If anyone would like non-music related book recommendations, the best new novels I read in the last year are Percival Everett's
James, Kaveh Akbar's
Martyr!, and the English translation of Han Kang's
We Do Not Part.
Everyone probably knows about
James, but it is stunning. If you haven't heard of it, it's a retelling of
Huckleberry Finn from Jim/James perspective, with departures. I noticed a disparity between our inner selves and what people expect of us in this and other Everett novels I've read.
Martyr! is about an Iranian-American poet and recovering alcoholic/addict searching the meaning / meaninglessness of death and, thus, life.
I've been awed by Han Kang's books, especially
Human Acts, but they are emotionally devastating. One of her recurring themes, and one she spoke of in her Nobel acceptance speech, is the dichotomy of what humans will do to one another, both the brutality and kindness. Anyway,
Human Acts opens during the Gwangju Uprising/Massacre.
We Do Not Part is sort of a follow up, as the narrator speaks of her emotional struggles after writing about Gwangju. A friend then asks her to travel to Jeju Island, and the later portion of the book delves into the Jeju uprising.
By the way, I was a volunteer reader for the first round of the Mark Twain American Voices award, which was interesting, and I read several books of varying quality. The first round is complete, but if you'd like to consider volunteering next year, it's
https://marktwainhouse.org/american-voice/ . They don't give you any books, although you have access to PDFs, but most are available at libraries. (If you read over five, though, you're entered into a raffle to get a signed copy of the wining book).
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