2019 Overview and Favorites

(A list of all the books I read this year is on my 2019 Book List page; for a more visual overview, see my Year in Books on Goodreads)

This past year was a busy one for me; with the start of grad school and related volunteering opportunities, my priorities were definitely rearranged somewhat as compared to recent years. Reading a certain set number of books by the end of the year wasn't really a goal of mine; rather, reading as a form of self-care became my main focus more than ever when choosing books.

Picking out favorite reads is always tricky, but out of the mix of 88 books, the following make the top of my list (in no particular order):

Dandelion Wine - Ray Bradbury
I fall back to echoing the thoughts in my original review; Dandelion Wine is "... awash with beautiful prose; interwoven with nostalgia, philosophy, and the occasional unexpected tinges of science fiction and horror. All in all, this is a moment of Americana captured and bottled - dark and bright, full of endings and beginnings." If you've ever tried Bradbury before and not clicked with him, try this.

Let Me Tell You - Shirley Jackson
This collection of previously-unpublished Shirley Jackson stories was very readable, even though a number of the works have an unpolished feel. It's an intriguing starting point for new readers of Jackson, and a treasure trove for those already very familiar with her work.

Sabriel - Garth Nix
Lirael - Garth Nix
Abhorsen - Garth Nix
Garth Nix's Abhorsen Trilogy's unique storyline, detailed world-building, strong and realistic female lead characters, and good fantasy/reality blend make it one of my top YA picks of the year.

The Truth - Terry Pratchett
The Fifth Elephant - Terry Pratchett 
Picking out favorite Terry Pratchett books out of the eleven that I read this year was hard, but both  The Truth and The Fifth Elephant combined interesting plot, an impressive array of characters, and signature humor in such a way that they stood out just a little above the rest. For those new to Terry Pratchett, The Truth stands alone fairly well in the Discworld series.

Dogsbody - Diana Wynne Jones
This little gem is one of Jones' earlier works, much less known than the likes of Howl's Moving Castle. It tends to be perhaps a little dark and rough around the edges for YA; however, I don't consider this a failing.

Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
A true classic - I'm always amazed at how timeless Austen can feel. I've watched the 1995 Emma Thompson movie innumerable times, but somehow had never read the book all the way through in recent or past memory. Reading a few chapters of Sense and Sensibility at bedtime was just what I needed as the fall semester of grad school was winding down.

Ubik - Philip K. Dick.
Philip K. Dick seems to invariably make my favorites list in the years he shows up on my book lists. Ubik is a good starter book for those who haven't yet dipped their toe into the treasure trove of PKD's myriad works. I got hints of Lovecraft and Gaiman's Coraline from Ubik; it's a seminal work for the genre, slightly horrifying and deliciously strange.

Bonus Runners-Up (maybe a little more niche, but still stood out to me this year):

Lovecraft Country - Matt Ruff
This book felt a little incomplete, but it addresses important topics and history in a fascinatingly weird way.

Salad Anniversary - Machi Tawara
I'm sure there are core elements that are lost in translation, but this collection of modern tanka felt like the perfect coda to my end-of-year trip to Japan.

April 2019: Fantasy, Horror/SciFi, and Lawrence of Arabia

I stuck to my reading resolution pretty well in April: all books read were from either my to-read stack or my Goodreads list. However, I ended up getting an armful of new books to add to the pile during the San Diego Book Crawl and the Encinitas Street Fair last weekend ... so I guess it all evens out?

Fairest - Gail Carson Levine (2006)
"I saw myself in my mind's eye. Blushing made me as garish as blood on snow."

This YA fantasy novel is set in the same universe as Ella Enchanted, which was one of my childhood favorites. However - and perhaps it's because of the not-entirely-fair comparison factor - this novel was ultimately disappointing for me. I did appreciate some of the creative story elements (like singing playing a vital role in the society), and the plot line didn't take as obvious a turn as I had expected. On the other hand, not much felt new here, and some things just felt forced - the name-dropping of characters from Ella Enchanted as well as the main romance, for instance. I came away with the feeling that Fairest almost works best as a side story to Ella Enchanted  rather standing on its own.

