Why I Love Disaster and Destruction

Photo courtesy of Sasha Maksymenko in Flickr

I have had a strange week. Among other negative events, I had an e-mail from my mother earlier in the day on Wednesday that she shaved her head (she is at the end of her first of six chemo treatments and the hair is already gone.) I couldn't sleep.  I stumbled across a link to a story about the protests in Ukraine, and found I could watch them on a live stream.  Loud voices, two men, I think perhaps they were broadcasters or protesters, were speaking loudly throughout.  Not speaking a word of Ukrainian, I have no idea what they were saying, which added an element of fear and chaos to what already felt unsettling.

Even though I was up until 2 AM,  I slept better than I had all week.

That's a bit disturbing, isn't it?  Maybe it's not.  I've been re-re-reading The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey, and in the section on developing the right brain, as part of the second habit, he mentions the benefit of expanding perspective. He says that an unplanned negative experience can knock us out of our left brain. While he focuses on visualizing success as a way toward positive growth, the little bit I resonated with was what I think I was unintentionally gaining from absorbing my mind with the protests and violence in Kiev.  Oh, perspective.  There is more going on in the world than involves my small family. There is worse violence and struggle. Even with this fact, there is still the hope that revolutions bring change and violence can end. 

This, my friends, is why I am also completely absorbed by the subgenre of speculative fiction that is dystopia, post-apocalypse, disaster, destruction, etc.  Whatever name you have for it, whatever flavor it is, it really is a favorite.  It always has been, even when life is going okay. Beyond the creative ways authors develop for humanity to implode or disappear, the real magic happens in the after.  What kind of societies rise up? What religions do they have? What do politics look like and who has the power? Authors who address these questions in creative ways (positive or negative) keep my attention.  I realize most people wouldn't immediately grab a book of destruction when life is going awry, but it is worth a try! 

A few recommendations:
The Earthseed series (only two books) by Octavia Butler
MaddAddam trilogy by Margaret Atwood
Silo series by Hugh Howey (several omnibus publishings - Wool, Shift, Dust)
Wastelands edited by John Joseph Adams, for short story fans



Outside speculative fiction, which has the best destruction since there are no limitations, I can also recommend books on cults.  Usually biography and memoir, people who have lived through them and escaped them.   Hooray! I need to find more books on cults and communes to add to my GoodReads shelf. 

A few recommendations:
Seductive Poison: A Jonestown Survivor's Story of Life and Death in the People's Temple by Deborah Layton (I listened to this book this week! The print is older but the audio is new.)
My Life in Orange by Tim Guest



What is your reading escape?  What expands your perspective?

Library Books Valentine's Day Edition

After reading Nick Hornby, I decided it might be interesting to blog about the books I bring into my house.  I'm going to do two posts a month, roughly two weeks apart - the books I now own (through purchase, gift, or swap) and the books I bring home from the library.

I work as an academic librarian, so I have books at my fingertips every day.  I also have access to interlibrary loan.  My library piles can be extensive!  Some of the books I'm actively seeking out for various reasons, and others I just can't help but bring home with me.  So let's take a look at the year so far.

• The Time Regulation Institute by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar, translated by Ender Gürol 
• In the Garden of Stone by Susan Tekulve
• Icelandic Poems and Stories compiled by Richard Beck
• Frances and Bernard by Carlene Bauer
• At Night We Walk in Circles by Daniel Alarcón
• Fire and Ice: Three Icelandic Plays edited by Einar Haugen
• A Persian Requiem by Simin Daneshvar (aka Suvashun)
• Doc by Mary Doria Russell
• The Novel Cure: From Abandonment to Zestlessness: 751 Books to Cure What Ails You by Ella Berthoud and Susan Elderkin
• The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
• (not pictured, eBook) The Tuner of Silences by Mia Couto 

You will notice that several of these have a sticker on them that says "Leisure."  That is the doing of our fabulous staff member who orders all of our leisure reading.  She has impeccable taste and I always find books on those shelves I've never heard of.  That's why I brought home Frances and Bernard (an epistolary novel, which will fit a reading goal this year) and The Novel Cure, a book on books that I am looking forward to reading.

Many of my library books have to do with book clubs and reading challenges.  In the Garden of Stone was for the book club from the International Center of the Upstate, our annual local author pick.  She spoke at our meeting, and I enjoyed talking to her!  I'm in a virtual book club called the League of Extraordinary Dorks, and Doc was the pick for February.  I would not have selected historical fiction about Doc Holliday otherwise, but I did enjoy the novel.

