year-end list – Page 10

January 5, 2021January 5, 2021

Michael’s Top Books Read in 2020, #’s 8 & 7

In an effort to read more science fiction, which I hadn’t really done for a while, I asked for recommendations, and got Becky Chambers. Fun, character-driven space opera; a little different from me, but the emphasis on character really drew me in. I’m always up for a book by Peter Cameron. His 2012 novel, Coral Glynn came in at #6 for that year’s list. I really loved the stylized manner in which he wrote this newest dark, surreal novel.

#8 – The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

The plot of Becky Chambers’ science fiction novel, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet is fairly thin, but that’s not really the point. Instead, Chambers creates a thoroughly entertaining story about a ragtag, interspecies crew of The Wayfarer, a space ship that bores tunnels through space to allow for interstellar travel. Our entry into this tight knit merry band is Rosemary, a young woman hired to be the clerk, and keep their paperwork in order. Rosemary has a family secret in her past that she keeps from the crew, but as they welcome into their family, and we learn about each of the diverse characters, she gradually lets her guard down and secrets are revealed. Yet while Rosemary is terrified that her secret will turn her newfound colleagues against her, instead she learns what real family is.

I love the way Chambers explores each member of the crew, sprinkling in just enough tension and danger to keep the book engaging, all the while creating a beautifully moving character study of disparate characters who prove to each other, and the reader, that family isn’t about who you’re related to by blood, but by who you choose to spend your lives with. I could definitely read more books about this fascinating batch of characters, all of whom come from fascinating and imaginative backgrounds.

#7 – What Happens at Night by Peter Cameron

Mysterious and inscrutable… much like life. Peter Cameron’s What Happens at Night tells the story of a couple traveling to a far off European city in order to adopt a baby. The woman is dying of cancer, and this will most likely be their last act together… the retrieval of a child for the man to continue on with as a family. They arrive at this tiny, northern European town as a dark, forbidding winter descends and every day that passes seems like part of one long, endless night. Things happen that are unexplainable, aggravating, wondrous, perplexing, hateful… things that neither would do during the light of day, but what happens at night… well that’s another matter.

Cameron writes with stylish grace, creating a mood from the very first page that establishes everything you need to know about setting, time, tone, which is not a whole lot. Yet, the journey taken by the reader, while not as harrowing personally, is the one taken by these two lost people, and our hope is only that when morning comes again, they will no longer be lost. It’s beautiful and unsettling, and unique. Filled with bizarre supporting characters, and a simple story that is complicated by the things that make us human, What Happens at Night is a journey worth taking.

January 3, 2021

Michael’s Top Books Read in 2020 – #’s 10 & 9

As we enter the Top 10 books read for 2020, we’ve got an season writer, and a newcomer for me. Jo Walton has impressed me with her unique takes on science fiction, fantasy, and the creative process in general. In 2015, Walton appeared on my Top Books list at #5 with The Just City; in 2014, she came in at #6 with My Real Children; and in 2012, the first book of hers I read, Among Others came in at #5. So, while this year is a slight dip for her, all the books of hers that I’ve read has ended up in my Top 10 for the respective year!

Sam J Miller was a new author for me, and I read his 2018 novel, Blackfish City totally randomly. The ARC had been on my bookshelf at work for a couple of years, and when I was looking for something to read, the cover art featuring Inuit-style artwork, caught my eye, so I gave it a chance. And now, preparing to write this blog entry, I noticed that Sam has a new book that just came out, so I will be reading that soon as well. Love finding new, intriguing authors, and thanks to Virginia Stanley and the fun-loving crew at HarperCollins for keeping me up-to-date on the publishing world and making me laugh!

#10 – Or What You Will by Jo Walton

Jo Walton is a writer’s writer, and her latest book, Or What You Will is more so than most. Exploring the creative spark, and how a writer creates the worlds and characters that they populate their books with, turns into a whole fantasy meta-novel in Walton’s hands. Along the way, she deconstructs works by Shakespeare, mothers who withhold love, modern-day and pre-renaissance Florence, domestic abuse and more. Most fascinating for me, was her exploration of grief in the context of a world that has abolished death. It’s not the main point of the novel, but a beautiful and fascinating diversion that Walton does so beautifully.

