The Pleasures of Reading in 2021
by Tara Campbell
This year I’m mixing things up a bit with both genre and non-genre reading recommendations:
Beasts of Prey by Ayana Gray
I actually bought this book after I read a tweet from the author about how some Zoom-bomber had made a horrible racist comment during an online event. I didn’t know her or her work yet, but after reading a description of the book, I was intrigued and bought it. I’m so glad I did! Don't sleep on this action-packed Pan-African adventure. It's a page-turner with relatable protagonists facing fantastical creatures and multiple obstacles. If you're on the fence because you "don't read YA," do yourself a favor and free your mind. I wasn’t a fan of the copious amount of violence (particularly against women) in Black Leopard, Red Wolf, so this was a refreshing alternative to find.
Terrible Things by David Surface
Atmospheric and unsettling, these stories are brief but memorable. Surface is adept at building tension and cultivating a sense of dread. As I read, I felt driven to keep peeking around the next corner, needing to know "what's next?"
Three non-genre things:
I’m Not Hungry, but I Could Eat by Christopher Gonzalez
I’ll let the descriptive copy do its job: “Exploring the lives of bisexual and gay Puerto Rican men, these fifteen stories show a vulnerable, intimate world of yearning and desire.” This collection is at times startling, at times disarming, but always emotionally resonant. The characters in these stories open their souls to us, sharing their vulnerabilities, their disappointments, and their strategies for emotional self defense. In some cases, their motives are laid bare, not for us to judge, but to empathize with. In other cases, we puzzle over their behavior as they reveal themselves through their attempts to shield themselves from a difficult world. Each story is a small, delicious bite of a satisfying meal.
The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich There's a reason she's had such a long and illustrious career. Her characters are three-dimensional and unforgettable, kind, and unflappable in the face of adversity. With lush descriptions and heart, she deftly weaves multiple storylines together without losing sight of the main thread: the defeat of the "emancipation" bill that threatened the Turtle Mountain Reservation. Another deeply satisfying read from Erdrich.
Admit this to No One: Collected Stories by Leslie Pietryzk Once again, Pietrzyk combines keen observation with dry wit to craft evocative stories of power, privilege, corruption, and complicated relationships centered on a fictional Speaker of the House. Her protagonists are flawed but self-aware, capable of glimpsing the ways they simultaneously build themselves up and tear themselves down. The stories crackle with tension, taking on urgent questions of race and power--and the author isn't afraid to turn a critical lens toward her own role in these dynamics. I wanted to pace myself, extending the enjoyment, but I couldn't—I inhaled this book!
And last, but not least: I’m preparing for my annual class reading the Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2021. Though I haven’t read the whole anthology yet, I’ve been enjoying stories like
• “Crawfather”: Mel Kassel’s delightful tale of a startling family tradition centered on a leviathan of the lake
• “Let’s Play Dead”: Senaa Ahmad’s sharp alternate history of an unstoppable Ann Boleyn
• “Schrödinger’s Catastrophe” Gene Doucette’s spacefaring sci-fi novella featuring warped time and a loopy computer
• “The Beast Adjoins” Ted Kosmatka’s atmospheric take on the classic robots-gone-amok-in-space scenario
• “The Cleaners”: Ken Liu’s touching story reimagining how we deal with memory and loss
• I’m also toasting the inclusion of not one, but two stories by my immensely talented friend Yohanca Delgado: “Our Language” and “The Rat.”
Tara Campbell (www.taracampbell.com) is a Kimbilio Fellow, a fiction editor at Barrelhouse, and an MFA candidate at American University. Prior publication credits include SmokeLong Quarterly, Masters Review, Jellyfish Review, and Strange Horizons. Her novel TreeVolution was published in 2016, followed in 2018 by her collection of fiction and poetry Circe’s Bicycle. Aqueduct Press published her collection, Midnight in the Organporium, which garnered a starred review from Publishers Weekly, in 2019, and Cabinet of Wrath: A Doll Collection in 2021.
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