Saturday, December 28, 2013

Best Reads 2013 is Live

This weekend and into New Years, we're celebrating Best Reads 2013. The rules are simple: list up your favorite books that you read for the first time this year, and write them up however best shares what moved you about them. I'll evangelize Middlemarch in a moment, but first: the #bestreads2013 master list:


If you've blogged about it yourself, comment below and I'll add you. If you don't have a space to write about it, you're welcome to just post your list in the comments.

Now, as far my favorites...
George Eliot’s Middlemarch
My pick for #NaNoReMo in February just about ruined long Fantasy novels for me. My copy was a scant 1,000 pages and needed every page, something not many books can claim. It starts so simply, with a feminist joke of a woman at a dinner party who’s afraid she might have to start thinking for herself. But her wealthy suitor doesn’t want a wife who thinks or remembers what she reads to him; only one who reads clearly and doesn’t interrupt. There’s another man who might be better for her, but he’s too preoccupied with trying to introduce scientific medicine to the town. That science seems blasphemous to many local political figures, who attempt to prevent his entry, or court him if they’ll help him with something.

 Middlemarch keeps adding points of view and dares head-hop, sometimes multiple times within a paragraph, to show the myriad ways we conflict with each other. It’s a painstaking novel about mishearing out of fear, paying selective attention, hiding things capriciously or for reasons you don’t even know are pointless. It’s the anatomy of conflict, often embarrassing, sometimes funny, and all too often, utterly damning to the rationalizations I’m guilty of every day – but it’s expanded beyond a character, or her family, and out into an entire community.

It needs every page it gets to cover its ground. I’m not the sort who believes in the Best Novel of All Time, but for the first time in years, I understood why people would think that sort of nonsense.

Guy Gavriel Kay’s River of Stars
The novel that restored by faith in long Fantasy. After the existential crisis that Middlemarch caused, I had several failed runs reading Epic Fantasies that were not nearly complex enough to need their page space. There was one particularly bad experience with a Fantasy about farm hands striving to rescue kidnapped children that, after six hundred pages, couldn’t even resolve the God-damned kidnapping. I briefly wondered if I wasn’t in the wrong genre. And then Kay released River of Stars.

Elegance is a big part of it. The emperor sees himself as kind even though his actions are highly proud and capricious; a young female poet defies the social order of her world by getting an education reserved for men; a dashing outlaw raids convoys that the government won’t even miss. And yet there’s a government official who falls in love with the charm of the outlaw, and the poet’s father cherishes her in oblique ways, such that not everyone is the center of their own world, but everyone has a distinct and dynamic life. The country is so vast, with so many walks of life that even when it’s brought to war with the country to the north, not everyone experiences it the same way. It challenges the notion of a large body having a mono-culture or a shared value, for what’s universal if thousands of people can die in a war and there are citizens who don’t even know it’s happening? The various players keep interacting in novel ways, enriched by brilliant themes of how history is made and remembered. It’s not just what a war hero means to himself in the moment, or the troops around him, or the family he left at home that can’t know what he’s going through, but also what his sacrifices amount to in the next battle, and after the war. There’s a terrible permanence that pings all the way to the last page.

Tom Holt’s Blonde Bombshell
The funniest Science Fiction I’ve read in years, and easily the best novel that could ever have been published with such a title. It references one of the protagonists: a sentient bomb that has second thoughts about destroying earth. Holt has thought out bomb psychology very thoroughly, including why, among all machines, they’re the only atheists (a bomb only needs the satisfaction of a job well done). The bomb winds up taking humanoid form to explore our planet with some zany culture clash, but we’re also treated to a female Steve Jobs who’s afraid she’d being haunted by unicorns and, well, very quickly I realized I needed to buy this as birthday presents for several people.

Takako Shimura’s Wandering Son
The second Middle Grade comic to ever show up on my lists, and a series that feels destined to become one of my favorite works of sequential art of all time. There are plenty of good books, a surprising number of great books, but few things make me think that if everyone read them the world would be a better place. Wandering Son is on that extremely short list. It is the tender story of a kindergartener who wishes he was a girl and begins experimenting in trans* - at first in secret, just touching or trying on a dress, and then seeing if he’s noticed when he goes out in public. It’s not about prurience. It’s about not understand why everyone expects you to behave a certain way, and even as a cis-gendered guy, it touched on several questions I had at seven years old but figured were stupid because no one else ever brought them up and gender policing was so strict. This is a beautiful series that opens up the conversation in a way kids can understand. It probably would have made me a more tolerant kid.

