2023 in Review: The Godless, Pop Gods, and Others
by Cynthia Ward
Another less-than-stellar year, so on to the (mostly) good stuff
May we all have a vision now and then (Music)
"Happy New Year" by ABBA - In hopes of a better year ahead.
"Journey to the End" by Haliok - My favorite song by Norwegian death-metal band Windir lends itself well to techno/electronica interpretations, as this cover version demonstrates.
Omega Funk 10,000 by Benjiphonik - If you were wondering (as I'm sure we all do) who stands at the intersection of P-Funk, Run-DMC, Slayer, B-movie sci-fi, and Weird Al Yankovic, here's a link to a free streaming EP by SoCal singer/rapper/musician Benjiphonik (although this particular collection is, to be fair, short on metal).
The Story of Zamrock! The Zambian Rock Sound 1972-1978 - Thanks to the writer Manjula Menon for introducing me to this short documentary and the fantastic psychedelic rock of 1970s Zambia.
It was strange to discover the world was a better place that you’d believed (Books)
Nonfiction:
ABBA: Bright
Lights Dark Shadows (updated
2014) by Carl Magnus Palm - Very thorough and mostly interesting, but probably
not for the casual fan (or for someone who wants an update that includes ABBA's
recent reunion)
All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot - So everyone read it back in the '70s except me, and I wish I had, because I could have reread this charming account of a rural Yorkshire veterinarian's adventures and misadventures many times in the intervening years.
An Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales by Oliver Sacks - In this justly praised
(though now dated) book from 1995, the late neurologist sympathetically discusses (from an outsider perspective) several individuals we would now describe as neurodiverse, including, most famously, the autistic animal behaviorist Dr. Temple Grandin.
Armageddon: What the Bible Really Says about the End by Bart D. Ehrman - Fascinating and enlightening book by one of the leading scholars of the early Christian era.
The Autistic Brain: Thinking Across the Spectrum by Temple Grandin and Richard Panek - Excellent (though dated) book on autism from someone on the spectrum--which makes this something of a rarity in mainstream-published books, in my experience.
Hijab Butch Blues: A Memoir by Lamya H - In this collection of thoughtful and thought-provoking essays, the pseudonymous queer Muslim immigrant author explores her relationships with her religion, her deity, her sexuality, her culture, her partners, and her family.
City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles by Mike Davis - A classic sociocultural history of L.A. from an author whose political perspective is much like mine, but I didn't finish it because I wearied of the nonstop negativity.
Confessions of the Other Mother: Nonbiological Lesbian
Moms Tell All! edited by Harlyn Aizley - This anthology of essays by queer
nonbirth mothers is wide-ranging and well-written (if somewhat dated), and it
gave this childfree reader much food for thought about motherhood, parenting, pregnancy,
birth, child-raising, and family.
Devils, Lusts and Strange Desires: The Life of Patricia
Highsmith by Richard Bradford - By all accounts, the brilliant
mystery/thriller writer and trailblazing lesbian romance author Patricia
Highsmith was a reprehensible human being, but the author of this biography is
so busy making sure you know he doesn't like her that I abandoned the book, overcome
by the sound of axes grinding.
The Family Outing: A Memoir by Jessi Hempel - What if
nearly everyone in your family, including you, turns out to be queer and/or genderqueer,
and oh, yeah, you might be involved in a cult?
Godless Citizens in a Godly Republic: Atheists in American Public Life by R. Laurence Moore and Isaac Kramnick - A thoughtful, nuanced, non-insulting view of religion and irreligion in American life, and their iterative interactions with U.S. law and custom and with one another; the authors' reasonable thesis is that nonbelief has generally failed to provide much to fill the role (meaningful action/activism) of religions and faith groups, and they speculate on a more coherent approach to secular morality.
Good Without God: What a Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe by Greg Epstein - A thoughtful and thorough exploration of not only the possibility, but the necessity of atheist morality and ethics, written the Humanist Chaplain of Harvard University.
