Easton Connell

January returns, and with it my annual post of the books I read in the previous year. I spent the bulk of 2016 tackling Robert Jordan’s fourteen book fantasy saga The Wheel of Time. It took me 238 days to read all 11.398 pages of that addictive series (I did the math). I also managed to squeeze quite a few other books and comics into the time that I wasn’t knee deep in myrddraal and trollocs and ta’veren and the rest.

Six of Crows – Leigh Bardugo

Leigh Bardugo bookended my year – Six of Crows was the first book I read in 2016 and its sequel, Crooked Kingdom, was the last. To say Six of Crows is a heist story is to undersell it. It’s one of the best books I read all year. The characters are a perfect mix of strengths and foibles that make their interactions with one another and their high stakes adventures nonstop fun to read. The world in which it’s set is fascinating. Bardugo has previously written another series in this same universe that’s high on my To-Read list for this year. And Bardugo’s prose? It’s like candy. Delightful, captivating, and occasionally brutal candy.

The Man Who Spoke Snakish – Andrus Kivirähk

This might be my favorite book that I read last year. Kivirähk is apparently much beloved in his native Estonia and this book is the first of his to be translated into English. It was so good it made me want to learn Estonian just so I can read more of his work. I was drawn to this book by its cover, and then I read the pull quote from Le Magazine Littéraire’s review on the inside flap: “Imagine it is the end of the world, and Tolkien, Beckett, Mark Twain, and Miyazaki (with Icelandic sagas and Asterix comic books stuffed under their arms) have got together in a cabin to drink and tell stories around the last bonfire the world will ever see.”

If you’re somehow not sold by that description you should know that this story is about the ending of worlds, the passing into antiquity of old knowledge in the face of the new. It takes place at the shift from hunting and gathering to agriculture, from pagan beliefs to Christianity, the shift from Snakish to German. We live in a time where we’re seeing similar kinds of rapid change and the loss of ancestral knowledge and culture. Get on it, read this book, and save a couple worlds while you’re at it.

Black Sails White Rabbits – Kevin Hall

I’m lucky enough to know Kevin and got to read this book when it first came back from the printers. Black Sails White Rabbits is staggering in its honesty, its humanity, its vulnerability. Kevin’s memoirs chronicle his struggles with mental health, cancer, and the quest for knowledge of self that’s hard enough for all of us without the first two thrown in on top. He weaves songs in and out of his story with the adeptness of T Bone Burnett soundtracking a film. After a few songs came up I started playing each song as he mentioned it in the course of the story and it was a nice addition to the experience. What impressed me most about Black Sails is its courageousness, by which I really mean Kevin’s courageousness. I hope to be as honest in my life and in my writing as Kevin is in this book.

Blankets – Craig Thompson

I fell in love with Craig Thompson’s work when I read Habibi. I had been saving this book since then, knowing that I’d only get to read it for the first time once. I’m glad I stopped waiting and dove in. Blankets is beautiful in its multilayered storytelling, its clean black and white lines, and its nostalgia unmarred by over-sentimentality. Blankets is a story about growing up, about learning who you are, and about the way first loves are wrapped up in all of this. Like Craig Thompson I grew up in a stringently Christian household, and like Thompson my first love was a transformative experience that irrevocably set me on the path to grow into who I am today. This book was so moving and so familiar that I had to sit with it for a few days after I finished. I hear Thompson is working on a new graphic novel and I can’t wait to see what he creates.

The Shadow Rising – Robert Jordan

The Wheel of Time. There’s so much to say. It was long, it was captivating, it was everything I’ve ever wanted a fantasy series to be. It’s like the Lord of the Rings but better. Maybe.

This whole series is my favorite thing that I read last year. It took FOREVER, but I once I started I didn’t slow down.  People have been telling me to read this series since high school and I’ve put it off, intimated at its size and knowing that I wouldn’t pick anything else up until I finished. (I’ll admit I took a break between books to read the Cursed Child when it came out, but who didn’t drop what they were doing when that came out?). When you open Eye of the World it starts out like just another quest story starring a handful of young boys from a small village, thrust into the greater outside world by the imminent final showdown between the forces of good and a long dormant evil. There’s prophecy involved, there’s lots of food and travel in its pages, but then you get about halfway through and the pace picks up, the world gets a little clearer and more exciting, and by the end of the first book you’ve already picked up a copy of the second.

There are some books in the series that I liked more than others, but I don’t think I could pick a favorite. Largely because when you read fourteen books in the same story back to back over the course of eight months the events of each book tend to run together. The Shadow Rising contains some of my most favorite sections of the story so I went with it.

If you don’t know what you’re doing this year, I highly suggest spending it with Robert Jordan.

