This is going to be a busy month for me blog wise. Not only will my Year in Review post be coming soon, but there are so many new challenges I’m trying this year to not only chip away at my TBR but to get me reading more adventurously in 2020. Expect a lot of posts over the next few days about the various challenges I’m hoping to complete this year and be sure to let me know if you’re doing any of them, too.
In the meantime, here’s what I read in December!
Ten Little Indians by Sherman Alexie
Sherman Alexie is one of my favourite authors of all-time and this collection of short stories didn’t disappoint. Several of them I wish he would turn into full-length novels, they were that compelling.
Themes seen in his other writings make their way into the stories, especially his love of basketball. Full of humour, heart, and his unmistakable style, Ten Little Indians is a fantastic collection.
The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates
This is Ta-Nehisi Coates’ first fiction novel, although he began writing this long before many of the works we all know him for. It was a tough read because of the source material, but it was also beautiful. I had to take breaks here and there when it became a bit too intense, but overall I’m extremely glad to have read it.
Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi
An ARC that evoked similar feelings in me as The Water Dancer. Review coming soon!
Ark (Forward Series #1) by Veronica Roth
I wrote about the Forward Series in a recent First Impressions Friday post. This was the first installment I read, although at the time I didn’t realize it was technically the first in the series as well. I just wanted to read something by the author of Divergent!
I definitely see where other reviewers are coming from that it’s a bit slow and doesn’t really take off, but I think that was the point of this story. It’s about the end of the world and how people are trying to cope with not only leaving their loved ones and lives, but they’re also leaving the only planet they’ve ever known behind. The end of the world isn’t all just action packed horror, it’s also emotionally horrific, too. This story perfectly reflected that.
Summer Frost (Forward Series #2) by Blake Crouch
I am TERRIFIED of AI. So much so that I won’t even think about enabling anything smart in my house other than my phone and even with that I was one of the last people I knew to get a smart phone. It may be a little extreme but I read and watch a lot of sci-fi so I know what those robots are really up to.
Well, thanks to this thoroughly captivating story written by the curator of the series, I’m even more terrified of the robot uprising. This was definitely one of the strongest stories in the series.
Emergency Skin (Forward Series #3) by N.K. Jemisin
My absolute favourite of the series so far. The masterful storyteller who brought us the Broken Earth trilogy, Jemisin has written a unique and fascinating story about not only the end of the world, but the true greed and consumption that led us there. I so wish this story was non-fiction.
Randomize (Forward Series #6) by Andy Weir
The Martian is one of the greatest achievements in science fiction (emphasis on the science). In his curator’s note, Blake Crouch acknowledges this as well with one of the best reviews of The Martian I’ve ever read, “[Weir] scienced the shit out of it.”
So obviously I was really excited to be reading something from Andy Weir and had high expectations. I wasn’t necessarily let down, it was an interesting premise, I just didn’t really connect with the story. I didn’t feel anything for the characters at all so while technologically intriguing, the overall story itself wasn’t all that engaging.
A Beginning at the End by Mike Chen
An ARC I had mixed feelings about throughout, but overall it was a satisfying novel that took a really unique view on the dystopian genre. Yes, the world “ended,” but what if enough of it survived that we were all actually just on pause? Review to come soon.
Have you read any of these? How did your December reading go? Let me know in the comments!
A Little Nerd Told Me 