Best Books of 2017

There were so many wonderful books published in 2017, it was hard to pick my favorites. But there were a few that I especially loved. Here they are:

Memoir

Border: A Journey to the Edge of Europe – by Kapka Kassabova

In this book, the author returns to Bulgaria (where she was born and spent her childhood) after a long absence. Her goal is to better understand the human and cultural impacts of the Iron Curtain border that intersected this area of the world, and this goal leads her into an exploration of the concept of borders themselves and how they impact the current immigration crisis in Europe. She crosses the borders between Bulgaria, Turkey, and Greece many times over the course of her journey — a powerful experience for her after growing up near a border that seemed truly uncrossable. Her interviews with the people she meets in these borderlands unlock astonishing stories, as well as a variety of perspectives on the impact of recent history in the Balkans.

Short Stories

The Purple Swamp Hen and Other Stories – by Penelope Lively

This was my first venture into the work of Penelope Lively, and I’m eager to read more. I found each of these stories to be sharp, engaging, and witty. At first glance, the stories seem to be about the mundane — a broken down van, an elderly lady doing her weekly shopping, an uncomfortable lunch meeting. But each story delves into the recesses of the human soul, and reveals something extraordinary and unexpected by its close.

Fantasy

Stone Sky – by N.K. Jemisin

When the first two books of a trilogy have been as widely lauded and won as much critical acclaim as The Fifth Season and Obelisk Gate have, I always worry that the author won’t be able to stick the landing with the final book. I shouldn’t have worried in this case. The ending is masterful. This trilogy creates one single (several thousand page long) story arc, and this final book brought the story to a thundering, earth-shattering close. This is not light and fun fantasy — it delves into difficult themes such as abuse, trauma, power inequality, and rebellion. The world-building is captivating, the storytelling is masterful, and the ideas and struggles are deep and powerful.

Science Fiction

Binti: Home – by Nnedi Okorafor

This book (the second installment in the trilogy) is refreshingly different from classic science fiction. The author is Nigerian-American, and her works generally focus on African-based science fiction and fantasy. This book explores a kaleidoscope of different elements: a tribal girl struggling with the pull between her ambitions and the traditional expectations of her community, the tensions of a burgeoning friendship between this girl and a squid-like being who is the traditional enemy of her people, telepathy and unexplained mental powers, tribal magic and alien beings. I’m eagerly awaiting the release of the third volume of this unique and beautiful trilogy.

Non-Fiction

Wild Things: The Joy of Reading Children’s Literature as an Adult – by Bruce Handy

This book will appeal to adults with a literary bent who still enjoy reading kids’ books — in other words, right up my alley. It’s a delightful romp through American children’s classics as varied as Goodnight Moon,  Charlotte’s Web, and Ramona Quimby, Age 8. The book isn’t intended for a scholarly audience, but it does explore children’s books as literature — digging into the lives of the authors, the thematic and structural elements (why do anthropomorphic animals feature so strongly in children’s lit?), and what children’s books from different eras say about the changing way we see our kids.

Young Adult

The Hate U Give – by Angie Thomas

The main character in this book is 16-year-old Starr, a girl who regularly moves between two worlds — the world of the underprivileged black neighborhood where she lives and that of the mostly white suburban school she attends. The uneasy peace she’s carved out for herself between the two worlds begins to splinter when she witnesses the death of her childhood best friend at the hands of a white police officer. The story is raw and powerful, but it’s also told with nuance and compassion. This isn’t a political tirade disguised as fiction — it’s a deeply felt story exploring many facets of a terrible situation.

Middle Grades Fiction

Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus – by Dusti Bowling

This is the story of Aven, a delightfully spunky girl who was born without arms (but likes telling people that she lost them wrestling an alligator), as she moves to a new town in order for her parents to take over the management of a run-down wild west amusement park. It’s a fun book, full of adventure, humor, and pluck, and I found it refreshing to read a book about a character with physical differences that didn’t treat those differences as the most important aspect of the story or of her as a person.

Graphic Novel

The Best We Could Do – by Thi Bui

This powerfully rendered graphic memoir follows a Vietnamese-American woman’s exploration of her family’s past. She delves into her parents’ backgrounds, their lives in Vietnam, and their eventual journey to America as refugees. The theme of motherhood weaves throughout the book, as the author (a new mother herself) seeks to understand her own mother’s past through the lens of motherhood. For a more in-depth look at this book, check out this post.

Picture Books about the Middle Ages: Monks and Monasteries

In the last 15 years or so, there’s been a change in the world of picture books. The picture books that explore history and the lives of famous people have gotten so much better. You can see it in the Caldecott lists, with titles starting to appear such as Henry’s Freedom Box, A River of Words, Dave the Potter, Me…Jane, The Noisy Paintbox, or Freedom in Congo Square — all books that tell compelling stories while at the same time exploring a particular historical person or event. As both a history buff and a lover of picture books, seeing more of this kind of picture books makes me very happy.

