Book Recommendations 2023
Every week this year I'll be posting a book recommendation over on my Youtube community tab for you including books of all kinds of genres and styles. Here are all the previous recommendations but make sure you subscribe on Youtube to keep up to date!
Empire of Ants: The Hidden Worlds and Extraordinary Lives of Earth's Tiny Conquerors
by Susanne Foitzik and Olaf Fritsche
If you love nature books as much as I do then this is one you should definitely check out.
I thought I had very little interest in ants before reading this but turns out they’re fascinating and incredibly varied little creatures. This book covers everything from what ants look like, to their hierarchies, how they reproduce, what their senses are and how we study them, and it’s all written in an incredibly accessible and enthralling way.
My favourite section was about how different species of ants navigate their surroundings: some count steps, some leave chemical trails, other navigate based on cloud patterns. And how do we know this? From experimenting on them. Add little stilts to their leggies to lengthen their step distance and see how this effects them, create an artificial ‘sky’ above them and see what happens when you switch it around, use lamps to mimic night and day and the movements of the sun and see what happens when you move that lamp in the wrong direction. It’s incredible stuff!
If you’d like to read this too you can get your own copy here (and anything you buy through these links will help support me and my channel):
NON-FICTION ~ NATURE
My Dark Vanessa
By Kate Elizabeth Russell
This novel is one which I absolutely sped through in around 24 hours and was thoroughly engaged in. And the emotions I felt reading it are still with me today. It’s the story of a young girl who is groomed by a much older teacher at her school to the point where even as an adult she still believes that what they had was special, it was love, it was real. So when more allegations of abuse come out against him, she’s reluctant to believe them and finds herself still being manipulated and lied to by a man she really believes loves her.
It’s definitely a difficult read, and not one for everyone, but it’s one which helped me process a lot emotionally. It’s terrifying to see the insight into the abuser and how he really doesn’t believe he was doing anything wrong. And it’s such an accurate portrayal of how grooming and abuse can happen so slowly and subtly that the victim really thinks she’s the one in charge, she’s the one pursuing this. I thought it was a brilliant portrayal of a victim’s eyes being opened to what happened to her; the story runs parallel timelines with Vanessa as a teenager and Vanessa as an adult, so we get to watch her analyse her past and what she went through and go from trying to defend her abuser’s actions, to the realisation of what actually happened to her and why what he did was so wrong.
There’s debate around this book and how it may be in some ways too similar to Wendy C. Ortiz’s memoir ‘Excavation’ but I want to read that first before I comment too much. One thing I will say though is that books that cover this subject matter do tend to have a lot of overlap and similarities just due to the nature of the subject; also look at Alison’s Wood’s fantastic memoir ‘Being Lolita’ as another example.
If you’d like to read this too you can get your own copy here (and anything you buy through these links will help support me and my channel):
FICTION ~ CONTEMPORARY
Women of Resistance: Poems for a New Feminism
edited by Danielle Barnhart and Iris Mahan
This collection is super-accessible even for people who aren’t used to reading poetry and it covers some incredibly important topics for intersectional feminists from a really diverse range of poets.
Highlights for me include Elizabeth Acevedo’s ‘An Open Letter To The Protesters Outside The Planned Parenthood Near My Job’ and basically everything by Jacqueline Jones Lamon.
If you’d like to read this too you can get your own copy here (and anything you buy through these links will help support me and my channel):
POETRY ~ FEMINISM
Lumberjanes
I adore this entire series - it stays perfect the whole way through with no real low points and it’s definitely my go-to comfort read. It’s cute, it’s funny, it’s heart-warming and it’s aimed at kids but there’s something in here that absolutely everyone can enjoy.
The series follows a group of friends at a girls summer camp who discover all kinds of crazy magic and monsters and secrets and find lifelong friendship with each other. Every single one of the characters is just lovely and unique, everyone is so accepting and supportive of each other, the storylines are so fun, the art is adorable and I just love all of these books. When I’m sad and need a book that feels like a hug, I pick up Lumberjanes.
