29 Books of 2019 I Still Plan to Read
It is the end of a decade so not only are we seeing the usual best-of-the-year roundups, but we’re also being inundated with the best of the decade. That, for me, is too much to remember. And I only started my reading spreadsheet in 2014, so my data is lacking. Besides, I know you come here for the camaraderie of mutual shame, the confession of all the pages left unturned. So, while I may still muster the wherewithal to compose a list of my favorite reads of 2019, today I’ll share the books that came out in the last year which I still haven’t read. But I really want to.
Dead Blondes and Bad Mothers by Sady Doyle
I was head-over-heels for Doyle’s last book, Trainwreck, so it really is astonishing that I haven’t gotten to this. They both follow a similar trajectory, tearing apart our assumptions concerning various women and then examining the innards. Trainwreck focused on the stereotype of the trainwreck, women whom society loves to watch crash and burn, from Mary Wollstonecraft to Britney Spears. It’s been a while since I read it, so I’ll just let this blurb from Andi Zeisler get the point across:
Some people take a scalpel to the heart of media culture; Sady Doyle brings a bone saw, a melon baller, and a machete. Trainwreck is a blistering indictment of how history has normalized sexism as entertainment, defining—and destroying—the women we claim to love.
Dead Blondes and Bad Mothers is about the stereotype of the woman as monstrous. I find it terribly amusing to think about how many men both elevate women as creatures to be feared and simultaneously strip them of any and all autonomy. (Emphasis on terrible.) So I’m all over an examination of this tendency of the patriarchy. In fact, I keep getting distracted from writing this, as I keep pausing to flip through the book.
The Fool and Other Moral Tales by Anne Serre
I picked this galley up because of its tarot card cover, and I kept it because I’d wanted to read, but still hadn’t gotten around to, Serre’s novella The Governesses, described by the publisher as a “semi-deranged erotic fairy tale.” Um, yeah, sign me up. But for whatever reason I didn’t buy The Governesses and instead brought The Fool home.
The titular story begins
I came across this little figure rather late in life. Not being familiar with playing cards, still less with the tarot, I was a bit uncomfortable when I first set eyes on him. I believe in magic figures and distrust them. They have powers, of that you can be sure.
I love this frank belief in, but also mistrust of, magic. I don’t know why. I get the feeling that if I just sit down and read Serre’s work, she will immediately become a new favorite.
Famous Men Who Never Lived by K Chess
I am so intrigued by the premise of this novel. It is about a refugee named Hel living in New York after fleeing her alternate timeline where nuclear war broke out in the US. So it’s the New York we know and recognize, but through alien eyes. Instead of attempting to assimilate, Hel collects and obsesses over the few artifacts from her reality, including a sci-fi masterwork that never existed in our timeline.
Famous Men Who Never Lived explores the effects of displacement on our identities, the communities that come together in crisis, and the power of art to save us.
Yeah, that just sounds like a book that is super relevant and topical but in a really interesting and unexpected way. I’m surprised I haven’t seen it on any best-of lists yet. Books that come out earlier in the year, I find, often get short shrift. But anyway, as people keep assuring writers on Twitter, those lists are meaningless. I think I’m going to go curl up in bed and read one of these three books.
Featured Bookstore
Well I’ve run out of bookstores that I work/have worked at. So this week I’m featuring Skylight Books in LA. Skylight is an incredible bookstore. When I visited in 2015 I bought a book called Fairy Tales: When Architecture Tells a Story, which I’d never heard of, and haven’t encountered elsewhere. Also, when I told them I was a bookseller they gave me a tote. They are a lovely store and I like their style. Go support them.
Other Ways to Find Me On the Internets
I host a podcast called Drunk Booksellers where my best friend and I interview a fellow bookseller while drinking. I sometimes tweet about books and politics. I sometimes post pictures of books I’m reading, or cats I’m hanging out with on Instagram.
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