Not all of Walton’s diversions work for me however. A detailed, and overwrought chapter describing an actual restaurant in Florence that serves food that is so sublime it cannot be described (although there is an entire chapter trying to do just that) that seems a pretty unnecessary bit.

Still, that’s a minor quibble when you think about the scope of Walton’s story, and the masterful way she weaves together the art and science of writing, an actual historical fantasy tale, and ruminations on mortality and grief, and Or What You Will proves that however Walton manages to create entire worlds, like a mythological god, it’s worth going on the journey with her.

#9 – Blackfish City by Sam J. Miller

When it comes to dystopian societies, Sam J. Miller sure has created something complex that borrows from pop culture, Inuit myth, capitalism and environmental collapse just to name a few! In fact, the rich threads that Miller weaves into Blackfish City threaten at first to overwhelm the story, making it difficult to breakthrough and stick with it. But perseverance is worthwhile, as the story of a family torn apart by genocide who unite to combat oppression (or maybe just to get revenge?) and at about the halfway mark, things start to really come together and race forward nicely.

There are a lot of characters to keep track of, and a lot of different storyline threads, as I mentioned, but most of them don’t need all that much effort. A thread about an AIDS-like virus that is transmitted sexually, but involves communal memory and mental disjointedness sometimes feels like something from another story. Yet Miller manages to weave that thread smoothly into the larger tapestry.

Clearly the most compelling story for me, the bonding between man and beast as exemplified by the strange woman riding on the back of an orca, takes the longest to get its due, but once it does it does so beautifully. Still, with political corruption, organized crime, post-punk technology, climate change, gender identity and generational memory all added to the mix, there’s probably something for everyone. Hopefully readers will not find that there is too much for everyone.

January 1, 2021

Michael’s Top Books Read in 2020

Well, 2020 was quite a year, one like no other. In terms of my reading, I thought perhaps the the social isolation would be a boon to the number of books I read throughout the year. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. I found during the first several months of the pandemic, I didn’t have the required focus to read anything beyond comic books for any sustained length of time. That did change as the year when on, and I did manage to surpass my total books read in 2019, but not by much. I’m not going to make any promises about 2021, but I’m going to try!

In the meantime, I read some great books in 2020, and some not so great as well. Here is my list of the books I read this year that I feel deserve a mention. This year that comes to twelve titles.

#12 – Hammered by Elizabeth Bean

I have dabbled with Elizabeth Bear’s bibliography, reading four or five of her novels from different genres. I finally went all the way back to the beginning to read her first novel, Hammered. A bold debut, Hammered is a mash-up of genres, from gritty, crime novel to cyberpunk exploration of advanced A.I., and some quirky, imaginative additions thrown in throughout. Ostensibly the first in the Jenny Casey series, we are dropped into the middle (or perhaps the sunset years?) of Jenny’s life. About to turn 50, former military, fitted with a prosthetic arm after a traumatic injury, with an insanely complex history, Jenny is gruff, tough, someone to turn to with a problem, but not someone to mess with. She has interesting allies, and very dangerous opponents.

The first allies we meet, in her stomping grounds of Hartford, CT, include the areas most significant crime lord, Razorface, whose teeth have been modified to be three, razor sharp steel plates. Morally ambiguous, but exceedingly loyal and reliable, Razorface comes to Jenny for help with one of his boys who is suffering from an overdose of what appears to be a doctored drug. Unable to turn him away, Jenny is drawn into a web of murder that might involve a woman who looks very much like her.

Soon after we learn that Jenny’s life is in serious danger, after years to the modifications made to her body to control her mechanical arm, or rejecting the technology laced throughout her spinal column and brain, and may only have a very short time to live. A powerful, authority figure from her past emerges, as do a past love and a family figure, that draw her into the promise of a complete overhaul of her cybernetics that will save her life, but in return, conscript her into a mysterious mission involving travel to outer space. Jenny’s complicated life is caught in two different worlds that are somehow, mysteriously connected.

Hammered is fun, with great characters, a convoluted plot that lures you in. The gradual emergence of Jenny’s very complicated past is a little overdone — there’s a lot to keep track of, and it’s hard to know at this point what might be relevant or important to remember — and the very late-introduced romance is a distraction that was frankly, in my opinion, disappointing, but overall it’s an auspicious start to a three part series, and I enjoyed it enough to eventually read the follow-up.

