These are my picks for the top five fiction books I read this year:
5- To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee
I was a different person when I read this book back in high school. I didn’t remember the story very well and I’m pretty sure I was conflating some bits with Uncle Tom’s Cabin as I tried to remember it. Well, I found a copy on my son’s bookcase, grabbed the audiobook from the library, and was pleasantly surprised at the layers, characters, and depth I found. I don’t know why we expect kids to understand all the emotions and complexities in a book like this and maybe the point isn’t that they understand them, but to expose them to those things in the hope that it expands their minds. Scout and Jem Finch are kids growing up in Alabama in the 1930’s. Their father Atticus is a lawyer, a single father, and a bit older than some of the other kids’ fathers. The story introduces many of the folks in the neighborhood and explains some of the tension and dynamics race causes. Most of the book focuses on how the town handles the trial of Tom Robinson, a young black man who is accused of raping a young white girl. Atticus is appointed as Tom’s lawyer, and despite all the backlash and anger in the community, he gives Tom’s defense his absolute best. Most of the story is through Scout’s eyes. Giving it a naive perspective. She reminds me of Millie in some ways, like her fiery attitude and grit. My favorite part of the story was the bit where Atticus makes Jem read to an angry old lady each day for several weeks. Jem didn’t realize it at the time, but he was helping the woman to conquer a morphine addiction. Atticus’ kindness, compassion, and long-suffering stood out to me. We live in a culture that wants any excuse to lash out and take sides. Atticus, in contrast, did right and good things for those who were actively persecuting him. I want to have that much patience, wisdom, and grit. The woman eventually beat the morphine addiction and died in peace, beholden to nothing and no one. That’s courage. Also, it reminded me that we have no idea what demons people are battling on their own. There are many little nuggets of wisdom scattered about in this book, as well as quite a few laughs. I truly enjoyed it. If you haven’t read it since high school, maybe it’s time to read it with a whole new perspective.
This is for all of us trying to love our neighbors (even if they don’t deserve it).
(Rated PG, Score 9/10, audiobook read by Sissy Spacek, 12:17, hardback, 284p.)
4- The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
The sky was blazing red of fire, pure white of snow, and coal black the three times the narrator (death) saw the book thief. I realized that these are the colors of the Nazi flag, the dominant symbol of World War II Germany, where the story is set. The book thief is a little foster girl named Liesel. This is her story and the story of those she met and changed during her career stealing books. Her foster Mama and Papa bring her into a poor home, but through their shared struggles, they pull close together. The book thief starts her career in a graveyard, where she steals a grave-digging guide. Being elementary school age at the time, she can’t read it. She gets bumped back a grade at school because she can’t read. Her new Papa, Hans, is not a great reader, but he is patient and kind. When he rescues Liesel from nightmares, they work on reading together. One letter, and one word at a time. Liesel steals several books as the story goes on. One, she steals from the embers of a book-burning pile. Others she steals from the Mayor’s library as payback after the Mayor fires Liesel’s foster Mama from doing his laundry. My favorite character in the story is Hans. He’s old, and gravely, and kind. He doesn’t let the war crush his kindness. He loves sacrificially. He’s a good Papa. The language or writing style that Zuzak uses is imaginative. It feels a bit like Neil Gaiman’s style. This story's narrator is death; of course, he was everywhere during that time. It’s fascinating to listen to this story and absorb the atrocities that Hitler and his regime perpetrated on the world, including his own citizens, from the point of view of a conscientious objector like Hans. It’s good to have examples of heroes who are willing to do the right thing even in the face of war and oppression. I love this book and it’s a tough, emotional read. It reminds us that our words are heavy. They have the power to shake the world.
This is for the rebels, the book thieves, and the word shapers.
(Rated PG-13, Score 10/10, audiobook read by Allan Corduner, 13:56)
3- Salvage Title by Kevin Steverson (Salvage Title #1)
Harmon Tomeral has been working in a salvage yard, trying to figure out how to get into space. Tomeral and his two friends/roommates build a mech to enter a Marine competition, hoping to win the 100,000 credit prize so they can buy a spaceship and start their own space salvage company. Tomeral is tough, having come out of an orphanage and learned lots of life’s hard lessons. He wins the competition, embarrassing the marines and military leadership. The military pays Tomeral the prize credits, but in an account that he can’t access as a reservist. The junkyard boss has a soft spot for the boys and hates to see them get abused by the military so he buys them a spaceship from a retiring salvager, and they go to work fixing it up, adding an AI they found in some scrap, and hiring a crew to help run the ship. After a few missions and some luck, the crew finds an ancient midsized warship from the AI’s forgotten star system. Using the AI’s knowledge, they restore the warship and try to sell it in their home system, but the military is still sore about the Marine competition, so they try to freeze the ship and crew in red tape. Tomeral finds a loophole, registering the old ship with a salvage title, and the name Salvage Title. The crew jumps out of the system, hoping to sell the Salvage Title for millions of credits, but they end up in a trap. The buyer is a greedy bully, which sets Tomeral and his crew off. They figure out how to use the ancient warship’s defenses and fighters and destroy the bully. With a better understanding of the Salvage Title’s power, they decide they might want to keep it so they go find a full crew. The book ends with Tomeral and crew saving his home system from an alien invasion seeking to exterminate the humans. What I loved most about this book was Tomeral’s attitude and the fact that the good guys win despite the challenges.
