I got too deep into late-January bonus posts, and then forgot to put out January’s newsletter yesterday (whoops).
But anyway, below is the list of the 8 books I got through in the first month of 2023, with a microview of each and longer reviews of 4 of my favorites. Down at the bottom of the newsletter, see the list of aforementioned bonus posts in the ICYMI section, and then I’ve got another bonus post I’m working on that I hope to put out mid-February, so be on the lookout for that.
Let’s get to it!
Note: starred entries below are reviewed in more detail later.
The Books, in the order I read them:
The Family Chao (2022) by Lan Samantha Chang - Novel (Literary Fiction)
Engrossing narrative revolving around family drama at the local Chinese restaurant in Haven, Massachusetts and the wider Chinese immigrant community of the town, especially as the three very different Chao sons come home to their father’s restaurant for holiday celebrations. If you like overhearing a juicy bit of gossip (and who among us has not at one time or another), this novel scratches that itch for sure (plus immigrant experiences, generational conflicts, micro- and macro-aggressions, birth order theories, legal drama, etc.)
*The Island of Missing Trees (2021) by Elif Shafak - Novel (Literary Fiction)
Beautiful novel that weaves together ecology, the history of violence in Cyprus, expatriation versus those who stay behind, complex family history, and the stories we tell about ourselves and those around us.
*Nightcrawling (2022) by Leila Mottley - Novel (Literary Fiction)
This novel definitely contains a lot of difficult subject matter: desperation leading to sex work, the carceral system, police abuse of power, evictions, drug addiction. But the beauty of this story is the characters who continue to find joy, love, hope—the ways in which the hard things do not define any of them. Gorgeously complex work from an absurdly young new talent.
Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present (2020) by Ruth Ben-Ghiat - Nonfiction
Ben-Ghiat goes through particular examples of fascist dictators and the features that unite them, drawing parallels to more recent leaders, such as Berlusconi in Italy, Putin in Russia, and Trump in the U.S.
*Republic of Lies: American Conspiracy Theorists and Their Surprising Rise to Power (2019) by Anna Merlan - Nonfiction
Broad-reaching and thorough investigation into the world of conspiracies, both wild theories thereof and the real conspiracies that have served to muddy the waters between what is harebrained tomfoolery and what is legitimate cause for concern—highly enjoyed this exploration.
The Glass Hotel (2020) by Emily St. John Mandel - Novel (Literary Fiction)
Following a catalog of characters involved in or wrapped up in or victim to a sprawling ponzi scheme, this novel becomes one of ghosts and haunting by the end: the way mistakes and people have a way of filtering back into our lives and subconsciouses. Beautifully written and a powerful read.
Note: I would have reviewed this one as well, but I think my wife, Ally, covered it better than I was trying to in her first guest post, which you can find here.
*The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (2014) by Becky Chambers (first book of the Wayfarers series) - Novel (Sci-Fi)
A lovely, quick-moving read with a healthy bit of world-building packed into the first bit, but then an exercise in character studies of the multi-species crew members of a worm-hole drilling ship called the Wayfarer, as they go about their business, face some challenges, get mixed up in some Galactic Commons political machinations, and form themselves into a tight-knit family.
Outside Looking In: Adventures of an Observer (2010) by Garry Wills - Nonfiction
Told as a series of anecdotes largely revolving around important people Wills has come into close contact with (Nixon, Clinton, Carter, Studs Terkel, William F Buckley Jr., etc.), this is a memoir of a life spent closely observing what makes people tick. Wills is an intriguing and compelling writer, a conservative who does not fit the mold we think of today, who has been at odds with hardliners and gotten along well with folks across the aisle, and whom the cohosts of a podcast I’ve been quite taken with (Know Your Enemy) have rhapsodized over many times. The whole book is great, but the Studs Terkel chapter in particular is worth the price of admission (which was free, since I snatched this from the library, but still…), in my humble opinion.
My Top 4 (in no particular order):
The Island of Missing Trees (2021) by Elif Shafak - Novel (Literary Fiction)
Lovely novel that weaves back and forth between the island of Cyprus in the past and London in the present, following a forbidden love between a Greek Cypriot, Kostas, and a Turkish Cypriot, Dephne, as tensions between the two groups rise and bloom into violence, and the present day daughter of Kostas, Ana, trying to come to grips with her mother’s death. A previous novel by Shafak, 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World, has a sort of narratorial contrivance of following the dying thoughts of the protagonist in the final minutes of consciousness after death. Here, we have another trick of narration that in a lesser writer would come off as a gimmick: we see through the perspective (I was about to say eyes) of the fig tree at the center of both poles of the narrative, bringing a tree-like wisdom and knowledge of ecology and communion with interconnecting wildlife. With some elements of The Overstory by Richard Powers (based on what I’ve heard—I haven’t actually read it) and Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides (one of my favorites) but possibly surpassing both, this novel is utterly gripping and fascinating in how Shafak uses the fig tree perspective, weaves an ecological study of Cyprus into the political history of the island, and then also crafts very human and heartbreaking stories around the rich, complex, and wonderful characters. I highly recommend it.
Good quote: “But I have formed my own opinions. What I tell you, therefore, I tell through the prism of my own understanding undoubtedly. No storyteller is completely objective, but I have always tried to grasp every story through diverse angles, shifting perspectives, conflicting narratives. Truth is a rhizome, an underground plant stem with lateral shoots. You need to dig deep to reach it, and, once unearthed, you have to treat it with respect.”
