Letter #51: The Best Books I've Read in the Last Year
"Best" is relative, as always
Dear reader,
When I say “best,” I mean what I’ve found to be the most impactful or fun or best written or what I would consider to be just generally good. I’ll break these into superlative categories.
Many of theses are not fun, are probably not for everyone, and may not be what someone needs. But maybe some will be, like they were for me!
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The Most Fun
These are the ones I found the most entertaining or were just generally a really enjoyable read for me.
In no particular order:
She Loves to Cook, and She Loves to Eat by Sakaomi Yuzaki: A charming, absolutely lovely manga series in which neighbors share food, friendship, and love! What I love most: the found family, wholesome relationships, the food preparation, and representation!
Appeal! Pilot by Ru Xu: The pilot comic for Appeal! in which a werewolf lawyer helps a vampire entrepreneur from his building. Hijinks and magic ensue! The author’s storytelling and art are just gorgeous!
Honorable Mention:
Methods of Dyeing by B. Mure: A murder mystery, beautifully illustrated with a gorgeous color palette. A renowned botanist and master dyer is found dead on the eve of an important lecture, leaving a university custodian and a mysterious detective to unravel the mystery of his death. This made me want to read the rest of this author’s works, apparently all told in this same universe of Ismyre!
The Most Impactful
These were the really thought-provoking or informational books that really made me feel like I understood something better about the world or myself, even if it was sad, painful, or emotional.
Warning: These are the ones that may or may not have made me cry.
In no particular order:
Coward: Why We Get Anxious & What We Can Do About It by Tim Clare: Oh book, how I adore thee! How seen this made me feel! How much I cried! This book chronicles the misadventures the author makes on his journey to “fix” his anxiety as he tries diets, exercises, routines, medications, delves into copious amounts of research, and interviews experts in all kinds of different fields of research surrounding what we know about anxiety. This book was an amazing read, whether you do or don’t have anxiety! As someone with anxiety, I really connected with this book, but it could be helpful for those without anxiety to read it just for some of the author’s descriptions of his anxiety alone.
Overlooked: A Celebration of Remarkable, Underappreciated People Who Broke the Rules and Changed the World, edited by Amisha Padnani, The New York Times: I learned so much! These are quick profiles of various people whose obituaries were never shared in the New York Times when they passed away. This book seeks to bring those people into the spotlight and share their life stories and accomplishments. I had heard of so few of these people and even if I had heard of them, I hardly knew any of these details. At times funny, at times heartbreaking, this is powerfully written and well-told. (It’s also a beautiful coffee table sort of book.)
It's Not Hysteria: Everything You Need to Know About Your Reproductive Health (But Were Never Told) by Karen Tang: I was very happy to learn that this book existed and then even happier to have read it. This is a book discussing how the female reproductive system works and societal myths about it. Given that it’s been my experience that it’s taboo to discuss this kind of topic, I’m glad a comprehensive, helpful book like this exists for people to access information about their bodies. (Learning rules!)
Blood: The Science, Medicine, and Mythology of Menstruation by Dr. Jen Gunter: Like the book above, I’m so glad this book exists! There’s a ton of information in this book, but it’s written in a way that was easy for me to digest, full of example analogies and literal TLDR (“too long, didn’t read”) sections at the end of each chapter to give readers a quick recap snapshot of what she had just covered.
God Land: A Story of Faith, Loss, and Renewal in Middle America by Lyz Lenz: A painful, powerful, and compellingly written story of how the author’s life, marriage, and faith fell to pieces in concurrence with 2016’s changing political climate. The author is a journalist who interviews all kinds of people in the U.S. Midwest (what she describes as “Middle America”) about the loss or decline of churches throughout the area while weaving in her own story.
Honorable Mentions:
No Kidding by Vero Cazot and Madeleine Martin: A series of comics about people deciding not to have kids currently or not to have kids at all. With a dynamic, unique art style and crisp, snappy writing, these stories can be funny on one page and soul-crushing on others. I thought this was a great exploration and telling of why and when people may or may not want to have children. (A note: My copy was translated from the original French so there were a few minor translation issues.)
The Witch: A History of Fear, from Ancient Times to the Present by Ronald Hutton: This is a super in-depth history of the concept of witches, witchcraft, magic, etc. Hutton delves into the earliest depictions and definitions of magic and witchcraft and spans the globe discussing how these concepts have changed, spread, adapted, and differed all around the world up to the present. This book is dense and chock full of so much information that I felt I wanted to take notes about every page. It’s a thoroughly researched scholarly text that I found to be a great comprehensive study of witchcraft; if you’re looking for one book with a ton of information to get you started on the topic, I’d suggest this one.
The Best Works of Art
These are books that I felt didn’t qualify as “fun” or really taught me something in particular, but were examples of phenomenal, powerful, or insightful writing that will stick with me.
Piglet by Lottie Hazell: A woman’s fiance reveals a devastating secret two weeks before their wedding and her life begins to fall apart. This is a novel that is both a stunning work of art and an absolute disaster all at once. The descriptions of food in this novel are gorgeous and the characters are incredibly written; I was yelling at two characters repeatedly (“No, girl, what are you doing? I get it, but why?!”) as I read. I literally cannot shut up about this book apparently; I just keep talking about it constantly as I’ve been processing it since I read it 😅
The Frog Council by Matt Emmons: I love the art in this book so much. The art and title are what drew me to the book, as 1) I love frogs and 2) the book’s cover, art, and plot felt reminiscent of stories like The Lord of the Rings. After reading it, I really get less of those vibes, because this is more post-apocalyptic wanderer. It’s a very unique, special book. I found it to be a quick read because there’s very little text, but I kept going back to just admire the artwork.
Honorable Mention:
Always Never by Jordi Lafebre: This is a beautifully illustrated graphic novel told backwards, chronicling the lives of two people’s lives from when they finally get together all the way back to when they first met. The concept and gorgeous art work were what drew me to it first; it’s also a pretty slim book and can be a quick read because there isn’t too much text.
It’s a little funny rereading this list and seeing how wide-ranging these books are, not even to mention all the others I’ve read in the past year that didn’t make the list. The joys of reading! There’s so much out there!
Thanks so much for reading!
Olivia
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Quote of the Week:
“Take a look; it’s in a book!”
-The theme song for Reading Rainbow
Songs of the Week:
Deleter by GROUPLOVE
Our House (The Mess We Made) by You Me At Six
Baby Blue Shades by Bad Suns