1. Provenance by Ann Leckie
I can't remember where I got the recommendation for this book (I didn't stumble across it by chance; it was either a book review or blog post that got me to request it) but I am incredibly grateful to whoever it was. What a terrific Sci Fi read! World building, humor, great characters, adventure and more. I'm now going back and reading her previous "Ancillary" series of three books.
2. Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
Wow, just wow. This was Ann Leckie's debut novel and she decided to make her main character a 2000 year old space ship? It took amazing confidence and craft to write this book. There were times when the shifting points of view alone took my breath away. And the main character? I loved her: her fondness for songs, her (implied) crummy voice, her determination. I would never have guessed that this could be a successful concept but it is and I can't wait to read the next two books in the series.
3. Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey
A fun sci-fi novel that's the start of a series. I wasn't blown away by it, but I was consistently entertained. Sometimes, that's good enough. I will probably seek out the next book in the series (Caliban's War) at some point in the future.
4. and 5. Ancillary Sword and Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie
More wow. I loved this trilogy in which an AI teaches humans how to be humane. So many things are packed into the three book: contemplation about power, empire, colonialism, ethnic strife, love, humor, change. I stand in awe of the mind that conceived of and created these books.
6. Golden Hill by Francis Spufford
The Sci Fi binge had to end somewhere so why not 18th C historical fiction? This book is set in 1740's New York and is by turns ridiculous and moving. There's the 18th C chaos to contend with (which is why I like lit set in this century more than, say, Victorian stiffness) and a mystery that underlies the hero's-journey, though to be fair, it wasn't a hard-to-solve mystery, just one that isn't revealed until the end.
7. A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Yes, a re-read of a favorite book from last year, this time the audio book version. The reader is excellent and the book was just as therapeutic a reminder the second time that maintaining your dignity and not losing your shit when the world is crazy is a form of resistance.
8. Dinner at the Center of the Earth by Nathan Englander
Exquisite, economical, and multi-faceted story about the Arab/Israeli conflict. Lots of sinking feeling moments when you see traps closing around a character that you have come to care about, but simultaneously hopeful and complicated. The use of language is exquisite.
9. The Power by Naomi Alderman
A clever concept, though a touch obvious at times. Definitely good for people who haven't thought too much about gender roles and assumptions. I listened to the Audiobook which is not very good--the British reader really struggles with the American accents and her Russian/Eastern European accents all sound the same (and all are really irritating). So if this interests you, go for the hard copy.
10. A Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing by Mira Jacob
I listened to the audiobook of this, read by the author who did a terrific job reading her own work (not always the case!) I enjoyed this book a lot, a really terrific main character, family dynamics and narrative structure, though I had a little problem with the ending. The father's death is presented as the way he finally gets over his son's death and I kept wanting to shake him and point out that he still has a daughter! I think the author did a great job showing the problems that come with being the surviving sibling, especially when the one who died was the "favored child." But I found it upsetting how everyone seemed to think it was just fine that her father gave up his struggle to live so he could commune with her dead brother.
11. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
A re-read for my book group. A book about the Biafran war with super complicated characters and situations. By the end of the book, the only character I had uncomplicated feelings for was Kainene. It's an intentionally hard book for this reason: you come to love all the other characters and then they do something despicable and you aren't allowed to idealize them. And christ, the scenes of suffering during the war are so intense and heartbreaking and there is no sense of solution for any of it, no way to see an alternative. Wrenching and beautifully written.
12. A Legacy of Spies by John Le Carre
I listened to the audio book read by one of my favorite actors, Tom Hollander. His reading is excellent. Nothing surprising about this Le Carre novel, other than I had forgotten that how he writes female characters bugs the crap out of me. But once I remembered and set it in its compartmentalized zone of irritation, the rest was pleasant enough.
13. I Wrote This Book Because I Love You by Tim Kreider
I listened to the audio book of this (read by the author) and loved every minute of it. Surprisingly, my favorite essay was the one about 9/11. In the present hellish political climate, it's easy to look back on that time and diminish it, say W. wasn't so bad by comparison, etc. But Kreider brings back vividly how hard it was and he writes about it beautifully. I found myself writing down quotes because I loved his turns of phrase so much, things like "That whole decade felt like being held down and spit on by playground bullies" and his description of exhausted first responders in NYC "curled up on sidewalks like kittens." I also loved his writing about his cat. At first I thought it was just going to be glib, clever pet jokes, but he uses the relationship to probe really deep questions. There's humor, but humor with a deeper purpose that makes us look more deeply at life and all its complexity. Highly recommended.
