it is indeed a parlous world.

Books, books, books of 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Alyssa) — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 00:04:00 +0000

The yearly book list!! I must say I'm almost ashamed to post this... I only hit 50 this year! That may not sound bad, but it's the lowest since I started counting half-way through 2006. And I'm not even in school! No excuse.

But I did achieve a (more important) reading goal than cramming as many novels as possible into the year... this is my second year of aiming to read fewer books by white people. In 2009 I missed the mark, with about 1/3 written by people of colour, and my goal for 2010 was to make it 1/2 or more... check mark! This year it's 25/50. My ongoing goal is for my future reading to be half (or less than half!) books by white people.

By the way, I'm extra convinced that this goal is worthwhile because it actually takes effort. If you pick up a random book in the library, because you like the cover or the title or whatever, the author usually turns out to be white. That sucks. This goal has broadened the topics I read about in an amazing way! I've read lots of great books I would otherwise have missed out on. Out of the books I encountered by looking for authors of colour, my picks are Reading the Ceiling by Dayo Forster and The Unknown Errors of Our Lives by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. So far I'm also liking Walter Moseley (let's be honest, I have a few chapters of Cinnamon Kiss left to read) and definitely recommend him if detective fiction is your thing.

Anyway, without further ado:

Linden MacIntyre - The Bishop's Man
Ami McKay - The Birth House
Haruki Murakami - Norwegian Wood
David Leavitt - The Indian Clerk
Julia Alvarez - In the Time of the Butterflies
Jodi Picoult - Handle With Care
Larissa Lai - Salt Fish Girl (reread)
Octavia E. Butler - Kindred (audio)
Sabiha Al Khemir - The Blue Manuscript
Alexander Chee - Edinburgh
Rose Tremain - Evangelista's Fan (short stories)
Malcolm Gladwell - Blink
J. M. Coetzee - Disgrace
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni - The Unknown Errors of Our Lives (short stories)
Siew Siang Tay - Handpicked
Jhumpa Lahiri - The Namesake
Elizabeth Kostova - The Swan Thieves
Emma Donoghue - The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits
Julith Jedamus - The Book of Loss
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni - The Mistress of Spices
Jeanette Winterson - Gut Symmetries
Lisa Diamond - Sexual Fluidity (non-fiction)
Qiu Xiaolong - Death of a Red Heroine
Romesh Gunesekera - Reef
Jodi Picoult - Plain Truth
Jodi Picoult - Change of Heart
Dayo Forster - Reading the Ceiling
Louise Erdrich - The Plague of Doves
A. J. Jacobs - The Know-it-all
Sophie Gee - The Scandal of the Season
Maggie Stiefvater - Shiver
Jeffrey Eugenides - Middlesex (reread)
Toni Morrison - The Bluest Eye
Alicia Erian - Towelhead
Emma Donoghue - Slammerkin
Jaspreet Singh - Chef
Manuel Sjyrco - Ilustrado
Emma Donoghue - Kissing the Witch
Jhumpa Lahiri - Unaccustomed Earth
Arvind Adiga - The White Tiger
David Ebershoff - The 19th Wife
Kathleen Tessaro - The Debutante
Joanna Kavenna - The Birth of Love
Kuwana Haulsey - Angel of Harlem
Katherine Howe - The Last Book of Salem
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Half of a Yellow Sun
Paulette Gittins - The Secret World of Annette Robinson
Kazuo Ishiguro - Never Let Me Go
John Grisham - The Pelican Brief
Walter Moseley - Cinnamon Kiss

So much for a post a day...

noreply@blogger.com (Alyssa) — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 01:27:00 +0000

A Japanese Macaque, fresh from the bath in Yudanaka, Nagano Prefecture, Japan. 11th October 2010.

Sunset

noreply@blogger.com (Alyssa) — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 22:18:00 +0000

September 9, Byron Bay, NSW, Australia.

9AM in the CBD

noreply@blogger.com (Alyssa) — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 02:30:00 +0000

Early September, downtown Sydney.

Look, Some Leaves

noreply@blogger.com (Alyssa) — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 13:27:00 +0000

9th September, Byron Bay.

After dark...

noreply@blogger.com (Alyssa) — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 07:51:00 +0000

I forget the date but some time in August, next to the African restaurant in Newtown, Sydney.

Blinded

noreply@blogger.com (Alyssa) — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 14:04:00 +0000

A couple of Thursdays ago, in a classroom at WEA Sydney, where I am taking a two-month photography course. Shooting manual at last!

Eeeeeee.....

noreply@blogger.com (Alyssa) — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 07:03:00 +0000

August 1st, fruit bats in Royal Botanical Gardens, Sydney.

Greener Grass

noreply@blogger.com (Alyssa) — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 04:16:00 +0000

Royal Botanical Gardens, Sydney, 1 August 2010.

