Books of 2020- Installment #20

96. The Death of Sitting Bear by N. Scott Momaday and read by N. Scott Momaday

This is a delightful poetry collection and my first time to listen to an audiobook of poetry. It might just be my new way of consuming poetry. It's quite lovely to hear an expert poet read to you!

97. Battle Ground by Jim Butcher

This is the second part of Peace Talks and so it was great to finally feel the closure of that portion of the Harry Dresden journey. But the short story at the end of the book, Christmas Eve, slayed me!

98. Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse and read by Cara Gee, Nicole Lews, Kaipo Schwab, and Shaun Taylor-Corbett 

I love Rebecca Roanhorse and this book is a really interesting mix of familiar and new. She creates a fantasy world by blending magic and various cultural aspects of different groups. In particular you can feel the indigenous influences woven throughout this book. It's the first book and we shall see where she is taking us in time. 

99. Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots and read by Alex McKenna

I love this book!! I love how Natalie Zina Walschots examines the power dynamics between "heroes" and "villians" and their relationships and how they impact the rest of us. She looks at what it means to be evil and good when the world has people with superpowers. It's beautiful! And makes me think of Duke from the TV show Haven. He said something like, "They're not powers that's why we call them troubles."

100. A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher

So this is my first fantasy novel of T. Kingfisher's and it is a delight!! Love it!!! She takes a lovely notion, what happens with those with small magical powers, and examines it in this sweet and engaging short novel. The main character, Mona, is a young baker with what people believe to be a small magical power. She can manipulate baked goods. You won't believe where this takes Mona!

I've read 100 books and 77 were by woman, 19 were by men, 3 were anthologies by both women and men, 1 was by a nonbinary author, and 9 1/2 were translations. My year of reading lots of women and at least 12 translations is going well in that I've read mostly female authors, but the world is going through a pandemic and state sanctioned murders in the form of police brutality with a horrible man still at the helm and supported by horrible men in the Congress. In short this year has been really rough. What will this global health crisis leave us with? What changes will we make, not only in terms of the huge inequities of our health system where people of color and the poor (which let's face it- the system works really hard to ensure that people of color, especially black people, are poor) are more than extremely disadvantaged, but also all the other ways in which our society, our systems, actively damage people of color? Only time will tell. But I hope it is a greater sense of community, a need to care for one and another and support each other, not just people with the same colored skin as ourselves, not just people with the same sized wallet as ours. My naive? hope is all of this isolation leaves us wanting to lift each other up and not hold others down.

Books of 2020- Installment #19

91. Constellations by Sinead Gleeson

This book is a thoughtful meditation on what it means to be a woman inhabiting her body. What it means when your body is not well. It was truly wonderful to read and she really made me think about things. Not always what you want during a pandemic but at the same time illness is on my mind.

92. Split Tooth by Tanya Tagaq and read by Tanya Tagaq

I don't know what the hell that was. It was utterly mesmerizing and I have no idea what could possibly have been written on the page for great swaths of this. I can tell you some broad strokes. She's young and indigenous living in the northern tundra of Canada. She explores her sexuality. She talks about her people and consumerism. But that tells you nothing about this book if you ask me.

93. Halloween Boo by Sarah Spade

This is a quick and dirty romance that centers on a haunted apartment leading to love. I'm a sucker for ghost stories and during this pandemic, novellas are right up my alley!

94.  Night of the Mannequins by Stephen Graham Jones

This horror novella is disturbing!! It's not gory but man, it's dark! The premise has many different ways it could go and I think that gets your mind churning adding to the discomfort!! A group of high school friends found a mannequin in a river a long time ago, and they decided to pull a prank on a friend's boss at the movie theater. What ensues is... dark, as dark as a movie theater with nothing but the exit light illuminated. 

95. The Season of Styx Malone by Kekla Magoon and read by Sullivan Jones

This book is a really interesting look at growing up and making relationships and finding your way in the world. A pair of young brothers give away their baby sister for a bag of firecrackers and this sets them on a path that leads to learning who they are and what they want from life and how they are the same and how they are different.

I've read 95 books and 74 were by woman, 1?7 were by men, 3 were anthologies by both women and men, 1 was by a nonbinary author, and 9 1/2 were translations. My year of reading lots of women and at least 12 translations is going well in that I've read mostly female authors, but the world is going through a pandemic and state sanctioned murders in the form of police brutality with a horrible man still at the helm and supported by horrible men in the Congress. In short this year has been really rough. What will this global health crisis leave us with? What changes will we make, not only in terms of the huge inequities of our health system where people of color and the poor (which let's face it- the system works really hard to ensure that people of color, especially black people, are poor) are more than extremely disadvantaged, but also all the other ways in which our society, our systems, actively damage people of color? Only time will tell. But I hope it is a greater sense of community, a need to care for one and another and support each other, not just people with the same colored skin as ourselves, not just people with the same sized wallet as ours. My naive? hope is all of this isolation leaves us wanting to lift each other up and not hold others down.