My Wishlist, Myself (pt.1)

Despite my current study abroad status and the fact that I should probably be saving my money for travel and food and other """basic necessities,""" I've been lusting over potential books to buy for my Kindle. I thought I'd share my top "wanna buys" here in an attempt to distract me from actually buying them. (This is also part one of I don't know how many because I am a greedy little hamster.)

(so, in no particular order:)

1. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee —Dee Brown
For a girl who loves history and who studies the intersection of identity and politics, I am super uninformed about Native American history. I don't know what else to say about this book, other than that it seems like a good place to start learning.

2. Watership Down, by Richard Adams
The first time I saw this book (probably in elementary school), I thought that this was a World War I or II book that featured rabbits on the cover; needless to say, I wasn't very impressed with it then and was a little confused a few years ago when I found out that Watership Down was being marketed as a famous fantasy book. About rabbits. Rabbits? What the hell would that even look like? I wondered. I read the intro when I was thinking about getting it with some of my Christmas $$$, which actually made me more interested, but ultimately decided that I'd rather have it in paperback as opposed to my Kindle. (It has a map in the front.)

3. Understanding Comics — Scott McCloud
I was about thisclose to buying Understanding Comics earlier this week, and the only reason that there isn't a copy sitting and waiting for me on my bed right now is that my internet crapped out on me as I was in the middle of pressing the "add to cart" button.

Understanding Comics is one of those books that, if you're interested in comics (like me!) and art (also like me!), you can't really escape. It's cited by artists and writers (and non-artists and non-writers) as a super important piece of writing and analysis about comic books and comic techniques. Since I'm trying to "broaden my horizons" as a person or whatever, I figured that I should finally, finally read this book. This book isn't available on Kindle right now, but I figured that since I would probably get a lot out of it, I could live with having a physical copy of it on my bookshelf. (I know; my life is just so hard.)

4. The Arabs: A History —Eugene Rogan
So, I'm an International Relations major (in case you didn't know) with a focus on the Middle East/North Africa (MENA) region. Despite my junior standing, I always feel like I should know way more about the region than I do. I have a running list of "MENA books" that has a little over seventy titles on it that I've been meaning to read. I'm sometimes a little wary of books that proclaim to be histories of an entire ethnic group or society, but one of my professors last semester (whom I loved) recommended it, so I decided that this might be a good place to start some of my extracurricular reading.

5. My Uncle Napoleon — Iraj Pezehkzad
This is another book I found at my school library (seriously, bless you Beloit...), and I was first drawn to it because of its rad cover art. When I perused the back cover, my interest was totally piqued. My Uncle Napoleon is a hugely successful book in Iran, and even inspired a (super popular) television series. Napoleon is about a young man who lives with his extended family, the patriarch of which is his uncle, Napoleon. The narrator opens the novel by despairing over falling in love with his cousin, Napoleon's favorite daughter. Napoleon is an extended family drama that delves into post-colonial psychology as frequently as family conflict. I alllllllmost bought this book last semester, but demurred because I thought I was going to get it for Christmas. (spoiler: I didn't.)


I'm in the middle of a pretty serious nonfiction kick right now, so let me know if y'all are reading anything similar or what. I love love love love love book lists and book recs, so leave a comment down below!

Currently Reading

Is anyone else guilty of reading multiple books and sometimes.... forgetting one or two of them?

(Because this is the internet, and we're only human, I'm going to assume "yes.")

I'm technically reading like six books now — although, if I'm being totally honest, I haven't picked some of them up in almost a year. I keep them on my list, though, because it A) makes me feel a little less guilty about abandoning them and B) reminds me that I'm meaning to read it/like it enough to keep reading it. I figured that I'd write about my "currently reading" books here because it might compel someone else to read them while I continue ignoring them.

(so, in no particular order....)

1. Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do? — Michael J. Sandel
This book was assigned reading for my legal studies class last year, and I'm probably... halfway through it? Maybe a little less. I can't bring myself to abandon it because I don't see any reason why I should — it isn't hard, I didn't hate it, I just... wasn't required to finish it for class. This book is more philosophical than any of the other books on this list, but manages to apply theories (pertaining to equality, justice, etc.) by putting them in real-world context.

2. A Tale for the Time Being — Ruth Ozeki
A Tale for the Time Being was a "new addition" at my college's library last spring, and because I had seen it popping up a lot on the internet, I decided to pick it up for fun. I got about halfway through with it before the school year ended and I had to return it, but I liked it a lot and I definitely intend on finishing it the first chance I get. (Also, the cover art is, imo, gorgeous.)

3. Imperial Life in the Emerald City — Rajiv Chandrasekaran
I picked this book up last semester from the library because I was bored with my classes and wanted to read something that I could relate to my coursework while still...not being my coursework.

Since then, I've probably recommended Imperial Life to three people since I started reading it. I probably would have finished this book, but I let a friend borrow it because he had to write a paper about Iraq and — ugh. It got away from me. I'm going to pick up a paperback copy of this when I get home as opposed to reading it on my Kindle. Imperial Life is a book I like being able to flip back and forth through in order to refer to the index or earlier chapters. (I started making a reference sheet of characters for my personal use, but I lost that. :/) I'd definitely recommend this book if you're interested in American foreign policy — specifically in the Middle East, Iraq, or in the George W. Bush era. Chandrasekaran is a journalist, and also a really clear and concise writer. I think he does a really good job at explaining things in this book so that you don't need to have an intimate knowledge of Iraq to understand what's going on.

