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Pam's 2021 Plan

Goals:
My goal is to complete the ATY52 challenge and continue reading more non-fiction and classics. My focus this year will be on Russian authors and classics.

ATY: 52/52 (updated 12/18) Completed!
Classics (C): 13/15
💥Russian (R) (Author born in Russia and/or book translated form Russian) : 11/15
�: Finished

�1. A book related to “In the Beginning...�
Agatha: The Real Life of Agatha Christie
�2. A book by an author whose name doesn't contain the letters A, T or Y
The Hidden Girl and Other Stories by Ken Liu
�3. A book related to the lyrics for the song "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music
The Travelling Cat Chronicles
�4. A book with a monochromatic cover
NRDC The Secret World of Whales
�5. A book by an author on USA Today's list of 100 Black Novelists You Should Read
Krik? Krak! by Edwidge Danticat
�6. A love story
The Professor's Daughter
�7. A book that fits a prompt suggestion that didn't make the final list
Who Was Napoleon?
✅�8. A book set in a state, province, or country you have never visited
Memories: From Moscow to the Black Sea by Teffi (C) (R)
�9. A book you associate with a specific season or time of year
A Month in the Country
�10. A book with a female villain or criminal
Codename Villanelle by Luke Jennings 2.5 stars Finished 1/13
�11. A book to celebrate The Grand Egyptian Museum
The Rabbi's Cat
�12. A book eligible for the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation
Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo 4 stars Fin: 1/8
�13. A book written by an author of one of your best reads of 2020
Number 11 by Jonathan Coe
✅�14. A book set in a made-up place
The Inhabited Island by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky (C) (R)
�15. A book that features siblings as the main characters
Pride and Prejudice (C)
✅�16. A book with a building in the title
The Dead Mountaineer's Inn by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky 4 stars Fin: 1/5 (C) (R)
✅�17. A book with a Muslim character or author
Rock, Paper, Scissors, and Other Stories by Maxim Osipov (R)
�18. 3 books related to "Past, Present, Future" - Book 1
The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick (C)
�19. 3 books related to "Past, Present, Future" - Book 2
Grass Sandals : The Travels of Basho by Dawnine Spivak
�20. 3 books related to "Past, Present, Future" - Book 3
Dune: the Graphic Novel, Book 1
✅�21. A book whose title and author both contain the letter "u"
The Turkish Gambit by Boris Akunin (R)
�22. A book posted in one of the ATY Best Book of the Month threads
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
�23. A cross genre novel
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
�24. A book about racism or race relations
A Hero Ain't Nothin' But a Sandwich (C)
�25. A book set on an island
Nightbirds on Nantucket by Joan Aiken (C)
✅�26. A short book (<210 pages) by a new-to-you author
Kashtanka by Anton Chekhov (C)
✅�27. A book with a character who can be found in a deck of cards
The Winter Queen by Boris Akunin (R)
�28. A book connected to ice
Journey to the Pole
�29. A book that you consider comfort reading
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse
�30. A long book
The Lincoln Highway
�31. A book by an author whose career spanned more than 21 years
The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin
�32. A book whose cover shows more than 2 people
Black Hearts in Battersea by Joan Aiken (C)
�33. A collection of short stories, essays, or poetry
Distrust That Particular Flavor by William Gibson
�34. A book with a travel theme
The Little Prince (C)
�35. A book set in a country on or below the Tropic of Cancer
Malinche (set in Mexico)
✅�36. A book with six or more words in the title
Sister Pelagia and the White Bulldog by Boris Akunin (R)
�37. A book from the Are You Well Read in World Literature list
The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
✅�38. A book related to a word given by a random word generator
Tolstoy, Rasputin, Others, and Me: The Best of Teffi by Teffi (word = Collection)
✅�39. A book involving an immigrant
Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov- 3 stars Finished: 1/27 (C) (R)
�40. A book with flowers or greenery on the cover
Tintin in America (C)
�41. A book by a new-to-you BIPOC author
I am a Japanese Writer by Dany Laferrière
�42. A mystery or thriller
The Thursday Murder Club
�43. A book with elements of magic
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
�44. A book whose title contains a negative
The Displaced: Refugee Writers on Refugee Lives
�45. A book related to a codeword from the NATO Phonetic Alphabet
Mi papi tiene una moto
âœ�46. A winner or nominee from the 2020 Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ Choice Awards
Migrations
�47. A non-fiction book other than biography, autobiography or memoir
The World of Lore: Monstrous Creatures by Aaron Mahnke 4 stars Fin: 1/14
�48. A book that might cause someone to react “You read what?!?�
Linguistics for Dummies
✅�49. A book with an ensemble cast
Murder on the Leviathan by Boris Akunin(R)
�50. A book published in 2021
Last Night at the Telegraph Club
�51. A book whose title refers to person(s) without giving their name
The Boys : A Memoir of Hollywood and Family
�52. A book related to "the end"
Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke (C)

