Books – Page 3 – Just Giblets

January 18, 2016

2015, The Year in Books — a Few Observations and a Stellar Ongoing Series

2015 was not a good year when it comes to me and reading. I read the lowest number of books in 2015 that I can remember. Honestly, I barely broke 20, including two plays and two graphic novels. I plan on doing better in 2016, but if the beginning of January is any indication, I’m not off to a good start!

Science/Speculative Fiction and short stories did well in 2015, and a couple of favorite authors released new books. No non-fiction this year, and sadly, no books about bees. The good thing is that nearly all the books I read this year were good reads.

Before launching into my Top 10 I would like to mention those books that didn’t make the list, but are worth reading, then call out a fantastic continuing collected edition that I’m not including in the list because of the serial nature, but is always a great read.

How to be both by Ali Smith – Ali Smith’s complex novel explores relationships and art. It transcends time and space, bringing together a young woman in contemporary times who recently lost her mother and is trying to make sense of her life through a particular little-known painting that she loved; and the original artist of that painting whose story unfolds in a unique manner, paralleling that of the main character.

World gone by by Dennis Lehane – Dennis Lehane wraps up his Joe Coughlin stories with a visceral burst of blood and crime in World Gone By. Is there honor among thieves? This is a moral conundrum that Lehane tackles firmly in his latest, finely written novel. Family is at the heart of World Gone By, as Joe still reels from the loss of his wife ten years past, and struggles to raise his son in a dangerous world that he claims to have retired from.

Meatspace byNikesh Shukla – Nikesh Shukla has created a fun, fast-paced tale for this latest generation, the one that lives their entire life online. Meatspace refers to the real world, the one where people interact face-to-face, and where things can get messy, complicated and emotional. The novel and its revelations unfold relatively smoothly, and Shukla’s voice is authentic and captivating. If there is one flaw it’s that Kitab’s struggle with his doppelganger goes on one round too long, and because of that, Aziz’s journey occasionally eclipses Kitab’s, but it all wraps together beautifully in the end.

Landline by Rainbow Rowell – Sweet romantic novel about Georgie, who gets a chance for her big break in comedy writing for her own television show, even as her marriage veers dangerously close to going off the rails. While at times Landline feels little formulaic or trite, there is some real emotion behind the writing, and author Rainbow Rowell has a good command of language that makes this entertaining read a little more than a diverting trifle.

The Buried Giant – Kazuo Ishiguro – Kazuo Ishiguro tackles fantasy to tell this parable about the benefits of time erasing pain and betrayal, yet sometimes having a more difficult time with vengeance and retribution. Ishiguro starts off slow, but as the journey ensues, and the purpose of the quest starts to take shape, The Buried Giant takes on a powerful momentum, until its inexorable and sobering conclusion.

A Reunion of Ghosts – Judith Claire Mitchell – Despite the dark themes running through her novel, Mitchell is funny, and the distinct voices of Lady, Vee and Delph are funny too. Added to the humor and the family drama, there’s some rich history woven into this novel, with the afore-mentioned great-grandfather being a brilliant scientist and contemporary of Albert Einstein, who is a character in the family story. Mitchell weaves these elements together skillfully creating a novel that’s both fun and sobering.

Also read this year were the next two volumes of Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples’ outstanding ongoing series, Saga. While the saga of Saga continues to be compelling, complex, entertaining and gorgeous, there comes that point in every ongoing series where the dramatic tension starts to seem forced, and situations are set up that have a slight feeling of, what can we do to our protagonists next? Fortunately, Vaughn is a talented enough writer to keep writing great stories even if the larger story arc start to buckle a little.

In volume 4, Hazel is now a toddler and narrating a difficult time in her parents’ lives. Marko and Alana, members of two warring races, find their relationship drifting apart as they try to keep food on the table. Meanwhile, their enemies draw closer, and their friends prove unreliable

Volume five sees the completion of Yuma’s time in the series, and that’s too bad. She was a fascinating
character, both visually and storywise, and I’ll miss her.

All-in-all, despite a slight dip from 5 to 4 stars, it’s hard to argue that Saga is one of the best ongoing series out there. And with only five volumes in, you can easily catch up.

And one final comment about the JustGiblets blog in general. I notice that nothing has been posted for the year between my round-up of the best books of 2014, and now. Guess that means the blog is pretty much dead? Or maybe I’ll try to be more active this year. Only time will tell. Check back for my Top 10 books read in 2015.

