5 Awesome Books I’ve Read so Far this Year
My last semester of undergraduate studies was brutal in so many ways. There wasn’t much time for outside reading as I was suffocating under a pile of research projects. That is a story in itself and for a while there I was not convinced I was going to graduate. Sounds like a stereotypical senior overreacting, I know, but there were some…issues that I am not going to go into here. With that, here some of the books that I got to read on my own accord that I loved. You can find more detailed reviews by clicking on the book covers in the sidebar slider.
The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin – I am still recommending this book to everyone. It was nominated for both a Hugo and Nebula award. The sequel comes out in November. Been very impatiently waiting for it. The book brings Eldritch horrors into the modern world and carries an important message about the importance of immigrants. They are just as much a part of this country as anyone and this country would not be what it is without them.
A Lot of People are Saying – Read this for a research project and thought it was going to be one of those drawn out pretentious books written for scholars. I mean, it was peer reviewed and put out by a university press. I was pleasantly surprised It wasn’t that sort of book. It was actually very straight forward, had a lot of interesting history in it. I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to gain some kind of insight into what was going on with Trump and conspiracy theories.
FanFiction by Brent Spiner – Brent Spiner is weirder than I thought he was. For those that don’t know, he played Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation. During the pandemic he was approached to write a biography about what it was like playing Data. He told the publisher no one wanted to read that and he would rather write something fun. This is what came out of it. It is fanfiction about Brent Spiner written by Brent Spiner. It is a fun and amusing read. No knowledge of Star Trek is needed. Brent tells you all you need to know.
The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi – As fan of Godzilla, I was excited about this on. First John Scalzi book I have read. In some ways his writing style reminds me a lot of Ray Bradbury. This isn’t anything deep or complex. It is accessible science fiction that is meant to appeal to a broad range of people, including those that don’t normally read sci-fi. It is conversation driven and doesn’t overload the reader with details. It’s also funny. Sometimes you just want a light read, and this is it (along with FanFiction). It’s about saving kaiju on an alternate Earth with the underlying themes of environmentalism, friendship, standing up to bullies, and doing what is right.
Punk 57 by Penelope Douglas – This is a very popular dark romance across social media book communities. It is also very much a love it or hate it book. It evokes very strong feelings on both sides. This is what sparked my curiosity. I knew going into it what people found problematic and at the very least, I thought I could rip it apart through the lens of the book Guyland: The Perilous World where Boys Become Men. This was a book I had to read in Women and Gender Studies that explains how toxic masculinity, and all the problems caused by it, is formed. The thing is, I didn’t feel I needed to dissect the book in that way because, while this is ultimately an erotic romance, it also explores complex human emotions and it takes place at that confusing time where one is no longer an child/teenager, but isn’t quite an adult. Both characters are trying to figure out who they are and who they want to be. It does call for some suspension of reality, but that is the nature of fiction.
