Tourma: Book of the Year 2021

Same as my video games post, here are some books that I enjoyed this year.  No specific order, safe for the book of the year at the bottom.Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fischer (2008)This one has a bit of a lead-up.  In 2020, I realized that I am transgender.  The name I've picked, (for now,) is Leia.  This is based off of a random conversation with my parents where my mom said that had I been born a girl, (they never learned from the sonograms,) my name would have been Leah.  Being the nerd that I am, I took the spelling of the famous sci fi character instead, though I do pronounce it with an EE rather than an AY.I've maintained throughout my life of nerdery that I've never been a huge Star Wars fan.  Not like the really huge ones.  I was into it as a teen, I saw the prequels in theaters, I owned Rogue Squadron and Pod Racer, but it never maintained.  I never read any of the books, and man, have I read some trashy tie-in novels over the years.This choosing of a name is what prompted my newest spree of Star Wars fandom.  I played my PS+ copy of SW Battlefront 2, I bought (and beat!) Jedi Fallen Order in 2020.  I watched (most of) the Madalorian.  I started reading the Karen Traviss Star Wars novels as I liked her tie-in schlock for Halo and Gears of War.  I got through two until I checked out with the romance plot.I remembered from when I was a page putting away books that Carrie Fisher and written several memoirs and that they looked pretty funny.  Getting me to read a serious biography is like pulling teeth, but a funny one?  I can handle that.  Also, most of what I know of Carrie is from Tumblr posts about her manic and genuinely nice interactions with people at conventions.  So knowing more would be nice.This was the one they had in stock on Overdrive at my library at the time.  I read it a year ago, so I don't remember a lot of the details, but she had a long and interesting life.  From her times working on Star Wars, to her different childhood, to her marriage to Paul Simon, it was a very interesting read.What the book also did was break my growing infatuation with her/her character.  It made her a read-ass human.  And for that I thank it.  No one should be put on too high of a pedestal.  I'm still using Leia as my name and I still like Carrie and her characters, (tbh, I think she was hotter in Blues Brothers than Star Wars,) but I'm not where I was a year ago.Thank you Carrie, for everything.~<3(This said, I'm back on my bullshit as of 1/27/22 reading Leia: Princess of Alderaan by Claudia Gray)Redwall by Brian Jaques (1986)(at least) second readSo these are a series of books I've read over a dozen of over the course of my tween years and really enjoyed them.  Hearing that Netflix(?) optioned the series to make a TV show out of it, and seeing art popping up again of it, I decided to add these books to my list of books to reread, along with Terry Pratchett's Discworld series.  I started with the first.I remembered very little of this book, so reading it again was almost like the first time.  What really, REALLY struck me though, is how my perspective changed from reading it as a kid to reading it now.  I remember identifying with Matthias hard reading it the first time, and now I identified more with the adults around him, and seeing Matthias as the kid he is.  Its a really interesting observation for me.  Matthias grows through the book, but him running in sandals too big for him at the beginning is what really holds up in my memory now.I think this are still good middlegrade novels and well worth the time for any tween who likes fantasy and/or books about animals.  You might get them to eat more vegetables too, as the good creatures all seem to be pescatarians and Jaques' descriptions of the various feasts are fantastic.  Now as then, I really wanted a salad while reading the books.I don't think I'm going to reread ALL of the books like I am with Discworld, but I will continue with the ones I never got to.  That's still 13 or so.  And if I still want to, the books are popular enough that they will still be around when I get back to them.Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells, (2021)A book from the current year I'm talking about!?  Whaaaaat?  Yeah.  It would have to be for a Murderbot book, because I've read all the older ones.  I also got my dad to read them.  For those unaware, The Murderbot Diaries are about an artificial construct made of part mechanical, part biological parts.  Sentient meat is easier to make than AI, and mechanical parts are easier to maintain than meat.  And the Corporation is all about doing things on the cheap.  Murderbot is a Security Unit (SecUnit) that is part of missions the Corporation bonds for security and to spy on those that are bonded.  Murderbot has overridden it's Governor Module that keeps it from doing whatever it wants, but while contemplating murdering everyone, they find the Entertainment Feed and decide they'd rather just watch soap operas.  Now they have to preserve their humans to hide the fact they're also doing their own thing.This is the 5th book in the series and takes place before the 4th book (the only novel,) but way after the events above.  They are now their own sentient being on a non-corperate entity planet.  This book is a side story, while Murderbot is on the space station, a person is murdered.  