As a kid, I was known for hauling genre epics onto the school bus. I would devour tomes meant for adults as we wound through the mountains toward school. At that age, I was especially enthralled by dark, dangerous worlds that contrasted with my bucolic surroundings. The darker the better. Now, however, as I approach middle age, I still like darkness, but I’ve lived enough that I don’t need warnings about how bad things can be pounded into me via fiction. Thus the stories featured here contain more than darkness and danger: They contain hope. At least a note of it, and sometimes a symphony.
I wrote...
The Last One
By
Alexandra Oliva
What is my book about?
The Last One starts with a reality TV show. Twelve contestants are sent into the woods to face challenges that will test the limits of their endurance. During filming, an apocalyptic event occurs, but the contestants don’t know anything about it. When one of them—a young woman the show’s producers call Zoo—stumbles across the devastation, she can imagine only that it is part of the game.
Alone and disoriented, Zoo refuses to quit. Staggering countless miles across unfamiliar territory, she must summon all her survival skills to achieve the goal she believes will mark the end of the game: reaching her home.
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The Books I Picked & Why
The Dog Stars
By
Peter Heller
Why this book?
I like to describe this book as The Road but with hope. It’s a simplification, of course, but also gets at the book’s heart: it’s about a man struggling to make a life in a broken, violent world. But he’s a man who can still see beauty, and he finds meaning beyond just putting one foot ahead of the other. My favorite books are the ones that combine strong writing with nail-biting action. This novel has both those things—and more.
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The Dreamers
By
Karen Thompson Walker
Why this book?
A viral epidemic strikes a sleepy college town and makes it exactly that: sleepy. People keep falling asleep and not waking up. Cue uncertainty, quarantine, panic, denial—all these things we are far too familiar with today. (This book was published pre-COVID.) Walker is a lyrical, insightful writer and many of the passages in this novel feel—intentionally, I believe—dreamlike.
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Project Hail Mary
By
Andy Weir
Why this book?
This book is similar to Weir’s well-known debut, The Martian, in that it features a man stranded far away from Earth who uses math—lots and lots of math—to survive. But this book differs significantly in that instead of humanity banding together to save a single man, here a single man is tasked with saving humanity. Now that’s what I call raising the stakes! A quick, propulsive story with a sneakily gripping emotional core, I can’t recommend it enough.
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Red Clocks
By
Leni Zumas
Why this book?
This is one of those books that gives you an unsettling sense of “this could happen tomorrow.” Abortion is banned nationwide; in-vitro fertilization is illegal, and a constitutional amendment grants full rights to every embryo. Women are not turned into handmaids a la Margaret Atwood’s imagination; life goes on much as it does today, but these societal restrictions—and the intense penalties for violating them—hang heavy over each character’s head. There is darkness aplenty in a world like this, but a close look also reveals kindness and connection.
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Stories of Your Life and Others
By
Ted Chiang
Why this book?
It’s rare that a short story collection grabs me with the same intensity of a good novel, but this collection not only grabbed me, it shook me about and then tossed me aside, dazed. Ted Chiang is a singular writer, and the stories in this collection (including the one that inspired the movie Arrival) reveal a startling, forward-thinking intellect—not to mention exceptional talent. Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy today.
