Top 5 Wednesday: Books I am Grateful for

With the end of the year is almost upon us, I have started taking stock of what I read throughout 2017. Unfortunately, I have to admit that I read a lot of mediocre stuff this year. However, there were several that made a lasting impression, and those are the books and authors I am particularly grateful for.

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1. The Tsar of Love and Techno: Stories by Anthony Marra - I am grateful to this book for reminding me of where I come from and of who I am, and teaching me not to be ashamed of my heritage and personal history, but own it. This book is so complex and multifaceted, it reminded me of unpacking the Russian classics in a literature class. I could talk about and analyze these stories for hours, and I did just that in two separate book club meetings.

2. Narine Abgaryan - this year was the year I discovered the magic of Narine Abgaryan's books. So far I read three, but I purchased three more and cannot wait to read them. She is the author I will undoubtedly be reading and rereading for years to come. I am grateful for the love and warmth that her books bring into my heart. Reading her books feels like coming home: entering a warm house on a cold winter night where someone is always waiting for you with a hot cup of tea and a good story.

3. The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis - I am grateful that this book exists. It exposes the rape culture, the "boys will be boys" attitude in our society, and the stark reality of how prevalent sexual harassment and assault are in our world. It reminded me of my middle school and high school: all the lewd jokes, gestures, unwelcome groping and the terror to walk down the block past a group of guys. I have a detailed review of this book and cannot recommend it enough.

4. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - I am grateful that I can always re-read this book or re-watch the BBC mini-series and immediately feel happy. A must read for everyone. Unforgettable characters, beautiful settings and lots of humor. I absolutely love this book and read it almost every year..

5. The Queen of the Tearling trilogy by Erika Johansen - this is a great fantasy/sci-fi/dystopian trilogy. I was not overly impressed with the first book. However, having read all three, one has to read the entire trilogy to really appreciate it. It was unexpected, unpredictable, a breath of fresh air. I already cannot wait to re-read it.

"What We Lose" by Zinzi Clemmons

I read What We Lose in one afternoon. For a slow reader like myself who gets distracted a lot and has to take multiple breaks while reading, this is a testament to how good this book truly is. What We Lose is deeply autobiographical with the central theme of grief. Thandi lost her mother to cancer and this is the story of how she coped, stayed sane and learned to press on.

Along the way, Clemmons tackles other issues in her novel. A big one is her inability to fit in with any racial/ethnic group. Born to a light-skinned South African mother and a light-skinned African-American father, she has trouble fitting in both in the US and in South Africa. Clemmons also candidly - sometimes too candidly it seems - writes about her sex life. Her book includes her thoughts on crime in South Africa, on fear of flying, on the controversy surrounding Winnie Mandela and on wives and girlfriends of serial killers. She quotes poetry and books by Barack Obama and Nelson Mandela. The novel includes photos, drawings and graphs. It reads like a diary without a linear timeline. The narrative jumps around from the present, to her childhood, to college years, to high school and back to present. But it is not difficult to keep up and I never got lost in the narrative. She also has heartbreakingly lyrical passages about the loss of her mother that are more poetry than prose.

My mother is dead. But I still see her. But I still feel her. I can still hear her voice, even right now as I am speaking to you.
But she is dead.
When I look at this picture of her on the beach, I can feel sun on my skin. I can hear the way she spoke to me.
But she is gone (p. 121).

A nice surprise for me was the fact that part of the book is set in the college town where I live and work. Even though she never names the place, it is easy to recognize the location and the school.

When I finish a novel, I either immediately get rid of it or keep it for re-reading. This one is definitely staying. I will have to revisit it and mine it for more nuggets of wisdom. Despite the fact that this is a sad story about learning to live with loss, the overall message is one of hope. She copes, she makes mistakes, she does whatever is necessary to stay sane and survive. But she presses on, she lives with the hole left by her mother's absence and writes this beautiful book.

I've amazed myself with how well I've learned to live around her absence. This void is my constant companion no matter what I do. Nothing will fill it, and it will never go away (p. 206).

5 out of 5 stars. Trigger warnings: grief/loss and candid portrayal of sex.

"Dawn" by Octavia Butler

Dawn is the first installment in Octavia Butler’s trilogy called Lilith's Brood or Xenogenesis.  I loved Butler’s Kindred which I read earlier this year so I was excited to read another book by this author.  Dawn takes place on an alien ship that is orbiting the earth. Humans had almost completely wiped themselves out in a nuclear war and made the planet unlivable. Human survivors were picked up by an alien species called Oankali whose own continued existence depends on genetic renewal accomplished through mixing with other species. Oankali have kept humans in a state of suspended animation for hundreds of years while they learned about them and let the earth restore itself after the nuclear disaster. Lilith is chosen to be the one to lead human resettlement of the earth and is awakened to bond with the Oankali and to learn from them.

Octavia Butler is an amazingly talented writer. She is the master of character building. Even though the novel is fairly short at 250 pages, I really felt like I got to know Lilith.  I felt her fear, insecurities and hopes. However, the story itself turned out to be not quite my cup of tea. Even though it was clear from the very beginning that the Oankali wanted to somehow mix with the humans, the whole angle with the way the Ooloi sensual arms were used on human couples just made me want to gag. I really had no sympathy for the aliens and felt like they took advantage of the few remaining humans and methodically worked towards their own end. Needless to say, I will not be continuing with the trilogy simply because I find descriptions of the interbreeding process too unsettling and the story not compelling enough at this point. I gave it 2 out of 5 stars. What started out with a bang ended with a grimace of disgust.