Recently, during the local "International Film Festival", we went to see - among others - a film called "The Summit", about the death of eight mountaineers on the ascent and descent of K2, the second-highest mountain in the world. You may see the influence of this movie in the following.
I've just finished reading:
Three books that I am planning to post reviews for...
Life after Death - Beck Weathers - bio of one of the 1996 Everest clients.
High: Stories of Survival from Everest and K2, Clint Willis, ed - an anthology of narratives.
Savage Summit: the life and death of the first women of K2, by Jennifer Jackson - an absolutely fabulous narrative of the lives and climbs of the first five women who summitted K2, all of whom have now died.
I'm currently reading:
Into Thin Air by John Krakauer - the supposedly quintessential narrative of the 1996 Everest season.
K2: Life and Death on the World's Most Dangerous Mountain by Ed Viesturs and David Roberts - a history of a number of the most dramatic climbing seasons on K2.
Unpolished Gem, by Alice Pung - I've been listening to this at the gym, and now thinking I really must conclude it by getting out my paper copy. So close to done.
After Elizabeth: The Rise of James of Scotland and the Struggle for the Throne of England by Leanda de Lisel - put aside because of my sudden mountaineering obsession.
The Bible. Seriously, I've got about 50 pages of Revelation to go.
Next I plan to read - It's September, and I've read very few of the books comprising my 30 2013 challenge books. So that's what I really need to get to. These books include:
Gaysia, by Benjamin Law
The God Box, by Alex Sanchez
Dead Aid, by Dambisa Moyo
Manhattan Dreaming, by Anita Heiss
The Boundary, by Nicole Watson
I really need to turn my mind to these books. And yet I really am captivated by all these dratted mountaineering books.
I also have, sitting next to me on the sofa right at this moment, Sheer Will: The Inspiring Life and Climbs of Michael Groom, by Michael Groom.
Showing posts with label challenges 2013. Show all posts
Showing posts with label challenges 2013. Show all posts
Wednesday, 4 September 2013
Tuesday, 8 January 2013
Top Ten Tuesdays - 7 Jan 2013
Sandra at Fresh Ink Books began following me on Twitter, so I started reading her blog. And from her, I was linked to Top Ten Tuesdays at The Broke and the Bookish.
Top Ten Bookish Goals for 2013
1. Get *my* book published. This involves a lot of work on my part. I absolutely acknowledge that I have been driving my editor mad with my lack of work.
2. Goodreads Challenge 2013
3. Australian Women Writers 2013
4. Global Women of Colour challenge
5. Rainbow Reads
6. The rest of the books on my To Read in 2013 shelf
7. Clear down my On Hiatus shelf
8. Blog regularly here at Heidi Reads (hoping that Top Ten Tuesdays will help me.)
9. Maintaining diversity in my reading
10. Complete reading the Bible (without deutero-canonicals) from beginning to end.
Reading Diversity - Divers thoughts
Back in 2008, the particular corner of the interwebs that I inhabited exploded. It exploded over issues of diversity in television and fandom, and that was when 50books_poc started. And ever since then, I've been far more aware of what I'm reading, and the authorship of what I'm reading. And as horrible as 50books_poc eventually became, it's been incredibly important to the way that I read.
So.
Here I sit at the end of 2012, noticing how UN-diverse my reading has actually been. Despite my supposed attempts at diverse reading, when I finally get around to posting my relevant statistics, you'll see that I didn't really succeed.
In 2013 I want things to be different. I want to make sure that my reading is diverse, isn't just meant to be so. I never have much of an issue making sure I read female authors over male: as far back as I can remember I've read more women than men. But reading even close to equal numbers of non/other-than-white authors to white authors, and something around 20% queer authors to straight is something I'd like to be able to say I'd done at the end of this year. I don't know that I'll manage it (although between my Rainbow Reads challenge, plus intentionally choosing at least a couple of queer authors for the other challenges, I should be okay for 20% for the year if not more) but I want to try.
So.
Here I sit at the end of 2012, noticing how UN-diverse my reading has actually been. Despite my supposed attempts at diverse reading, when I finally get around to posting my relevant statistics, you'll see that I didn't really succeed.
In 2013 I want things to be different. I want to make sure that my reading is diverse, isn't just meant to be so. I never have much of an issue making sure I read female authors over male: as far back as I can remember I've read more women than men. But reading even close to equal numbers of non/other-than-white authors to white authors, and something around 20% queer authors to straight is something I'd like to be able to say I'd done at the end of this year. I don't know that I'll manage it (although between my Rainbow Reads challenge, plus intentionally choosing at least a couple of queer authors for the other challenges, I should be okay for 20% for the year if not more) but I want to try.
