Zoey's Year in Books 2020

Artemis

Date Read: May 13

Author: Andy Weir

Genre: Science Fiction

Rating: 4/5

From the author of The Martian comes Artemis, a story of crime and drama that takes place entirely on the moon. Jazz is a young woman on the moon who seeks to earn money through smuggling, but she stumbles across something much larger. Full of the technical and scientific details you would expect from Andy Weir, Artemis is an excellent science fiction read.

People will trust a reliable criminal more readily than a shady businessman.
– Artemis

The Horse and His Boy

Date Read: May 12

Author: C.S. Lewis

Genre: Fantasy

Rating: 5/5

Continuing with my chronological reading of The Chronicles of Narnia is my favorite book of the series, The Horse and His Boy. I have always loved reading the story of Shasta and Bree as they escape from Calormen and try to get to Narnia.

Other Books in the Series:

The Magician’s Nephew

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

No one is told any story but their own.
– The Horse and His Boy

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Date Read: May 12

Author: C.S. Lewis

Genre: Fantasy

Rating: 5/5

The most widely known of the Narnia novels, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe introduces the land of Narnia and the Pevensie siblings.

Other Narnia novels:

The Magician’s Nephew

All shall be done, but it may be harder than you think.
– The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

The Far Away Brothers

Date Read: May 11

Author: Lauren Markham

Genre: Nonfiction

Rating: 4/5

Twin brothers Ernesto and Raul flee north when Ernesto becomes involved in the gangs of El Salvador. In the United States, they disover an entirely different way of life that they must learn to navigate.

The United States cannot at once be isolationist – build a wall, kill the dreade deals – and global, selectively reaping the benefits of an international economy, like low-cost imports, cut-rate outsourced workforce, and cheap labor in our fields here at home.
– The Far Away Brothers

American Gods

Date Read: May 10

Author: Neil Gaiman

Genre: Fantasy

Rating: 5/5

When Shadow is released from prison after three years, he discovers that his wife has just died in a car crash. On the airplane on the way home, he is offered a job by Mr. Wednesday, a strange man who pulls him into another world.

There’s none so blind as those who will not listen.
– American Gods

The Silence of the Girls

Date Read: May 9

Author: Pat Barker

Genre: Historical Fiction

Rating: 5/5

The story of the Trojan War has been told many times, but here the story is told from the perspective of Briseis, a Trojan woman who ends up the slave of Achilles.

Grief’s only ever as deep as the love it’s replaced.
– The Silence of the Girls

The Bonesetter’s Daughter

Date Read: May 8

Author: Amy Tan

Genre: Historical Fiction

Rating: 5/5

As Ruth’s mother begins to exhibit the first signs of dementia, Ruth must connect with her mother in order to finally learn the story of her family. A good mother-daughter story.

Writing what you wished was the most accurate form of wishful thinking.
– The Bonesetter’s Daughter

The Third Hotel

Date Read: May 7

Author: Laura van den Berg

Genre: Fiction

Rating: 4/5

When Clare arrives in Havana for a film festival, she spots her husband outside a museum. The problem? Richard died. A good story that explores grief, but I did not like the dialoge style.

The two impulses cannot be separated. The desire to have a life and the desire to disappear from it. The world is unlivable and yet we live in it every day.
– The Third Hotel

Contemporary Linguistics: An Introduction

Date Read: May 6

Authors: William D. O’Grady, John Archibald, Mark Aronoff, and Janie Rees-Miller

Genre: Nonfiction

I finally got around to reading the entirety of my textbook, just in time for the final. It wasn’t quite as interesting as the other books I’ve been reading, but it was probably longer.

We Dream of Space

Date Read: May 5

Author: Erin Entrada Kelly

Genre: Fiction

Rating: 4/5

When the Challenger spaceship is launched in 1986, NASA sponsors groups of students all over the United States so that they can see the first teacher in space. Bird is one of those students, a middle school girl who dreams of going to space herself. At the same time, she struggles with her brothers and parents, and school.