2015 in Review

To put things into perspective, at the beginning of this year, I hadn't even read Carmilla. CARMILLA.

 
Insanity.

Counting the two books I will assuredly finish New Year's Eve, I read 73 books this year, which is probably my highest ever, except that's kind of negated by the sheer number of comics. 2013 still beats me out in pages by a couple hundred.

A shockingly low 24 out of 73 were written by women. That's an all-time low. Has to be. Unsurprisingly, I also read very few feminist histories this year. I think we can all blame this on the sad state of female representation in comics.

How many were comics!
30

Were any of those comic collections over a thousand pages long!
Yes.

Does that kind of negate your guilt about also counting volumes that comprised only about 6 issues?
Obvs.

Some Things:

1. At the beginning of this year, no Carmilla, no Aquarium, no Sandman, no comics at all, no King Mob, no Robbie Kaplan book that led to me speaking with her on the phone, thereby fulfilling all the hopes and dreams of 2013 Alice — my point is, a lot's been goin' on. 

2. I read and hated Barnaby Rudge. I'll have finished Djuna Barnes's very difficult Nightwood by the end of tomorrow. I discovered I am really not into Matt Fraction's writing, and I cannot get into Bitch Planet, no matter how feministy it might be.

3. Because of the opera Thérèse Raquin, I read the book by Zola and thought it was the worst. Because of Barnaby Rudge, I read Christopher Hibbert's King Mob and thought it was the best.

Comics are great. I like history. More women should write comics. Looking forward to 2016.

Hamilton Readalong

Did you too perhaps receive a copy of Ron Chernow's extremely long with tiny font biography of Alexander Hamilton for Christmas? Do you worry about having the follow-through to finish it? I know I do. So we are having -- A WINTER HAMILTON READALONG.

IT'S GONNA BE SO GOOD.

It's gonna be January/February, first post is Thursday, January 7th, and will be chapters 1-5. We will power through and open the gates and seize the day, and -- sorry, wrong musical.

Don't throw away this shot....to read the whole Chernow Hamilton.

Schedule:
January 7th: Chapters 1-5
January 14th: Chapters 6-9
January 21st: Chapters 10-14
January 28th: Chapters 15-19
February 4th: Chapters 20-26
February 11th: Chapters 27-31
February 18th: Chapters 32-38
February 25th: Chapters 39-End

The Fox and the Star

Penguin asked if I wanted to review The Fox and the Star, and I said yes because it is so. damn. pretty. My tiny tiny wonderful nieces are appx 1000x more artistic than I ever was, and all I could think while reading through it was how beautiful the pages were and how much time you could spend on one of them.

Look at that shit.

If you're into loops and whorls and a more natural-style aesthetic, this is very much for you. Lots of repeated patterns and a mix of dense and stark illustrations. I could see it being good for a meditation book since you can use the patterns as a sort of "walk the labyrinth" for your mind.

I'm not gonna say the story was super-compelling to me. The story's not really the point as far as I can tell. There's a fox. It likes looking at a star. The star goes away and the fox goes looking for it. Yeah, there's symbolism, but I think if we take a quick review of my preferred authors, we will quickly see that symbolism is not a favorite of mine.

For that story to interest me, it'd have to be like, the star/bright light the fox saw was actually a princess held captive in a light fortress for years, and when it winked out, it's because a fairy queen led a daring charge upon it and defeated the goblin king and his wizard. Eventually the princess will find the fox and explain the whole thing, and they'll live in an unconventional best-friendship in her castle, righting all social wrongs and making everyone appreciate stars more by leading a campaign against light pollution.

Light pollution: a serious problem we should all think about all the time

So! The Fox and the Star. A meditative picture book that is very pretty. By Coralie Bickford-Smith.

Is Gone-Away Lake THE best book or only like in the top 2?

Gone-Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright. A girl and her cousin go exploring on their summer vacation and find a ghost town of summer houses from the turn of the century, as well as two elderly people who grew up there and are the last holdouts. They mainly tell the girl and the cousin (whose name might be Julian?) stories about growing up there.

I LOVE IT SO MUCH. I love Gone-Away Lake. I loved it when I was ten and I love it now.

there's some bullshit "good" cover now, but this is
the only one I will accept

Tales of the past! Backstory! All that stuff! And they explore old houses! I grew up in the country, and while we weren't so isolated that we could potentially find a whole group of hidden houses, there was a lot of creek-exploring and thicket-roaming, so we could imagine we were so isolated we could potentially find a whole group of hidden houses. The two main characters' wandering about without parents was very familiar, since everyone knew everyone in my community. (and told us to stop going in their creek because it was dangerous, but it was a CREEK, like I'm not gonna explore that shit)

This book is also how I learned what a philosopher's stone was. It also has wonderful illustrations throughout.

philosopher's stone! and knickerbockers!

