Boy, at this rate, the pile of books I read this year may make it all the way to the bottom of the bedspread.

.

011) Anthem by Ayn Rand, finished February 8

I'm so done with this book. But then I heard from the sophomore teachers that a bunch of their students listed it as the best book they've read in school.
So. Here we go again.

a week


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012) The City in Which I Love You by Li-Young Lee, finished February 14

I found this 1990 collection, Lee's second, because I'm a fan of the poem "A Story." The collection follows the poem's lead---it's largely about parental relationships, memory, the past bleeding into the present. I found it a bit repetitive, but it also had some killer, killer lines.

this week


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013) Many Waters by Madeleine L'Engle, finished February 21

My march continues. A Wrinkle in Time is beautiful and moving. A Wind in the Door is overly philosophical and drags.
Many Waters is the best read, so far. I didn't start with high hopes; Sandy and Dennys start the book still in Frank and Joe Hardy mode, and, to be frank,
they never quite distinguish from one another, but the world they fall into and the characters they interact with are interesting and real in a way most of the characters in those previous two volumes were not. Which isn't to say this book too isn't rife with poetry and philosophy and reachings toward meaning, but story is king here. Which isn't to say this book is some sort of boilerplate thriller or fantasy novel---far from it. In the largest aspects, our protags have very little agency available to them. But in the day-to-day of their adventure, they do have agency and they use it well. And there's something very honest about that.

Anyway, here's the set-up: Sandy and Dennys come home from a hockey practice and fool with an on-going experiment by their father, sending them back in time to antediluvian desert where they meet Noah and his family and neighbors. The reality of God (El) and angels is clear and unquestioned by the text, and our rational,
practical brothers have to come to grips with their new reality. Which they do. They live there most of a year.

This is a much more grown-up book than AWIT or AWITD. Sandy and Dennys become adults. Have to make adultlike decisions. Sex and childbirth are important to the story.

It's also a very feminist book. And very Christian. And thoroughly provocative. If you like L'Engle and have missed this one, highly recommended. Maybe just get one without the cover mine has.

three-plus months


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014) It Needs to Look Like We Tried by Todd Robert Petersen, finished March 7

Great book. Coming out in May. I'll have more to say, but I need to find a venue....

maybe a month


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015, 016) Fences by August Wilson, finished March 8

Unlike Anthem, I am so not done with this book. Every read a kid points out something I haven't seen before and every time the class reacts so deliciously to certain lines. (E.g., spoiler alert, "You a womanless man.")

Great, great play. Even the stage directions are poetry.

four days


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The other books of 2018

1 – 4

001) Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet Book 3 by Ta-Nehisi Coates &‎ Brian Stelfreeze & al., finished January
002) The Complete Peanuts 1950-2000 by Charles M. Schulz & al., finished January
003) The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, finished January 10
004) El Deafo by Cece Bell, finished January 12

5 – 9

005) Cleopatra in Space: Target Practice by Mike Maihack, finished January 13
006) Nabokov's Favorite Word Is Mauve by Ben Blatt, finished January 15
007) Glister by Andi Watson, finished January 18
008) Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke, finished January 20
009) The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun by J.R.R. Tolkien, finished January 21

10 – 11

010) The Vision by Tom King et al., finished January 23
011) Miles Morales: Spider-Man by Jason Reynolds, finished January 24

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