14. The Maze at Windermere by Gregory Blake Smith
An enjoyable, layered novel set in 5 different times but the same place (Newport R.I.) There's an unevenness to the stories; the Quaker girl and Henry James story are far superior to the other three, but it is still an entertaining read. I was troubled by the ending to the Quaker girl's story: it seemed like the author was trying to wrestle with the convoluted morality of her ownership of the slave, Ashes. And then at the end, she threw over the morality for convenience. It made me wonder if this was a broader statement about self-delusion and how people use one another (which thematically fits with all the other stories) and if so, casts a pessimistic shadow over the whole book. But it wasn't entirely clear if this was intentional or just a way to finally finish the book. The Revolutionary War story ends with massive uncertainty and no closure; the other 4 vary in their commitments to trimming the loose ends. So the book is uneven, but not unpleasant.
15. Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
This is an epic family saga that follows a Korean family in Japan; there's lots of good cultural and historical information for people unfamiliar with the Japanese crimes, and continuing discrimination, against ethnic Koreans. Character-wise it occasionally feels soap-opera-y, particularly in the main character Sunja who never does anything wrong. And there were some story lines that started and looked like they were going somewhere interesting and then we never hear anything else (the gay police officer's wife's story). I was also surprised that the Korean war was hardly discussed--there were people who went back to Korea after WWII, but other than never hearing from the people who went to the North, there's hardly a mention of the conflict. But the book is focused very much on the experience of Koreans who, despite being born there, never fit in in Japan.
16. My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout
A re-read for my book group. A few things that hit me this time around: how many times Lucy declares her love for people (especially her kind doctor, but there are other people, too.) What does it mean to declare love so easily? Does it cheapen it? Does it say something in particular about the speaker and her open heart? And what do we make of her walking out on her husband and two daughters? She talks about ruthlessness and cites this as an example in life, if not in her writing. The poverty of her youth is so tangible and painful.
17. Head On by John Scalzi
A fun near-future piece of sci-fi writing, clever, light, entertaining.
18. Sourdough by Robin Sloan
A charming novel that gently mocks the foodie subculture and the tech subculture, but not to the point of harsh parody. It was a strange experience to realize half-way through the book that I was rooting for the sourdough starter in the plot rather than a traditional (human) character.
19. Bleaker House by Nell Stevens
Meh. Nell Stevens thinks that her journey to becoming a "writer" is interesting. But since the resulting proof of that premise is this self-indulgent memoir, I beg to differ. If the only interesting thing about her failed novel is the location she chose in which to fail (the Falkland Islands in winter) then is the resulting narrative about the failure worth reading? I didn't think so.
20. Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan
Good, solid historical fiction. None of the surprise of A Visit from the Goon Squad but a strong story, meticulously researched and a propelling narrative. An enjoyable read.
21. The Tangled Lands by Paolo Bacigalupi and Tobias Buckell
Four related stories, two by each of the authors, about a fantasy world where magic is ultimately destructive. The individual stories are well written, but I'm still trying to figure out the overall meaning of them together. There's plenty here about resistance to terribly corrupt governments but I still can't figure out what their take on magic is. Only the first story actually addresses the way that collective acts of selfishness destroy the society and I think this is the most interesting question. The other three stories mention this, but don't really take a position which was frustrating.
22. Warlight by Michael Ondaatje
It has been too long since I read Ondaatje. This is an exquisite book with shifting moods and moments: bits of it read like a spy thriller but most of it is an investigation, and an imagination, of the past. The characters are so beautifully flawed and beautifully rendered; I had forgotten how compassionate a writer Ondaatje is and how enriching it is to submerge oneself into his writing. I'm going to go get Cat's Table today and continue the immersion.
23. The Book of Speculation by Erika Swyler
Interesting enough novel about a pair of siblings and a dark circus past/possible curse that haunts their family. It wasn't terribly memorable and there were predictable moments but I liked it well enough. It cuts back and forth between present and past and I found the past sections more engaging than the present.
24. Tess of the Road by Rachel Hartman
I absolutely loved this third book in the series that started with Seraphina. This one is a detour from the previous two, telling the story of Seraphina's half sister, Tess, after the events of the previous two books. I particularly loved Tess' relationship with the Quigutl, Pathka. I thought the exploration of this creature's culture was subtle and fascinating. The explicit engagement with female oppression and with one individual woman's liberation and empowerment was intense and so well done. The book seems particularly relevant with its dissection of rape culture.
25. Rule of Civility by Amor Towles
meh. Not a very good/compelling book. You never really get inside the main character: she's said to be from an immigrant family who grew up in a 2 room apartment in Brooklyn but she moves effortlessly into Upper East Side WASP culture with no struggle, no questioning. She's incredibly well read with no sense of how that came to be. And the society in which she finds herself is just shallow and stupid. Really hard to see how this author went from this book to A Gentleman in Moscow.
