What Love Is and What It Could Be by Carrie Jenkins

read by the author

A philosophical treatise on the nature of love—which could be dry, but it’s not. Short, super readable, peppered with pop culture references (mostly used as metaphors) which will date the book in a few more years but for now make it a very relatable read.

The author argues that love isn’t merely a social construct nor a biological process/drive, but both. As an inveterate distruster of dichotomies, which are all too often false, I am naturally inclined to appreciate the merits of this argument; but I think she really does objectively make her case. A must-read for all of us over-thinkers, and also a great book to hand to your parents who don’t "get" whatever kind of relationship you're in.

An Excess Male by Maggie Shen King

read by James Chen, Tim Chiou, and Elaine Kao

Set in a near-future China where the problem of “excess males” caused by a combination of the one-child policy and parents’ preference for boy children is being solved by making “advanced families” (two or three husbands sharing one wife) the norm, this book tells the story of a two-husband family considering “going the max” by marrying a third man, and that of the man being considered.

The little family has secrets that would be safer without adding another person to the mix. One of May-Ling's husbands has autism, and the other is "willfully sterile," meaning gay. Both of these conditions are, if not technically illegal, certainly punishable, and must be kept hidden if their child is to thrive and everybody is to survive in relative freedom. But those selfsame secrets make the marriage untenable, in the long run, for two of its members. That's why they're even considering adding a third husband to the mix.

Meanwhile Wei-Guo, our eponymous "excess male," has, in his 40s, just managed to save up enough money for a dowry. He soon falls in love with May-Ling, to the consternation of his fathers, who are appropriately cautious about the match. They've heard rumors about May-Ling's husbands, and being a third husband isn't exactly a high-status position.

And then, of course, disaster strikes and everybody has to decide how committed they really are to their desires and to each other, and what kind of consequences they're willing to accept for their actions. Wei-Guo's talent for loyalty won't be enough to save anyone without a lot of help from an unexpected quarter.

This book is super absorbing, and as a bonus, raises all sorts of interesting points about gender roles, neurodiversity, the nature of love, and the meaning of family. Highly recommend.

Trickster's Choice (Daughter of the Lioness #1) by Tamora Pierce

read by Trini Alvarado

Good, solid YA fantasy by Tamora Pierce. Alianne, the daughter of Alanna the Lioness, is of an age to get serious about her life and pick a career--but her famous parents forbid her to embark on the one she has both talent and passion for: spying. Mishaps, predictably, ensue. A fun read, though if you haven’t already read some of the Tortall books, probably not the one you want to start with.

The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro

Narrated by David Horovitch

Oh my goodness. I am in complete awe of this novel.

It's an adventure that takes place right after the death of King Arthur. A fog of forgetfulness covers the land, so that people can barely remember what happened a few minutes ago, much less what occurred during the war so recently ended. Our protagonists—an elderly couple, Axl and Beatrice—dimly remember, somehow, that they have (once had?) a son and that he lives (lived?) in a town nearby. Mistreated by other inhabitants of their own town, they make the huge decision to go visit him, trusting that they will be able to get there, and that once they arrive, he will welcome them with open arms.

The way is impossibly hard. In addition to nobody being able to remember anything except in fits and starts, they must travel on foot, and Beatrice is ailing. Britons and Saxons mistrust one another, the terrain is deadly uncertain even at the best of times, monks have become untrustworthy, and former knights of King Arthur roam the land with new agendas and alliances which they aren't necessarily forthcoming about. On top of all that, there are rumors of a dragon in the land.

This book reads, in many ways, more like a stage play than a novel. There are numerous Waiting for Godot moments. (Also numerous Monty Python and the Holy Grail moments, but in a very solemn-Terry-Gilliam-animation sort of way.) In a couple of places I began to lose patience with the odd Punch-and-Judy-like mannerisms of the characters—especially when monsters were present and/or violence and death were clearly imminent, and the characters just kept maundering on about whatever it was that Mr. Ishiguro felt the scene was really about. But I was always irresistibly drawn along anyhow.

A good thing, too. This is wonderful, eerily beautiful, and deeply moving piece of myth-making. Axl and Beatrice's deep, abiding, and generous love for each other inspired in me a great affection for them both, and then awe. Beatrice's faith in Axl sustains him, even as his enormous, self-sacrificing heart sustains her. None of this is remotely sappy: the reader becomes aware, gradually, of the weight of years and events between them that has caused this love to grow, and of the fact that, like any life-long love, it's not without its flaws and fault-lines. And we never quite know, as we read, what this world will bring them to in the end.