Hiroaki Samura’s Blade of the Immortal
The other manga on my list, and one of my all-time favorite Historical Fantasies. It’s a series that keeps me coming back and pacing out its entries so that there will always be more for future years. This year I read volumes 15-18, which covered most of the incredibly disturbing turn into Body Horror, as the immortal Manji was abducted and the subject of experiments for what happened if parts of his body were transplanted to others. It’s only because Samura is so good at storytelling and pacing that I stuck around for two straight volumes of incredibly disturbing imagery. Typically I want such stories to suck, so that I can dismiss them and walk away. It’s so much harder when a story is well-written and has hooks, like the slipping psychology of the physician who can’t keep patients alive, and I’m forced to admit I’m fascinated.

Kurt Vonnegut’s Galapagos
I don’t think I’ve ever read another novel where the central point of interest was the identity of the narrator. Who the hell is telling this story? Sometimes it references being present, but it also references a future where humans are hunted by killer whales, and seems to have introspective knowledge of multiple characters in multiple continents. Is it a god watching use evolve? Is an alien anthropologist? Is it a time traveler checking out what went on back when humans still had legs? The stranding of the voyagers and the ominous tones of impending doom on humanity-as-we-know-it are interesting plot points, but the whole thing works because Vonnegut decided to make the storyteller ambiguous. The result is my favorite Vonnegut novel I’ve ever read.

Caitlin R. Kiernan’s The Drowning Girl
An annoying number of Horror movies ask the question, “Is the hero haunted or crazy?”

The Drowning Girl has the genius idea of answering, “Both.”

Kiernan has crafted a masterpiece of dark fiction, focusing on a first person narrator who is struggling to become and stay reliable. Her schizophrenia complicates her ability to keep track of the people she’s really met, and the feelings she’s really had, while she encounters people who may well be ghosts that can’t help but drive people mad. While Kiernan resists labeling the novel “Horror,” the section where our narrator goes off her meds for several pages is as harrowing a piece of prose as I can remember reading.

And the great trick to The Drowning Girl isn’t figuring out if her lover was dead all along, or who really put the weird painting somewhere, but to opening yourself to empathizing with people who are can’t help but hurt.

And if you don’t like that, well, there’s Peter Straub’s Ghost Story.

Peter Straub’s Ghost Story
The fricking mother of all ghost stories. I was blown back by how many elements I recognized from the novels of Stephen King, the movies of John Carpenter and Wes Craven, and pretty much every spooky videogame I’ve ever played, all of which came after this novel. It was like coming home to the house I didn’t know I’d grown up in.

Here is a small club of storytellers who love to share ghost stories. A member died several years ago, seemingly in terror of an empty room. Ever since they’ve had inexplicable moments that inspire more stories: a woman turning into a home wrecker out of nowhere, or being stalked by wind, or the thing that was in one of their stories years ago being reported as slaughtering the local cows. What’s haunting them isn’t a conventional ghost, but almost a zeitgeist of the stories they can’t leave alone. Often creepy, often eccentric, it keeps building until it pays off in one of the most satisfying conclusions of any Horror novel I’ve ever read. And I haven’t even been stalked by anything from the book since.


Steven Strogatz’s Sync: The Emerging Science of Spontaneous Order
Confession time: it took me four years to read this book. I don’t understand people who can read this thing in a weekend unless they live and breathe science. I would pick the book up, read half a page about why bridges sway in rhythms under foot traffic, or how body temperature commands sleep rhythms, or how a room temperature liquid can move through a solid, and need to digest it, or run to Youtube to see evidence of the claim. There are pages in this book that I read two dozen times, trying to wrap my head around room temperature super conductors and the nanoscopic traits of lasers. It’s all interesting, but furthermore, it all amounts to a staggering hypothesis: despite entropy, the universe is full of a highly suspicious amount of spontaneous order.