There’s something magical about exploring history through picture books.  Instead of a list of kings and battles and dates, you get a compelling narrative or personal story, complete with illustrations that give the kind of visual cues for the historical setting that are almost impossible to relate solely through words. A well done historical picture book engages the senses and gives a unique window into the time period.

So when I started looking over my 7-year-old son’s history curriculum for this year, I was disappointed with the lack of picture books. We homeschool and our curriculum (Sonlight) relies mainly on A Child’s History of the World and The Usborne Book of World History for its survey of world history. These are both good books, but I thought the experience would be enriched by adding in some well chosen historical picture books along the way.

In this first post, I will share the picture books we used to supplement our study of monks and monasteries during the Middle Ages. I’ll continue with an ongoing series of posts featuring the picture books that align with various periods of history as we study them. Our curriculum for this year covers the rather daunting period of the Middle Ages through World War II. With this large of a time span, it’s obviously going to be a high level survey, with just a few hand picked picture books to go along with each era.

So whether you’re a homeschooler, a teacher, a librarian, or just a parent or care-giver who wants to explore history with the kids, I hope you enjoy diving into this collection of picture books.

Picture Books About the Middle Ages:

Monks and Monasteries

The Ink Garden of Brother Theophane – by C.M. Millen

This tale follows a plucky young monk named Theophane as he works in the scriptorium of an Irish monastery, copying manuscripts and creating books. Told in lilting verse, and with beautiful stained-glass style illustrations, the story brings to life a number of aspects of bookmaking — making the ink, collecting herbs and berries for color, binding up donkey hair for brushes, etc. My favorite aspect of this particular book was the fact that it incorporated into the text translated quotations of actual poems written by Irish monks in the margins of their manuscripts.

Magic in the Margins – by W. Nikola-Lisa

This story also focuses on a young boy working in the scriptorium of a monastery, but the focus is different than in The Ink Garden of Brother Theophane. Our main character, Simon, is just an apprentice in the scriptorium, and he longs to progress from simple sketches and exercises to being able to fully illuminate pages in the manuscripts. An unusual assignment from the abbot of the monastery leads Simon on a journey of discovery about meaning and imagination in art. This book goes into more depth about the artistic marginalia that monks included in the illuminated margins of their manuscripts than other books I’ve seen.

Saint Francis and the Wolf – by Jane Langton

Set in 12th century Italy, this is the tale of a wolf who terrorizes the town of Gubbio until Saint Francis steps in and brokers peace between the wolf and the town. The charming illustrations are in the style of medieval illuminations and give a good sense for both the dress and the architecture of the time.

{For fellow homeschoolers: this list of books aligns with Week 1 of Sonlight’s Core C}

 

 

Best Books of 2016

There were so many wonderful books published in 2016, it was hard to pick my favorites. But there were a few that particularly stuck out to me. Here they are:

Fiction

War and Turpentine – by Stefan Hertmans

This book took me completely off guard. It’s a fictionalized account of the author’s grandfather: his life as an artist, the trauma of WWI in Belgium, and the shattering of an old way of life. Perhaps because it’s fiction that borders on memoir, the characters seemed so real, so vivid, so fragile. I’m looking forward to re-reading it again and again over the years.

Memoir

Lab Girl – by Hope Jahren

I’m fascinated by memoirs by people who are passionate about things I know very little about. That was definitely the case with Lab Girl. Hope Jahren is a scientist studying trees and plant life, but her memoir covers so much more than science. It’s the story of a woman trying desperately to prove herself in a field full of men. It’s the story of an unlikely friendship with her oddball lab partner Bill. It’s the story of a fight against mental illness and a tenuous questioning of the workings of the mind. Hope tells her story against the backdrop of short essays about the trees she studies, and it ties together to create a thing of beauty.

History

A House Full of Daughters – by Juliet Nicolson

Not many people can trace the women in their family back seven generations the way that Juliet Nicolson can. But she has fascinating stories to tell of the women in her family all the way back to the 1830s. In the midst of telling her own family story through the eyes of its women, she traces the historical context of these women’s lives as well as exploring the angst-ridden relationships of mother and daughter that travel throughout the years. I found it to be beautifully written, and intriguing in its scope and focus.

Poetry

The Rain in Portugal – by Billy Collins

I’ve loved Billy Collins’ poetry for years — he treats poetry so lightly and includes such winning humor, yet his poems have moments of true depth and poignancy as well. I thoroughly enjoyed this collection. He covers topics as various as jazz music, a lonely summer from his childhood, and the ghosts of siblings he never had.