February 10, 2015

2014, the Year in Books, #1

My top book of 2014 snuck up on me. I read it early in the year, and while I loved it, I wasn’t really expecting it to be at the very top of my list this year. But as I reflected back, I realized that it totally deserved that top spot, for it’s imaginative creation of a society that is based on science and nature, for the intricate plotting, for the gorgeous characterization… and all of that done with a hive of bees.

]#1 – The Bees by Laline Paull

Accept. Obey. Serve.

Laline Paull takes us into the life of a beehive in her extraordinary novel, The Bees where we learn what it means to live that mantra. Flora is a singular hero, born to the lowest caste in the hive hierarchy, there is something special about her. It’s something that’s valued by some of her sisters, and feared by others.

As Flora moves about the hive, transcending her class, we learn all about how the colony operates, all the while thrilling to the search for food by foragers, the defense of the hive from predators like wasps and other fearsome threats, and navigating the internal politics set in motion to insure the hive’s survival. Suspense, intrigue, romance, heroism, mystery, drama, humor… this one has it all.

February 8, 2015

2014, the Year in Books: #’s 2 & 3

Whoops! Sorry about that. I got sidetracked by a vacation in Costa Rica and never finished my list of the top books read in 2014. I’m back with #’s 2 & 3, which come from an international, best-selling author, and a debut, indie novelist respectively. These books couldn’t be more different, really, and I’ve jockeyed back and forth on their positioning, yet while Houck’s novel is more consistently great, Mitchell’s novel has more stumbles, but reaches higher, so it manages to eke out the #2 spot.

Yield #3 – Yield by Lee Houck

Yield really took me by surprise. When I read the jacket copy and found out that the novel revolved around a young hustler in Manhattan, I inwardly groaned. It felt slightly cliched, and oh-so 80’s gay fiction, but I gave it a try. I quickly noticed the quality of the writing, and the care and (yes, I’ll say it) authenticity that permeated this novel. Not a tale of disaffected youth cutting off the world around him, but a coming-of-age story, in the best meaning of that phrase, where a young man slowly opens himself to life and all the joys and pain that comes with it.

Simon does indeed work as a part-time hustler in Manhattan, but he also files medical reports at St. Vincent’s hospital, which is the job that actually leaves physical scars, the endless series of paper cuts along his fingers. The hustling leaves scars as well, although not the type you can see. More like scar tissue, increasingly dulling Simon’s ability to feel and even experience living. When one of his close circle of friends is beaten in a violent gay bashing, Simon is shaken, and when he starts to fall for the hot guy who lives across the street from him, a door deep inside of him that was securely locked, starts to open.

Lee Houck has created a beautiful voice with Simon. He’s emotionally reserved, and frankly, terrified of his own capacity to feel, but there is nothing cliche about Yield, in fact the journey Simon takes is universal and ageless. It’s nice to read a book like this every once in a while, to remind you how rewarding fiction can truly be.

#2 – The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell

David Mitchell hit the big time with his book, Cloud Atlas, and his latest tome, The Bone Clocks is the follow-up. It’s a big sprawling novel that begins in the early 80’s and unspools all the way to the mid-21st Century and the collapse of modern technology to a dystopian future. The Bone Clocks chronicles the war between two factions of immortals, benevolent psychics who are continually reincarnated, and spiritual vampires who casually take the souls of innocents to extend their lives in perpetuity. Central to this story is Holly Sykes, who starts the tale as a teenage runaway, and ends as hardened matriarch who helps to save humanity… just to see the technological infrastructure collapse. It’s a new age, science fiction epic that’s great fun to read, most notably for the moments in between the crazy stuff. And this is where Mitchell excels. The novel cycles through a handful of narrators, each telling their part of the story, while our central character, Holly Sykes, treads through all of them. I loved the small, individual details of the lives of each of these narrators that Mitchell carefully and lovingly reveals as time marches inexorably on. It’s also fun to start the novel in the past, albeit the recent past of the 1980’s, and jump a decade or so ahead with each narrator, ending up in the middle of the 21st century. For such a sprawling epic, Mitchell does a masterful job keeping things personal. Some of the more fantastical elements come across a little hokey, but all in all it works well. And despite its heft, it moves right along providing hours of entertainment.

January 18, 2015

2014, the Year in Books: #’s 4 & 5

Top five time… and the authors of the two books represented at #4 and #5 have both appeared on my top lists of the year before. This is Thrity Umrigar’s second visit to the Top 5, with her sublime novel The World We Found coming in at #4 in 2011. Marilynee Robinson came in at #2 in 2008 with Home, the second of the Gilead trilogy, for which this year’s #4 book of the year is the conclusion.

