Red Lipstick Case

This is my second time (out of two) joining UnderHyped Read-A-Thon and last time I was really bad at reading, I don't even remember how much I read but it wasn't a lot. And I know for sure I won't be able to read much this time around either because of some exams I have to take next week.

Anyway - I do have overly ambitious To Be Read list just so I have enough books to pick from (also I already started reading some of these so I might actually finish one or two of them).

#1 Doris Lessing: The Cleft (1,761 GR ratings)
I started reading this book about a year ago (it might be even longer) and I still haven't finished it. It was good for about 100 pages but I lost interest after that. However I'd like to finish it because I've got like another 100 pages to go and it wasn't so bad I'd have to put it down completely.

#2 Empower: Fight Like A Girl (14 GR ratings)
A collection of short stories by really cool ladies, lots of them are television writers. I've had it on my Kindle for ages and I'm still only about 12% in. But I figured a short story collection might be a good thing for this read-a-thon.

#3 B. S. Johnson: Christie Malry's Own Double Entry (700 GR ratings)
A short novel that's a little crazy but a good fun (at least I thought after first 20 pages). It's my father's favourite so I figured I might actually read it.

#4 Pascal Mercier: Lea (352 GR ratings)
I've read Mercier's Night Train to Lisboa and absolutely loved it, I started reading Lea since it is the only other book of his translated to Czech and while I liked it I just didn't have any motivation to finish it. So I'll probably just start all over again.

#5 William Trevor: Bodily Secrets (72 GR ratings)
One of Penguin Great Loves collection that I bought last week. These books are usually really short short story collections so it might be good for me to read just something quick.

#6 Samuel Selvon: Moses Ascending (103 GR ratings)
I've read Selvon's Lonely Londoners last month and absolutely loved it so I'm hoping to get to the sequel. I don't know if it really is a continuation but the main character's name in the first one was Moses, so I'll just assume it is.

#7 Martin Booth: The American (or A Very Private Gentleman) (940 GR ratings)
I don't know much about this book except it was filmed by Anton Corbijn who is a god and my favourite photographer/director/anything of all time and it had George Clooney in it. And in order to be able to watch the film (after years since it's been released) I want to read the book. Also I've had it on my shelf for more than five years I think, I need to do something about it!

#8 Yeats Is Dead!: A Mystery by 15 Irish Writers (483 GR ratings)
I've had this one for a while and I figured I could finally read it. Also I plan on reading more Irish authors this year so I might as well start with this one.

Because I've been reading a lot of comic books and graphic novel (and books with lots of illustrations) I decided to to a weekly (or fortnightly) wrap up of the stuff I read. I can't promise I'll keep up with that, you know, because life happens sometimes. But I've got some hope.

Warning: may or may not contain spoilers! You've been warned!

Marvel 1602 by Neil Gaiman
This one take s the existing Marvel superheroes and creates a new reality in 1602. I was afraid I won't like it, because there are just two or three characters I really care about in the Marvel Universum (because I haven't read all of the comic books and my repertoire is obviously lacking) and only one of them is in this (and she's a traitor). But I should have trusted Neil Gaiman more, because it was brilliant. Just when you get used to the characters you know being early 17th century versions of themselves, the world's about to end.

Marvel's Secret War by Brian Michael Bendis
There's something wrong with the way villains around the city group together and attack the superheroes. And none of the attacked can quite figure out what it is and why it's happening. But it wouldn't be a proper Marvel mystery if Fury didn't have his hands in it. So we got a "team" of confused superheroes and a super secret coup d'etat that no one remembers about.

Captain America: Red Menace (Vol. 1 & 2) by Ed Brubaker
I don't really like Captain America. Actually I think Steve Rogers is the least interesting character in the entire universe. (Excluding his MCU side-kicks, Bucky's great, Peggy's brilliant and who doesn't like Sam? And Natasha, I don't even need to talk about the fact she stole the CA: TWS for herself, right?) However Red Meance... Well, where to start on Red Menace. One - I have no idea how exactly this fits into the stuff that's happening. I know what happens after but this one was bit of a surprise. But I finally found out who Sin is. (Red Skull's daughter, for those who are in the dark.) And then there is Crossbones and I kinda like him. And we've got glimpses of Bucky Barnes.
Basically Red Menace reflects things that happened in the past and how they mirror into the future (or the present). Red Skull is back and the trouble ensues. And it's surprisingly good!

Civil War: Captain America (+ Winter Soldier: Winter Kills) by Ed Brubaker
Civil War arc follows the clash between government initiative to register superheroes and bunch of superheroes that aren't comfortable with the whole thing. And - surprise surprise, Captain America is the symbol of these misfits.
To be honest, I'm not really taken with the whole Civil War story, I don't like it, I don't think I'll like it the upcoming movie, I don't really know what to do about it. But! This collection includes little off shot Winter Kills and we all know that I love me some Winter Soldier. So it wasn't that terrible after all. However I don't think I will be reading any more Civil War books, unless they're translated to Czech and I can find them in library. Because I'll read any comic book I find in the library!

