Summer Reading List 2017: Charles

Ah, summer. I feel like there’s something extremely nostalgic about the idea of summer reading. I can remember being younger and setting up a little station with books, lemonade, and a shady spot in the yard. Ray Bradbury and that feeling of summer and childhood and hope and magic. Things are...a bit different now. Time seems always short, and there’s always a pressure to be doing something, earning money, scrambling to get by. Summer means yard work and midyear bills and trying to squeeze in some time actually outside and active. Of course, in Wisconsin where I live, that also means dodging snakes and ticks and mosquitoes. So my summer reading station is typically wherever I can steal sometime, prefer ably with a cold drink.

I’m also playing catch-up with my reads this year. I am Very Behind when it comes to reading and have been since November (for some reason, idk), but am trying to push toward catching up. Of course, I’m slipping in a few new acquisitions in as well, including an upcoming release that I’m super excited about. Anyway, enough rambling. The books!

Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee

I absolutely loved the Tor tie-in story to this book, “Extracurricular Activities,” so much so that while down at WisCon I dropped some heavy hints to my partner that this would be an amazing birthday present for me. Well lo and behold! I’m very much for fast and fun science fiction, and that’s exactly what I would call the short story I read. Of course, I’m expecting even more depth and complication in the novel (because it’s a novel and all), but that will hopefully just mean more of a good thing. Given how much I’ve appreciated all of the author’s short fiction, though, I’m sure that whatever this novel provides, I will love it!

Asian Monsters, ed. Margrét Helgadóttir

Okay yes I am way behind on reading this collection, the third in the Monsters anthologies from Fox Spirit Books. I was a huge fan of the first two anthologies and this third one promises to be another stellar installment. I’m a sucker for monster stories, after all, and these books have always had a nice mix of outright horror, more emotionally wrenching pieces, and more fun action/adventure. It’s always a treat to find what local horrors lurk out there, and this series is a great way to explore the world and its myriad monsters without ever leaving home.

Nasty: Fetish Fights Back, eds. Anna Yeatts & Chris Phillips

This is slightly a cheat because, full disclosure, I have a story in this anthology. That said, it looks to be an amazing collection of subversive stories that center on fetish, resistance, and affirmation. Many promise to be solidly SFF as well as scorchingly sexy, which is something that I am All About. It’s a book that pushes the boundaries of what is considered acceptable in SFF and I very much believe that’s something that needs doing.

The Winged Histories by Sofia Samatar

I rather loved A Stranger in Olondria and so this one seems like a no-brainer. I’m trying to read as widely as I can this summer, which means this book is solidly my second world fantasy pick. From my experience with the first book, I’m expecting a slower, denser experience than many of the others on the list, but that’s part of why I’m excited for it. Sometimes I want a popcorn read, and sometimes I want something to really sink my teeth into.

Null States by Malka Older

Continuing the theme from the last pick, this one is another sequel to a book that I very much enjoyed, and one that’s come more and more into focus for me as the country has slid in the direction it has. Infomocracy was all about elections and the power of information (and Information) in an age where political, corporate, and personal power are all intersecting. The first book connected on an idea level and a character level, and I’m excited to see where that might go. I’ve also gotten a taste for it with the recent “Narrative Disorder” story released at Fireside Fiction, which delves a bit more into a fascinating part of the first book and hopefully sets the stage for what comes next.

The Goosebumps series by R.L. Stine

Okay, so remember when I started out saying summer reading feels nostalgic? Well, I'm just going to embrace it for this one, because I'm continuing my reread of the Goosebumps series. It's cathartic, and sometimes that's just. fine. okay? I've actually been very much enjoying going through the old stories and seeing how well they've aged (spoiler alert: mostly not well). It's very fun, though (especially with alcohol involved) and I don't care what anyone says, it's my summer reading list and I'll include what I want!



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POSTED BY: Charles, avid reader, reviewer, and sometimes writer of speculative fiction. Contributor to Nerds of a Feather since 2014.

Charles' Summer Reading List 2016

Okay people, time for some hard truths. I have been plops at reading anything but short fiction this year. Seriously, it's been a little tough to find the time. But I am fresh-ish from my return from WisCon and am SO ENERGIZED to get to reading some of these books. Seriously. And yes, I know, there are two books of short stories on this list but just because I read short fiction almost constantly doesn't mean I don't want to read more of it. 

1. Infomocracy by Malka Older [Tor, 2016]

If I had to pick up this novel on the strength of the author's Tor dot com story, "Tear Tracks," that would be enough of an incentive to read. But the description of the book, that of a political techno-SF about the power and corruption of information, looks compelling as hell. Especially with the current US politics at play, this novel looks a timely and excellent read. So here's hoping!

2. The Root by Na'amen Gobert Tilahun [Night Shade Books, 2016]

I first heard Na'amen Gobert Tilahun speak at the 2015 WisCon and the energy and passion and wit he brought to every panel he was on was just amazing. So when I saw that he had a novel coming out I jumped on that. Hard. Mixing magic, government conspiracies, and celebrity, the story looks fast and fun and exactly the sort of thing I want to see more of.

3. Minions of the Moon by Richard Bowes [Lethe Press, 2013]

I have been charmed by Richard Bowes' short fiction since I first stumbled across it and to find a whole connected collection is amazing. From what I've noticed the author tends to write in bundles of shared-universe story series (mosaic novels?), and it's a form that fascinates me. It certainly helps that it's put out by Lethe, a publisher dedicated to putting out a lot of amazing content. Really this just seems a match made in heaven for me as a reader.

