Autumn Reading List - 2021

The more that you read,

the more things you will know.

The more that you learn,

the more places you'll go.

- Dr. Seuss

Hello! Welcome back to The Art of Caesura!

It's that time of year again! The leaves are changing, there's a crispness in the air, and the season of having to mow the lawn every week is behind us. I love autumn. And as we cozy in from the cold, why not grab a good book? As I have done for the past couple years (2019, 2020), today I shall present you with a book from each genre (fiction, non-fiction and graphic novel) which I have read and thoroughly enjoyed in the past year. 

Fiction: 

The Lies of Locke Lamora (2006) - Scott Lynch

I remember standing in Monro's Bookstore over ten years ago, looking for a book for my brother's birthday when an employee came up, pulled this one out and handed it to me, asking if I'd read it. When I confessed that I hadn't, his eyes bulged and he launched into a spirited description of the nuanced world in which this action-packed novel takes place. That was my first encounter with The Lies of Locke Lamora, and the effect that it could have on a reader.

It has cropped up here and there again over the years, with various people - whose opinions I trust - recommending it to me. It seemed time and time again I would be in the middle of a different book or something would transpire that I would forget about it until it intersected my life once again. 

Having now finished the book, my most recent encounter with Lies has been in writing this post and pursuing the comments section of the Goodreads page for this book (linked above) where, hilariously, the third review down is by Patrick Rothfuss (of The Name of the Wind fame). To say it is a glowing review would be an understatement, it is incandescent! He even goes on to detail the ways in which Lies is better than The Name of the Wind (which is one of my faves!) 

Anyway, I still managed to make it into this book not knowing a thing about it! I didn't even know if the title referred to a person or a place (spoiler: it's a person). One can't help but be swept up in the thrilling (and thoughtful and funny and...) narrative, and while it isn't a flawless victory for me, my quibbles are few and far between. I think the thing I liked most about this book was the living, breathing world in which it takes place. We get to see the depth of the world through traditions, religions, and cultural mores being played out without being clobbered to sleep by pages of dry exposition.

Like everyone I have encountered who has read this book, I strongly recommend that you read it too.

Non-fiction:

21 Lessons for the 21st Century (2018) Yuval Noah Harari

I have been a Harari fan since reading his first book about humanity's past, Sapiens. I also loved his second book, looking to the future, Homo Deus - finding his discussion on the research around free will (or lack there of) very compelling. I just recently finished 21 Lessons, and while it was not my favourite of his works, it still captivated me. 

I think, ultimately, my biggest issue with the book is the misleading title. The book is not about 'lessons' in the epistemological sense, but rather a smorgasbord of very well thought out contemplations on the current state of the world. Harari uses historical and present trends to inform well written and easy-to-read pieces on current issues that are in the process of arising. He looks at how we got to where we are, and at times discusses how we might navigate where we are going. 

Examples of some of the expansive topics that he explores are: the (near) future of work, Nationalism, Religion, War, Post-Truth, Meaning, Resilience, and the list goes on (for twenty-one topics, as the title suggests). 

I almost cringed at times with the realization of how ill-informed I am on some important topics (the history of how Afghanistan got to where it is now, for example). But I found Harari's writings enlightening and engaging, and if you too would like to expand your horizons regarding important current topics, then this book might just be the one for you!

Graphic Novel:

Absalom (2011) - Gordon Rennie and Tiernen Trevallion

Old, irreverent and doomed by supernatural forces, hard-nosed copper Detective Inspector Harry Absalom is tasked with upholding the Accord - the treaty between the British Royalty and the forces of Hell. 

I bought this three-part Absalom collection as part of a Humble Bundle that contained a bunch of Judge Dredd comics. I had never heard of Absalom before, but as soon as I finished it I knew it was going to be the one I wanted to share with you for my annual reading list. 

In the introduction, Rennie states that, from the beginning, he always planned on Absalom being only three volumes. I think it takes a lot of self-restraint for an author to state straight up that a series is going to be very finite. But for the reader it really heightens the sense of excitement. Anything can happen when the whole story of these characters is only being told in three volumes. People can die, monumental events can happen. And they do. With many franchises, very little real change is possible because they need all the characters to return and do it all over again. 

Anyway, with this promise of possibility gleaming in my eyes, I launched into Absalom. I was delighted to draw connections to Hellboy (and my love for Hellboy has been well documented on this blog): Absalom gathers together a gang of people, some of whom have super-natural powers to fight other supernatural boogity boos. The strong and emotionally charged overarching story is violently punctuated with action-packed sequences. But the joy of this short series was the character Harry Absalom. He is a crotchety old bastard, one of those "too mean to die" types, but he is also hilarious. His dialogue is intelligent, pithy, sardonic and at times just straight up funny. I chuckled, chortled and properly guffawed more times than one would expect when reading about gruesome investigations into the supernatural and occult. 

If any of this sounds of interest to you, I would urge you to check out Absalom; it really is a hidden gem. 

- ~ - 

I must say, this was actually the hardest year yet in terms of narrowing each category down to only one book. I have to give an honorable mention to Aaron Dembski-Bowden's Spears of the Emperor which was both the first Space Marine novel and the first Dembski-Bowden book that I have read. It did a fantastic job of making Space Marines feel very inhuman, as well as just having a rip-roaring plot. Another honorable mention goes to a non-fiction book that I am about a third of the way through, "Cosmic Queries: StarTalk's Guide to Who We Are, How We Got Here, and Where We're Going" co-authored by Neil deGrasse Tyson; and while it is excellent so far, I feel I must finish it first for it to be considered for this coveted list. 

I hope that I have tickled your interest in some of these books, let me know below what would be on your Autumn Reading List. 

See you next week on The Art of Caesura!

Reading: Cosmic Queries - James Trefil and Neil deGrasse Tyson

Listening: Alexandra Leaving - Leonard Cohen

Next Week:

I am Groot...I mean Kroot.