I Am a Bacha Posh: My Life as a Woman Living as a Man in Afghanistan by Ukmina Manoori with Stephanie Lebrun, translated by Peter E. Chianchiano, Jr. - A fascinating first-hand account (in translation) from a person who was assigned female at birth; was temporarily designated a boy so her family would have a male child, in accordance with Afghani custom; and refused to resume life as a girl--of interest to readers of Anna-Marie McLemore's novel When the Moon Was Ours (2016) or Jenny Nordberg's The Underground Girls of Kabul: In Search of a Hidden Resistance in Afghanistan (2014), or to anyone interested in gender, identity, feminism, Afghani culture, etc.
Lady Justice: Women, the Law, and the Battle to Save America by Dahlia Lithwick - The gut-clenching account of how women lawyers across the U.S. fought back the Trump administration assault on democracy, and let's hope Lithwick never needs to write a sequel.
Living the Secular Life: New Answers to Old Questions by Phil Zuckerman - This carefully researched (if now somewhat dated) exploration of the United States' fastest-growing religious/ontological demographic ("nones") is written with grace and balance by a leading secularist; the book's a useful guide, whether you're writing the other as a believer, or just looking for better understanding, whether as an outsider or as an insider.
Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma by Claire Dederer - A complex, candid, and sometimes deeply uncomfortable exploration of art, creativity, monstrous creators, our relationship with them, and other relationships.
NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity by Steve Silberman - The best book (and the most recent) I've read so far on autism.
The Other Family Doctor: A Veterinarian Explores What Animals Can Teach Us About Love, Life, and Mortality by Karen Fine - The memoir of a woman veterinarian and pet owner who entered the field when it was male-dominated and built a successful practice in a sexist profession that guarantees much suffering and death; if you don't cry, your heart is harder than mine.
The Ride of Her Life: The True Story of a Woman, Her Horse, and Their Last-Chance Journey Across America by Elizabeth Letts - An aging Maine farm woman diagnosed with terminal cancer loses her home to the tax man and sets out to cross 1950s America on a horse--Annie Wilkins is a quintessential Mainer, the author understands Maine better than any other out-of-stater I've ever read, and this is one of the best books I read all year.
Rise: A Pop History of Asian America from the Nineties to Now by Jeff Yang, Phil Yu, and Philip Wang - This impressive, comprehensive, and sometimes very funny exploration of Asian American pop culture and historical/political/sociocultural issues includes a handy "appreciation-or-appropriate" flowchart for those of us who are writing the other, or who just want not to be assholes.
She's Not There: A Life in Two Genders by Jennifer Finney Boyle - A literate, insightful, candid, and drily funny memoir by the novelist, trans activist, and former Colby College professor.
Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie: The Extraordinary Story of the Founding Mothers of NPR by Lisa Napoli - The subtitle is truth in advertising.
Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan by Jake Adelstein - The title and foreword make this engaging work sound like a true-crime book; the subtitle might have injected more accuracy by including the word "memoir."
We of Little Faith: Why I Stopped Pretending to Believe (and Maybe You Should Too) by Kate Cohen – This thought-provoking book covers considerably more ground than just whether a nonbeliever should identify and publicly come out as atheist.
Who Gets Believed? When the Truth Isn't Enough by
Dina Nayeri - Odds are, if you're reading this blog, you are or have been part
of a demographic or several whose experiences are routinely disbelieved and
dismissed, and therefore might find this book of interest; but I have known
people who couldn't finish it, because the dismissed people on which it is
centered are refugees and torture survivors.
Harrowing and necessary.
Wild Tongues Can't Be Tamed: 15 Voices from the Latinx Diaspora edited by Saraciea J. Fennell - A nonfiction anthology of graceful, powerful essays from a fairly diverse, broadly defined group of Latinx authors.
Fiction - Anthologies and Collections and a Story or Three:
"The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle" by Arthur Conan Doyle - A fine winter mystery featuring an oft-stolen gem, Christmas geese, and an almost merry visit with Sherlock Holmes, who embodies the generous spirit of the season (included in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes)
Bicycles & Broomsticks: Fantastical Feminist Stories about Witches on Bikes edited by Elly Blue - If you read the full title, you know exactly what you're getting; and they're fun and gentle visions.
