Grant Types Sometimes

Author: grant

  • Apocalyptica Brittanica

    Oddly, I read barely any new-for-2019 fiction over the course of the year. For me, it was mostly a year of nonfiction and on catching up on some recent novels available as Kindle Daily Deals. However, I did dig into a pair of cracking post-apocalyptic reads:

    “The Wall” by John Lanchester

    Long story short: in a bleak future wracked by climate change, Britons sign up for duty on a literal wall that surrounds England’s coast. If you read some reviews of this book, it’s going to sound like a hammy Brexit/climate change allegory, but in practice I found Lanchester did a lovely job alluding to a lot of things without really beating the reader over the head. It’s grim, gripping, and deftly provides just enough worldbuilding whilst avoiding becoming a boring dystopian concept book. 

    Audiobook note: fantastic narration from Will Poulter, who emotes well and seamlessly adopts various UK accents to distinguish different characters. Probably one of my favourite fiction novel performances ever. 

    “A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World” by C.A. Fletcher

    A blend of coming of age, wilderness survival, climate change catastrophe, The Road, and Children of Men, it’s often dark but always page-turning. I found myself fighting the tendancy to skip down the page or read overly quickly.

    While the ending is too neat and some may find the liberal sprinkling of ‘My fears would later be realized’ foreboding to be annoying, the book as a whole is a captivating package. In a genre that can often be too dreary or dark, the main character’s perspective offers a refreshing sense of discovery, companionship, and earnestness.

    Recent Reads

    • “This Is How You Lose the Time War” by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (2019): Truly one of those reads that’s legitimately “well, that was different”. This Is How You Lose The Time War is an inventive and poetic sci-fi novella that begins as a cat-and-mouse game between rival time travelling agents and evolves into an unexpected LGBTQ romance between the top infiltrators/assassins of the warring factions. While there is definitely worldbuilding in this book, it’s fundamentally about two people discovering each other in the midst of a conflict. Fantastic audiobook narration that probably boosted my enjoyment quite a bit.
    • “Circe” by Madeline Miller (2018): Believe the hype. I don’t have much interest or more than basic knowledge of Greek mythology–shamefully, I’ve never even read The Iliad–so I was very skeptical, but this book absolutely delivers. The prose is fantastic, at once sort of lofty and lyrical without ever seeming dense and obtuse. It’s simply an impressive work.
    • “Autonomous” by Annalee Newitz (2017): A strange but fun mash of freedom, property rights, and biotechnology that includes a submarine and Canada.

  • 9 for ’19

    The best? Maybe, maybe not. Some of the most impactful nonfiction reads of the year, according to Grant:

    The Unhabitable Earth: Life After Warming

    Neither a ponderous science tome or a weepy ode to Mother Earth, David Wallace-Wells offers a devastating, very sharp, and relatively concise summary of “OK, this is how badly we’re screwed.” Mileage may vary, however: to me, the critiques that it was either too fear-mongering or that it ignored the plight of animals and plants too much don’t hold a lot of water.

    Elephant in the Room: One Fat Man’s Quest to Get Smaller in a Growing America

    Tommy Tomlinson’s bracingly honest and deeply human memoir of life as an obese person is affecting and relatable. Knowing of Tomlinson’s signature rasp, I was pleasantly surprised by the audiobook version. His performance imbued the book with so much more personality. I’d recommend the Longform Podcast episode as a good synopsis and window into the book. I’d also heartily recommend Longform in general–it introduced me to many of the books in this list.

    They Will Have to Die Now

    ISIS and Middle East war correspondent narratives are increasingly plentiful, but James Verini deftly manages the scope of the story by using Mosul as a focal point. He makes himself a seamless part of the story without trying to become the story, and colours the absurdities of the situation with a wry sense of humour. 

    Mastermind: Drugs. Empire. Murder. Betrayal.

    A fascinating tale of a talented nerd slowly descending into supervillainy, with increasingly elaborate schemes involving everything from Somalian fishing compounds to North Korean submarine drug smuggling. Evan Ratliff does a superb job of weaving himself and his reporting into the tale without in any way diminishing the role of Le Roux or the agents hunting him.

    Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion

    I’m generally averse to essay collections and to non-fiction books that raise a lot of questions without some kind of prescriptive answer, but Jia Tolentino’s essays on digital culture, capitalism, and the Millennials are entertaining and very incisive. Even the pieces that were of less interest to me didn’t feel like misfires or weird tangents. I didn’t absolutely adore the book, but the hype was warranted.

    Antisocial: Online Extremists, Techno-Utopians, and the Hijacking of the American Conversation

    A fantastic, intimate portrait of the alt-right/online conservative celebrities and a well-earned rebuke of the Silicon Valley libertarians that facilitated their rise. I kept being surprised at how much access the alt-right figures gave author Andrew Marantz, and at times, how some of them felt more human than I expected. It’s not a sympathetic view of these people, but it is empathetic and in good faith.

    As Marantz has said in interviews, this isn’t a prescriptive book–he doesn’t have all the answers, but he is still insightful and sharp.

    Places and Names

    Although stories of America’s Middle Eastern wars can sadly tend to blend together, Elliot Ackerman’s book stands out for its crisp writing and the unique conceit of a soldier who fought in Iraq returning to the same battlefields as a journalist in the ISIS era. The book doesn’t overstay its welcome, and he saves much of the combat prose for a riveting final stretch.

    This Land is Our Land

    An enjoyable and occasionally rousing or confrontational book that would do a lot of people, particularly on the right, good to read.

    I feel a bit more socialist than Suketu Mehta, and as a Canadian, I feel like things aren’t quite as rosy here as statistics have led him to believe, but those are ideological differences rather than flaws in his logic. Some of his points don’t feel new, and some of them are perhaps a bit repetitive, but he makes many compelling arguments. To me, the weakest part of the book (caveat: read the audiobook) was the long and meandering epilogue.

    Medallion Status

    I’ve always sort of liked Hodgman more as a person than I’ve liked his work per se, and “Medallion Status”, much like “Vacationland”, feels like the ideal use of his talents–yet everything that came before was kind of necessary to get him to here. I’m not sure if his style and storytelling has evolved much since “Vacationland”, but I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. It’s a great reflection on celebrity and fixations on status and privilege.

    The audiobook narration is absolutely brilliant. Like Hodgman’s “Vacationland” and David Mitchell’s “BackStory”, there’s something especially captivating about a wry, very intelligent, quirky speaker telling their own story. Hodgman gives it his all, and the result is fantastic and, at times, touching. I’m not sure if “Medallion Status” would be anywhere near as enjoyable in print.

    Honourable Mentions

    • Digital Minimalism: In a year of many interesting books plumbing into digital culture, Cal Newport’s latest book stands out as the closest to a prescriptive, how-to manual. I have sadly failed to implement many of his suggestions, but most feel spot on.
    • Underground: A Human History of the Worlds Beneath Our Feet: One of those books where the author’s enthusiasm is infectious. Will Hunt loves stuff underground (subway tunnels, catacombs, hidden temples…) and you probably will, too. I also read Vince Beiser’s The World in a Grain: The Story of Sand and How It Transformed Civilization (2018) this year, and really enjoyed it for many of the same reasons.
    • Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World: It’s from 2018, but Anand Ghiraharadas’ book was possibly the most powerful I read this year.