Related Reads:
The Two Princesses of Bamarre (Levine)
Mirror Mirror (Maguire)

Organizing & Preserving Your Heirloom Documents - Katherine Sturdevant (2002)
"We can view our ancestors as writers, the authors of their own documents that we now treasure. Thus, we may be their biographers; as we research and annotate their documents, we can view them as lives in need of biography and their writings as genres of literature."

This is basically a textbook for the family-papers hobbyist. In organized fashion, the author goes through a wide variety of topics of relevance, from how to sort and organize family papers and photos, how to determine what might be of interest to potential readers, advice for dealing with specific random items (like cookbooks and ledgers), and much more. Sturdevant gears her advice towards assuming readers are looking to publish their family documents in some format (privately or publicly), and thus includes sections on things like copyright considerations. Perhaps unsurprisingly, she also heavily recommends ultimately donating important or significant papers to historical societies, libraries, or similar places that will have the resources and means to store them correctly.

It's useful to know that while there are tips and guidelines included here about how to best treat and store things like old documents and albums, the aim of this book is to get someone started on their personal family documentation journey, not to lay out exhaustive and in-depth preservation methods. I'll also note that some of the advice is dated; the final section on ebooks and the lack of emphasis on online research are the most obvious examples. Overall, I'd call this book a decent starting point for anyone interested in or tasked with going through family heirloom documents.

A long list of additional resources (probably also somewhat dated) is listed in the appendix.

The Bear and the Nightingale - Katherine Arden (2017) [re-read]
The Girl in the Tower - Katherine Arden (2018)
The Winter of the Witch - Katherine Arden (2019)
"Just ask Baba Yaga: the more one knows, the sooner one grows old."

The Winternight Trilogy books are a painstakingly-researched, masterful blend of fantasy and history. Set in medieval Russia, there is heavy emphasis on the struggle between religion and ancient traditional practices and beliefs (sometimes involving blood-magic), as well as explorations of class and gender. Ultimately, Arden succeeds in bringing this period of history to life through her strong and believable characters and their everyday and exceptional experiences.

Note that the books in general are fairly dark and serious in tone, and they include a good bit of violence that is sometimes fantasy/horror-type.

Related Reads:
American Gods (Gaiman)
Spinning Silver (Novik)
A Darker Shade of Magic (Schwab)
The Snow Child (Ivey)
Russian Magic Tales from Pushkin to Platonov (ed. by Chandler)

Lawrence of Arabia: The Selected Letters [edited by Malcolm Brown]
"I'm not, I think, a lonely person; though often and generally alone. There is a distinction."

T.E. Lawrence (better known as Lawrence of Arabia) wrote a startlingly vast number of letters over his lifetime, keeping up regular correspondence with many famous contemporary authors and political figures. And while he saved precious few of the letters written to him, most of the recipients of his letters kept and later donated them to libraries and museums. The result is that many collections of Lawrence's letters now exist in archives.

In this particular book, broken up into seven sections (from "The Early Years to 1914" to "The Final Weeks: February-March 1935"), editor Malcolm Brown assembles key letters written throughout Lawrence's lifetime, making this selection an exemplative rather than an exhaustive one. Brown includes a helpful introduction to each section as well as some explanatory notes throughout. While I feel it's probably best read after or alongside a biography to get the full impact and context of the letters, this collection will nevertheless leave its readers with a sense of having gotten to know Lawrence more fully.

A couple of minor notes about this particular edition: because my volume is a paperback, the number of pages (nearly 600) means there's a lot of wear in the binding (mine cracked partway through despite my careful handling). There are also a few scattered typos throughout the footnotes.

Related Reads:
A Prince of Our Disorder (Mack)
Seven Pillars of Wisdom (Lawrence)
The Mint (Lawrence)

Lovecraft Country - Matt Ruff (2016)
"It is what it is. Life isn't fair, Ruby. You need to understand, Ruby. Lord, how she tired of hearing that! Life wasn't fair, but still it would be nice if, just once in a while, someone else had to do the understanding."

This book is a compelling read by any stretch of the imagination. Author Matt Ruff blends life under Jim Crow with science fiction and horror; the resulting story is a mix of the harsh realities of racism and the struggle against a powerful and ancient secret society - elements of which are sometimes difficult to separate.