Futures That Never Were (Broadswords and Blasters Presents) edited by Cameron Mount and Matthew X Gomez - Jam-packed, pulse-pounding anthology/special issue of sword & planet and related pulp space adventure stories (disclosure: I'm a contributor).
The Ruin of Gabriel Ashleigh: A Society of Gentlemen Short Story by KJ Charles - What if you lose everything, only to gain what you really want?
So Late in the Day: Stories of Women and Men by Claire Keegan - A slim collection of three graceful, insightful, deceptively simple fictions which serve as a corrective to any starry-eyed illusions about male-female romantic relationships, and which I should not have read back-to-back due to a certain monotony of theme; your mileage may vary.
A Sweet Yuletide by EE Ottoman - This short, gentle, historical holiday FF romance may leave you hungry.
Fiction - Novels and Novellas:
All the Right Notes by Dominic Lim - Kind of uneven, this ambitiously structured, Filipino/Japanese American, MM romance novel is not a "hilarious comedy" as misleadingly promoted, but it is a lyrical love letter to musicals.
The Angel of the Crows by Katherine Addison (who also writes as Sarah Monette) - A gaslight fantasy, a sort of re-envisioning of Holmes and Watson after significant alterations, set in a world of werewolves and vampires and angels, fallen and unfallen; sometimes a mess, but an entertaining novel.
Astrid Parker Doesn't Fail (Bright Falls Book 2) by
Ashley Herring Blake - In this insightful and sexy sequel to small-town Oregon romantic
comedy Delilah Green Doesn't Care, Delilah's interior-designer
stepsister/fellow monster-mother-survivor must stake all on a reality-TV
remodel, but the cute lesbian head carpenter proves an obstacle to her goal,
her identity, and her heart.
Babel by R.F. Kuang - Brilliant magic system, audacious novel, deserving Nebula Award winner.
Bard: Book 1 by Keith Taylor - This Arthurian sword & sorcery fix-up novel about a wandering Irish musician/warrior/Druid is a compelling if sometimes dated page-turner, with as harrowing a werewolf as I've ever seen.
Black Orchid Enterprises series by M.R. Dimond - With four titles released so far, this cozy, diverse, contemporary small-town Texas mystery series combines crime, cat rescue, an ABBA tribute band, the occasional holiday, and romantic pining to entertaining (and sometimes sobering) effect (two of the four titles are collections, not novels).
Bowlaway: A Novel by Elizabeth McCracken - I was primed to like this literary fantasy/magic realist novel centered on the endangered New England sport of candlepin bowling, but the prose was so busy being arch and clever that I gave up.
By Way of Sorrow (An Erin McCabe Legal Thriller Book 1) by Robyn Gigl - Page-turner/voyage of discovery about a trans lawyer seeking justice, which left me wishing the character had queer/genderqueer found family instead of operating in painful isolation.
Can't Spell Treason Without Tea (Tomes & Tea Book 1) by Rebecca Thorne - I finally tried some cozy fantasy, and found this gentle, romantic (FF), secondary-world novel a pleasant way to while away an afternoon, as well as a welcome change from ten-tome epic fantasy trilogies; it's worth a look if you love books or tea and don't mind anachronism.
Chef's Kiss and Chef's Choice by TJ Alexander - Despite my lack of cooking skills, I greatly enjoyed these queer and genderqueer culinary romance novels, and found Book 2's Frenchman annoying but, yes! also charming.
Counterfeit by Kirstin Chen - This terrific feminist literary caper novel should be marinating in mystery/suspense awards, but sadly isn't; don't miss it.
A Coup of Tea (Tea Princess Chronicles Book 1) by Casey Blair - This recent entry in the recently named cozy fantasy subgenre has a low-key (MF) romance and a narrator so keenly attuned to political and social subtleties that the novel might also qualify as fantasy of manners.