4. A People's History of the United States — Howard Zinn
OK, so I'm ACTIVELY READING this book. While it's been neglected a little bit since I've arrived in Jordan, I wouldn't say that it's been abandoned. The only problem that I have with this book is that it's so long and so dense that I can tell it's going to take me forever to finish it. I'm really enjoying it so far though, and I'd recommend picking it up for a more comprehensive understanding of American history. I can understand why so many people enjoyed it/recommend it. I've also gotten compliments on it, which hasn't happened to my reading list, like... ever. (This is the one book I brought to Jordan with me (besides my Kindle), and I think it was a good move on my part.)

5. The Secret History — Donna Tartt.
I started reading this book on the recommendation of one of my good friends, G., who, when telling me about it, got so excited that she started yelling. It was then that I figured I should read it for myself and see why so many people seemed to be nuts for this book. I'll admit that it took me a while to get into it (some of the characters really annoyed me in the beginning, and it took me a while to get used to the writing style), but by the time I left for Jordan I was totally hooked. I decided not to bring it with me because I figured, since I only had maybe 100 pages left, I couldn't really justify bringing it along with me on the plane because, if I finished it, I didn't want it to be a dead weight. I'm hoping that it won't be too hard for me to pick back up when I get home.

6. Abarat #1 — Clive Barker
I got the second Abarat book a little over ten years ago for Christmas. It's been with me for maybe three moves, and I finally decided that if I was ever going to read it, I should maybe start with the first book in the series. I had to drop Abarat for the usual reasons (going to school, leaving home & not wanting extra baggage, etc.), but think that if I had maybe gotten it a week earlier than I had, I would be finished with it. It's a fast, easy read, and I think that it's a really interesting concept. Asides from my forays into Discworld and Percy Jackson, it's the first fantasy I've read in a long while.



Is there anything you've been reading but putting off? Any books you've accidentally abandoned?

Kindle Reads: A Once Crowded Sky, by Tom King

Genre: Fiction

Rating: ★ ★ ★

Pages: 336

Published: 2012

Publisher: Touchstone

A Once Crowded Sky is the sort of thing that I adore — superhero meta. I've spent hours on Tumblr, Fanfiction.net, whatever, reading introspective fic about superheroes and how they operate within their own world. You can probably imagine how pumped I was to see this book — like, how could I not read this? 

A Once Crowded Sky takes place in a world where superheroes used to roam the earth. You read me right — "used to." The superhero community is left reeling after a disaster (you know the kind, one where the world is about to end and the world's heroes must team up to save the planet from certain destruction) not only ends the life of perhaps the most powerful superhero alive — Ultimate, the Man with the Metal Face — but also with all superheroes losing their superpowers. Permanently. For a group of people whose lives are essentially "cycles of violence" (periods of peace interrupted by periods of war/fighting, rinse and repeat), and never really experience change for long (one character remarks that his wife and daughter have died five times but have always come back), the idea of permanent power loss is beyond destabilizing and debilitating. 

King uses this formula to explore the idea of what makes a hero when death is a nonissue — when you and everyone you love always come back. I mean, if you can be sure that despite whatever evil you might face you'll make it out alright, what are you really risking? King also examines the possible psychological effects of living such a life. (His conclusion is mixed, I think.)

A Once Crowded Sky was definitely a fast read for me. I liked how each character's "voice" came through in their respective chapters and in the broader narrative. (I'm such a sucker for that.) As a writer, King has a firm hold on who his characters are, through and through. He's also obviously versed in superhero lingo. Despite the fact that he builds this superhero universe from scratch, it all sounds plausible — like, I wouldn't be surprised to see comics about these people. Sky doesn't sound like some kind of superhero parody, which I appreciated. 

Via.

I did have a few issues with Sky, however — namely with the female characters and how they were handled. I feel like they were largely one-dimensional; they were frequently described through their relationships with various male characters and were (outside of the wife of the protagonist) infrequently mentioned.

I think that King tried to tackle the issue of "fridging" in comics and how a rational person should react to it ("My wife/SO is dead and that is NOT OKAY and that does NOT motivate me as a superhero but is instead AWFUL for both me and her), but its delivery was kiiiiiiinda weak in that I didn't feel like I had a good understanding of Anna's character. (Anna being the main character's wife.) I am, however, REALLY GLAD that he addressed this issue and called it out on its bullshit.

My final issue was with another female character, Mashallah. I know that her relationship with her religion was supposed to be complicated thanks to her superhero past and previous relationships, but I didn't really see her talking about it in depth or actively working through it. It was more often referenced as an issue or a roadblock for other characters to overcome. (But yo, I am happy that King included a Muslim hijabi superheroine.) Kind of a missed opportunity to really explore a potentially interesting character. 

So. Besides these issues, I did like the A Once Crowded Sky. Each "part" included pages of comic art that provided backstory/character analysis, which was awesome. I'm interested in checking out similar books (because seriously, superhero meta is my crack) and King's other work. I would personally recommend this book to anyone who likes superheroes/comics or likes to dabble in superhero meta themselves.

(If you know of any similar books, PLEASE let me know in the comments.)