Book 65: The Quantum Astrologer's Handbook. I learned a lot about Jerome Cardano and quantum physics. However the central conceit of the book was, though clever, ultimately distracting. (Prev 6 mos of 2019 booklist here, this list was too long: )
Book 66: Exhalation by Ted Chiang. A really great assortment of "What if things were the same but a little bit different? How are people?" stories. Great moods. Thought provoking. Came with my favorite short story feature: blurbs at the end "Why I wrote this" for each one.
Book 67: The Awkward Thoughts of W Kamau Bell. A great read, and a great summer read. It was great to get to know more about Bell's life and all the things that influence his (terrific, masterful) comedy, and some of the backstory about the media stuff he's done.
Book 68: Bandwidth. Was expecting a John Grisham type book only about tech/political consultants instead of lawyers and that's basically what I got. Moved quickly, a few good things to think on. I'll read the next one.
Book 69: Al Jaffee's Mad Life. Oddly coincidental read for current events. MAD was a hugely formative part of my life. This is an "as told to" book w/ new illustrations. Jaffee had a rocky childhood, mother probably murdered by Nazis. Cover from GR b/c my copy had no dust jacket.
Book 70: This Body's Not Big Enough for Both of Us. Intriguing idea (genetic chimeral human private eye) decently executed but completely wrong for me. Too self-aware, too digressive, not funny enough. Should not have finished this book but kept rooting for it to improve.
Book 71: All the Names They Used for God. A terrific book full of evocative "what if" stories that are as lovely as they are thinky.
Book 72: Ascension. I was 80% very into this book & 20% very not into it. Great story about a WOC spaceship engineer managing chronic pain, a complex family & her own anxiety. She's also venturing into a poly romance w/ the crew, the nuances of which were a little less my jam.
Book 73: Family Trees, A History of Genealogy in America. I may have subtweeted about this book earlier. Overall, though academicky, I learned a lot. Author is from France and was unafraid to call White American genealogical obsessions "racist" (with footnotes). Appreciated that.
Book 74: The Lost Words. This was a gift, and I put off reading it for a while because I didn't want to be done with it. A lovely combination of words for nature things (birds! ivy! otters!), some clever poetry and rich, glorious illustrations.
Book 75: Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? Got an advanced copy of this from NetGalley. So fun. Caitlin Doughty answers kids' questions about death and corpses. I learned some stuff and really enjoyed the illustrations.
Book 76: Sisters. The local library here has a terrible graphic novel collection but I did manage to find one book I hadn't read. Enjoyed this but found it less relateable than her other books (A lot of conflict with no resolution… Some stylistic devices that didn't work for me)
Book 77: The Dazzle of Day. I was captivated by the last Molly Gloss book I read (Wild Life) and I liked this gentle spacer about Quakers in space, but had a hard time finding a through story with it. Lots of great interpersonal negotiation and "how we find a way through"
Book 78: The New Kid. The other new graphic novel at my tiny summer library. Great look at the micro (and macro) aggressions one kid has to deal with when he leaves his neighborhood to go to a "better" private school. Lots of subtle and not-so-subtle racism, well-explicated
Book 79: The Lost Gutenberg. I thought this would be a story of mystery and intrigue and stolen books. It was not, but it was a nice history of one of the Gutenberg bibles with a lot of good Gutenberg trivia along the way.
Book 80: Paper Machines. A history of card indexes and card catalogs written by a PhD researcher from Vienna quoting Walter Benjamin. I learned stuff. Good subtle jokes.
Book 81: The New Girl. Spoiler alert: this is a dead kid story. I've been reading this series since the beginning and this had some good character development plus a lot of that "All choices are bad in global politics" aspect to it. Not enough art, not too much terror.
Book 82: Fetch, How a Bad Dog Brought Me Home. Spoiler alert: this is a dead pet story, but maybe everyone could see that coming but me. A great graphic novel about how someone's life can change a lot over 15 years but some things (the dog!) stay the same.
Book 83: No Way Home, a Memoir of Life on the Run. Slightly different book than its title implies but in some ways a better book. Wetherall spent the bulk of her childhood with her dad a fugitive or (spoiler) imprisoned. What does that do to a kid?
Book 84: Fish Girl. Part of what will be a very long series of graphic novels. Lovely and not your usual mermaid story. Amazing illustrations, especially if you like octopi.
Book 85: Landscapes of the Metropolis of Death. I am sorry now seems like a good time to be reading books like these. This is more a poetic reflection than a memoir per se. Chilling recollections of being in the "family camp" the stunt camp the Nazis showed to the Red Cross.
Book 86: Lint Boy. While it had a cute cover and, ultimately, a happy ending, this graphic novel about... an evil woman who abuses toys kinda bummed me out. Great illustration but a long time before anything good happened. Sorta dark.
Book 87: Ichiro. This graphic novel about a two-culture kid is two stories in one. One about a kid from Brooklyn trying to make sense of growing up with an absent (dead) soldier father, and one about the mythological history of Japan. Not quite enough Tenuki, but is there ever?
Book 88: Unforeseen. This was the Molly Gloss book I think I was after when I read through Dazzle of Day. A lot of short stories, all gripping and interesting in their own way. One even about birdwatching. Loved it.
Book 89: Best American Comics 2008. I like most of these, this one wasn't quite my jam. A lot of partial comics so you got an idea of the author's skills but not as much for their storytelling. It's always hit or miss with these and happy to read more comics in any case.
Book 90: The Selected works of T. S. Spivet. Book was always teetering on the edge of "too precious by half" but it wound up working for me. I read reviews which haaaated the ending but I thought it was apt. Great illustrations, unusual for a novel. Book w/in a book not my fave.
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