I'm not someone who usually comments on or memorializes the death of a celebrity. Although this has been a year in which we've lost some of the greatest artists, creators, and just all around amazing human beings of all time, the news on Tuesday about Carrie Fisher (edit: and, subsequently, her mother) struck me the hardest. I've never been a mega-Star Wars fan, although I've seen all the movies and have always loved what Star Wars has done for Science Fiction as a whole. Still, although I don't know all of the most obscure Star Wars facts, Carrie Fisher has always stood out as an icon to me. As Princess Leia, she got to be a strong, funny, witty princess who was beautiful but also tough and didn't take anybody's shit. Off screen, Fisher always struck me as having a similar grit, being a child of Hollywood who faced her own share of obstacles, including addiction and mental health issues. I always respected how she spoke out about having bipolar disorder, and wasn't afraid to write about her struggles with mental health and self-medication in both memoir, fiction, and in her own one-woman show. I had been eagerly awaiting her newest book, The Princess Diarist, which was released in November. So today I thought I would offer a reading list for fans of Ms. Fisher and for her best-known, iconic role, Princess Leia, to spend some time with her work and with works that owe quite a bit to her contribution to the world of Sci-Fi.
Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher
For a short but impactful read of Carrie's life, Wishful Drinking follows her from being born to celebrities Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher, then stepdaughter to Elizabeth Taylor, through her own marriages and divorces and, of course, being cast at age 19 to play a princess in Star Wars. Fisher doesn't shy away from discussing her drinking, drug addiction, and mental health disorders while still maintaining her humor an wit.
The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher
Fisher's latest work of non-fiction focuses on her time spent filming the first Star Wars film, and the book takes its' title from the journals that Fisher kept while working on the film as a teenager. I have yet to read this one and the reviews are mixed, but I love behind-the-scenes memoirs where larger than life actors and directors are exposed as regular people. If you are planning to re-watch the original trilogy as I am, it would be a good time to pick up this book for some context of filming A New Hope.
Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn
Taking place five years after the events in Return of the Jedi, this tie-in novel to the original trilogy is a good place to start when it comes to the intricate world of Star Wars novelizations, especially because familiar characters make appearances in addition to the new characters that Zahn penned. A fantastic, action-packed start to the Thrawn Trilogy.
Fortune's Pawn by Rachel Bach
Fortune's Pawn kicks off an awesome sci-fi space opera series that follows Devi Morris, an ambitious, highly skilled mercenary who is looking to advance a few ranks by serving on one of the toughest ships in her corner of space, the Glorious Fool. Joined by a crew of aliens and a mysterious, hot bartender, Devi soon finds her one-way-ticket to her dream job is more dangerous than she thought. There's battles, there's mysterious shadow organizations, and there's a creepy child; all the while, Devi gets to be the hero and do most of the rescuing.
Grimspace by Ann Aguirre
In Grimspace, our leading lady is Sirantha Jax, who has the highly desired ability to jump ships through grimspace. Jax survives a crash landing and is discovered by a group of rouge fighters who hope to take advantage of her rare talent. Meanwhile, Jax is strong and snarky, reminiscent of leading women in urban fantasy books, so it's a nice change in the sci-fi genre, plus there's romance.
The Ship Who Searched by Anne McCaffrey and Mercedes Lackey
Book 3 in Anne McCaffrey's Brainships series, The Ship Who Searched, which takes place in a world where physically disabled people can go on adventures by becoming cyborgs, often in the form of an entire ship. In this book, 7-year-old Tia straps on her ship to discover the cause of her paralyzing disease. Not a sweeping epic like most sci-fi, but a good character-driven (even though the character is kind of a ship) intimate Sci-Fi tale.
A few other space-centric books I've been reading to make some sense of the end of 2016 have also included Terms of Enlistment and Starshine. Have you been reading any old Sci-Fi favorites that serve as comfort reading in times of loss or distress? What kinds of books do you read when you need to do some self-care? Comment below any suggestions!
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