annihilation.

Title: Annihilation: A Novel

Author: Jeff VanderMeer

Why Read: 

Miles recommended it to me, and my friend Laura (and her husband Kevin) both read and loved it.

There's so much going on in this book that it's difficult to really talk about it. When another friend asked what it was about, I summed it up by saying "It's about these 4 women scientists (although, really, it's more about the biologist) who go into this area that's become supernatural, and they're documenting what happens." And it's about so much more than that, but how do you describe it? Oh, brackish.

Either way, it's good. It's sci-fi, but the kind of sci-fi that people who don't like sci-fi would like. Maybe like the TV show Lost, except that I only watched like 3 episodes of that. And at like 2/3rds of the way through, you find out why it's called Annihilation. (Such a good reveal too!) And there's two more books in the series, which I hear are also quite good.

between the world and me.

Title: Between the World and Me

Author: Ta-Nehisi Coates

Why Read: 

“I would not have you descend into your own dream. I would have you be a conscious citizen of this terrible and beautiful world.”

This one has been on my radar for a while, and after listening to an episode of This American Life, I remembered that I'd been meaning to read his book. (The segment is fun to listen to, pretty different from reading the book, though.)

The book is a good read. A difficult read, even though the book is short. As previously (and previously) mentioned on this blog, I do like an epistolary book - and this qualifies - it's a letter to his teenage son about his own experiences growing up Black in America, intertwined with a stories from Black American history. It's about how how much we've changed as a society, and how much we haven't, and what that means when we look at current events.

It is naive to be saddened by recent events and think that it's the beginning of tumultuous times. When in reality, these kinds of things have always been happening, we just didn't hear about them in the news; mainstream (white) society didn't care. It was normal. So here's to change, realizing that it takes time for things to change.

craft, inc.

Maybe I'll take a look at this sometime: Craft, Inc. Revised Edition: The Ultimate Guide to Turning Your Creative Hobby into a Successful Business

Recommended by Lisa Wong Jackson

In this interview on Design Sponge.

james baldwin.

"A society must assume that it is stable, but the artist must know, and he must let us know, that there is nothing stable under heaven."

Stumbled upon this via Brain Pickings, and kind of love the James Baldwin quote. This is a reminder to go look at his books and essays and pick something to read.

dear mr. you.

Title: Dear Mr. You

Author: Mary-Louise Parker

Why Read: 

In short: it's new (published Nov 2015), I have liked watching Mary-Louise Parker in the past, I love epistolary novels, and it's a good one. She's created a book where you don't know which of the letters is to a real person in her life or if they're made up (I don't know that much about her personal life, just a snippet of a story about the father of her first child), but it serves as a memoir of her life, despite all the letters being written to men.*

Particularly moving was the last letter in the book, "Dear Oyster Picker", which also explains why there's an oyster shell on the cover of the book. I found myself tearing up, as several letters in the book also brought. Highly recommended, especially if you have enjoyed memoirs in the past.

*One of the letters is written to a billy goat. Seriously. And it's good. Maybe the goat's not real either.

go set a watchman.

Title: Go Set A Watchman

Author: Harper Lee

Why Read: 

Well, to be perfectly honest, I finally read this because Harper Lee just died in February. I think probably I would have read it eventually, but forgot about it until I read her obit, and remembered to put a hold on it at the library. It's fun to read some more stories about Scout and Jem and Atticus, but it's embroiled in Civil Rights South. There's a lot of arguing, which got me a little agitated. It sounds like her books are pretty autobiographical, which makes me want to read more about Harper Lee's actual life. And maybe watch one of those movies that came out a while ago about Truman Capote (Dill?). Or maybe just read To Kill A Mockingbird again.

Hey, what do you know! Capote is available for free on Prime Video now. Neat.

the good, the bad, and the furry.

Title: The Good, The Bad, and the Furry

Author: Tom Cox

Why Read: 

A while ago, I was introduced to @mysadcat on Twitter, and found him quite enjoyable. Learned that Tom Cox had written several books about his life and his cats, and so I looked for them, only to find that they were only available in the UK! Until this one. Devoured it, and am waiting patiently for the US version of Close Encounters of the Furred Kind to be available.