Death by Silver and A Death at the Dionysus Club by Melissa Scott and Amy Griswold - Happy to see this alternate-Victorian fantasy mystery series (featuring characters loosely inspired by Holmes & Watson) back in print with gorgeous new covers, and delighted to read them again.
Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie - The classic Hercule Poirot whodunnit now also serves as a window into the colonial English view of Egypt.
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver - This ambitious Pulitzer Prize winner has a wonderful voice that pulls you right along (which makes this grittily realistic contemporary literary novel no less dark or lengthy).
Feel the Bern: A Bernie Sanders Mystery by Andrew Shaffer - Set in Vermont (who'd have guessed?), this light cozy mystery from the author of the Obama/Biden mysteries features the U.S. Senator as an enjoyable if cranky amateur detective.
The Fiancée Farce: A Novel by Alexandria Bellefleur - When a lie blows up in this Seattle-set FF rom-com, a publisher's heir and a failing bookstore's owner agree to wed, a quick fix which proves not the simple solution they were hoping for.
Fire Logic and Earth Logic by Laurie J. Marks - Judging by the first two of its four books, Elemental Logic is a gracefully written epic fantasy series which considers imperialism, colonialism, and magic not as elements for a sweeping adolescent power fantasy, but intimately and thoughtfully--the first two titles are difficult, beautiful, sometimes aggravating, and always demanding and rewarding.
Have You Seen Luis Velez? by Catherine Ryan Hyde - This diverse novel stays too close to the surface of its difficult intersections and issues to avoid clocking out as Representation Lite.
Hen Fever: A Sapphic Victorian Romance by Olivia Waite - For the holiday I re-read this historical Christmas romance novella, which offers just the right level of detail to feel wintry, yet cozy and warm.
Hercule Poirot's Christmas by Agatha Christie - What's the holiday spirit without a bloody murder, a family riven by hatred, and a fiendish locked-room mystery?
How to Excavate a Heart by Jake Maia Arlow - In this Hanukkah/Christmas romance, a young palaeoichthyologist/dog walker/trauma survivor literally runs into the girl of her dreams; can they work past their youthful awkwardness and inexperience as a DC blizzard piles the snow higher around them?
Idol Minds by KT Salvo - A captivating (not to mention steamy) contemporary MM romance in which a closeted, Oscar-winning Korean American actor with secrets relocates to Seoul to coach a closeted K-Pop superstar fleeing his own secrets.
Infamous: A Novel by Lex Croucher - Fun, interracial, sapphic Regency rom-com which felt rather more like Zoomers running with a Boho/hippie crowd than I suspect is strictly accurate.
Iris Kelly Doesn't Date (Bright Falls Book 3) by Ashley Herring Blake - In the conclusion to the FF rom-com Bright Falls trilogy, a writer's deliberately single life runs afoul of an irresistible actor and an entire monster family; despite the novel's many strengths, it seems not nearly aware enough of the absolutely toxic levels of familial meddling.
An Island Princess Starts a Scandal (Las Leonas Book 2) by Adriana Herrera - As this hot historical FF romance novel makes clear, Herrera really knows how to put her romantic leads--and her reader--through the wringer.
Kiss Her Once for Me: A Novel by Alison Cochrun - Fun fake-engagement FF love-quadrangle romance that's a love-letter to the Rose City and the first portrayal of a demisexual character I've seen that resonates with my experience.
K-Pop Confidential by Stephan Lee - Riveting romantic YA novel of a young Korean American woman who may land her dream job, if the try-out and training don't kill her first; I hope this is an exaggerated fictionalization of life in Korean entertainment, but fear it is not.
Love & Saffron: A Novel of Friendship, Food, and Love by Kim Fay - I don't expect white American characters to be aware of cultural appropriation in writing professionally about Mexican food and recipes in the 1960s, but the additional material appended to this interesting but uneven short epistolary novel from 2022 make it clear the author is either oblivious to this ethical gray area or ignored it, which, together with some other issues, leaves the work as Representation Lite.
