2017 was an interesting year for my reading. For the first time in about four years, I didn't set a Goodreads goal. I wanted to see what my reading looked like when I wasn't aiming for a number, and I'm pretty happy with myself. I read thirty books, not including several unfinished books (reading specific chapters and sections for my classes) and some very short poetry pamphlets that didn't really count. I read some really great stuff this year, so I'm going to talk about my very favourite (non academic) reads from 2017. (Books that were sent to me by publishers will be marked with a *)
THE POWER* by Naomi Alderman - The Power essentially asks the question 'What if?': What if tomorrow, women around the world suddenly develop the ability to cause devastating harm at will? How would the world change? What would happen in places like Moldova where thousands are trafficked as sex slaves, or in parts of the Middle East where women are legally inferior citizens? What would happen in the Western world where some claim equality is almost achieved? The Power is an extraordinary thought experiment with a compelling narrative, and Alderman shows, by holding up a mirror image, the ways in which damage is done in our own lives when one group has all the power.
"However bad any man treated a woman, he needs her in a fit condition to carry a child. But now... one genetically perfect man can sire a thousand - five thousand - children. And what do they need the rest of us for? They're going to kill us all."
THE NATURAL WAY OF THINGS by Charlotte Wood - A group of women awake from a drugged sleep to find themselves prisoners in a compound, the middle of the Australian desert. Each woman's crime is her involvement in a sexual scandal with a powerful man. I won't pretend this is a happy book, it's an upsetting, creeping, festering novel that crawls into your brain and refuses to leave. Wood lets the camera roll on this raw, ugly little microcosm and creates a bleak and slightly absurdist extended metaphor, for the ways in which we are all victims of social structure, and often our own worst enemies.
"Would it be said they were abandoned or taken, the way people said 'a girl was attacked', this femaleness always at the centre, as if womanhood itself were the cause of these things? As if the girls somehow, through the natural way of things did it to themselves. They lured abduction and abandonment to themselves."
THE TIDAL ZONE by Sarah Moss - Moss is an author I had wanted to read for some time, and I'm so glad I finally got round to her. The Tidal Zone is a masterclass in writing about the huge significance of the small quiet moments. The story is ultimately about a family of four, living a quiet life in Coventry, having to come to terms with a traumatic event that disrupts one ordinary day. Moss' characters are all intricate, nuanced and so human. They all cope with this sudden upheaval in different ways, and Moss shows how strange it is for a family, going through difficulties, to suddenly be so visible in their local community. With a constant awareness of social issues throughout, this book was just exquisite, and I can't wait to revisit Moss in 2018. A Full review of The Tidal Zone is here
"Look mate, it's a job, the making of cakes and the washing of sheets, the coordination of laundry with PE lessons, the handling of the Christmas shopping and the girl's dental appointments, and the fact that your wife does it on top of her paid work without you noticing does not make you clever."
ALL THE BIRDS IN THE SKY* by Charlie Jane Anders - The last three books have all had pretty grim themes one way or another, but this book I read with a smile on my face almost the whole way through. A young witch and a tech genius befriend one another as children, part ways as they grow up, and must reunite as adults to save the world. If you don't want to read it, you're wrong. ATBITS is a lovely, silly read about the power you hold when you accept who you are. Plus I've just realised that the acronym of the title reads like '8 Bits' (a term relating to computer memory) which is actually very pertinent to the plot! Accidental or not, high five for you Anders! I won't pretend this book is especially well structured, or written, but for the sheer joy factor, it makes my top six.
"No matter what you do, people are going to expect you to be someone you're not. But if you're clever and lucky and work your butt off, then you get to be surrounded by people who expect you to be the person you wish you were."
THE FIFTH SEASON by N.K Jemisin - Coming into 2017 I had long fallen off the fantasy wagon. I had enjoyed Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb in April, but was becoming tired of the same tropes and worlds and characters with ever harder-to-pronounce-made-up names. The Fifth Season was like a breath of fresh air. So unapologetically different from the usual settings and characters, Jemisin's world is a scarred, tumultuous land, where a few feared individuals have the ability to wield the earth's power for better or worse. In a genre of worlds usually filled with mostly straight, white dudes on horses, Jemisin is having absolutely none of it, and presents a rich complex cast of characters that add texture and human interest, and represent a world of humans, rather than of archetypes.
"Tell them they can be great someday, like us. Tell them they belong among us no matter how we treat them. Tell them they must earn the respect which everyone else receives by default."
HOLD YOUR OWN by Kate Tempest - I've never been a poetry person, but over the last year or so I've begun to dip my toes in. Hold Your Own is kind of a collection, and also kind of one long sequence. It is based around a modern take on the myth of Tiresias, the blind prophet, who experiences life as both male and female, when he is turned into a woman by an angry Hera (for disrupting two snakes mating, which seems a bizarre thing to punish someone for but whatever Hera, you do your snake pervert thing.) The sequence has stand alone poems specifically about Tiresias, which are spaced around 'chapters' of poems titled 'childhood', 'manhood', 'womanhood' and 'blind prophet'. Full of classical and mythical references, social commentary and beautifully woven words, Hold Your Own convinced me that poetry might actually be my thing after all.
"And so, with face streaked warpaint red,
And every sense burnt white with pain,
He was give seven lifetimes
And dropped back down to Earth again."
Let me know if you've read any of these, and what your favourite reads of 2017 were! I'm looking forward to 2018 and another good year of reading so would love any recommendations.
Thank you for reading!
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