26. Exit/West by Mohsin Hamid
A really beautiful story and meditation on refugees and relationships. It was much more impressionistic than I had expected with magical realism and near-future scenarios. The beauty of the writing was startling and the complexity of the character's emotions about everything, not just about being refugees, was powerful. Really an exquisite work.
27. Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
My third try reading this and I finally finished it. I didn't love it. I appreciated parts of it, thought other parts were trying too damn hard to be shocking with the sex/crudeness. I was waiting for the Bevins' poetic appreciation of the beauty of the world which finally came in the final pages. The whole work made me pity humanity and treasure the physical world. I wonder at the ending, with the soul of the slave leaving the graveyard with Lincoln and staying with him, what this is supposed to signify.
28. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin
A high fantasy novel that was interesting and vivid, though I'm not sure what the ending meant. That will probably keep me from reading the sequel, though I enjoyed the escape of diving into a new world.
29. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
Re-reading a classic sci fi. I think I read this as a teenager. I had forgotten how sad it is. The meditations on gender eventually blossom, though there are a few bits early on that show their age with femininity = weakness and other negative traits.
30. Beautiful Music by Michael Zadoorian
Meh. Read this for book group, otherwise would have given up on it after the first few chapters. Unless your nostalgia for 70's rock equals that of the author, no idea why you would read this. It's not badly written, but there isn't much of a point to it.
31. I Met a Traveler from an Antique Land by Connie Willis
This novella by the extremely gifted SF author is disappointing. You can tell it started with an idea, but then turns into a long meander with a somewhat troubling emphasis. Ostensibly about the worth of books, it becomes a glorification of objects. There are lots of digs at librarians and libraries as bad actors because they prioritize what people want over the physical object of the book, which, the author seems to believe, should be preserved at all costs. I thought it was both boring and troubling.
32. The Walking Man by Jiro Taniguchi
This almost wordless graphic novel is a beautiful meditation: the process of reading it is like a long ambling walk where you take time to notice things. The only thing that is disappointing is the print quality: while appreciated the black and white images rather than the full color (it makes your mind join the walking man's filling in the colors and sensations rather than just absorbing his view), I was bummed out that some of the images were hard to make out. Sharper black and white images, so I didn't spend time squinting at a panel ("is that a cat or a paper bag?") would have made the meditative effect more seamless.
33. All Systems Red by Martha Wells
Terrific SF novella with a sulky part-human part-robot main character who has dubbed itself "Murderbot." There's a tight little plot that pulls Murderbot out of its prefered past-time of hacking its software so that it can spend unlimited hours watching soap operas without its company knowing how it spends its time. The humans are quickly sketched but believable and Murderbot's growth to autonomy at the end is totally believable and moving. I'm looking forward to the follow up, Artifical Condition.
34. Circe by Madeline Miller
Breathtakingly beautiful book. It must have been difficult to construct such a compelling narrative from a character who is geographically trapped in one place. Virtually all the growth and change took place in one setting. It is a beautiful story about internal growth: from naivete, through shame and grief, to the loss of self that comes with parenthood, to final self-knowledge and acceptance. There was so much wisdom packed in the pages too, revelations that had me re-reading passages over and over. This is a book to buy and keep and savor and savor again.
35. Varina by Charles Frazier
I'm torn between appreciating the beauty of Frazier's language and his effort to portray a complicated figure (Varina Davis, the wife of Confederate President Jefferson Davis) and his use of a black orphan who Varina unofficially adopted as the means to tell her tale. Jimmy Limber is a device rather than a character in the book and this made me pretty uncomfortable throughout the story. I understand that Varina's story is a complicated one and that having her lost, black, almost-son return in the year she died is a way to justify the narrative leaps and dives, but there was too much "use" of the character for me to feel at ease with it.
36. Artificial Condition by Martha Wells
Murderbot's second adventure! This time it befriends a sentient transport ship it dubs ART: Asshole ResearchTransport. And we're off to a different planet to investigate Murderbot's past. It has to get hired by some more humans that it ends up reluctantly caring about in order to research its past. Fun, speedy read.
37. Peculiar Ground by Lucy Hughes-Hallett
Intricate historical fiction that moves between Restoration era England and the 1960s-80s. Lots of parallels drawn between the enclosure of a great estate and the Berlin Wall (both when it went up and when it came down), social class, spies, plagues (bubonic, AIDS) and botanical knowledge. I loved parts of it (particularly the Restoration part), found other parts a bit wearying (the staging of the rock concert) and did not understand the very last few pages: a mouse and a beetle leave the Garden of Eden which has fallen to chaos after Adam and Eve are kicked out. No idea what this was supposed to signify. So a mixed bag, but an interesting one!