Lovecraft Country's long chapters read somewhat like short stories. The book doesn't have a perfect plot line (sometimes one gets the impression that Ruff could've pushed the bounds of the story further), but it's an engrossing and thought-provoking read nonetheless.

For more context, you can listen to a 2018 podcast where the author discusses the book (and the fact that an HBO show based on the book is forthcoming).

Related Reads:
Let Me Tell You (Shirley Jackson)
Welcome to Night Vale podcast and books

March 2019 Reads

March was another month of motley mixes in terms of books read. I finally finished a lengthy short story collection I'd been working on, and I was able to get through some more books in my to-read stack to boot. On to my thoughts!

Garthowen: A Story of a Welsh Homestead - Allen Raine (1900)
"The golden marsh marigolds glittered around her, the beautiful bog bean hung its pinky-white fringe over the brown peat pools, the silky plumes of cotton grass nodded at her as she passed, and the wind whispered in the rushes the secrets of the sea."

Garthowen's story focuses on late-19th century life in a Welsh village. Major elements and themes contained therein are the relationship of the villagers to the sea and surrounding nature, class distinctions, family relationships, and religion. The author uses flowery, descriptive prose that's very typical of the time and genre, though I found that the use of elements such as (archaic) common Welsh phrases made this more interesting than other books I've read from the same period. Throw in characters like a possibly-piratical prodigal son, a kindly village herbalist (witch?), and a sea-foundling, and you have a classic read that manages to be relaxing and exciting.

A note of interest is that  "Allen Raine" was the pseudonym of female Welsh author Anne Puddicombe, née Evans.
You can find this e-book for free on Amazon.

Related Reads:
The Story Girl (Montgomery)
Equal Rites (Pratchett)

The Perfectionist: Life and Death in Haute Cuisine - Rudolph Chelminski (2005)
"'He didn't need approval, he needed to be adored. Unanimously. And we did love him, too, in spite of his weaknesses. Or maybe we loved him because of his weaknesses. He was just so fragile and so human. A lot of people who didn't know him well enough were skeptical about his sincerity because they felt like he was always play-acting, and doing a number on them. It's true. He did that. But it was only because he was trying to please them.'"

This book details the life and career of French chef Bernard Loiseau, who suddenly committed suicide at the height of his career in 2003. Author Chelminski, a freelance writer who met with Loiseau periodically throughout his career, presents a decent background into French cooking culture and the Michelin Guide/star system before giving an overview of Loiseau's family background and life.

Although I found this book could get somewhat plodding and name-heavy (Chelminski understandably finds it necessary to give readers lots of context), I will admit that it's an interesting window into both Loiseau and the extreme culinary culture that arguably led to his death.

Related Reads:
The Apprentice (Pepin)
Kitchen Confidential (Bourdain)

If You Love Me: A Mother's Journey Through her Daughter's Opioid Addiction - Maureen Cavanaugh (2018)
"I hadn't known just how much pain the world could contain. It crushes me sometimes, not just my own but the pain of so many others also trying to hang on to whatever shred of their loved ones they can."

Cavanaugh opens her memoir with a passage that's as shocking as it is relatable to family members of addicts. It's 2017, and she's driving through town after learning that her heroin-addicted daughter is about to leave yet another rehab facility. A baseball bat is rolling around in the back of the car. If she runs into her beloved daughter's drug dealer, she swears to herself, she'll take the bat and beat him to death in order to save her daughter once and for all.

It's straightforward portions like this that are the strength of If You Love Me. Cavanaugh doesn't hesitate to delve into the dark places and thoughts that, prior to having an addicted child, seemed unimaginable to her. She unflinchingly details her feelings of shock and isolation after realizing that her daughter is a serious heroin addict, her enabling and obsessive behavior, and her quest for answers that eventually lead her to founding an online support group.

As much as I wanted to like this book, though, there were enough issues that make it hard for me to recommend. First off, I didn't like that Cavanaugh doesn't explicitly note (as other similar memoirs that I've read do) that she has permission from daughter to share intimate details about her addiction. There are also large portions of the book that are dedicated to the author's online group and the relationships she formed there; while this is surely an important piece of the story, the way that it's presented makes the book drag.

