What I'm Reading (Late Summer and Early Fall)

 

This year, I'd like to start posting more about the books that I'm reading outside of just the speculative books. When I'm not deep in the weeds of drafting, I like to read non-fiction to refill the creative well. Usually I read after work, in the space that has replaced my commute. Throughout August and September, there were weeks where I read 3 non-fiction books at once: one during the morning writing hours (since I was meant to be taking a break from writing), a different book during the commute time, and a third in the just-before-bed slot. 

I can't wait to share the book that I'm writing now that pulls from all of the ideas captured in this stack. 

To gather my thoughts for Predacide, I read: 

• Hospicing Modernity by Vanessa Machado de Oliveira. This book was very academic, so it was a slow read. (In addition, the author is very Latin American in syntax. Even though this book is in English, reading this brought me back to the Spanish Lit classes I took in college and some of the  authors I've attempted to practice my Spanish with. Latin American Spanish has a completely different syntax from Mexican Spanish or Castilian Spanish. Anyway. Long sentences + complex verbs = an extra later on an academic writing style). Despite my distraction with the syntax, this was a fascinating book that forced a critical eye to the myriad ways our society is malfunctioning, and the ways it's sure to crumble. This book was the initial spark of Predacide. 
• We Need New Stories by Nesrine Malik. This book was the second piece of the Predacide puzzle. Malik looks at a set of myths that repeat in the media of western cultures, from around the 80s through now. I'd never heard anyone apply the term "myth" to stories told outside of the canon. I think everyone writing sci-fi should probably read this book. 
• Ordeal by Hunger by George R. Steward. This book was written in the 1930s, about the disaster of the Donner party. I'm not sure if it was the text size or the narrative, but I devoured this book in a matter of days, despite the size of it. 
• The Care Manifesto: The Politics of Interdependence by The Care Collective (Andreas Chatzidakis, Jamie Hakim, Jo Littler, Catherine Rottenberg, and Lynne Segal). This book was honestly pretty dense. It has a definite academic tone to it, which I struggled to get through at times; but coupled with Hospicing Modernity, provided some interesting food for thought on how we value, provide, and expect care as a society. 
• Stalking the Atomic City by Markiyan Kamysh. This book was an odd one. It's by a Ukrainian author who writes in a voice that would fit right in to Gideon about exploring the toxic, abandoned rubble of Chornobyl. It was a lesson in voice and motive. 
• Unworthy Republic by Claudio Saunt. This one was a hard read because of the subject. This belongs on the Zinn shelf and ought to be a requirement for all American high schools. We all know that won't happen in this culture; nevertheless I'm glad this book exists. 
• Fuzz by Mary Roach. I'd never read a Mary Roach book before this. I know she's considered a very accessible science writer, but I don't think her style is quite for me. She writes a lot of in-jokes that I think the reader is meant to feel in on, but they didn't quite land that way for me. Plus I left this book wanting to know more of the science (which, alternatively, may have been her goal). At the same time, this book did give me a great way to spark the story that was brewing after reading some of the other books on this list. And, Fuzz introduced me to a new word, which became my current working title--Predacide. 
• The Nation Must Awaken by Mary E. Jones Parrish. This is a first-person account of the razing of Tulsa's Black neighborhood. Another hard read; and another one that ties in with the the themes of Hospicing Modernity and The Care Manifesto. 
• The Children's Blizzard by David Laskin. This book was similar to Ordeal by Hunger in tone and in subject. It provided more fodder for the scale of environmental disasters and the way that government systems can fail when they're needed most. 
• Detroit: An Autopsy by Charlie LeDuff. Not pictured--I picked this one up from the library and read it in 3 days. It's sad, and like all the other disasters I read about, avoidable. If only we cared to try.