Last year was filled with big events, both in the public sphere and in my own little corner of life. I experienced some momentous change – I got to go to Finland for the first time and learned a lot about myself and my family. I quit a longtime secure job that was making me miserable. I started writing again. I landed my first residency as a DJ at the beginning of the year and nearly a year later I’m starting to be able to support myself by playing music. With all the activity of last year I didn’t read as much as I usually do but I still managed to find some new favorites. I finally opened the door on audiobooks this summer and it’s been an interesting experience. Listening to a book while driving or working may be convenient but nothing beats curling up with a real book in your hands. See below for some recommendations.
Mo’ Meta Blues – Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson
I opened 2017 with Questlove’s memoirs and served myself a healthy dose of inspiration. Mo’ Meta Blues covers Quest’s adolescence, his entrance to playing music with his family as a kid, the early days of The Roots and on through the present and their spot as the house band for Jimmy Fallon. Quest’s voice is engaging and friendly. I really dug all the asides and the stretches where he’s utterly geeked out on a Prince record or some other bit of musical history. I enjoy reading the memoirs of successful musicians and artists as they inevitably inspire me to grind harder. They also make me feel that my dreams are much more accessible than Amanda Palmer’s “Fraud Police” would have us all believe. Quest’s book is no exception and definitely worth a read.
The Wicked & The Divine – Kieron Gillen & Jamie McKelvie
Fans of myth both old and new, from the Ancient Greeks to American Gods, will love The Wicked & The Divine. Every 90 years a handful of gods from across the world are born as human beings with super powers. The Pantheon, as they’re known, live a few years in the spotlight before dying young. Drop this setup into the millennial world of mass communication, social media, and celebrity obsession, and you have the riveting world of The Wicked & The Divine. Go pick it up already.
Kalevala – Elias Lönnrot, translated by Keith Bosley
Kalevala is somewhere between the Finnish Odyssey and a transcription of Finnish Alan Lomax recordings. In the late 1820s Finnish physician Elias Lönnrot traveled around the country writing down the runes sung in homes all over Finland. He condensed and cleaned up the songs to make the book a little more cohesive and keep it at a manageable size. Kalevala is one of the first distinctly Finnish works and was instrumental in the development of a Finnish national identity that ultimately led to their declaration of independence from Russia. I read Kalevala and a handful of other Finnish works before traveling there this summer for my greatgrandmother’s 100th birthday during Finland’s 100th year of independence. I learned the rules for Finnish pronunciation, learned the epic origins of bears and beer, and finally found out just how much Tolkien ripped off Kalevala for his own body of work. Many of my relatives bear names from Kalevala and I was excited to learn during a long look at our family history that one of my ancestors was Lönnrot’s personal physician and college drinking buddy. Most of my older relatives were excited that I had read Kalevala and were happy to talk about it. Relatives closer to my own age were confused as to why I submitted myself to such a torturous read. I don’t know that I’d recommend Kalevala to the average casual reader, but if you’re a fan of epics or myth it’s definitely worth checking out. Far more entertaining and easier to read than good ol’ Snorri Sturluson.
Memory of Water – Emmi Itäranta
Another of the Finnish books that I read this year and perhaps my favorite. Memory of Water is set in a not so distant not so implausible future in which sea levels have risen, storms rack the world, and drinkable water is scarce and stringently regulated by a totalitarian regime. The main character comes from a long line of tea masters who fled to Finland when Japan was swallowed up by the ocean. Her father bucks tradition by teaching her, his only child, the secrets of making proper tea. He also teaches her about the hidden spring in a cave near their property, not listed on any government maps and carefully hidden. When the protagonist finds herself on her own she must navigate the murky waters of keeping herself safe and keeping her village from dying of thirst while suspicious government officials continue to breathe down her neck. Memory of Water should be taught in California high schools for a dozen reasons.
