Bookwormish, 4th quarter of 2016
Dec. 31st, 2016 10:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
starfishstarI’ll be back at some point soon to do my whole-year reflection about my whoooole year’s reading, but first, this quarter’s top books!
Sheesh, I guess I read 33 books this quarter? A couple years ago, that probably would have been my total for a whole year.
And, huh, I’m having trouble picking one or two favorites, like I would usually do. This quarter I read a lot of books, and liked a lot of them, but nothing’s jumping out as an obvious far-and-away favorite. So instead I’ll list quite a few that I liked and recommend!
TOP BOOKS:
Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older
The rare case of a book that really is fully as good as the buzz that preceded it: an urban fantasy novel with a black Latina protagonist, otherworldly magic interwoven with real world concerns, excellent POC and LGBTQ representation, a strong female lead, and a great story. Highly recommended for…all teenagers, but also, everybody.
Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
Smart, incisive, painful, important, incredibly thought-provoking. File next to Ta-Nehisi Coates’ “Between the World and Me,” read both, then read again…
Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu
A modern-day retelling of The Snow Queen (in Minnesota!) that’s both wonderful in the way it draws in and twists about elements from other Hans Christian Andersen tales, and also surprisingly melancholy, even when it reaches its ostensibly happy ending. But I’m still reflecting on it over a month later, and that’s generally a good sign.
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
Damn this man is brilliant. I need to read more and then much more by him. Some of the things in this book of essays on American racism (published in 1963) were so chillingly accurate in describing America RIGHT NOW TODAY IN 2016 that I don’t even know what to say about it. James Baldwin is so insightful…and I wish he weren’t still right.
Ms. Marvel by G. Willow Wilson & Adrian Alphona (comic; I read vol. 1–2)
Another promising-looking offering that really did live up to its hype! I don’t even read comics, but as a person who works with teenagers and thinks constantly about diversity and representation, how could I pass up the first superhero comic to star a Muslim American teenage girl?? Even better, it’s far from being just about that one “issue” – the whole thing’s excellently written, a very well-done story about a girl grappling with her suddenly acquired superpowers, who just happens to also be a first-generation American straddling two cultures.
MORE GOOD BOOKS:
Independent People by Halldór Laxness
I spent months wrestling my way through this tome, but I finally made it! Long, dense passages of crushing poverty and drudgery broken through at unexpected intervals by flashes of such beauty – in both the landscape and the prose.
A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
Having read only Woolf’s fiction before (and only one book at that) I was surprised at how accessible this was, how chatty and personable and above all how modern. I always forget that the 1920s weren’t as far back in the dark ages as I tend to think… I’m glad I finally read this slim but important classic.
My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry by Fredrik Backman
Had to see what all the Fredrik Backman fuss was about and this was the book I happened to get my hands on first. While I was reading it, I wasn’t sure what I thought of it, but in retrospect I think I’m quite charmed.
Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat
I finished this book too recently to be able to sum it up effectively, but I think I’m impressed. The structure is pretty spare. In my head, I couldn’t help comparing this (Danticat’s novel set in Haiti) somewhat unfavorably to Junot Díaz’s novels (set the neighboring Dominican Republic). Díaz has such an (over)abundance of detail – whereas in Danticat’s book, much of the time I felt like I was being given only a sketch of the thing, not the whole story. But by the end, I was wholly won over.
Life Among the Savages by Shirley Jackson
The people who describe this book as a lighthearted portrait of a lovingly chaotic family life, did they actually read the book? Shirley Jackson is brilliant as always, but the book has a lurking darkness, all the darker for the ostensibly light surface. I felt crawling, clawing claustrophobia by the end, and I actually found this “lighthearted” account of Jackson’s real life as a housewife far more unsettling than her horror novels. Which should tell you something about life for women in 1950s America.
FELL SHORT FOR ME IN SOME WAYS, BUT NONETHELESS GLAD I READ IT:
•Ask the Passengers – A. S. King
•Saving Montgomery Sole – Mariko Tamaki
•Ash – Malinda Lo
•Tell the Wolves I’m Home – Carol Rifka Brunt
Probably no coincidence that all of the above deal in one way or another with teens + LGBTQ themes – I think that’s both why I want to hold them to high standards, but also why I’m not sorry I read them, even if they didn’t 100% meet what I was looking for.