#13 – Swimming in the Dark by Tomasz Jedrowski

Tomasz Jedrowski’s debut coming-of-age novel may be on the brief side when it comes to page count, it certainly tackles some serious themes in a way that has a powerful impact, yet never comes across as heavy-handed. Set in the Poland of the early 1980’s as the decline of communism forces the Party to tighten its stranglehold on the people, University student Ludvik finds himself in the throes of first love. At a summer agricultural camp, he finds himself drawn to Janusz, dark and handsome, who thrills him but also reminds him of the deep shame he hides so deep within himself. The two boys bond over the novel Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin, and as they extend the summer after camp is over, spending a couple more weeks alone camping in the forest, they find their bond growing and deepening into something powerful and lasting.

Back in the city, however, real life intrudes, and while Ludwik dreams of leaving Poland to go to the west, namely the States, Janusz allies himself with the wealthy, to use the declining system to better himself, even while other struggle to find food or medicine. It’s a philosophy that threatens to tear the two young men apart. Jedrowski weaves a lovely, simple tale of first love and coming-of-age, with the transformation of a country and a moment in time that affected a culture profoundly. It’s a quick read and one well worthwhile if the subject intrigues you.

January 25, 2020April 13, 2020

Michael’s Top Books Read in 2019, #’s 1 & 2

This year’s list is topped by a couple of novels, no surprise. I generally prefer fiction to non-fiction. My #2 pick is by an author who has appeared on the Top 10 before, but certainly never this high. And my #1 pick is a new author for me, and I’m looking forward to reading more of her work! Do you need a Luggage Scales? The professionals from Scales Zen are ready to give you best advises to find the best luggage scale.

#2 – Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson – I’ve enjoyed many a quirky novel by Kevin Wilson, starting with The Family Fang, and I tore through his latest, Nothing to See Here, hooked by the intriguing premise, and propelled by the fine writing and character development. Lilian and Madison were unlikely friends, coming from extremely opposite sides of the tracks. Madison from an impossibly wealth family and destined for great things, Lilian with a single Mom who doesn’t seem very interested in anything but her next boyfriend and gambling away any money that comes into the house. But Lilian is smart, and she ends up as Madison’s roommate through a scholarship at an elite boarding school. She doesn’t quite last the year though, as she is forced to leave the school unexpectedly in a cloud of scandal that propels Lilian deeper into a funk, and an aimless life. She does stay in touch with Madison though, solely through written correspondence, until a letter arrives from Madison years later begging for help.

It seems that Madison has married a wealthy, and successful Tennessee Senator on the Presidential track whose his twin children from an earlier marriage find themselves suddenly without a mother. Madison needs Lillian to take care of these kids while they figure out how to manage them. Lilian thinks handling a couple of kids should be no problem, until she finds out that when they get upset, Bessie and Roland tend to burst into flames! They don’t hurt themselves, but not so lucky are the things around them.

Wilson spins a wild tale grounded in yearning and a desire to belong that uses the unexplained phenomenon deftly to tell a multi-layered tale of friendship, love, family, and self-worth with a warmth, a humor, and a cynicism all rolled together into a modern fable of our times. This one is highly recommended!

#1 – The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin – What an intricate, dark and fascinating world N.K. Jemison has created in The Fifth Season. It starts with the beginning of the end of the world, and it spools out in three separate tales that tell one complete and fascinating story. This world is filled with fascinating and varied people. There are stills, who are basically regular humans, who are divided into different classes based on their skillsets. There are Orogenes, feared and depended on, who can still the tremors in Father Earth, freeze the life out of any living thing, or far, far worse. There are the Guardians, whose job is to keep the Orogenes in check, through love, through fear, through cruelty. There are the mysterious and unfathomable stone-eaters, who pass through stone the way we pass through the air.

The Fifth Season seems to serves as a prologue of sorts, launching us into The Broken Earth series, but it does so with such a riveting and coherent tale, that it doesn’t feel like merely an introduction. Jemison has quite an imagination, and handles the English language beautifully in order to bring that imagination to life. Her characters are complex and intricate, and evolve like real people. I really loved this book and am looking forward to the next in the series.