Reserved: Books to try to fit in

Russian:
�Boris Akunin- The Winter Queen + 3 others
Svetlana Alexievich- The Unwomanly Face of War: An Oral History of Women in World War II (NF)
Mikhail Bulgakov- The White Guard; Days of the Turbins
�Anton Chekhov- Ward No. 6 and Other Stories - Read title story only

Fyodor Dostoyevsky- Crime and Punishment
Vsevolod Garshin- Last Translations. Three Stories
Nikolai Gogol- Dead Souls
Ivan Goncharov- Oblomov
Vasily Grossman- Life and Fate
Nora Ikstena (Latvian)- Soviet Milk
Andrey Kurkov- Death and the Penguin
Boris Pasternak- Doctor Zhivago
Alexander Pushkin- Boris Godunov and Other Dramatic Works; Eugene Onegin; The Bronze Horseman: Selected Poems of Alexander Pushkin
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn- The Gulag Archipelago 1918�1956
Vladimir Sorokin- The Blizzard
Arkady Strugatsky- Monday Starts on Saturday; Roadside Picnic; �The Dead Mountaineer's Inn] �The Inhabited Island
Teffi- �Memories: From Moscow to the Black Sea, �Tolstoy, Rasputin, Others, and Me: The Best of Teffi
Leo Tolstoy- War and Peace
Eugene Vodolazkin- Laurus
Vladimir Voinovich- The Fur Hat; Moscow 2042
Russian Stories: A Dual-Language Book - Twelve short stories by a variety of authors: Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenev,Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Leskov, Chekhov, Sologub, Bunin, Zamyatin, Babel, and Zoshchenko

Hi Pam, I saw your comment in The Wild Discussion. A couple other Russian writers

Ivan Goncharov - Oblomov
Anton Chekhov - short stories and plays
Zamyatin E.I. - We
Fyodor Dostoyevsky - some doorstoppers

for a change of pace - Vladimir Nabokov

Robin P wrote: "Hi Pam, I saw your comment in The Wild Discussion. A couple other Russian writers

Ivan Goncharov - Oblomov
Anton Chekhov - short stories and plays
[..."

Thanks Robin for your suggestions! I can't believe I forgot Chekhov and Dostoyevsky! I even have them on my bookshelf, including a Russian version of Crime and Punishment which I will never be fluent enough to read. I've read We and enjoyed it. I'm reluctant to try Nabokov so I'm going to hold off on him. I forgot about Oblomov. I had it on my TBR shelf but not my Russian Lit shelf. Now, to decide where to start with this wonderful list of writers and how to fit them into my challenge!

I'm really struggling to finish anything! I've probably started 10 library books and nothing is sticking. I plan to finish The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick and use it for the Past, Present, Future prompt. I am watching the TV series, loosely based on the book, also. I am interested to see how they compare! So far, there are the same characters and setting but very different plot. I've enjoyed previous books by this author and am also enjoying this one!

This is the first year that I have been behind at the halfway point! I haven't been updating this thread, just the group spreadsheet. I've read 24.5 books. I need to pick up the pace if I'm going to finish the challenge! How are people already finished with the challenge??

I'm finally caught up with updating my Post and back on track with 8 books remaining! I'm also on track to meet my goal of 12 classics and 12 Russian authors. I'm ready for the 2021 challenge to be over and get started on 2022!

1 book to go (of course, it's the long book) and 2 weeks left! My goal is to finish 2 long books - The Count of Monte Cristo and The Lincoln Highway.

Finished the challenge up with The Lincoln Highway! I gave it 4 stars. It was a good book to end the challenge on. It was not what I expected (i.e. a trip across the Lincoln Highway) and I'm not a big fan of alternating viewpoints, especially since I just read one in that format. But, it was well written, entertaining and had interesting/colorful characters. The story wasn't very believable, but I don't think that was the point. Like the stories (e.g. Achilles and Ulysses) in the book that Billy carried with him, this book was about THEIR stories and adventures.

Hope I can finish The Count of Monte Cristo but may push it off until next year, with 700 pages to still go! Kind of ironic that, in The Lincoln Highway, the character Billy talks about a key event in The Count. I'm really glad I already read that section of the book since this was a big spoiler! I hate when authors assume that all readers know a book and then give something away!