The station goes into lockdown and Murderbot, to help get the residents of the station that it hasn't already saved to be more trusting of it, is volunteered to help the investigators figure out what's going on.  Much of the charm of these books is Murderbot's dry humor.  Their observations are frequently funny.  Also they are rather introverted and dislike dealing with people, and so are rather easy to identify with too.  These are all great books and I recommend All Systems Red (the first novella,) to everyone.  If it's not your thing?  It was only 111 pages or so.A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine (2021)Another book from this year!?This is the sequel to A Memory Called Empire and it ramps up delightfully.  We learn of the fates of the characters after the completion of the first book, learn more of Mahit's home station, Three Seagrass' new job, the new enemy they all face, and the continued weight Empire has on it's lesser neighbors.Its everything I wanted out of a sequel.  There's more story to tell too.  It was my best novel of the year at that point in April.  I'm excited to read the third book whenever it comes out.Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution: An Oral History by Anna Joy Springer, et al. (2020)This is the second nonfiction book I read in 2021 and one that I Kickstarted.  PM Press does great work.  I've backed another queer music book from them based on how much I liked this one.It's about the queer Punk scene from its origins though 2000 or so.  I don't know much LGBT history, (I should learn more since I'm two of those,) and even less about punk music, but this book helped me a bit on both accounts.  It is a really compelling and fast read and taught me a thing or two.  I also used Search Ohio and OhioLINK to get some of these band's albums.  Got a lot more queer punk bands now than just Against Me!. Empress of Forever by Max Gladstone (2019)This was recommended in...Desolation of Peace I think?  I'm generally leery of any books labeled as feminist, especially ones written by men.  Too many terfs out there.  So this one I went in with a critical eye.  I'm glad to report that it seems to be that the crew is mostly women and the one dude doesn't hit on anyone.  The villain is also a woman, hence the title.Its a sci fi retelling of Journey to the West, the classic Chinese novel.  And it hits a lot of the high points and adds their own post-apocalyptical, space opera spin to them.  I set this book down a few times, but eventually finished it.  Enjoyable overall.I also tried to read a new translation of Journey to the West, but I've also set it back down for a while.  I do hope to finish it this year.Hell's Library series by A.J. Hackwith The Library of the Unwritten (2019)The Archive of the Forgotten (2020)(not yet read) The God of Lost Words (2021)These are interesting books.  The afterlife is for more than just mortals.  Their works also get their own.  With different works living in different afterlifes.  The Library of the Unwritten, books never finished by their authors before they died, is in the Christian Hell, though is not directly a part of it.  Claire is the head librarian, and one of her tasks is to bring back books that get up and leave.  This creates greater problems when Heaven thinks they are looking for a VERY different book.  Problems progress from there, and even more in the sequel.Honestly I got this book because it's about a fictional librarian.  I would totally cosplay Claire if I had the chance.Terry Pratchett's Discworld reread:Mort (1987)Sourcery (1988)Hogfather (1996)One of the things I've been doing is I am going though the entirety of the Discworld books in order.  I read most of them hodgepodge over a decade ago, but now, I'll go (mostly) in order.  I didn't read all of them at first, so this is also an excuse to read the ones I missed.  They are fantastic books for when the world has me down and I can't get though whatever else I was reading.  Comfort food in book form.Mort and Sourcery is the continuation of that.  The books at this point are starting to feel more like the Discworld of the latter books.  Terry is getting more into what the world means to him.  While neither are his best work, they are still fun and worth reading.Hogfather is my go-to Christmas novel.  Its interesting, has fantastic Chritmas vibes, one of the best lines on human nature ever written, and a pig that wees everywhere.  What more could you want?HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE. “Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little—” YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES. “So we can believe the big ones?” YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING. “They’re not the same at all!” YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET—Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME . . . SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED. “Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what’s the point—” MY POINT EXACTLY. . . . .NO. YOU NEED TO BELIEVE IN THINGS THAT AREN’T TRUE. HOW ELSE CAN THEY BECOME?Penultimate Book of the Year:Macanudo: Olga Rules by Liniers (Creator),Mara Lethem (Translator)(2018)This is another Kickstarter item.  I backed Enchanted Lion Press to help them keep their doors open and this was a book from their stock that they offered.  I had never heard of this comic strip before.  I chose this book as it has a character named Olga, and that's the name of my grandmother.Olga is a kid's imaginary friend who can only say