The Time Regulation Institute is for the continued Turkish reading along with the World's Literature group in GoodReads, as are the two Icelandic books.  Well, they aren't official picks but when I went to check out the Laxness, I was reminded that the Library of Congress cataloging system groups fiction first by country of origin, then by author.  This means that in the small collection of Icelandic titles, I would find everything in the same place.  I couldn't resist bringing a few more home!  A Persian Requiem is for another GoodReads group that focuses on different Middle Eastern nations every year.  

The last three are on the list for the 2014 Tournament of Books, and I've been working my way through that list.  In March I'll be blogging about those book brackets, so stay tuned!   Now I can return some of the books in this pile that I've already finished.  You can read my ongoing reviews at GoodReads.

Reading Envy 002: Return of the Euthanized Book

On our second episode, we were joined by Bryan Alexander.  Bryan is a writer, researcher, and educational futurist, but we have always been intrigued by his reading knowledge. 

There were some surprising synergies between the three of us and the books we wanted to talk about - historical points of significant change, virtual reality and plugging into a system, and books about books!

Bryan brought three books along for discussion:

• The Proteus Paradox by Nick Yee
• Pivotal Decades: The United States, 1900-1920 by John Milton Cooper Jr.
• Bleeding Edge by Thomas Pynchon

This episode, Scott talked about:

 

• The Zimmerman Telegram by Barbara W. Tuchman
• Cabinet of Curiosities: My Notebooks, Collections and Other Obsessions by Guillermo del Toro
• What Makes This Book So Great by Jo Walton

And Jenny focused on:

• Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree, Jr.
• The Pale King by David Foster Wallace
• The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby (see also "Stuff I've Been Reading" on The Believer)

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 002: Return of the Euthanized Book

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Jenny's Books Added - January 2014

In true meta-librarian fashion, one of the books on this list inspired this list.  Nick Hornby (the author I first knew from High Fidelity) writes a monthly column for The Believer called "Stuff I've Been Reading," which starts with a list of books bought and read each month. The three Hornby books on this pile are basically collections of previous columns, and I was inspired by the very first chapter of The Polysyllabic Spree. In hopes that imitation can still be the sincerest form of flattery, and with full credit given to Mr. Hornby, I'd like to start posting about the books I've added to my collection each month.  This will not include library books I've brought home, although if I can restrain myself from returning books immediately after reading them, I'd like to post about that too.  (This month, it is far too late for that, as I've read and returned at least a handful.) 

Books added to my collection may not stay, in fact probably won't.  I only keep books I can see myself re-reading or referring to.  These books will include used bookstore finds, gifts, swaps, and the rare new book purchase (oh hey, this pile actually has one of those!)  I thought it would be fun to give a brief narrative of why these books ended up with me.

Just In:
The Wild Places by Robert Macfarlane
The Love Letters of a Portuguese Nun
Dear Exile: The True Story of Two Friends Separated (for a Year) by an Ocean by Hilary Liftin and Kate Montgomery
The Book Borrower by Alice Mattison
Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny
Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson
Jar City by Arnaldur Indridason
The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby
Housekeeping vs. the Dirt by Nick Hornby
Shakespeare Wrote for Money by Nick Hornby
The Body Artist by Don DeLillo
How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran
No Soap, No Pay, Diarrhea, Dysentery & Desertion by Jeff Toalson
Last Last Chance by Fiona Maazel

Some of it has to do with reading goals - Indiridason for my year of reading Iceland; Liftin & Montgomery, the anonymous Portuguese nun, and Toalson for reading more letters; Zelazny as one of the authors I'd pledged to read in 2014.  I read The Love Letters of a Portuguese Nun right away.  It was short, I was intrigued, and I reviewed it a week or so ago.  The Toalson is the book I paid full price for, at the very site where the General Robert E. Lee surrendered to the north, signifying the beginning of the end of the War Between the States (aka the Civil War.)  Sometimes a book can be the best souvenir!

One category of books I actually seem to keep around is books about books.  I even have a shelf devoted to them in GoodReads! The Mattison was 50c at the used book store, so how could I resist?  The Hornby books were a gift from the second friend to insist that I would love them and must read them.  All four of these fit the category of books on books.

The other books demand more of an explanation.  I claim not to buy books I don't want to read.  Well, I had a hint that the Moran might be coming up for one of my book clubs.  The Macfarlane strokes my cold weather island obsession, the DeLillo was $2 and I really wanted to buy one book from each bookstore on Main Street in Charlottesville, VA.  I had read Sister Mine by Hopkinson earlier this year and was happy to find another book by her, and I had read and not really enjoyed the Maazel I read this month.  I guess you could say I'm giving her a last last chance. 

There you have it!  Will I read any of them right away? Nope. Why do I buy books when I work in a library?  That's a story for another day. 

