2020: ex libris

2020, I will do better, I wrote in the 2019 book recap, and I managed it – only by a few more titles, but still. It’s a short list, and quite predictable too – some science fiction, some fantasy, some beautifully written glimpses into other places’ past (Dublin, Afghanistan, the tiny island of Run); each and every one of them a treasured escape from this dumpster fire of a year.

Nightflyers and other Stories, George RR Martin

Dubliners, James Joyce

The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemisin

And The Mountains Echoed, Khaled Hosseini

Gatefather, Orson Scott Card

Burmese Palace Tales, Harold Fielding-Hall

The Glass Palace, Amitav Ghosh

Washington Black, Esi Edugyan

The Bear and the Nightingale, Katherine Arden

The Girl in the Tower, Katherine Arden

The Winter of the Witch, Katherine Arden

The King in Exile: The Fall of the Royal Family of Burma, Sudha Shah

Strange the Dreamer, Laini Taylor

Nathaniel’s Nutmeg, Giles Milton

Muse of Nightmares, Laini Taylor

I bought Nightflyers because I’m really just at the stage now where I’ve given up hope of ever reading Winds of Winter, so delving into GRRM’s sci-fi oeuvre to pass the time. (Dying of the Light is still my favourite, though.) Picked up Gatefather because I loved Ender’s Game, although maybe I should have looked for the first book in that trilogy instead of starting with the last – and with The Fifth Season, maybe I should have bought the next two Broken Earth books when I had the chance because now I can’t find them here.

A third of them were lent to me (“I think you will enjoy reading about Run” somebody said over dinner while we were exchanging travel tales). With its colonial derring-do, Nathaniel’s Nutmeg was problematic but yes, I was highly entertained, in the same way I was with the thoughtful Washington Black, which turned the lordly British explorer trope on its head.

A couple of them I ordered because they had been recommended by the same reader who had let me borrow Katherine Arden’s Winternight series (“If you liked that you will love Strange the Dreamer“), as well as And The Mountains Echoed.

Lastly, I would be remiss if I did not mention my tripartite deep dive into a very specific moment in Burmese history – with The Glass Palace epic, the magisterial (and non-fiction) The King in Exile, and the sparkly palace fairytales, all acquired in a dusty roadside bookshop in Yangon.

And so, in the spirit of getting a head start on 2021, the first books have been lined up – let’s see, we have Neil Gaiman’s retelling of Norse mythology; a crisp novel described as “an outstanding debut about loneliness and the power of a little kindness” (so apt for this year); and the chronicles of a traveling Japanese cat. Oh, and I need to start Mexican Gothic for my book club meeting next week.

Here’s hoping for more books bought in faraway places, and likeminded friends to read with.