March: In Like a Lion, Out Like a...Lion

March was certainly a high-low month for me. I had a pretty brutal surgical procedure (which I luckily recovered from quickly after an initial hellscape), but then I traveled to 4 destinations in 12 days on my first trip in a year where I wasn’t hemorrhaging. (A DREAM!) There was (more) bad news from the world-at-large, but I also discovered my new criteria for judging books from this Tournament of Books judgment. This was especially exciting, because I have never seen something so spot on for what I crave then “does it vibe strangely?” and isn’t it a little thrill when you read/see/hear something and can think, “oh, wait, there is someone in the world that feels that, too??”

Amidst that, I managed to finish 14 books (some of which did, indeed, vibe strangely), which means I’ve read 44 books in the first quarter of 2024. That would feel more disturbing if I didn’t feel like March started bringing me out of my shell socially, post-procedure. I don’t expect to keep reading this way, and the good news for you is these wrap-up posts will be shorter! Let’s get to ‘em! (I will never be one of those people who make you scroll down to see my favorites - if you’re just here for the “Best of” WELCOME. I’m not trying to sell you anything, so if you leave after the main event, go in peace!)

ASTOUNDING BOOKS (G.O.A.T.s only)

James (Percival Everett, historical fiction): Holy hell. Honestly, I don’t care what type of reader you are, this book is objectively a masterpiece. It’s SO well-written - the dialogue, the pacing, the “conversation” this book has with Twain’s Huck Finn and an ending so satisfying, I yelled, “HELL, YEAH” when I finished. I’m not a huge historical fiction girlie, and I really don’t relish books set in this era, but I was there for every page and never doubted for a paragraph that I was in anything but the most capable hands. I knew Everett was going to deliver both James and I to the perfect conclusion. I think you should just trust me on this one.

DELIGHTFUL BOOKS (Books I felt were really enjoyable or well-composed/made me think)

Interior Chinatown (Charles Yu, Satire): This was a reread for me and to mix it up, I tried the audiobook. The narrator, Joel de la Fuente, is terrific, and it was a great complement to having read it previously (I do recommend the text first). The book previously won the National Book Award and is an examination of Asian-American stereotypes in the form of a humorous screenplay. Clever, creative and even touching, at times, I think this book appeals to a wide swath of readers.

A Map of Future Ruins (Lauren Markham, nonfiction): I loved this ambling mash-up of the story of the Moira 5 (a group of refugees accused of starting a fire in the immigration detention facility on the Greek Island of Lesbos), along with the author’s parsing through her own family’s Greek-American history and the origins of myth-making writ large. Markham is transparent and engaging and her thought processes unspooled in real time on the page. In all, it’s not so much reporting as a philosophical exercise.

The Morningside (Téa Obreht, speculative fiction): Promoted as climate fiction (and indeed, the story centers around those forced into climate migration), the heart of this book is family and lineage. Our protagonist is a plucky (and hilarious) 11-year old who stumbles upon an intriguing cast of characters upon moving into The Morningside, a crumbling high-rise in what’s left of a city that bares a strong resemblance to NYC. Sure, there are some stumbles, particularly in the wrap-up, but I found this novel a both poignant and delightful read. As far as climate fiction goes, I’d tick this in the “hopeful” column. (Read it if you liked Lydia Millet’s A Children’s Bible or even Harriet the Spy)

This Wretched Valley (Jenny Kiefer, horror): This book is absolutely BONKERS (the vibes are SO strange, y’all) and has every horror trope in the manual, but it was the perfect read when I was distracting myself during my surgery recovery. A group of hikers and rock climbers seek to explore an “undiscovered wilderness in Kentucky” (HELLO, RED FLAG!!!) and the unbeaten path delivers them, well…a real beating. It has gore and certainly is not aiming for a happy ending, so go into it with your eyes open (and don’t take it on a camping trip), but for what it’s worth, I had a blast.