My only non-fiction book on the list. Most of my non-fiction diet is from blogs, websites and magazines, but this is some of the best science writing I’ve ever read. Strogatz tackles the bizarre theory of complexity and spontaneous order. In a universe that seems bound by entropy, we still see complex order emerging in almost every major system, not only star systems that immediately lapse into gravitational patterns, but inside your own body, inside biological societies, and even on trafficked bridges and inside super-heated beakers. While the book doesn’t claim to know why order emerges so rapidly, it pushes at the boundaries of how we understand the laws of the universe.

Helene Wecker’s The Golem and the Jinni
The only book I stayed up until 2:00 AM reading this year, and in this case, two nights in a row. What a debut novel, audaciously mixing the Genre and the Literary into a hauntingly introspective set of narratives. We follow a newly created golem and an ancient jinni as they are stranded in New York City, circa 1899, and following the Melting Pot into ethnic ghettos. There’s the poignancy of a golem, built out of Jewish tradition, failing to appreciate the teachings of the rabbi who shelters her, as well as the thrills of the jinni trying to get drunk and party with locals.

We anticipate a love story whenever these two finally discover they’re not alone in the sea of humanity, but the novel holds a much bigger payload. Its ending is the least binary of any novel I’ve read since Lindqvist’s Let the Right One In, because as the golem is hunted by her creator and the tools to re-enslaving the jinni emerge, there are so many ways it could close. It’s not about beating Voldemort or rescuing the princess anymore. It’s about hearts that could change, and people who could disappear off the streets forever. A heck of a debut novel.

35 comments:

  1. I have also joined in, my post can be found here .
    I love your list. This is not a Kay I know, and I will track it down. Ditto the Tom Holt. I can see I am going to have to come back to this list again and again. Thank you.

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    1. I've added you to the Master List! Popping over to your blog now.

      This is Kay's newest novel, published this year. It's my first of his, though. It's apparently written in the same world as Under Heaven, but set in another time period, so there's little continuity. I still bought Under Heaven, though, because I am game for much more of his work after this.

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    2. Thank you. I have some early Kay series and a few Tom Holts. You have reminded me that I need to go back and see what else they are doing. And check out several others on your list. The Golem and the Djinni sounds incredible, as does The Emerging Science...

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  2. Here's mine: http://pokingbadgerswithspoons.blogspot.com/2013/12/2013-in-books.html

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    1. Added you, even if I'll always take Year One over Dark Knight Returns.

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  3. Love your page, beautiful work :)

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  4. My blog's up! http://the-eyrea.blogspot.com/2013/12/best-reads-of-2013.html

    It's awesome you did Middlemarch this year, because that's what I compared The Casual Vacancy to!

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    1. Added you! And that is the first time I've read anyone compare Rowling and Eliot.

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  5. Ooh I have Blade of the Immortal! So cool! I've read about half, then my laptop went bye bye and..well yeah. "Galapagos" and "Blonde Bombshell" are definitely on my to-read list. Thank you, John!

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    1. I hope you enjoy them! Bombshell was my first Holt, but I was won over terrifically fast. Meanwhile Galapagos was actually my last book in a tour of Vonnegut, and it made the best impression, perhaps tying with Cat's Cradle. I'm surprised I'd never heard of it before.

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  6. My mother, a consummate sci-fi reader, has high regard for Middlemarch as well, which was always surprising to me considering the sheer size of the novel. I do get impatient with epic fantasy, so it's reassuring to hear that Eliot isn't wasteful.

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  7. Good list. I shall have to check some of these out.

    Thanks for setting up the blog hop. :)

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    1. Quite welcome, Beth! Which books piqued your interest?

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  8. Your reviews are all compelling, even the one for the book I read (Vonnegut). It's been so long since I read it all I remember is humanity was doomed all on account of our big brains. Your endorsement of Middlemarch has me very curious about it.

    I read so few fantasy books, for the same reason people give for not reading classics or poetry: I'm afraid of investing in something and having it fail to pay off. But Kay's book sounds like it would. A few years ago I read 'Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell' and enjoyed it a lot.

