Books you should read (or give as a gift!)

Since it is the holidays here in the good US of A (and elsewhere I presume, but I don’t concern myself with the goings on outside of our fine borders) I thought it only appropriate to share some of the best books I’ve read this year. Along with affiliate links and a plea for you to buy them for friends, loved ones, or enemies.

The Golem and the Jinni

Hard to believe I read this book in 2014, but I did (finished it on Jan. 25th, 2014). This is a great book, as discussed on this episode of The Incomparable. And at the moment it is only $2.99 in ebook format. Why haven’t you purchased it already?

Ok, so you want to hear a little bit of what this book is about. A golem is shipped to NYC, as you do, and he master dies. She’s left to fend for herself and ends up meeting a Jinni. It is great.

Amazon | Kindle | B&N

My Real Children

I love Jo Walton. Well, I love her writing (I’m sure she’s a lovely person though). After reading her Small Change series I decided that I would just buy whatever her next novel is without question. That’s why I preordered My Real Children and read it as soon as it appeared on my Kindle.

This book is science fiction, but with a light touch. The main character is an old lady who is in a old folks home and remembers living two lifetimes. Is she crazy? Nope, she is just remembering two different timelines of her own life.

Fantastic. And there are moon-bases, so: science fiction.

Amazon | Kindle | B&N

The Bone Clocks

David Mitchell knows how to write a book I tells ya. The Bone Clocks is definitely science fiction, but since Mitchell wrote it people you’ll find it shelved in the “Fiction” section of the bookstore (serious writers don’t do science fiction, you see. Even though the Cloud Atlas was also SciFi).

This book pings around the world and history following the story of Holly Sykes who ends up involved in a war that she knows nothing about. I devoured this book (after I got through the first 30 pages or so).

Amazon | Kindle | B&N

Station Eleven

I’d never heard of Emily St. John Mandel before (but what a name), however, this book is crazy good. It is a post-apocalypse book, but it isn’t apocalypse porn. Most of the action happens a good while after the fall of society, when new rules and societies have been formed and life is somewhat stable (though nothing like we know it).

A traveling band of Shakespearean actors are the main vehicle of the plot with characters connecting threads across time before, during and after the pandemic.

Amazon | Kindle | B&N

And the sequels

There are two other books that I quite enjoyed this year, but it is difficult to recommend them since they are both a part of a larger series.

The Causal Angel by Hannu Rajaniemi blew my mind with the bizarre stuff that it contains. This is a science fiction lovers science fiction book (though if you don’t like rather baroque writing, this might not be your cup of tea).

Last year Ancillary Justice was my favorite book, and this year the sequel (Ancillary Sword) is on my best of list. You should read the first one though, and then pick up the second.