If you’d like to read this too you can get your own copy of the first volume here (and anything you buy through these links will help support me and my channel):
COMICS & GRAPHIC NOVELS ~FEMINISM ~ CUTE
The Memoirs of Lady Trent
by Marie Brennan
This was a book series which was sent to me by a fan a couple of years ago and I immediately fell in love with the books! I like to think of them a bit like Pride and Prejudice meets Game of Thrones but a bit more wholesome.
The series follows Isabella, a young woman who is obsessed with nature and more specifically dragons, but she lives in a world where she is expected to marry and host parties and be a typical silent, stay at home woman. Instead, she decides to follow her own path and study dragons for herself. Over the years (and the series!) she becomes one of the world’s greatest scholars although she’s met with a lot of resistance.
I find Isabella’s character really inspiring because she’s smart and resilient and she knows when to use the system to her advantage and when to just outright defy it!
I’d say the first book in the series, A Natural History of Dragons, is a little slower-paced than the rest of the series but it’s still a lovely introduction to the world and the characters. I loved the writing style in these books, I loved the illustrations at the start of every chapter, I loved the world-building, the characters, the adventures. It’s a series I’ll recommend to everyone!
If you’d like to read this too you can get your own copy of the first book here (and anything you buy through these links will help support me and my channel):
FICTION ~ FANTASY ~ FEMINISM ~ NATURE
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
by Gabrielle Zevin
I was a little dubious about reading this because there was so much hype around it - I sometimes find this can lead to expectations which are too high and a bit of disappointment but I was really pleasantly surprised by this book! I read it when I was going through a bad patch, emotionally, and struggling to concentrate on anything and sleeping a lot, and this book helped get me out of that. It gave me something to engross myself in, a world to get lost in, characters to focus on instead of my head and I smashed through it all in about 3 days.
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a book about friendship which spans decades as Sam and Sadie bond over a love of games as a kid, eventually growing up and making games together (and alone at times). I think a lot of people loved this book for Sam and Sadie’s friendship (and Marx of course!) and, yeah, that was lovely and felt very real but sometimes I find these sorts of character-driven books focus a little too much on people just wallowing in misery for no reason, or problems just caused by people being stubborn and not communicating with each other.
This book perhaps had a little bit of this in places but I could forgive it for the setting and context of the story. What I really loved about this book was how the story was told alongside the story of game development. As you might know, I really love gaming and my partner is a game designer himself (and I actually just bought him his own copy of this because I can’t wait to chat with him about it!) so many parts of this book really spoke to me. Sam and Sadie start out playing simple little games like Oregon Trail, Mario and Donkey Kong together and as they grow and start to develop their own games we see them start by making basic little shooting and puzzle games, we see them develop their first 2d game together, then 3D, then MMORPGs, then casual and mobile games and so on… Put this all together with lots of beautiful (and always relevant) references to literature and art and it all comes together so well. It really tracks the evolution of video games and the culture around them in such an interesting way and that, for me, was the best part of the book!
I loved the parallels between the characters Sam and Sadie put into their games and their own lives, I loved seeing the references to and influences other games I’ve played myself, and I loved the parts which were written almost like (very accessible) academic analysis of the games.
If you’d like to read this too you can get your own copy of the first book here (and anything you buy through these links will help support me and my channel):
FICTION ~ CONTEMPORARY
The Soul of an Octopus
by Sy Montgomery
Octopuses (not octopi! That’s a pet hate of mine!) are easily my favourite animals (followed very closely by elephants, dogs, capybaras, and I’m getting off track here….) and I’ve been absolutely fascinated with them for a few years now so this book has become a fascinating comfort read which I keep coming back to over and over again. It’s without a doubt the best non-fiction book about octopuses I’ve read to date and if you liked the film My Octopus Teacher this book is just like that but times 10 and this came first.
Sy Montgomery gets to know octopuses in all sorts of settings; aquariums, private collections, in the wild. And she really gets to know them; their individual personalities, what they like, what they don’t, how intelligent they are, what they do for fun, how they eat, where they live… and so much more.
