Book of the Year

The book I finished yesterday was SO GOOD! This is a history book, told in stories and digressions and investigations and research, very much non-linear. Not at all my usual style. In fact, it took me a while to get into it - I kept it on my kindle for longer than the three week library checkout period, and read and listened to some other books between starting and finishing it. But it gripped me, even from the beginning. I just found it hard to sit down and read straight through - it lent itself to more piecemeal reading, partly because it is not a linear narrative. 

An object, passed down through a series of black women, inspires an exploration of what life was like for these women. But beyond a gripping and at times heartbreaking close look at black families' lives down the centuries, the book provides incredible context, from the origins of the South Carolina colonies to how pecan trees are propagated, in a few number of pages. The writing is luminous, not a word wasted. 

And that's not all! The author writes of the power of objects and story-telling, in a powerful demonstration of why these things matter.

So many levels! So much research! So much love and heartbreak! All in a non-fiction academic history book, jammed with footnotes, which was partially funded by a federal government grant to the arts. Way to go, my federal government!

Runner up, non-fiction:

This book I heartily recommend as an audiobook. True confessions, this book was written by, and the audiobook is performed by, my neighbor, friend, and storyteller teacher, Noa Baum. This is both her personal story, and the story of the heartbreak that is Israel, the land eponymously twice-promised. She does voices and accents in her performance of the audiobook. Again, I could not make it through this book quickly, but visited it periodically over several months. But it is fabulous, and heartbreaking, as there are no answers.

Runner up, fiction:

This book is listed under "children". It took me about three to four hours to read, and it has no actual sex, so I guess it is not YA. It tells the story of a girl left behind as everyone leaves her town, in contemporary America. Self-sufficiency, courage, resourcefulness, sorrow, it's all there. It pays explicit homage to the Island of the Blue Dolphins, one of my favorite books of all time. I loved this book, and couldn't put it down once I started it. Well worth the quick trip.

I read/ listened to more than 180 books this year, guys, but these three stand head and shoulders above the crowd. I think I'll probably browse back through the list again, and maybe offer some other recommendations.