Luke and Billy Finally Get a Clue by Cat Sebastian - A low-key yet riveting historical MM romance novella in which two prominent pro baseball players navigate possible attraction in 1953.
The Master of Samar by Melissa Scott - In this terrific stand-alone queer fantasy, loosely inspired by Renaissance Venice, curses and genii loci are nothing like you imagined.
Masters in This Hall by KJ Charles - In this historical MM romance novella, there's no place like home for the holidays, especially when it's your uncle's grand house in Victorian England and you're on the trail of the thief who loved and double-crossed you, with far more dangerous men pursuing you both.
Mecca: A Novel by Susan Straight - As good a writer about California as Steinbeck; a novel that's a master class in writing the other and the knowing chronicle of an Inland Empire native; a cri de couer against the injustices of race and class and gender and citizenship at the core of the Golden State and the United States; an ending that is unresolved yet all too clear.
Midwinter Murder: Fireside Tales from the Queen of Mystery by Agatha Christie - Short, tricksy mystery and thriller tales which are mostly, but not all, set in the winter season.
Mortal Follies by Alexis Hall - An amusing historical fantasy romance (FF) novel, but your enjoyment may hinge significantly on your reaction to the narration.
Natural Beauty by Ling Ling Huang - This recent release (2023) was published as a literary novel and I found it on a list of crime/mystery/suspense novels by Asian writers, but my primary impression is that it is a science fiction novel of body horror...and an unpredictable, thought-provoking, and deeply creepy one.
Night Sky Mine by Melissa Scott - Excellent far-future cyberpunk novel of artificial life and the relationship of union and corporation.
One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston - Seeking distance from her boundaries-challenged mother, a queer virgin Southern woman relocates to New York and becomes fascinated by the butch Chinese punk she sees on the subway...a woman who seems from another time, and perhaps is.
Ocean's Echo by Everina Maxwell - The sequel to romantic (MM) far-future novel of political space opera Winter's Orbit is at least as strong as its predecessor.
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee - This decades-spanning National Book Award finalist, a historical novel of Koreans in 20th-Century Korea and Japan, is gorgeously and sensitively written, and a stone bummer.
The Postcard by Anne Berest, translated by Tina Kover - In the alternating past and present storylines of this chilling novel/thinly veiled memoir, 21st-Century fascism and Antisemitism rise around a Jewish Frenchwoman barely aware of her heritage as she investigates an anonymous, threatening postcard sent to her bearing only the names of her ancestors killed in the Holocaust.
The Princess Stakes: A Multicultural Regency Romance (Daring Dukes Book 1) by Amalie Howard - As part of my quest for the elusive feminist MF romance of consent-conscious equals, I started this romance novel; I abandoned it unfinished because I got tired of waiting for something feminist to show up.
A River Runs through It and Other Stories by Norman MacLean - Graceful, elegaic, infused with love for the West and family and fly-fishing; reminds me greatly of Hemingway, except for leaving somewhat less grit in my gears.
The Rivals of Casper Road (Garnet Run Book 4) by Roan Parrish - Parrish returns to her popular small-town Garnet Run series for a strong Halloween-set MM neurodiverse/neurotypical romance.
The Romantic Agenda by Claire Kann - As in her previous ace/allo interracial MF romance novel, Let's Talk About Love, Claire Kann presents a complex, difficult Black woman character who may leave you tearing out your hair and/or wondering why the guy might stay with her; points for creating characters and relationships which really leave you thinking.
Season of Love by Helena Greer - As Hanukkah and other holidays pass in this sapphic romance, the Jewish heir to a Christmas tree farm clashes and sparks with the Gentile manager.
The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen (The Doomsday Books Book 1) and A Nobleman's Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel (The Doomsday Books Book 2) by KJ Charles - Crimes and secrets, sex and romance, manly love, KJ Charles--what's not to like?
