January 2023 Reads!

 ...And just like that, the cycle begins anew. 👵 ➡️ 👶 Welcome back, readers!

I got off to a solid start in January in terms of reading. Here's what was on my nightstand / in my headphones this month:

(1) The Drowning Girl by Caitlin R. Kiernan (336 pages, 2012) (psychological drama, lgbtqia+). Paper book. I can't remember how this book got onto my 'to-read' list but about a quarter of the way through, I was like, "You know, this book realllly reminds me of a different book I read ages ago." It bugged me so much I had to hunt that book down and guess what? It was The Red Tree, by Caitlin R. Kiernan. The story is presented as schizophrenic India Morgan Phelps's attempt to make sense of some very strange recent events by writing things down, since she can no longer trust her own memories. Plot points include a tumultuous new relationship with a gamer girl, the suicides of her mother and maternal grandmother, and her encounter with a vicious siren, a wolf, a feral little girl, or something altogether else. This was a really interesting well-written book but it was also very, VERY strange.

(2) Survive the Night by Riley Sager (336 pages, 2021) (crime/mystery/thriller). Audiobook + re-read. Looking through 2022’s reads, I realized I had barely any memory of reading this one at all, so I had to go back and re-read it. After her best friend is murdered by the Campus Killer, film-loving Charlie is desperate to get away from school for a while. And because it's 1991, she connects with another student looking to share the mid-semester drive to Ohio--Josh Baxter--via the campus ride board. But she soon realizes something is off about Josh, and as she sits trapped in his passenger seat for the overnight trip, she slowly begins collecting clues that point to his being the Campus Killer with Charlie as his next target. Or is it just her anxious, traumatized, movie-obsessed imagination?

(3) Brain Training for Runners: A Revolutionary New Training System to Improve Endurance, Speed, Health, & Results by Matt Fitzgerald (562 pages, 2007) (nonfiction, running, science). Paper book. I've had this book on my to-read list for over a decade and kind of forgot about it until I stumbled across a used copy online. It's a bit old at this point but I figured what the hell, let's learn about this revolutionary-for-2007 training system. And honestly, I think there is still a lot of great information in it! Most of what I think most people would find interesting/useful is a mix of neuromuscular stuff (drills, form cues, when to do form-focused speed work, etc.) and psychological/emotional stuff (which has come a long way in 16 years but was still not a waste of time to read about). I enjoyed reading it AND I really wish he had written an updated version! I would love to see to what extent his thinking has changed or remained the same since then.

(4)⭐ The Blood Mirror (Lightbringer #4) by Brent Weeks (736 pages, 2016) (epic fantasy). Audiobook. I've been reading this series since back when it was supposed to be a trilogy; then the third book came out & Brent Weeks was like "Uhhhhhh I have good news & bad news." & then after Book 3 (which was, spoiler, *not* the end of the series) we patiently awaited for the fourth & (supposedly) final book, The Blood Mirror. And then guess what.  Anyway, I downloaded Book 5, the absolutely-definitely-for-real-for-real last book, when it came out back in 2019 & then forgot about it, then found it again in December when I went back to see what unread treasures were languishing in my Audible queue. But of course I didn't remember a thing (or, like, four things at most) about Book 4, so decided to go back and listen to that again first.

I was happy to see that I enjoyed the world and Weeks's storytelling just as much lo these several years later! The series is set in a sort of 18th- or 19th-century-ish-kind-of-world ("the Seven Satrapies") where some small percentage of people are born with the ability to transform one or more colors of light into physical matter ("drafting"). This epic, multi-thousand-page story centers around The Prism (emperor able to draft all the colors) Gavin Guile, his mouthy, illegitimate teenage son Kip, the Black Guards sworn to protect the prism--and to protect the Satrapies from The Prism if necessary--and a whole rainbow of other intriguing, three-dimensional characters. I am not usually big on epic fantasy but I have really enjoyed every book in this series!

(5)⭐ This Is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (208 pages, 2019) (sci fi/fantasy, lgbtqia+). Paper book. A lovely little jewel box of a novel with a unique and intriguing premise and heartbreakingly lyrical writing. Two time-traveling secret agents from rival factions fall in love, leaving each other encoded messages across time and space via ever more sophisticated and convoluted means in order to hiding their budding relationship from their superiors. Both believe their faction knows what is best for this doomed and dying world, and both Red and Blue would sacrifice anything for what they believe in. Or...would they? What happens if they do? What happens if they don't?

(6)⭐ Running While Black by Alison Mariella Désir (288 pages, 2022) (nonfiction, running, race). Paper book. Yeahhhh I'm just gonna go ahead and say it, if you're a runner, this book should be required reading. Especially if you're white. Especially ESPECIALLY if you're a white dude. Equity issues around marginalized identities play a pretty central role in my math education work, so I was not encountering most of the themes of this book for the first time, but it was the first time that I had encountered them through a runner, a woman of color, telling her own story and how they have played out in her life. 

One of the biggest myths I have to fight near-daily in my math education work is the myth that "Math is completely neutral and objective, we don't have to make it political!" Sorry, wrong. So wrong. It often feels that there is an analogous myth at work in much of the running world: "Running is just a hobby, running is for everyone, it's the most democratic of all sports, how can it *possibly* feel political??" Well, if you've had the privilege of never having to think about how long distance running is ABSOLUTELY 100% POLITICAL and NOT IN ANY WAY NEUTRAL AND EQUALLY WELCOMING FOR EVERYONE, you're going to understand by the time you finish Alison's brilliant and moving book.

(7)⭐ The Burning White (Lightbringer #5) by Brent Weeks (992 pages, 2019) (epic fantasy). Audiobook. See (4) above ⬆️.