38. The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
39. The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin
Parts one and two of the Broken Earth Trilogy. After numerous tries and some confusion I got into the first book. The main character is fantastic and once I figured out how to follow what was happening and the ways that the book was moving back and forth in time I loved it. The world building is amazing and intricate and has some familiar moments that ground it. Book two was successful enough for me because I had made a connection with the main character and was willing to feel stupid when I didn't understand what the significance of some event was because it meant I still got to spend time with her. I still don't really know what to make of the Stone Eaters or the Obelisks or what the huge task is that the main character will have to accomplish in the last book. But I've also learned to be more comfortable with not having everything explained to me and not "getting" it all. It's complicated and layered and really socially informed. Looking forward to book three!
40. Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
A strange and beautiful piece of historical fiction. The writer has a beautiful way with words and her characters are vivid and intricate and complicated. I'm still a bit fuzzy about overall themes/judgements: there's a great deal of scientific questioning and lots of questions about personal responsibility and the meaning of freedom. But I don't know that there are many answers. So it's an unsettling book, for many reasons, but a beautifully written one.
41. Dear Mrs. Bird by AJ Pearce
A bit of fluff, totally predictable and benign. I skim-read it the weekend of the Kavanaugh confirmation and it distracted me. That's about all that I can say about it.
42. Transcription by Kate Atkinson
Such a relief to spend time with one of Kate Atkinson's smart, sly, sarcastic main characters. It takes a long time to get to the urgent part of the story, when Juliet starts tracking down people from her past, but my only complaint is that it didn't last longer. I would have loved to keep reading another few hundred pages just to get to spend time with that narrative voice.
43. Clock Dance by Anne Tyler
The plot is pretty obvious though Anne Tyler's beautiful, compassionate writing makes it worth spending time with her characters.
44. Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
Holy cow this is a fantastic fantasy novel! Intricate plot, two wonderful strong female main characters, beautiful "historical" details and really gorgeous writing with observations about what it means to be human. I dove into this book and enjoyed the escape so much. Gobbled it up and can't wait to read what Novik produces next.
45. Rebellion by Molly Patterson
An interesting novel with (lightly) intertwined stories taking place in different eras and different places. I felt like the ending sort of petered out by shifting to three characters (the mother, father and sister of one of the characters we get to know in depth) and not really having anything to do with the other 3 main stories. It felt like a good and separate short story but not the end of the novel.
46. The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald
Short novella. Some lovely moments and characters (I loved Raven and the scene filing the horse's teeth and the beginning of the story) but ultimately a story about narrow-mindedness and provincial behavior and people with power abusing that power. So not exactly a terribly pleasurable read. A good reminder that Anglophiles(particularly American Anglophiles) who romanticize all aspects of British culture don't know what the hell they are talking about.
47. Finding Baba Yaga by Jane Yolen
Fantastic short novel in verse about one of my favorite folk-tale characters. Told from the perspective of a runaway who finds Baba Yaga in the woods, and then finds Baba Yaga inside herself. Not surprising, plot -wise, but beautiful.
48. The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi
Fun Sci Fi follow up to The Collapsing Empire with an assortment of baddies, goodies and lots of swearing. It all holds together and has an interesting plot while setting up for the next book in the series.
49. Closed Casket by Sophie Hannah
The audio book kept me company on a tedious drive. I doubt I would have continued listening if not for the trip; it's an homage to Hercule Poirot but while credible, it doesn't have much energy or snap. The delaying tactics are powerfully deployed and the whole thing felt like it could have been wrapped up in, say, 4 or 5 chapters rather than going on and on.
50. The Winter Soldier by Daniel Mason
I'm still trying to decide what I think of this book: there's a story here, and well-developed characters, and for someone who knows nothing about WWI maybe there's stuff to be learned. But I felt like I didn't learn anything: it confirmed the incompetence and cruelty of the war, there were vivid scenes about the relatively crude medicine that was practices, there were beautiful descriptions of nature to contrast with the misery that humans make of the world. I don't know that I really cared about the main characters, even though they were well drawn, maybe because they felt a bit like "types": the innocent and naive rich doctor who learns about humanity from the grounded, common nurse.
51. Lethal White by Robert Galbraith
A fun mystery by J.K. Rowling. I've no idea how she cranks this many words out--this book while working on screenplays and theater scripts. I liked this one more than some of the previous ones, maybe because it did such a fine job of mocking the upper classes with their horses and art and hypocrisy.
52. Fox8 by George Saunders
If the author wasn't George Saunders, then I'm pretty sure this would have just been a long facebook post. I found it cloyingly cutesy. The message: humans, be nicer, is simplistic at best. Kind of a bummer for this to be the last book I read this year.
