Back to Fiction: What I'm Reading During COVID-19
- Jillian River Browy
- Mar 21, 2020
- 3 min read
Updated: Mar 21, 2020
Shelter-In-Place is right around the corner (if we are smart), here is what I am reading!
So now that we are all stuck indoors (more or less depending on where you live) we are all having to figure out ways to fill our time if, like me, you have been laid off. I have been doing a lot of planting and re-potting, but I am looking forward to making a dent in my pile of books that is accumulating.
No Straight Lines - Four Decades of Queer Comics Edited by Justin Hall
I'm a huge comic and graphic novel fan, and queer. So this one is kind of a no-brainer and I'm really looking forward to getting into it!
The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu
I love science-fiction and this one has been on my list for a while. So far it is really interesting. Its by a Chinese author and it reads like part fiction part history lesson. It gets into some interesting ideas around physics but I'm only about 100 pages in so I don't know the breadth of it.
The Diving Bell and The Butterfly by Jean Dominique Bauby
I got this one because as a SLP I will be working with folks who have had strokes and the complications that arise. I'm thinking of this one as "light educational reading".
Godshaper by Simon Spurrier and drawn by Jonas Goonface
I read a few of the singles of this comic and they were amazing. Goonface is an amazing artist and the story is brilliant as well. It deals with themes of isolation, friendship, and being queer, all set in a post-apocalyptic world where money doesn't exist but instead the worth of an individual is expressed by the strength of their individual "gods". Kind of like mascots with powers. I look forward to getting caught up on the rest of the story.
The Natural Way to Draw by Kimon Nicolaides
I found this, as well as a few others in this list, at a library book sale and I was pretty stoked. In a previous life I was an art student and spent a lot of time drawing. I'm hoping that I can get back into the practice during this time of a lot of down-time.
Daring to Trust by David Richo
Self work is always important, no matter what stage of life you may be in. After a rough break-up I found myself needing to do a little work and a friend suggested this book. I look forward to delving in here as I tend to avoid my emotions and feelings, instead distracting myself with sci-fi and projects, but I know that being able to handle things as they arise is important and that means feeling feelings and taking note of emotions as they arise.
Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
More sci-fi! I'm only a few tens of pages away from the end of this one, but I think if you count the fact that its the second in a trilogy I'm actually hundreds of pages from the end. I also don't have the last one.
Brain Maker by David Perlmutter, MD
File this one under "interesting science". It is kind of low on the list of must-reads, but it seems interesting and since I don't know much about gut-brains its worth a read. Also, I know this wasn't intentional, but I like that the image is of the left "hemisphere" of the broccoli brain, the language hemisphere of the broccoli brain, haha.
Welp, that is a fraction of the books in my stack, but its the 8 that I am the most excited about or am already reading and hoping to finish in this time of COVID-19. I y'all enjoyed my list. Feel free to drop me a line if you are interested in a review of any of these.
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