Reading with Color, Year 2
Last year, I wanted to improve my POC reading ratio by reading at least 1 book a month by a POC. By being admittedly generous with my definition of POC author (artist on a graphic novel, or co-writer, etc), I managed to reach that very basic goal. But did I read more POC authors overall?
Woof. In spite of (or perhaps because of?) challenging myself to read new things, I did end up reading not only less than I did in 2017, but less POC. Of the 34ish books I read (did not finish The Box Man by Kobo Abe) and their 30 unique authors (including artists), only 14 or 46.7% were POC.
Again, the majority of POC authors I read are Asian: 8 out of 14 (or 57.1%). Last year I only read 7 non-white, non-Asian authors, or, as I said last January:
I read a very sad amount of books by non-white people who looked nothing like me, and I want to do better this year.
But in 2018? I only read 6 non-white, non-Asian authors. Admittedly, Asia is a huge-ass continent, and including the diaspora, the number of unique stories we can tell is obviously unlimited. For example, I have yet to read a Middle Eastern author in recent years, and they obviously have very different life experiences from my East Asian-American immigrant one, especially in America’s increasingly hostile nationalist culture.
So the question is, how do I do better? I’m still keeping tabs on the Read Harder challenge, as well as my own. I’m hoping the relaxed/modified prompts from my own challenge will help me feel less pressure to find books to read, so for now, I’ll stick with 1 book a month by a POC and be more mindful. Fingers crossed for 2019.
And now: My 2018 Favorites
Saga, Vol. 8, Brian K. Vaughn & Fiona Staples
Saga is a comic with a special place in my heart because (cliche story alert) it got me hooked on comics again. That being said, I appreciate that Vaughn & Staples find the time between space battles and cute aliens to explore the blurred lines of sexuality, makeshift families, and the wide-ranging yet tragically intimate fallouts of war. Alana’s storyline in Volume 8 breaks my heart, and I’m glad this team gave her the space for it.
Fables, Vol. 1: Legends in Exile, Bill Willingham et al
Wowowow I’ve heard of Fables for awhile, but I am SO glad that I stumbled into Kilgore Books in Denver and picked this up on a whim / it was on sale!! I have a ridiculously ginormous soft spot for fairytales and anything that reinterprets them, and Fables did not disappoint. Why do you think I bought 1001 Nights of Snowfall?!??? One of the best versions I’ve seen of fairytales in a contemporary setting, without losing any of their magic. Love love love.
What is Not Yours is Not Yours, Helen Oyeyemi
Another year, another bunch of short story collections on this list! But seriously, I gotta read more Oyeyemi. Her prose is lovely, her premises are engaging, her characters are warmly real and defiantly prickly, and, the best part of experimental collections like these – she doesn’t limit herself in genre or scope. Did I mention she also finds a connective thread between stories? Masterful. Read Helen Oyeyemi!! (h/t my friend Patrick for first cluing me into Oyeyemi)
The Power, Naomi Alderman
If this is what arises from a mentorship with Margaret Atwood, Atwood needs to be mentoring people nonstop!! (including me, hi Margaret, it’s me, Jamie) But truly, in spite of comparisons to Handmaid’s Tale, The Power is its own animal: incisive genders critique, crackling realistic fiction dystopia with just the right amounts of otherworldly powers, and love letter to the toiling work of journalism and all that it entails. That the book transforms what it is from start to finish is also phenomenal. “What happens if we gave teenage girls electrical powers?” is just the hook that sinks you into a much deeper story.
Behold the Dreamers, Imbolo Mbue
I picked this to fulfill Read Harder’s “Oprah’s Book Club pick” prompt, and what a gem I discovered! While a lot of my 2018 faves have been genre works, this was a “realistic” standout. Also remarkable in that while readers know the 2008 financial crisis awaits our protagonists, we still follow Jende and Neni’s (and Clark and Cindy’s) personal-scale human struggles with bated breath. Everyone makes questionable choices, but Mbue never judges them or overly sugarcoats those decisions for what they are. But also, this book is full of honestly really funny moments, an underrated facet in ~serious literature~.
