#i honestly think bulgakov is my fav author

[liu-anhuaming]

favorite books i read this year

so i’ve done a decent amount of reading this year (60+ books) and i wanted to just share some of the books i really enjoyed reading this year and why. they’re placed in chronological order of when i read them this year, and not all are published in 2020

A Country Doctor’s Notebook—Mikhail Bulgakov

I really love Bulgakov’s work, with my favorite being Master and Margarita. I’ve also read Heart of a Dog and Black Snow and really loved them, so I decided to give this collection of short stories a try. It’s about a young doctor fresh out of university who gets assigned to a practice in a very remote town. Bulgakov was actually a doctor originally, and also went through a period where he was addicted to morphine, and he uses these experiences as inspiration for these stories.

One of the reasons I love Bulgakov’s books so much is his writing style and voice, and that’s definitely there in this book. But I also enjoyed the stories. They were both funny and touching. It was a really easy read, and frankly quite enjoyable for the most part. Knowing that these stories were based on Bulgakov’s own experiences with addiction and working as a young doctor in the Russian countryside made me feel like I was getting a glimpse into his personal life, and I think that’s what really made this collection enjoyable for me. Because, unlike Black Snow (which is based on Bulgakov’s experience with the Moscow theater scene and is pure insanity), this book balanced the absurd and the serious quite well I think. 

The Three Body Trilogy—Liu Cixin

My feelings about this series are......complicated. I honestly have a lot of beef with these books, but I also really loved them. The writing in the first book is kind of bad (having read parts of the original Chinese I can confirm it’s not just a translation issue), but it does improve in the second and third books. However, the plot is fascinating. It’s essentially an alien invasion story that takes place over the course of hundreds of years. By the end all of the good and bad parts just kind of averaged out for me.

I feel like a major theme of the trilogy is how humans handle a disaster that they know is approaching. The humans have a few centuries until the Trisolarans reach Earth, and we’re constantly wondering whether the humans will pull it together in time for the invasion. I don’t know if it was Liu’s intention, but it’s really timely considering we are faced with issues like COVID and climate change that require humans to work together for the greater good of humanity. Overall the theme 

So, what’s my beef with this series? First, the writing in the first book is bad, but like I said that doesn’t last. So what else did I hate?

The way Liu treats female character is.....not the best. Besides Ye Wenjie, they’re very stereotypical and boring. I almost tore The Dark Forest in half during Luo Ji’s little fantasy girlfriend thing (if you know you know), and Cheng Xin’s sudden development of maternal instincts in Death’s End made me want to throw the book out a window. 

If you’re able to work through the sexism though, the trilogy is honestly an amazing and unique work of sci-fi. 

The Broken Earth Trilogy—N.K. Jemisin

This is the best trilogy I’ve ever read. All three books won the Hugo Award and it was deserved. I thought the writing, the plot, the characters, and the world building were all exceptional. I was absolutely unprepared for the reveals, especially in the first book. It’s been almost 6 months since I finished the third book and still the most coherent review I can give this trilogy is “holy fucking shit”. I loved it so much, and I honestly can’t think of anything to say except go read it now.

Midnight at the Electric—Jodi Lynn Anderson

This book is about a young woman named Adri who is about to embark on an expedition to colonize Mars, but that’s honestly not the focus of the story. When she goes to stay with a distant relative a few weeks before the launch, Adri unexpectedly gets drawn into a mystery surrounding what happened to the woman who used to live in that house over a century in the past. 

This book is a little slow at times, and its honestly very quiet. There’s not much adventure, but it’s a very touching book. I didn’t expect to like this book honestly, but I was very pleasantly surprised. 

The Traveling Cat Chronicles—Hiro Arikawa

When I read the description of this book, I thought it sounded cute. And then I read it and had my heart ripped out, despite guessing how it was going to end about 30 pages in. This is the really heartwarming/depressing story of a Japanese man’s attempts to find a new home for his beloved cat, mostly told from the cat’s perspective. It’s got all the typical things a cat book has: sarcasm, a general disdain for dogs, and a disdain for humans that is actually fondness. 

As a lifelong cat owner, this book felt really personal, and really made me miss my cats. There were a few times towards the end where I had to stop reading and just collect myself. I saw this on a list of “comforting reads”, but it made me sob my eyes out. So not exactly comforting, but I still loved it. Read at your own risk.