Knowing much more about my likes and habits now, I'm confident a good amount of my love for this book comes from the detail put into the stories about the objects and histories of the people in them. Almost all of my favorite books do things like reference "Mammoth Cave chewing tobacco" and just get very specific in their descriptions, and OH how I love it.

This is possibly (entirely) why Jeanette Winterson and I have never gotten along. Jeanette Winterson wouldn't even tell you there was chewing tobacco; she'd vaguely hint around it and eventually you'd be like "oh THAT'S what they're chewing, oh I see."

Everyone read this book and buy it for 10-year-olds. It is the best.

The Scorch Trials by James Dashner

The Scorch Trials is the second in the Maze Runner series by James Dashner. It's your standard YA, post-apocalyptic, Possibly Evil Government Is Manipulating Teens situation. CHILDREN ARE THE FUTURE. 

ugh.

After the first book, the hero (Thomas) is out of the maze. As perhaps indicated by the title, there is another trial, and it involves things being very hot. Namely, an extremely hot desert to cross. 

Now, I'm probably going to read this whole series. I want to make that clear. I like mysterious trials and I really want to know what the hell is going on and how Dashner is going to justify what the characters are going through (there're a lot of scenes with government officials giving vague hints and it's maddening). 

But I still have a LOT to complain about, because it's a YA dystopian series and I am a 30 year old woman who will not just put up with shit.

1. Again? Again we have one girl? ONE GIRL. It's not even the same girl! Original Only Girl disappears at the beginning and New Girl shows up. Who, guess what, is immediately into the protagonist because why wouldn't you be, amirite, ladies? They're all racing against the clock for their lives, but hey, that doesn't mean you can't fit in a little romance.

Some girls are added in later, but only in the most token of ways. Just kinda "oh yeah, and then there were other girls. In addition to New Girl. They didn't say much."

2. James Dashner, I already said I was going to keep reading your books, so right now, listen to this advice, because this is someone who wants to enjoy those books: stop writing kissing scenes. Stop it immediately. You don't know what you're doing and it's embarrassing for everyone. No one "suddenly" finds themselves kissing someone. Also "And then they were kissing" is the worst ever.

HOW ABOUT THAT PLAGUE THAT'S KILLING EVERYONE

3. We have to spend a lot of time with Thomas, and I don't want to hate him, but can you not Mary Sue your hero. So he's the smartest and the fastest and the best leader? Is he? He's all of those things? If that's even true, can you have him shut up thinking about how everyone else is making bad decisions and how he knows the right thing to do? People who think that all the time are terrible and I don't want to ride around in their heads.

I KNOW THIS ALL SOUNDS BAD. And yet I've already started the next one: The Death Cure. Will more girls speak in it? (maybe) Will they be sexually interested in Thomas? (probably) Will the ham-handed love triangle Dashner has created be furthered? (ugh yes) HOWEVER WILL THERE ALSO BE MORE MYSTERIES AND MAYBE SOME EXPLANATIONS? (also yes, which is why I am continuing)

Look, there is a plague that has ravaged the planet, and for some reason, putting kids in psychologically traumatic situations holds the key to that plague, and I'm gonna find out how that could possibly be the case.

Probably Great Unread Books

I have pounding sinuses, I am on meds for menstrual cramps, and it's 2 AM, but let's dive into what looks good on my ever-expanding Goodreads to-read shelf, currently listing at 431 items.

Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. Do I have any interest in Russian lit? Y'know what, not really. They are a depressing people. But my junior year Russian TA that I had a massive crush on said it was great, so I've been meaning to read it for nine years.

The Teeth May Smile but the Heart Does Not Forget: Murder and Memory in Uganda by Andrew Rice. I added this in 2010. What? What? Does this sound like something I'd read? I mean, it has a 3.92 on the Goodreads rating scale, but what on earth induced me to add this? The only thing I can think is that I'd just watched The Last King of Scotland.

Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld. I own this by now. Still never read it. But I'm like 90% sure I'm really going to enjoy it. Apparently it's about an outsider girl who observes the preppy students at the Ault School in Massachusetts. Yes, that will be good.

Love, Anarchy, and Emma Goldman by Candace Falk. This is the book that made me visit Emma Goldman's grave (in Illinois! what What). It explores her relationship with Famous Douchebag Ben Reitman, and caused me to make this when I visited her former apartment building in New York:

At the time, being particularly invested in the subject, I said, this, my friends — THIS — is the street she and Ben Reitman would have walked down together.

