Winter is here, the holidays are here whether one feels like celebrating or no -- and so it's time to reflect. Specifically, even in a year of finding it difficult to focus on reading, what books overcame the obstacles to warm my heart and spark my imagination? These books did.
10. Where the Wild Ladies Are by Aoko Matsuda
A short story collection inspired by traditional Japanese folklore, with an emphasis on witches and feminism. Fun, quirky, sweet and thoughtful.
9. Deacon King Kong by James McBride
A grand story of a New York City neighborhood back in the '60s, and everything surrounding the time a drunk old church deacon walked up to a young drug dealer and shot him. Despite what images that brings to mind, this is a story with joy and love.
8. Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu
This year's National Book Award winner for Fiction is audacious. A young man dreams of becoming the next Kung Fu Guy in movies and TV, while being cast as such characters as Second Asian Guy in an ever-filming TV show Black and White. The book moves seamlessly between being on the set and Wang's real family life. Few authors can keep it all together while getting completely carried away. A book to cheer over.
7. The Butterfly Lampshade by Aimee Bender
A woman remembers two times in her past when butterfly decorations became real. A search for answers to one's life.
6. I Hold a Wolf by the Ears by Laura van den Berg
Stories involving women who are strong, even some who may not know it. Haunting stories that get to the heart of being a woman.
5. Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy
Wild animals are disappearing. There may or may not be a flock of Arctic terns left. A wounded Irish woman is determined to find out. As her voyage sets off in unfriendly waters, her own history and how it is so deeply tied to her search are revealed. A beautiful, moving and harrowing story.
4. The Glass Hotel Emily St. John Mandel
A billionaire's Ponzi scheme collapses, a woman disappears off a transport ship, a bartender at a remote British Columbia luxury hotel sees someone has scrawled a question about swallowing broken glass on a window. Everything is connected and the way the story is told is riveting.
3. Becoming Duchess Goldblatt by Anonymous
OK, a memoir instead of fiction but one connected to the book world and how a community sprung up where least expected. There are good people among us, and sometimes good things happen to them.
2. The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich
A big novel based on the author's grandfather, who was a night watchman and who went to Congress to help preserve his tribe's identity. And, as always in an Erdrich novel, flawed people to love and treasure.
1. Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
The author of the beloved Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (OK, it's one of my beloved books and one of the best examples of how to use footnotes) chronicles a strange world in which an abandoned mansion holds an ocean, a limitless number of unique marble statues and Piranesi. Who is visited twice a week by The Other, who seeks his help in discovering a Great and Secret Knowledge. There is more than one way to decide what is going on by the end of the story. It doesn't matter what any reader decides. That reader will be correct.
The world remains an unstable place and there is plenty of crazy and evil out there. But being able to return to reading to help balance it all out and find reserves to do one’s best in the world has been a positive step for me. I wish the same for you, and that we continue to be able to share the discoveries our reading delivers.