2014 Listicles: Reading Edition

Didn't know Shadowcat is Jewish

School's done, I can read again
Tim O’Brien
The Things They Carried
“I want you to feel what I felt. I want you to know why story-truth is truer sometimes than happening truth.” (179)

Alice Munro
Lives of Girls and Women
Ok, I'm starting to get those jokes now.

Ta-Nehisi Coates
“The Case for Reparations,” Atlantic Monthly
Essential.

Michelle Alexander
The New Jim Crow
Also essential, particularly in light of 2014. Understanding how the judicial, law enforcement and prison system all work together is necessary to begin having an intelligent conversation about our current state of affairs.

Octavia Butler
Kindred
I'm on board to read more Butler.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Half of a Yellow Sun
I went on an Adichie stretch to get caught up. Half was my favorite, mostly for its attempt to capture a pretty under-reported (in the West) historic event. The bibliography is probably more important than the book, though.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Americanah
“In America, tribalism is alive and well. There are four kinds--class, ideology, region, and race...Second, ideology. Liberals and conservatives. They don’t merely disagree on political issues, each side believes the other is evil. Intermarriage is discouraged and on the rare occasion that it happens, is considered remarkable…” (227-8)

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Purple Hibiscus

Stanley “Tookie” Williams
Blue Rage, Black Redemption
Williams is filled with contradictions. Survival is a vested interest, yet his resolve is self-destructive. There is an explicit understanding of the circumstances that allows him to stay in the cycle of violence, in spite of the extraordinary opportunities he is offered.

Preston Lauterbach
The Chitlin’ Circuit and the Road to Rock ‘n’ Roll
A bit too casual for my tastes, but essential subject matter.

Glenn Greenwald
No Place to Hide
The director’s commentary to the NSA leaks.

X-Men: Volume 6, Days of Future Past, Phoenix Rising, Dark Phoenix Saga
Forgot I never sat and read all these books at once because I could never afford to as a kid.

X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills
Why wasn't this made into a movie?

X-Men: Fall of the Mutants, vol. 1 & 2
We don’t need to talk about the main X- titles -- we need to talk about New Mutants. What was the thinking behind this title? I take that back. The branding is very clear. It’s just a poor and bizarre choice. If the known demographic of the X- titles is pre-teen and capable of grappling with weighty, angsty issues, why would a teen-directed title like New Mutants deal with fluff like clothes and dating… through the voice of a middle-aged writer? What a bizarre title. Now I can see clearly what I disliked about this title as a kid.

X-Men: Mutant Massacre
This one was simply about nostalgia.

Longshot
Totally didn’t live up to my expectation. I loved the character. And I long admired Arthur Adams. There are a lot of interesting, weird turns in his back story (and I definitely want to dig into Ann Nocenti’s other work), but I’m kinda glad I never had the dough to get this mini-series. It’s a bit disorganized and light. I suppose that’s the character’s MO?

The Avengers Epic Collection, Volume 9, 1976-1977, The Final Threat
Whoa, pretty glad I was into the X- titles. Kinda lame in comparison.

The Walking Dead: Compendium 2
Reinforces my feeling that I'm glad the show and books are diverging, even if only slightly. The different storylines and pacing are form appropriate.

Bob Newhart
I Shouldn’t Even Be Doing This!