I can't remember where I got the recommendation for this book (I didn't stumble across it by chance; it was either a book review or blog post that got me to request it) but I am incredibly grateful to whoever it was. What a terrific Sci Fi read! World building, humor, great characters, adventure and more. I'm now going back and reading her previous "Ancillary" series of three books.
2. Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
Wow, just wow. This was Ann Leckie's debut novel and she decided to make her main character a 2000 year old space ship? It took amazing confidence and craft to write this book. There were times when the shifting points of view alone took my breath away. And the main character? I loved her: her fondness for songs, her (implied) crummy voice, her determination. I would never have guessed that this could be a successful concept but it is and I can't wait to read the next two books in the series.
3. Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey
A fun sci-fi novel that's the start of a series. I wasn't blown away by it, but I was consistently entertained. Sometimes, that's good enough. I will probably seek out the next book in the series (Caliban's War) at some point in the future.
4. and 5. Ancillary Sword and Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie
More wow. I loved this trilogy in which an AI teaches humans how to be humane. So many things are packed into the three book: contemplation about power, empire, colonialism, ethnic strife, love, humor, change. I stand in awe of the mind that conceived of and created these books.
6. Golden Hill by Francis Spufford
The Sci Fi binge had to end somewhere so why not 18th C historical fiction? This book is set in 1740's New York and is by turns ridiculous and moving. There's the 18th C chaos to contend with (which is why I like lit set in this century more than, say, Victorian stiffness) and a mystery that underlies the hero's-journey, though to be fair, it wasn't a hard-to-solve mystery, just one that isn't revealed until the end.
7. A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Yes, a re-read of a favorite book from last year, this time the audio book version. The reader is excellent and the book was just as therapeutic a reminder the second time that maintaining your dignity and not losing your shit when the world is crazy is a form of resistance.
8. Dinner at the Center of the Earth by Nathan Englander
Exquisite, economical, and multi-faceted story about the Arab/Israeli conflict. Lots of sinking feeling moments when you see traps closing around a character that you have come to care about, but simultaneously hopeful and complicated. The use of language is exquisite.
9. The Power by Naomi Alderman
A clever concept, though a touch obvious at times. Definitely good for people who haven't thought too much about gender roles and assumptions. I listened to the Audiobook which is not very good--the British reader really struggles with the American accents and her Russian/Eastern European accents all sound the same (and all are really irritating). So if this interests you, go for the hard copy.
10. A Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing by Mira Jacob
I listened to the audiobook of this, read by the author who did a terrific job reading her own work (not always the case!) I enjoyed this book a lot, a really terrific main character, family dynamics and narrative structure, though I had a little problem with the ending. The father's death is presented as the way he finally gets over his son's death and I kept wanting to shake him and point out that he still has a daughter! I think the author did a great job showing the problems that come with being the surviving sibling, especially when the one who died was the "favored child." But I found it upsetting how everyone seemed to think it was just fine that her father gave up his struggle to live so he could commune with her dead brother.
11. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
A re-read for my book group. A book about the Biafran war with super complicated characters and situations. By the end of the book, the only character I had uncomplicated feelings for was Kainene. It's an intentionally hard book for this reason: you come to love all the other characters and then they do something despicable and you aren't allowed to idealize them. And christ, the scenes of suffering during the war are so intense and heartbreaking and there is no sense of solution for any of it, no way to see an alternative. Wrenching and beautifully written.
12. A Legacy of Spies by John Le Carre
I listened to the audio book read by one of my favorite actors, Tom Hollander. His reading is excellent. Nothing surprising about this Le Carre novel, other than I had forgotten that how he writes female characters bugs the crap out of me. But once I remembered and set it in its compartmentalized zone of irritation, the rest was pleasant enough.
13. I Wrote This Book Because I Love You by Tim Kreider
I listened to the audio book of this (read by the author) and loved every minute of it. Surprisingly, my favorite essay was the one about 9/11. In the present hellish political climate, it's easy to look back on that time and diminish it, say W. wasn't so bad by comparison, etc. But Kreider brings back vividly how hard it was and he writes about it beautifully. I found myself writing down quotes because I loved his turns of phrase so much, things like "That whole decade felt like being held down and spit on by playground bullies" and his description of exhausted first responders in NYC "curled up on sidewalks like kittens." I also loved his writing about his cat. At first I thought it was just going to be glib, clever pet jokes, but he uses the relationship to probe really deep questions. There's humor, but humor with a deeper purpose that makes us look more deeply at life and all its complexity. Highly recommended.