4. Trouble and Her Friends by Melissa Scott [Tor, 1994]

So this book keeps getting mentioned and apparently I must read it. So I will. It might be obvious from this list that my background in reading is mainly fantasy and I'm trying to branch more into science fiction. Of the strictly speculative fiction, this one is also the oldest on the list. I want to read more SFF from the 70s as well, but in some ways I'm bouncing all over at the moment, trying to find my own tradition, my own canon. So I'm interested to see how this book informs my past and future reading.

5. The Winged Histories by Sofia Samatar [Small Beer Press, 2016]

I read A Stranger In Olondria earlier this year and all I can say is yes. Yes of course I want to read this, especially on the heels of seeing and meeting the author at WisCon (!!!). The first book was all about place, travel, and culture, and if the jacket is anything to go by this second book is about history. I'm very excited to see what the author does with that and how the setting will continue to be revealed and complicated.

6. The Time and the Place and other stories by Naguib Mahfouz [Anchor Books, 1992]

This is the only not-really-speculative book on the list and I'm hoping it still has some speculative elements. This was something of a blind pull at the bookstore and it looked interesting and not huge (which can sometimes be important). Really I want to read more books from outside the USA and this one seemed like a likely candidate. Short fiction and especially short fiction in translation can be amazing and I'm quite excited for this one.



[p.s. I'm still participating in the K. Tempest Bradford reading challenge this year (with style, I might add) and all of these books handily qualify for that, so yeah, another reason to check them out.]  

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POSTED BY: Charles, avid reader, reviewer, and sometimes writer of speculative fiction. Contributor to Nerds of a Feather since 2014.

WisCon: My Home Con

So WisCon 40 is done and gone. And over a week late I'm finally getting around to find my thoughts on it. My thoughts on everything that's happened and everything I was lucky enough to hear and participate in. WisCon, since I started going three years ago, has been, well, the one con I go to each year. Money and work mean that I just can't get too far away from where I live and WisCon...WisCon makes me really happy to live in this state. And this was a big one. Three Guests of Honor, including Sofia Samatar, Nalo Hopkinson, and Justine Larbalestier. Plus just regular awesome people in attendance like K. Tempest Bradford, Mark Oshiro, & many more. For the 40th anniversary of the con people pulled out all the stops.

This was also my first year on programming. I got to be on two panels right away on Friday, at both of which I got to feel completely outclassed by the rest of the panelists. The first, on The Art of the Book Review, kicked off the con for me, and featured a great discussion about the nature of book reviews and their changing role in the fan and publishing landscape. And okay, yet, I apparently have some not-incredibly-popular opinions when it comes to spoilers and negative reviews and comparing works to other works, but it was still a very respectful panel and it was a great way to get started.

My second panel was a bit more...well, it was a lot more fun with a lot more swearing. The Baby Writer panel featured writers with five or fewer pro sales and was addressing that particular place in a writer's trajectory (which for many lasts a lot longer than for others). But it was a great, cathartic experience to talk about the struggles of starting out and facing...a bit of an uphill battle when it comes to getting work out and accepted at pro markets and dealing with managing expectations, pushing back against negativity demons, and trying to focus on both the business and the craft of writing. Really, this was the panel that revitalized me a bit, that got me excited to keep going and writing. Or maybe that was the con as a whole. I always leave WisCon feeling equal parts inspired and intimidated, but it's an amazing experience, like cramming some sort of college course into a single weekend.

Now, other people have written much more intelligently about WisCon and it's history and "the way it's been going." Go read this piece by K. Tempest Bradford. I have less experience with this because this WisCon has always been more my WisCon. Having only gone the last three years, I've seen some shift but haven't experienced how it was before. What I know is that I've loved WisCon and each years just keeps getting better. As much as I am a complete social idiot when it comes to saying hi to people, I've felt welcome at WisCon and really look forward to going back. But there is a discussion going on about who is welcome and if there was a theme this year that I could pick out it's probably one that revolves around the idea of Nice.

There were a few excellent panels about the pitfalls of Nice. The #KeepYANice and Other Tools of Oppression was a great discussion of that, where how people talk about nice and who is expected to be nice was dissected and examined. Many other panels came back to this as well, looking at things like code switching and the intersections of race and class and how Niceness is something that is often used to mean "the right kind of Nice" which is the Nice expected of people who are being punched from above. And there were calls both to resist the pressure to be Nice and there were also calls to shift the conversation away from Nice as an attack and more toward using Nice to celebrate real, human kindness. The proposed Lemonade Award was the culmination of that, put forward by GoH Nalo Hopkinson. It's an interesting idea and I'm excited to see where it might go.

In the end, WisCon remains a great place to go and to talk but, for me, mostly to listen. To bask in the voices of so many amazing people and writers and learn something. And also buy a lot of books. But year after year it continues to provide excellent panels and discussions and speakers and just all the good. If you're in the Wisconsin area around Memorial Day, definitely stop in. Say hi. See you next year, WisCon!

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POSTED BY: Charles, avid reader, reviewer, and sometimes writer of speculative fiction. Contributor to Nerds of a Feather since 2014.