Monday, 7 January 2013
2013 Rainbow Reads
The third (fourth if you count the overall Goodreads challenge) and final challenge I'm "signing up" for is one of my own devising. As I will be noting in an as yet unfinished post that is part of the chain of unready posts, I want my focus in 2013 to be on diversity in my reading. Within my AWW reading in 2012, although I thought I was aiming for diversity, I ended up defaulting to a predominantly straight, white selection of writers. Between this challenge and the Global Women of Colo(u)r Challenge I'll be keeping a focus on non-white writers - plus my AWW reads this year are also predominantly non-white.
2013 Rainbow Reads
"Rainbow" can refer to a lot of things. Diversity, queerness, a mix of colours, the promise by God to Noah after the great flood. My Rainbow Reads are ten books by LGBTQQI writers "of colour". In other words, not white, not Anglo-European authors who identify in some way as "not straight". Admittedly, my non-straight authors mostly identify as either lesbian or gay. I don't know of any trans authors at the moment, and the bi authors who are on my to-read list are white. Plus, in order to make the challenge do-able, I need to be able to source all the books I chose, so I needed to keep to books I either own or have library access to. (I'm taking a gamble on the Ihimaera, but my library is about to join a large consortium, which will make sourcing books by non-white, non-straight authors easier than it is now. In fact, that's the only one on this list that isn't already in my collection, and I almost bought it when we were in Sydney a couple months ago.) This list is equally balanced in terms of gender identification, and I might add that I found it more difficult to find titles by men than women for this challenge.
My Rainbow Reads (in alphabetical order by author) are:
1. Her Sister's Eye, by Vivienne Cleven - Indigenous Australian
2. Nights in the Garden of Spain, by Witi Ihimaera - Maori
3. Gaysia, by Benjamin Law - Chinese Australian
4. Huntress, by Malinda Lo - Chinese American
5. Talking Black: Lesbians of African and Asian Descent Speak Out, edited by Valerie Mason-John - Black British women
6. The God Box, by Alex Sanchez - Latino American
7. Little Black Bastard: A Story of Survival, by Noel Tovey - Indigenous Australian
8. The Same River Twice, by Alice Walker - African American
9. Miracle's Boys, by Jacqueline Woodson - African American
10. Covering: The Hidden Assault on Our Human Rights, by Kenji Yoshino - Japanese American
2013 Rainbow Reads
"Rainbow" can refer to a lot of things. Diversity, queerness, a mix of colours, the promise by God to Noah after the great flood. My Rainbow Reads are ten books by LGBTQQI writers "of colour". In other words, not white, not Anglo-European authors who identify in some way as "not straight". Admittedly, my non-straight authors mostly identify as either lesbian or gay. I don't know of any trans authors at the moment, and the bi authors who are on my to-read list are white. Plus, in order to make the challenge do-able, I need to be able to source all the books I chose, so I needed to keep to books I either own or have library access to. (I'm taking a gamble on the Ihimaera, but my library is about to join a large consortium, which will make sourcing books by non-white, non-straight authors easier than it is now. In fact, that's the only one on this list that isn't already in my collection, and I almost bought it when we were in Sydney a couple months ago.) This list is equally balanced in terms of gender identification, and I might add that I found it more difficult to find titles by men than women for this challenge.
My Rainbow Reads (in alphabetical order by author) are:
1. Her Sister's Eye, by Vivienne Cleven - Indigenous Australian
2. Nights in the Garden of Spain, by Witi Ihimaera - Maori
3. Gaysia, by Benjamin Law - Chinese Australian
4. Huntress, by Malinda Lo - Chinese American
5. Talking Black: Lesbians of African and Asian Descent Speak Out, edited by Valerie Mason-John - Black British women
6. The God Box, by Alex Sanchez - Latino American
7. Little Black Bastard: A Story of Survival, by Noel Tovey - Indigenous Australian
8. The Same River Twice, by Alice Walker - African American
9. Miracle's Boys, by Jacqueline Woodson - African American
10. Covering: The Hidden Assault on Our Human Rights, by Kenji Yoshino - Japanese American
Thursday, 3 January 2013
Another 2013 challenge - Global Women of Colo(u)r
M D Brady is running a Global Women of Colo(u)r challenge for 2013, and I'm in the process of signing up. I've signed up for the "Structured" challenge, which involves:
In any event, this is my tentative list (alphabetically by author):
1. Where the Streets had a Name, by Abdel-Fattah - Palestinian/Australian (Middle East/Australia)
2. That Thing Around Your Neck, by Adiche - Nigeria (Africa)
3. The Pirate's Daughter, by Cezair-Thompson - Jamaica (South America)
4. The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse, by Erdrich - Ojibwe (North America)
5. Lovers in the Age of Indifference, by Guo - China (Asia)
6. The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf, by Kwaymullina - Palyku (Australia)
7. Small Island, by Levy - Jamaica/Black British (UK)
8. Dead Aid, by Moyo - Zambia (Africa)
9. Her Father's Daughter, by Pung - Cambodian/Australian (Asia/Australia)
10. The World Unseen, by Sarif - South Africa/India (Africa/Asia/Global)
reading (and reviewing) ten books by Global Women of Color, six of them from six different continents or regions.Although eight out of my ten planned reads for the Australian Women Writers Challenge would also count for the GWC challenge, I'd like to avoid overlap if I can. So far my one difficulty in covering regions is finding an author from continental South American (as distinct from the Carribean, which is counted as part of South America for the purposes of the challenge).