The Secret of the Lost Pearls by Darcie Wilde (who also writes as Sarah Zettel) - In the 2022 installment of the Austen-inspired Regency mystery series, "useful woman" Rosalind Thorne becomes entangled in a complex mystery that quickly moves far beyond a missing necklace.
Self-Made Boys: A Great Gatsby Remix (Remixed Classics Book 5) by Anna-Marie McLemore - A gracefully written YA trans Hispanic take on the F. Scott Fitzgerald classic of the Roaring '20s, but perhaps not the novel for those who want no anachronism.
Seoulmates by Susan Lee - Fun if kind of uneven YA MF rom-com with K-Drama.
Shadow of the Rock: A Spike Sanguinetti Novel by Thomas Mogford - This opening novel of a Gibraltar mystery series turns out to be set mostly in Morocco, which is something of a disappointment, given the historical, ethnic, and sociocultural complexities of the Rock; additionally, the lead is a bit too much of a lucky cishet white guy that the women can't resist.
Show Girl by Alyson Greaves - A modern spin on the Pygmalion/My Fair Lady trope, but also not really like anything else I've never read, and lovely, too; highly recommended.
Sorry, Bro by Taleen Voskuni - Well written FF rom-com of finding self and of finding a love that may be shunned in the Bay Area Armenian American community; the narrator can be intense and irritating, so I would have preferred to see the PoV alternating with her more centered love interest.
Sword-Dancer (Tiger and Del Book 1) by Jennifer Roberson - I wondered about mentioning this superior but trigger-filled heroic fantasy novel from 1986, because I wondered if anyone significantly younger than I could tolerate the entitled, misogynistic male narrator; of course, for a woman of my generation, his kind was legion, except typically less open to the possibility of change than the damaged Tiger is.
System Collapse (The Murderbot Diaries Book 7) by Martha Wells - Another fine novel featuring everyone's favorite snarky construct (but better appreciated if you do what I didn't, and read or re-read Book 6 right before this one).
That Summer Feeling by Bridget Morrissey - In this enjoyable FF contemporary romance, a premonition ends in a far different place than the viewpoint character expects when she attends a summer camp for adults.
A Thief in the Night by KJ Charles - So you're desperate enough to rob a guy on the highway and assume a valet's identity, only to find out said valet's new employer is the guy you robbed--what could go right?
The Verifiers by Jane Pek - In this superior literary mystery/thriller novel that may also be science fiction, a keen-witted queer Asian woman who scorns online dating, investigates online daters and can't seem to connect to anyone in real life uncovers a possible crime, with potentially deadly consequences.
Water Horse by Melissa Scott - A terrific epic fantasy novel, which is unusual for the subgenre in being queer and possibly unique in completing its complex story in one (!) volume; the inspiration appears to be Celtic, but reading this novel as a Celtic fantasy would be confusing at best.
The Water Outlaws by S.L. Huang - This wuxia novel, which is set in an alternate Song Dynasty China and based (in queer and genderbent ways) on the classic Chinese novel Water Margin, is an exciting and thought-provoking sword & sorcery adventure, but if you have any triggers, they are probably in this book; and if you want your reads to comfort or reinforce your Western expectations, moralities, or pieties, you are in the wrong place.
Wear It Like a Crown: A MM Royalty Romance by Zarah Detand - A gay prince threatened with blackmail takes on a handler who urges the prince's coming out while keeping his own secrets.
We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian - In a 1950s New York newsroom, it can be a challenge to stay closeted; and what is it with this rather intrusive co-worker, anyway?
Cynthia Ward has published stories in Analog, Asimov's, Nightmare, Weird Tales, and elsewhere. For WolfSinger Publications, she edited the anthologies Lost Trails: Forgotten Tales of the Weird West Volumes 1-2. With fellow Aqueductista Nisi Shawl, Cynthia coauthored the Locus Award winning fiction-writing guide, Writing the Other: A Practical Approach. In 2021, Aqueduct Press released the concluding novella in her Bloody-Thirsty Agent series, The Adventure of the Golden Woman.
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