So I've decided to make myself a little "Friday Reads" pile just to know what I should be reading this weekend. And of course I'm posting it on Saturday, where would be the fun in being on time. Most of these are university reads, I've got an exam from European literature on Tuesday and need to finish and/or reread some books for that. Also as you can see, I'm reading all of these in Czech. And it's driving me crazy, I need my fill of English.

A comedy in five acts about Harpagon, who is obsessed with his wealth. It a reread but this is about all I can remember about it. (I'm not even surprised, I think I've read it for my school leaving exams so of course I don't remember anything.)

#2: Henrik Ibsen: The Wild Duck
Never read this one and I have no idea what it's about and I'm kind of excited about that. I've heard nothing but good things about Ibsen's drama so I'm sure it will be a good read.

#3: Milena Lenderová: K hříchu i k modlitbě
This is a non-fiction book I need to read and write a paper on this weekend. It's about an image of women in 19th century. I believe it focuses on Central Europe but I'm not sure, It's one of the main text of Czech gender studies so I'm excited about it.

#4: Pierre Choderlos de Laclos: Les Liaison Dangereuses
I started reading this book about three months ago and I love it but life happened and I wanted read other stuff. And now I'm left to finish 220 pages of this epistolary beauty in three days. Yay me!

#5: A. A. Milne: Winnie the Pooh & The House At Pooh Corner
I remember reading some of Winnie the Pooh stories but more so listening to them as told by an amazing Czech actor Marek Eben and I don't think I ever finished this short book. So I figured it might be an ideal time to read it.

#6: Johanna Spyri: Heidi
I love Heidi the Girl from the Mountains as a child but I've only read some shortened version of it with lots of illustrations. So I figured I might as well read the proper one now.

Written by: John Irving

Read for the TBR Pile Challenge.

The Imaginary Girlfriend was my first venture into Irving's writing. First I wasn't sure if I'm gonna like the style, if it just isn't something that "isn't for me" as it happens sometimes. But after couple of pages, I was hooked.

That said, The Imaginary Girlfriend is a memoir, so it isn't some great venture into Irving's imagination, which is what I'm most curious about in books. However I fell in love with his writing style. It didn't matter, that the main topic of the book was fighting which I know literary nothing about and am not interested in what so ever. But the lever of excitement with which Irving describes his fighting "career" is amazing and it sucked me in.

Irving recalls important moments in his life and for most of the time they were either fighting (or fighting trainer) or writing. He thinks back on his high school years, his teachers, his reading problems because of dyslexia and later on his students and his sons. In a span of 110 pages you find more stories that you were aware you can get.

For me personally The Imaginary Girlfriend was a great start in Irving and I hope to read some more of his works some time soon (I've got a copy of The World According to Garp at home, so we'll see how fast I'm gonna get to that one).

Because I don't have enough of challenges, I'm taking the TBR Pile Challenge hosted by Room Beam Reader. The aim is to read more books that you've own for a long time - more than a year. So I picked up some, it's twelve of them and two alts in case I won't be able to read some of them. And ideal case I will read all 14 of them.

1) Jim Butcher: "Fool Moon"
2) Seth Grahame-Smith: "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter"
3) Kazuo Ishiguro: "The Remains of the Day"
4) Roald Dahl's "Book of Ghost Stories"
5) Joseph Connolly: "The Works"
6) Keith Ridgway: "Standard Time"
7) Andey Kurkov: "Death and the Penguin"
8) Haruki Murakami: "Kafka on a Shore"
9) Margaret Atwood: "The Blind Assassin"
10) John Irving: "The Imaginary Girlfriend" (1996/2005) [Jan 6]
11) Allen Ginsberg: "Howl, Kaddish and Other Poems"
12) Truman Capote: "In Cold Blood"

Alternates:
1) Don DeLillo: "Cosmopolis"
2) Virginia Woolf: "Mrs Dalloway"

I've decided to join The Eclectic Reader Challenge hosted by Book'd Out. I've already put together a list of books I want to read in every category of this challenge but I'm not sure if I'm gonna follow it to the dot (because I rarely do that...). So here it is:

1) Retellings (of fairytale, legends or myth): John Steinbeck - "East of Eden" (According to the synopsis at the back of my copy, the destinies of families in this book "re-enact" the story of Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel, so technically it is a retelling of the Bible. If someone isn't satisfied, I have some other books I might read as well. But I really wanted to fit this book somewhere in this challenge and my other choice was to cheat on No 2, because it's set in Salinas Valley...)
2) A book set in a country starting with the letter S (eg. Sweden, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Slovakia): Doris Lessing – „The Grass is Singing“
3) PI Crime (fiction featuring a private investigator): Robert Galbraith – „Cockoo’s Calling“
4) A novel published before you were born: Donna Tartt - "The Secret History"
5) Contemporary romance: Lauren Weisberger - "Chasing Harry Winston"
6) Fiction for foodies (fiction featuring food/food related business): Lawrence Norfolk - "John Saturnall's Feast"
7) Microhistory (Non Fiction): Adrian Johns - "Piracy: The Intellectual Property Wars from Gutenberg to Gates"
8) Science Fiction set in space: Andy Weir - "The Martian"
9) Sports (Fiction or Non fiction): John King - "Skinheads"
10) Featuring diversity: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - "Half of the Yellow Sun"
11) Epistolary Fiction (fiction written in the format of letters/emails/diary entries): Mary Shelley – „Frankenstein“
12) Middle Grade/YA Adventure: Garth Nix - "Lirael"

This year should be fun, reading-wise especially, so... I'll see you in 2015 ;)

I've decided to put together a list of my favourite book that I read this year. I've read more books (and graphic novels) than any other year ever so picking only 14 was almost impossible. But I did try!

Books are not in any particular order, I can't really figure out in what order I should arrange them.

1. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
It took me forever to finish this book but turned out to be one of the best I've ever read. My imagination might have been a bit biased because I've seen the amazing Kubrick's film first but, you know, it's always a good thing to have a film just as good as a book.

2. Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
There isn't many books that leave me speechless. This one did. Jhumpa Lahiri is a master in portrayal of characters. And the stories she tells are outstanding yet very real. I don't think I could put out in words how much I loved this book.

3. Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay
This was the year of reading female memoirs/essay collections and Gay's Bad Feminist was on the top of everything I read. From my perspective of privilege - white middle class university student, I felt the need to have my "idea of feminism" challenged by someone else's perspective. And that's exactly what I got. Gay discusses variety of topics, some of them I race and gender, and it gave me some inside point of view and change my thoughts about the topic a little.

4. The Lonely Londoners by Samuel Selvon
One of the last books I've read this year and I have to say is one the very best. Selvon uses a unique voice to tell the story of Moses and other immigrants from West Indies in the fifties. It was very thought provoking specially with the latest killings of men of colour all over the United States. I'm also going to try read the sequel next year because I can't get enough!

5. Vita Brevis: A Letter to St. Augustine by Jostein Gaarder
Vita Brevis is a precious little fictional letter to Aurel by his former lover. It is also a very smart reflection on his Confessions from a point of view of a woman that once new him. I think this is the book that started my crying party this year.

6. Any Human Heart by William Boyd
I fell in love with William Boyd. The way he crafts a fictional diary of a person from young age to death is incredible. The way he makes fanfiction into serious literary fiction is a miracle. But that's a discussion for another time.

7. Maus by Art Spiegelman
Maus is a graphic memoir in which Art Spiegelman tells a story of his father, survivor of Holocaust. And if I should pick one story that I'm gonna come back to it's this one

8. Summer Crossing by Truman Capote
A short novel that made me think over my love for Breakfast at Tiffany's. I never thought I wanted to know what it's like to be young and rich and bored but this little gem gave me everything on a silver plate and I loved it.

9. The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
It's one of those book lots of people are talking about and I've never read. Truth to be told one of the main reasons I wanted to read it was Rowell's Fangirl. And it was definitely worth it.

10. The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman is a genious, there is no doubt about that. And this re-telling and mash-up of Snow White and Sleeping Beauty is amazing. With a plot twist I had not seen coming. Also the illustrations by Chris Riddell are fantastic.

11. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
I love me some epistolary novels and this one was a great surprise. I've had the book at home for some time but only after someone mentioned it in my reading group I started reading it. The story of Nazi-occupied Guernsey was better than I expected and like any story of WWII it made me cry several times.

12. Robert des noms propres by Amélie Nothomb
Amélie Nothomb is one of my favourite authors of all time and I've read every book of hers that has been translated to Czech, my mother tongue. This one I've read in English and it was a fantastic and somewhat tragic story of a ballerina. A fictionalize biography you could say. And also very short. Short books that are on point like this are the best.

13. Memoria de Mis Putas Tristes by Gabriel García Márquez
I've tried to read Márquez ounce before and failed miserably. Hundred Years of Solitude is long and dense and you need to have specific mindset to get through. This book however is short and fast paced and so much more interesting to me. And I loved it.

14. Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathaniel West
There was something disturbing about this little book but I can't figure out what it was. It left me with an uneasy feeling but that's about all I can remember. I suppose I have to re-read this one.

And it wouldn't be me if I wouldn't pick a honourable mention:
The Art of Asking by Amanda Palmer
I have learnt that the best self-help books are the ones written about someone else. Memoirs just like this one have great power of helping you sort your own life, pick up the pieces, turn it around and, most importantly, not to be afraid to dream bigger. I can't say it makes everything perfect. But it's a start. And that was Amanda's book this year. A kick in a right direction. I might be heading somewhere...