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| Mmmm, look at all of those dark covers. I love how "Once & Future" and "Space Opera" had similar color schemes. Maybe I should write a post comparing them? |
14.) “The Strain, Volume 1” by David Lapham, Mike Huddleston and Sierra Hahn: This was a graphic novel adaptation of Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan’s “The Strain,” in which a mysterious disease turns people into zombie/alien/vampires. The art was kind of generic and the story wasn’t that great. I would have much rather read the novel itself.
13.) “Fear” by Bob Woodward: I did not have the best attitude going into this book, but it’s not because of what you might think. For one, I’m not a huge nonfiction person. Since I work at a news organization, I get more than my fair share of nonfiction regularly. Second, I don’t like current event books in particular because they’re out of date within months. Just read the news if you want current events. (SUBSCRIBE TO YOUR LOCAL PAPER!) The third thing I didn’t enjoy about this book was that none of it was surprising, but it wasn’t really out to change anyone’s mind. If you dislike how the current administration is handling other countries’ leaders, you won’t be surprised to hear that according to the people interviewed in the book, the president approaches foreign policy with all of the sleek subtlety of a sledgehammer. If you’re a Trump supporter, you’ll chalk it up to “fake news” and not read it anyway. I read it because Bob Woodward is a respected journalist and I was interested in what he found in his research. I won’t make the mistake of reading a book like this again.
12.) “Ash Princess” by Laura Sebastian: I couldn't help but think the objective around this book was to construct a love triangle and every other plot element was just fodder to wrap around the heroine and her two love interests. I got the same vibes as when I read Victoria Aveyard's "Red Queen" last year. The indiscriminately evil despot was just a McGuffin, and the ultimate goal was pretty dresses and forbidden kissing. I’d really be interested in a more solid motivation for the big bad, and I think YA readers deserve more from their stories.
11.) “Protect the Prince” by Jennifer Estep: I had mostly enjoyed the first book in this series, but I found this second installment to be insufferable, mostly because the main character had somehow grown whiny and ill-tempered in between books. Somehow I was supposed to care that people were trying to kill her. I did not care.
10.) “The Call of Cthulhu” by H.P. Lovecraft: This is a short story written during a time when it was perfectly acceptable to be blindingly, unabashedly racist. Lovecraft was one of those science-y racists who seemed to rank people’s intelligence based on skin color. “The Call of Cthulhu” is about a man who investigates a cult that worships an old god, Cthulhu. Cthulhu has fallen to earth from the stars and lives in a cave in the Pacific Ocean. He’s grotesque and smelly and the people who encounter him go mad with terror. The prose itself was beautiful, and reminded me of works written about the same time, such as Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” and Charlotte Bronte’s “Jane Eyre.” There’s the same theme of unknown malevolence that binds together all of those works in my mind. If you want to read some gothy old stuff, pick up one of these books. If you’re looking for cosmic horror, specifically, go somewhere else because The Call of Cthulhu’s narrative foundations are preposterously racist.
9.) “Harold in the Name of Love” by Chris Malone: This is the part of my list that begins the varying shades of good books I read in May. This indie book pleasantly surprised me. A former coworker, Hafiz, sent his author friend Chris my way for a book review, and I enjoyed it! This book had a lot to say about love, loss and moving on. Nancy’s character was just a little one-dimensional. She could have used a little more development. After I wrote my review on Goodreads, Chris tweeted, “Nancy was a tough character to crack, and given 100 more opportunities, I still don't think I'd ever get it right.” I think the biggest thing with Nancy was that she didn’t seem to evolve as a person over time, while Harold and Damon, the other two major characters, changed dramatically. I really loved how the friendship between Harold and Damon blossomed. It was a solid and unique plot with some dark comedic moments. Initially I was reminded of Fredrik Backman’s “A Man Called Ove,” but this was a much different story. I would recommend reading it.
8.) “Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet” by Ta-Nehisi Coates: This volume had a lot of plot threads that took some getting used to. I want to read the second volume to try to tie some of them together in my mind. The more I read volumes of comic books, the more I’m realizing that one volume that encompasses about five issues isn’t really ever enough to form an opinion on the series. There have only been a few exceptions to this.
7.) “Once & Future” by Amy Rose Capetta and Cori McCarthy: This is a gender-bending sci-fi retelling of Arthurian legend. Happy Pride Month! The premise is that King Arthur is regenerated every so often to write the wrongs of humanity. This time around, the evil Mercer Corporation has monetized almost every facet of the galaxy, and only two planets are in revolt. Merlin, who ages in reverse through the years, comes back as a teenager to help the first female King Arthur, Ari, defeat evil for good. This book has hints of Doctor Who and Star Wars!!! I read Thomas Malory’s Le Morte D’Arthur in high school, and OF COURSE it was, dry, boring, heteronormative and patriarchal! It was written in the 1400s! Sometimes I think retellings like this are made only partly to drum up interest in the source material among teens. In this case, I’d rather be reading this book. You should experience at least a detailed synopsis of Arthurian legend because its plots and themes are a foundation for A LOT of literature through the ages.