Cavanaugh seems to spend a good deal of time focused on herself in her recollections while overlooking people like her other (non-addict) children -  I can't fault her entirely here, but this is paired with prose that feels fairly uneven, especially as the book goes on. Finally, unlike other similar books that have something of an ending (however tenuous), this story is still ongoing, and thus the book kind of just peters out. It's a harsh reality that the cycle of relapse and rehab is common with addicts, but I feel the author could've ended on a stronger note. All in all, I appreciate the existence of this book, but there are better ones on the same subject out there.

Related Reads:
A Very Fine House (Stoefen)
Ben Behind His Voices (Kaye)
Beautiful Boy (Sheff)

The Time Traveler's Almanac [Short Stories] (2013)
"There was a sound like a gigantic bonfire burning all of Time, all the years and all the parchment calendars, all the hours piled high and set aflame."

The Time Traveler's Almanac contains a wide range of stories (72 in all) within a fairly narrow genre. Although I didn't care for every story and felt that some of the space given to longer stories or excerpts from larger works would have been better served going to a greater number of shorter stories, I enjoyed the mix overall. It contains stories spanning from the late 1800s to now, and has a good mix of female and non-European authors. By design, the genre is limited and thus I didn't find I could read a lot in one sitting, but I'd recommend it as a good starting point to explore more authors and books within the specific Sci-Fi genre.

Related Reads:
Masterpieces: The Best Science Fiction of the Twentieth Century

Guards! Guards! (1989) and
Men At Arms (1993) - Terry Pratchett
"So many crimes are solved by a happy accident - by the random stopping of a car, by an overheard remark, by someone of the right nationality happening to be within five miles of the scene of the crime without an alibi..."

This month, I finally obtained the first and second books in the City Watch/Guards story line of Terry Pratchett's Discworld. This wasn't my first time coming across many of the main characters since they appear peripherally in other Discworld story lines, but it was my first time understanding the background of the City Watch. I kind of wish I'd read them a little sooner in the mix of Discworld books I've read so far, but I also think I could probably say that about a lot of Discworld books.

In any case, Guards! Guards! and Men At Arms are both a lot of fun, and I enjoyed the solving-mysteries element to them.

The Bullet Journal Method - Ryder Carroll (2018)
"Leading an intentional life is about keeping your actions aligned with your beliefs. It's about penning a story that you believe in and that you can be proud of."

I've long been interested in Bullet Journaling, but I'd always had trouble sorting through the huge variety of online resources enough to get started. Having the basics explained to me in this book form, then, ended up being a perfect place for me to start.

The Bullet Journal Method isn't meant only for those just starting out, though; author/method creator Ryder Carroll includes explanations of basic concepts and layouts as well as example pages for beginners, but also gets into more complicated and refined elements of BuJo in the later part of the book. I'd also say that at least half of the book is focused on discussion of planning goals and life advice, which seemed a bit like padding, but was also helpful guidance for me in understanding the mindset behind using the BuJu method and setting up my own journal.

Overall, Bullet Journaling isn't too different than what I was previously doing with calendar planners, but I'm liking (and even preferring) my foray into it so far.

Related Reads:
The Happiness Project (Rubin)

February 2019 Reads

I didn't get through a huge number of books in February, but everything I did read was from either my to-read list or my at home to-read stack, so I'm fairly pleased with my progress. Along with the list below, I've also been slowly working my way through the nearly 1,000 page The Time Traveler's Almanac short story collection.

A Hat Full of Sky - Terry Pratchett (2004)
"Knowing things is magical, if other people don't know them."

This book is the second in the Discworld Tiffany Aching story line. Like its predecessor, it deals with serious themes like death and loss blended skillfully with Pratchett's signature wry humor. I've really liked the Tiffany Aching books so far, although I'm planning on putting reading more on hold until I get through some of the Guards story line.
Note that while the Tiffany Aching books are YA, this particular book seemed a little on the heavy/scary side for that genre.

The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists &
The Pirates! In an Adventure with Ahab - Gideon Defoe (2003 & 2004)
"Life at sea was tough and unforgiving, and tensions could run quite high on board a pirate boat, especially when crockery was limited and people didn't always do their washing-up, but generally the pirates all got along fine."

I started reading this two-in-one paperback right after re-watching Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance and re-riding Disneyland's Pirates of the Caribbean ride, so I was in the perfect frame of mind for these silly adventures. The Pirates! books are pirating spoofs with some history and footnote-facts thrown in. Overall, they're fun, not-to-be-taken-seriously reads.

