2023 Reading Challenge

This is the time of year I have fun reflecting on my last year's reading list.

Some stats:  

Books read:  50

But don't be too impressed:  36% were middle-grade and 12% were YA (which are no less valid, often very thought-provoking and well written...but generally shorter).  

Nonfiction:  46%, my highest percentage ever

Of the nonfiction, I read a lot of biography/history/memoir this year.  It actually beat my usual highest category:  plants/animals.  

Of the fiction, I read a good amount of science fiction/fantasy/spec, but the highest category was contemporary (non-thriller, non-mystery, non-romance)

Best-of Awards:

Most bizarre premise:  Hope Never Dies: an Obama Biden Mystery, by Andrew Shaffer.  Yeah, you read that subtitle right:  Biden solves a mystery with the help of his friend, Obama.  In FIRST PERSON.  Bizarre.  But I enjoyed it. 

Most light-heartedly enjoyable speculative fiction for adults:  Brandon Sanderson's The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England.  A bit repetitive in some parts, confusing in others, but the guidebook entries were priceless.   

Most light-heartedly enjoyable speculative fiction for kids:  Pip Bartlett's Guide to Unicorn Training by Jackson Pearce and Maggie Stiefvater.  Not quite as darling as the first book in the series, but still great.  And the guidebook entries were priceless.  I think there's a pattern here.

Best guidebook for how to die while hiking in the Grand Canyon:  Tail of the Scorpion, by Mike Graf.  The guidebook parts were informative and seemed factually accurate.  But the story part should have been called How to Kill your Kids in Grand Canyon.  You can read my whole rant on Goodreads, but do NOT start on a major hike of the Grand Canyon at 3:00 pm in August.  Just don't.

Best guidebook for how not to die while hiking in the Grand Canyon:  Okay, so it wasn't a guidebook at all, but a quietly tense thriller which portrayed the canyon realistically:  Getaway, by Zoje Stage. 

Best book about people who actually did die while boating the Grand Canyon:  Sunk Without a Sound:  The Tragic Colorado River Honeymoon of Glen and Bessie Hyde, by Brad Dimock.  Well written, comprehensive (but not in a belabored way), and grimly fascinating.

Best relentlessly religious historical fiction book taking place at the Grand Canyon (yes, there were a couple of themes this year):  A Deep Divide, by Kimberley Woodhouse.  I didn't realize when I put this on hold that it was Christian fiction, but I should have, because there doesn't seem to exist a genre of clean historical romances that doesn't ram religion down our throats.  I loved the locale and the historical details, and if it hadn't been so preachy, I really would have enjoyed it.  But some people will enjoy it because of all the talk of God and scripture.

Best book about nature:  Around the World in 80 Birds, written by Mike Unwin, illustrated by Ryuto Miyake.  Interesting little write-ups of fascinating birds.  Beautiful illustrations. 

Author whose books I read the most of:  Kathleen Krull.  I got on a kick and read several of her books of short biographies written for kids.  They're full of interesting, rapid-fire facts.  Maybe not a lot of depth, but fun to read.

Best novel for kids:  Across the Desert, by Dusti Bowling.  I love Dusti Bowling.  And the Arizona setting doesn't hurt any.  Check out her books!

Best novel for adults:  Other Birds, by Sarah Addison Allen.  Interesting setting, engaging writing, slight supernatural element.  A very warm and gentle read. 

Not sure if this counts, because I listened in audio, but…

Best mountain climbing survival book (yeah, this is a whole genre I read/listen to a lot of):  The Climb; Tragic Ambition on Everest, by Anatoli Boukreev and G. Weston DeWalt.  Like all of these books, it had its flaws—like how I couldn't keep all of the characters straight—but it was really captivating.  I would tell myself I was just going to listen for 15 minutes before bed, and at the end of 15 minutes I'd set it for another 15 minutes…then another.   

Best graphic novels based on historical events and people:  )  Guardian of Fukushima, by Ewan Blain & Fabien Grolleau, about the man who defied government orders by staying in the irradiated zone to take care of abandoned animals after the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster.  They Called us Enemy, by George Takei, about the Japanese Internment Camps in WWII.  

Book Review: Sunk Without a Sound; The Tragic Colorado River Honeymoon of Glen and Bessie Hyde, by Brad Dimock

This was fascinating—both a fascinating but tragic story and a well-written, accessible, fascinating telling of it. 

Some of the details of running specific rapids got a bit long for me, since I'm not familiar with the terms and have a hard time visualizing it, but that's a very minor issue, and river runners will probably love it for that. 