14. The Maze at Windermere by Gregory Blake Smith
An enjoyable, layered novel set in 5 different times but the same place (Newport R.I.) There's an unevenness to the stories; the Quaker girl and Henry James story are far superior to the other three, but it is still an entertaining read. I was troubled by the ending to the Quaker girl's story: it seemed like the author was trying to wrestle with the convoluted morality of her ownership of the slave, Ashes. And then at the end, she threw over the morality for convenience. It made me wonder if this was a broader statement about self-delusion and how people use one another (which thematically fits with all the other stories) and if so, casts a pessimistic shadow over the whole book. But it wasn't entirely clear if this was intentional or just a way to finally finish the book. The Revolutionary War story ends with massive uncertainty and no closure; the other 4 vary in their commitments to trimming the loose ends. So the book is uneven, but not unpleasant.
15. Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
This is an epic family saga that follows a Korean family in Japan; there's lots of good cultural and historical information for people unfamiliar with the Japanese crimes, and continuing discrimination, against ethnic Koreans. Character-wise it occasionally feels soap-opera-y, particularly in the main character Sunja who never does anything wrong. And there were some story lines that started and looked like they were going somewhere interesting and then we never hear anything else (the gay police officer's wife's story). I was also surprised that the Korean war was hardly discussed--there were people who went back to Korea after WWII, but other than never hearing from the people who went to the North, there's hardly a mention of the conflict. But the book is focused very much on the experience of Koreans who, despite being born there, never fit in in Japan.
16. My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout
A re-read for my book group. A few things that hit me this time around: how many times Lucy declares her love for people (especially her kind doctor, but there are other people, too.) What does it mean to declare love so easily? Does it cheapen it? Does it say something in particular about the speaker and her open heart? And what do we make of her walking out on her husband and two daughters? She talks about ruthlessness and cites this as an example in life, if not in her writing. The poverty of her youth is so tangible and painful.
17. Head On by John Scalzi
A fun near-future piece of sci-fi writing, clever, light, entertaining.
18. Sourdough by Robin Sloan
A charming novel that gently mocks the foodie subculture and the tech subculture, but not to the point of harsh parody. It was a strange experience to realize half-way through the book that I was rooting for the sourdough starter in the plot rather than a traditional (human) character.
19. Bleaker House by Nell Stevens
Meh. Nell Stevens thinks that her journey to becoming a "writer" is interesting. But since the resulting proof of that premise is this self-indulgent memoir, I beg to differ. If the only interesting thing about her failed novel is the location she chose in which to fail (the Falkland Islands in winter) then is the resulting narrative about the failure worth reading? I didn't think so.
20. Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan
Good, solid historical fiction. None of the surprise of A Visit from the Goon Squad but a strong story, meticulously researched and a propelling narrative. An enjoyable read.
21. The Tangled Lands by Paolo Bacigalupi and Tobias Buckell
Four related stories, two by each of the authors, about a fantasy world where magic is ultimately destructive. The individual stories are well written, but I'm still trying to figure out the overall meaning of them together. There's plenty here about resistance to terribly corrupt governments but I still can't figure out what their take on magic is. Only the first story actually addresses the way that collective acts of selfishness destroy the society and I think this is the most interesting question. The other three stories mention this, but don't really take a position which was frustrating.
22. Warlight by Michael Ondaatje
It has been too long since I read Ondaatje. This is an exquisite book with shifting moods and moments: bits of it read like a spy thriller but most of it is an investigation, and an imagination, of the past. The characters are so beautifully flawed and beautifully rendered; I had forgotten how compassionate a writer Ondaatje is and how enriching it is to submerge oneself into his writing. I'm going to go get Cat's Table today and continue the immersion.
23. The Book of Speculation by Erika Swyler
Interesting enough novel about a pair of siblings and a dark circus past/possible curse that haunts their family. It wasn't terribly memorable and there were predictable moments but I liked it well enough. It cuts back and forth between present and past and I found the past sections more engaging than the present.
24. Tess of the Road by Rachel Hartman
I absolutely loved this third book in the series that started with Seraphina. This one is a detour from the previous two, telling the story of Seraphina's half sister, Tess, after the events of the previous two books. I particularly loved Tess' relationship with the Quigutl, Pathka. I thought the exploration of this creature's culture was subtle and fascinating. The explicit engagement with female oppression and with one individual woman's liberation and empowerment was intense and so well done. The book seems particularly relevant with its dissection of rape culture.
25. Rule of Civility by Amor Towles
meh. Not a very good/compelling book. You never really get inside the main character: she's said to be from an immigrant family who grew up in a 2 room apartment in Brooklyn but she moves effortlessly into Upper East Side WASP culture with no struggle, no questioning. She's incredibly well read with no sense of how that came to be. And the society in which she finds herself is just shallow and stupid. Really hard to see how this author went from this book to A Gentleman in Moscow.
