Rapid River January 2020 Final
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<strong>Rapid</strong> <strong>River</strong> asks: Malaprop’s ten best books of 2019<br />
REVIEW BY JUSTIN SOUTHER • NATIONAL<br />
BOOKS<br />
With over 20 booksellers on staff,<br />
all of whom are rabid readers, all<br />
of whom have wildly different tastes<br />
and interests, it’s nearly impossible<br />
to come to a consensus of ten books<br />
we loved the most.<br />
Even dwindling all of our favorites<br />
down to an unwieldy 100-plus<br />
favorite titles of 2019 (which you can<br />
find on our website, malaprops.com)<br />
is a tough battle. With this in mind,<br />
here (selfishly, perhaps) are my 10<br />
favorite books of 2019. For a better<br />
idea of the tastes of the booksellers<br />
of Malaprop’s as a whole, please visit<br />
our website, or drop by the store and<br />
browse our staff picks.<br />
97,196 Words, Emmanuel Carrere.<br />
With the sly, astute and honest way<br />
he mixes memoir, biography, and history,<br />
French writer Emmanuel Carrere<br />
should be the biggest author in the<br />
world. This collection of essays is the<br />
perfect introduction.<br />
The Divers’ Game, Jesse Ball. This<br />
could’ve been a simple allegory of<br />
modern times told through the lens of<br />
dystopianism. Instead, it’s something<br />
more significant and more human<br />
because what Ball understands is the<br />
real tragedy of existence — the violence<br />
and cruelty, but also the love,<br />
the heart, and the dignity of living.<br />
Strangely compelling and tragic.<br />
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones<br />
of the Dead, Olga Tokarczuk. Newly<br />
minted Nobel laureate Tokarczuk creates<br />
an incredibly quirky and blackly<br />
comic thriller/pseudo-revenge tale.<br />
An odd, entertaining that also works<br />
as an examination of modern hypocrisies<br />
and a defense of animal rights.<br />
Go Ahead in the Rain, Hanif Abdurraqib.<br />
All of my favorite music writing<br />
is about the personal relationship<br />
between listener and music. Abdurraqib<br />
nails that here, skirting the line<br />
between biography and personal<br />
memoir, speaking to the triumph of<br />
connection that real art can give us.<br />
Happening, Annie Ernaux. Ernaux’s<br />
short memoir of her “criminal abortion”<br />
in ‘60s France is a beautiful and<br />
devastating exercise in examining<br />
memory and a focused look at the<br />
dangers of restricting reproductive<br />
rights. Proof that even the slimmest<br />
books can have a heavy, undeniable<br />
impact, and an unfortunately pertinent<br />
book still today.<br />
Juliet the Maniac, Juliet Escoria.<br />
“Auto-fiction” that’s astonishingly raw,<br />
honest, daring, and human. A wrecking<br />
ball with a keen sense of humor,<br />
poignancy, and a wide-open heart. It<br />
is devastating yet personal.<br />
Loudermilk, Lucy Ives. I loved this<br />
book. A grand comic novel with hints<br />
of Charles Portis and Pynchon, a<br />
great post-Millenium, pre-Millennial<br />
foray into America at the cusp of its<br />
decline. Hilarious, touching, ambitious,<br />
and endlessly playful.<br />
Optic Nerve, Maria Gainza. Warm,<br />
open-hearted autofiction focusing<br />
on the intersection of art and relationships.<br />
A hypnotic and deceivingly<br />
simple book who’s excellent appeal<br />
is Gainza’s welcoming nature as a<br />
writer.<br />
Tiny Love, Larry Brown. Brown is<br />
one of the great, underrated short<br />
story writers, a man who wrote about<br />
the South with sympathy, realism,<br />
and honesty — in all its complicated<br />
messiness. Tiny Love, his collected<br />
short stories (many which have been<br />
out of print) is a treasure and should<br />
— in any reasonable world — be a<br />
literary event.<br />
Vernon Subutex 1, Virginie<br />
Despentes. Despentes is a great<br />
observer of Western modernity,<br />
especially the alienation, isolation,<br />
and confusion it creates. A brilliant<br />
beginning to masterpiece trilogy, a<br />
highly relatable, fierce, and sneakily<br />
humane examination of seemingly<br />
shallow, unlikable people pleading for<br />
purpose.<br />
JANUARY <strong>2020</strong><br />
PARTIAL LISTING<br />
We host numerous Readings &<br />
Book clubs, as well as Salons!<br />
Visit www.malaprops.com<br />
READINGS & BOOK SIGNINGS<br />
Sandra E. Johnson presents<br />
‘The Mind-Body Peace<br />
Journal: 366 Mindful Prompts<br />
for Serenity & Clarity’<br />
1/06-6pm<br />
Rita Sims Quillen presents<br />
‘Wayland, in conversation with<br />
Abigail DeWitt’ — 1/08 - 6pm<br />
TICKETED: Ransom Riggs<br />
launches ‘The Conference of<br />
the Birds’ — 1/14-7pm<br />
Elwood Watson, PhD presents<br />
‘Keepin’ It Real: Essays<br />
on Race in Contemporary<br />
America’ — 1/15-6pm<br />
John Russell presents ‘All the<br />
Right Circles’ — 1/21-6pm<br />
E. Patrick Johnson, Ph.D.<br />
presents ‘Honeypot: Black<br />
Southern Women Who Love<br />
Women’ 1/23-6pm<br />
Cynthia Newberry Martin presents<br />
‘Tidal Flats’ — 1/27-6pm<br />
Nick Bruel presents ‘Bad Kitty<br />
Joins the Team’ — 1/28-6pm<br />
55 Haywood St.<br />
(828) 254-6734 • 800-441-9829<br />
Monday-Saturday 9AM to 9PM<br />
Sunday 9AM to 7PM<br />
VOL. 23, NO. 5 — JANUARY <strong>2020</strong> | RAPIDRIVERMAGAZINE.COM | RAPID RIVER’S ARTS & CULTURE | 25
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