new year new reads

This month started off kind of weak but ended strong! May 2020 be the same!

January Book Reviews

Queen of the Dark Things (C. Robert Cargill)

5.5/10 Sequel to the book I rated a 4.5 last time and after reading this out of morbid curiosity I've decided it improved by one whole point! I'd call it character development but its characters don't do that so...Let me just run down the list: same unlikeable protagonist, there was no foreshadowing in this book's plot in the previous one and it just came out of nowhere, the romance felt forced, there were certain parts of the book talking about women where it was just gross. (Like I have a particular beef with this last point because they have this section where a demon just goes on and on trying to sexually demean the protagonist and his love interest by talking about fucking and it's like? It's so uncalled for. The whole book is basic YA in tone and quality yet they put in adult language when it comes to degrading women? It's mercifully short compared to the rest of the book but like...no one asked for this?? You can write demons being mean in other ways that aren't so incredibly intrusive to the tone of the book??) HOWEVER, there was a plot unlike the last book which made it slightly more engaging to read through. The documentary style folklore interludes don't feel as jarring. The last part was kind of cool to read but with an undertone of YA wish fulfillment cool but it can be ignored. I didn't hate it as much as the last one! That's it.

Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race (Reni Eddo-Lodge)

6/10 This book was a bit of a let down for me. It talks about some really relevant and crucial topics, it raises discussion with well sourced evidence both anecdotal and empirical. Unfortunately I just found it really boring to read through. It felt a little too dry and academic for me to really engage with it, with only little bits of the author's own voice punctuating it. It probably didn't help that I didn't really feel like I received a lot of new information? The majority of topics weren't big revelations for me personally but they were important topics and would make great points to make in a discussion about race relations. There was a bit of interesting focus on Britain's black history specifically that made it somewhat interesting for me just as a contrast to the more prominent version over the pond. Overall a quality book that just didn't quite capture me.

Recursion (Blake Crouch)

8.5/10 Amazing concept for a book. I blazed through this in a day. The whole first arc was so much fun to read. The whole False Memory Thing plays with one of my favorite tropes; the Lotus Eater Machine and it brings a vibe that's not unlike a really good Doctor Who episode. Unfortunately the focus shifted rather quickly away from playing with FMS and into the mystery behind its origins. While the rest of that plot was still tense and engaging to read, I found going into the whole memory device and method made it less interesting. A lot of the science and time-space paradox explanations I kind of glossed over but it wasn't anything negative against the book itself. Some things sounded kind of convenient but it might have been the same lack of attention to the book attempting to explain themselves. The most disappointing part, and the part that prevented me from giving it a 5/5, is probably the ending for me. The multiple re-dos got boring and the lack of on-screen (?) development for the romance didn't help. The ultimate solution felt anti-climatic; it sounded too easy and I wish they could've put more emphasis on how difficult it was or to have the characters reach the conclusion by themselves. Still, this book was a wild ride and I really enjoyed going through it.

World in a Grain (Vince Beiser)

8.5/10 This was close to a 9 but I ultimately decided it was probably bit too meandering and long, especially for someone less interested in geography. But I really enjoyed it. I liked that it talked about both human geography and natural geography. It's all well and good reading about the different ways sand can be used but it's nothing without how it's used by the people around the world. I felt like it was just the right amount of depth for me to be engaged without feeling like I'm missing information or that it's too academic. It's an interesting subject for something so close and ever present yet rarely discussed, particularly how many far reaching and varied impacts it has (sand gang wars??? stealing beaches??? illegal sand smuggling????). There was also great focus on non-Western case studies, like in the Middle East and Asia. I also appreciated how it ended on a mixed note, a reference to how similar problems are facing EVERY resource on Earth. It doesn't tell us the solution is as simple as just cutting back on something, but rather we all need to be accountable - whether it be as people or corporations.

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year end review ii

We poppin bottles!!! Celebrating once again, the only New Year's Resolution I kept! I'm just going to stop making resolutions and just hope I continue to read more books. I learned from my lesson of having a weird number and instead ended the year on a total of 75 books. It's four less than last year but at least it looks nicer. There's a lot of stats on page count and length on my Goodreads but mainly my average rating this year was 3.3 WHICH sounds bad at first but I went back to 2018 and it was 3.0 so...an improvement! Truly 'okay' reads. Anyway, time for more non-Goodreads tracked stats:

My monthly average was 6.25 books per month with May at 11 and August at....1. Again! I was busy reading light novels. Moving on!