Science

The Gene – by Siddhartha Mukherjee

This fascinating and highly readable book offers the history of genetics in a way that blends history, science, sociology, and personal narrative in a compelling way. Mukherjee draws us in with his own family story of genetically transmitted mental illness, and then takes us on a fascinating history of how the gene was discovered and explored. He starts with Pythagoras and Aristotle and takes us through the mapping of the human genome. In an age of so much change and discovery in the field of genetics, I found this book to be particularly intriguing.

Science Fiction

The Paper Menagerie – by Ken Liu

This grouping of science fiction short stories blew me away. Each story is original, unusual, and written with subtlety and grace. The sheer diversity among the stories caught my attention — some are more traditional science fiction with astronauts on ships; others are speculative fiction about how history could have been different; some are set in our own world with one thing slightly “off.” There’s a murder mystery with a cyborg detective, a tale about the last living Japanese man, a story about humanity’s shift into a robotic form. Overall, it’s a book with gripping storytelling, compelling new ideas, and beautiful prose.

Fantasy

The Girl Who Drank the Moon – by Kelly Barnhill

This is the story of an enmagicked girl, a snarky witch, a disgruntled swamp monster, and paper cranes that come to life. The world-building is beautiful, the characters are unforgettable, and the story wends between humor and pathos in a compelling way.

Middle Grades Fiction

The Wild Robot – by Peter Brown

I found myself utterly charmed by the antics of Roz, a robot who comes to consciousness one day, finding herself alone on a wilderness island. She explores the secrets of her own existence and develops relationships with the animals who inhabit the island. The juxtaposition of the mechanical and the wild creates an intriguing world, and the illustrations that appear throughout the book only add to the delight.

If you have a middle grades reader in your house, be sure to check out my post on the 10 Best Middle Grades Novels of 2016 as well!

5 Books that Make Me Laugh Every Time

It’s Top Ten Tuesday at The Broke and the Bookish, and today’s prompt is books that make you laugh. Here are a few of the books I turn to when I need some extra laughs.

The Martian – by Andy Weir

I did not expect to be laughing so much while reading a book about a guy in a desperate survival situation on Mars. But Mark Watney is hilarious and uses his sense of humor to help him survive — he’s not the kind of guy to curl up in a fetal position and give up. Plus he has the same sense of humor as my husband. So yes, I was cracking up.

Whatever You Do, Don’t Run – by Peter Allison

Twenty-something Australian guy takes a job as a safari guide in Botswana, and has some hilarious adventures. Sometimes the humor comes from his interactions with the wildlife — more often it’s from interacting with the crazy tourists who come his way.

A Damsel in Distress – by PG Wodehouse

The perfect British comedy of manners. This is by the same author as the Jeeves and Wooster books, so it includes a delightfully quirky cast of characters, romances that unfold in hilarious ways, and spot-on use of wit and humor.

Never Sniff a Gift Fish – by Patrick McManus

A series of hilarious stories centered around camping, fishing, and rural life. Lots of misadventures, pranks, and just plain absurdity.

The Princess Bride – by William Goldman

If you love the movie, you should read the book. It has the same style and feel (and humor), but with more — more character development, more adventure, more laughs.

5 Books for Francophiles

1. How Paris Became Paris – by Joan deJean

An intriguing and very readable account of Paris’ transformation from a medieval collection of buildings and monuments into the first modern city of public urban spaces and planned boulevards.

2. The Greater Journey – by David McCullough

This fascinating collection of stories features a wide variety of 19th century Americans who spent time in Paris. Some of them are famous — think James Fenimore Cooper or Oliver Wendell Holmes — and others less so. But all of them came away from their time in the Old World changed in some way. David McCullough weaves a compelling narrative, and one that helped me to understand some of the history and roots of the lasting fascination with France in America. Read more

3. Three Tales – by Gustave Flaubert

This slim collection of three stories by Gustave Flaubert provides a very accessible introduction to classic French literature. Flaubert’s writing has a beautiful simplicity and elegance, and his portrayal of the human soul is quite poignant.

4. My Wish List – by Grégoire Delacourt

If you’re looking to read a contemporary French novel, this book is a wonderful place to start. The main character, Jocelyne, wins the lottery but then hesitates to cash the check, wondering how it will change her life and if it would really be for the better. The cast of characters are delightfully real and quirky, and it’s psychologically rich novel.

5. Flirting with French – by William Alexander

I thoroughly enjoyed this memoir about a man who decides to learn the French language when he’s in his 50s. It addresses a lot of the issues and theories in foreign language acquisition, but in a very accessible and often very humorous way. If you’ve ever found yourself frustrated by trying to learn a language, you’ll relate to this book.

