You reminded me that "The Pretender" was on my TBR list, and lo and behold it's currently available at my library! I have a few other books to pick up and read first, but I am excited to report back!
Books that your list made me think of, that I read in the past few years ...
"The Dream Hotel" - Laila Lalami (woman is detained for being deemed at risk of committing a violent crime ... near-future dystopia stuff)
"The Ministry of Time" by Kaliane Bradley - the most empathetic imagining of what time travel would do to a person pulled into the future I've ever read!
"The Huntress" by Kate Quinn - I love everything by Kate Quinn but the audio version of this completely changed my attitude on audiobooks. The narrator is INCREDIBLE.
"The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra
Book" by Helen Rappaport - another amazing narrator! And what a completely upending view of this poor rich family.
"Demon Copperhead" by Barbara Kingsolver - absolutely worth all the hype about it, and probably the only thing I just listed that I'd say is a found-family book :)
"In The Dream House" by Carmen Maria Machado - distinctive in how it's told in second person, something that I never would've imagined not finding annoying/overbearing, but I promise it works.
Everything by Curtis Sittenfeld - I re-read most of her works this year, except the ones I'd read in the past couple of years, because she came to speak in my city. I just love her so much. Re-reading things in my late 30s when I previously read them in my early to mid-20s was such a peek into how I've changed.
Oooh, I loved Laila Lalami's "The Moor's Account" several years ago. I'm excited to read "The Dream Hotel." And now these others are going in my TBR pile! Thank you Sadye. :)
Reporting back after "The Pretender" -- what an incredible book! And I'm saying that as someone who considers "The Sunne in Splendour" -- in which Richard III is a character you ROOT FOR -- among her favorite books of all-time. In fact I love that particular book so much that I rarely read any other Wars of the Roses fiction because it falls so flat in comparison.
Ooh, it's book rec time! How exciting! I'm going to add a few quick recommendations -- not necessarily my Top Twelve for the year but books I think the Auntie community would like:
Nonfiction
- MOTHERCOIN: THE STORIES OF IMMIGRANT NANNIES by Elizabeth Cummins Muñoz, which is so well-researched and compassionate in its examination of undervalued carework and the toll it takes on both the immigrant women who do the caretaking (and sometimes sacrifice relationships with their own children) and the employer women overwhelmed by a culture that demands they have paying jobs but also care for their children.
- BEING MORTAL by Atul Gawande, about end of life care, the problem with hospitals trying to "treat" dying rather than dignify it, and possibilities for better, community-oriented end-of-life care. Such a good Auntie book!
- THE ELECTRICITY OF EVERY LIVING THING by Katherine May: by the author of WINTERING, really excellent and sometimes raw descriptions of her experiences walking the Southwest Coastal Path while also grappling with thoughts about autism, whether to search for diagnosis, whether to tell people, etc. Bonus points for some good Auntie cameos.
Fiction
- VERA WONG'S UNSOLICITED ADVICE FOR MURDERERS by Jesse Sutano: a cozy murder mystery spearheaded by an unstoppable Chinese mother who doesn't trust the police to do things right, but accidentally starts caring about all her suspects? Yes, please.
- THE GIRL WHO DRANK THE MOON by Kelly Barnhill. Definitely an Auntie book! A gorgeous fairy-tale story about an old witch who accidentally saves a baby and gives her magic powers and then has to grapple with the ramifications of that.
Being Mortal is one of my favorite books of all time. I actually got to read it aloud to my grandmother the last time I saw her before she died. At age 95, she appreciated it so much. She said it really made her feel seen and understood.
Regarding the Sutano rec, I've also seen that she's got a mystery series (or maybe it's a standalone?) about Aunties! I need to get on that.
I am hoping that my grandmother will let me read a little bit of it to her over our holiday visit (I have an interesting relationship with her, she’s an excellent case study in how Fox News preyed on lonely, isolated old people to radicalize them, which I can sometimes respond to with sympathy and sometimes requires boundaries). But I think she would appreciate it, and it would give her something new to think about!
And YES, I haven’t read DIAL A FOR AUNTIES but it’s definitely on my list now!
I don't read as much sf as I should, because I do always enjoy it, so I appreciate the recommendations. Have you read any Nnedi Okorafor? The Binti series is amazing and everyone should read it!! (It also definitely has themes of family, community, kin making, etc.)
On the nonfiction side, if you like history told beautifully and experimentally (also thinking about different ways of making kin), Saidiya Hartman's Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments.
