I feel like I didn’t read a damn thing in 2014. Between knitting, Twitter, and that architectural design studio class, my reading time got sucked up by other stuff! But it occurs to me that I do have a few really excellent things to recommend, even if they’re a bit all over the place.
Because as it turns out, the few things that I did read last year on Goodreads were all four and five star reads! So I can heartily recommend:
- Throne of the Crescent Moon: amazing fantasy with complex characters, strong plot, vivid setting.
- Going Clear: you think it can’t get any weirder in this history of Scientology…and then it does.
- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks: history, science, and culture intertwining over the course of the 20th century.
I will also recommend with some reservations The Design of Everyday Things. (It’s a bit dry, and TBH I didn’t finish before it had to go back to the library. But if it’s your ball of wax, you should totally read it, if that makes sense.)
In the realm of reads that aren’t really reads, that architectural design class led me in some interesting directions with drawing, and I really enjoyed Sachiko Umoto’s “Illustration School” series. ALL THE CUTE DRAWINGS. On the reference side of the class, Materials, Structures, and Standards by Julia McMorrough was my go-to for everything technical: stair heights, door widths, room sizing, very well organized and illustrated.
I also bought my very first comic books this year. I now have the complete run (so far) of Ms Marvel, and I LOVE it. The story, and the way the art and the story and the writing style all work together…it’s fantastic. (FWIW, check out the recent episode of Rachel and Miles X-Plain the X-Men with G. Willow Wilson. She’s fascinating talking about narrative!) I also picked up Volume One of Rat Queens, and it’s hella fun D&D-esque adventure.
And while I’m not sure if it was purchased in 2014, I definitely read the rulebook for Dungeon World cover to cover this past fall. Check out my post about playing Dungeon World for more on that.
So: reading!