It’s a beautifully written book which had me in tears quite a few times and even made me (someone with an intense 20+ year long phobia of water and swimming) consider ‘ooh should I learn to scuba dive to go see octopuses too?!’ I cannot praise this book, or the animals it’s about, enough.
For a more thorough discussion, I made a video inspired by this book a few years(!) back now but honestly I’m a little too embarrassed to go back and watch younger-me but here it is if you dare: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btHOZ...
If you’d like to read this too you can get your own copy of the first book here (and anything you buy through these links will help support me and my channel):
NON-FICTION ~ NATURE
Harleen
by Stjepan Sejic
I was absolutely blown away by this book when I finished it. Along with Mad Love (the novel), it's easily one of, if not THE best, Harley origin that I've come across - and that includes films and cartoons and everything.
Harley is a genuinely likeable, believable and well-developed character who you really grow to care for and understand. Her intelligence is never downplayed and she's shown to be a genuinely strong woman, even in her most vulnerable moments.
Two Face, despite not normally being a favourite Gotham villain of mine, and his intertwined origin story were an unexpected but very welcome addition to the story. The moments with Ivy were amazing though, I loved them so much but maybe I’m biased because Ivy always has and always will be a favourite of mine.
What really surprised me was the portrayal of Harley and Joker's relationship. Strangely, you didn't just automatically hate it... you genuinely believed in it as a real relationship. For the first time ever, you could actually understand why Harley fell for him, and you could believe that maybe he actually loved her, or at least had some sort of feelings for her, too. You got the sense that maybe all his manipulation of her wasn't just so she would help him escape from Arkham (he never even asked it of her... yet?) but maybe because that was the only way he knew how to get her attention and win her over.
All that said, none of that diminished the fact that the relationship still ended up being abusive. If anything, it just made it all the more real: A person can love someone and still be abused. A person can love someone and still abuse them. A couple can be in love and their behaviour still be abusive. After all, why stay with someone who doesn’t make you happy at least some of the time? That’s the thing with abusive relationships, when they’re good, they’re GOOD and it tricks you into staying longer than you should, into ignoring all the red flags, into making excuses for the bad behaviour.
But, as Harley always shows us in the end, the moment you get away from your abuser is the moment you realise just how strong and amazing and wonderful you are. You realise that even if all that love felt real in the moment, now and in the long-term you deserve better and you will find better, whether that comes in the form of loving yourself or finding someone who really loves you, or both.
On top of all this, the pacing of the story if fantastic, the dialogue is engaging and believable and the artwork is STUNNING, the layouts are creative and I just adored everything about this book. If you’ve never read a comic or graphic novel before then this is definitely a wonderful place to start, you will not be disappointed, but we warned: It’s going to raise your expectations for all other graphic novels.
If you’d like to read this too you can get your own copy of the first book here (and anything you buy through these links will help support me and my channel):
COMICS & GRAPHIC NOVELS
The Secret Life of Fungi: Discoveries From A Hidden World
by Aliya Whiteley
You know when a friend starts excitedly talking about something they love and you see their face light up and you just want to hear more and more? Reading this book feels just like that.
This was the book that sparked my love and obsession with all things fungi and mushrooms (you might have seen my fungi spotting videos, photographs on my website and mushroom paintings?) and I absolutely adore it.
Aliya is a wonderful writer and this book is engaging and beautifully written so you find yourself absorbing facts and information without ever realising it! She includes a lovely mix of personal stories, scientific information, and fun anecdotes and experiences from others which I really loved.
If you’ve ever wondered what fungi are, where you can find them, how they feed, grow and reproduce, which fungi can kill you, which you can eat, or how they’re likely all around you most of the time even when you don't realise, then this is the book for you!
Books like Merlin Sheldrake’s Entangled Life are also brilliant for fungi lovers but his work is a little heavier - bogged down in more science - so I can understand why it might be a bit much for someone who is new to the topic. Aliya Whiteley’s work, on the other hand, is accessible for absolutely everyone with any or no prior knowledge, but it’s also a comforting and enjoyable experience for those who are already pros on the subject.