Nightcrawling (2022) by Leila Mottley - Novel (Literary Fiction)
Diving head first into heavy subject matter, this novel does not shy away from the sides of life that perhaps most of us would prefer not to think about. Living on their own, a brother and sister have to constantly find a way to keep their heads above water as rent hikes keep ticking upward. As Marcus attempts to follow his dream of becoming a hip-hop artist, Kiara must find a way to pay rent, eventually sort of stumbling into sex work. Meanwhile, she is also trying to maintain her friendships, succeed and stay safe in her new venture, and be a mother figure to the boy across the hall whose mother is in and out of binges and absences. Things grow progressively more complicated and messy as corrupt police, do-gooder crusaders, CPS, and Kiara and Marcus’s mother get involved. The thing about this novel that gripped me and would not let go is the way in which it resists the all-too-easy slide into poverty- or oppression-porn. These characters are always beautifully real and human, finding joy and light and struggling through day-to-day as we all do. It’s a marvelous feat, given the author is 21 years old, I think? Like, wow. Content warnings for police abuse, sexual assault (among others I’m probably forgetting) and difficult subject matter aside, I would encourage you to give it a try if you can.
Good quote: “Or maybe I don’t remember any of this, ‘cause Momma is reciting these stories, and memory is really just the things we trust to be ours.”
Republic of Lies: American Conspiracy Theorists and Their Surprising Rise to Power (2019) by Anna Merlan - Nonfiction
As you may have noticed, I have been reading and looking forward to a fair number of books about conspiracy theories, especially those lurking in the shadows (and increasingly in the open) of the far right. While this scratched a similar itch (I think I came across it as a recommended title from the library based on some of the others I’ve been reading, rather than from a podcast for once), the thing that I appreciated about this book that separated it from some of the others and made me want to do a longer review of it was the depth and breadth of conspiracies it covers (not just Q-Anon and adjacent) and the way it weaves in real conspiracies that have given people good reason to distrust the U.S. government and its narratives, especially among BIPOC communities (think the horrifying Tuskegee study, or the way hired guns infiltrated Standing Rock, as a couple of examples). Fascinating and illuminating, I really enjoyed this, though I can’t say it is perfect: the inclusion of some quotes from Glen Greenwald at the end gave me pause, for instance. Still, if you’re interested in conspiracy theories at all, this is one I would highly recommend.
Good (long) quote: “It occurred to me that UFO lore might represent conspiracy culture at its best: our interest in the hidden, the unknown, the ineffable, the magic of what’s hidden and yet to be revealed. [...] Except that the world of UFO researchers is not quite so innocent or depoliticized, since they too believe they are being watched, surveilled, and deceived by the government. We know that the government does do this to targeted groups. But I was bothered by the suspicions of the UFO enthusiasts as I slowly drifted into hypothermia in that air-conditioned ballroom. I kept thinking rather persistently about Black Lives Matter–a group that has been met with forceful government repression–and about the Native activists at Standing Rock who were subject to real surveillance and infiltration–recall the firm Energy Transfer Partners which retained the company Tiger Swan to surveil activists with drones and actual spies, who in turn fed their information to local and federal law enforcement. There is, at the risk of being unkind, something indulgent and self-absorbed about a group of people engaged in a voluntary recreational subculture declaring that they are government targets.”
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (2014) by Becky Chambers (first book of the Wayfarers series)- Novel (Sci-Fi)
The next pick for my Sci-Fi/Fantasy book club was up to me, and I had seen this title on a lot of lists of best recent sci-fi, so I decided to go for it. The first book in the 4-book-long (so far) Wayfarers series, but also standing alone well from my own experience and what I’ve heard of the rest of the series, this is a bit of a departure from a lot of the sci-fi I had been reading last year. Unlike the Foundation series by Asimov, or The Expanse series by Corey (both of which I also loved), this novel skates around the edges of the world/universe-altering type of events that are central to those series. And unlike Goliath by Onyebuchi (which I reviewed here) this definitely takes a lighter tone. At its core, this is a novel about found family, just set in space with non-human species as a part of the family. My favorite aspect of the story Chambers tells is the way she’s able to allow each crew member to exist in the spotlight for a time, dialing into their particular wants and needs and backstories without calling attention to the fact that that is what the narrative is doing. It isn’t like there are chapters dedicated to each crewmember in turn; instead Chambers just naturally loops us in from time to time so that, by the end, the reader, too, has become part of the family. The cultural observations about the non-human species especially shine. The plot is pretty much just following the crew as they go through pretty standard work days, only getting into more portentous events nearer the end, but it never dragged through these more quotidian moments. And even as things get more central to political conflicts by the end, Chambers maintains the everyperson feel to the characters, rather than going larger-than-life like The Expanse does. I like both paths, and highly enjoyed this one. And I’d say this fulfills my read-one-lighter-novel-per-month resolution.
Good quote: “He did not run from his grief, nor did he deny its existence. He could study his grief from a distance, like a scientist observing animals. He embraced it, accepted it, acknowledged that it would never go away. It was as much a part of him as any pleasant feeling. Perhaps even more so.”
In Case You Missed It:
January was apparently bonus post month, because I churned out two myself, and then my esteemed wife, Ally, also put out her first guest post (one of many to come, hopefully).
In Part 1 of my bonus posts, I compiled a list of lists of titles to get excited for in 2023, got excited for Poet Laureate Ada Limón coming to Atlanta, and recommended a book-ish podcast. You can read it below:
Then, in Part 2, I highlighted 26 + 6 2023 books that I personally am looking forward to:
And, finally, in Ally’s guest post, she broke down some of her favorite reads from the past 13 months. Check it out below!
Cheers, and happy reading!