One of the things I like to do as the year comes to a close is look back at what I鈥檝e been reading over the past year, and how those choices have affected the way I look at the world.
This past year has been my reading-est year, since I started keeping track of the books I read. This year, the number of books in the "read" column is sitting at 67. I have a good feeling I'll break 70 this year, the rate things are going. I think a major reason I hit such a high number is that for the first half of the year, I was commuting 1.5 hours every day to Campbell River and back, and was using the time to listen to audiobooks. This year was a sleeper hit for books. I gave 17 books five stars, and 28 books got between four and five stars (I recently changed book tracking apps, and Fable lets me give partial stars, so a few have 4.5).
These books clearly are a major influence on how I see the world, and I find that going over my reading from the past year is a good chance for introspection. Based on my utterly arbitrary classification system, I'm going to showcase three of these books, plus a few more like them, in an effort to reflect on the year that was 2024.
The made-up genres this year are: 1. Weird, psychedelic horror that may have some creatures, 2. Classic, comfy favourites, 3. Cerebral, atmospheric Cli-fi (climate-fiction).
Besides a few niche, vintage Star Wars books that I've had to find in used book stores, all of these books are available at the Vancouver Island Regional Library.
1. Weird, psychedelic horror that may have some creatures: And Then She Fell - Alicia Elliott
This was the first book I read this year, and it was a great way to start off. I was not expecting this from Elliott's debut fiction book. The late-2023 release by the Mohawk writer follows Alice, a young Mohawk woman and new mom who recently moved to a Toronto suburb with her husband. Alice is not connecting with her daughter, and is struggling with the loss of her mother. She feels a strong need to hide her mental health struggles from her white neighbours, and tries to find a purpose in writing a modern retelling of the Haudenosaunee creation story. However, things begin to unravel as strange things start happening.
I got this book for Christmas last year, in another excellent book choice from my wife. I couldn't stop reading it. Elliott dives deep into mental health struggles, racism, inherited trauma, womanhood and ancestry. The book is a bit meta in its retelling of the Haudenosaunee creation story 鈥� Elliott does a surreal version of exactly what Alice, the character, sets out to do 鈥� which I think is done extremely well. I loved the dark turn towards the ending, and remember thinking "holy shit" when I put it down. "And Then She Fell" has since been winning awards all year, and for good reason. If any of this interests you, don't hesitate to give it a read.
Also in this category are "Open Throat" by Henry Hoke, which follows a queer mountain lion living in the hills above Los Angeles, protecting a homeless encampment and eventually confronting the question "Do they want to eat a person, or become one?" A third such book is "Borne" by Jeff VanderMeer. "Borne" is deeply post-apocalyptic, and follows a scavenger who finds some kind of creature called Borne. Borne grows up and, among other things, fights a enormous (like cruise ship-sized) grizzly bear.
2. Classic, comfy favourites: The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien
I'm sure I don't need to go over the plot of this 87 year old book that has been made into at least six films, a few video games, and a Finnish TV series, not to mention was the prequel to the series that some may argue redefined what fantasy is today, but just in case, the story follows Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit who is whisked off on an adventure to help a band of dwarves reclaim their lost kingdom and slay the dragon that has been hoarding their gold for centuries. Along the way he discovers a magic ring, which may have some significance in the future.
This is not my first time reading this, and it won't be the last. This autumn, I wanted to enrobe myself in some beautiful prose about comfort, good food, good company and go on a rolicking adventure with stakes that are far, far removed from those in our own world. I read this in September, as the season was turning from summer to fall. It's hard to think of a better fall book than The Hobbit, and I would highly recommend reading it that time of year for a nice, cozy escape from the difficulties of our world.
Other books in this category, which is very wide-ranging, are "The Exorcist" by William Peter Blatty. Billed as the "most terrifying novel ever written," I actually found it interesting, but not that scary. I suppose for its time and audience (in 1971, 90 per cent of Canadians were Christian, which has gone down to 53 per cent in the 2021 census), demonic possession was a relatively novel and horrifying topic to explore in a popular novel. Now, after 50 years of horror movies, novels and other stories, I feel like the horror genre has shifted and the unnameable terrors lurking just outside of our imagination scare me more. That being said, it was more of an interesting time capsule and I quite enjoyed it. Enter the third story on this list, "Alien" by Alan Dean Foster. Written just six years after The Exorcist, this book scared me more. This time, it is an entirely unknown entity that is stalking and killing our main characters. The atmosphere is so dark and forboding, and the idea of being utterly alone, isolated from everything you love and at the mercy of a killing machine... I loved it.
3. Cerebral, atmospheric Cli-fi: In Ascension - Martin MacInnes
This category might be the hardest to pin down. I love it when a book prioritizes its atmosphere over the plot, when it not only opens the mind to new possibilities, but explodes it and shatters how I look at the world. Despite their mind-expanding qualities, these books also tend to reveal that the only things that truly matter are the things we do while on this planet, and the people with whom we choose to spend our lives. This year, "In Ascension" by Martin MacInnes did that for me.
The book follows Leigh, a young microbiologist whose journey "will encompass the full trajectory of the cosmos and the passage of a single human life," the publisher writes. Leigh is a scientist who joins the exploration team when a mysterious trench is discovered in the Atlantic ocean. What she finds there calls into question everything we know about the origin of life on Earth. Leigh is drawn into the work of a new space agency, learning that the trench is only one of a number of similar phenomena around the world. Leigh is faced with a choice to either remain with her family or to explore the cosmos.
I love this kind of thing. Over the past few years, all of my favourite books have fallen into this category. They're vaguely apocalyptic, but deal with what it means to be human and how to life a meaningful life in the face of changes that we have no way of anticipating. This is something I've been struggling with for years, and finding books that deal with this subject matter is one way of coping.
If you're like me, I'd recommend reading "Bright and Dangerous Objects" by Anneliese Mackintosh, which explores deciding between ambition and obligation. Solvigis a deep-sea diver who is trying to have a baby. Also, unbeknownst to her partner, she becomes one of a hundred people who are shortlisted to become one of the first colonists on Mars. She has to decide what she really wants, and whether her cosmic ambitions are compatible with other parts of her life. "Whalefall" by Daniel Kraus takes another tack, but a similar-ish vibe. It follows Jay Gardiner mourning his father's death by suicide, as he scuba dives to find his father's remains. During the dive, Gardiner is confronted with something far bigger and more powerful than he is: a sperm whale looking to feed. In a modern retelling of the Jonah story, Jay is swallowed by the whale and, with only one hour of oxygen left in his tank, has to defeat his demons and escape.
While I'm not expecting to break my 70-book record in 2025, my commute is far, far shorter these days, I've already got a few interesting reads on my list. I can't wait to get started.