Winter

noreply@blogger.com (Alyssa) — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 07:17:00 +0000

Royal Botanical Gardens, Sydney, 1st August 2010. (Unstaged, the flowers just happened to be there.)

It's still winter in Sydney! I've become even MORE of a wuss about cold while living in Australia. If I ever go back to Saskatchewan I'm doomed.

Oops...

noreply@blogger.com (Alyssa) — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 01:42:00 +0000

I've missed three days in my first week of posting every day! Or rather, of not posting every day.

Anyway, never mind the sounds of construction drifting out from behind the curtain (still drawn across the stage, half an hour after the house lights have dimmed...). I'm working on it. Here's a picture of my feet.

Sydney, 1 August 2010.

The Rose Garden

noreply@blogger.com (Alyssa) — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 12:22:00 +0000

Sydney Royal Botanical Gardens, 1 August 2010.
(So much for the whole within-a-week thing.)

Changes

noreply@blogger.com (Alyssa) — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 13:01:00 +0000

I haven't posted anything in this blog since January, so I've decided to change it up. I'm also trying to get back to doing more photography, so changing it up in this case is going to mean a lot more pictures and no change in the amount of words added in the last six months (ie, none). My goal is to post a picture a day... the picture probably won't always have been taken the same day, but the plan is to keep it within a week.

So, shall we begin?

197 Elizabeth Street, Sydney. 12th August 2010 around 9:45.

Books I Read in 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Alyssa) — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 02:24:00 +0000

1.George R. R. Martin - A Storm of Swords (audiobook)
2.Michael Chriton - Prey
3.Geraldine Brooks - People of the Book
4.Jodi Picoult - The Pact
5.Amy Bloom - Away
6.George R. R. Martin - A Feast for Crows (audiobook)
7.Daniel Mason - The Piano Tuner
8.Larissa Behrendt - Home
9.Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Love in the Time of Cholera
10.Kim Edwards - The Memory Keeper's Daughter
11.Iain M. Banks - Consider Phlebas
12.April Sinclair - I Left My Back Door Open
13.Helen Neff - Accident of Birth
14.Susan Kurosawa - Coronation Talkies
15.Rose Tremain - Sacred Country
16.David Mitchell - Number9Dream
17.Nada Awar Jarrar - Dreams of Water
18.Stephen Dando-Collins - Pasteur's Gambit (nonfiction)
19.Audrey Niffenegger - Three Incestuous Sisters (visual novel)
20.Audrey Niffenegger - The Adventuress (visual novel)
21.Annie Proulx - Brokeback Mountain
22.Mudrooroo - Wild Cat Falling (PFitG)
23.Jenny Newman - Life Class
24.Elizabeth Knox - The Vintner's Luck (PFitG)
25.Louise Erdrich - The Master Butchers Singing Club
26.Yoshimoto Banana - Kitchen (PFitG)
27.Eric Gerome Dickey - Chasing Destiny
28.Lev Grossman - Codex
29.Khaled Hosseini - The Kite Runner
30.Sandra Newman - The Only Good Thing Anyone Has Ever Done
31.Jonathan Lethem - Motherless Brooklyn
32.Andrew Nicoll - The Good Mayor
33.Curtis Sittenfeld - American Wife
34.Samrat Upadhyay - The Guru of Love
35.Martha Cooley - The Archivist
36.Haruki Murakami - Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (PFitG)
37.Audrey Niffenegger - The Time Traveller's Wife (re-read)
38.L.M. Montgomery - The Blue Castle (re-read)
39.Lauren M. Hunter - The Steward's Son
40.Manil Suri - The Death of Vishnu
41.Jonathan Lethem - As She Climbed Across the Table (re-read)
42.Helen Dunmore - ice cream (short stories)
43.Paul Coelho - The Alchemist (half)
44.Rajaa Alsanea - Girls of Riyadh
45.Emma Donoghue - Touchy Subjects (short stories)
46.Margaret Atwood - Dancing Girls (short stories--half)
47.William Gibson - Spook Country
48.A. S. Byatt - The Biographer's Tale
49.Kurt Vonnegut Jr. - Slaughterhouse-Five
50.Emma Donoghue - The Sealed Letter
51.Anne Patchett - What Now? (nonfiction)
52.John Krakauer - Into the Wild (nonfiction)
53.Ed. Emma Forrestt - Damage Control (nonfiction)
54.Lauren M. Hunter - Mother of Tigers
55.John Krakauer - Under the Banner of Heaven (nonfiction)
56.Sarah Harvey - The Lit Report (YA)
57.Louise Erdrich and Michael Dorris - The Crown of Columbus
58.Beth Goobie - Hello, Groin (YA)
59.Arundhati Roy - God of Small Things (PFitG)
60.Leanne Lieberman - Gravity (YA)
61.Shelley Hrdlitschka - Sister Wife (YA)
62.Marjane Satrapi - Embroideries (graphic novel)
63.Audrey Niffenegger - Her Fearful Symmetry
64.Eileen Chang - Lust, Caution
65.Geling Yan - The Uninvited
66.Mary Anne Mohanraj - Bodies in Motion
67.Chinua Achebe - Things Fall Apart (PFitG)
68.Kate Grenville - The Secret River
69.Sheema Khan - Of Hockey and Hijab (nonfiction)
70.Robin McKinley - Chalice

