What I read in 2019

Posted byDanika Law

This is my second year doing an annual book review (the first was in 2018, when I read 24)! I read 27 books this year! That is a 16% increase. Though the goal isn’t to read more, it is to read better. If the goal was to read more I’d probably ‘hack’ that goal and read all the shortest books on my to-read list first a la Goodhart’s Law. Once a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure. 

Once again, it is a mostly science fiction list. I read 5 non-fiction books and 1 graphic novel. My commute as always helps me finish many books. I also did a better job of reading a book before bed, rather than scrolling various posts from social media on my phone. 

One of my goals was to set down books that I didn’t like or get interested in, so I’m including a “Did not finish” section to celebrate that. This year I think I was also better at only starting books that I suspected I would like, though, so I think this section is shorter than it would have been in previous years had I been more open to quitting books.

Another of my goals was to write reviews as I finished books: I did that for maybe 5 of the total books I read (the longer reviews are the ones that this shows for). 

A challenge I had in completing this is I would often finish books on my commute to work, and then it’s not like I could write my book review at work: I do, indeed, have an actual job to do. So brainstorms to get around this for next year are:

  •  If I finish a book on my commute, write down some notes upon getting to work really quickly before starting the day. 
  • Start the book review during my lunch break (instead of starting a new book or going on Facebook or Instagram)
  • Not starting a new book until I write the book review for the one I finished (this one… is not likely but it’s a nice idea)

For 2020, one of my goals is to be more deliberate with my book choices and to highlight why I want to read a book (enjoyment counts! The sci-fi isn’t going anywhere). I think this will help me read books that I’ll value and enjoy more. I’ll continue to try writing book reviews closer to when I finish the book, using the ideas above to help me do this. 

Click a book you’re interested in seeing my thoughts on below!

Links to other reviews:

FINISHED

Records of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers 

This is my favourite of the Wayfarers books, and I think my favourite by Becky Chambers. Which is saying quite a bit: the first book I’d read by her was also really great from a character perspective. This also was great from a character perspective! And in addition, had thoughtful world culture and world-building. This book, following 5 characters in a rich culture onboard an Exodan fleet, has such a sensitive nature and mood it sucked me in. I loved, bemoaned, and mourned the characters. The way the space ship deals with death and burial, who belongs to the culture, how things are allowed to shift and change (or not change) is contemplative and serene. While her first book followed what was, in essence, a family, and her second followed a character discover their self-identity, this weaves together several characters making up a part of a culture and what that means. Usually a very good sign: It has also come up a few times in conversation to kick start some conversations. For example, the work has a sort of sex work, and an older character who works a job that makes it hard for her to connect with others goes and sees these workers. The bodies are buried with the ship so nothing goes to waste, something which nowadays might have gross-out factor but the book wove into a very respectful feeling culture. Thinking about how we connect to each other, how the future of resource use goes, and more.

Loved it. As someone who is becoming more aware of how precious a value “Community” has to me, I think I got a lot out of this book. 

To be taught, if fortunate by Becky Chambers

Chambers novella is a pleasant but emotional story about a crew on a nonprofit space exploration vessel sent out for no purpose… except science. No extraction of minerals. No colonizing the stars. Just to discover. 

To aid their travel they go into coma-like states to travel far distances and “sonaform” their bodies to make them better at surviving the planets they investigate. How the crew exists together is a delight: their relationships and sexual connections feel and are vital, as one would expect humans to form connections during a long space journey as part of their mental and emotional survival. 

The book is about Science. And while the mission of this crew was originally science and discovery for discovery’s sake, “news” from home leads to questions about what to do when you can’t stick to your core mission. Can you go on? Do you return home? This was a quick and delightful read. I would recommend it.

Auberon by James S. A. Corey

This is the Expanse novella that helped me get my Expanse fix until the latest season on Amazon Prime. I enjoyed it! It was a romantic tale focusing on how one’s nation’s ideals may be at conflict with our own human connections: If you are part of the leadership of Laconia, with its militaristic authoritarian empire, do you apply Laconia’s rules to your own family? Or do you become part of the ‘corruption’?  One’s family bonds will typically overrule that of their country’s loyalty.

If you read The Expanse novels, you should read the novellas. If you watch The Expanse on Amazon Prime, you should read The Expanse novels. You should just read or watch The Expanse (preferably both read and watch). 

Bad Blood by John Carreyrou

I was a bit late to the bandwagon with this book – most of my coworkers read it last year and highly recommended it. It came up on one of my work’s CVP book lists. I had been reading the news about Elizabeth Holmes and her trial so I was clearly keen to know more. And yet, this didn’t make it to the top of my reading pile until this year!