Wytches – Scott Snyder

I can’t remember the last time I read something that made me genuinely uncomfortable going to sleep in a dark room. This book did that.

The art is savage. The story is terrifying and transcendent at the same time. Wytches is built around the idea that monsters can only affect you if you invite them in. It’s like a dark, twisted take on that Everclear song: they cannot hurt you unless you let them…

Bitch Planet Vol 1 – Kelly Sue DeConnick

This series has been getting a lot of love from critics and readers alike. Believe the hype. This is the first comic I’ve read by Kelly Sue DeConnick and all of her other comics have since been added to my To-Read list. Set in a not too distant, not too improbable future, Bitch Planet follows the exploits of a group of women exiled to another planet for a variety of stupid reasons that remind you of earlier editions of the DSM. Reading it filled me with frustration and righteous indignation, and even more love and appreciation for the radical women in my life than I already had. Some of you raised me, some of you were raised with me, and all of you have inspired me since I was old enough to sing Disney songs with you. You know who you are.

It also filled me with impatience for the next collected edition to come out in March.

Descender Vol 1 – Jeff Lemire

Image is absolutely killing it lately. I came across this comic in a list of new comics that you haven’t heard of but need to read. The editor of that list was right. This sci-fi AI story told in beautiful watercolors was wonderful to read. It’s populated with fun characters both human and humanoid. As far as I can tell from the first collection, Descender is at its heart a story about what it is that makes us human, what makes us alive. I’m looking forward to seeing where the story goes.

Pretty Deadly Vol 1 – Kelly Sue DeConnick

More from the genius of Kelly Sue DeConnick (see above). I bought this comic blind, only knowing that DeConnick wrote it so it must be good. Holy WOW was I right. It’s like Neil Gaiman and Nick Cave had a child, and then that child had nightmares and we get to watch them. This series is incredible. If Blankets didn’t hit so close to home, if Bitch Planet wasn’t so outrageously good, this would have been my favorite comic that I read last year. I read it more recently than the other two so it’s fresher in my mind – if you ask me on the street I’ll probably tell you without hesitation that Pretty Deadly was my favorite comic I read in 2016.

If those nine aren’t enough to whet your appetite, please see the complete list below.

Six of Crows Leigh Bardugo

The Man Who Spoke Snakish Andrus Kiviräk

Black Sails White Rabbits Kevin Hall

Blankets Craig Thompson

Couch Tag Jesse Reklaw

Spy Rock Memories Larry Livermore

Punk USA: The Rise and Fall of Lookout Records Kevin Prested

How to Ru(i)n a Record Label Larry Livermore

The Eye of the World Robert Jordan

The Great Hunt Robert Jordan

The Dragon Reborn Robert Jordan

The Shadow Rising Robert Jordan

The Fires of Heaven Robert Jordan

Lord of Chaos Robert Jordan

A Crown of Swords Robert Jordan

The Path of Daggers Robert Jordan

Winter’s Heart Robert Jordan

Crossroads of Twilight Robert Jordan

Harry Potter & the Cursed Child J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne, John Tiffany

New Spring Robert Jordan

Knife of Dreams Robert Jordan

The Gathering Storm Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson

Towers of Midnight Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson

A Memory of Light Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson

The New Deal Jonathan Case

Dear Creature Jonathan Case

Wytches Scott Snyder

Sex Criminals Vol 3 Matt Fraction

Bitch Planet Vol 1 Kelly Sue DeConnick

The Moon Pool AA Merritt

The Martian Andy Weir

The Right Stuff Tom Wolfe

Prophet Vol 1 Brandon Graham

Descender Vol 1 Jeff Lemire

The Fix Vol 1 Nick Spencer

Batman ’66 Vol 1 Jeff Parker

Bob’s Burgers Vol 1 Mike Olsen, Jeff Drake, Rachel Hastings, Justin Hook, Chad Brewster

How to Talk to Girls at Parties Neil Gaiman

Pretty Deadly Vol 1 Kelly Sue DeConnick

Cairo G. Willow Wilson

De: Tales Fabio Moon & Gabriel Ba

Crooked Kingdom Leigh Bardugo

And now? I just started Questlove’s Mo’ Meta Blues and it’s already getting my ass in gear. I have a lot of excellent books and fun projects waiting in the wings this year and much like an R Kelly song Q’s book is getting me to start grinding. I’m really looking forward to exploring the world of Finnish literature before I head out there for the first time this summer. And who knows – maybe I’ll find another amazing series to take up two thirds of my year.

What did you read last year that you’re excited about? I’m always on the lookout for more books to add to the stack waiting to be read. In the meantime, keep those pages turning.