Books of 2017- Installment #11

51. You Don't Have to Say You Love Me by Sherman Alexie
I don't like memoirs! So why have I read FOUR this year???? Well, this one is easy to answer- I adore, adore Sherman Alexie!! This memoir is no exception. For one thing it doesn't seem like a memoir. Sherman writes the way he writes, which is the greatest compliment as far as I'm concerned. He is able to hold joy and sorrow in his hand. He tells the truth as he lies and lies as he tells the truth. He stares unflinchingly at all the ugly and revels in all the beauty. He knows who he is and who we are even when he doesn't.

52. The View from the Cheap Seats by Neil Gaiman
I read this book while reading Sherman's memoir, and they were beautiful compliments to each other and incredible contrasts. Sherman talked about a white guy asking him what made his work so "particularly Indian." My answer would be read these books together. Neil's isn't a memoir, but it does give a lot of insight into his own thoughts about himself, as does Sherman's. And it's very clear the different struggles these two brilliant writers had.

53. The Book of Phoenix by Nnedi Okorafor
I love Nnedi Okorafor's writing. One of the things that I love about her writing is that she exposes me to things I don't know anything about. This book was a little different and is a little heavier than the other books of hers I've read. I found it a little challenging to get into but once in I found it a great book. Challenging and uncomfortable but engaging.

54. Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
Oh, boy! I put this book on hold at the library and it took forever to come. By the time it came I thought maybe I would find it too heavy or wouldn't match my mood. That perhaps I didn't want to read more Neil Gaiman so soon. But I was wrong. This was a great book. There was a bit at the beginning that was a little beyond me but that was one short part and the rest was very engaging.

55. A Little Something Different by Sandy Hall
This is a cute story told from different perspectives. One thing I enjoyed about it was that she had a squirrel and a bench as narrators. I'm always interested in stories where non-human perspectives are given. Sure, I think most people don't have an idea how to express non-human ideas, but to actually try is impressive to me.

It seems apropos to share a Sherman Alexie quote here.

Books of 2017- Installment #10

46. New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson
Last year I set up a reading challenge for myself to read a book with a local angle of some sort this year. I had googled local authors and local books. To my surprise my next door neighbor wrote a book. I considered that one. Then I was listening to a podcast (Imaginary Worlds by Eric Molinsky) and he talked to Kim Stanley Robinson about this book which was about to come out. Well, after the third mention of Davis, I thought, "All right, my local book this year just might be New York 2140." I've tried to read Kim Stanley Robinson before and I found him hard to get through, but I decided to give it a go. At 642 pages this book took a bit of time to read, but it was definitely worth it! I loved this book! And it is so of the moment. I mean it did just come out this year, but it's set in the future and feels immensely relevant to us in the here and now.

47. Dash and Lily's Book of Dares by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn
I got this book from the library at about the same time as New York 2140 and chose to read that one first because it was so long. It's funny to me that they are both set in New York and how different they both are, but Dash and Lily are charming teenagers navigating life, learning how to deal with their various disappointments and challenges in life. It's absolutely delightful!!

48. Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
This is my third Gabriel Garcia Marquez book, if memory serves (and it doesn't always!) It's a very interesting take on a murder and a town's culpability in said murder.

49. Far Far Away by Tom McNeal
This is a book my student, Vahid, gave me. It's about a boy, a girl, and a ghost. Right up my alley!! Well, this is a wonderful modern-day fairy tale. I really enjoyed it!

50. Zenn Diagram by Wendy Brant
This YA novel grabbed me from the first page! The main character has some supernatural power to learn about people through touch, but she learns about them in the form of fractals and she's so into math. Love it!!!!

Here some truth for you-

Books of 2017- Installment #9

41. The Trouble with Reality: A Rumination on Moral Panic in Our Time by Brooke Gladstone
This is a great topical look at what lead us to a Trump presidency. She discusses research, literature, the founding fathers, and reporters. My personal favorite part is when she discusses the dystopian fears of George Orwell (1984) and Aldous Huxley (Brave New World). Orwell feared that we would become captives and Huxley feared we would be caught up in a trivial culture. Orwell's fears seemed totally on track back in the 40s but this description of Huxley's fears seems terrifyingly accurate. But if you want a glimmer of hope... she says, “Trump’s rise has moved many people to view paying for news as a moral obligation, an act of resistance. It may not last, and if it doesn’t, journalism probably will fail again.”

