Best Books of the Beach
We went to the Outer Banks last week, and while parts of it still felt like Groundhog Day (I’m stuck in this different house and can’t go inside anywhere else but this different house, but at least I got in the ocean!), I was able to stick to TWO goals I had for myself (and yes, I’m the type of person who will set goals for a vacation):
I meditated every day and
I read a book a day. It’s the most I’ve felt like the kind of reader I usually am since this pandemic started.
They were all really different books - ranging from post-apocalyptic fantasy to romance to spy novel to literary fiction - so if you like any of those genres then you might pick one of these up.
I have three that I loved from the list above and want everyone to read them. I’ll start with the toughest sell for most of the tens of folks that read this blog:
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir. If you don’t usually read fantasy or sci fi, it would already be a hard sell AND the pic above just showed you the cover which I think would mean a hard pass (or as my mom just said on the phone to me, “uh, hell to the no”), I get it, because those were MY REACTIONS, too! One of my favorite book recommenders and podcasters, Liberty Hardy, had to have talked about this book at least 10 times before I reserved it at the library. Then it came in and I let it lapse, but put a new hold on it, and finally picked it up and I was hooked in the first few pages. It’s queer and funny and real (which is maybe a weird thing to write about necromancers; wait, don’t let that word scare you off!). Anyway, what if you read JUST A SAMPLE and tried to read about Gideon and see if you wanted to stick with her? I think you will. And if I’m not one of YOUR favorite book recommenders, or I have to tell you 10 times before you read it CINDY, then look at all of this praise:
“With a snorting laugh and two middle fingers, the whole thing burns end-to-end. It is deep when you expect shallow, raucous when you expect dignity and, in the end, absolutely heartbreaking when you least expect it.” ―NPR
“Warm and cold; goofy and gleaming; campy and epic; a profane Daria in space.” ―Robin Sloan, author of Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore
“I started this book chuckling at the outrageous premise. I finished it crying, because the ending punched me straight in the gut.” ―Vox
Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse. Was I ready to read a post-apocalyptic novel? Yup, so maybe you are, too! In this one, 2/3 of the U.S. is gone after the “Big Water” (at least the apocalypse was due to climate change not a virus?) and most of the remaining land is the Navajo Nation, now known as Dinétah (Navajos refer to themselves as Diné). Maggie Hoskie is a monster hunter with a past, and teams up with a medicine man to protect her people. I loved the clan powers and how Maggie is no bullshit and love/hated coyote, the trickster. I’ve already downloaded the second book, The Storm of Locusts.
Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld. After Prep, I will read anything Curtis Sittenfeld writes but I went into this curious how I’d feel about it. I LOVED It and I’m still thinking about it and wondering if Secretary Clinton is going to read it. The premise is what would have happened if Hillary said no to Bill’s third proposal (she said no to the previous two), and I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN. It absolutely feels like that entire alternate universe could have happened (I mean, nothing is too far out of range after Trump and the year 2020) even if a few things felt far-fetched. I thought the way she had Hillary grappling with race and “me too” issues was real (spoiler alert, it was icky at first, as it usually is for folks with privilege).
We got back from the beach yesterday and the first day of school was today (some pics below!), but I’m determined to keep up my reading pace and meditation. Help keep me accountable on both!