#5 – The Story Hour by Thrity Umrigar

Forgiveness is a topic too often left unexplored. In Thrity Umrigar’s beautifully drawn domestic drama, an Indian immigrant, who harbors a life-altering secret rashly attempts suicide and finds herself in the care of an African-American therapist who is harboring a secret of her own. As the two women become unlikely friends their lives become entangled, but when these secrets are revealed/discovered, the limits of their friendship and their capacity for forgiveness will be tested.

Thrity’s work at spinning domestic, cross-cultural drama is elegant and powerful. Characters shift across reader sympathies, and with the exception of one character who is decidedly one-dimensional, they all reveal hidden depths that make them seem all too real.

Chalk up another strong novel from best-selling author Thrity Umrigar!

#4 – Lila by Marilynne Robinson

Lila is the third in Marilynne Robinson’s exquisite Gilead trillogy that began with Gilead and Home. Lila revisits the Reverend John Ames, late in his life, but is centered around Lila, a wandering woman, taken as a child by the mysteriously scarred woman known only as Doll. For as long as she can remember, Lila’s life has been a hard one, although she wouldn’t describe it as such, being the only life she has had. After her life with Doll is ended, she reaches her lowest point before finding herself living in an abandoned shack in the outskirts of Gilead. It is there that she makes the acquaintance of Reverend John Ames.

It is there that Lila’s life makes a turn. While she struggles with her thoughts, and her beliefs as she reads the bible, she also slowly learns the trust Reverend Ames, who grows to love her.The two eventually marry and start a family, but it is Lila’s journey from harrowing pragmatism to joy and hope that makes LILA beautiful. Marilynne Robinson is a master storyteller, and her words carry with them a spirituality that transcends the religious.

January 15, 2015

2014, The Year in Books, #’s 6 & 7

Other than being written by women, there’s not a whole lot in common with the sixth and seventh books on my list. One is from a well-known author that I’d never read, but she so charmed me at a Random House author breakfast, that I thought I’d give her work a try. The other was from an author whose previous novel was #5 on my list of best reads in 2012! Interesting side note: my #6 novel could be considered similar to Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life which I found tedious and couldn’t even finish. Obviously, I would disagree.

#7 – Lucky Us by Amy Bloom

Lucky Us is a new coming-of-age novel set in the 40s and 50s by best-selling novelist Amy Bloom. Eva is a young woman left by her mother at the home of her estranged husband, Edgar, on the day of his new wife’s funeral. There Eva meets her new big sister, Iris, with whom she runs away with as Iris seeks stardom in Hollywood. There they befriend Franciso, a gay hair and make-up man who helps Iris on her way up and subsequently down the Hollywood ladder before a surprise reunion with Edgar leads all three of them to Brooklyn where Eva settles into her life.

For the first half of the book, Eva is mainly a spectator in her the life of her family. Too young to work, unable to attend school, Eva helps her sister try to achieve her goals while carefully observing the vagaries of life. A series of sudden tragedies push Eva into a more active role in her own life, as she finds herself without a support system and people who are dependent upon her.

Through it all, Bloom keeps things light, even when dealing with difficult situations. She’s a great writer, using language that is clear yet beautifully composed, and creating voices that are unique and sympathetic. I had the privilege of seeing Ms. Bloom talk about her at the time forthcoming novel at Book Expo America last May and found to be utterly charming, strong-willed, and hilarious.

#6 – My Real Children by Jo Walton

Patricia is feeling confused today. At least that’s what the note by her bed tells her. In fact, at her advanced age, in the nursing home where she lives, she often feels confused and forgetful, but what’s she remembers distinctly are the two lives that crowd her memory. One where she married Mark and raised four children in a world that is at peace and has a colony on the moon; and another where she spent her life with her beloved Bee and their three children, on a beleaguered planet suffering from nuclear detonations and fatal fallout.

Jo Walton, whose last novel, Among Others is my afore-mentioned #5 read of 2012, spins a straight-forward, subtle tale of a woman’s life, or rather, two lives, and how a single decision can propel that life into two very different paths. And could that one person’s quiet, unassuming life also have major repercussions across the globe? Just like the theory that the flap of a butterfly’s wing can cause a hurricane halfway around the world, Walton wonders if a single decision could make the difference between peace and violence. Which life would you choose if given the choice?