The structure of the book was also very good.  We learned about Glen and Bessie's early life and courtships. We saw their journey through pieced-together accounts.  We went with the author as he and his wife reenacted the journey in the same type of boat.  We learned about the boat itself, and how time (and dams) have changed the Colorado.  We met other characters, like the Kolb brothers, those who searched for Glen and Bessie, and other survivors or victims of the river.  We were stumped by the mystery and led through all the possible theories, some far-fetched and dramatic.  We suffered with Glen's dad and as he and others searched and searched.  Then we got a measured analysis of what likely happened.  And all this was woven together very logically and smoothly.

I wish Brad Dimock would write more books like this!

4.5 stars

Artists from the S'edev Va'aki Indian Market in Phoenix

Today at the Indian Market at S'edev Va'aki (formerly Pueblo Grande), I saw so much beautiful art and craftsmanship.  Here are some of the artists I particularly liked:

Piersten Doctor: https://www.artbypiersten.com/

Virgil Nez:  https://www.virgilism.com/

Kevin Horace-Quannie:  https://waterbirdstudios.com/

Gregory Hill:  https://www.facebook.com/greg.hill.378/

David K John:  https://www.thedancingrabbitgallery.com/about-minimal/online-exhibitions/the-art-of-david-k-john/

My story, "Palatable Potions," to appear in Zombies Need Brains Presents

 

My light-hearted fantasy story, "Palatable Potions," was recently accepted by Zombies Need Brains Presents.  It should appear in March of next year.  I'll post again when it's live.

I enjoyed writing it a lot, and I'm very excited to see it published.  

If you want to check out Zombies Need Brains--who also publish themed anthologies--visit them at http://www.zombiesneedbrains.com/index.html of find them on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/zombiesneedbrainsllc

NaNoWriMo 2023

 Okay, I'm a NaNoWriMo rebel this year, but I just finished my personal writing goal for this November, so I'm celebrating. I'm still going to keep going strong for the rest of the month (and beyond).

For those who aren't Nanowrimoers, it's National Novel Writing Month. Regular participants write the rough draft of a novel (50,000 words or more) in one month. Rebels like me do different things. I counted time spent on an existing novel, using a time-to-word formula I developed a couple of years ago, because I needed to spend time researching, reorganizing, revising, etc. in addition to writing.

My project is a novel-in-short-stories set on an ill-fated space colony. Several of these stories have already been published in literary magazines. If you want to check them out, see the list here: https://melindabrasher.wixsite.com/writer/short-stories

Short Story Dispenser

A few years ago, I got a poem published by Short Édition, the people who distribute short works of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry through their Short Story Dispensers in libraries, airport, cafes, etc.  The stories are free to the user.  You just decide if you want a 1-, 2-, or 3-minute story, push a button, and it prints you a tiny bit of literature on receipt paper.  Awesome. 

I hadn't actually found one, however, until I heard there was one at the Tempe, Arizona public library.  So I went and checked it out.

Here it is, with a lovely mural behind it.

I printed out several short stories and sat there in the library, reading.  A lovely experience.  There's no way to choose what you want, besides picking the length, so I couldn't get my own poem, but apparently more than 2600 people have printed out my poem.  What a lovely thought.

If you want to read it, however, it's also on their e-zine here:  https://short-edition.com/en/story/poetry/to-my-students

If you're in the Tempe area, go check out the short story dispenser.  There may also be one at a Mesa library.  But go soon.  They may be temporary.

Other dispensers: https://short-edition.com/en/p/find-a-dispenser-near-you  

Call the Nurse: True Stories of a Country Nurse on a Scottish Isle, by Mary J. MacLeod

This feels very much like All Creatures Great and Small meets Call the Midwife.  I enjoyed it a lot, especially the glimpses of a way of life very different than mine.

The chapters don't always transition smoothly, but if you read it like a series of independent personal essays, that shouldn’t bother you.  However, if you read it as a series of independent essays, what might bother you are the characters that appear from several chapters back without enough reminder to the reader as to how they fit in—and the questions that get posed but never answered (and not in a thought-provoking or philosophical way).  Then the book just ends.  There’s no real tie-up, and though the last chapter is dramatic, it doesn’t really feel like a conclusion.  The epilogue is full of longing for the life they once had there, with not one word of explanation of why or when they left.  I think this is all to keep it open for the sequel, but it bothered me.  Of course, it mostly bothered me because I was invested in the people and interested in their lives—so that’s as much compliment as criticism.   

Despite any issues, I really enjoyed the book.  The writing style is easy.  The pacing is pleasantly gentle.  The observations are good.  The subject matter is really interesting.  The setting is well drawn. 

I’ll probably read the sequel.

4 stars