2016 Media Round-Up: Books!
Dec. 30th, 2016 12:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sabotabbyWHERE DO I EVEN START?
This has been an amazing year for books. Favourite authors publishing new things, exciting debut novels, a sound defeat of the Puppies, Chuck Tingle's epic Hugo trolling. My reading goal is a modest 50 books a year (I don't know how y'all manage hundreds of books a year) and to automatically bump non-ciswhitemale authors up in the reading order if at all possible. (It's not always possible, as the majority of what I read is on hold from the library.)
I would be here forever if I talked in detail about every book I loved, but here are some of the highlights, focusing on books released in 2015 or 2016.
Fifteen Dogs, André Alexis: Hermes and Apollo are drunk in a Toronto bar and make a horrible bet about whether animals, given the capacity for human reasoning and intelligence, would be just as miserable as humans are. So they give said questionable gift to 15 dogs in a nearby vet clinic and bet a year of servitude on whether any of them will die happy. If just the premise of this book is making you cry, I beg you to give it a chance anyway. Yes, all the dogs die at the end, but it's gorgeous, poetic, and occasionally hilarious novella.
Judenstaat, Simone Zelitch: An alternate history where a post-WWII Jewish state is set up in Saxony rather than Palestine, largely under the administration of the USSR. Following the assassination of her husband, our librarian protagonist, Judit, opens doors best left closed in search of the truth behind the murder. The entire thing is a thrilling, horrific, and unflinching look at politics and nation-building, with a flawed, brittle, complex heroine I utterly adored.
Guapa, Saleem Haddad: Bias out of the way: Saleem is an old LJ friend of mine, but this would have been on the list even if I didn't know him. It's a day in the life of a young gay man in an unnamed Middle Eastern country as he navigates his grandmother discovering his sexuality, the disappearance of his friend, and the tragic ruins of the Arab Spring. What struck me most was the sense of place; the city feels real, lived in, and is a capricious, complicated character in its own right.
I Am Providence, Nick Mamatas: Nick is also a longtime LJ friend and put out two excellent books this year, but I'm going to limit the nepotism and just rave about this one. I suspect it will appeal to a narrow demographic, but one that overlaps with many of my friends, which is to say that it's a darkly funny novel about a murder at an H.P. Lovecraft convention. As someone who is nerdy but also female, I related to this far too much. I have been in rooms like this. This is why conventions scare me. It's a savage evisceration of nerd culture and I loved every word of it.
The Last Days of New Paris, China Miéville: Like I said, a great year for books: my favourite living author put out two. They're both amazing but if I had to point to a book that hit nearly every literary kink I have, it'd be this one. The embattled Trotskyist Surrealists, in a quasi-allegiance with Thelemite rocket scientist Jack Parsons (yes, this bit is true), create a weapon that brings exquisite corpses to life. But they are under siege by the Nazis, who have made a pact with Hell. And if this concept alone doesn't clue you in to why China Miéville is my favourite living author, just wait until you hit the big plot twist, which made me love him even more.
Everfair, Nisi Shawl: I have already raved about this in a separate entry but here's one more go in an effort to make as many of you read it as possible. Congolese steampunk alt-history featuring Fabian socialists, American misisonaries, and the native population teaming up to give the genocidal King Leopold a brass-booted kick in the ass. There are many, many badass ladies, and a complex romantic subplot and everything about it is perfect.
Neoreaction a Basilisk, Phil Sandifer: This is a very fun little book with one of the best opening lines I've come across in ages. When I initially read it earlier in the year, it looked like the Alt Reich might be a bit of a problem. Now that they are clearly a lot of a problem, you owe it to yourself to read Sandifer's examination of the philosophical origins of the Dark Enlightenment so that you are best prepared to kick their neo-Nazi asses right back into the swamp they crawled out of.
Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates: I got around to reading the most important book of last year this year and it remains one of the most important books of our time. Coates' searing examination of what it means to be a black man in America is raw, poetic, and absolutely vital.
The Magician's Book: A Skeptic's Adventures in Narnia, Laura Miller: Finally, someone with the same fraught relationship with the Chronicles of Narnia as I have. Miller gets it, and reading this was like stepping into the wardrobe for the first time all over again.
What did you read that blew you away this year?
