My 2019 Reading List

We Have Always Lived in the Castle – Shirley Jackson

Last year I read The Art of Mystery by Maud Casey, she used this novel as an example of how to build mystery and suspense. Told from the perspective of a young woman who lives a secluded life with her sister after a family tragedy, it lures the reader in with its charming but eccentric protagonist. Jackson circles the mystery at the center of the story deftly, constantly casting doubt on what you can believe.

Stranger in the Pen – Mohamed Asem

Asem’s account of being stuck in airport security becomes a way for him to examine all the ways people get stuck between worlds legally, culturally, and personally. It’s a short read, but feels expansive in what this day reveals.

Voices in the Air: Poems for Listeners – Naomi Shihab Nye

I bought this after hearing her give a keynote address in St. Louis. This collection of poetry that is trying to make sense of the world we live in right now. Like Nye is floating up above us drawing a line from Ferguson, to Palestine, to China, to California, to her, to you.

The Girl in the Flammable Skirt – Aimee Bender

The stories didn’t stick with me after I finished this collection. I think because it felt like there’s so much distance between the characters and the reader. But I was really blown away by the voice of these stories. Bender is excellent at crafting worlds that are familiar but with a strange sense of ‘wrongness’ about them, unsettling the reader. This is a collection I’ll hold on to for reference.

The Left Hand of Darkness – Ursula K. Le Guin

The world building in this book is incredible. A human emissary visits an icy planet where the inhabitants can change their gender. As he attempts to navigate their social norms and political maneuvering a world so unlike our own becomes familiar. Le Guin’s work is sometimes described as ‘anthropological’ science fiction, and it’s a fitting label for this work. It’s set in a distant future in another part of the galaxy but it’s really about a society on the brink of social and political change.

Quitter: Good Luck Not Dying – Trace Ramsey

An uneven collection of short personal essays with a bit of an anti-capitalism bent. I think I was not the ideal reader for this.

A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories – Flannery O’Connor

I read the story A Good Man is Hard to Find in high school. And even though I knew exactly what was coming I was filled with dread as the story unfolded again. O’Connors stories are filled with this terrible sense of inevitability, dragging you towards the ending whether you want to get there or not.

Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking – Samin Nosrat

Reading this made me a better cook because it has some really excellent tips for how to cook but also explains why they work. Nosrat is the best kind of teacher, someone who is excited about their subject, and her enthusiasm is infectious.

Mysterious Skin – Scott Heim

I saw the 2005 film adaptation years ago, but picked this up at a Goodwill recently since the plot of the movie had become hazy. There’s an interesting tension in this story. Heim pushes his characters deep into the dark obsessions that make them feel special because of how unusual they are. But as he strips away the illusions, making them more mundane, he reveals them as much worse than they could have imagined.

Annihilation – Jeff VanderMeer

This was a very fast and unsettling read. A group of unnamed scientists enter an area nature twisted by some known force. Annihilation highlights the strength of literature for the genre of horror. The mind can cobble together terrors with a few scant details. Read this on a camping trip which was A MISTAKE.

Meander, Spiral, Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative – Jane Alison

I knew not every story needs to be told in the classic dramatic structure (inciting incident, rising tension, climax and denouement) but had never had a teacher break down alternative structures. The examples work better if you know them but it’s really makes me consider if the classic structure is the best for a project when I sit down to write.

The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2017 – John Joseph Adams

It’s hard to talk about anthologies but pretty much every one of these was a winner for me. I knew that there was some really interesting science fiction being written now, but the ‘fantasy’ stories were wonderfully surprising.

The Tuner House – Angela Flournoy

I read something once that all novels only have one protagonist. No matter how many other characters there are there is only one real protagonist. Flournoy knows that is nonsense. She anchors the story with a few of members of the large Turner family, allowing their multiple/conflicting perspectives to really capture who this family is.

Harrow County: Library Edition Volume 1 – Cullen Bun & Tyler Crook

I’d been reading bits and pieces of this comic online over the years and, since I prefer to be efficient, purchased the oversized first volume of comics for my birthday. The soft and warm artwork by Crook feels almost bucolic but belie an unsettling and unforgiving world just below the surface. I think the term ‘southern gothic’ might be a good way to describe it. Bunn unravels a mystery that is rich with mythology and tests his characters in interesting ways.

Other physical literature I read this year:

Cosmonauts Avenue Anthology
Moon City Review 2019
Passages North #40
The Nib Issues 1-4 - Consider becoming a member!
The 2019 issues of One Story
American Short Fiction #21
A Public Space 27

You can find my Goodreads here.