This was supposed to be posted as en end to 2019 more than a beginning to 2020, but alas, I did not have the time to finish it before I went and worked an 11-hour shift waitressing at a New Year’s Eve dinner-turned DJ party. Still, it seems as good a time as any to reflect on the year gone by. A more introspective person might have some deeper thoughts than this, but for now, in part as a way to get back into a blogging habit (2020 resolutions anyone?), I’ve decided that a good way for me to wrap up the year would be to look back at the books I’ve read.
Starting in January, I’ve kept a list of every book I’ve read and finished. I was hoping to get at least 52 for the number of weeks in a year, but alas, I only made it to 45. Of course, in addition to those I read a lot of great journalism, essays, and got about a third of the way through Jill Lepore’s massive tome on American history, These Truths. Perhaps I’ll finish it in 2020 and let you all know how American ends!
Of the 45 books I read this year, 37 were written by women or non-binary people and 19 by people of color (16 of those in both categories). This was definitely a conscious decision, although less because it felt like some kind of a good challenge or the “right” thing to do and more because those were the books that just genuinely seemed more interesting to me. Books by white men, on average, just don’t call out to me in the same way (although there are obviously still some white men on my list. #notallwhitemen or whatever).
There weren’t any books this year that I read and really did not enjoy - I guess I did a good enough job off the bat of picking the right ones. I chose books based on personal recommendations, best-of lists, Twitter, and topics that interested me.
Obviously I’m not going to go through 45 books at this time. Instead, like every journalistic outlet has done this month, here are my 10 best books I read in 2019 (some were published before this year). They are listed in chronological order based on when I read them:
Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
I tend to be drawn to the kind of books and stories I could likely never write (which might be all of them!). I am generally not big on short stories, but this collection is just completely unique and dystopic and creative. The stories are commentaries on race, capitalism, and violence, but more than anything are just really good reads.
The Water Cure by Sophie Mackintosh
Again, the kind of out-there fiction I could never think up. Mackintosh’s books focuses on three sisters living with their mother and father, whom they call King, on a deserted island, away from men who are literally toxic. It brings the idea of toxic masculinity to life and is also descriptive, original, creepy, and sad.
The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin
So this is kind of a cheat because these are three books, and I counted them as three books as part of my reading list, but now I’m smooshing them into one book for the sake of this list, because I wouldn’t recommend reading just one. Jemisin won the Hugo Award, which is a sci-fi book award, for each book in this trilogy. It’s hard to sum up in a few sentences what these books contain, but if you are at all interested in fantasy, science fiction, geology, magic, and just really good storytelling featuring flawed but ultimately heroic characters, this is a great series.
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makai
I actually read this book for the first time back when it came out in 2018, but I read it again this year because I enjoyed it so much the first time. Makai jumps between the 1980s and 2015 to tell the story of how the AIDS crisis impacted a group of mostly young men and also some women in Chicago. All of her characters are three-dimensional and knowable and Makai does a great job of taking readers through an unfolding terror.
The Collected Schizophrenias by Esme Wang
Now we enter my non-fiction period. I am generally a reader of fiction, but every once in a while I get into a non-fiction jag, usually spurred on by a couple of great books, like this essay collection. Wang has schizoaffective disorder and her essays looking at her diagnosis, illness, and periods of relief are both informative and extremely compelling. This book is personal but also sheds light on the larger issues of mental health care in the United States.
Heavy by Kiese Laymon
Another one of those books that I could never write. It is impossible for me to imagine being able to write about one’s life so openly and honestly. Laymon’s memoir is about growing up a heavy child in Mississippi to a single mother and eventually becoming a writing professor. But it’s about a lot more than that. It’s about the impacts of racism and poverty, not just emotionally but physically as well.
Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood
Another author where I’m just like “how does your brain work and how do I make my brain do that?” Lockwood is a poet, perhaps most famous for her poem “Rape Joke,” but Priestdaddy is her memoir, the true story of somehow being one of the children of a married Catholic priest in the midwest. Although her upbringing probably wouldn’t be described as average, and her father is the kind of Trump-supporting alpha male you want to throw out a window, she treats her family and the church with honesty and scrutiny but also grace.
My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
This book is just fun! It’s neither a long nor challenging read - I finished it within 24 hours, mostly on a plane from Switzerland to the U.S. - but it’s just so well-written and creative. It’s not really a murder mystery; we already know who the murderer is, right there in the title. Instead, the mystery is whether or not the sister will got caught, and who will end up suffering the consequences and taking the blame. Plus, it’s set in Nigeria by a young Nigerian author.
Severance by Ling Ma
As a review by Maris Kreizman on the back cover says, “it might just be the first and only coming-of-age, immigrant experience, anti-capitalist zombie novel you’ll ever need.” Again, another great book that takes on the perils of capitalism and our success-oriented culture. This novel also examines the pitfalls of nostalgia along with the dangers of living a life lacking human connection. And it’s also an exciting story and page-turner!
Pet by Akwaeke Emezi
Emezi is an amazing author whose brain is clearly on another level or planet. Their debut novel, Freshwater, was one of my favorites from 2018 and this follow-up, which is YA, is just as incredible. This short book takes us to a perhaps not-so-distant future where all the ‘monsters’ have been vanquished, i.e. racists, homophobes, transphobes, abusers, etc. Jam is a teenage trans girl who is mostly non-verbal and is visited by Pet, who tells her he has come to her world because there is at least one monster still in hiding. The story itself is engrossing, but what I love is that Emezi creates this world that could totally exist now if we let it, where we just let people be and function in whatever manner they feel most comfortable.
Anyway that was (some) of my year in books! The whole list is somewhere on my twitter, @sparkersays, in thread format (I’m not great at the medium). And now that it’s officially 2020, the book I’m currently reading, The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro, will kick off my new list once I finish it! I chose this book in one of the best ways - by thinking I didn’t have enough books while traveling for a few days in Amsterdam, finding a random bookstore, picking from the small selection of English books, and then actually having enough books during my trip and saving it for now!
Happy New Year and happy reading if that’s your thing!
A very artfully styled photo of my top books of 2019 on our couch (which is covered by a sheet because of dog), minus My Sister, the Serial Killer because I left that at my parent’s house for my dad to read. Always pay a good book forward!