Tell me about the books you brought home in January!

Reading Envy 001: Episode the First

We are very excited to welcome you to the first episode of our new Reading Envy podcast.  

Scott shares his thoughts on:

• The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien
• The Hot Rock (Dortmunder #1) by Donald Westlake
• "The Screwfly Solution" from Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree Jr.

Jenny talks about:

• The Einstein Intersection by Samuel R. Delany
• Long Division by Kiese Laymon
• The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara

Our list of the month: Book Riot's 100 Must-Read Works of Southern Literature

Download or listen via this link: |Reading Envy 001: Episode the First|

Subscribe to the podcast via this link: Feedburner

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2014 Tournament of Books from The Morning News

Already Tired from the List!

Here at Reading Envy, there is little nothing we love more than a good list!

So as I was catching up on the blogs I follow and started reading another blogger's take on this year's list for the Tournament of Books, I realized that I had discussed it in Twitter and in a few Facebook reading groups, but never posted my thoughts out in the open on this blog.

The Tournament of Books, created by The Morning News, takes the idea of March Madness and applies it to a group of books, "representative of the outstanding fiction that was published in 2013."  Judges select a winner when books go head to head, until eventually the world is left with one winner.  It happens in March, so I have two months to get these books read!  Oh, it's not like I have any official involvement in the tournament* but I like to play along.  Last year was my first year participating, and it exposed me to books I hadn't read otherwise.

This year's books (copied directly from their site, links go to Powells since they are a sponsor):

Finalists for the 2014 Tournament of Books

• At Night We Walk in Circles by Daniel Alarcón
• The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
• The Tuner of Silences by Mia Couto
• The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert
• How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid
• The Dinner by Herman Koch
• The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri
• Long Division by Kiese Laymon
• The Good Lord Bird by James McBride
• Hill William by Scott McClanahan
• The Son by Philipp Meyer
• A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
• Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
• The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
• The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara
• [Winner of the Pre-Tournament Playoff Round]

Pre-Tournament Playoff Round

• Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
• Woke Up Lonely by Fiona Maazel

I have thoughts already.  I have read five of these books (Koch, Lahiri, Ozeki, Yanagihara, and Atkinson from the pre-tournament round.)  I have abandoned one (the Catton, which I gave 80 pages before quitting on, even though it won the Booker!)  I'm halfway through the Laymon, which is great.  I have already collected copies of the Tartt, Gilbert, Rowell. The library where I work has eBooks of the Laymon, Couto, and print books of the Hamid, McBride, Meyer. I put interlibrary loan requests in for the McClanahan and the Maazel.  In a weird twist of events, I randomly came across another book by McClanahan just last month, Crapalachia, and read it in eBook format from the library.  Strange that by the end of this, I will have read two more books set in West Virginia!

How about you?  How many of these books have you read, and do you try to read along with the Tournament of Books?

*I think most years the Morning News selects a blogger as a judge and I would love to participate!  Pick me!  :)

Epistolary Reading in 2014

Photo by acroamatic in Flickr, CC licensed

I wrote up my reading goals for 2014 a few days ago, and kept feeling like I was forgetting something.  It wasn't until I was wandering the amazing bookstores on Main St. in Charlottesville, Virginia, when I remembered what I had omitted - letters!

I don't read much history, but I enjoy memoir and biography.  Much of what makes up a biography comes from personal letters.  I remember in doing some research on the composer Lou Harrison, realizing all the little tidbits that were possible because he had left his letters on file at an archive.  I often wonder what will happen to all of us when we die and the majority of our correspondence dies in our e-mail accounts.

At least for people in the past, what remains of their letters tells a story.  We can learn about a person, a place, an event, a time.  I would like to do that more intentionally in 2014, and I am committing to reading at least one volume of letters a month.

Which letters?  I have no idea.  If you have ideas, I'd love to hear them.  It isn't helped that in most bookstores, letters are filed under history or biography, so first I would need to have an idea of a time period or person I might hope letters exist for.

When visiting the Appomattox Court House yesterday, I had a nice chat with the recent college grad working in the bookstore.  He pointed me to a volume of letters from the confederacy, arranged in date order from 1864-1865.  That book, No Soap, No Pay, Diarrhea, Dysentery & Desertion:A Composite Diary of the Last 16 Months of the Confederacy from 1864 to 1865  will be one of my twelve volumes, and I expect to learn quite a bit more about the War Between the States (as it is referred to down here.)

@jackiemania just wrote a post about the letters of Emily Dickinson, and those definitely intrigued me.  Watching John Adams on HBO made me want to read the letters between John and Abigail.  Added up, this makes three months' worth, so I am definitely in need of recommendations for my epistolary reading.