This has been an amazing year for books. Favourite authors publishing new things, exciting debut novels, a sound defeat of the Puppies, Chuck Tingle's epic Hugo trolling. My reading goal is a modest 50 books a year (I don't know how y'all manage hundreds of books a year) and to automatically bump non-ciswhitemale authors up in the reading order if at all possible. (It's not always possible, as the majority of what I read is on hold from the library.)
I would be here forever if I talked in detail about every book I loved, but here are some of the highlights, focusing on books released in 2015 or 2016.
Fifteen Dogs, André Alexis: Hermes and Apollo are drunk in a Toronto bar and make a horrible bet about whether animals, given the capacity for human reasoning and intelligence, would be just as miserable as humans are. So they give said questionable gift to 15 dogs in a nearby vet clinic and bet a year of servitude on whether any of them will die happy. If just the premise of this book is making you cry, I beg you to give it a chance anyway. Yes, all the dogs die at the end, but it's gorgeous, poetic, and occasionally hilarious novella.
Judenstaat, Simone Zelitch: An alternate history where a post-WWII Jewish state is set up in Saxony rather than Palestine, largely under the administration of the USSR. Following the assassination of her husband, our librarian protagonist, Judit, opens doors best left closed in search of the truth behind the murder. The entire thing is a thrilling, horrific, and unflinching look at politics and nation-building, with a flawed, brittle, complex heroine I utterly adored.
Guapa, Saleem Haddad: Bias out of the way: Saleem is an old LJ friend of mine, but this would have been on the list even if I didn't know him. It's a day in the life of a young gay man in an unnamed Middle Eastern country as he navigates his grandmother discovering his sexuality, the disappearance of his friend, and the tragic ruins of the Arab Spring. What struck me most was the sense of place; the city feels real, lived in, and is a capricious, complicated character in its own right.
I Am Providence, Nick Mamatas: Nick is also a longtime LJ friend and put out two excellent books this year, but I'm going to limit the nepotism and just rave about this one. I suspect it will appeal to a narrow demographic, but one that overlaps with many of my friends, which is to say that it's a darkly funny novel about a murder at an H.P. Lovecraft convention. As someone who is nerdy but also female, I related to this far too much. I have been in rooms like this. This is why conventions scare me. It's a savage evisceration of nerd culture and I loved every word of it.
The Last Days of New Paris, China Miéville: Like I said, a great year for books: my favourite living author put out two. They're both amazing but if I had to point to a book that hit nearly every literary kink I have, it'd be this one. The embattled Trotskyist Surrealists, in a quasi-allegiance with Thelemite rocket scientist Jack Parsons (yes, this bit is true), create a weapon that brings exquisite corpses to life. But they are under siege by the Nazis, who have made a pact with Hell. And if this concept alone doesn't clue you in to why China Miéville is my favourite living author, just wait until you hit the big plot twist, which made me love him even more.
Everfair, Nisi Shawl: I have already raved about this in a separate entry but here's one more go in an effort to make as many of you read it as possible. Congolese steampunk alt-history featuring Fabian socialists, American misisonaries, and the native population teaming up to give the genocidal King Leopold a brass-booted kick in the ass. There are many, many badass ladies, and a complex romantic subplot and everything about it is perfect.
Neoreaction a Basilisk, Phil Sandifer: This is a very fun little book with one of the best opening lines I've come across in ages. When I initially read it earlier in the year, it looked like the Alt Reich might be a bit of a problem. Now that they are clearly a lot of a problem, you owe it to yourself to read Sandifer's examination of the philosophical origins of the Dark Enlightenment so that you are best prepared to kick their neo-Nazi asses right back into the swamp they crawled out of.
Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates: I got around to reading the most important book of last year this year and it remains one of the most important books of our time. Coates' searing examination of what it means to be a black man in America is raw, poetic, and absolutely vital.
The Magician's Book: A Skeptic's Adventures in Narnia, Laura Miller: Finally, someone with the same fraught relationship with the Chronicles of Narnia as I have. Miller gets it, and reading this was like stepping into the wardrobe for the first time all over again.
What did you read that blew you away this year?
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Date: 2016-12-30 07:41 pm (UTC)Also, I have already put Everfair on my reading list and I need to read Nick Mamatas evisceratin nerd culture like I need air.
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Date: 2016-12-30 08:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-30 07:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-30 08:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-31 02:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-31 04:54 pm (UTC)