Books 2018: Quarter 1

As you probably already know, I've been reading a classic a month for the last two years. It started as a one-year project in 2014, but I've enjoyed it enough to keep going with it & will probably continue until it starts to feel like a chore. You can find my past reviews by clicking on the "books" tag at the end of this post, or be my friend on Goodreads. (You can also just go to the site & hunt down my review feed without being my friend. Don't worry, you won't hurt my feelings.)

***Also*** there is a group of us who are girding our loins to attack Gravity's Rainbow sometime in the not-too-dim-and-misty future, so give a holler if you've got the cojones and want in.

ICYMI, the classics I selected to read in 2018 are here.

On to the reviews!

THE CLASSICS:

January: Wild Seed, by Octavia E. Butler (1980, 320 pages). 5 stars. Um. Potentially *the* best sci fi I've ever read. I struggled to describe this book & then stumbled onto someone else's review who did it perfectly, so: "The book starts off in 1690, in Africa, and ends in 1840s in the United States. It follows the immortal man/spirit Doro – born in Africa in the days of ancient Egypt, and Anyanwu, an African woman with astonishing powers that set her apart from everyone around her. Doro brings Anyanwu to America, and she becomes part of his “people”: an extensive group of individuals who are ruled by, and selectively bred by Doro to enhance their various special abilities. With that as its starting point, ‘Wild Seed’ becomes a haunting, rich, and compelling story of Anyanwu’s struggle to survive in the new world under Doro’s rule, exploring themes like good and evil, slavery and oppression, race and eugenics, family and friendship, love and the essence of life itself: What makes life worth living? What is a good life? What is worth living for? What is worth dying for?" Gods, it was just brilliant.

February: The Fire Next Time, by James Baldwin (1963, 106 pages). 5 stars. A set of two beautiful essays published in the early 1960s addressing race relations in the US, the history of how we'd gotten to that point, and where we might go next. Not technically a book but I've been meaning to read it forever and not getting around to it because "Oh, that's so short & quick, I can read it any old time," which meant, of course, that I never actually did. Since it's Black History Month, February is traditionally where I choose a classic by a Black writer and I thought assigning it to myself this year for my February classic would be a good way to actually finally read it. This book was so short and brilliant that I can easily recommend it to anyone, though I suspect that a lot of people (particularly white people) might find some of the ideas challenging and not be ready to think about them. The title comes from a couplet from a Negro spiritual: "God gave Noah the rainbow sign / No more water, the fire next time!"

March: The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath (1963, 244 pages). 3 stars. Sylvia Plath's single, autobiographical novel tells the story of Esther Greenwood, an academically successful college student in the 1950s who ultimately experiences a nervous breakdown, attempts suicide multiple times, and is committed to an asylum. At first she just seems sort of entitled, incompetent, & generally unlikable, but over time it becomes clearer that, ohhhhhh, this young lady is clinically depressed and needs a lot of help and empathy. Which is sort of real in the sense that you don't always know when someone is having a mental illness, so maybe give people the benefit of the doubt before you judge them. It was certainly well written and an interesting read, but I think my trouble was that I could not connect or relate to the main character or her inner life at all. In college girls used to talk about this book in hushed tones & how obsessed they became with it and how it was "so real" so I was a little surprised to read it & go, "Wow, I have nothing in common with this girl or her experiences in any way."

OTHER RECENT READS:

I actually read a lot of really good books this quarter, which is partly to do with the fact that so many of them were on the short side. Usually I leave out anything I gave two stars or less, but the bar was high this quarter, so you get only my four and five star reads (which is still many!).

The Stone Sky (The Broken Earth #3), by N.K. Jemisin. (2017, 416 pages) 5 stars. Guys, what can I say about this book that I didn't say about the first two in the series, except that with any series with a strong start & middle you always have the question of whether the conclusion will live up to the promise of the earlier volumes, and The Stone Sky absolutely 100% does. The whole series is quite dark and sobering with precious little humor or lightness to cut it which often makes a book a struggle for me, however the story is so clever and absorbing and Jemisin's actual sentence/paragraph-level writing so masterful and soul-grabbing and mesmerizing that I could not put it down.