Related Reads:
My Lady's Choosing (Curran & Zageris)

Reading People - Anne Bogel (2017)
"The point isn't to try to trap you in those boxes; it's to organize your behavior in a way that makes sense and helps you understand how the pieces work together, how to find them when you need them, and how to put them to work in pursuit of your best self."

The chapters of this book contain overviews of nine different personality frameworks, including (but not limited to) Keirsey's Temperament Test, The Five Love Languages, and StrengthsFinder. Although I was familiar with most of these, Bogel's overview helped me understand some aspects of the tests themselves better, figure out why I struggled with getting accurate results on some of them, and narrow down some things about myself that I had struggled with putting into words before. And even though there was a lot of reinforcing of old information rather than presenting a lot of new stuff for me, reading things like the overview of a Highly Sensitive Person (which I've known I definitely am) and how that might affect daily life was validating and a good resource to show others.

I would recommend Reading People to anyone who's interested in learning more about personality-type tests and exploring how they can use the gained knowledge to their advantage in daily life. The book is both a good beginning for someone who's never taken any test and a helpful overview even for those who have some familiarity.

Let Me Tell You: New Stories, Essays, and Other Writings - Shirley Jackson (2015)
"I am tired of writing dainty little biographical things that pretend that i am a trim little housewife in a Mother Hubbard stirring up appetizing messes over a wood stove. 
I live in a dank old place with a ghost that stomps around in the attic room we've never gone into (I think it's walled up), and the first thing I did when we moved in was to make charms in black crayon on all the door sills and window ledges to keep out demons, and was successful in the main."

This collection of previously-unpublished pieces by late author Shirley Jackson (The Lottery, We Have Always Lived in the Castle) is both a decent introduction to Jackson for the uninitiated, and essential reading for the Jackson fan. Due to their unpublished nature, many of the short stories in particular have an unfinished or incomplete feel, but they nevertheless make for good reading. The reader will come away from this collection with a sense of knowing Shirley Jackson as a person as well as an author.

January 2019 Reads

Hello to 2019 and another mix of books! My first month's reads are all either from my at-home to-read stacks or library books that have been on my Goodreads to-read list for a long time. I'm planning on focusing my reading as much as possible on books that meet either of those two qualifications in the months to come.

Tender at the Bone - Ruth Reichl (1998)
"I was slowly discovering that if you watched people as they ate, you could find out who they were."

This memoir is well-written and feels conversational and intimate in tone. Reichl's descriptions of her various travels and jobs as they related to the restaurant/foodie world are interesting, and she includes a variety of recipes that were important throughout her life, to boot.

However, I had a few personal caveats - for one, reading about Reichl's controlling, manic-depressive mother occasionally hit too close to home for comfort. I also felt I had trouble relating to Reichl's mindset of coming from a (albeit difficult) relatively permissive and monetarily-privileged background (her family hired maids and cooks; she went to a private French boarding school and traveled abroad).

Related Reads:
Garlic and Sapphires (Reichl)
The Opposite of Fate (Tan)
Coming Clean (Miller)
The Apprentice (Pepin)

Thief of Time - Terry Pratchett (2001)
"No other species anywhere in the world had invented boredom. Perhaps it was boredom, not intelligence, that had propelled them up to the evolutionary ladder."

This book is an example of Pratchett at his Discworld series best; it feels like something of a culmination. It's helpful to have read most of the Death story line before reading this one, but not strictly necessary.

The Truth - Terry Pratchett (2000)
"Truth was what he told. Honesty was sometimes not the same thing."

This is something of a stand-alone book in the Discworld series, so it really could be read at any time - although I don't suggest making this the first Pratchett book you read, in part because there are a lot of peripheral characters from other books that appear. I particularly liked the journalism-focused plot line and all the varied characters here.

The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning - Margareta Magnusson (2018)
"I have death cleaned so many times for others, I'll be damned if someone else has to death clean for me."

I've had this on my to-read list ever since reading an article about it a few years back. To be honest, there's not a whole lot more to gain from this book than what's already in related articles. It works as almost a supplemental to other similar books - it fits along nicely with Marie Kondo's works, for instance.

