Big (?) Book Post 2023-2024

I neglected publish my Big Book Post in 2023 (although I did write it, so thank you to past me for doing that work), and since both 2023 and 2024 were pretty light reading years for me, I present to you a combined 2023/2024 Big Book Post (clocking in at 13 books total, roughly the size of a regular Big Book Post, so I won't call it a Bigger Book Post or anything like that).

2023
Jan: Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
Feb: Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law by Mary Roach
Mar-Apr: The Constant Rabbit by Jasper Fforde
May: The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Jun: Raw Dog: The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs by Jamie Loftus
Jul-Oct: Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Nov: Happy-Go-Lucky by David Sedaris
Nov-Dec: Heartstopper Vols 1-5 by Alice Oseman

2024
Jan: The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Jan: Babayaga by Toby Barlow
Feb: Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh
Mar-Apr: The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton (did not finish)
Jun-Sept: The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
Oct-Nov: Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood
Dec: Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder (still reading but will probably give up)
Dec: 1491 by Charles C. Mann (still reading, haven't given up hope yet)

By the authors

10 female authors and 3 male authors; 11 American authors, 2 British authors, 2 BIPOC authors; 1 deceased (Le Guin), 6 authors over 60 (the oldest being Walker, born 1944), 2 born in the nineties (Loftus and Oseman), and 3 around my age (Lockwood, Miller, and Moshfegh, all born between 1978 and 1982); at least one out queer author.

About the books

Of the non-fiction, 2 were about nature, 1 was about hot dogs, and all of them were at least a little bit autobiographical. Of the fiction, 3 were fantasy, 1 was a mystery, 1 was sci-fi, and the Heartstopper series is a YA graphic novel series. The oldest book I read was The Dispossessed (1974), and the second oldest was The Color Purple (1982). All the rest were published in the last 13 years (oldest being The Song of Achilles in 2011) and two were published in the year I read them (Raw Dog and the latest Hearthstopper). Time periods range from the creation of the world (Sweetgrass) to the future (Dispossessed) with stops in antiquity (Achilles), the early 20th century (Purple), the fifties (Babayaga), and the sixties (Crawdads), and locales include ancient Greece, a trip to India with Mary Roach (among other places), a cross-country road trip with Jamie Loftus, England, Wales, North Carolina, Georgia, NYC, New England, Normandy, Paris, Tau Ceti, "all the worst cities of the midwest" (per Lockwood), and Onondaga and other tribal land with Robin Wall Kimmerer.

From my perspective

Although I read a small number of books in 2023-2024, on reflection, they were the right ones, as I really enjoyed all of them. Since there were so few of them, I'll talk briefly about all of them:

• Crawdads: Owens writes her main character so well. I really connected with Kya and found her so much more fascinating than the mystery the story keeps switching back to.
• Fuzz: I always love Mary Roach, but I really feel this was one of her best. The actions of animals viewed through the lens of the human criminal justice system, and told with Roach's characteristic irresistible humor.
• Rabbit: In such a strong year, this may have been one of the weakest, but only becausy e Fforde delights in writing about the blander aspects of the strange worlds he creates. I still loved it.
• Achilles: I knew I was going to love this book. Miller really makes these characters come to life.
• Raw Dog: I already knew Jamie Loftus from her appearances on the Sarah Marshall Cinematic Universe of podcasts, and then I had the privilege of seeing her live TWICE, once at an event promoting this very book. I love her voice and her attitude. She could have written about anything.
• Sweetgrass: Perhaps another low point of the year only because it took me so long to read it, and if I'm honest, that was probably because the (important) message got a little repetitive after a while. But I still loved Kimmerer's writing and learning what she had to teach me.
• Happy-Go-Lucky: Sedaris gets more and more problematic with each book, but still delicious after all these years.
• Heartstopper: Might be the winner of 2023. This was a rare case of me reading the book(s) after having watched the adaptation. It was a joy to read and marvel at how perfect an adaptation the show is, from the casting to the animation details to the overall mood. Oseman has such a clever style and I'm so glad there's at lease one more volume left!
• The Color Purple: Riveting book. Well told and shocking, sadly very real and believable. Sofia was my favorite character, and the movie (2023) jolts to life when Danielle Brooks comes on the screen playing her. The 1985 was also moving and reasonably faithful to the text.
• Babayaga: I loaned this to a friend not having read it, and when she returned it to me raving about it, I decided to give it a shot. Fun and exciting and tragic, and constantly clever. 
• Eileen: The first 2/3 of the book was a bit of a drag, but it really paid off in the end when the action picks up in a completely unexpected way. I suggested this book for my book club on a recommendation from a friend, and we watched the movie together afterward. The movie missed the mark by a long shot.
• The Dispossessed: This took me forever to read and for no good reason. I loved this book and it was my favorite of 2024 (not that that's saying much). Le Guin was and continues to be revolutionary. I always enjoy her and can't wait to read more.
• Priestdaddy: A friend bought this book for me when we were in a bookstore together and she realized it was my birthday. I'd read Lockwood's No One Is Talking About This and enjoyed it, and this memoir gave me added context for the events of that book. Lockwood is hilarious and unafraid to be blunt, and Priestdaddy is the product of that winning combination of traits. 

Repeated authors:

• Fuzz was my 7th Mary Roach book
• Rabbit was my 11th Jasper Fforde book
• Achilles was my 2nd Madeline Miller book
• Happy-Go-Lucky was my 9th David Sedaris book
• Heartstopper Vol 5 was my 5th Alice Oseman book, all 5 of which I read this year
• The Dispossessed was my 4th Ursula K. Le Guin book
• Priestdaddy was my 2nd Patricia Lockwood book

My reading of Mary Roach brings her into a three-way tie for my third-most-read author with J.K. Rowling and Margaret Atwood.

The others I read for the first time this year, because:

• Crawdads, Eileen, and The Color Purple (and House of Mirth and Nightbitch) were Page & Popcorn Book & Movie Club selections
• Raw Dog was handed to me as I entered the Bell House for the book event.
• I bought Sweetgrass at a bookstore in Ithaca, NY after hearing the author talk about moss on Alie Ward's Ologies podcast
• I saw Babayaga in a bookstore years ago and bought it, and then let it languish on my bookshelf. Loaning it to a Paris-bound friend (the book is set in Paris) and hearing her rave about it made me finally pick it up

Most of the books I bought or received as gifts. The Heartstopper series was loaned to me one by one by my friend/neighbor Julia, and my friends Cricket & Mark loaned me The Dispossessed.

My main goal for the coming year is simply to read more books. Some specific ones are these:

• Queer by William S. Burroughs, loaned to me by Julia
• The Door by Madga Szabó, loaned to me by Jess & Kyle
• When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamín Labatut, loaned to me by Mark S
• Intimations by Zadie Smith and Koji Kondo's Super Mario Bros. Soundtrack by Andrew Schartmann, both of which I picked up in Buffalo Street Books in Ithaca over the summer