.
Sheesh, I guess I read 33 books this quarter? A couple years ago, that probably would have been my total for a whole year.
And, huh, I’m having trouble picking one or two favorites, like I would usually do. This quarter I read a lot of books, and liked a lot of them, but nothing’s jumping out as an obvious far-and-away favorite. So instead I’ll list quite a few that I liked and recommend!
TOP BOOKS:
Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older
The rare case of a book that really is fully as good as the buzz that preceded it: an urban fantasy novel with a black Latina protagonist, otherworldly magic interwoven with real world concerns, excellent POC and LGBTQ representation, a strong female lead, and a great story. Highly recommended for…all teenagers, but also, everybody.
Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
Smart, incisive, painful, important, incredibly thought-provoking. File next to Ta-Nehisi Coates’ “Between the World and Me,” read both, then read again…
Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu
A modern-day retelling of The Snow Queen (in Minnesota!) that’s both wonderful in the way it draws in and twists about elements from other Hans Christian Andersen tales, and also surprisingly melancholy, even when it reaches its ostensibly happy ending. But I’m still reflecting on it over a month later, and that’s generally a good sign.
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
Damn this man is brilliant. I need to read more and then much more by him. Some of the things in this book of essays on American racism (published in 1963) were so chillingly accurate in describing America RIGHT NOW TODAY IN 2016 that I don’t even know what to say about it. James Baldwin is so insightful…and I wish he weren’t still right.
Ms. Marvel by G. Willow Wilson & Adrian Alphona (comic; I read vol. 1–2)
Another promising-looking offering that really did live up to its hype! I don’t even read comics, but as a person who works with teenagers and thinks constantly about diversity and representation, how could I pass up the first superhero comic to star a Muslim American teenage girl?? Even better, it’s far from being just about that one “issue” – the whole thing’s excellently written, a very well-done story about a girl grappling with her suddenly acquired superpowers, who just happens to also be a first-generation American straddling two cultures.
MORE GOOD BOOKS:
Independent People by Halldór Laxness
I spent months wrestling my way through this tome, but I finally made it! Long, dense passages of crushing poverty and drudgery broken through at unexpected intervals by flashes of such beauty – in both the landscape and the prose.
A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
Having read only Woolf’s fiction before (and only one book at that) I was surprised at how accessible this was, how chatty and personable and above all how modern. I always forget that the 1920s weren’t as far back in the dark ages as I tend to think… I’m glad I finally read this slim but important classic.
My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry by Fredrik Backman
Had to see what all the Fredrik Backman fuss was about and this was the book I happened to get my hands on first. While I was reading it, I wasn’t sure what I thought of it, but in retrospect I think I’m quite charmed.
Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat
I finished this book too recently to be able to sum it up effectively, but I think I’m impressed. The structure is pretty spare. In my head, I couldn’t help comparing this (Danticat’s novel set in Haiti) somewhat unfavorably to Junot Díaz’s novels (set the neighboring Dominican Republic). Díaz has such an (over)abundance of detail – whereas in Danticat’s book, much of the time I felt like I was being given only a sketch of the thing, not the whole story. But by the end, I was wholly won over.
Life Among the Savages by Shirley Jackson
The people who describe this book as a lighthearted portrait of a lovingly chaotic family life, did they actually read the book? Shirley Jackson is brilliant as always, but the book has a lurking darkness, all the darker for the ostensibly light surface. I felt crawling, clawing claustrophobia by the end, and I actually found this “lighthearted” account of Jackson’s real life as a housewife far more unsettling than her horror novels. Which should tell you something about life for women in 1950s America.
FELL SHORT FOR ME IN SOME WAYS, BUT NONETHELESS GLAD I READ IT:
•Ask the Passengers – A. S. King
•Saving Montgomery Sole – Mariko Tamaki
•Ash – Malinda Lo
•Tell the Wolves I’m Home – Carol Rifka Brunt
Probably no coincidence that all of the above deal in one way or another with teens + LGBTQ themes – I think that’s both why I want to hold them to high standards, but also why I’m not sorry I read them, even if they didn’t 100% meet what I was looking for.
.