BEN REITMAN, King of the Hobos, and the one person who 100 years down the line could make the formidable and intimidating Emma Goldman seem human and relatable.

(I was very into her being human and relatable)

At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson. I have checked this out from the library in physical book form, ebook form, and then finally bought it. Still have not read it. I did very much enjoy his book on the year 1927, and I am fully confident, barring accident, that this will someday be read. Someday. I like history. I like home. How could it not be.
 
Dangerous Ambition: Rebecca West and Dorothy Thompson: New Women in Search of Love and Power by Susan Hertog. I don't even remember who the hell these women are. I get very excited about things sometimes and then forget about them later.

Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset. What is this? Why did I think it was a good thing to add? "In her great historical epic Kristin Lavransdatter, set in fourteenth-century Norway, Nobel laureate Sigrid Undset tells the life story of one passionate and headstrong woman." 

Ohhh.

The Sinister Sweetness of Splendid Academy by Nikki Loftin. Put "Academy" in the title and I am 34% more likely to want to read it. Especially if the rest of the title is fanciful.

Between Women: Friendship, Desire, and Marriage in Victorian England by Sharon Marcus. I also own this book and have not read it. You know what I have been reading? The Maze Runner series. And it is great.

American Authors and Their Manly Manliness

American authors. How about we talk about American authors. Guess what I didn't study in college? Ok, lots of things, but those especially. I did 19th century British and French lit, and when I asked if I could take one American lit class and have it count for my major, the head of the Comparative Lit department said "NO ENGLAND AND AMERICA ARE DIFFERENT CULTURES YOU STAY AWAY; MORE BALZAC FOR YOU." 

Add to that my high school's horrible English Department, and I've read pretty much nothing of what I'm supposed to read. Here are the authors I think of when I hear about American authors:

Ernest Hemingway

William Faulkner

John Updike

John Irving

Jack London

And...others. I guess. I've read at least one book by most of the American ladies, because I'm a ladyist, and I've read enough Steinbeck (although is there ever really enough, people?), and probably enough James, Twain, and Hawthorne. But American literature is SO DOMINATED BY DUDES. Particularly in the 20th century. Shouldn't that trend have been reversed? Where are all the Literary Giantesses for America in the 20th century? 

 

Whenever I hear about the authors in the above list, I think 'Omg they just sound so BORING.' Because they're all Guys. Not guys, but Guys. Just...men sitting around with their three-quarters-empty glass of whiskey, talking about how some two-dimensional female character screwed them over, and then moving on to how they used to go fishing with their father, and he was a sonuvabitch but you can tell they're still real real into him. They'll maybe say something about their mother like, she was a "strong" woman, but they don't really give two shits for talking about her, because they've got this fishing thing to talk about.

That's how I imagine all of Hemingway's novels.

At least with 19th century novels by British dudes, you have characters saying "What-ho!" and adjusting their cravats and the like. THAT I will read. I don't need some insecure 20th century men foisting their ideas about masculinity on me when those ideas are bullshit to begin with.

Does anyone like any of these guys or have a defense for them? I'm willing to admit I might be making massive generalizations and not allowing for shades of grey but how else are we going to promote discussion, I ask you.

ugh you're all terrible.

Book Riot Linkage!

Did you all know I write for Book Riot? Probably. I don't really mention it on here though. But it's Thursday! And I'm sleepy! So here're some posts I've written for them that I like:

What to Read After Seeing Suffragette. I want to read all of these. I have read none of them. BUT! I did a thorough investigation of whether they sucked or not before adding them to the list.

6 Books You Can Discuss At Thanksgiving, By Wine Glass. I wanted to do something topical. The wine glass addition was my brilliant oldest brother's idea. All these books should probs be read though.

8 Classic Novels Retitled As Clickbait. ONE OF MY MORE POPULAR POSTS is that ironic or not; I'm too scared to use that word.

Gifts for the Charlotte Bronte Fan in Your Life. I'm legit a big fan of this post and will go to my grave thinking it did not achieve the recognition it deserved. THERE ARE SO MANY WEIRDASS CHARLOTTE BRONTE GIFTS OUT THERE.

Where We All Cry About the Library of Alexandria. I get so sad about that damn library.

5 Classics That Should Definitely Become CW Shows. I'm terrible at coming up with plot, so a ton a ton a ton of the credit here goes to Jenny at Reading the End. She has the opposite type of skills when it comes to plot. Meaning she is super-great at it.

AND FINALLY:

On Asking Authors to Sign Books With My Favorite Word. I love doing this, even though it made Donna Tartt look at me look I was an idiot.

HAPPY DECEMBER, ALL.