#readlist2016

There was at least one moment, about 3/4 of the way through this book, where I had to stop, and smile, and close it on my finger for a solid minute so I could make incoherent noises of satisfaction and cuddle it a little.  And when I finished it at a bit past midnight last night, I was already plotting who among my housemates/reading buddies to hand it gleefully to next.

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet incorporates the tropes I remember enjoying in Firefly - cobbled-together spaceship with its plucky crew family comes overwhelmingly to mind - but also uses interspecies relations to place a larger frame around the human future it imagines.  With so many questions to ask - about sapient rights and responsibilities to one another, about cultures clashing and families formed and consent - its episodic treatment of the long voyage of the title is a beautiful storytelling strategy.

I had already read Elena Vanishing, Clare Dunkle’s daughter’s memoir covering this same series of events, because I’m oddly fond of dark memoirs.  In this book,  found myself skimming for the parts that I knew were coming, reading quickly and not quite taking in the end.  I found Hope and Other Luxuries much more painful to read than Elena Vanishing, and while both mother and daughter took some actions it was difficult for me to relate to, their attitudes looking back on the events of the daughter’s anorexia were almost diametrically opposed in the two books (Elena’s voice looks back with a certain knowing ominousness, while her mother’s is much more enraged).

The mission: leave a record of every book that I finish (and some that I don’t) in 2016

I’m not going to lie, I’ve been reading this series more out of a mix of stubbornness and amusement than any other motivation.  I really enjoyed the Shiver and Lament books when I was a smaller person, but the Raven Cycle hasn’t really been holding up for me. 

 On the one hand, lyrical and mysterious magic!  I like things with fey and will generally hold on just for that.  On the other, a story about four boys in high school (plus Blue.  Who’s fine, but not really enthralling, either, as a character).  None of them are particularly empathetic for me as a reader, which is disappointing. Gansey, in particular, despite the author’s attempts to make him likable, tends towards the caricature.

I’m not even sure what to make, textually, of what’s going on with Ronan.  Other than him having really terrible relationships all over the place.

The mission: leave a record of every book that I finish (and some that I don’t) in 2016

Having read this single book of hers (which explores the science associated with corpses, in case that isn’t immediately obvious from the title), I definitely like Mary Roach’s approach to humor.  The wry wit to her phrasing and the constant callbacks to earlier snippets were fun to read, and I definitely had the one-more-chapter experience, of being unable to stop.  That’s especially admirable to have achieved with nonfiction, because there isn’t anything like a traditional “plot” to ensure the topics flow into one another.

The mission: leave a record of very book that I finish (and some that I don’t) in 2016

Sometimes the setting of a book is so mesmerizing, so vivid, that I find it blending into the reality around me.  Like when I find that I really need that extra blanket to accompany a reading of The Long Winter.

The effect is a bit weirder when the environment I‘m imagining is one where the ground is welling blood.  And growing hair.  And attacking people?  That being said, the mesmeric effect of this book was rather delightful.

I also really loved the casual treatment of Lea’s orientation in this book.  She’s a lesbian, and her girlfriend figures prominently in the story, but they were already dating prior to the first page and it’s never portrayed as anything but realistic.

Sadly, if you’re looking for a pleasingly plausible explanation for why the earth might suddenly begin gushing blood while growing bones and strangely aggressive hair, you’re going to be disappointed by this book.  It really leaves causes up to the reader, simply presenting the situation and the deterioration of humanity that follows.

The Mission: leave a record of every book that I finish (and some that I don’t) in 2016

This book is a good example of why I try to hunt in YA fiction sections or exclusively by the unicorn or dragon sticker that indicates actual fantasy.  This magical realism (at least that’s what I believe I’d call it) here snuck in under my radar and left me feeling unfulfilled by the end.

There was something sinister and dreamlike about much of this book.  But I wondered so much more about the world surrounding the protagonist’s estate than I did about his introspection.  The author wasn’t really interested in explaining the state of the ravaged world, so much as presenting the vision he had in mind.

The Mission: leave a record of every book I finish (and some that I don’t) in 2016