Eugene Fischer

Tag: Books

Reading 2015: Final Roundup

MyRealChildren_Jo-WaltonI never did a Reading2015 post for December, but I only read one book during the month, My Real Children by Jo Walton, which I consumed on Christmas day. I adored it. It’s the story of a woman who, in her old age, can remember living two distinctly different lives, stemming from a single choice in her youth. It’s an alternate history of alternate histories, with chapters alternating between two very different life courses that, in the end, ask you to make an impossible ethical and aesthetic judgement, what Ursula Le Guin on the back cover calls “a sort of super Sophie’s Choice.” I’m always a sucker for branching narrative, the way the space between the threads opens room for new resonances and emotions, just as a paper towel doubled over can absorb more than the same sheet applied flat. This book might just be my new go-to example of the form.

So here’s where that leaves my stats for 2015:

  • 67 total books
  • 35 prose books
  • 32 graphic novels
  • 26 women authors (writer or artist)
  • 44 books authored or co-authored by women
  • 33 male authors (writer or artist)
  • 28 books authored or co-authored by men.
  • Best month: September (12 books – all GNs)
  • Worst month: December (1 book – prose)

As with last year, here the the books (not counting re-reads) that stand out in most my memory (which isn’t exactly the same thing exactly as how much I liked them):

  1. The Girls at the Kingfisher Club by Genevieve Valentine
  2. My Real Children by Jo Walton
  3. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
  4. On Wings of Song by Thomas Disch
  5. Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
  6. The Sculptor by Scott McCloud
  7. Tenth of December by George Saunders
  8. Get In Trouble by Kelly Link
  9. Two Girls, Fat and Thin by Mary Gaitskill
  10. Angel of Losses by Stephanie Feldman
  11. Star Side of Bird Hill by Naomi Jackson
  12. The Wilds by Julia Elliott
  13. Love Me Back by Merritt Tierce

Some interesting things include the presence of only one graphic novel, despite the form making up nearly half of my reading. That’s largely due to my having re-read all of Dykes to Watch Out For, all of which were ineligible for this list.  Another is which Mary Gaitskill book made the list. I think that in many ways the collection Because They Wanted To is the stronger of the two Gaitskill volumes I read this past year, but it’s her first novel my mind alights on more easily. And I can’t do anything about the wiring of memory, and what it may have to do with two books I read in just the last two month making my top 5.

It was my resolution for 2015 to read 100 books, and I fell short not just of that mark, but of my 2014 mark of 73 books read. I attribute this primarily to having started doing some work for television, which prompted me to massively increase my television watching. I would say the TV I’ve consumed, added to the hundreds of hours of Fallout 4 I played in November, is easily equal to 33 books. But since I don’t have any better ideas, I’m going to go ahead an roll over my 2015 resolution to 2016, and aim for 100 books read in the year to come.

Tabclosing

James Kennedy, my new favorite YA author I’ve never read

Yesterday I had never heard of YA author James Kennedy, nor his book, The Order of Odd Fish.  Today I think he is one of the most awesome people in the world, and his book may be the next one I buy.  This is entirely due to a blog post he wrote for no other reason than to celebrate a teenage fan of his work who spoke at an ALA meeting wearing a fish hat.  A blog post that is, in fact, a 4000 word short story celebrating his young fan while revealing, among other mysteries, that all of Neil Gaiman’s books are written by bees and the head of the American Library Association goes about clothed in the skin of A. A. Milne.  America, Emulate This Man has completely won me over.

Five Books I Want To Buy

I’m not currently allowing myself to buy any books.  I’ve been cataloging my library on LibraryThing (the site that powers the random book widget at the bottom of the sidebar), having a lot of fun with tagging and categorization.  In the process I have discovered that I currently have 46 books at home that I’ve bought but not read.  So no new books for me until I make a dent in that stack.  But there are a few books that I’m quite excited about, any of which would probably jump to the top of my reading stack if it were not for my self-imposed restrictions.  Here are five of them.

Black Juice by Margo Lanagan – I’ve read two stories by Lanagan, her Hugo-nominated “Singing My Sister Down,” which was incredible, and “An Honest Day’s Work” from the anthology The Starry Rift.  I’m eager to read more.  I’ve also heard good things about her novel, Tender Morsels.

It’s Too Late To Say I’m Sorry by Joey Comeau – I first encountered Joey Comeau through his webcomic, A Softer World.  Then I read his novel Lockpick Pornography (which is available for free download) and greatly enjoyed it.  Some of the stories in this collection were originally published online, including a couple at Strange Horizons, which will be publishing one of my stories soon.

Theory Of Light And Matter by Andrew Porter – Won the Flannery O’Connor award last year.  I took two fiction writing classes from Andrew Porter while I was at Trinity University.  I might not have ended up going to Clarion if I hadn’t gotten back into writing thereby.  I’ve only ever read one of his short stories, though, so I can’t wait to get my hands on this.

Palimpsest by Catherynne M. Valente – I know little about this author, but trusted sources are recommending this book everywhere I turn.  As far as high-concept fantasy goes, this book apparently has a city which is also a sexually transmitted disease. I want to read this book on the strength of that concept alone.

The Manual Of Detection by Jedediah Berry – I paged through a copy of this in a bookstore and was intrigued.  Add in positive recommendations from both Kelly Link and Megan Kurashige, and I’m sold.  I understand that Jedediah Berry works for Small Beer Press, whose entire catalog is on my “want to buy” list at one level or another.