 

 

My foray into Sci-fi

I’ve enjoyed watching sci-fi for quite a while, but I only recently started reading it. My literary tastes have tended towards the classics/literary fiction/fantasy side of things, so I wasn’t quite sure where to start with science fiction. I’ve delved in somewhat haphazardly, reading some books that are classics of the sci-fi genre, others that are new releases, some that are very serious and ideas focused, others that are laugh-out-loud funny. Here are a few of the books that have stood out to me in my foray into the genre.

The Martian – by Andy Weir

There aren’t many books that have made me laugh as much as this one did. At first glance, it doesn’t seem like it should be a funny book: astronaut gets left on Mars and must survive, alone on the planet, until he can be rescued. But Mark Watney, the main character, has a hilariously upbeat sense of humor, and it’s his voice that carries the novel — which is written mostly in the form of his daily journal entries. If you’re already familiar with the movie, but haven’t read the book yet — get your hands on the book. It’s even more suspenseful and an even better story than the movie.

The Martian Chronicles – by Ray Bradbury

This set of short stories, written in the 1940s, imagines a series of attempted colonizations of Mars. The beauty of the writing left me stunned. The characters are deftly drawn, and Bradbury uses Mars as a backdrop for commenting perceptively on the nature of humanity. This book makes for an interesting pairing with The Martian, particularly because it was written so long ago. The fact that so little was known about Mars when Bradbury wrote this book gave him a freedom to imagine landscapes and worlds on Mars that are no longer available to us today. I found it intriguing to read such very different books, both set on the same planet.

The Left Hand of Darkness – by Ursula K. Le Guin

I’d already read and enjoyed a number of Ursula K. Le Guin’s fantasy novels, so I decided to give her sci-fi novels a try. I was not disappointed. In this book, she presents us with a heady, complex world — a stunningly depicted arctic planet, peopled by a race of androgynous beings who can become either male or female when they “go into heat.” Written in the 1970s, this book spends perhaps more time digging into the social implications of such a world than the same book would if it had been written more recently. But it’s an engaging read — beautifully written, and leaving the reader with many ideas to ponder.

Shards of Honor – by Lois McMaster Bujold

As was the case with Ursula K. Le Guin, I was first introduced to Lois McMaster Bujold’s writing through her fantasy novels. I’d been impressed by The Curse of Chalion, and I’d heard that Ms. Bujold was even better known for her Vorkosigan sci-fi series. I launched into the series and have been thoroughly enjoying it. Her characters are well drawn and intriguing. The political intrigue and battle sequences are suspenseful and not over-done. In exploring a genre that tends to be very male in its focus, I’m appreciating the female authors who have made their way in this genre and created some novels that have more depth of character than many of the sci-fi books written by male authors that I’ve read.

2001: a Space Odyssey – by Arthur C. Clarke

I’d seen the movie that’s based on this book and found it intriguing, but… odd. There were certainly parts of the movie that I thought were amazing — who can forget the monkeys learning to make tools as Strauss’s Also Sprach Zarathustra booms in the background or the smoothly creepy voice of Hal saying “Good morning, Dave.” Yet I found the movie somewhat disconnected and unexplained. Well, I’m here to tell you that the book explains a lot. I understood the movie (and the story as a whole) so much better after reading the book. The book has a lush, epic feel to it. It’s truly incredible to think that it was written before the lunar landing, yet portrays the vastness of space and the smallness of humanity in comparison in a way that’s unparalleled in my experience.

I’m still new to this genre, and would love your recommendations! What science fiction books do you love?

 

 

Love Stories Across the Genres

There are so many amazing love stories in literature. For Valentine’s Day, I thought I’d share a few of my favorites with you. But to put a fun twist on it, I picked my favorite love stories from a variety of genres: classics, contemporary novel, drama, fantasy, history, memoir, middle grades fiction, mystery, poetry, science fiction, and young adult. Enjoy!

Classic

Jane Eyre – by Charlotte Brontë

Contemporary Novel

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet – by Jamie Ford

Drama

The Importance of Being Earnest – by Oscar Wilde

Fantasy

The Princess Bride – by William Goldman

History

My Dearest Friend: Letters of Abigail and John Adams – edited by Margaret Hogan and C. James Taylor

Memoir

The Dirty Life: a Memoir of Farming, Food, and Love – by Kristin Kimball

Middle Grades Fiction

Ella Enchanted – by Gail Carson Levine

Mystery

Busman’s Honeymoon – by Dorothy Sayers

Poetry

To My Husband and Other Poems – by Anne Bradstreet

Science Fiction

Shards of Honor – by Lois McMaster Bujold

Young Adult

Beauty – by Robin McKinley

What are some of your favorite love stories in literature? Have you found amazing love stories in genres of literature that you didn’t expect?