forestofglory

So I've been attempting the Worldbuilder's Book Club reading challenge my friend quartzen put together. (Some will remember I put together a rec list based on the challenge) The challenge involves reading 12 non fiction books in 12 categories over the course of a year. So far I've completed four of the categories.

I've mostly been reading books that I would read anyways, like the books for my urban planning club or books I on Chinese history I was excited about, and fitting them into categories as best I can. However right now I'm reading a book I might not have prioritized otherwise because it fits the "Diplomacy, Military Conflict, and International Relations" category.

Here's the categories and what I've read so far or am thinking of reading. (Completed prompts in underlined)

1. Politics, Crime, and Law
Indelible City: Dispossession and Defiance in Hong Kong by Louisa Lim - this the next book for urban planning club

2. Diplomacy, Military Conflict, and International Relations
Chinese Martial Arts by Peter a. Lorge -- just stared this

3. Travel, Trade, and Migration
The King's Road: Diplomacy and the Remaking of the Silk Road by Xin Wen

4. Urban Life and Architecture
The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit by Thomas J. Sugrue - read for Urban Planning book club earlier this year

5. Rural Life and Agriculture
I feel like i should have more on my TBR that would fit here but maybe Knowing Manchuria: Environments, the Senses, and Natural Knowledge on an Asian Borderland by Ruth Rogaski or Of Tripod and Palate: Food, Politics, and Religion in Traditional China ed Roel Sterckx

6. Work, Labor, and Daily Life
Divine, Demonic, and Disordered: Women Without Men in Song Dynasty China by Hsiao-Wen Cheng

7. Culture and Religion
Ethnic Identity in Tang China by Marc S. Abramson (Many of the books I read would be an easy fit here)

8. Arts and Material Culture
Artisans in Early Imperial China by Anthony J. Barbieri-Low (I own a copy)

9. Science and Technology
Good Formulas: Empirical Evidence in Mid-Imperial Chinese Medical Texts by Ruth Yun-Ju Chen or Ordering the Myriad Things: From Traditional Knowledge to Scientific Botany in China by Nicholas K. Menzies

10. Geography and Cartography
Fruitful Sites: Garden Culture in Ming Dynasty China by Craig Clunas

11. Weather and Climate
Hazardous Metropolis: Flooding and Urban Ecology in Los Angeles by Jared Orsi -- this has been on my TBR a long time but I got sucked into reading about Chinese history and never got to it.

12. Flora and Fauna
Gardenland: Nature, Fantasy, and Everyday Practice by Jennifer Wren Atkinson or Trees in Paradise: A California History by Jared Farmer (Ordering the Myriad Things: From Traditional Knowledge to Scientific Botany in China by Nicholas K. Menzies would also fit here)