Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin. Finished August 2024. Powerful depictions of bisexuality, depression and heteronormativity. This was my first Baldwin novel and I am excited to read more.

Fela: This Bitch of A Life by Carlos Moore. Finished August 2024. I have been listening to Fela Kuti since High School and he is probably one of the most important artists in the past 100 years. This book filled in my truly surface level Wikipedia level knowledge of him, and he is as politically active (I think the best way to put it) as the music suggests. I think this book confirmed to me he does not have a particularly coherent ideology. Fela has a deep a true passion for Pan-Africanism and Blackism and I think did his best to fight for that throughout his life. His stories around being arrested under the X regime and staying in the lobby were completely crazy and I loved it. Towards the end of his life he lost some sense of reality and was under the influence of a priest. Worth reading for the interviews with many of his wives, and his best friend.

Light by M. John Harrison. Finished July 2024. I really loved this book, my favorite sections were the Ed Chianese section and the descriptions of the New Men, the Rick Shaw girls, and life on New Venusport. The Shrander is a really beautiful/terrifying thing that chases.

Ringworld by Larry Niven Finished July 2024. I did not like this book really at all. There is some cool world building in the first few chapters with interesting enough alien races, the ring itself as a concept, and funny mid-century sci-fi slang (tanj = there ain't no justice), but it's deeply held back by its deep sexism towards its female characters, Teela Brown is just bred for luck and sex with Louis it seems, and its honest disinterest in exploring the cultures that have popped up on the Ringworld since its civilizational collapse. Lots of potential but not worth it outside of historical purposes.

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein Finished in March 2024. Really awful book that I read for to both try a Robert Heinlein novel and see >where "grok" came from. The self insert character Jubal Harshaw was uninteresting and undefeatable and the story took a turn for the worse pace-wise as Valentine Michael Smith becomes a celebrity. I would not recommend it!

The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck. Finished in April 2024. This book was really interesting and had a particular perspective on China. It is absolutely an orientalist novel, but it attempts to write Chinese characters in a sympathetic light, which is something for an American in 1931. I think Wang Lung's transition from deeply poor farm boy to landlord with his ensuing corruption of morals was well done, and I enjoyed thinking about its depiction of Republic/Qing era China. There are a lot of sequels that I don't really have much interest in, but I'm happy I spent the time with this.