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Okay, favorite books from this most recent quarter year, in roughly one sentence each, go…

TOP BOOKS 

The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik – I love it when an author takes the already excellent worldbuilding from their first book, and uses the second book in the series to unfold it further outward in unexpected yet inevitable directions; in other words, Naomi Novik continues to write at the top of her game.

Notes on Grief by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – A gentle and lovely elegy to her father.

The Secret to Superhuman Strength by Alison Bechdel – Like probably pretty much everyone else, I saw this and thought, Alison Bechdel wrote a book…about fitness…? But because it’s Alison Bechdel, fitness is a lens through which to examine the human condition, her struggle for utter self-sufficiency, and her gradual – and still ongoing – capitulation to the idea that not all interdependence with fellow human beings is a bad thing.

Shirley and Jamila’s Big Fall by Gillian Goerz – This sequel to Shirley and Jamila Save Their Summer continues to be a wonderful kids’ mystery/adventure, a modern-day, kid-scaled Sherlock Holmes retelling, but very much stands on its own with a core theme of friendship and what it means to be a good friend.

A Stranger at Home by Christy Jordan-Fenton and Margaret Pokiak-Fenton – Sequel to Fatty Legs, and I thought this one was even better – here Olemaun, an Inuvialuit girl, returns home from her terrible experience at Catholic boarding school and has to struggle with no longer quite belonging in either world.

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Books! Here are my favorites from the 4th quarter of 2019.

This was a bit of an odd quarter for me; I ended up reading much less than usual because of serious life stuff going on (only 5 books in October, and only 3 books in November???) And I was doing my big reread of the Raven Cycle at the same time… so this list is probably going to seem like it’s about half Maggie Stiefvater!

Also, somehow I didn’t end up with any “very top books” like I usually would (runaway favorites that I just have to gush about), though of course I’ve got a whole bunch of books that were good and I recommend. So this time around I’m just calling the first category here “good books.”

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The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui – A truly excellent and moving memoir that interweaves the author’s experiences as a child immigrant in the US, with her parents’ wartime experiences in Vietnam, all seen through the prism of the author’s own shifting perspectives now that she’s a parent of her own child.

The Memory of Light by Francisco X. Stork – In recent months I’ve hit on some really fantastic examples of just how much the YA genre has to offer in powerful, empathetic examinations of mental health/illness… This is a beautiful portrait of a depressed teenager figuring out how to find meaning in life again.

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid – A reread; yup, still brilliant.

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson – Also a reread; also still brilliant.

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf – I don’t really know how to describe Virginia Woolf, since she’s so famously and obviously brilliant. I’m still trying to catch up on her canon.
 

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VERY TOP BOOK:

Tess of the Road by Rachel Hartman

It is so rare that I’m able to pick just one favorite out of the 30 or more books I read in a quarter (!), but this time there’s no question: It’s Tess of the Road, by the ever-increasingly brilliant Rachel Hartman.

Tess is a very traumatized, very angry person, forcing down every single one of her desires for the sake of her family. This is the story of how she finally breaks away and starts walking, coming to know herself as she just keeps walking down the road. It’s an amazing portrait of grief and healing, of friendship and family ties and how to balance them with the needs of the self. And because it’s Rachel Hartman, it’s often funny too, and the world-building is as flawless as ever. (This book falls under fantasy, probably YA fantasy, but I’ve been recommending it even to people who normally never touch fantasy, because it’s just that good.) What also blew me away was the compassion that keeps unfolding throughout the book – every minor character gets a chance to be seen as more than just what the protagonist first thought of them. Truly astounding. Such a beautiful and necessary book, I could write about it for pages and still feel speechless.

MORE TOP BOOKS:

Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado – Machado combines vivid, visceral realism with a twist of fantasy and a touch of horror to tell powerful stories. And she’s very, very good.

Chime by Franny Billingsley – Another beautiful Franny Billingsley story of learning to outgrow past beliefs that are hurting you, in a beautifully realized folklore-based setting. Also, Billingsley practically creates her own language for her character’s inner voice. (Warning, though: this otherwise beautiful book includes a very negative portrayal of an autistic secondary character, so proceed with caution if that’s upsetting!)

