Before you turn the page, part 2: Don't miss out on these 2019 books
Aarik Danielsen @aarikdanielsen
Last Sunday, I reviewed a series of 2019 books that should be on your radar before the years turns over and your reading list resets. Poetry titles and pop-culture tomes from the likes of Hanif Abdurraqib, Ilya Kaminsky and Deborah Landau beckon to interested readers.
Wrapping up this two-week series, let's look at a few works of fiction and non-fiction that offer rich characters, fascinating plot twists and real stories that are stranger than those we make up.
Chuck Klosterman, "Raised in Captivity" Billed as "fictional nonfiction," this short-story collection further exhibits Klosterman's interests in the particular and peculiar details of human existence. The work never digs quite as deep as Klosterman's nonfiction or his novel "Downtown Owl," but there is at least one moment in each story that justifies and commends its existence.
Valeria Luiselli, "Lost Children Archive" A gorgeous, devastating tale of families breaking and being broken, Luiselli's latest finds a young family — led by a pair of sound archivists — tracing a fateful path toward their own disintegration and into the heart of America's great border drama.
Chigozie Obioma, "An Orchestra of Minorities" Within the pages of his sprawling sophomore novel, the Nigerian writer upends the boy meets girl, girl's parents declare boy isn't good enough for their daughter prototype. Told from the perspective of the boy's guardian spirit, "An Orchestra of Minorities" delves into madness, romance and revenge in a way that feels both heavy and miraculous.
Getting to know you, getting to know ourselves
Jemar Tisby, "The Color of Compromise" Tisby, a historian and successful podcaster, unpacks the full weight of the white American evangelical church's complicity in racism. Tisby's work is plainspoken and thorough — and all the more staggering for being both. He writes as a Christian hopeful for reform, but also as a clear-eyed academic who can trace patterns of indifference and outright cruelty from the beginning of the American church to today.
Damon Young, "What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Blacker" One of the founders of the culture site Very Smart Brothas, Young's first memoir is a hilarious, vulnerable and often difficult accounting of race, gender, and making mistakes while living a very public life online. Young's voice will surprise, challenge and comfort readers.
One more quick cheat, as I recommend "When I Spoke in Tongues" by Jessica Wilbanks, a book which hit shelves in November 2018. Wilbanks' memoir of growing up Pentecostal, struggling to hold on to her faith, then reconciling her eventual exodus with the devotion of beloved family members is soulful and never judgmental.
adanielsen@columbiatribune.com 573-815-1731