The Best Books of 2013

Exciting news! My laptop is relatively fixed, and I plan to be cracking down on the LongReads once again. My Best of 2013 lists are finally seeing the light of Internet. Now, rounding up the ultimate longreads: BOOKS!

Best Memoir : Wild by Cheryl Strayed

It's safe to say I'm not the outdoorsy-est girl around, nor do I like long solo trips-only slightly anachronistic for a Peace Corps volunteer, I know. So it means something when I say that Strayed's memoir of hiking the Pacific Crest Trail alone made me cast a few sidelong glances at my underutilized hiking boots. Strayed is a powerful writer, bringing so much emotion to the page as she parallels her journey up the trail with the fallouts of her life: her mother's death, her depression, her divorce. The challenges she faces on the trail become transformative opportunities for her to become more of the woman she wanted to be, to grieve for her mother, and to understand her impulses, for better or worse. This book reflects experiences I've faced in Peace Corps, from the frustrations of isolation and loneliness to realizations that come from being stuck with just yourself. Again, some of the most graceful and empathetic prose when it comes to putting words to complex emotions.

Best Book for Shaping My Feminism : The Whipping Girl by Julia Serrano

Serrano writes about her experiences as a trans woman, sharing intimate details from her life pre through post transition. As a professional biologist, she adds a level of scientific clarity to processes that are often misunderstood by cisgender individuals. She explodes preconceived notions of gender and the nature/nurture divide, relying not just on her experiences but scientific studies. Well researched and footnoted, but never dry or weighty, Serrano spends about half the book exploring the politics of transitioning, both in biology and its treatment in society. Not only does she offer this excellent primer into trans issues, she proceeded to blow my mind with her insight into how femininity has been stigmatized and looked down upon in modern America. Indeed, the most bizarre, and for some, repugnant, thing a person can do is reject masculinity in favor of living as a woman, let alone a feminine woman. Reminding us that femininity is not weak, and indeed can be powerful and subversive, Serrano takes feminism and mainstream society to task.

Best Short Story Collection : The Girl in the Flammable Skirt by Aimee Bender

Such a delightful and provocative collection of stories that swing from fanciful to macabre. Bender honors traditions of short story tellers before with a series of modern fables, stories of magical surrealism and metaphor. Every story is at least a little strange, and often times set in a reality far from our own. Her prose is so charming and light, full of clarity and sets a quick stepped pace. 

Best Book on Religion : No god but God by Reza Aslan

No god but God educated me about the history of Islam, not only how it arose but how it fits with the other major monotheistic religions. Aslan writes with a true enjoyment of his research and the history of Islam, and with a hope for a inclusive future. No god but God manages to be academic and brimming with sources and citations while also compelling and at times emotionally stirring. This work has really furthered my understanding of Islam and also, along the way, my knowledge of colonialism and its part in provoking radicalism and fundamentalism. Aslan's call for religious and political reformation rooted in pluralism and human rights is one that can be shared by all the major religions of the world.

Best Applicable to Peace Corps Book : The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman

If you have an interest in medical anthropology, and haven't read this book before, frankly I'm amazed. Fadiman's tribute to the mistakes made when medical practices lack cross cultural understanding is a landmark work. It illustrates the myriad of differences between cultures, and reminds me of all the medical misunderstandings and occasional malpractices I see in my village on a regular basis. This is an excellent book in bringing together two unique worlds and gracefully displaying the shortcomings and benefits of both medical realms, not to mention an insightful history and collection of the Hmong culture.

Runner Up : The Water is Wide by Pat Conroy

Conroy lived his own Peace Corps when he moved to an isolated island in the Carolinas to teach a one room school during the nineteen sixties. Its a mirror to the frustrations and mistakes a volunteer makes as they rush head long into a relatively unknown culture with grand ideas and little preparation.

Best Graphic Novel : Locke & Key by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez

This series just wrapped in December 2013. Joe Hill, whose father happens to be Stephen King, writes a new take on the haunted house genre, while Rodriguez illustrates expressive characters and spooky dark evil. Hill knows how to build suspense, that's for certain. That the main characters are all children just makes the reader that much more nervous and concerned about the outcome. Keyhouse is full of secrets, riddles, and bloodstains. But throughout the series is a sense of humor and energy that is carried by the youth of the characters, so that the horror rarely feels punishing.

Best Young Adult Fiction : Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Here is the book for all of the fanfiction reading secret dorks, with hidden (or maybe out in the open) Harry Potter posters and desktop folders full of screenshots from our favorite scenes. Rowell not only captures the consuming thrill of fandom, she embodies the college experience for a typical freshman- less sexy partying and more laying around in bed on your laptop. Its an example of good young adult fiction - sweet and emotional without being manipulative or empty. These are real, if unglamorous, young adults, awkwardly growing up and dealing with all kinds of real and unglamorous issues.

Best Book Recommended by a Friend : Perdido Street Station by China Mieville

This recommendation came from my friend Tyler, and honestly he recommended it to me several years ago and I never got around to it... and once I had started reading Perdido, I was kicking myself that I had waited so long. I've gotten jaded to science/speculative/new universe fiction, and have read most of the "greats," and plenty of lackluster series as well. But Mieville has done something so new and unexplored, creating a world that doesn't reflect anything familiar. Its conceptually dense and the world building is phenomenal. Its dark and sometimes grotesque, just like the urban decay Mieville describes, but the story is compelling and again, new territory. 

Best Book I Haven't Finished Yet : Spillover by David Quammen 

There are several other works in this Best of List that have elements of horror, but Spillover is by far the most frightening. I am prone to laying in bed at night pondering the end of the world, and Quammen, a science and nature journalist, has brought all the fodder for nightmares. Some of the epidemics (SARS, AIDS, ebola) sound like the start of a young adult dystopian novel, only they're really happening. And what's to blame? Humanity destroying ecosystems and driving viruses into new hosts, and spawning new mutations that are just itching to jump ship and destroy our fragile pink bodies. Its a lengthy, dense tome packed with research facts that can be a little snooze inducing at times, but Quammen has a certain dark glee in squelching about the guts of gorillas or describing the life cycle of ticks, and I can appreciate that in a man.