Shaina Reads

“...the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably. They don’t deceive you with thrills and trick endings. They don’t surprise you with the unforeseen. They are as familiar as the house you live in. Or the smell of your lover’s skin. You know how they end, yet you listen as though you don’t. In the way that although you know that one day you will die, you live as though you won’t. In the Great Stories you know who lives, who dies, who finds love, who doesn’t. And yet you want to know again.

That is their mystery and their magic.” 

Were you expecting my pick? How did your brackets turn out? Also, have a shameless plug for my MLK 3-Day Read-a-thon, going on NOW!

Guys, why isn't it Friday? There's this three-day weekend looming in the distance, tantalizing me with its many long, unplanned hours (no work shift this Saturday, woo!), and yet it's still only Thursday. Life is hard and stuff. (P.S. Are there any MLK, Jr. Day weekend read-a-thons going on? Would anyone join if I started one? Maybe I'll just, y'know, decide to read a lot on my own. That could be a thing, too.)

All right, ridiculous internal monologue out of the way. BOTY bracket! If you don't know what that is, head on over to Erratic Project Junkie and check out everything Elle has to say about it.

I made two hard decisions today. One was a bit easier than the other, but I still spent a lot of time staring at my bracket and wishing I didn't have to choose. Like I said in my last post, each of these four is a really, really good book. Can't we share the love? But, I DID IT. I did it for you. Or at least for Elle.

I might be just a tad hyper today.


This one was the easier of the two. Women—and tough topics associated with womanhood—are the driving force of both. I've written a little about them in previous BOTY Bracket posts, so refer to those if you want more of my reasoning. While He, She and It was a fantastic read, Possessing the Secret of Joy was a fantastic read and a punch in the gut. Apparently, I like gut punches, because the latter takes the win.


I'm still agonizing over this one. The pairing had me looking up memorable quotes on Goodreads and thinking over the context in which I read each book, because there just wasn't a clear winner in terms of subject matter. Both of them rock, and I've told you why a few different times over the course of this challenge. I finally settled on an answer: it was rough to let The Cider House Rules go, but The God of Small Things takes this match-up.

So we're left with two super heavy books by awesome women. I can't complain about this, but I will complain about having to pick between the two of them on Saturday. Why?

Aaaaand when I first posted this, I forgot the bracket. Go me. Here you are:


Have you guys picked your semifinalists? Did they surprise you? Does anyone else feel like the calendar is wrong and it's definitely Friday? Talk to me!

And now to reveal the final four in the Book of the Year (BOTY) Bracket Challenge, hosted by the lovely Elle from Erratic Project Junkie.

For the first time, I've found myself doubting which book is going to end up the winner! What kind of witchcraft have you constructed here, Elle?! I suppose the idea of completing a bracket if you already know the book that's going to win is silly, and I'm glad not only to be participating in the challenge but also to potentially be proven wrong in my own predictions.

Anyway, since I only made four choices this time around, here's how it went down:


I read The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde on a train ride home from a summer trip and was immediately drawn in by its spooky setting and the darkness of its themes. I loved it for many of the same reasons I loved Frankenstein, some of which I mentioned in my Elite Eight post. I also explained exactly why I loved He, She and It in that post. If you've been keeping up, then you shouldn't be surprised to hear that He, She and It takes the win.


Dracula was such a good Halloween read—I knew it was a classic, creepy story I should have under my belt, but I didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I did! The format of the story was especially engaging, letting readers rifle through the minds of several characters through a series of letters and diary entries. Possessing the Secret of Joy actually followed a similar format (we read from the perspectives of all the main characters), but the subject matter couldn't be more different. This book broke my heart, all the more so because young women still go through what Evelyn/Tashi did, even in developed, Western nations. My bleeding heart and feminist fury made this choice simple. Alice Walker it is.


Ah, Anna Karenina. You were the first book I read in 2014, and it took me about three months to finish you. You were a behemoth—a beautifully-written, thoughtful, all-too-human behemoth. I wish I had been blogging back in March, because you would have made for a wonderful post, and the outcome of this match-up might have been different. As it is, you've faded from my mind, and, for reasons I've mentioned before, The God of Small Things was such an important read to me in 2014. It takes this round.