A Village With My Name, Scott Tong
Cousin bias alert!! My cousin Scott used his NPR journalist skills and cred to weave both engaging multigenerational family history and unflinching socioeconomical analysis of China. I’m so grateful to him, personally, for working hard to unearth these deeply personal family histories. But even as an objective nonfiction reader I also learned so much about China, historically and sociologically. #AsianAugust
The Best We Could Do, Thi Bui
Speaking of multigenerational family histories, this one’s a doozy. Thi Bui’s autobiographical graphic memoir is gorgeously illustrated, and in spite of its limited color palette, the richness of its stories bleed from the page. (Sorry to all the coworkers who may have seen me tearing up at work.) That she has the self-awareness to reflect not only on her own journey from Vietnam to America but empathetically unpack the stories of her parents and grandparents is a marvel.
Fates and Furies, Lauren Groff
Obama’s favorite book of 2015!! I’m obviously late to the party but what a party. Oftentimes with multiple perspectives, authors intersperse them throughout — not Groff, who lets each of her narrators tell their stories in full. The book you think you’re reading transforms into something else to great effect. I don’t want to spoil any more, but: come for the lovely prose that tells the story of a long-lasting marriage that by all intents and purposes shouldn’t work, then keep going.
Friday Black, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
The shortest log line would be Black Mirror from an African-American perspective. (Don’t get me wrong, I love Black Mirror, but it rarely deals with the horrors of racism.) That undersells this short story collection, though, for its own fresh horrors: both explicit and repressed. I had to speed read this (#libraryduedates) but even without the chance to savor the stories their viscerality impacted me.
Little Fires Everywhere, Celeste Ng
As a Cambridge resident, I feel remiss that it took me so long to get around to reading Cambridge’s (formerly? semi-problematic) fave Celeste Ng. Especially because I enjoyed both her books so much, but Little Fires Everywhere I truly devoured. Both her books deal with Asian characters grappling with their circumstances in predominantly white spaces (albeit in this one, their POVs are peripheral). But by having the white characters as bystanders, Ng unravels their own conflicted liberal feelings, while also creating a complex portrait of mothers, daughters, and family (blood or otherwise).
Honorable Mentions
- The Hating Game, Sally Thorne: Teen me devoured chick-lit. Dumb adult me tried to be all, “nah you’re too old for this” but this funny, romantic book reminded me why I’m not!!
- Everything I Never Told You, Celeste Ng: If I hadn’t read LFE this probably would’ve gone in my Top 10. Ng isn’t the most showy prose writer, but her character work is truly great.
- I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, Michelle McNamara: Posthumous works are always tinged with sadness, but especially so because McNamara didn’t live to see the fruits of her labor. An absorbing true crime work that does feel a bit scattershot, but as an investigative journalistic, she did her brutal homework. Thank god the Golden State Killer was caught.
- The Beauty, Aliya Whiteley: h/t this Vulture list of women-written horror books! As a novella, The Beauty’s ending comes a little too abruptly for my liking, but for the most part, this is the kinds of weird and upsetting visuals and feelings I want in my horror.
- Queenpin, Megan Abbott: Ever since I read You Will Know Me I’ve been dying to read more Abbott. Muchos gracias to my coworker Sunny for lending me their book!!! Has an ending problem (blah), but give me more feminine noir that doesn’t simplify their lady characters. Give me it all.
Favorite Book Covers of 2018
Once again sourced from the always-excellent NPR Book Concierge, and full disclosure, I’ve read none of these. But as I’m a little tired of LARGE ALL CAPS SANS SERIF on BRIGHT BACKGROUNDS, I was glad to see these all do something visually arresting (the whole point of a book cover!!).
- Asymmetry, Lisa Halliday
- A Stitch In Time, Daphne Kalmar
- A Thousand Beginnings and Endings, edited by Ellen Oh & Elsie Chapman
- Born To Be Posthumous: The Eccentric Life And Mysterious Genius Of Edward Gorey, Mark Dery
- Deviation, Luce D’Eramo, translated by Anne Milano Appel
- Educated: A Memoir, Tara Westover
- Heavy: An American Memoir, Kiese Laymon
- Lake Success, Gary Shteyngart
- On the Other Side of Freedom: The Case for Hope, DeRay McKesson
- Stealing the Show: How Women are Revolutionizing Television, Joy Press
- Terra Nullius, Claire G. Coleman
- Tess of the Road, Rachel Hartman
- The Overstory, Richard Powers
- The Prince and the Dressmaker, Jen Wang
- The Strange Case Of Dr. Couney: How A Mysterious European Showman Saved Thousands Of American Babies, Dawn Raffel
- The Writer’s Map: An Atlas Of Imaginary Lands, Huw Lewis-Jones
Thanks for sticking with this long recap of my 2018 reading!! Feel free to comment with your own faves and recommendations. :D