Come As You Are, by Emily Nagoski. (2015, 400 pages) 5 stars. Another of those Audible super discount sales. A couple of friends had raved about this book as an excellent read for all ladies so when it popped up on an Audible sale in March, I figured why not. And I totally agree -- this book should be required reading in all sex ed / sexual health classes, and I 100% recommend it for all ladies and all dudes interested in getting sexy with a lady and/or ladies in the present or future. Like. I fancy myself a pretty well educated 21st century sex positive feminist lady & even taught high school sex ed for several years, but I must still say that WOW, I learned SO MUCH after reading this book that I did not know before. Also, it's *really* funny and down to earth and approachable--it's all research/science based, but the author makes it extremely accessible & does a great job of translating research into everyday examples & narratives. (Also, I really enjoyed it as an audio book as it is read by the author and she has a wicked sense of humor that comes through in her reading.)

Borne, by Jeff VanderMeer. (2017, 323 pages) 5 stars. Both like and unlike the Southern Reach trilogy, Borne is the story of Rachel, a young woman scavenging for survival in a post-apocalyptic landscape with her (boyfriend? Partner? Companion?) Wick, who used to work for the sinister Company that we get the sense had perhaps more than a little to do with how things came to be post-apocalyptic in the first place. One day while scavenging in the fur of the giant flying bear-demon-god that now runs things, Rachel finds a little purple blob and takes it back to show Wick. And then things get all sorts of interesting. Unique, clever, well written, and kept me desperate to know what happened next from the first pages. A fairly quick read and not as complex as the Southern Reach books, but a great read if you're into interesting, cool, and different sci fi.

When You Reach Me, by Rebecca Stead. (2009, 199 pages) 5 stars. Probably the best middle grades book I have ever read! Twelve-year-old Miranda--obsessed with Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle In Time has begun receiving mysterious notes that seem to imply the writer has knowledge of the future. "I am coming to save your friend's life, and my own," they write. "First, you must write me a letter." The notes continue to arrive in the oddest of places, and Miranda's attention is split between trying to make sense of them and navigating typical sixth grade concerns like friendships, family dynamics, and boys. At less than 200 pages it's almost an epic poem more than a book; the writing and tone are perfect, and the characters are excellent. Give it to the middle schooler in your life, or read it yourself some lazy afternoon (seriously, that's all you'll need).

If Our Bodies Could Talk, by James Hamblin. (2016, 352 pages) 4 stars. This one was recommended to me by Erin. (Thanks Erin!) James Hamblin is a medical doctor turned health & medicine journalist, so he is sort of uniquely positioned to write this sort of book, which comprises a kind of human bodies FAQ. (Can my contact get stuck in brain? Should I be taking probiotics? Why is there no female Viagra?) It's organized by function rather than body system as traditional medical textbooks are ("Appearing: The Superficial Parts," "Eating: The Sustaining Parts," etc.), and the answers to the questions are both entertaining and supported by actual medical research and knowledge. If you are curious about health, bodies, medicine, etc. and are super pissed off by pseudoscience, you will probably enjoy. Minus one star for some truly terrible dad jokes/puns that were just not funny at alllllll.

The Hike, by Drew Magary. (2016, 278 pages) 4 stars. I read a description of this book as "a beach read for dudes," and you know, that's probably better than anything I could come up with. 38-year-old married with children Ben checks into a quaint bed-and-breakfast on a business trip and decides to go for a quick hike before dinner. Not too far in, he stumbles across a man wearing the ripped-off face of a Rottweiler for a mask hauling a bloody, mutilated body out of a shed, which is at the very least shall we say upsetting. Panicked and hysterical, he's unable to retrace his steps back to the inn and soon finds himself lost in a completely unfamiliar area with a dead phone. Things only get stranger from there. Giant cave crickets. Giant, cannibalistic lady giants. All manner of grotesque undead monsters. Crusty, old talking crabs. And through all this, Ben knows only that he must stay on The Path or risk death, despite complete ignorance of how he wound up there or where it will eventually lead him. I was a little concerned in the beginning that this book would end up so completely absurd that it would have no larger structure or point, just a series of wacky, somewhat grotesque events. But that was not the case--there is a larger game being played, here, though said game did not end up so dark and cerebral that the story ceased to function as a dude-friendly beach read. Also to me if you're going to write something this zany & off-the-wall your writing & character development better be on point, which it is.