I gushed over The Cider House Rules in my last post. Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption are the memoirs of Bryan Stevenson, a lawyer who founded the Equal Justice Initiative and devotes his career to challenging wrongful convictions and fighting for the rights of the incarcerated. I read and reviewed it late last year. I would put Just Mercy in the same basket as The New Jim Crow, though from a much more personal slant. These issues are important to me and so terribly important for everyone to pay attention to. However, I can't get Cider House out of my mind, and for that reason, the fiction beats out the non-fiction.

And here's my updated bracket:

Can we just leave it at Final Four? These are all good books. Really. Don't make me choose!

Show me your brackets! Were you surprised by any of my picks this time?

We're back with the 2014 BOTY Bracket, hosted by Elle of Erratic Project Junkie. Now to pick... eight! Easy Eight? Ethereal Eight?

Oh. Elite Eight. I'm bad at sports.

I meant to get this post up last night, but after getting to bed late on Friday and working most of yesterday, all I had energy for was a glass of Merlot, a plate of lasagna, and my couch with my Kindle. No regrets.

As I knew it would be, this round was close to impossible, and I'm still not sure I made all the right picks. Like last time, many of the books paired against each other are so different, and I don't know any other circumstance under which I'd compare classics to non-fiction, or Alice Walker to Frances Hodgson Burnett. Such is the way of the BOTY bracket!

A few tough choices this time around (as always, all images from Goodreads):


Last time you saw me agonize about White Teeth and The God of Small Things getting paired against each other last time around, and this time we have another top read of the year against TGoST. I read Doomsday Book shortly after the October Dewey's read-a-thon, and I quickly fell in love with Connie Willis's humorous writing and her knack for making her historical fiction come to life. This woman does her research, and it shows. But, again, TGoST is just too much of a heavyweight, and I said goodbye to Doomsday this round. (Sniff.)



I originally began reading He, She and It as a two-person book club with a good friend of mine, both of us wanting to read more feminist sci-fi. I'm not sure he ended up finishing, but I was captivated by the mix of a futuristic dystopia with the Jewish folktale of the golem of Prague. While feminism wasn't a driving force in the story, it shone through in the way Piercy unapologetically populated her book with complex, interesting female characters. Although Bernadette was a really enjoyable vacation romp, He, She and It takes the win.



Ugh. I love Frankenstein. I love its exploration of identity, of the beauty and the monstrosity of mankind, and I love that it was written by an eighteen-year-old woman. What isn't to love here? (I know it isn't everyone's favorite, but y'know, my blog.) But then The Cider House Rules comes along and decides to pair off with it, and I just can't forget about how much I adored that brick of a novel, about its flawed characters and stomach-turning debates about how to define life, and the image of that bleak orphanage in St. Cloud's, surrounded by apple trees and filled with the deepest sort of sadness. I'm sorry, Dr. Frankenstein. Dr. Larch is in the house.

My full bracket:


Now off to finish off Bout of Books 12 strong and not think about picking my Final Four. Gulp.

Show me your brackets! Or, rather, I'll check out yours, because you probably posted them on time.

We're back for the first elimination round of the 2014 Book of the Year (BOTY) Bracket Challenge, hosted by Elle of Erratic Project Junkie! To find out what we're up to, check out my sign-up post or Elle's everything-BOTY headquarters.

(Quick note: Sorry to any readers not similarly swept up in reading challenges right now—BOTY and Bout of Books fell during the same week, so my posts are going to be fairly challenge-heavy. Feel free to tune in again next week if you're sick of my themed ramblings.)

While some other bloggers have 64-slot brackets to work with, my first elimination round reveals my Sweet Sixteen!

First of all: guys, this was hard. I want to write about all the tough decisions I made filling out the second round of the bracket, but I'd end up rambling, and you'd end up asleep. So let me tell you about a few (all images from Goodreads):



These two books were probably my top reads of the year (noting, however, that my serious thinking/book blogging only began in November). I'm pretty sure my random number sequence generator conspired against me on this one. I loved both books for similar reasons, ones you can read in my reviews of them. TGoST was ultimately the more poetic, heart-wrenching read for me, so it won this bout. Sorry, White Teeth—I promise I still love you!




