Book Log 2022: The POPSUGAR Reading Challenge

Once again, I'm looking to see how well the books I read in 2022 fit the prompts of the POPSUGAR Reading Challenge, and as usual I am allowing books to satisfy multiple categories where applicable.

A book published in 2022 - The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections (Eva Jurczyk)

A book set on a plane, train, or cruise ship - 

A book about or set in a nonpatriarchal society

A book with a tiger on the cover or "tiger" in the title

A sapphic book - 1979 (Val McDermid)

A book by a Latinx author - In the Distance (Hernan Diaz)

A book with an onomatopoeia in its title

A book with a protagonist who uses a mobility aid

A book about a "found family" - here I'm going with St. Marks is Dead (Ada Calhoun), as there are numerous examples of how the people who lived there over the years developed familial bonds.

An Ansfield-Wolf Book Award winner

A #BookTok recommendation

A book about the afterlife

A book set in the 1980s - La place de la Concorde Suisse (John McPhee) was published in 1984, so I'm guessing the author's time with the Swiss military took place in that decade. 

A book with cutlery on the cover or in the title 

A book by a Pacific Islander author

A book about witches

A book becoming a TV series or movie in 2022 - Slow Horses (Mick Herron)

A romance novel by a BIPOC author

A book that takes place during your favorite season - The September Society (Charles Finch), for fall (at least in the title, I don't recall if the book actually takes place in the fall)

A book whose title begins with the last letter of your previous read - The 99% Invisible City (Roman Mars), read after Dad is Fat (Jim Gaffigan)

A book about a band or musical group - Running' with the Devil (Noel Monk)

A book with a character on the ace spectrum

A book with a recipe in it - Taste (Stanley Tucci) has several

A book you can read in one sitting - The Plough and the Stars (Sean O'Casey), though this might be cheating as it's a play

A book about a secret - Where the Crawdads Sing (Delia Owens)

A book with a misleading title - I'd say Dad is Fat (Jim Gaffigan) fits here, as I wouldn't consider him fat.

A Hugo Award winner

A book set during a holiday

A different book by an author you read in 2021 - The September Society (Charles Finch)

A book with the name of a board game in the title - The English Assassin (Daniel Silva)

A book featuring a man-made disaster - Termination Shock (Neal Stephenson)

A book with a quote from your favorite author on the cover or Amazon page

A social-horror book

A book set in Victorian times - Gillespie and I (Jane Harris)

A book with a constellation on the cover or in the title

A book you know nothing about - The Stranger in My Genes (Bill Griffieth), which I pulled off the shelf more or less at random to fit a different reading challenge

A book about gender identity

A book featuring a party The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections (Eva Jurczyk) has a party for library donors

An #OwnVoices SFF book

A book that fulfills your favorite prompt from a past POPSUGAR Reading Challenge - Sex Cult Nun (Faith Jones). The prompt (a book set in multiple countries) may not be my favorite, but it lets me use the book with the most provocative title I read this year.

ADVANCED

A book with a reflected image on the cover or "mirror" in the title

A book that features two languages - Code Talker (Joseph Bruchac) is in English and talks about how Navajo words and concepts were used to convey military information during World War II.

A book with a palindromic title

A duology (two books)

A book about someone leading a double life -  The Kill Artist (Daniel Silva), whose protagonist is an Israeli spy whose cover is as an Italian art restorer

A book featuring a parallel reality 

A book with two POVs

Two books set in twin towns, aka "sister cities" (two books)

 Book Log 2022 #66: Grass by Sherri Tepper

Humanity has spread throughout the galaxy, but that spread is threatened by a plague that is taking root across all human settlements. The powers that be notice that one planet, Grass (named for its vast prairies), seems immune to the plague, and sends investigators to figure out why. The investigators ingratiate themselves into the aristocratic ruling class of the planet, who have adapted local fauna to engage in a form of fox hunting that's all the rage. The participation in these events, and a deeper look into the native life forms of the planet, lead to a conclusion about the plague and immunity that put Grass the the future of humanity in jeopardy.

The book is seen as a classic, and is noted for its use of feminist, ecological, and class themes. That being said, I found I disliked the book more as I went along. One review I read of the book suggested that it felt like two books put together to make one, with the second half marred by an unexpected romantic story line and a convoluted reveal as to why the planet is immune. I don't know that I feel exactly that way, but I do feel like there was a shift that significantly changed where the book was going.