And if you like literary short stories that deal with family, history, immigration, culture, trauma, etc. and are formally inventive (think Jhumpa Lahiri, Carmen Maria Machado), then you have to read Jamil Jan Kochai's The Haunting of Hajji Hotak -- some of my favorite short stories ever are in that collection.
P.S. As someone who also took the (ridiculous) GRE Subject Test in Literature, I hugely appreciate that footnote, haha
I need to get more into Okorafor. I've read a couple of her books but they haven't landed very hard with me. People love her so much though, so I need to just give it another try! I'm excited about her "Death of the Author" book, too...
This is an incredible list! Please please please do more book recommendations, even if they aren’t exactly Auntie themed :) thank you for doing the hard work of putting this list together.
I read KIN this week! It fits in GREAT with the rest of my kinship reading for this year (which I didn't consciously set as a theme, but it happened!). For alterkin themes and the like, I also really appreciated THE OTHER SIGNIFICANT OTHERS, WHEN WOMEN WERE DRAGONS, OUR SOULS AT NIGHT, THIS IS WHERE YOU BELONG, GROUP LIVING AND OTHER RECIPES, and MUTUAL AID, and SOCIAL CHANGE NOW, Deepa Iyer's workbook. LET THIS RADICALIZE YOU also has deep Auntie themes.
I really need to read LET THIS RADICALIZE YOU sooner than later. I love Mariame Kaba and Kelly Hayes both so much and I should really have read it as soon as it came out!
Beautiful additions! One more that fits this kinship vibe is How We Show Up by Mia Birdsong. Really loved it. Felt like having a great convo with a wise friend sharing stories about all the interesting and creative people in her life.
I have LOVE IN A FUCKED UP WORLD on my list for next, too. And, I read Robin Wall Kimmerer's books when they came out, way before they got trendy. My husband never did, though. And his work now involves collaborative wildlife research with local indigenous communities. So, we are listening to it during holiday road trips. It fits well with the kinship theme, both humans and with our more-than-human kin.
Coming back to this when I need something new. There's so much I hadn't heard of. Most of the recommendations I hear both online and offline include the same few books, many of which are great, but it's nice to hear about books I wouldn't have heard about otherwise.
Oh yay! You loved The Blue Castle! That book is the freaking best.
And you featured Alanna in your children's books! (that cover is the cover I checked out obsessively from the library when I was 10 and I tracked that edition down as a used book to have forever, despite my newer copies.) Alanna is my lore. So, if you loved Alanna, whether as a kid or as an adult, you will ADORE The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow. The Everlasting is a fantasy, it's a time travel love story, it's a story about war and propaganda and it's so much more than all of those combined. It's the best book I read this year.
Well, that recommendation was 100% effective! Going to the library to get it right now.
I checked out ALANNA over and over again at age 10 too! I could not get enough of those books. It was actually Sri Juneja’s book recommendation that reminded me!
It's such a perfect combo that's hard to find - great writing, amazing older female main character, fascinating aliens. I've been searching for other similar books since reading it, but haven't yet found anything that compares.
Hail fellow traveler! I’m always so glad to meet another person who reads Molly Gloss. Isn’t she amazing?? And hot tip: if you write her a fan letter (email), she just might write you back. (Ask me how I know!)
After saying I'd put affiliate links for double-recommended books in the chat, I was negligent! But good news, y'all. It turns out we can buy any books we want through the Auntie Bulletin bookshop at Bookshop.org (i.e., the books don't have to be specifically linked by me) and the affiliate revenue will go to our fundraiser.
Listen, my TBR list was already unhinged, and now it's even worse! Looking forward to reading a whole bunch of your recommendations! :)
You reminded me that "The Pretender" was on my TBR list, and lo and behold it's currently available at my library! I have a few other books to pick up and read first, but I am excited to report back!
Books that your list made me think of, that I read in the past few years ...
"The Dream Hotel" - Laila Lalami (woman is detained for being deemed at risk of committing a violent crime ... near-future dystopia stuff)
"The Ministry of Time" by Kaliane Bradley - the most empathetic imagining of what time travel would do to a person pulled into the future I've ever read!
"The Huntress" by Kate Quinn - I love everything by Kate Quinn but the audio version of this completely changed my attitude on audiobooks. The narrator is INCREDIBLE.
"The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra
Book" by Helen Rappaport - another amazing narrator! And what a completely upending view of this poor rich family.
"Demon Copperhead" by Barbara Kingsolver - absolutely worth all the hype about it, and probably the only thing I just listed that I'd say is a found-family book :)
"In The Dream House" by Carmen Maria Machado - distinctive in how it's told in second person, something that I never would've imagined not finding annoying/overbearing, but I promise it works.