Both of these are really powerful and disturbing books. Alice Walker's examination of racism and domestic violence crackles with feminist rage, while Chinua Achebe's is quieter, more subdued in its portrayal of the terror of a village watching its traditions crumble. My reasons for choosing Things Fall Apart over The Color Purple aren't purely based on the novels themselves—I have more vivid memories of reading TFA (where I was, what I was doing, the things I was thinking about), and another of Walker's novels already made my sweet sixteen. So there you have it.


It almost feels unfair to pit these two against each other—one is an extremely important overview of the state of American prisons, including the insidious racism that permeates police work and sentencing, and the other is a beautiful, sprawling classic about love, family, and meeting (and not meeting) expectations. Arguably, I learned a lot more from The New Jim Crow, but I just couldn't cast East of Eden aside. It was a gorgeous novel. I might regret this decision later, but, then again, I don't think Jim Crow would have been my #1 for the year anyway.

And here we are with the bracket (yep, still super ugly):

How did everyone else do this round? I want to hear all about your tough choices!

The Book of the Year Bracket Challenge is a blogging challenge open to all reading bloggers and operated by Elle at Erratic Project Junkie.  Participants set a goal for the number of books they wish to read in a year and then enter those books into an NCAA style bracket of any size and in any order they choose. During January 2015, all participating bloggers will begin working through their brackets, eliminating books and picking champions with the ultimate goal of naming their favorite book (book of the year) for 2014. For all BOTY Bracket Challenge information, scheduling, and updates, visit Erratic Project Junkie.

Because I'm a little late to the game on this one, I'm going to combine my Book of the Year (BOTY) Bracket Challenge sign-up post with my bracket reveal. Forgive me, Elle! :)

I read 48 books this year (note: two of the books on my GR challenge page are actually short stories, thus the total of 50). Amazingly, I trimmed my count down for the 32-slot bracket just by removing my books ranked 1, 2 and 3 stars. Convenient, eh? This leaves me with my 4- and 5-star reads for the year!

1. Where'd You Go, Bernadette, by Maria Semple (4.5 stars)
2. The God of Small Things, by Arundhati Roy (5 stars)
3. Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis (5 stars)
4. White Teeth, by Zadie Smith (5 stars)
5. Possessing the Secret of Joy, by Alice Walker (5 stars)
6. He, She and It, by Marge Piercy (5 stars)
7. The Cider House Rules, by John Irving (5 stars)
8. The Ways of White Folks, by Langston Hughes (5 stars)
9. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley (5 stars)
10. Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy (5 stars)
11. Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, by Bryan Stevenson (4 stars)
12. Ancillary Sword, by Ann Leckie (4 stars)
13. On Immunity: An Inoculation, by Eula Biss (4 stars)
14. The Return of the King, by J.R.R. Tolkien (4 stars)
15. Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie (4 stars)
16. To Say Nothing of the Dog, by Connie Willis (4 stars)
17. A Little Princess, by Frances Hodgson Burnett (4 stars)
18. The Fire Next Time, by James Baldwin (4 stars)
19. The Color Purple, by Alice Walker (4 stars)
20. Dracula, by Bram Stoker (4 stars)
21. Catch-22, by Joseph Heller (4 stars)
22. We Have Always Lived in the Castle, by Shirley Jackson (4 stars)
23. The Speed of Dark, by Elizabeth Moon (4 stars)
24. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, by Michelle Alexander (4 stars)
25. The Diamond Age, by Neal Stephenson (4 stars)
26. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson (4 stars)
27. The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood (4 stars)
28. 2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke (4 stars)
29. Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad (4 stars)
30. Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe (4 stars)
31. East of Eden, by John Steinbeck (4 stars)
32. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens (4 stars)

Here's my bracket:


I put this together while sitting in the airport, so excuse its ugliness—I may fix it up for future posts, but it's entirely possible it will remain an eyesore. Again, forgiveness requested.

Some of the book titles are shortened for space. I seeded it by the same randomized method Elle used. There are already clear winners for many of the pairings, but others are going to require more thought. This will especially hold true for the books I read earlier in the year, before I began blogging and dedicating so much of time to mulling over my reading.

I can't wait to see everyone else's brackets and let the bookish games begin!

Is anyone else participating in the BOTY Bracket Challenge? Show me your brackets!