The Girl Who Drank The moon, by Kelly Barnhill. (2016, 388 pages) 4 stars. For time immemorial, the citizens of the Protectorate have annually sacrificed the youngest child in their community to the witch living in the nearby woods in exchange for keeping them safe (though no one has ever seen her, or has any idea what she wants with the childre,n or what they are being kept safe from, exactly). Generally the parents of the sacrificial child accept this fate without protestation, but one year the child's mother gets violent and crazy as her daughter is left in the woods and has to be locked away in a tower. Meanwhile, an old witch called Zan dutifully collects the babies those crazy Protectorate people keep leaving in the woods every year, lord knows why, and delivering them safely to foster families in another town. But one year she collects the child, and instead of feeding her on harmless starlight as per usual, she accidentally feeds the girl moonlight, and things get a bit crazy. A lovely and beautifully written kind of fairy tale suitable for YA readers and maybe even precocious middle graders.

Goodbye, Things: The New Japanese , by Fumio Sasaki. (2017, 288 pages) 4 stars. I doubt I will ever become a true minimalist but lately I have been super obsessed with getting rid of stuff and also not acquiring new stuff, so I've been curious enough about minimalist ideas to peek at a few books on the subject. And oh, man. This book was equal parts sincerely interesting and illuminating, and absurd to the point of hilarity. Like, he makes some really excellent points about how having stuff "costs" more than just what you pay when you buy it; it takes up space in your house, has an opportunity cost in terms of space and money, and you then have to expend mental energy and maybe also additional money in maintaining, moving, and ultimately disposing of whatever it is. But also some of it is ridiculous. Like the part where he brags that he could pack up and move his entire house in 30 minutes at any point. Or the part where he takes minimalism to the extreme of suggesting that even striving to accomplish things in life is needless "mental clutter." But it's so ridiculous that's funny, so I actually kind of still enjoyed those parts. Like, "Oh Fumio. You so crazy."

The Sociopath Next Door, by Martha Stout. (2006, 256 pages) 4 stars. Another of those quick, cheap Audible sale acquisitions that just kind of sounded interesting. I am totally into pop psychology so I found it fascinating to learn more about what actual sociopaths are like, what it's like to be one, and what is and is not currently understood about how people become sociopaths. A neat follow up to Jon Ronson's The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry.

The Hoarder in You: How to Live a Happier, Healthier, Uncluttered Life, by Robin Zasio. (2011, 222 pages) 4 stars. Once again, I picked this up at a cheap Audible sale because it sounded interesting and I have been sort of obsessed with getting rid of stuff lately. As advertised, I learned a lot about why people become hoarders and the underlying factors that comprise and trigger this type of illness. I am not a hoarder and I don't even think I know any actual hoarders but it was still a super interesting (and quick) read.

Soulprint, by Megan Miranda. (2015, 368 pages) 4 stars. In the near future, science has determined that a) the soul is real, b) shortly after death, a person's soul is reborn in a nearby child, and c) individual souls can be identified and tracked via lumbar punctures. (There's no explanation of the science or how it came about; we're just asked to accept it as the premise of the book.) This was one of those premises that could have gone either way depending on the writing; thankfully, it's Megan Miranda, who has yet to let me down. Shortly after birth, Alina Chase is determined to carry the soul of a particularly dangerous person and "contained" alone on an island except for a bevy of rotating guards, for her own protection. Now seventeen, a mysterious plan to spring her from her not-a-prison-prison has been hatched. All Alina wants is to be reunited with the mother who once tried to rescue her, but even if she successfully escapes, it's not clear how she can live as a free woman when everybody knows her face and also that she carries the soul of a notorious criminal. Thanks to strong writing and a total commitment to the admittedly outlandish premise, the book totally worked & I mostly couldn't put it down.

* * *

Currently Reading:
Meb for Mortals, by Meb Keflezighi & Scott Douglas

Currently Listening To:
The Intuitionist, by Colson Whitehead

Up Next:

• Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe
• No No Boy, by John Okada
• War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy
• Emergency Contact, by Mary H.K. Choi
• Broken Monsters, by Lauren Beukes
• Chalk, by Paul Cornell
• Wolf in White Van, by John Darnielle
• White Tears, by Hari Kunzru
• Radio Silence, by Alice Oseman
• Gravity's Rainbow, by Thomas Pynchon
• Zodiac, by Neal Stephenson
• The Secret Place, by Tana French

And who knows, whatever else tickles my fancy. (Taking future suggestions as always!)