I have a tradition every year to read one book by John Wyndham, one by Byung Chul Han, and one about love. This year's John Wyndham was The Chrysalids and I enjoyed it as much as everything else I've read by him so far. What draws me to his work is that he really can weave a scenario that echoes real life, while still amplifying it to show realities about us. There's no real preachiness to it, he simply tells the story and allows us to determine our own judgement about it. Written in 1955, there's a strong undercurrent of post-war trauma and nuclear fears due to the cold war. A big theme is ideology, who chooses what is acceptable, and how can any one group make that extreme choices despite lacking any experience in knowing what is truly "normal". I enjoyed it thoroughly, and read it faster than any of his other works because I felt compelled to continue even after I would tell myself I would stop at the end of a chapter. I like how he had the narrator be an adult recounting his child experiences. The child narrator tends to strip the BS justifications adults make up with an honesty and simplicity which is disarming, reminding us that kindness is more simple and acceptable than people make it out to be. I recommend for lovers of sci-fi and people who enjoy exploring cultural responses and long term collective trauma after major world events.
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not simple is a manga by Natsume Ono telling us the story of Ian and his intercontinental journey to find his sister. The art style is very unique and interesting. I found myself oddly fascinated by the way the eyes were rendered. It was hard to process the work in a way I could feel I can explain how I felt after reading it. The story deals with extremely heavy themes (much more so than the other work I read, Ristorante Paradiso) and highlights time and time again how almost everyone around Ian failed him time and time again.
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Blanket Cats of course is a healing novel with a cat on the cover. I actually started reading this one last year and read all but one of the stories and had forgotten to finish it >.< Luckily the format made it easy to pick up again! This one is a bit different than other healing books. A bit grittier and less inclined to shy away from harder subjects or unlikable characters. I didn't enjoy as much as the others since for me these books are a form of escapism, but it was well-written and the pacing was good. The vignettes are not entwined like other similar concepts and the endings of the story are more abrupt. I would say that this one would be nice for people that consider the usual cat on the cover book to be too saccharine but still need a dose of cat content (and there is NEVER enough cat content :p).
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This Woman's Work by Juli Delporte is a beautiful graphic novel highlighting the psychological cuts, both shallow and deep that hurt women the world over. Her art style is gorgeous, both evoking the heartbreaking innocence of a child with the sensual sensory pleasures of an adult exploring the world. It's hard to articulate what it's about, but I guess it would be apt to describe it as stream of consciousness, explorations on gender, and her love of Tove Jansson (which reminds me that I NEED to read something by her in 2026).
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I started Women, Race, & Class by Angela Y. Davis last year and only finished it this week. That is in no was anything against the work. The writing was well done, terse, to the point, and easy to read on a technical level, if not so much on a spiritual or psychological level. It took me longer because of how important I felt it was and how hard it was to read how utterly heartless so much of U.S. history has been to people of color. I do feel everyone should read it. Though on an intellectual level, we understand injustice, bias, and exploitation it's another thing entirely to internalize how those large words manifested as actions throughout history. I think that is all I can say other than to repeat that this book is highly recommended for anyone who would like to add historical context and a deeper understanding to reinforce what it means to fight for social good.
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and when he came / I felt betrayed. / not by him / but by all the men who leave women on their own to tend to the bodies of their children.
– Juli Delporte (This Woman's Work)