (more than one kind), but also about social reality and misunderstanding between cultures. Not too heavy-handed, as the judgment zone only appears to be from one character and not overly embraced by this cast of complicated characters (thank goodness...nothing worse than a comic that gets didactic). Instead, it gives cause to consideration on the part of the reader, while still being interesting and entertaining. I really like Warren Ellis' work. Now, Kaare Andrews is also an artist I try to stay in touch with, up there for me with Mike Allred and Sam Keith. I completely disagree that Andrews' work here is sexist, what with Logan's super tight pants and great butt, Scott's over-the-top masculine physique, and not a chubster to be found. The only not-popularly-ideal-type in this reading experience was yours truly, with many pounds left to lose. No, Emma's character here is seductive and sensual, and her outfit matches. It's stylized, certainly, but I enjoyed Andrews' stylizing in general. It was different from other work I've seen. I mostly have been avoiding super-hero books lately, finding they don't really touch me very much anymore, but the mutants frequently seem to get great stories, such as this one. Plus, I'm more-than-willing to follow a favorite writer or artist to a superhero title to see what I think.

40. Henry & Glenn Forever & Ever by Tom Neely
(**** 5/25/15) I read this in bits over time, as it is jam-packed with stories based on a great idea: Henry Rollins and Glenn Danzig are lovers with domestic stuff happening on top of their macho personalities, with next-door neighbors Daryl Hall and John Oates being master Satanic magicians. It's all very silly and clever and fun, and, well, not for kids. Then again, most of the comics I read nowadays really aren't for kids.

41. Ongoingness: The End of a Diary by Sarah Manguso
(***** 5/26/15) I was inspired to read this after I saw one of my Goodreads friends give it one star. Intrigued by such a low rating, I followed the link to see what the book was about. Go figure, it looked like it was right up my alley, and I was right. The issue of time and how we inhabit it is of keen interest to me at this point in my midlife, and my thinking (philosophically and spiritually) in general. That is what this book is really about, more than the writer's unquoted diary itself. I've been trying to adopt mindfulness and "Be Here Now" living lately, and have always felt that time was an illusion. This book counteracts that notion by, while advocating really living in the moment, also pointing out that it's the progression that is important. By memorializing we are failing to be present, and by moving ahead and onward with our lives towards our inevitable transition to whatever comes next, well, this is how we truly thrive. I was deeply moved in the reading, and want to get my own copy (I'm a library hound) so I can read and re-read and...oops, is that truly living? What would the author say about such a thing? I'm still going to get a copy. Truly a gem, and a philosophical (if subtle) literary masterpiece.

42. Deadly Class, Vol. 1: Reagan Youth by Rick Remender
(***** 5/27/15) Well, instead of Hogwarts, we get a school for assassins, and everyone's a mess. Just a total mess. I love it. And the art is nuts. Again, impossible to describe in a fair way.

43. Dead Man's Knock by Mike Carey
(***** 6/1/15) Volume 3 of The Unwritten. Apparently inspired by Christopher Robin (the real kid, not the character) being bitter about the public image imposed upon him by being made into a character in the Winnie-the-Pooh books, it doesn't stay there. This is an urban fantasy story, with underground cabals and magic and mystery and time warps (I sense a theme) and in this volume (volume three of the series), there's even an issue in a "choose your own adventure" style. Carey is a fascinating writer. He also wrote the series "Lucifer," on which an upcoming television show is based (it has its roots in Sandman by Neil Gaiman).

44. Mystic River by Dennis Lehane
(***** 6/2/15) I'm grateful for audiobooks. My commute is bearable because of them. And the narrators are fascinating to me. The narrator here, on the unabridged version I got at the library, is absolutely perfect. As for the book, the movie was a hard one, but it didn't prepare me for the darkness of the book. This is possibly the saddest novel I've read as an adult.