12/28/2019
It’s been a year since I posted my top 10 books from last year, so I figured I’d update it for 2019. I had a goal to read 40 books, but didn’t quite make it. Right now, I’m at 23 books- hopefully the number will go up with winter break. These are listed in the order that I read them rather than preference since I liked all of them.
- Choiring of the Trees by Donald Harington (Fiction, 400 pages)
This is apparently the fifth book in a series, but it can be read as a stand-alone novel. Nail Chism has been sentenced to death for the rape of a thirteen year old girl that he didn’t commit. It is clear that she has been raped, but he knows he’s not the culprit. The story follows his life as he uncovers the truth about what happened.
This book was an incredible read. It’s the second book I’ve read by Harington, and while it’s not at all like the feeling of With, it manages to capture the heart of the complexity. There’s a lot to unpack and think about, due to the nature of the book, but Harington portrays and handles everything incredibly well. His writing transports its readers back to the Ozarks and the town of Staymore–extremely well written, and worth a read if this remotely interests you.
2. Sex on Earth: A Celebration of Animal Reproduction by Jules Howard (Nonfiction-Biology, 272 pages)
In this book, Jules Howard goes into depth about the courting and mating rituals of various animals. He covers a broad spectrum, looking at animals as big as dinosaurs, as small slug mites, and many more in between.
I wasn’t planning to read this book, but I found it at the library, and Howard got me in the intro. He has an incredible voice, which made it very fun to read. I laughed and learned a lot while reading this. It made me realize how little I know about the beings that share this planet with us. Nature is fascinating. There’s a whole world out there beyond our human society, and it’s beautiful. Consider exploring it sometime, be it through this book or another one.
3. Sleeping Giants by Silvain Neuvel (Sci-Fi, 320 pages)
This is the first book in a trilogy. The story starts with the discovery of a giant robotic hand, and what it means for the rest of the world that this ancient advance technology has been found. It was a great escape. It had a similar vibe to These Broken Stars and Airborne.
It was a refreshing read, and a great thought experiment. It’s been a while since I read it, but I remember that the way that it was written was also interesting, as it told the story through different files and communications rather than straight up narration.
4. We by Yevgeny Zamyatin, translation by Natasha Randall (Utopia/Dystopia, 203 pages)
This is the story of D-503 as he goes through life as an engineer for the One State. Slowly but surely, he begins to question the world around him.
I loved this book. As with most dystopian novels, the beauty is in the world-building and the society more than it is in the plot of the novel. While I read this book for class, D-503’s fascination with the world, his mathematical way of thinking of things made the story very entertaining. It lead to some great discussions with people too, about what it means to be human, and checking out some of the proofs. It also made me realize how many different ways there are to tell a story.
5. A Step Towards Falling by Cammie McGovern (Young Adult Fiction, 384 pages)
This story is told in alternating perspectives, between Emily and Belinda. Emily witnesses Belinda, a girl with developmental disabilities, being attacked and did nothing. Afterwards, she and Lucas (another person who witnessed it) were found out, and need to help other people with developmental disabilities learn about relationships to make up for their inaction.
I haven’t read many stories about people with developmental disabilities, so this was perhaps my first introduction into that world. The story was well told, and well done considering the themes it chose to tackle. I’m glad that this story exists, and hope I see more of them in the future.
6. The Hating Game by Sally Thorne (Romantic Fiction, 387 pages)
A story about coworkers who “hate” each other. Except, they might not actually hate each other. The story follows Lucy and Josh as they duke it out, trying to get the next promotion.
I laughed a lot reading this book–couldn’t put it down. The dialogue was witty, the game and the story were fun to read, and the characters were lovable. This was definitely high up there on the list of good reads this year.
7. Not in Front of the Children: “Indecency,” Censorship, and the Innocence of Youth by Marjorie Heins (Nonfiction, 416 pages)
This book explores the history of censorship of obscenity/sex/violence in America, as well as how it has evolved and the effects it has on society.
I read this for class, but it was a good read. I didn’t realize that there could be so much debate and controversy over whether or not kids would be scarred by adult content, or that the implications would have such a large outreach, like with how sex-ed is taught in classes based on the same discussions. It opened the door for a lot of conversations.
8. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (Classic, Fiction, 532 pages)
Jane Eyre is about a girl who was a bit too spicy for her time. She is an orphan who grew up under harsh family conditions. When she grows older, she becomes a tutor for Adele, a child being taken care of by the average-looking bachelor Edward Rochester.
For a book that has been out for as long as this one has, I wasn’t expecting it to be so wild. If they still write books like this, I’m unaware of them. I loved the way the romance was done, it reminded me of Jane Austin’s Persuasion, which is also partly why I started reading it. Even so, there was so much more to be admired than the romantic plot. I have a lot of respect for Jane Eyre. She chose the harder choices, for reasonable reasons. There’s also a manga version that was true to the book, if classics are too long for you.
9. Where the Wind Leads: A Refugee Family’s Miraculous Story of Loss, Rescue and Redemption by Vinh Chung (Memoir, 368 pages)
A memoir about a Chinese-Vietnamese refugee and his family’s journey to America.
I didn’t know much about refugees before this, and knew even less about the experience of being Chinese in Vietnam during the 1970s, but this book helped me understand it a bit better. This book was recommended to me by my aunt, as a way to better understand our history, and I’m glad that I read it. I don’t think I’ll ever fully know or understand what it must have been like for them, but reading about it did give me a better picture.
10. Red Sparrow by Jason Matthews (Fiction, Spy Thriller, 431 pages)
Dominika Egorova is a Russian spy. She is a Sparrow, trained in the art of seduction. Her target? Nate Nash, an American CIA agent who is in Russia to trade information with the mole M.A.R.B.L.E. A great spy novel where two spies try to spy on each other. This is the first book in a trilogy.
I have greatly oversimplified this story, and did not do the writing justice. I’ve never read a spy book before, and was amazed by all the attention to detail. According to his bio, Jason Matthews was a former officer of the CIA’s Operations Directorate. His background knowledge of how the CIA works in real life shows. An exciting read for anyone interested in spy books.
Overall, I feel like I’ve expanded my horizons this year. 2019 introduced a curiosity for different aspects of life, as I got to look closer at the nature of animals and humans, and ponder the human experience just a bit more. After taking a creative writing class, doing editing, and doing deep analyses of some of these works, I found that the way that I read and the things I pay attention to has changed. What makes a great book is not just the storyline, or the feelings that get evoked, but the word choice that the author uses, the characters they create, the world they build, and how real it all feels. Writing is a complex process, and it’s amazing that all these different kinds of works could be created through them.
See ya next year, and happy holidays!
EmCreates 