6.) “The Kiss Quotient” by Helen Hoang: This is a romance novel about how a woman with Autism Spectrum Disorder finds love by calling up an escort service to learn about sex and romantic relationships. It won a Goodreads Choice award for romance in 2018. I don’t read a lot of romance novels anymore (this is the first I’ve read in a while,) but I thought this was funny and romantic! One of the tropes in romance is that either one or both of the main characters are so disgustingly wealthy that they never have to worry about money throughout the course of the story. I think it helps to keep the focus on the development of the romance. Anyway, in this story, the heroine, Stella, as a dorky econometrician, is the breadwinner in the relationship, and I found that empowering. The other heroine in this story is Carly Robins, the woman who read the audiobook I listened to.
5.) “Shadow and Bone” and “Siege and Storm” by Leigh Bardugo: After the first book in this trilogy, I was interested in exploring this world more. The main character, Alina, finds out she’s a sun summoner, and that The Darkling wants to harness her power to widen the Shadow Fold and bring the adjacent countries to heel. I was late to the party on this, as Bardugo has several books now that are built in this universe, affectionately called “The Grishaverse,” and YA Twitter seems to really like it. I liked “Shadow and Bone” much better than “Siege and Storm,” as the second book had the sophomoric tendency to drag just a bit.
4.) “Uprooted” by Naomi Novik: At first glance, I thought this book was going to be a “Beauty and the Beast” retelling, but it goes so far beyond that and makes itself into something entirely fresh and new. “Uprooted” has hints of Russian fairy tales, but also a dollop of “Stranger Things.” I felt the heroine, Agnieszka, was empowering, considering her circumstances. The way magic is portrayed in this book is really cool. Right now I'm reading Novik's other book, "Spinning Silver," that has been nominated for Hugo and Nebula awards this year. It is very good so far.
3.) “Parable of the Sower” by Octavia E. Butler: This part of the list until the end is MANDATORY READING. We're all going to check back with each other at the end of next month to make sure we've read everything, right? HOLY MACARONI. This book was published in 1993 and takes place in 2025. I picked it up from the library because I heard there are some similarities between Butler’s writing and NK Jemisin’s writing. Parable of the Sower just blew my mind. It’s the diary of a teenage girl, Lauren Olamina, written over 3 years in a post-apocalyptic America. It’s supposed to be a bleak look at a near-future, but it includes themes of a drug crisis, global warming and extreme privatization of resources that are too close to reality today than mere hyperbole. The survivalist plot is super violent and visceral. How did I go so long without reading this?
2.) “The Sandman” by Neil Gaiman (Vols. 1-10): I wrote about my experience reading one of the greatest comic book series of all time here. The separate post is mainly to spare you from having to scroll through all of my truly insufferable literature snob thoughts about it. They are embarrassingly dorky, and I could have said much, much more. Halfway through May, this was the best book (errr, collection of books) I had read, and I thought it would stay that way, but it was overcome by…
1.) “Space Opera” by Catherynne M. Valente: This book is so earnestly joyful and dire at the same time. The author drew inspiration from Douglas Adams, David Bowie and Eurovision, and improves on all of it. If you’re one of those book snobs who think a writer’s style only belongs to them and no one can imitate it, you might take it personally that this novel has strong whiffs of “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” I think the added themes of corruption, gentrification and modern-day corporatization freshens the Adams random sense of humor into something more coherent, enduring and meaningful.
Road to 200
According to Goodreads, I finished my 100th book this month. It’s a little deceptive because that counts five single issues of “Die” by Kieron Gillen and seven single issues of “Captain America” by Ta-Nehisi Coates from earlier in the year. I read them both twice. Still, if those two things were lumped into books on their own, I’d still be hovering around 90 books, and that’s nothing to sneeze at, I suppose. How did I get there? I've tried to either listen to an hour of an audio book OR read 150 pages of a book every day. My commute to work alone is about 30 minutes long, so it hasn't been difficult to do.
My favorite book podcast
Here's a link to my favorite book podcast, "372 pages we'll never get back." It's hosted by Conor Lastowka and Michael J. Nelson from MST3K and Rifftrax. They pick books they anticipate they won't like and make fun of them. Beyond the usual roasting, they write skits, respond to reader feedback, hold meme contests and other general silliness. Their first episodes were about "Ready Player One," one of my least favorite books, and right now they're reading "The Mister" by E.L. James. It's funny and enlightening to hear two men talk about their experiences reading their first romance novel.
Do you have a favorite book podcast?
