Bout of Books 39 to start off a New Year of Reading

 

Yes, I'm again joining Bout Of Books. What's Bout of Books?

The Bout of Books readathon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly Rubidoux Apple. It’s a weeklong readathon that begins 12:01am Monday, January 1st and runs through Sunday, January 7th in YOUR time zone. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are reading sprints, daily Discord questions, and exclusive Instagram challenges, but they’re all completely optional. For all Bout of Books 39 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

My goals for this bout of books are to read my first book-club book of the year: Amanda Peters, The Berry Pickers and to read the two new books I've added to my syllabus for my prison studies class. These are Maurice Hobson, The Legend of the Black Mecca: Politics and Class in the Making of Modern Atlanta and Anne Gray Fischer's The Streets Belong To Us. It looks like a big week for UNC press in my reading queue. I'll also try to finish the book I've been slowly reading at night: The Last Party by Claire Mackintosh, which I've been enjoying, but not prioritizing. I'm also starting my academic reading challenge this week, and will post about that soon.

BOB updates:

Monday Jan 1: 

  I started the Berry Pickers for book club. I also started re-reading Maurice Hobson's The Legend of the Black Mecca. At night, I read a few pages of the Last Party before falling asleep. In total, I probably read about 85 pages. 

Tuesday Jan 2: I read about 100 pages in The Berry Pickers, which I'm not loving. I read another small bit of The Legend of the Black Mecca, which I do like very much and which I think is going to work very well in the class I'm teaching. Again read a few pages of The Last Party - woke up when my ereader fell out of my hand. 

Wednesday Jan 3: I finished The Berry Pickers - and went to book-club to discuss it. I was so-so on this one. I found the characters and the writing itself to be a little flat, though I liked the concept of the book.

Thursday Jan 4: My prep for next week's classes took up the majority of my time, but I did manage to read the first 40 pages of Naomi Klein's Doppelganger. I picked up this book as a spanking new hardcover when I was on a quick trip to Asheville last fall. it's one of the books of 2023 that I most wanted to read. Once again, I fell asleep after a few pages of The Last Party. 

Friday Jan 5: before I got down to course prep, I read another 50 pages of Doppelganger. 

Saturday Jan 6: I read another 50 pages of Doppleganger and another 50 pages Hobson, The Legend of the Black Mecca.