I crept slowly through 20 pages in Adam Tooze, but finished Win McCormack's Rajneesh Chronicles this morning. Today, after reading for an hour or two, and doing the usual email and admin work, I managed to spend some time in the garden and made a trip to the bookstore and the comic store. Tonight, I'm planning to dive into Brothers of the Gun by Marawn Hisham and Molly Crabapple.
Today's challenge from the BoB peeps is all about space, which explains the Kid Koala clip. I was very lucky to attend his Satellite turntable orchestra show at Big Ears back in March.
Onto the challenge - A space scavenger hunt from Liz at https://travelinretrospect.com/, who made up this challenge for the Bout of Books crew. This was a scavenger hunt through my recent and distant memories...
Mercury: favorite short story/novella: Edith Wharton, False Dawn from the Old New York collection
I read this brilliant collection of short stories by Edith Wharton soon after I finished graduate school and moved to New York City. I always was looking for a way to teach the short story "False Dawn" which represents an American's travels in Europe and his interest in "unfashionable" art that disappoints his parents.
Venus: Favorite book with female protagonist: Toni Morrison, Beloved
Still one of the best novels of all time - capturing the ghostly presence of slavery, the dark heart of American history. I read this in the summer after I graduated from college, sweating on a bedroll in a shared apartment in the Hamptons.
Earth - favorite book with nature/nature word in the title: Jon Krakauer, Into Thin Air
It's not a great work of literature, I suppose, but it tells an important story about tourism, exploitation, money, and human stupidity in the face of nature. It is absolutely gripping. I read the entire thing on a train trip from Minneapolis to Philadelphia.
Mars: Favorite book with a red cover: Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Sympathizer
This book won the Pulitzer prize in 2016 and was one of the few books that so deserved prizes. A Vietnamese view of America and Imperial power as told from multiple locations. I've read it twice since it came out, and am impressed at how well it stands multiple readings. It's lyrical, smart, political, and works both as a literary work and a "thriller."
Jupiter: Favorite tome over 500 pages: Marcel Proust, Remembrance of Things Past
I dreamily read large chunks of the first volume of the Pleiade edition when I was in highschool, which is a great time to read this book, though I think I might not finish all the volumes until I manage to go on sabbatical or retire.
Saturn: Favorite book with circle or ring on the cover/in the title: Mary McCarthy, The Group
My mother had recommended this book about female friendships to me when I was in middle school, and I did find it a completely memorable experience, though I was a bit mystified by the sexual relationships.
Uranus: Favorite book set in winter: Nikolai Gogol, The Overcoat and Other Stories
I read this book for a class on "Russian literature in the Gogolian tradition" when I was in college. The entire course was like a walk on the Nevksy Prospekt in the wet snow - the atmosphere becoming my central memory of the multiple dark, fantastical books I read in one spring semester in Connecticut.
Neptune: Favorite book set at sea, on a boat or under water: Herman Melville, Moby Dick
I read this book when I lived in Sag Harbor, the old whaling town where I lived for six months immediately after graduating from college. It's an obvious and wonderful choice.
Pluto: Favorite book featuring a dog or with a dog on the cover: Jesmyn Ward, Salvage the Bones I read this one quite recently - a wrenching tale where the dog is a character on equal footing with humans, in a way that resonates with some recent scholarly work on human-animal relationships.
Moon: Favorite book set anywhere other than Earth: Ursula LeGuin, Wizard of Earthsea - read over 30 years ago, and only now a dim and pleasurable memory, but I'm planning to read it again soon. Another wonderful not-earth book by LeGuin is The Dispossessed which mixes social commentary and narrative power in a way that is rarely achieved.
Sun: Favorite book set in summer: L.P. Hartley, The Go-Between This whole book is about what summer is for children - endless, sweaty, golden, mysterious, sexual.
Space: Favorite book set in space: Octavia Butler, Dawn Not your average book about waking up on an alien spacecraft. A serious book about what it means to be human and life on earth.
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