This is for underdogs, hard workers, and treasure seekers.
(Rated PG-13, Score 8/10, audiobook read by KC Johnston, 6:42)
2- Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson
Several people told me they were reading this book, so I jumped on the bandwagon. This is one of Sanderson’s earlier novels; you can tell if you look closely. It’s not as polished. It’s not as tight. It’s rougher. Grittier. But those aren’t bad things- I loved it. He built a different magic system based on “burning” metals. Burning each metal gives access to different powers, for example, burning steel allows a Mistborn to physically push metal objects. Vin is the main character. She’s a skaa (slave class) thief. Her whole 16-year life has been abuse, danger, and scrambling to survive. She’s tough. The hero, Kelsier, finds, recruits, and trains Vin as a Mistborn. He is so different from the others in her life. Kelsier uses trust to build instead of abuse and fear. Kelsier is building a revolution. The fellowship he is building is a crew of different burners who specialize in specific metals. Vin trains with each of them to take her talents to the next level. The crew is working to build an army, destabilize the ruling class, and create a revolution. The evil enemy is the Lord Ruler. Kelsier is betting everything for a chance to kill the Lord Ruler. His motivation is layered but based on revenge. The Lord Ruler is immortal. He defeated a great evil and assumed the throne. He established the Inquisitors- powerful monsters who enforce the law and quell dissidents. Like all good heist stories, this twists and turns. The character development is fantastic. Growth, redemption, and sacrifice- these are built in several of the crew as they come together to create a revolution like nothing the world has ever seen.
This is for thieves, rebels, and anyone who loves adventure and wonder.
(Rated PG, Score 9/10, audiobook read by Michael Kramer, 24:39)
1- Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson (Starlight #3)
This book is a monster. Probably the longest book I’ve read. It’s complex too. Not quite Game of Thrones complex, but close. Sanderson builds on the framework developed in the earlier books, expanding the history, magic, and politics of the world of Roshar. Like the previous books, this one is broken into many chapters following many characters. There are three main character arcs. First, Kaladin the Windrunner tries to figure out who he is in the new world of magic and Knights of Radiance. Second, Shallan the light-weaver tries to figure out which of her personas is really her. She uses three different major personas and several other variations throughout the story. Each has its strengths and weaknesses. In the end, she settles on Shallan, and her husband, Adolin helps her stay grounded. Thirdly, Dalinar Kholin is the main character, trying to unite the nations of Roshar against the Void Bringers and Odium, who are trying to destroy the humans. Many secondary/supporting characters build out the story and help explain the history and magic framework of the book. My favorite of these is Lift, the Edgedancer and teenage vagabond/knight radiant who is the only character in these books brave enough to sass Dalinar. The main storyline bounces between Dalinar’s past, and the current battle between the humans and the parshmen. In the previous books, Dalinar could not remember his wife or any of the circumstances around her death. They had been magically removed from his memory. Now, the memories are coming back and they threaten to crush him. He remembers that he was a monster of a warlord. After years of destroying army after army to protect and expand his brother’s kingdom, he eventually turns into an animal, inadvertently killing his wife in a brutal annihilation of a city that she was trying to defend. During the main battle at the end of the book, Dalinar faces his past, pain, losses, and mistakes, and only then can he own them and move on. His story is one of redemption. Only through our deepest scars are we able to win our biggest battles. The main battle takes up about eight hours of audio. It’s extremely complex, but not confusing. As it plays out, the pieces that have been forming during the build-up fall into place nicely. There are heroes and anti-heroes, massive armies, tactics, politics, plot twists, and drama. I’ve heard from my friends that this was their favorite book of the series and that it was others’ least favorite. It is certainly a challenge because of its volume and complexity. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It helped explain some of the structure that I was missing from the first three books.
This is for readers who need lots and lots of pages full of magic and adventure.
(Rated R, Score 10/10, audiobook read by Kate Reading and Michael Kramer, hardback, 1248p.)
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