The genre make up was 28 fiction, 22 nonfiction, 12 young adult, 6 short story, 5 graphic novel, and 1 each of children's lit and poetry. More or less the same spread as last year's, with slightly more YA and graphic novels, less fiction and somehow the exact amount of nonfiction.

In the fiction section, 14 of them were split equally by fantasy (7) and mystery (7) , and 6 of them were historical. Compared to last year contemporary fell from first place with me having only read 3 of them. Sadly, sci-fi failed to make the list at all.

As for non-fiction, science (7) was apparently my favorite. It didn't even crack top four last year so I guess this year I traded science fiction for science nonfiction. Gender issues (4) and history (3) were the next two subjects for this year. While gender issues was also a focus last year, biography and current issues both dropped. Lots of shake-up in the non-fiction department despite reading the same number of books!

For YA novels this year, I read the exact number of fantasy (8) as last year. Luckily there's a bit more diversity with mystery (3) and romance (1) rounding out the rest.

Half of the short story collections I read were fantasy (3) with the other half a variety of biography, mystery and sci-fi. (So at least I did read something in the sci-fi genre!)

In terms of authors...shout-out to my girls!! 49 of the 74 books I read had female authors and only 26 of them were male. A good 14 of the female authors and 5 of the male authors were people of color. Once again, Asian descent was the most common at 14 out of the 19.

Best Books of the Month

January: From Here to Eternity (Science, Nonfiction)
February: A Darker Shade of Magic (Fantasy, YA)
       honorable mention: Men Explain Things to Me (Gender Issues, Nonfiction)
March: Broad Strokes (History/Art, Nonfiction)
       honorable mention: The Westing Game (Mystery, YA)
April: The Giver: Graphic Novel (YA/Sci-fi, Graphic Novel
       honorable mention: Sleep No More (Mystery, Short Story)
May: Becoming (Biography)
       honorable mention: How Long 'till Black Future Month (Fantasy/Sci-fi, Short Story)
June: The Rook (Fantasy)
       honorable mention: Six of Crows (Fantasy, YA)
July: none :(
August: literally only read one book
       if I could pick a light novel: The Wolf Lord's Lady
September: Girl at War (Historical, Fiction)
October: none despite reading 8 books :(
November: The Fifth Risk (Current Issues, Nonfiction)
       honorable mention: Bottle of Lies (Science, Nonfiction)
December: The Moth Presents: All These Wonders (Biography, Short Story)
       honorable mention: Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories (Mystery)

Best in Genre

Fiction (Contemporary): Everything I Never Told You [Not much competition but this really was a nice, short read dealing with, you guessed it, POC centered issues.]

Fiction (Historical): Girl at War [Despite reading 6 books in this genre, there also wasn't much competition to consider.]

Horror: Horrostor [I read two horror novels and I absolutely hated the other one.]

Fantasy: The Rook [It was hard deciding between this and Shades of Magic but I think my personal preference for urban fantasy tipped the scales.]

Mystery: Miss Marple the Complete Short Stories [While I did read a couple of other good mystery novels I just have such a bias for Agatha Christie and Miss Marple.]

Romance: The Bride Test [Just having read a romance novel I didn't hate is a miracle already.]

Graphic Novel: The Prince and the Dressmaker [It's just cute!!!]

Biography: Becoming [HANDS DOWN. One of my favs this year period.]

Science: Bottle of Lies [This had some competition! The true crime vibes of this one really helped.]

History: Questions I Am Asked About the Holocaust [This had no competition.]

Short Story: How Long 'till Black Future Month [Debated hard between this and The Moth but the sheer creativity and the longer story format is what I'd go for.]

Young Adult: Truly Devious [Takes the top spot among all the fantasy YA I read this year. Just gotta switch it up sometimes I guess.]

The Best & the Worst

Five Stars (5) vs One Star (0)

Okay, rather than this being a reflection of how good or bad this year was I think it's more of a reflection of how my rating system has tended towards just not giving absolute one stars. It's true that I probably didn't hate any book but...there have been some books I've seriously disliked. If I had to pick one then I'd go with 'Fool'.
The humor was coarse and roll-my-eyes asinine and shallow. The male wish fulfillment ONCE AGAIN ruins the entire thing, reducing female characters to nothing more than talking cardboard set pieces. I'm starting to see a trend in the type of books I hate. The worst is probably the wasted potential of what could've been a witty dark comedy featuring a Shakespearean tragedy told from the point of view of a fourth-wall breaking, overlooked jester. It wishes it could have what Deadpool has. Anyway, I'm the real clown for reading this. In the new year, let's not repeat these mistakes.

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