Jessie shelves biography, political science, essays, science, and nature, and reads all the coolest books in these sections paired with a healthy dose of SFF.
Names for Light is a memoir of four generations' experience with postcolonial racial trauma told through folklore, ghost stories, and dissociated memories. Myint narrates her family history from past to present, but her own story in reverse. Like the nature of memory, the structure is nonlinear and has gaps where moments are forgotten. This is a must read for lovers of storytelling and the children of storytellers.
She Who Became the Sun carves out a bold and bloody new genre of epic fantasy. Zhu's tooth-and-nail fight for her destiny merges hero and antihero into a transcendent figure with an incomparably strong will. Parker-Chan explores themes of gender, tragedy, and resilience. Their world is immersive, and their story powerful.
At her absolute lowest, Lulu Miller becomes obsessed with early president of Stanford and famed ichthyologist David Starr Jordan. This part-memoir-part-biography is a touching story about struggling with mental health and how we cope in the face of chaos. It's a scientific history lesson on how fish taxonomy influenced the imagined hierarchy of human genetics. It's also a murder mystery. And if you're wondering if fish exist, I promise your question will be answered (they definitely don't)!
It all starts right here in Ravenna where S.T., a foul-mouthed domesticated crow, tells us the story of the demise of the human race. What does S.T. stand for, you ask? Something I cannot write here in this review. This book is touching and absolutely hilarious. An essential read for Seattlites, animal lovers, environmentalists, and fans of the zombie apocalypse.
This book is a concise and easy-to-understand primer on fascism, and for me was the perfect introduction to reading political science. It helped me get my bearings in a genre that up until now always intimidated me. In the best possible way, it left me with so many questions. It is not a tome on the history of fascist regimes or a manifesto on how to uproot the fascist model. Instead it is the ignition to keep reading to answer those questions, and the foundation to do so confidently.
We all need this book right now. A Psalm for the Wild- Built is a comforting story that lets you escape for a while into a hopeful future paved by human compassion. Science fiction collides with self-discovery and wilderness expedition with two vibrant, though unlikely paired, characters: a tea monk and a nature-loving robot. Their journey is philosophical as well as physical, full of conversations about purpose, meaning, and human nature. It left me reflecting on my own relationship with those things, but with a profound sense of optimism about it all! I found some peace reading this book, and you will too.
A wonderful collection of poems, and an intimate look into being indigenous in a nation that violently stifles her family's identity as well as their bodies. Despite grief and bitterness, she weaves in threads of joy and hope. Her poems about her brother best encapsulate this feeling.Natalie Diaz is a Mojave woman enrolled in the Gila River Indian Tribe. Check out her first collection of poems, When My Brother Was An Aztec, if (like me) you can't get enough!
A debut collection of short stories that hits hard and close to home. Each of us exists somewhere in the raw, unavoidable reality of these stories. I saw my own pain on the page, but many other times felt wrenched with empathy for losses I've never experienced. Moniz's prose is lyrical and flowing while acutely pinpointing the ways that grief, numbness, violence, and desire manifest in our minds and our bodies. Although the stories do not always give closure, this stunning look into the diverse, ordinary lives of Floridian families is not one to miss.
I am addicted to dystopian vignettes. With TV shows like Black Mirror or Love, Death & Robots I've found myself ravenously consuming these fleeting but entrancing short stories. Alien Virus Love Disaster is perfect for this. It hits all the good spots-- aliens, robots, other beastie creatures-- but also ponders humanity, class, and wealth. What will our families and communities look like in these dystopian landscapes? Will things change for the better? Otis's take can be a bit dark, but is immeasurably brightened by the pure absurdity of some of her stories and characters.
Here is a narrator that I will always love! Storytelling is the heart of this book, and Kvothe is the ultimate storyteller. Our hero is cocky and confident, but rightfully and satisfyingly so. Rothfuss has nested tales within fantastical tales in this epic world, complete with its own deep lore, history, and mythology. The Name of the Wind is overflowing with tavern tables, tearful ballads, murder, magic school, and true love-- everything you want from a fantasy novel and so much more. It is my top pick in this category. I regret devouring this book too quickly on my first read. What I wouldn't give to experience it once again for the first time!
Michael Cunningham has daringly woven together the stories of three women in a reworking of Virginia Woolf's book Mrs. Dalloway. Virginia Woolf's life and novel echo through Cunningham's interpretation as much as they explicitly occur through chapters from Mrs. Woolf's own perspective. He even employs her writing style in ways I find impressive and respectful. Mrs. Dalloway is not required reading before sitting down with The Hours, though you may find yourself aching to read it afterwards. This book is a masterful examination of converging lives coping with illness, loss, and suicide. It is a beautiful and thought-provoking triptych of stories to engage with.
This is an astounding book of science writing, although the science behind an octopus' biology and behavior is only a small part of what makes this book so captivating. Humor and heartbreak coalesce as Sy Mongtomery sucks us into the waters and introduces us to a creature whose personality and emotions rival our own in their depth. I felt warmed with stories of affection between the octopuses and aquarists at the New England Aquarium. Of course now I desperately want to meet
these wondrous beings myself. I finished this book knowing that my empathy for the octopus will translate into a deeper respect for all our so-called "lower" life forms. It is truly inspirational.