In any event, this is my tentative list (alphabetically by author):
1. Where the Streets had a Name, by Abdel-Fattah - Palestinian/Australian (Middle East/Australia)
2. That Thing Around Your Neck, by Adiche - Nigeria (Africa)
3. The Pirate's Daughter, by Cezair-Thompson - Jamaica (South America)
4. The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse, by Erdrich - Ojibwe (North America)
5. Lovers in the Age of Indifference, by Guo - China (Asia)
6. The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf, by Kwaymullina - Palyku (Australia)
7. Small Island, by Levy - Jamaica/Black British (UK)
8. Dead Aid, by Moyo - Zambia (Africa)
9. Her Father's Daughter, by Pung - Cambodian/Australian (Asia/Australia)
10. The World Unseen, by Sarif - South Africa/India (Africa/Asia/Global)
Saturday, 29 December 2012
Australian Women Writers Challenge 2013
So - my plan for the Australian Women's Writers Challenge 2013 is thus:
I have signed up for the Franklin level (read ten, review at least six) with a focus on intentional diversity including Indigenous writers. I've picked out ten goal books
1. The Boundary, by Nicole Watson - I bought it a while ago and haven't yet read it.. Must. Unaipon Winner, Crime/Mystery
2. Miles Off Course, by Sulari Gentill. Historial, Crime/Mystery
3. Exile, by Rebecca Lim, YA/Paranormal
4. Black Glass, by Meg Mundell. Dystopia
5. El Dorado, by Dorothy Porter. Crime, Queer, Verse novel
6. Unpolished Gem, by Alice Pung. Biography,
7. Whitening Race, edited by Aileen Moreton-Robinson. Essays
8. Manhattan Dreaming, by Anita Heiss. Chick/Choc-Lit
9. The Glory Garage, by Nadia Jamal and Tagreb Chandab. Non-fiction, Religious, Cultural.
10. This is Shyness, by Leanne Hall. YA/Paranormal
8/10 by non-white Australian women
3/10 by Indigenous Australian women
4/10 by Asian Australian women
1/10 by Queer-identified Australian women
(Dammit - please tell me about non-white identified queer Australian women other than Vivienne Cleven. Triple threats are awesome.)
All but three of these are already in my possession.
I sincerely hope that I'll read more books by Australian women than just these, but as per my plan to be as intentionally diverse as possible (and the fact that I've really fallen behind in a few series by white British women and white men this year), I'm only going with a challenge of ten books. I'd rather not be sitting here at the end of next year trying desperately to finish my last few books.
Speaking of which... better get back to it.
I have signed up for the Franklin level (read ten, review at least six) with a focus on intentional diversity including Indigenous writers. I've picked out ten goal books
1. The Boundary, by Nicole Watson - I bought it a while ago and haven't yet read it.. Must. Unaipon Winner, Crime/Mystery
2. Miles Off Course, by Sulari Gentill. Historial, Crime/Mystery
3. Exile, by Rebecca Lim, YA/Paranormal
4. Black Glass, by Meg Mundell. Dystopia
5. El Dorado, by Dorothy Porter. Crime, Queer, Verse novel
6. Unpolished Gem, by Alice Pung. Biography,
7. Whitening Race, edited by Aileen Moreton-Robinson. Essays
8. Manhattan Dreaming, by Anita Heiss. Chick/Choc-Lit
9. The Glory Garage, by Nadia Jamal and Tagreb Chandab. Non-fiction, Religious, Cultural.
10. This is Shyness, by Leanne Hall. YA/Paranormal
8/10 by non-white Australian women
3/10 by Indigenous Australian women
4/10 by Asian Australian women
1/10 by Queer-identified Australian women
(Dammit - please tell me about non-white identified queer Australian women other than Vivienne Cleven. Triple threats are awesome.)
All but three of these are already in my possession.
I sincerely hope that I'll read more books by Australian women than just these, but as per my plan to be as intentionally diverse as possible (and the fact that I've really fallen behind in a few series by white British women and white men this year), I'm only going with a challenge of ten books. I'd rather not be sitting here at the end of next year trying desperately to finish my last few books.
Speaking of which... better get back to it.
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