I loved this book and binged it. I think there are tons of lessons about how to identify the poor corporate culture that can corrupt companies: but it doesn’t read as a lesson. It reads as a total shit show. How did people not know what was going on? Reading the book helps give some colour to that. 

And it was so entertaining, in that ‘watching a train wreck’ way. Highly recommend it. I learned that I enjoy reading non-fiction books about events more than I do about people trying to teach me a lesson. I think part of that is that book editors have minimum word counts and that makes the ‘lesson’ books too repetitive of the lesson (leaving me wishing I had instead listened to a podcast about the book or read the book reviews). 

The War of the Worlds by HG Wells

A weird read because we now know more about Mars (but part of being a reader for me is being able to suspend my disbelief!), but what is most fascinating is that HG Wells published this in 1898! 

The creativity Wells had to have had to come up with a non-humanoid alien encounter and the technology the aliens use is astonishing. I took a really long time reading this book, in part because it is written in an old writing style compared to more modern reads, and in part because it was kind of dry to me. It is also a bit of a blah ending: given how few pages I had left when things were at their worst, I thought the Martians were just going to win and life on Earth for humans was going to suck. But, something outside our control (germs) defeats them. Now that I write that, it is less blah than I thought and also kind of amazing that Wells wrote that as an ending. The idea that something we ourselves have been conquered by many times, being the one thing able to conquer our conquerors. Amazing. 

While it was dry and took a while to read, I’m glad I read it and will try to read some more classic sci-fi in the future (while acknowledging that if I don’t think I’m getting something out of it, it is okay to quit it even if it is one of the ‘sci-fi greats’).

Aside: You can watch this great YouTube series by Extra Credits to learn more about the history of science fiction and some of the prominent writers and their contributions. If you have ever been tempted to read old sci-fi but never gotten around to it, this gives a great overview, and may (like it did for me) give that extra push to read some of it. I made a Goodreads list of many of the books discussed on the show here. 

The Passage by Justin Cronin

This book feels like 3 books because of the multiple story shifts. I think this is the best vampire story I have ever read. There are somehow 2 more books? It is quite long but didn’t feel that way. It is probably the best vampire story I have ever read. 

I enjoyed the book while reading it but didn’t feel compelled to write a lot about it here, nor pick up the other books in the series. Which in itself is a sort of endorsement, or lack thereof. 

On the Edge of Gone by Corinne Duyvis

This book was pretty uneventful. It deals with a short period of time during an apocalyptic event: A comet hits earth, people struggle to stay alive in shelters during the event and aftermath. The people that could leave on generation ships off to the stars and away from the disaster have already left… except one that the protagonist Denise and her mother stumble on. They then try to find Denise’s sister Iris (who wasn’t with them at the time of comet impact) and get a place aboard the ship.

The characters in this book are very diverse and each is going through different struggles. Denise is autistic (author Duyvis is herself), her mom is addicted to drugs, her sister is trans, there are multiple cultural backgrounds for the supporting characters (a Jewish family goes into Shiva to mourn). They are all rich and interesting. 

Not much happened. But that, I can excuse if the concepts dealt with in the story are done well. However, Duyvis wants this book to live in a world where consequences don’t really seem to exist. The captain of the generation ship is struggling to get repairs finished so they can leave, have the right resources for the number of people on the ship, and prioritize who comes aboard. The main character, her family, and everyone she befriends doesn’t seem to realize how difficult this is. 

“I just want to do nothing.” I’m almost whispering now. “Just for a while. Just as long as it takes.” Stop, I tell myself, stop, Iris is tired,  too. When I continue, my voice is steady. But the rest of me shakes. “I don’t think I’m built for the end of the world. I tried to be strong, and work hard, forget the cats… I can’t be useful.” Iris edges closer. “Whether someone is useful only matters if you value people by their use.”

I know it’s nice to live in a world where people’s productivity isn’t a factor in whether they straight up survive or not – I’m very much in support of safety nets like Universal Basic Income to provide a baseline amount of resources for those that are struggling – but when it’s talking about the end of the world, a ship that can only contain so many people, they really do have to value people by their use as not ‘nice and feel good’ as that is. Taking someone with drug issues aboard who will go through withdrawal, not taking people with the right skills to survive and keep surviving. The characters get their way about ignoring the reality of their situation without any of the consequences of their hard choices. I’d prefer it if we saw some of the impacts. For example, sure, take the people with minimal resources, and more people than the ship can provide for aboard, but then discuss that this means they won’t have someone with skill X. Or enough food. Or something. Do a better tabulation of the pros and cons of this mental model of morality. That’s what I want in my sci-fi. 