Overall, this little book is a to-the-point a reality check that's really geared more towards older people in the empty-nester category. But I think it has good advice for everyone to keep in the back of their minds; when you're gone, who will be left dealing with all of your "stuff"? And is everything you own really necessary for your life and serving a purpose for you now?

Related Reads:
The Little Book of Hygge (Wiking)
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up (Kondo)

Victoria - Daisy Goodwin (2016)
"Victoria pulled her shoulders back and stuck her chin in the air, trying to lift herself from four foot eleven inches to a full five feet - if only she had a few more inches. It was uncommonly hard to be regal when everyone could see the top of your head."

I thought this book might be about Queen Victoria's entire life, but it's focused almost entirely on the first couple of years of her reign. In particular, the author details key incidents during those few years, as well as Victoria's various relationships with the people she was closest to, including her mother, her first prime minister Lord Melbourne, and, finally, her husband-to-be Albert.

Written in a very readable, almost historical-fiction type tone, Victoria a fairly easy read, albeit a little repetitive. It manages to feel both light and informative as the reader gains insight into the queen's formative years.

Related Reads:
The Heir Apparent (Ridley)
The Romanov Sisters (Rappaport)

Dandelion Wine - Ray Bradbury (1946)
"The sidewalks were haunted by dust ghosts all night as the furnace wind summoned them up, swung them about, and gentled them down in a warm spice on the lawns. Trees, shaken by the footsteps of late-night strollers, sifted avalanches of dust. From midnight on, it seemed a volcano beyond the town was showering red-hot ashes everywhere, crusting slumberless night watchmen and irritable dogs."

Why haven't I picked up this book until now? Fahrenheit 451 author Ray Bradbury's semi-autobiographical work is centered on a boyhood summer in the late 1920's. It's awash with beautiful prose, interwoven with nostalgia, philosophy, and the occasional unexpected tinges of science fiction and horror. All in all, this is a moment of Americana captured and bottled - dark and bright, full of endings and beginnings.

It's worth noting that the bulk of the sections/episodes read like short stories; I'd read a few of the pieces before in various short-story collections.

Related Reads:
My Family and Other Animals (Durrell)
Gilead (Robinson)

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making - Catherynne M. Valente (2012)
"Stories have a way of changing faces. They are unruly things, undisciplined, given to delinquency and the throwing of erasers. This is why we must close them up into thick, solid books, so they cannot get out and cause trouble."

This YA fairy tale-adventure was fine overall - I find that I don't have anything that I particularly loved or hated about it. The fairyland world was creative and chock-full of unique characters, things, and wordplay, but I also had a bit of an overall sense that it was trying too hard, and it felt somewhat unfinished, even taking into account that this is the first book in a series. I also felt there was a (possibly intentional) uncomfortable sexual undertone to (adult male) Green Wind's treatment of the 12-year-old female protagonist, which bothered me enough to take me out of the story a bit.

Related Reads:
Alice in Wonderland (Carroll)
The Wizard of Oz (Baum)

2018 Overview and Favorites

(List of all the books I read in 2018 is here; my 2018 overview page on Goodreads is here)

In 2018, I made a sort of anti-goal for number of books read: I wanted to read less than 100 books in a bid to force myself to choose slower, more difficult reads rather than pick books that I could gobble up quickly to make a certain quota. I met this goal and ended the year with 92 books.*

It's always hard to pick out the favorites from the past year; I usually read a good mix of books in terms of genre. That said, here are the books that stood out to me (along with a one-sentence overview) given in no particular order. Links are to the original blog post the book appeared in.

The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. Le Guin

A uniquely quiet, exploratory, and deep fantasy-tinged Sci-Fi novel.

The Art of Asking - Amanda Palmer

Amanda's writing style is very relatable, even though her experiences and way of viewing the world are very different than mine.

Stories of Your Life and Others [Short Stories] - Ted Chiang

I read a lot of short story collections this year (twelve, to be precise), but this worthy mix of Sci-Fi was my favorite.

Mort - Terry Pratchett
The Wee Free Men - Terry Pratchett

These two Discworld novels (both starting points in different story lines) each are characteristic in their blend of humor and serious subjects (most notably, death).