Rat Queens Vol 1 – Kurtis J. Wiebe
My partner Bridget has been telling me to read this series for a long time. If I’ve learned anything in our time together it’s that when Bridget recommends a book I’m going to love it even more than she does. We recently moved and I had a hard time waiting to unpack the subsequent volumes so I could read them. Rat Queens follows a group of four adventurers in a D&D quest format featuring badass warrior women, bizarre cults, hilarious supporting characters, and ultraviolent illustrations. The set up in Vol 1 will have you reaching for the rest before you finish the first volume. The back of the first collection says it better than I could: “This modern spin on an old school genre is a violent monster-killing epic that is like Buffy meets Tank Girl in a Lord of the Rings world on crack!”
XMEN Grand Design – Ed Piskor
Ed Piskor’s Hip-Hop Family Tree is one of my favorite things done in comics in the last decade. Piskor does the entire thing himself – script, pencils, inks, colors, letters, even deciding what paper and printing process to use for the final product. An authentic auteur. Piskor is now giving the same treatment to my favorite superhero comic. XMEN. The gateway drug that got me going to comic stores as a kid. Piskor is taking 50+ years of XMEN and condensing it into 6 thick issues released over the next three years. The first installment came out at the end of December and it’s everything I’d hoped it would be. The second issue came out a few days ago and it ramps up the momentum of the first.
Comics readers in Humboldt County should hit up Scruffy Nerd Herder for all their comics needs. They just opened a few months ago in Old Town Eureka and do subscriptions, special orders, you name it. You can’t miss it – giant cardboard Gundam in one window, life-size velociraptor in the other. Jump on Grand Design now if you’re interested – the first run is already getting difficult to find!
And now, the full list of everything I read in 2017:
Mo’ Meta Blues Ahmir Questlove Thompson
Girl in a Band Kim Gordon
Tripping with Allah Michael Muhammad Knight
Space Dumplins Craig Thompson
One Week in the Library W. Maxwell Prince
Annihilator Grant Morrison
The Adventures of Luther Arkwright Bryan Talbot
Heart of Empire Bryan Talbot
Akira Vol 1 Katsuhiro Otomo
Gonzo: A Graphic Biography of Hunter S. Thompson Will Bingley
The Voyeurs Gabrielle Bell
The Wicked & The Divine Vol 1 Kieron Gillen & Jamie McKelvie
The Wicked & The Divine Vol 2 Kieron Gillen & Jamie McKelvie
The Wicked & The Divine Vol 3 Kieron Gillen & Jamie McKelvie
The Wicked & The Divine Vol 4 Kieron Gillen & Jamie McKelvie
Big Magic Elizabeth Gilbert
Kalevala Elias Lönnrot, translated by Keith Bosley
Troll: A Love Story Johanna Sinisalo
Memory of Water Emmi Itäranta
Letters to a Young Muslim Omar Saif Ghobash
Tales from Moomin Valley Tove Jansson
Season of the Witch Peter Berbegal
Dead Set Richard Kadrey
Poe J. Barton Mitchell
Hine & Kane’s Bulletproof Coffin David Hine & Shaky Kane
Big Fat Little Lit various
The Summer Book Tove Jansson
The Fellowship of the Ring JRR Tolkien, read by Robert Ingliss
The Two Towers JRR Tolkien, read by Robert Ingliss
The Return of the King JRR Tolkien, read by Robert Ingliss
It Stephen King
Coraline Neil Gaiman, read by Neil Gaiman
The Graveyard Book Neil Gaiman, read by Neil Gaiman
Bitch Planet Vol 1 Kelly Sue DeConnick
Bitch Planet Vol 2 Kelly Sue DeConnick
Zero Girl Sam Kieth
Eye of the World Robert Jordan, read by Michael Kramer and Kate Redding
ApocalyptiGirl: An Aria for the End Times Andrew MacLean
The Wicked & The Divine Vol 5 Kieron Gillen & Jamie McKelvie
The Great Hunt Robert Jordan, read by Michael Kramer and Kate Redding
The Dragon Reborn Robert Jordan, read by Michael Kramer and Kate Redding
Rat Queens Vol 1 Kurtis J. Wiebe
XMEN Grand Design issue 1 Ed Piskor
Easton Connell 
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