books
by Suzanne Bhagan

My Goodreads Challenge 2018

Unlike previous years, this year I actually did it. I was able to complete my Goodreads Challenge for 2018 and with time to spare! You got that right – 52/52 books read.

The Complete List

  1. The Last Children of Tokyo by Yoko Tawada
  2. Exterminate all the Brutes by Sven Lindqvist
  3. The Number 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
  4. Cantora by Slyvia Lopez-Medina
  5. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
  6. What I Talk About When I Talk about Running by Haruki Murakami
  7. Botchan by Natsume Soseki
  8. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
  9. Twenty Four Eyes by Sakae-Tsuboi
  10. Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
  11. Lizard by Banana Yoshimoto
  12. Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson
  13. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens by Sean Covey
  14. Strait is the Gate by Andre Gide
  15. The Second Penguin Book of English Short Stories edited by Christopher Dolley
  16. Strange Weather in Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami
  17. Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
  18. The Penguin Book of English Short Stories edited by Christopher Dolley
  19. Rashōmon and Seventeen Other Stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa
  20. The Izu Dancer And Other Stories by Yasunari Kawabata and Yasushi Inoue
  21. We Mark Your Memory: Writing from the Descendants of Indenture edited by David Dabydeen, Maria del Pilar Kaladeen, and Tina K. Ramnarine
  22. Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg
  23. Listen and Learn: 101 Japanese Idioms by Senko K. Maynard
  24. The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr., E.B. White
  25. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
  26. Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin
  27. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
  28. The Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
  29. The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
  30. Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki
  31. Oh Happy Day by Michelle Ragoonanan-Ali
  32. ‘Til the Well Runs Dry by Lauren Francis-Sharma
  33. The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
  34. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
  35. The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
  36. In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez
  37. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
  38. Ghana Must Go: A Novel by Taiye Selasi
  39. Consuming Cultures: Globalization and Local Lives by Jeremy Seabrook
  40. Abraham: A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths by Bruce Feiler
  41. The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth by M. Scott Peck
  42. The Amazing Absorbing Boy by Rabindranath Maharaj
  43. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
  44. The Swinging Bridge by Ramabai Espinet
  45. Krik? Krak! by Edwidge Danticat
  46. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo
  47. Tata and the Big Bad Bull by Juleus Ghunta
  48. The Scent of the Past: Stories and Remembrances by Wayne Brown
  49. The Old House and the Dream by Joy Rudder
  50. Learning to Bow: Inside the Heart of Japan by Bruce Feiler
  51. And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
  52. The Writer and the World: Essays by V.S. Naipaul

Highlight: We Mark Your Memory

First and foremost, I read We Mark Your Memory: Writing from the Descendants of Indenture, a first-of-its-kind literary anthology that also features my first ever published-in-a-book short story, “Homecoming.” Not many people know about indentureship which took place in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It involved mass migration of Indians from the subcontinent to far-flung places in the then British Empire to work on the sugarcane plantations.

The collection unites storytellers, poets, and essayists from the Caribbean, Canada, Fiji, Kenya, Malaysia, Mauritius, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, South Africa, the UK, and the US. This is a collector’s item for anyone who is interested in how diasporic Indians wrestle with questions of identity, nationality, and culture in the contemporary, post-indenture world.

Favorite First-time Reads for 2018

Since I’ve completed the challenge, bookstagrammers have been asking me to pick my favorites. Here are my 8 favorite first-time reads in 2018:

  1. The Number 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
  2. Lizard by Banana Yoshimoto
  3. Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson
  4. Rashōmon and Seventeen Other Stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa
  5. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
  6. Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin
  7. The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
  8. In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez

Rereads for 2018

Out of 52 books, I reread 10 books from my childhood, adolescent, and young adult reading experiences:

  1. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
  2. The Swinging Bridge by Ramabai Espinet
  3. The Amazing Absorbing Boy by Rabindranath Maharaj
  4. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
  5. The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
  6. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
  7. The Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
  8. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens by Sean Covey
  9. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
  10. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Favorite reread in 2018: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Are you also taking part in the Goodreads Challenge 2018? Share your progress so far in the comments!