Some books read in 2024

 

It’s that liminal week between Christmas and the start of the first Monday after New Year’s Day. That time before the work or school week begins again, before a schedule resumes; this formless time when the hours dissolve. . . into what? I’m not sure; it all melts away.

 

But it’s still a good time to reflect on the past year, even though most people posted their year-in-reading round-ups before the clock struck twelve on Jan 1. I did a lot of reading last year, including the entire set of volumes encompassing Dream of the Red Chamber. I wrote some stories I really liked, including my favorite thing I’ve written yet. (And I’ve sold them all!) There are some things in my personal life that have disappointed and saddened me, but c’est la vie.

 

Below are some books that have stood out to me. That I feel have changed me, however subtly. I feel about them as Emily Bronte wrote of the quality of some dreams: “. . . they’ve gone though and through me, like wine through water, and altered the colour of my mind.”

 

Short Story Collections

The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories, edited by Yu Chen and Regina Kanyu Wang

 A brilliant collection of contemporary Chinese science fiction and fantasy tales, translated into English by a team of all-female and/or nonbinary translators. The stories show a true range of styles, themes, and genres. They are accompanied by essays on aspects of translation and the contemporary Chinese literary scene which are by themselves worth the price of purchase (I especially loved the essay “Net Novels and the “She Era”: How Internet Novels Opened the Door for Female Readers and Writers in China by Xueting Christine Ni). Standouts for me among the short stories were “The Stars We Raised” by Xiu Xinyu and translated by Judy Yi Zhou, a melancholy magical realist story about a poor mountain village where the children capture and try to train stars; “The Restaurant at the End of the Universe” by Anna Wu and translated by Carmen Yling Yan, a lovely science fiction tale that entwines the far future with the far past; and “The Way Spring Arrives,” by Wang Nuonuo and translated by Rebecca Kuang, a gorgeously mythical story about gods and giant fish and the coming of Spring.

 

 

The Collected Enchantments by Theodora Goss

An exquisite collection of fairy tale short stories and poems, reinterpretations of classic tales and new ones created from a stew of influences and the author’s own mind. Goss is one of my favorite short story writers, and everything in this collection is magic. Some favorites: “The Rose in Twelve Petals,” “The Wings of Meister Wilhelm, “The Rapid Advance of Sorrow,” “Singing of Mount Abora,” and the exquisite narrative poem, “The Nightingale and the Rose.”


Jewel Box by E. Lily Yu

Elegant, lovely, and often surprising, these tales also often have a fairy tale feel, despite settings in the modern day or even outer space. Some of my favorites: “The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees,” “Ilse, Who Saw Clearly,” “The Urashima Effect,” “Braid of Days and Wake of Nights,” “The Valley of Wounded Deer,” and the wrenching yet ultimately hopeful “Small Monsters.”

 

Novels

1984 by George Orwell

I finally got around to reading this classic last year and found that, yes, it’s a classic for a reason. Even apart from its prescience and political insight, it’s just a chilling, completely immersive, compelling, terrifying read. A psychologically acute portrait of a man trying to maintain his sanity in an insane world, a world that, yes, asks you to disavow the evidence of your eyes and ears, to disbelieve that two plus two equals four. 

 

He Who Drowned the World by Shelley Parker-Chan

Dark and propulsive, the second book in a historical fantasy series that’s heartbreaking, complex, intense, and gorgeously written. My full review here. 

 

Fox Spirit on a Distant Cloud by Lee Murray

A gorgeous little book that weaves together myth and history, the real and the unreal, poetry and prose, in its depiction of Chinese diaspora women in New Zealand—from the early 1900s to the present day. My full review here 


The Need by Helen Phillips

A truly weird, surreal thriller of a book in which a young mother confronts an intruder hiding in her home who knows too much about her life. . . and wants that life for her own. Also, the heroine works at an archaeological dig that may or not be a portal to another timeline/world. This book captures the urgency of early motherhood—all the intense emotions, the fierce protectiveness and love and sometimes mind-numbing boredom and frustrations of caring for little ones—like no novel I’ve seen.

 

Dream of the Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin, translated by David Hawkes (first three volumes) and John Minford (last two volumes)

I did it! I read the entirety of the Chinese classic, Dream of the Red Chamber (titled Story of the Stone in the Penguin Classic edition translation). Five volumes, each volume ~400-500 pages, all in tiny single-spaced font. Totally worth it. The best thing I read all year. A complete immersion into a lost world of beauty and tragedy, into the lives of a noble, extraordinarily wealthy and powerful (but also debt-ridden and corrupt) family in Qing Dynasty China. Reading it is like living in a dream. My full review here.  


Non-fiction

I’ve been trying to read more non-fiction—history, science, and nature. Here are some that struck me in 2024.

 

Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, the West, and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War by Stephen R. Platt

As compelling as any thriller-novel—a look at the massive civil war that some call the bloodiest civil war in all of human history.

 

Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey by Lillian Schlissel

Fascinating excerpts from the diaries of the women of the great American westward migration that occurred between 1840 and 1870. Given context by historian Lillian Schlissel.

 

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

A gorgeous braiding of science, indigenous history/stories, and personal memoir into a brilliant, thought-provoking work.

 

Upstream: Selected Essays by Mary Oliver

Beautiful essays on nature, art, and writing itself.

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