What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez (Claire Jiménez, mystery?/family drama): A missing sister for over a decade reappears on a reality TV show. Or does she? The family dynamics and well-paced dialogue are what make this book, and while it may be strange to say I LOL’d often in a book about a missing child, it doesn’t make it any less true. A story about ambiguous loss, hope and the way grief is manifested, this story felt so very human in the nuances of how life simply has to go on even when we lose the things that matter.

BOOKS I’M NOT MAD AT (I liked these in some aspect, but only pick it up if it speaks to you)

The Three-Body Problem (Cixin Liu, trans. Ken Liu, Sci-Fi): Hey, yo! This book is putting the SCIENCE in science fiction. Literally whole chapters devoted to engineering (I can’t say more because I don’t understand more) and physics. Was I lost? Yes. Did it all come together in the end? Not really. Will I be reading the next two books in the series? Definitely not. Still, the themes of this book are wildly relevant, and I appreciated the Chinese perspective and history included. And it’s fun to watch the series on Netflix having a little more context (though they do change quite a bit). I’ll be thinking about this book for a while and would like to thank both it and Oppenheimer for my recent crash-course in physics.

King NYX (Kirsten Bakis, Thriller/Historical Fiction): A quick moody read set in 1918 northern New York state that involves an invitation to a mysterious millionaire’s island and some missing girls. A few too many coincidences to be even close to believable but the gothic setting was vividly described, and it held my interest throughout. Thriller fans (particularly gothic ones) might enjoy, but be aware this novel is heavy on the atmospheric and doesn’t have the same driving plot as contemporary thrillers. But, are the vibes strange? Oh, they are.

Lessons for Survival (Emily Raboteau, nonfiction essays): A varied collection of essays that approach climate change through the lenses of art, community and motherhood (the last two possibly being interchangeable to the author). I’m not sure I took a lot of content away from this collection, but I did appreciation the overall vibe which is - we’re in this together and we better start being more open and honest about it. The author gives plenty of fodder for how she’s doing this in her own family/neighborhood/friend group and I appreciate the nudge.

The Other Americans (Laila Lalami, family drama): A solidly good read. A Moroccan immigrant family is shaken by the hit-and-run killing of their patriarch in a sleepy desert community near Joshua Tree. The story is told from multiple POVs, and the setting is a big positive, but the love story veers into schmaltz and I found some aspects choppy. Nevertheless, I was engaged until (almost) the end and the pages mostly flew by.

Antiquity (Hanna Johansson, trans. Kira Josefsson, contemporary fiction): This was described in ad copy as a “queer Lolita” and that’s maybe a stretch, but I have no qualms with a short, atmospheric novel in the key of “unreliable narrator”. The claustrophobia of a hot Greek summer in a confined space is ever present here, even if a pulsing plotline is not. Hit some of the same notes as Jhumpa Lahiri’s Whereabouts mixed with a whiff of the ominous and predatory.

CHALLENGING READS

The Lost Journals of Sacajewea (Debra Magpie Earling, historical fiction): Holy moly this novel was a tough read. The composition varies (sometimes, without it being clear why) from Indigenous storytelling to early American dialect to almost modern usage. At times, it reads almost poetically, interspersing tribal language with English. Beyond the challenge of following the story (something I appreciated), the book is also filled with the repeated rape of a child and readers should be aware of the brutality and violation throughout - of the land, the original occupants and the coopting of the story itself by colonizers.

Low (Nick Flynn, poetry): This didn’t sing to me. Poetry is especially subjective, and Flynn’s written a lot, so I might try a past work sometime.

The Shamshine Blind (Paz Pardo, speculative historical fiction): Give all the creative points to Pardo who creates a revisionist-history-type story in a world where Argentina came out of the 1980s as the controlling world superpower thanks -not to arms- but instead to special powders designed to manipulate feelings and emotions. The novel is a crime caper in (literal) technicolor (the powders are named after colors). Unfortunately, it gets tied up in its own mythology and drags along as it constantly requires explanation. The characters are overall lively and vibrant, but are often sacrificed for exposition that most readers will find tedious.

Readers, I love books, but you know what I love more?? Hearing from you ABOUT books. So, thanks for every comment, DM and text where we dissect books even further. What was your favorite read from the first 3 months of 2024 and what’s next on the list?