In the Heart of the Sea - Nathaniel Philbrick
The Butchering Art - Lindsey Fitzharris

These two historical books are each fascinating in their treatment of the subjects (respectively, the sinking of a 19th-century whaleship and a history of the "father of modern surgery"), well-researched, and just a little gruesome.

Spinning Silver - Naomi Novik

This novel offers an almost-perfect balance of realism and fantasy.

Kindred - Olivia Butler

This book - the first I've read of Butler's - is directly gripping and quietly devastating.

Wind, Sand, and Stars - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

A collection of personal musings on adventure that's poignant, philosophical, and piercingly poetic.


Bonus Runners-up (books that don't have quite as widespread appeal, but that I appreciated and stood out in some way nonetheless):

A Very Fine House - Barbara Cofer Stoefen
This personal family story ends perhaps a little too neatly, and I found myself annoyed with the author (the somewhat naive and controlling mother of a meth-addicted daughter) at times. But I appreciated this book since there aren't a lot like it out there. And Stoefen smooths out enough things (cursing and situations) in the story to make it palatable enough for most readers.

A Clergyman's Daughter - George Orwell
Kind of depressing, but hauntingly relevant, sparse, and sharply realistic of the time.

My Lady's Choosing - Kitty Curran & Larissa Zageris
This hilarious and spoofy Regency-era choose-your-own adventure was a lot of fun to read together with my husband. Is it top-notch writing and of great literary quality? No. But is it something I got a lot of enjoyment out of? Hell yeah.

Treason - Orson Scott Card
This echos-of-Dune, fantasy-tinged early novel of Card's is weird and imperfect, but still readable and interesting enough that I find myself including it in this post.

And lastly, I'd feel remiss in not giving at least an honorable mention to these two well-researched, fact-packed, history-heavy, and yet very accessible overviews:
A History of Food in 100 Recipes - William Sitwell
The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England - Ian Mortimer

(*91 according to Goodreads, but I'm counting the Pat and Pat of Silver Bush combo that I got on Kindle as two separate books rather than one volume.)

December 2018 Reads

Well, it's time for the final post for 2018! I rounded out the year with more fiction choices - some of which I waited for months to get from the library - as well as a couple of history/biography choices and a self-help option.

Less - Andrew Sean Greer (2017)
From: Local Library (hold list)
"... as an areligious WASP, he had no idea what to do about death. Two thousand years of flaming Viking boats and Celtic rites and Irish wakes and Puritan worship and Unitarian hymns, and he was still left with nothing."

This novel was an unexpected a jumble of juxtapositions for me. It's funny and poignant; it's wry and rambling; it's light and deep. Following the stumbling-but-earnest travels of an anxiously-aging writer isn't the type of journey I usually find myself taking, but despite its uniqueness (to me, at any rate), this book seems, if anything, universally accessible.

Uncommon Type [Short Stories] - Tom Hanks (2017)
From: Little Free Library
"In New York City, real estate parlors took your money and lied to you, drug addicts relieved themselves in plain sight, and the Public Library was closed on Mondays."

I have to say that nothing really wowed me in this short story collection. The stories are generally along a similar tone and vein (although a couple veer into the Sci-Fi direction and a few take a historical track, which is a plus for me). I don't think that Hanks is a bad writer. It's just that as a whole, this collection seemed fairly bland and a bit unfinished. It wasn't really for me.

Related Reads:
Stone Mattress (Atwood)
The Overneath (Beagle)

Mirror Mirror - Gregory Maguire (2003)
From: Little Free Library
"What child does not feel itself perched at the center of creation? Before catechisms can instill a proper humility, small children know the truth that their own existence has caused the world to bloom into being."

It's fairly obvious from the title that this is another retelling of the Snow White story. What was unexpected to me was that Maguire goes for a fantasy-infused but reality-based retelling that's tinged with historical fiction; the story integrates actual characters (namely, members of the Borgia family) from 16th-century Italy. It's an interesting take, overall, despite some potential loose ends, and I generally preferred it over the more widely-known Wicked.

Related Reads:
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister (Maguire)
The Sleeper and the Spindle and Smoke & Mirrors ["Snow, Glass, Apples"] (Gaiman)

Children of Hoarders - Fugen Neziroglu & Katharine Donnelly (2013)
From: Amazon
"The goal of engaging in a dialogue with a parent who hoards is not necessarily to bring about change, but rather to begin the process of healing from the emotional impact that your parent's behavior has had on you."