Everything by Curtis Sittenfeld - I re-read most of her works this year, except the ones I'd read in the past couple of years, because she came to speak in my city. I just love her so much. Re-reading things in my late 30s when I previously read them in my early to mid-20s was such a peek into how I've changed.
Oooh, I loved Laila Lalami's "The Moor's Account" several years ago. I'm excited to read "The Dream Hotel." And now these others are going in my TBR pile! Thank you Sadye. :)
"The Moor's Account" helped get me through jury duty a few years ago -- a great introduction to Lalami's work! :D
Reporting back after "The Pretender" -- what an incredible book! And I'm saying that as someone who considers "The Sunne in Splendour" -- in which Richard III is a character you ROOT FOR -- among her favorite books of all-time. In fact I love that particular book so much that I rarely read any other Wars of the Roses fiction because it falls so flat in comparison.
Especially given the Machado Tweet screenshot, I have to +1 In the Dream House! (And add Her Body and Other Parties to the recs)
Ooh, it's book rec time! How exciting! I'm going to add a few quick recommendations -- not necessarily my Top Twelve for the year but books I think the Auntie community would like:
Nonfiction
- MOTHERCOIN: THE STORIES OF IMMIGRANT NANNIES by Elizabeth Cummins Muñoz, which is so well-researched and compassionate in its examination of undervalued carework and the toll it takes on both the immigrant women who do the caretaking (and sometimes sacrifice relationships with their own children) and the employer women overwhelmed by a culture that demands they have paying jobs but also care for their children.
- BEING MORTAL by Atul Gawande, about end of life care, the problem with hospitals trying to "treat" dying rather than dignify it, and possibilities for better, community-oriented end-of-life care. Such a good Auntie book!
- THE ELECTRICITY OF EVERY LIVING THING by Katherine May: by the author of WINTERING, really excellent and sometimes raw descriptions of her experiences walking the Southwest Coastal Path while also grappling with thoughts about autism, whether to search for diagnosis, whether to tell people, etc. Bonus points for some good Auntie cameos.
Fiction
- VERA WONG'S UNSOLICITED ADVICE FOR MURDERERS by Jesse Sutano: a cozy murder mystery spearheaded by an unstoppable Chinese mother who doesn't trust the police to do things right, but accidentally starts caring about all her suspects? Yes, please.
- THE GIRL WHO DRANK THE MOON by Kelly Barnhill. Definitely an Auntie book! A gorgeous fairy-tale story about an old witch who accidentally saves a baby and gives her magic powers and then has to grapple with the ramifications of that.
Being Mortal is one of my favorite books of all time. I actually got to read it aloud to my grandmother the last time I saw her before she died. At age 95, she appreciated it so much. She said it really made her feel seen and understood.
Regarding the Sutano rec, I've also seen that she's got a mystery series (or maybe it's a standalone?) about Aunties! I need to get on that.
I am hoping that my grandmother will let me read a little bit of it to her over our holiday visit (I have an interesting relationship with her, she’s an excellent case study in how Fox News preyed on lonely, isolated old people to radicalize them, which I can sometimes respond to with sympathy and sometimes requires boundaries). But I think she would appreciate it, and it would give her something new to think about!
And YES, I haven’t read DIAL A FOR AUNTIES but it’s definitely on my list now!
This is sooo generous. Thank you, Lisa!!
I don't read as much sf as I should, because I do always enjoy it, so I appreciate the recommendations. Have you read any Nnedi Okorafor? The Binti series is amazing and everyone should read it!! (It also definitely has themes of family, community, kin making, etc.)
Here's a short story of Okorafor's that has to do with motherhood: https://slate.com/technology/2018/02/mother-of-invention-a-new-short-story-by-nnedi-okorafor.html
On the nonfiction side, if you like history told beautifully and experimentally (also thinking about different ways of making kin), Saidiya Hartman's Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments.
And if you like literary short stories that deal with family, history, immigration, culture, trauma, etc. and are formally inventive (think Jhumpa Lahiri, Carmen Maria Machado), then you have to read Jamil Jan Kochai's The Haunting of Hajji Hotak -- some of my favorite short stories ever are in that collection.
P.S. As someone who also took the (ridiculous) GRE Subject Test in Literature, I hugely appreciate that footnote, haha
I need to get more into Okorafor. I've read a couple of her books but they haven't landed very hard with me. People love her so much though, so I need to just give it another try! I'm excited about her "Death of the Author" book, too...
Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments looks incredible!
++ to Wayward Lives. And the Haunting of Hajj Hotak has been on my tbr for years so this reminded me to read it asap!
This is an incredible list! Please please please do more book recommendations, even if they aren’t exactly Auntie themed :) thank you for doing the hard work of putting this list together.
I'm planning to do a post on utopian feminist science fiction for my birthday in March!
I read KIN this week! It fits in GREAT with the rest of my kinship reading for this year (which I didn't consciously set as a theme, but it happened!). For alterkin themes and the like, I also really appreciated THE OTHER SIGNIFICANT OTHERS, WHEN WOMEN WERE DRAGONS, OUR SOULS AT NIGHT, THIS IS WHERE YOU BELONG, GROUP LIVING AND OTHER RECIPES, and MUTUAL AID, and SOCIAL CHANGE NOW, Deepa Iyer's workbook. LET THIS RADICALIZE YOU also has deep Auntie themes.
I really need to read LET THIS RADICALIZE YOU sooner than later. I love Mariame Kaba and Kelly Hayes both so much and I should really have read it as soon as it came out!
You DO! :) It had been on my list a while, and I'm really glad a book club I'm in is discussing it. Made me bump it to the top
Beautiful additions! One more that fits this kinship vibe is How We Show Up by Mia Birdsong. Really loved it. Felt like having a great convo with a wise friend sharing stories about all the interesting and creative people in her life.
Oh yeah! That one's on my TBR, thanks for the reminder!
I have LOVE IN A FUCKED UP WORLD on my list for next, too. And, I read Robin Wall Kimmerer's books when they came out, way before they got trendy. My husband never did, though. And his work now involves collaborative wildlife research with local indigenous communities. So, we are listening to it during holiday road trips. It fits well with the kinship theme, both humans and with our more-than-human kin.
I LOVE Remnant Population! What a great Auntie tale, so glad it made this list. I've added a lot of these to my TBR!!
Yay! Fellow Remnant Population fan! I wish everyone would read this book right away. Now I'm constantly jonesing for more like it.
Coming back to this when I need something new. There's so much I hadn't heard of. Most of the recommendations I hear both online and offline include the same few books, many of which are great, but it's nice to hear about books I wouldn't have heard about otherwise.
Oh yay! You loved The Blue Castle! That book is the freaking best.
And you featured Alanna in your children's books! (that cover is the cover I checked out obsessively from the library when I was 10 and I tracked that edition down as a used book to have forever, despite my newer copies.) Alanna is my lore. So, if you loved Alanna, whether as a kid or as an adult, you will ADORE The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow. The Everlasting is a fantasy, it's a time travel love story, it's a story about war and propaganda and it's so much more than all of those combined. It's the best book I read this year.
Well, that recommendation was 100% effective! Going to the library to get it right now.
I checked out ALANNA over and over again at age 10 too! I could not get enough of those books. It was actually Sri Juneja’s book recommendation that reminded me!
You will absolutely love it (hope I'm not overselling it)! Can't wait to hear your thoughts after you read it!!
I love, love book recs(which is probably not a surprise). So many goodies on this list.
Such a great list! Thank you Lisa!
This is such a great list, and I’m pretty picky. Thank you!
Remnant Population is one of my all-time favorite books!
Meeeee toooooo. I am now permanently jonesing for more books that scratch that itch. The other books by her that I’ve tried feel very different…
It's such a perfect combo that's hard to find - great writing, amazing older female main character, fascinating aliens. I've been searching for other similar books since reading it, but haven't yet found anything that compares.
For me Molly Gloss always has similar vibes. Read everything by her!
I haven't heard of her before and I love new-to-me author recs with similar vibes to books I love! Thanks!
A fellow Molly Gloss fan and recommender!!
Hail fellow traveler! I’m always so glad to meet another person who reads Molly Gloss. Isn’t she amazing?? And hot tip: if you write her a fan letter (email), she just might write you back. (Ask me how I know!)
I discovered something similar when I sent an email to one of my favorite romance authors, Cat Sebastian. I was so delighted when she wrote me back!
After saying I'd put affiliate links for double-recommended books in the chat, I was negligent! But good news, y'all. It turns out we can buy any books we want through the Auntie Bulletin bookshop at Bookshop.org (i.e., the books don't have to be specifically linked by me) and the affiliate revenue will go to our fundraiser.
Go here for any of your remaining holiday book shopping! https://bookshop.org/shop/auntiebulletin