Not necessarily released in 2023, but, of the books I read or listened to during the year, these are the ones I particularly enjoyed.
A man living in a house with many hallways and chambers and statues and tides. The man is working on mapping this house, and documents his efforts. There are the remains of other people, but he only encounters one living human - "the Other" - who calls the man Piranesi, although the man doesn't think that is his name. Then another man, not "the Other," briefly appears, and a woman. Who are they? Piranesi has been keeping journals, so he has those to refer to. But what is reality? What is the real world, what is identity? How we interact with the world, how we make it and it makes us...
Barely Functional Adult: It'll All Make Sense Eventually
Meichi Ng
Illustrated short stories from the creator of the Barely Functional Adult webcomic. Ng grapples with life with introspection, humor and relatable honesty. Topics are wide ranging, from imposter syndrome to trying to make friends as an adult, therapy, knowing when to give up on something, and getting older. Reading this gave me many, "YES, THIS!!!" moments, some laugh/cries, and some straight up laughs.
Year of the Tiger: An Activist's Life
Alice Wong
Memoir from a variety of sources and angles. The book includes autobiographic stories and pictures of growing up in the midwest, being disabled and Asian American, then moving to the SF Bay Area and finding community. There are also non-fiction writings about disability justice, conversations with other disabled activists, and art by disabled artists. It was really eye-opening - lots to think about in terms of ableism in our current world, and how to improve access.
Anni Albers
edited by Ann Coxon, Briony Fer, and Maria Müller-Schareck
Catalog published on the occasion of an exhibition of the same name held at Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, K20, June 9-September 9, 2018, and Tate Modern, London, October 11, 2018-January 27, 2019. I so wish there were a wrinkle in the space-time continuum where I could go to the exhibit, but lacking that, the catalog is pretty great. It's a wonderful collection of her work, and essays about her work. As a physical object I really enjoyed the book's lovely yellow endpapers. I also particularly enjoyed the knots, The Language of Threads essay, her typewriter studies, and, while I knew her as a weaver and textile artist, I hadn't known she'd done printmaking later in life, so that was super cool to learn!
The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing
Mira Jacob
As audiobook, read by the author! The story of an Indian-American family - the parents and son emigrated from India, while the daughter (narrator of the story) was born in the US. In the present, the daughter, Amina, lives in Seattle and works as a wedding photographer (although she started her career as a photojournalist), but goes back home to Albuquerque when her father starts "losing it" (talking to his dead mother all night, etc.) The story traces how Amina and her family deal with her father's declines and the ghosts of the past. What to talk about, and how, trauma, making choices, allowing others their choices. Lots of heavy stuff but not a complete downer - still somehow hopeful, or I guess like life - both bad and good stuff happens.
The Creative Act: A Way of Being
Rick Rubin
Great book on creativity - lessons from his life as a music producer - the path / way of life of being an artist.
Stan Went Fishing: Stories and Images of Waking Up
Stories: Nancy Dorrier, Photography: Paul Fetters
Beautiful book that combines Nancy's writings and Paul's images in a supportive exchange where each enhances the other. The 'everyday' keenly observed, distilled and presented.
The Hundred Secret Senses
Amy Tan
As audiobook, read by the author! The Chinese-American (born in USA) Olivia finds out when her father dies that she has an older half sister who was born in China. Kwan, the half sister, is brought to America, where she takes to Olivia. Not so much the other way, but Kwan is unfazed. Kwan tells Olivia stories of the yin world, and her previous life as servant to western missionaries in China in the 1800s. Really involving story about family, culture, the power of stories, what is real/what we choose to believe in and how it influences our life.
Cowboys and East Indians
Nina McConigley
Short stories about the immigrant experience in the USAmerican West. Geography, culture, identity. standing out for what you look like, trying to fit in, or not. What is being an American? Or being an Indian? Where is home?
Not Yo' Butterfly: My Long Song of Relocation, Race, Love, and Revolution
Nobuko Miyamoto
Memoir of Japanese American artist and activist, from her childhood during World War II, through developing an Asian American identity, the Civil Rights movement and using art for activism and community building. Quite the life story!
Letters To Memory
Karen Tei Yamashita
Musings on becoming the repository of family documents as her parents and others of that generation die. Questions about what to do with them, both as family history, and to contextualize them in the larger / general / world history scope - immigration, anti-Japanese sentiment, WWII, incarceration, the aftermath of incarceration, her father being a preacher, how far "being Christian" goes - or not. Also about writing letters, the exchange of ideas, and how to tell stories.
Catfish and Mandala: A Two-Wheeled Voyage Through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam
Andrew X. Pham
The author was born in Vietnam, but his family escaped and came to America at the end of the Vietnam War, so this book is partly the immigrant story, but then mostly the story of going back as an adult and riding his bike around Vietnam - revisiting places from his youth. How things have changed in Vietnam, how he has changed.
The intertwined stories of a Black family and a Korean family in the racially charged atmosphere of Los Angeles. A police shooting of a black teenager has heightened tensions again, both in general and in regards to race. Questions of what we owe family, justice/revenge, secrets.
How High We Go In The Dark
Sequoia Nagamatsu
The book begins in 2030, with an archaeologist arriving in Siberia to continue the work of his recently deceased daughter - finding things brought to light by the climate change induced melting permafrost . A virus is released from the bodies they find, it sweeps over the world, totally reshaping it - on top of the climate change. (Wait, is this fiction?) Each chapter could be a stand alone story, but there are interlocking threads throughout - people show up as a relative or friend or some other connection, or you get more of someone's story or backstory. Explorations of how people deal with the changed world - or not. Lots to think on.
List from 2022 here.
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I’d love to hear what you enjoyed reading in 2023! Not that I need more for my “To Read” list, but… please throw them in the Comments! Thank you.
Nice to see your list, Megan. Thanks for posting this. I may attempt to read Catfish and Mandala. I had a lot of Vietnamese students, and I think this would be interesting.
I don't read books as extensively, but I loved "Demon Copperhead" by Barbara Kingsolver, and I just finished Colson Whitehead's "Harlem Shuffle." Great reads both!