Quick note: The subject of this book isn't directly applicable to me, but I read this together with my husband, who is a child of a hoarder.

To be brief, I'd categorize this book as "somewhat helpful." The chapters are set up with clear subjects designed to be immediately useful (ranging from "Managing Your Reactions and Coping With Your Emotions" to "Inheriting the Mess"), there are examples and tips given for various situations, and there are lots of at-home mindfulness-type exercises included for the reader to work on. The authors put forth a good bit of starting point and surface-level information in each chapter without delving too deeply into any one thing. But honestly, that's fitting with the point of this book, which is to help the reader move forward and processes things rather than try to completely understand and "fix" things that are, frankly, often unfathomable and unfixable.

With clear statements, the authors guide the reader to actually sit down, face the past and present, and think things through directly. Thus, this book is geared more for someone who is just starting out on their journey of confronting the situation and their feelings rather than for someone who's been making progress with processing things for years. I'll also note that the authors generally maintain a sympathetic view towards all parties involved, which may be a difficult pill for some to swallow.

All in all, I'd recommend this as a starting point for children of hoarders who are just beginning the process of trying to face or deal with things, with the understanding that the mindfulness and CBT-based tactics that are emphasized may not be for everyone (and is no substitute for actual therapy, if needed).

Related Reads:
The Secret Lives of Hoarders (Paxton)
Coming Clean (Miller)
Dirty Secret (Sholl)

Parallel Lives: Five Victorian Marriages - Phyllis Rose (1983)
From: Borrowed from a friend
"None behave with a greater appearance of guilt than people who are convinced of their own virtue."

This was an interesting mix of stories about various authors (including Charles Dickens, George Eliot, and John Stuart Mill) and their spouses, focused mostly on their unhappy marriages. It explores the concepts and laws surrounding divorce during the 18th-century. I felt the author inserted a lot of personal opinion into the stories, but I didn't necessarily mind this; it's just helpful to know that this book sometimes reads more like an opinionated essay rather than a research-heavy book that's strictly based on fact.

Related Reads:
Half a Century (Swisshelm)

Wind, Sand, and Stars - Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1939)
From: Christmas present
"Behind all seen things lies something vaster; everything is but a path, a portal or a window opening on something other than itself."

The Little Prince is a childhood favorite of mine, so it was almost a given that I'd enjoy the author's autobiographical book. The writing (translated from French) is poetic, repetitious, haunting, beautiful - and very human. De Saint-Exupery details some of his experiences flying small airplanes on mail routes in South America and Africa, his visions experienced when isolated (and sometimes stranded in) the deserts, and his observance of the Spanish Civil War as a journalist.

There's a fair amount of personal musings and philosophy interwoven throughout the book. I don't agree with all of his conclusions and thought processes; there are a few outdated and racist attitudes that crop up. But all in all, this is a lovely, gripping, and worthwhile read.

Related Reads:
Seven Pillars of Wisdom (T. E. Lawrence)
Going Solo (Dahl)
Homage to Catalonia (Orwell)
My Family and Other Animals (Durrell)

Pachinko - Min Jin Lee (2017)
From: Local Library (after many months on the hold list)
"-There could only be a few winners and a lot of losers. And yet we played on, because we had hope that we might be the lucky ones. How could you get angry at the ones who wanted to be in the game?
... Pachinko was a foolish game, but life was not."

Despite being nearly 500 pages long, this novel is immensely readable - I finished it in the space of two days. It's focused on one family over a time period of a century (1880s-1980s), tracing them from humble roots in Korea to eventual migration to Japan and detailing the often racism-based difficulties they experience there. The reader gets an enlightening and rare window into the culture and history, and the story manages to stay interesting without getting too heavy.

My big caveat is that I found that I never really connected well with the characters. The story centers on the one family, but tends to make large jumps forward (sometimes rather abruptly) in time and change focus to different family members, so it's hard to form attachments to specific characters.

Somewhat of a spoiler/content note: there are several suicides that occur throughout the book.

Related Reads:
The Valley of Amazement (Tan)
Memoirs of a Geisha (Golden)
One Hundred Years of Solitude (Marquez)