This is the first book in a trilogy, though I don't think I'll pick up the other two. That's it for 2022!

 Book Log 2022 #65: The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

I'd seen this on any number of 100 best book lists, and thought it was time to check it out. I did like it quite a bit, maybe not as much as the people who put those lists together, but it's probably the most personal and moving book I've read about soldiers in Vietnam. I did find it a little confusing early on, as the line between memoir and fiction can get pretty thin, but it was more of me getting used to the structure of the book rather than a failing in writing.

 Book Log 2022 #64: Northern Spy by Flynn Berry

Tessa, new mom and BBC producer in Belfast, is confronted with video of her sister apparently participating in an IRA bank robbery, Tessa is loathe to believe this, thinking that her sister was somehow coerced into participating. When she learns the truth, she is faced with the difficulty of trying not only to save her sister, but to protect her family from potential IRA reprisal.

On the one hand, I did like the book quite a bit as a well-paced and plotted thriller, and for not being another IRA story where women are simply victims or bystanders. But I never quite bought into the IRA being as active as depicted in the book. I don't doubt that the IRA is still functioning in some fashion, but based on my own consumption of Irish news and media I don't get the sense that they're as present in Irish society as depicted here (though maybe I'm just not connected to the right stratum of Irish society).

 Book Log 2022 #63: Code Talker by Joseph Bruchac

This book tells the story of a Navajo teen, Ned Begay, who serves in World War II as a code talker, who used their indigenous language as a basis for communication (either through a code developed from the language, or in the language itself). The book covers his training and eventually deployment, depicting his wartime experience as well as the difficulties a young Navajo would have in a largely white military.

I didn't particularly care for this while I was reading it, but I did not know that the book is aimed at a YA audience, so I'm pretty sure my expectations were off.

 Book Log 2022 #62: La Place de la Concorde Suisse by John McPhee

Included here for completeness, as I originally logged this in 2015. I've probably read this three or four times, and always find it fascinating.

 Book Log 2022 #61: Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

After her generation-spanning debut Homegoing, Gyasi focuses in on the current immigrant experience in this follow-up. Gifty is the daughter of Ghanian immigrants, a PhD student at Stanford driven to neuroscience by a family tragedy. That tragedy puts further strain on a difficult relationship between Gifty and her mother, who suffers from depression and has attempted suicide.

Not that it was easier during Gifty's childhood in Alabama. Her mother worked long hours for low pay, having to pick up the slack after Gifty's father moves back to Ghana. Her brother, once seen as the gifted child, slides into a troubled adolescence as Gifty becomes a standout student. That gets her out of Alabama and to Stanford, but doesn't remove a feeling that she doesn't fit in.

As different as this book is from Homegoing, it's equally moving in its depiction of the difficulties of family, immigration (forced or otherwise), and personal trauma.

 Book Log 2022 #60: Taste: My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci

Tucci's career has a theme of food running through it - from the film Big Night to writing two cookbooks to his CNN show Searching for Italy - so a food-themed memoir wasn't a huge surprise. I should also should not have been as surprised as I was at how much I liked the book. Tucci clearly has a knack for storytelling and a passion for telling stories involving food.

It helped that I didn't know that much about Tucci's personal history, so there was additional emotional impact from learning about things for the first time.  And while I haven't tried any of them, there are also recipes for many of the dishes mentioned (not all Italian - there's a recipe for his English wife's roasted potatoes). So not only is the book a feast for the reader, but it can be an actual feast if you're culinarily inclined. 

 Book Log 2022 #59: St. Mark's is Dead by Ada Calhoun

St. Mark's Place is a stretch of 8th Street in New York City's East Village, and has long been home to people on the fringe. This book goes all the way back - the first section lists a timeline of 10,000 BC to 1904 - to look at who lived there and how the neighborhood's continued changes over time belied the common refrain that the change meant that St. Mark's was dead.

Calhoun grew up in the neighborhood in the 1970s, and the people and places of her time on St. Mark's makes up the bulk of the book. She has clear affection for the neighborhood, warts and all, and does an excellent job of describing the vibrancy created by the cast of characters who lived, worked, and played there.  I'm not usually that interested in New York stories (having spent my entire life in the shadow of Boston), but I was drawn in from the start. It's a highly colorful and entertaining history and social commentary, which laments what's been lost but celebrates how the street rolled with the changes.

I picked up the book for a reading challenge (a book with your name in the title), and wasn't expecting to like it as much as I did.