42. Kindred Spirits by Rainbow Rowell
I love Rainbow Rowell- I have ever since I first read Eleanor and Park. I first heard about this book ages and ages ago. I feel like it's been two years. At any rate, all I could do was wait. It never seemed to come out. Then today I walked into my local bookstore- Avid Reader- with my friend and there it was. Just one copy, sitting there on the top of the bookcase in the young adult section. Well, I picked it up and looked at the price. $0.00. Hmmm... that's an odd price for a bookstore... Well, it's the only copy and I've been wanting to read this ever since I heard it existed.... We get up to the register and I say, "I don't know how much this book costs." "It's free." "Well, I'll take it then." Turns out the publisher had just given them a stack of them so they couldn't charge anyone for them. Interesting. Good for me I guess. Turns out it was only published in the States last month. Hmmm... Well, it's a short story about waiting in line for The Force Awakens. Interesting! Well, Rainbow Rowell and Star Wars- all I can say is I love it!! (I demonstrably can say more... clearly...)

43. Changing Planes by Ursula K Le Guin
When I picked up this book I thought it would be about changing planes of the inter-dimensional variety, but then I read the author's note and thought it was about airplanes. I was shocked to say the least, but no it's really was of the inter-dimensional variety. I really enjoy Ursula's writing, though I often wonder what I just read... With that said, I really love her sociological/anthropological look at societies. One of my favorite stories took on rapt commercialization.

44. Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
A vampire novel set in Mexico?? Sign me up! I really liked that she introduced me to vampire lore that I've never heard of and that she made the vampires of different vampire lore into different subspecies. For many, many years I've thought vampires should be their own species, and that is what she does in this story.  Another interesting thing is because of the title I was introduced to a poem.

Love Sonnet 17

Pablo Neruda 

I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
so I love you because I know no other way

than this: where I does not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.

45. Waking Kate by Sarah Addison Allen
This is a sweet short story about being with the wrong person.

It's been kind of a rough couple of months for me, but the following picture kind of sum up my coping strategy!

Books of 2017- Installment #8

36. Not My Father's Son by Alan Cumming
Recently I went and saw Alan Cumming in concert. Afterwards, even though I was familiar with this memoir, I had to read it. It took a bit for it to become available from the library, but once it did, I devoured this book. One of the things that struck me at the concert was just how joyous and gracious he was. He talked a great deal about things that are in the book so they dovetail well. But the contrast with the trauma in the book and the joyousness of his concert made the book rather compelling. As might be obvious from the title, he talks about his father a fair bit in the book, and even though his relationship with his father is not like mine, there were some moments where I found myself struck by what he had to say. To end on a lighter note I have to say that even though he didn't say it in the book, at every mention of Eli in the book I heard his concert self saying, "Alicia! What the hell's going on?"

37. Murder in the Dark by Kerry Greenwood
I wasn't going to read a Phryne just yet. I hardly have any left and I love them. I was going to read a book about physics or another Indonesia book. In fact I started both of them, but the crazy situation in the US and at work meant I just needed Phryne. This one is set at the end of 1928 at an opulent end-of-the-year week-long bash. It felt like another world... just what I needed! Though I concede the quote that grabbed doesn't seem far removed from our world...

38. The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher
This was a hard read for me, not least of all because she only passed away 4 months ago. I of course loved Princess Leia in the first two movies- Star Wars and the Empire Strikes Back. She talks about Star Wars and her relationship with Princess Leia. The part that fascinated me the most was reading her writing then and now (2016 is still now for a bit).

39. The Night Strangers by Chris Bohjalian
This book is presented as a ghost story set in a mysterious house in northern New Hampshire.Well, a ghost story AND in New Hampshire! Sign me up! A house my parents considered in the old granite state was reported to be haunted, and I was so mad that my parents hadn't bought it! I guess that says quite a bit about me... This house, however, is not a house nor a town I would want to live in...

40. The Great Passage by Shion Miura
A novel about making a dictionary, a love of words and language... This is a delightful book about the making of a dictionary in Japan. The love of words and books comes across so very clearly in this book. I'm adding this book to my list of great books about books!!

Books of 2017- Installment #7

31. The Stars are Legion by Kameron Hurley
This book was a little violent and a little gory, but it was such an interesting story. It was set in a universe embroiled in a destrcutive cylce of war and centered around two people trying to end the cycle.

32. Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
This book has so much buzz that I was surprised that I was able to get my library copy. I only had to wait for a couple of weeks! It is an interesting take on being a refugee. One could argue the book has this element to it that makes it clear that the author, Mohsin Hamid, was more interested in looking at the feeling of being a refugee and what it would do to your relationships and your life than on the actual mechanics of being a refugee, but I would argue that it's more than that. It's also about how countries would deal with a refugee population when they have no control over the entering into a country and to some extent changing people from refugees to migrants.