26. Exit/West by Mohsin Hamid
A really beautiful story and meditation on refugees and relationships. It was much more impressionistic than I had expected with magical realism and near-future scenarios. The beauty of the writing was startling and the complexity of the character's emotions about everything, not just about being refugees, was powerful. Really an exquisite work.
27. Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
My third try reading this and I finally finished it. I didn't love it. I appreciated parts of it, thought other parts were trying too damn hard to be shocking with the sex/crudeness. I was waiting for the Bevins' poetic appreciation of the beauty of the world which finally came in the final pages. The whole work made me pity humanity and treasure the physical world. I wonder at the ending, with the soul of the slave leaving the graveyard with Lincoln and staying with him, what this is supposed to signify.
28. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin
A high fantasy novel that was interesting and vivid, though I'm not sure what the ending meant. That will probably keep me from reading the sequel, though I enjoyed the escape of diving into a new world.
29. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
Re-reading a classic sci fi. I think I read this as a teenager. I had forgotten how sad it is. The meditations on gender eventually blossom, though there are a few bits early on that show their age with femininity = weakness and other negative traits.
30. Beautiful Music by Michael Zadoorian
Meh. Read this for book group, otherwise would have given up on it after the first few chapters. Unless your nostalgia for 70's rock equals that of the author, no idea why you would read this. It's not badly written, but there isn't much of a point to it.
31. I Met a Traveler from an Antique Land by Connie Willis
This novella by the extremely gifted SF author is disappointing. You can tell it started with an idea, but then turns into a long meander with a somewhat troubling emphasis. Ostensibly about the worth of books, it becomes a glorification of objects. There are lots of digs at librarians and libraries as bad actors because they prioritize what people want over the physical object of the book, which, the author seems to believe, should be preserved at all costs. I thought it was both boring and troubling.
32. The Walking Man by Jiro Taniguchi
This almost wordless graphic novel is a beautiful meditation: the process of reading it is like a long ambling walk where you take time to notice things. The only thing that is disappointing is the print quality: while appreciated the black and white images rather than the full color (it makes your mind join the walking man's filling in the colors and sensations rather than just absorbing his view), I was bummed out that some of the images were hard to make out. Sharper black and white images, so I didn't spend time squinting at a panel ("is that a cat or a paper bag?") would have made the meditative effect more seamless.
33. All Systems Red by Martha Wells
Terrific SF novella with a sulky part-human part-robot main character who has dubbed itself "Murderbot." There's a tight little plot that pulls Murderbot out of its prefered past-time of hacking its software so that it can spend unlimited hours watching soap operas without its company knowing how it spends its time. The humans are quickly sketched but believable and Murderbot's growth to autonomy at the end is totally believable and moving. I'm looking forward to the follow up, Artifical Condition.
34. Circe by Madeline Miller
Breathtakingly beautiful book. It must have been difficult to construct such a compelling narrative from a character who is geographically trapped in one place. Virtually all the growth and change took place in one setting. It is a beautiful story about internal growth: from naivete, through shame and grief, to the loss of self that comes with parenthood, to final self-knowledge and acceptance. There was so much wisdom packed in the pages too, revelations that had me re-reading passages over and over. This is a book to buy and keep and savor and savor again.
35. Varina by Charles Frazier
I'm torn between appreciating the beauty of Frazier's language and his effort to portray a complicated figure (Varina Davis, the wife of Confederate President Jefferson Davis) and his use of a black orphan who Varina unofficially adopted as the means to tell her tale. Jimmy Limber is a device rather than a character in the book and this made me pretty uncomfortable throughout the story. I understand that Varina's story is a complicated one and that having her lost, black, almost-son return in the year she died is a way to justify the narrative leaps and dives, but there was too much "use" of the character for me to feel at ease with it.
36. Artificial Condition by Martha Wells
Murderbot's second adventure! This time it befriends a sentient transport ship it dubs ART: Asshole ResearchTransport. And we're off to a different planet to investigate Murderbot's past. It has to get hired by some more humans that it ends up reluctantly caring about in order to research its past. Fun, speedy read.
37. Peculiar Ground by Lucy Hughes-Hallett
Intricate historical fiction that moves between Restoration era England and the 1960s-80s. Lots of parallels drawn between the enclosure of a great estate and the Berlin Wall (both when it went up and when it came down), social class, spies, plagues (bubonic, AIDS) and botanical knowledge. I loved parts of it (particularly the Restoration part), found other parts a bit wearying (the staging of the rock concert) and did not understand the very last few pages: a mouse and a beetle leave the Garden of Eden which has fallen to chaos after Adam and Eve are kicked out. No idea what this was supposed to signify. So a mixed bag, but an interesting one!
