Trick by Domenico Starnone

For me, no other book has captured the tedium and infuriation of spending hours with a very small child like this book has. To be sure, it’s not a pleasant book, but it does capture something fascinating about the human experience.

There’s a funny (not haha, entirely) moment when the power dynamic shifts between the old man and the child. It’s almost worth reading this book just for that moment.

Or, say rather, there’s a curious juxtaposition of the powerlessness of old age and childhood. And a sort of compassion underlying it all.

Blessedly short, I don’t think I could’ve done another hundred pages of this one.

I Hotel by Karen Tei Yamashita

Sometimes I feel like the hardest time for me to understand and make sense of are the decades before and after I was born. Sure, I’ve seen tv and movies from the late 60s through the 80s, but it’s like light scattered through broken glass.

I Hotel was not only a fantastic snapshot of the vibe of the Bay Area from that time, but it gave me a sense of the time I felt I’d always been missing.

Like all good post-modern novels, this one is a collage of different styles and narrators, that paints a fuller picture than if it had been locked to a single viewpoint. There are some historical figures in here too. Some, like S.I. Hawakaya, seemed to strange to be real. But he was and my dad totally remembered him. A strange, violent little man, Hawakaya.

Worth a read, especially if you want to dig deep into some local history.

The Water Dancer by Ta-Nahesi Coates

(Slowly making my way through and reflecting on books I read over the past year or so.)

I read The Water Dancer as part of a book club at work. It’s been a while since I read it. I remember the strong clarity of the writing in this book.

When I reflect on this book, I think of water, the flowing of water, being submerged in water, the sound of water, the terrifying strength of water. (Not just because of the book’s title.) Water’s running all through this book.

Like in Octavia Butler’s Kindred and its exploration of time travel, Coates’ book seems to explore what superpowers would mean in the Antebellum South. Like Dana in Kindred, Hiram Walker is trapped by his kin, his obligations, and the systems of slavery and oppression he was born into.

Definitely worth a read.

Books I liked in 2020

I’ve meant to post this list for a long time. Better late than never, I guess!

+ The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett (and its sequel, Queens’ Play): Historical fiction set in 16th century Scotland and France. A fun romp. I read the first at the start of 2020 and the second midway through 2020. I felt like two different people. For me, what really stood out in these books, was how important it was when two characters met together in person. Or how significant it was when two characters failed to meet.

+ Travel Light by Naomi Mitchison: A fairy tale about a girl who turns into a bear (?). There are dragons in it too. Delightful. A younger me would’ve loved this book and the older me did too. :)

+ Something Deeply Hidden: Quantum Worlds and the Emergence of Spacetime by Sean Carroll: I dug this book about quantum physics. I wouldn’t say I totally understood all of it, but this book got me closer to understanding this stuff than anything else I’ve read. An excellent example of good science writing. Also some fun stories about 20th century physicists.

+ Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky: It’s funny. I read one his fantasy novels a while back and didn’t much care for it. (Maybe I was burned out on epic fantasy series at the time that go on for volumes and volumes.) This science fiction book is really really fun. It’s all about what can go really really wrong (and really really right) over thousands and thousands of years. If you like science fiction, you can’t go wrong with this one.

+ Agency by William Gibson: This book opens with a character starting a new job. When I read it, I was in-between jobs and was hoping, while I read it, that I too would soon have that new job feeling. I lucked out. By the time I landed my new job, this book was still fresh in my mind. A strong follow up to The Peripheral, I think you could still read this and enjoy it without reading that one first. It’s near future science fiction, but also with time travel. I can’t get enough of Gibson.

+ The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction by Alan Jacobs: A short book about the values of reading. Sometimes it’s nice to meet a kindred spirit, even if it’s through their books. This isn’t a book meant to exhort you to read more. Its intended audience is people who already read books. It’s a meditation on the joys of reading. If you want to be reminded about the joys of reading or you’re curious about why I spend so much time reading books, this one pretty much sums it up. (This year, I also read his books: How to Think: A Survival Guide for a World at Odds and Breaking Bread with the Dead: A Reader’s Guide to a more Tranquil Mind. Also excellent.)

+ The Monkey’s Wedding and other stories by Joan Aiken: Sincerely charming and romantic short stories, but also so weird. I enjoyed these a lot. Sometimes a short story is just the thing.

+ The Lord of the Rings trilogy by JRR Tolkien: I’ve reread these books more times than I can count, but I hadn’t read them since my early 20s. I decided to go back to them and I’m glad I did. Not only did they hold up well to my memory of them, but I found new depth and subtlety in them that I’d missed before. A comfort during these troubling times.

+ Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (I got her name wrong last year): The sequel to Gideon the Ninth. This is one of the most ambitious and creative books I’ve read in a long time. Definitely don’t skip Gideon or you’ll be completely at sea with this one. 

+ A Peculiar Peril by Jeff VanderMeer: I’ll read everything VanderMeer writes at this point. What a weird and funny book. (A part 1 of 2)

+ Temporary by Hilary Leichter: A surreal story about a temporary worker who gets jobs like pirate and ghost and mother.

+ Beowulf: A New Translation by Maria Dahvana Headley: Bro! This is a fun and readable translation of this old old story.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy by JRR Tolkien

When I was quite young and still a very new reader, I asked my dad for something to read and he handed me The Hobbit. I read that book and then immediately wanted to reread it, I loved it so much. But instead I went to my dad and said, Do you have any other books like this? He handed me all three books of The Lord of the Rings. I think it took me almost the entire summer to read them all, but I was hooked. I probably didn’t understand half the words I read, but I loved them so much. I had no idea that books could evoke such strong emotions. I was hooked. For years, when I was younger, I read these books almost every year. Around my early 20s, I stopped reading them, I’m not sure why. I probably felt like I’d read them enough. (I did read The Hobbit to my kids, though. They weren’t swept away by quite like I was.)

Earlier this year, when I lost my job and the world started catching on fire, literally and figuratively, I found my mind returning to The Lord of the Rings and I began to want to read them again.

So I did.

I think it was the right choice. There’s a sort of time travel magic in rereading books from long ago, I find. A way of walking a path with my past self. Only with these books, I found myself walking a path with a decade or more of my past selves. Reading these books was such a cozy and also fortifying experience for me. I found nuance and subtlety that I’d never noticed before. The kindness of Sam and Frodo felt much richer. The Shire felt infinitely more pleasant. I found that all of the things that bored me as a child (the long walks through the countryside, the long conversations about what to do with the ring, the digressions) were the things I never wanted to end. I would’ve happily read a book about hobbits gamboling their way through the countryside for hundreds and hundreds of pages.

Thank you, Professor Tolkien. Your books have proved a mighty treasure in my life.

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

I decided to read this book because a book club at my work had just read it. I checked it out from the library only to later realize I had somehow ended up with my own copy. Funny!

I enjoyed this book about books and bookstores and readers. There’s a bit of drama in it, but for the most part it’s about decent people trying to make the best of things. To my mind, This kind of book makes for a good airplane or long car ride read. Short enough to read in one long sitting and engaging enough to hold attention. But not so engaging that it’s easy to set down if someone wants to chat. A fine balance.

Zeuglodon by James P. Blaylock

I don’t think I’ve read everything that James P. Blaylock has written, but it’s close! He’s been one of my favorite writers for about three decades now.

Zeuglodon doesn’t disappoint.

Some kids go on an adventure. There’s a sea voyage, a submarine, dinosaurs, and plenty of creepy villains, and other things. My 11 year old liked it too. A fun read!

Electric Bastionland: Deeper into the Odd by Chris McDowell

Occasionally, I’ll read roleplaying game books. (Far more rarely will I play them.) I can’t speak to the game, but I dig this book’s style. It’s got an Art Deco style that can’t be beat. Dig it:

The whole book is full of the pellmell energy of this running girl, a sort of 19th century Dickensian energy that I can get behind. I look forward to the day when I can sit around the table with some friends, sharing snacks, and playing up some stories together.

Communication Failure by Joe Zieja

(This is book 2 in the Epic Failure series.) As very silly books go, this one is up there. For some reason, science fiction comedy is tough to do. This one does a pretty good job. Throw in a dash of military/naval humor and you’ve got a pretty fun read. Not a bad way to while away the time. You’re probably all right reading this one on its own if you don’t have the first one to hand.

Given where we are, this book about incompetents running the show didn’t both me as much as I thought. Perhaps because they’re well-meaning incompetents.

Oh yeah, this book also has an extremely odd love triangle!

The Brontes Went to Woolworths by Rachel Ferguson

This is a charming and sweet story about three sisters in early 20th century London. They have a rich and vivid fantasy life. The book gets especially funny when the object of one of their stories (a local judge) happens to meet one of them. There’s some delightful dialogue in here. Another example of the ways in which the English tolerate eccentricity in a way that seems deeply odd from an American sensibility. It’s also a portrait of world before television when, if you were a narrative junky, then one of the easiest ways to get some narrative was just to make that up for yourself. If you’re looking for a book full of kindness, this is worth your time.
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