There's a reason why Kazuo Ishiguro won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Read this book.

Contact by Carl Sagan

read by Jodie Foster

This is such a fascinating period piece. It’s a novel—a vision of what our first contact with an alien civilization might be like. If you’ve seen the movie you’ve got the basic idea, but Mr. Sagan, though an incredible visionary and so far ahead of his time, is of course a man of his time as well. I won’t say more. A time capsule from 1985, written about a mythical 1999, which is a delight to open in the far-future year of 2018--which in many ways I’m glad Mr. Sagan, whose sensibilities, I gather, were firmly formed in the 1960s and ‘70s, didn’t live to see.

Mosquitoland by David Arnold

read by Phoebe Strole

Better than it needed to be; though plagued with the tropes you expect in a book about a teen girl dealing with mental illness, there were enough surprises throughout, many of them pleasant and all of them interesting, to keep me reading this book. A solid 4 out of 5 stars.

Slade House by David Mitchell

read by Thomas Judd and Tania Rodrigues

Brrrrrr! I Won’t say that I don’t read horror--but I am very choosy about what horror I read. As a tremendous fan of Cloud Atlas, though, I had to give this book a try--in spite of some trepidation after having found The Bone Clocks unreadable.

Yes, it’s a haunted house story--closer to a classic one than I expected from this author. Yes, the structure of the story is recursive, and will reward the reader who pays close attention (and will bore the reader who doesn’t)--a bit like Cloud Atlas in that respect, though Mitchell has become an even better writer since then and doesn’t, this time, tempt you to skip entire chapters. (Much. You definitely won’t retroactively wish you had, in any case.) And yes, it’s deliciously creepy.

How to Build a Girl by Caitlin Moran

read by Louise Brealey

I ended up keeping this book on my wish list for a really long time—close to a year, I think—because while initially it appealed to me, I started to have reservations about it and it got lower and lower on my list. Finally, though, I was in the mood for something a little nostalgic, even if it was British working-class crumbling-industrial-town nostalgia, after having gone through the end of the world with the Amish; so I went for it.

And actually it was really great. I’d say that Dolly totally reminded me of me at that age if it weren’t too embarrassing—oops, did I say that out loud? Of course, Dolly’s humiliations and triumphs are exaggerated in order to make them better reading. But it is, indeed, wonderfully amusing reading, especially her gleefully lusty enjoyment of life in general and of lust in particular. And her cultural touchstones—Blackadder, Blade Runner, and her blundering entry into the local Goth and indie music scenes—made my heart go pitter-pat.

Oh, and the reader was spot-on perfect. I can’t imagine this in anybody else’s voice.

In short: I am so glad I decided to read this book after all. I haven’t had so much fun cheering a character on in a long time.

When the English Fall by David Williams

read by Eric Michael Summerer

So, the narrator is an Amish man living not far from Philadelphia when a massive solar storm causes civilization to fail and the “English”--that’s us--to literally fall, as in, airplanes falling from the sky. Chaos ensues, and we get to see it from the Plain People’s point of view, which is really fascinating, as really, it’s only a matter of degree. To them, our entire civilization is horrifically chaotic anyhow.

This is a satisfying and oddly surprising apocalypse tale (I do love me a good apocalypse). If you liked Life As We Knew It, say, or the opening chapters of Earth Abides, you’ll enjoy the hell out of this. Why, yes, I am trying to tell you you should read this. If you love a good apocalypse. But too short! I didn’t want it to end when it did.

My one complaint: I’m not entirely happy with the way the daughter’s epilepsy, or “epilepsy,” was used as a plot device. Again, I can’t say more without spoilers, but… hrm. A little too convenient. But, yeah. Read this book.

The Awkward Thoughts of W. Kamau Bell: Tales of a 6’ 4”, African American, Heterosexual, Cisgender, Left-Leaning, Asthmatic, Black and Proud Blerd, Mama’s Boy, Dad, And Stand-Up Comedian by W. Kamau Bell

read by the author

I was on a non-fiction kick but needed something not-tragic after Just Kids. Not exactly light reading--Mr. Bell never lets the reader get quite that comfortable--but he is definitely funny. (Plus I didn’t keep wondering who was going to die of AIDS or an overdose next.) Mr. Bell first came to my attention because of the incident at the Elmwood Cafe, and I’d been curious about him ever since, so this memoir seemed like a good way to satisfy my curiosity. As expected, he is funny and smart and doesn’t hold back and he made me question myself and wish we could go out for beers. A very enjoyable book and now I want to watch United Shades of America. When I can find time between episodes of Star Trek: Discovery and The Good Place.