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    1. I can't imagine you not getting something out of Middlemarch. You're so interested in fiction with judgments and internal combustion, and Middlemarch is all of that all of the time. It's the prototype for great culturally aware fiction.

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  9. Thought I'd commented already. Apparently I just thought about it (really hard, I promise!)

    Anyway, River of Stars made me list. The Drowning Girl has been my list for so so so long and I think I'll bump it up now.

    Galapagos wasn't even on my radar until now. Good job.

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    1. I'll be very curious for your reading on The Drowning Girl! I got to it at just the right time for myself.

      So Galapagos is on your radar now?

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  10. Thanks for setting this up and for your intriguing list. I read Middlemarch at University and relished it then; your comments made me remember why. I shall read it again. I have read every Kay novel and absolutely loved River of Stars, and The Golem and the Jinni has been on my wishlist all year.

    I'm planning to do my own Best Reads of 2013 list, but first I'm off to read all the other ones noted on here.

    Alexia (via Elephant's Child)

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    1. I've added you above! Do you have a last name you'd like me to add? I didn't see one on your blog's About page, so perhaps you prefer a little anonymity. If so, I totally respect that.

      I had the opportunity to take a semester-long class on Middlemarch at college. I think I'm happy I didn't take it, as reading it at my own pace over February was just right, and it was at the right time in my life. I only missed having enough smart people going through it with me at the same time.

      And I highly recommend picking up The Golem and the Jinni if you're already interested. It's a heck of a piece of work!

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  11. You had me at "sentient bomb." I need to read that book. Also, I felt the same way when I read Straub's "Ghost Story." I believe I picked it up because King said he was heavily inspired by him, and I kept hearing his name come up from other horror authors I respected, so I checked him out.

    I'm also wondering if my son would like "Sync," so I need to check it out. It's probably over his head, but I think he'd be fascinated all the same.

    The Warrior Muse

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    1. If he loves science, then he can think his way through the tough parts. It's advanced but awe-inspiring stuff, and Strogatz is a very talented science writer.

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  12. I haven't finished THE DROWNING GIRL yet, but I absolutely love it so far. Thanks for sharing your list and asking us to share. Mine's here: http://margitsage.com/blog/2013/12/29/10-best-reads-2013/

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    1. Added you! And I'm surprised Kiernan is treating you well. She seems up your alley!

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  13. Wow, what a list! Not that i'm surprised, of course. I remember your surprise at how well everything was crafted while you read Middlemarch and I think I may need to attempt it at some point (though not next month- not ready for that just yet!) and it sounds like both Blonde Bomshell and Ghost Story would totally work for me. I'm glad to be aware of the others, though I don't know when they'll make it onto my long reading list.

    FINALLY got my list up, and I'm so sorry I'm so late:
    http://bev-thebevelededge.blogspot.com/2013/06/book-review-pleasure-of-my-company.html

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    1. Oh no! Wrong link! here's the right one:
      http://bev-thebevelededge.blogspot.com/2013/12/best-reads-2013.html

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    2. Added the correct link! And definitely try Blonde Bombshell. I bet you'll get a real kick out of it.

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    3. BTW, is #nanoremo this month? If so U think I have my classic picked out and I'd better get started, based on the length...

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    4. #NaNoReMo will probably be in March. A later start date was requested by a few readers who are very busy in January. Though if you're jumping into Middlemarch, no will judge you for an early start!

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    5. Not Middlemarcg, though there may be some wisdom to the early start given my suspicion of how long it may take me to get through... Hmm.

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  14. I simply MUST read the Peter Straub book. Must.

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    1. I very strongly recommend it. It may be tied with The Talisman for my favorite of his works, and he's never done me wrong.

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  15. This is a very neat list! Thanks for sharing.

    www.modernworld4.blogspot.com

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  16. Wow, so many of those books look just amazing. I happen to have a copy of Middlemarch that I haven't read, so I might dive in to that first. The Golem and Jinni looks awesome, as well as the Wandering Son. Blonde Bomshell piqued my interest as well. I read Galapagos in high school on a Kurt Vonnegut kick, but should probably re-read it. That was a long time ago!

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