2017: A Year in Books
Towards the end of every year, publications, organizations and individuals list their favorite books of the past year. I too have decided to give my own retrospective. However, rather than simply list my favorite books, I’ve divided the books into a few different categories. For as I reflected upon my book choices, they generally followed three major themes. So here’s my list complete with annotations:
The State of the Nation:
Strangers in their Own Land by Arlie Russell Hochschild
Kindred by Octavia Butler
Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance
White Trash by Nancy Isenberg
Girls to the Front by Sara Marcus
The Nature Fix by Florence Williams
Ecotopia by Ernest Callenbach.
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Like many, I’m a mite overwhelmed at the current state of our nation and have turned into a familiar comfort: books. Often I read as an escape away from the headlines. Reading these particular books, however, served as a tool to seek clarity. It was a way to better analyze why we are where we are today, based on sociological analysis and history. In the end, this reading provided me with hope, that there are individuals, many unsung, who have sought change through generations and continue to seek change.
While this may not be the place to get too philosophical, I believe in the importance of finding various media to seek meaning at any place in our lives, but especially in our current predicament.
Honoring A Legend:
We are What We Pretend to Be
Mother Night,
Sucker’s Portfolio
Between Time and Timbuktu by Kurt Vonnegut
And So It Goes by Charles J. Shields
Brothers Vonnegut by Ginger Strand
April 2017 marked the tenth anniversary of my favorite author Kurt Vonnegut’s passing. Since his death, a number of his unreleased stories have been published as well as more biographies to help us understand Vonnegut the person. This renewed my love for his work. In the case of the unreleased short stories, it was a fun guessing game based on the writing style as well themes reflected from his personal life, for Vonnegut always brought his personal life into his writing. While the subjects in Vonnegut’s pieces are often serious, this was my light reading, a familiar face to return to and appreciate his impact on my worldview and own writing style.
Prepping/Savoring the Season(s):
T2 by Irvine Welsh
Fouled Away by Clifton Blue Parker
Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty by Charles Leerhsen
Ubik
Martian Time-slip
Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick
Star Wars: Verily a New Hope by Ian Doescher.
I was excited for three movie sequels in 2017: T2: Trainspotting, Blade Runner 2049, and Star Wars the Last Jedi. Reading books by the respective authors served as preparation to help me get back in the mindset. T2 helped me better pick up the thick Scottish accents of characters Begbie and Spud when I saw the movie, as Walsh writes as the characters sound and speak. Reading Philip K. Dick novels helped me get into the mindset and atmosphere that he serves to create in his works. Reading Verily A New Hope, the Star Wars stories written in the style of Shakespeare, served as a fun interpretation of the franchise, but also a great way to deconstruct the characters and themes of Star Wars by returning to the tropes and archetypes that Shakespeare created that has made Star Wars such a successful franchise. Finally, as an ardent baseball fan, Ty Cobb and Fouled Away allowed me to appreciate baseball’s history in how it has developed in practices along side the nation’s view of the sport.
In the same way preparations are made for holidays, I have taken the same ethos to celebrate my some favorite leisure events. This was nostalgia reading to celebrate my past and continued love for movies and baseball.
As 2018 is well under way, my list of books to read is extensive (and many are already on my shelf) but as always books will catch my eye or require an immediate read. So here’s to many more hours of relaxation, joy and learning moments!