The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson – A book that is impossible to describe. A nonfiction portrait of love (both as partner and parent) and of making a nontraditional, queer family. Nelson’s writing draws deeply on poetry, philosophy, sex and everyday domesticity and – as one reviewer said – turns every one of those things on its head.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid – Hamid’s Exit West was another rare case of a book that won my clear favorite of a whole quarter, quite possibly a whole year. So I wanted to read more by him, and this didn’t disappoint. A seemingly simplistic set-up (a friendly local tells his life story to a visiting tourist, as they drink tea at a local market) twists more and more complexly, as you increasingly wonder who is telling the truth and who, if anyone, is what they seem.

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neal Hurston – Another classic I’m so glad I finally read: Hurston’s portrait of a woman coming into herself and her own narrative voice.

The Sealwoman’s Gift by Sally Magnusson – Recommended to me, of course, because of the Iceland connection and the folklore connection (thanks to gilpin25 for being the first to mention it!) but why it captured me was Magnusson’s gentle, compassionate portrait of long-ago people bearing unbearable horrors, bringing vivid life to people who are otherwise just names in a historical record.

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward – Ward weaves together the small incidents of daily life and the heady themes of mythology to tell the story of Esch, her brothers and their dog, surviving extreme poverty and neglect in the days leading up to Hurricane Katrina.

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli – Wait, wasn’t this already one of my top books in a previous quarter? Why yes, it was, but I recently reread it and it’s still a favorite. :-) I reread this after seeing the movie; because I’m very, VERY glad the movie exists – it was good in many ways and so important in many more – but I found it only middling as an adaptation of the book. A lot of the things that are cringe-worthy in the movie (or just underdeveloped) are beautifully handled in the book. One to read and reread!

So first of all, we’re halfway through 2017 and I’m currently reading my 59th book of the year. I feel like I’ve been reading less this year than last, but so far apparently I’ve read more?? (I’m not done with it yet, so I can’t count it for this quarter, but book number 59 is On the Move: A Life, Oliver Sacks’ memoir, and it’s delightful!)

Second: it’s time for this quarter’s book post!

It rarely happens that I’m able to pick just one clear favorite, because I like so many books, but this time I’ve got one:

VERY TOP BOOK:

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

            This book floored me. For the beautiful, subtle prose that fairly slips by – I’d read half the book almost before I’d realized it. For the deep, emotional place it hit me – I want to call it an allegory for the current real-world refugee crisis, because it is, but to say that also sells it so very short. If I call it that, you might think it’s overtly political (it’s not; it’s a love story, among many other things). You might thing it’s a sad, tough, weary tale of people in abject poverty, people very different from us, “other” people that those of us who are Western-first-world readers will sympathize with but maybe also struggle to relate to, but it’s not that at all – and that’s just one of many things I found so brilliant about the book. It’s a story of two young urbanites, going about life with their smartphones and their jobs and all, until their city gets overtaken by war. Like anyone’s city might get overtaken by war. It hit me so emotionally in part because – though the protagonists’ homeland is carefully never specified – I couldn’t help thinking of a Syrian friend of mine who was in Berlin as a highly qualified student…until circumstances back home changed and all of a sudden he was in Berlin as a refugee. That can happen to anyone. This is not about Muslims or third world countries or however else it’s easy to “other” refugees. It’s about people, trying to get on with the daily business of being people to each other. But I’m still selling this wrong, because it’s not a book about war. It’s a magical realism book (a bit). It’s a slightly-sci-fi book set in a near-future world, with a surprisingly optimistic view of humanity offering up both the worst and the best of itself. It’s stunningly encompassing, for a slim little book of little over 200 pages, and yet very specific, a story of two people trying to hold their love together against the odds, and it walks that balance incredibly well. Mohsin Hamid IS BRILLIANT in other words.

MORE TOP BOOKS: 

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