This year I had a goal to read 50% books by known authors of colour. (Last year it was about 6/60.) I fell short, not even making it to a third, at 21/70. The purpose of the goal WAS more to make myself think about it, and I am still glad that I've made a good improvement from 10%, but I am also very disappointed in myself for not making the goal. So I will aim for 50% again next year, and I will also aim to exceed 50% rather than miss the mark.

I also didn't do very well with my Project Fill In the Gaps list, reading only 7/100!!! I still have four more years to go for that one (and the cut-off is early April, not January) but I'm behind nonetheless. So I am going to aim to catch up by reading 15-20 of the books on that list next year.

Even though I haven't read the books ON THAT LIST though, I have been reading lots more world lit than I used to. And I'm really enjoying it! I look forward to more translations and English books published outside of North America next year.

Also, I counted (although probably with a couple of counting errors!) the number of female authors, and I'm pleased with that--39 of the authors I read this year are women, and I read multiple books by three of them. (Including the two unpublished manuscripts on this list, which I shall not identify!)

And speaking of things to do next year, I'm also resolving to always say "twenty-ten" and never "two-thousand and ten." And I have good intentions of updating this blog more often!

noreply@blogger.com (Alyssa) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 01:16:00 +0000

I still have July-September photos... but they will wait! Here is a shot from Montreal in October.

The Danger of a Single Story

noreply@blogger.com (Alyssa) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:31:00 +0000

A totally inspiring and interesting talk by Chimamanda Adichie:

The Danger of a Single Story

Old pianos hang out in Parramatta.

noreply@blogger.com (Alyssa) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 18:49:00 +0000

It's a fact.

Another fact is that I'm finally finished posting my photos from Australia. But no rest for the wicked--I have a bunch of Canada photos to catch up on, now.

Luminous Festival, Sydney, June 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Alyssa) — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 07:37:00 +0000

Cockatoo Island

noreply@blogger.com (Alyssa) — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 00:25:00 +0000

Twilight clouds reflected in the windows of a building on Cockatoo Island, in Sydney Harbour.

The Friendship

noreply@blogger.com (Alyssa) — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 00:15:00 +0000

It's the Friendship, docked in Syndey harbour! I boarded the Friendship on my way to Cockatoo Island for an afternoon of photoing in early June. Am I the only one who thinks it's hilarious this is the name of an actual boat?

Please say no!

Succulents in the Royal Botanical Gardens

noreply@blogger.com (Alyssa) — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 05:15:00 +0000

I really like sinister, dangerous-looking plants! In early June I went on a walk in the succulent garden at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Sydney. Many macro photographs were taken, and I was pleased with the results!

Church ruins

noreply@blogger.com (Alyssa) — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 23:16:00 +0000

At Port Arthur Historic Site, Tasmania. Old jails and old churches are both cool; so an old church at an old jail doubly so.

This way to Antarctica!

noreply@blogger.com (Alyssa) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 07:26:00 +0000

A shot from the south coast of Tasmania, where there is no more land to the south until you hit the Antarctic.

Australian War Memorial

noreply@blogger.com (Alyssa) — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 20:25:00 +0000

The grave of an unknown Australian soldier at the War Memorial in Canberra.

Two-Up at the Clovelly

noreply@blogger.com (Alyssa) — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 21:00:00 +0000

On April 25th, my birthday and also Australia's ANZAC Day (a sibling of Rememberance Day, but different) I went to the Clovelly Hotel to watch and play two-up. Two-up is a betting game that's only legal on ANZAC Day, because it was played by the "diggers"--the Australian and Kiwi dudes in the trenches in WWI.

The "spinner," any volunteer member of the crowd, throws two coins up into the air using a little wooden paddle. The dude in the green hat, the judge (there's a word for him too, but I don't remember it at the moment) looks at the coins, and if they are both heads he'll touch his head--if they're both tails, he'll touch his tail. Meanwhile, before the spinner throws the coins, the whole crowd has been waving money around frantically, shouting out bets, and if they're for heads, tapping their heads with the money they're betting. Bets are made informally between any two individuals--the one betting heads holds the money, and either gives it all back or keeps it depending on who wins. People bet in all kinds of denominations, there were even a few hundred dollar bills being thrown around.

Personally, I stuck to five dollar bets. I won $25, and lost $20. Success!