33. The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu
I've been meaning to read the titular story for years, but I never did. Then I heard Gene Demby of NPR's Code Switch mention it on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour and said to myself, "It's time." That story is a wonderful read! And I quite enjoyed several of the other stories as well. It was interesting to read this book at this moment in time because I felt echoes of all these other books I've read recently: The Three Body Problem (which he translated into English), The Story of Your Life and Others, Green Island, Hidden Figures, and even the Dr. Seuss biography. With that said, though, it wasn't an easy read. Long and heavy...

34. The Bookshop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan
Boy what a delightful book! This book really scratched an itch! For various reasons this mousy librarian finds herself unemployed and in need of a new career, all of which takes her to Scotland, and the result is transformative. I would say that, while I enjoyed the love story, it was clearly inspired by Jane Austen...

35. Paper Boats by Dee Lestari
This is my second Indonesian book of the year, and both were Kindle Firsts. This one was fantastic! The dialogue sometimes felt a little stilted but otherwise wonderful! I loved the characters and spending time in their world!

I noticed that I had read some really good books about book lovers. Here is my current collection of great books about book lovers! :)

Books of 2017- Installment #6

26. Ink by Sabrina Vourvoulias
This book was written in 2012 and is about immigration. In this world immigrants are tattooed. One review I read said it's not a dystopian novel and that's what makes it haunting. With that said, I don't like the cover or how the word ink is transformed in this book into something horrible. They make me uncomfortable. There's a lot that makes me uncomfortable in this book, not least of how all too possible this policy feels in today's political climate, which is the point. Which is the point.

27. Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen
I was looking for something light after reading both Ink and The Essence of T'ai Chi, and I thought about the book The Girl Who Chased the Moon and thought I'd check out another book by Sarah Addison Allen. It wasn't quite as light as I was expecting, but it did deliver the happy read I was looking for. Bonus there's a sequel! I'm excited to read that too!

28. The Essence of T'ai Chi by Waysun Liao
I really wanted to get a little different perspective on life and this seemed like a good one to read. I learned a lot about the history of T'ai Chi which was really interesting.

29. Theodor Seuss Geisel by Donald Pease
I've been trying to branch out and read things I don't normally do. One of the things I rarely read is biographies, and since I have long adored Dr. Seuss, as have most Americans, I thought I would try a biography about him. It was definitely an interesting and quick read. There are some interesting analyses of his books. There is a fascinating discussion about his racist propaganda work during WWII and how he regretted it and tried to make amends and even eradicate that. There was also some very interesting information given about his wives and his first wife's suicide. Dr. Seuss will always be my favorite children's author. His books have always meant a lot to me in particular The Lorax.

30. The First Frost by  Sarah Addison Allen
This book continues the story of the Waverley family started in Garden Spells. I don't usually start a sequel so soon after having read the first, but I've just needed some lightness in my life right now. Love it!

Books of 2017- Installment #5

21. The Bookseller by Cynthia Swanson
This book oscillates between two worlds, the real one and a dream one. Both are equally vivid. It actually bears some resemblance to The Original Dream that I read earlier this year. And to be quite honest, neither one of these novels was really my cup of tea.

22. The Djinn Falls in Love edited by Mahvesh Murad and Jared Shurin
I have long had a fascination about djinn/jinn. I had been working on the misapprehension that jinn were genie. But it is not so. The vast majority of my Muslim students incorrectly believe that jinn are what we call ghosts. Again not so. Through conversations with three of my beloved students (Ghassan, Faisal, and Abdulrahman), I learned gobs and gobs about jinn, but this did not slake my curiosity.

23. Best of All Worlds by Karen Lord
I don't know how this book made it into my consciousness, but it is really good! I really like the story and the world-building she did. And Karen Lord introduced me to a Ray Bradbury short story I'd never read before, so all around a wonderful experience! Plus- she's from Barbados and I've never read any Barbadian Science Fiction before!

24. Tamsin by Peter Beagle
I love The Last Unicorn, so I saw that Peter Beagle had written a ghost story with cats? Oh, I was all over that!!At first I was a little nervous because I didn't like the narrative choice he was making. But by the end of the first chapter I was hooked, and then somewhere early on I actually really liked his narrative choices. With that said, this is definitely exactly my kind of ghost story and my kind of cat story! Doesn't hurt that the cat in the story looks like my little baby, Phryne (named after Miss Phryne Fisher herself!).

25. 100 Best-Loved Poems edited by 
I was interested in finding some new poems, but I wanted to try a collection of poems. This one sounded promising! Best-loved! I did find some new ones that I like- like this Emily Dickinson one.