Readathon 2018 Mini Challenge: #CoverFromMemory

Happy 24 Hour Readathon, everybody! I have a mini-challenge here for you...one that I absolutely adore. I was going to try to come up with a new idea, but this one just makes me laugh too much. It's the classic, very funny #CoverFromMemory. You know it, you love it. But if you don't, here's more on the challenge:

I don't know about you all, but even before I was a bookseller, I prided myself on how I would remember the covers of books. I was never completely helpless when a bookstore customer came up to me and said that they don't know the name of the book, but it's blue. But how good would I actually be at reproducing these book covers? It's time to find out.

What I want you to do is think of a book. Maybe an all-time favorite, maybe a book you read two months ago. Now, with no googling or shelf-searching, you need to draw it. You don't need to be an artist! Let's be real, the uglier it is, the better. Imaginary bonus points if you use MS Paint. Here's my example where I drew Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller.

I couldn't find my colored pencils, so I did a sick hand-drawn/photoshop combo. I don't know why I didn't remember that the ghosty thing very explicitly looked like a person. Anyway: YIKE.

Accuracy won't get you the win; just participation! Either post your creation in the comments or share it on social media (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Litsy, or the comment here) with the hashtags #Readathon **AND** #CoverFromMemory.

At the end of the readathon, one winner will be randomly chosen and will win my Outlandish Lit Weird Ebook Bundle. The ebook bundle has 13 novels and short story collections in it, all DRM free (and legally obtained!!). If you're a fan of weird fiction, strange lyrical poetry, and sci-fi, this is the collection of books for you. It has two of my favorite books in it! Good luck and I hope you enjoy this ridiculous break from reading!

Some Possible Solutions by Helen Phillips: Review + Giveaway

Some Possible Solutions by Helen Phillips
Publisher: Henry Holt. March 31, 2016.
Pages: 224
Genre: Literary Fiction
Source: Publisher



ADD TO GOODREADS

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BUY FROM BOOK DEPOSITORY

What if your perfect hermaphrodite match existed on another planet? What if you could suddenly see through everybody's skin to their organs? What if you knew the exact date of your death? What if your city was filled with doppelgangers of you?

Forced to navigate these bizarre scenarios, the characters search for solutions to the problem of how to survive in an irrational, infinitely strange world. In dystopias that are exaggerated versions of the world in which we live, these characters strive for intimacy and struggle to resolve their fraught relationships with each other, with themselves, and with their place in the natural world. We meet a wealthy woman who purchases a high-tech sex toy in the shape of a man, a rowdy, moody crew of college students who resolve the energy crisis, and orphaned twin sisters who work as futuristic strippers--and we see that no one is quite who they appear. -Goodreads

I'm a huge Helen Phillips fan. I'm still obsessed with her debut novel The Beautiful Bureaucrat and constantly find myself recommending it. So you can imagine how excited I was to hear that she had a new collection of short stories coming out. You can count on Phillips for at least a little bit of weirdness in each story she tells, often veering into science fiction territory, and she didn't disappoint in that respect.

Almost all of the stories are sort of dystopian. Characters live in worlds that are slightly different from ours, but worlds that are still believable. Still startling close. Characters yearn for how things used to be and struggle against their new realities. They're mournful and strange, but small bright spots of hope slip in through the cracks of these stories. Almost all of them are heavily relationship or childrearing focused. This isn't really a problem, but I'm both coldhearted and picky. So after a while, the stories started to blend together a little bit and felt borderline one note.

Some Possible Solutions holds some very powerful, strange stories that are going to stay with me forever.  "The Knowers" is the first story and possibly my favorite: people can opt to learn the exact date of their death. We see how that affects a relationship and it's incredible. The writing is tight and gripping, and the ending moved me to tears. "Life Care Center" is autobiographical and heartbreaking. "The Joined" is a fantastic alien tale of finding a planet where each of us Earthlings have a perfect match, and we learn what joining with that match means. "Children" is another great alien story of sorts, where a parent doesn't quite understand her twin children. One of the child-themed stories I actually really liked. And, the powerful final "Contamination Generation" about a man's attempt to make his daughter's life magical in a grim near-future.