38. The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
39. The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin
Parts one and two of the Broken Earth Trilogy. After numerous tries and some confusion I got into the first book. The main character is fantastic and once I figured out how to follow what was happening and the ways that the book was moving back and forth in time I loved it. The world building is amazing and intricate and has some familiar moments that ground it. Book two was successful enough for me because I had made a connection with the main character and was willing to feel stupid when I didn't understand what the significance of some event was because it meant I still got to spend time with her. I still don't really know what to make of the Stone Eaters or the Obelisks or what the huge task is that the main character will have to accomplish in the last book. But I've also learned to be more comfortable with not having everything explained to me and not "getting" it all. It's complicated and layered and really socially informed. Looking forward to book three!
40. Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
A strange and beautiful piece of historical fiction. The writer has a beautiful way with words and her characters are vivid and intricate and complicated. I'm still a bit fuzzy about overall themes/judgements: there's a great deal of scientific questioning and lots of questions about personal responsibility and the meaning of freedom. But I don't know that there are many answers. So it's an unsettling book, for many reasons, but a beautifully written one.
41. Dear Mrs. Bird by AJ Pearce
A bit of fluff, totally predictable and benign. I skim-read it the weekend of the Kavanaugh confirmation and it distracted me. That's about all that I can say about it.
42. Transcription by Kate Atkinson
Such a relief to spend time with one of Kate Atkinson's smart, sly, sarcastic main characters. It takes a long time to get to the urgent part of the story, when Juliet starts tracking down people from her past, but my only complaint is that it didn't last longer. I would have loved to keep reading another few hundred pages just to get to spend time with that narrative voice.
43. Clock Dance by Anne Tyler
The plot is pretty obvious though Anne Tyler's beautiful, compassionate writing makes it worth spending time with her characters.
44. Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
Holy cow this is a fantastic fantasy novel! Intricate plot, two wonderful strong female main characters, beautiful "historical" details and really gorgeous writing with observations about what it means to be human. I dove into this book and enjoyed the escape so much. Gobbled it up and can't wait to read what Novik produces next.
45. Rebellion by Molly Patterson
An interesting novel with (lightly) intertwined stories taking place in different eras and different places. I felt like the ending sort of petered out by shifting to three characters (the mother, father and sister of one of the characters we get to know in depth) and not really having anything to do with the other 3 main stories. It felt like a good and separate short story but not the end of the novel.
46. The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald
Short novella. Some lovely moments and characters (I loved Raven and the scene filing the horse's teeth and the beginning of the story) but ultimately a story about narrow-mindedness and provincial behavior and people with power abusing that power. So not exactly a terribly pleasurable read. A good reminder that Anglophiles(particularly American Anglophiles) who romanticize all aspects of British culture don't know what the hell they are talking about.
47. Finding Baba Yaga by Jane Yolen
Fantastic short novel in verse about one of my favorite folk-tale characters. Told from the perspective of a runaway who finds Baba Yaga in the woods, and then finds Baba Yaga inside herself. Not surprising, plot -wise, but beautiful.
48. The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi
Fun Sci Fi follow up to The Collapsing Empire with an assortment of baddies, goodies and lots of swearing. It all holds together and has an interesting plot while setting up for the next book in the series.
49. Closed Casket by Sophie Hannah
The audio book kept me company on a tedious drive. I doubt I would have continued listening if not for the trip; it's an homage to Hercule Poirot but while credible, it doesn't have much energy or snap. The delaying tactics are powerfully deployed and the whole thing felt like it could have been wrapped up in, say, 4 or 5 chapters rather than going on and on.
50. The Winter Soldier by Daniel Mason
I'm still trying to decide what I think of this book: there's a story here, and well-developed characters, and for someone who knows nothing about WWI maybe there's stuff to be learned. But I felt like I didn't learn anything: it confirmed the incompetence and cruelty of the war, there were vivid scenes about the relatively crude medicine that was practices, there were beautiful descriptions of nature to contrast with the misery that humans make of the world. I don't know that I really cared about the main characters, even though they were well drawn, maybe because they felt a bit like "types": the innocent and naive rich doctor who learns about humanity from the grounded, common nurse.
51. Lethal White by Robert Galbraith
A fun mystery by J.K. Rowling. I've no idea how she cranks this many words out--this book while working on screenplays and theater scripts. I liked this one more than some of the previous ones, maybe because it did such a fine job of mocking the upper classes with their horses and art and hypocrisy.
52. Fox8 by George Saunders
If the author wasn't George Saunders, then I'm pretty sure this would have just been a long facebook post. I found it cloyingly cutesy. The message: humans, be nicer, is simplistic at best. Kind of a bummer for this to be the last book I read this year.