As a past contributor to Inverse Journal, I was asked to talk about some of the books I read last year. My comments are included along with those of 29 other writers.
The editor of "The Books That Shaped Our Year 2020," Majid Maqbool, says, “As the year comes to an end, we asked Kashmir’s writers, poets, academics, journalists and some of our contributors about the books they’ve managed to read this year. These are books that have resonated and stayed with them, giving them company, educating them about the world, and expanding their knowledge. In an unstable year that mostly confined us indoors due to the raging pandemic, keeping us apart and limiting our travels and mobility, books open new doors of knowledge and insight, in the end making us feel less lonely. The idea is to share a diverse list of books, across genres, published this year and in earlier years from which our readers can choose and pick something to read as per their taste as they step into a new year.”
This is what I wrote:
Finding Them Gone: Visiting China’s Poets of the Past by
Bill Porter travels around China like a geologist, scratching at its surface modernity to reveal the deep time of its civilization, the continuities of its arts, and the personalities that are still vivid hundreds (thousands?) of years after their life on Earth, all this while negotiating taxi rides, grumping at bad motels, and getting lost in rural villages.
The Invitation-Only Zone: The True Story of North Korea’s Abduction Project by Robert S. Boynton
One of the strangest stories ever. For decades the North Korean government kidnapped foreigners and set them up in North Korea as involuntary guests. Why? No one really seems to know. Robert Boynton profiles some Japanese abductees, and puts together evidence that might lead to an explanation, but never quite does.
The Pink Line: Journeys Across the World’s Queer Frontiers by Mark Gevisser
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Queer … South African Mark Gevisser interviews people all over the world to trace the progress (and regression) of rights and liberties among the non-het. The global LGBT rights movement has influenced the way everyone thinks of themselves, it seems, even in societies where there were traditional roles for third gender people. The book’s strength is in the individual stories, whether in Africa, India, or Mexico. These are day to day struggles in contexts that a decade or two ago did not exist.
A few others:
Haiku World: An International Poetry Almanac
William J. Higginson
Ubiquity: Why Catastrophes Happen
Mark Buchanan
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