Even if I am too close, if it is too personal, I don’t know if that makes me any less right. Maybe it’s the opposite. Maybe closeness lets you see something for what it really is, and see the damage it does.

Maybe there is no bigger picture. We all have our own pictures to worry about.

I am also kind of irritated by the ship being able to leave successfully. Logistically and disaster wise and planning wise and skills-wise… it seems like it probably shouldn’t have been able to. The way the characters survived what was thrown at them made it kind of hard for me to suspend my disbelief. 

Edit: As I finish writing & editing my book reviews for 2019 in 2020, I’ve since finished reading Tribe by Sebastian Junger, which has made me rethink some of my views above. A quote from Tribe, emphasis mine:

When people come together to face an existential threat, Fritz found, class differences are temporarily erased, income disparities become irrelevant, race is overlooked, and individuals are assessed simply by what they are willing to do for the group. It is a kind of fleeting social utopia that, Fritz felt, is enormously gratifying to the average person and downright therapeutic to people suffering from mental illness.

With this in mind, the ship being willing to take Denise’s mom aboard despite the struggles to survive her alcoholism poses perhaps makes sense: In a crisis, Denise’s mom may be able to handle her struggles better with the utopic environment of caring for each other. Further, what they are willing to do. Denise wants to help, but cannot for a moment. Perhaps when I wrote the above I was in a darker place about community and getting through struggles together and what people would be willing to do and sacrifice to keep the community together. I’m pondering it.

Reading On The Edge of Gone and Tribe feels like a good discussion started, which is a great reason to read, so in a sense the books are recommended reads. 

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

Oof. This wins the prize for the most emotionally impactful and thought-provoking read of 2019. 

A man, Charlie, with an IQ of 68 writes progress reports as he undergoes a procedure to increase his intelligence. Algernon is the rat for which the same procedure is done. The writing style changes, becoming accurate and then becoming sophisticated. 

Charlie learns while working at his original job that many of his friends only liked him to make fun of him – when his IQ was still 68, he had fun with them and couldn’t see this nuance. Charlie’s mental rise peaks and Algernon begins to degrade, then die, foreshadowing what will happen to Charlie. So he researches, with his newfound very high IQ, what caused that to happen to Algernon, unfortunately not such that they can reverse the issue for himself, but so that it can be known.

In reverse, the writing style reverts to how it started. Charlie doesn’t want pity now, having seen what it was to have a higher IQ and how people really treated him impacts his ability to make friends.

This book makes you think a lot. And cry. I was so touched by this book.

Animal Farm by George Orwell

A good read especially if you complement it with some reading about the Russian Revolution. I didn’t know much about it, so a lot of the satire didn’t really resonate but it did encourage me to learn more about the Russian Revolution. I wouldn’t say that this is particularly fun to read, though. Many have probably read it for school which makes it even less fun for those readers.

The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood

I feel like Margaret Atwood constructs really interesting but unlikely dystopias. If you stop for a moment and think about them, they start to collapse. But she writes phenomenally about how people would respond to these unlikely dystopias.

In The Heart Goes Last, a couple is struggling and living out of their car in a period of economic and social collapse. As they are hitting their lowest moment, they get the opportunity to join the community of Consilience. Here, on alternating months, they either live in a comfortable clean house or go to prison. This system makes jobs for everyone since you need people to look after those in prison.

Some problems I have with this: 

  • Problem 1: Where is this community getting its wealth from to pay people? Jobs aren’t just getting you money on a whim, but because somehow they are creating value in the world, value that may not have existed previously. 
  • Problem 2: This is a really shitty idea, having people sitting around in prison knitting and doing less valuable work than when they are out. Surely preventing individuals from doing what they have a comparative advantage in, to do basically nothing, is economically bad? The community could create much more wealth this way.
  • Problem 3: Why give couples so much space and only have the house for half the time? From the sounds of it, everyone could be housed with decent space, though roommates, without the weird jail/house share system. Or have smaller homes. 

I don’t think Margaret Atwood thought much about any of the above while writing this. I don’t think she understands economics. Which is fine if you don’t stop and think about the circumstances and the system. Her brilliance is usually around characters and dealing with the harsh reality of their situation and their realistic responses to it. She gives consequences to the decisions the characters make. 

But I didn’t like this book. I didn’t find the characters or writing very engaging. That combined with my growing list of problems with the world and economic system they are living in, makes me not recommend this book (read Oryx and Crake or The Handmaid’s Tale instead).

Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks

I didn’t like this book. I didn’t like the characters, the plot, or how the author did world-building. Horza spends most of the book on stumbling space misadventures rather than getting to what the story set up at the onset as the climax, but when it happens the payoff is very weak. Cliche ways of interacting with women or pregnant women or other individuals made me roll my eyes. It dragged on. 

I know other people liked this a lot. I did not. I didn’t write a lot about it at the time of finishing it and I don’t remember a lot about it now as I edit this post in 2020… indicating I didn’t get a lot out of it. Pass. 

The Vital Abyss by James S.A. Corey

I somehow missed reading this Expanse novella! The group of scientists who worked on the Protomolecule is imprisoned. Cortazar, one of the scientists, gets a backstory of who he was before he was turned into an experimentally induced sociopath. This is written in a quite fascinating way and the first person POV (which I don’t think is done much in The Expanse) works well here. 

If you’re into The Expanse, read it. If you aren’t yet into The Expanse, start somewhere else, but read it too. In essence, the same recommendation as for Auberon.

The Time Machine by HG Wells

I found this quite difficult to read for a short story, and found the same with War of The Worlds. It’s possible that the way of writing stories, revealing details, and language has changed enough since it was written that it was more difficult for me to follow and get into. Sort of like reading a book upside down. I’m glad to have gone back and started trying to read some of the sci-fi greats… I guess. But I am not ‘enjoying’ it. 

This felt like putting a book on my shelf to show how worldly I am even though I didn’t read it, even though in this case I did. 

Tiamat’s Wrath by James S.A. Corey

The long-awaited 8th book in The Expanse (the second to last!), my favourite book series! I love how the authors write different sorts of books each time. 

This was great. I really enjoyed it. Read it, read the novellas, watch the TV show. They are all very fun. Expanse.

Dune, Dune Messiah, Children of Dune by Frank Herbert

Great reads that I believe I’ll reread at some point. I’m eager to see how Villeneuve’s movie adaption goes (better than David Lynch’s?? I hope).

I binge read these at the start of 2019 and didn’t sit to write my reviews until the start of 2020, so I don’t have a lot to say besides these are classics for a reason.

And while I didn’t write a lot about them, I hope that my knowing I will read them again is indicator enough that I recommend reading them.

Uzumaki Volumes 1-3 by Junji Ito

SPIRALS

I went through a bit of a skin-crawling body horror feeling when I was home sick from work this year. I feverishly binged these horror graphic novels while I myself had a fever. Not for the faint of heart moments when your skin is already uncomfortable (which it was), which I usually have a bit of, but somehow this hit the spot when I read it. Spirals. Spirals. Spirals. SPIRALS.

How to make friends and influence people by Dale Carnegie (separate post)

I had so many thoughts about this one I wrote a separate blog post!

The Three Body Problem, the Dark Forest, and Death’s End by Liu Cixin 

First book: The Three Body Problem: Really good but kind of solemn. While some books (A long journey to a small and angry planet) have a focus on the characters driving the narrative, their personalities being full & relatable, I felt this really had the plot in the forefront, and the characters less fleshed out. The characters in some other folks’ reviews are said to be unlikeable. Maybe. It’s possible there are cultural differences (this is a piece of science fiction originally in Chinese and translated), or that the characters were neurotypical. In any case, I didn’t find them as unlikeable as others did.

The ideas the characters encountered: they would change you, and your outlook on life. Super mathy. Super good. Definitely going to read the 2nd book in the Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy this year.

I subsequently binge-read the next two books in the series. They are LONG. But I really enjoyed them,

Scrum by Jeff Sutherland

I did not like this book’s writing style, which can best be summarized by the fact that the author themselves gave themselves a 5-star review for the book:

Jeff Sutherland’s review of Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time 

And like many non-fiction books, I didn’t find it useful or productive to read the entire book. A blog post may have sufficed. A short one.

The book is written in a kind of (really) self-absorbed tone. I respect writers a lot more when they list the cases where their approach has drawbacks or evidence against it. It makes a stronger argument than just talking about how awesome you are. This is a good review from someone else on this topic: Romantical Skeptic (New York, NY)’s review of Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time 

I agree it would have been great to hear of the parts of Scrum that are drawbacks, or help identifying contexts where other approaches may work better. But I think the author really thinks that there are no contexts it isn’t the best (which seems unlikely to me). 

Expecting Better by Emily Oster

Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom Is Wrong – and What You Really Need to Know

An economist gets pregnant and wants to see the data for common pregnancy rules. I first heard of Emily Oster on Econtalk. It was an interesting episode because as a data geek, I foresee when I’m pregnant I will have many of the same questions and desires for data. 