He knows better than anyone how they are always talking to each other in a language we don't understand, always putting jam on their hot dogs. They've never belonged to us, not even for a second. - Children

At the same time, there are a lot of stories that I straight up did not understand. And I'm kind of used to not understanding a number of contemporary short stories in a collection. This just got kind of frustrating because I'd read three stories in a row and at the end of each think "Well, there goes another one -- right over my head." Specifically, some that left me confused: "Game", "The Worst", "How I Began to Bleed Again After Six Alarming Months Without." There are definitely more, but I'm giving myself some credit in that I "sort of" got them and was just mildly confused at the end.

Ok, I just went and counted the stories and I wasn't confident about understanding quite literally half of them. I hope for a better ratio when reading, and I don't know if it's the stories or if it's me. A lot of them were missing that dark cleverness that I really appreciated in The Beautiful Bureaucrat and perhaps unfairly expected to find in this collection. Overall it was a fascinating read -- being in Phillips' head always is -- but it did not completely live up to my expectations. 




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The Month-long Weirdathon Begins & The Achievements

IT'S HERE! March, the month of my three year blogiversary, is here and I'm SO ready to celebrate with the Weirdathon! Keep coming back to this page to update your progress on the reading achievements in the Rafflecopter. Every Wednesday there will be a new Weekly Weird-off post. And every Saturday I'll post a link-up for your weekly Weirdathon reading posts! Keep us up to date on what you're reading and have fun!! I'll be posting my reviews and lists of weird books throughout the month.

THE WEIRD READING CHALLENGE

Read as many weird books as you can during March! Once you're signed up you can enter the Rafflecopter below to win a book worth $15 USD or under from Book Depository, as long as you're in a country that gets free shipping. You will then reveal 14 achievements to help guide your reading and give you extra entries in the giveaway! You can't use one book for more than one of the achievements (other than the read 1, read 5, read 10 achievements). So if you read a book that had aliens AND an experimental format, you'll have to choose one achievement to use that book on. Still looking for books to read? Click here to see my lists of weird books.

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THE BOOKSTAGRAM CHALLENGE

If you're an Instagram lover, now is the time to start hunting for the weirdest book covers you can find. Take a lovely/bizarre photo of what you find, tag it with #weirdathon, and they'll be entered for judging (by me because I'm obviously an expert). Multiple entries encouraged! Show me the weirdest book covers ever! Winner gets a book of choice from Book Depository $15 or under if you're in a country that gets free shipping.

HUNT FOR THE WEIRDEST BOOK

As you're working on your reading challenge, pitch the weirdest books you read in a single tweet with the hashtag #weirdathon. At the end of the month, there will be a vote for the most compelling pitch and the winner gets a weird e-book bundle curated by yours truly! Keep writing pitches for the weird books you read for more chances to win AND to inspire other participants with your recommendations. We WILL find the weirdest book published this March.

THE WEEKLY WEIRD-OFFS

The debates have begun! Every Wednesday you'll see two of your favorite book bloggers going head to head. They've each chosen a weird book and will argue to the death about which book is weirder. It's informative, it's intense, and it's pretty funny. Check back every week to see what book you should read next! Winner of the debate receives a weird e-book bundle I've curated.



There's still time to sign up HERE! The challenge ends March 31. Be sure to show us your TBR book stack by using the #weirdathon hashtag and posting your link HERE. 

LET'S GET WEIRD.

100 Facebook Followers Giveaway!

Oh thanks, everyone! 5 days ago I finally caved and made a Facebook page for Outlandish Lit, despite my aversion to "doing things." And it's already at 100+ likes! As promised, I have a little book giveaway for you.

The prize is a book of your choice that's $11 or under from Book Depository! Make sure that you enter by 7/23 (Thursday) at 12:00 AM (central). If you win, I'll email you asking for your book choice and mailing address. If I don't get a response in 48 hours, I'll have to move to the next person (sorry bout it).

Here are a number of books that I recommend AND are under $11. You certainly don't have to choose one of them if you win, but you wouldn't regret it if you did.





This giveaway is open internationally if Book Depository ships to you for free! Good luck!

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