I usually feel that you can absorb the majority of the information of a book via podcasts or book reviews, and I’m sure it’s the case for this one as well, but I feel like I got a lot more content reading the book. That may be because I’m particularly interested in pregnancy right now. I loved this book.

People have A LOT of opinions about pregnancy and parenting. Some feel any small risks at all must be avoided lest you be the Worst Parent Ever. Others acknowledge that while yes you shouldn’t do things that put your child at high risk, the parent’s autonomy and enjoyment are still very important. I am in the latter camp. 

In some ways, I hope when I am pregnant I can be data-informed. But in another token, I hope that I can relax and not overthink it. Too much data and poring over the details, especially when we start talking about weird risk factors and small probabilities and small negative impacts, could lead to extra stress which I’d really rather avoid.

But also it can make you more relaxed. For example, common anecdotes about sushi risks and caffeine risks and sauna risks are ones that are particularly front of mind to me as I plan a trip to Japan. While I am unlikely to be pregnant when I’m in Japan, I couldn’t imagine wanting to give up sushI (yes I know Japan has TONS of other delicious meals which I do intend to eat) or the opportunity to visit onsens. Reading this book and the numbers made me feel more chill and at peace with the decisions I am likely to make when I am pregnant.

One small complaint: I felt she was a bit inconsistent at times. A small probability potential negative effect that doesn’t bother her for one decision does bother her in another. But that is okay: She outlines at the start of the book that “this book will not tell you what decisions to make for your kids. Instead, [it will] try to give you the necessary inputs and a bit of a decision framework. The data is the same for us all, but the decisions are yours alone.” So, for some of these decisions, for Oster, she likely felt the cost of not partaking in some ‘potential risk factor’ was too great for her while even though the potential negative impact was the same for another, it was something that was easy to give up.

I would have liked a sortable table (Excel?) for the book that outlined all the decisions she goes through, a column with the negative effect studied, a column with the probability/incidence for that negative effect, a column for her weighted opinion of how solid the study’s data was. I feel like with this I could do some number crunching to multiply negatives by risks and come up with weird reasoning for decisions… such a ME way to want to try making decisions.

But at the end of the day, decisions must be made, and no data is perfect. While the spreadsheet method is appealing, there will be moments where there won’t be data, or good enough data, to make truly defensible decisions, and I will have to make a choice anyway. And you can have the most defensible decision framework for yourself, yet others may make different decisions and even disagree with your strategy. We all have different values and choices to make and it is okay. What I do when I am someday pregnant will be okay. 

Cribsheet by Emily Oster

An economist who got pregnant and wants to see the data for common pregnancy rules gives birth and realizes she is clueless and has no idea about any of the data for the early years of childhood! So she writes another book! Econtalk also interviewed Oster for her second book, Cribsheet. 

This book’s subtitle is ‘a data-driven guide to better, more relaxed parenting, from birth to preschool’. I would emphasize the relaxed part. Whereas Expecting Better had some numbers and pretty decent evidence in it, this book highlights that the evidence on parenting is a lot more subjective.

If you want to co-sleep, it is probably not super dangerous (as long as you don’t drink and are set up for it correctly), but it also doesn’t necessarily have a benefit over the baby sleeping in their own room. If you want to breastfeed, there are some digestive benefits, but the benefits aren’t necessarily as phenomenal as often touted (in developed countries where we have access to clean drinking waters), so don’t beat yourself up if you can’t or don’t want to. Sleep training can work, and there are different methods, and you should really just do what works best for your family/sleep schedule.

Every child is different, every parent is different. And we shouldn’t shame each other for the choices we make. Cribsheet doesn’t have definitive answers: Some people will really dislike that. I found it extremely liberating. When I have kids, I will do the best I can to provide a loving safe environment and try not to sweat the details. And there is data that backs up this choice. 

DID NOT FINISH

I’m trying to be more aware of when I am not enjoying or getting anything out of a book. This resulted in me quitting two books.

The Korean War by Bruce Cumings

I wanted to want to read history but never wanted to enough to actually do it. 

Influence by Robert Cialdini

A book selected for my work’s book club. I thought this was way too pop-psych with poorly cited studies, weird antiquated examples, etc. 

What I learned from the book was: Some tactics around manipulation that sometimes seem maybe true but also seem to be based on anecdotes and small sample studies so I don’t put much weight on them

What I learned from this process was: Don’t read books other people selected that you have no interest in reading. Join book clubs when they are reading a book that you yourself already wanted to read. Or read the Cliffnotes or listen to a podcast about it instead. Book clubs make it harder to quit a book partway through as you realize it isn’t working for you. Life is too short to read books that don’t grip you or seem to be providing some value to you.