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| photo: Savanna Sturkie | |
Caleb Zane Huett is the manager of Avid Bookshop in Athens, Ga., and the author of Top Elf (Scholastic), a middle grade action/humor novel about a competition to become the next Santa Claus. He's also the host of two video game culture podcasts: You're Too Show, a comedic exploration of Sonic the Hedgehog's effect on the modern world, and Every Day's Great, a long-form study of the Persona video game series. His proudest accomplishment was singing backup on a song featured on Welcome to Night Vale. He's an Aries.
On your nightstand now:
My nightstand is a whole bookshelf on its own. Right now the closest to me are Dear Martin by Nic Stone, Ruin of Angels by Max Gladstone and The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin. (So two "stone" authors and a book full of characters who can control stone with their minds. I guess I have a thing?)
Favorite book when you were a child:
The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander. I was obsessed with all of the Chronicles of Prydain. Where the story of King Arthur was too clean for me to get excited about, The Book of Three felt messy, weird and approachable. Alexander built a world that was serious and believable--and an adventure with high stakes and genuine tension--but also allowed it to be deeply, deeply silly. That's the real world, right? Scary and big, but made up of a bunch of ridiculous pieces. (Also, looking back now, I'm realizing the Horned King might have kicked off my obsession with characters who have antlers. There is nothing cooler than a big pair of antlers!!!)
Your top five authors:
Oh geez. I think I've probably covered several of them in this list, but here are some that I haven't mentioned in the other questions, and some good books you should read: Maggie Nelson (The Argonauts), Margaret Atwood (Oryx and Crake), Adam Gidwitz (The Inquisitor's Tale), Rainbow Rowell (Carry On) Eleanor Davis (How to Be Happy).
Book you've faked reading:
Atlas Shrugged. It was required in a high school class--no thanks!!!! Even then, I wasn't interested in any philosophy that didn't value caring and kindness. We should protect each other.
Book you're an evangelist for:
The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson. I think I've sold more of these at Avid than any other single book. A queer math genius rises through the ranks of an invading empire and tries to tear it apart from the inside! Can you ever truly hold power within a system that marginalizes who you are? Can you really change a broken government from the inside? How much of yourself can you give away before you aren't yourself anymore? Baru addresses these questions with a hero who wouldn't normally be given the spotlight in a fantasy story. Plus, I accidentally learned a little bit about how economies work, which is not something I expected from a page-turning thriller. I've never read another book in my life that so clearly lays out what's coming from the very first page but still manages to surprise you with every twist.
Book you've bought for the cover:
Simon Stålenhag's Tales from the Loop and its sequel, Things from the Flood. Stålenhag has created an alternate Sweden where typical childhood mundanity lives right next door to wild futuristic technology, and in doing so makes some beautiful statements on the nature of growing up. Tales from the Loop's cover perfectly captures that balance: a kid from a rural neighborhood getting in trouble for messing around in a field... and controlling a giant robot.
Book you hid from your parents:
We had a pretty open household--my parents were happy that I was reading, no matter what it was--but I read a lot of comics and fanfiction online with gay characters. Before I came out to them, I was petrified they'd walk in while I was reading about cute cartoon boys falling in love.
Book that changed your life:
Terry Pratchett's The Color of Magic. I gobbled up dozens of Discworld novels when I was in middle- and high school. Pratchett helped me understand and hone my love of approaching serious subjects with silliness, and treating the silly very seriously. I fell in love with Pratchett's world immediately, and read mostly his books for over a year. I'll carry that with me forever.
Favorite line from a book:
"I am Sailor Moon, champion of justice! On behalf of the moon, I will right wrongs and triumph over evil, and that means you!" --Sailor Moon, from Sailor Moon Vol. 1
Five books you'll never part with:
Suzanne Collins was the first person to tell me Top Elf was getting published--in a signed copy of The Hunger Games! So I'm definitely holding on to that one. SuperMutant Magic Academy by Jillian Tamaki, Fun Home by Alison Bechdel, N.K. Jemisin's The Fifth Season and my box set of the first seven Pokemon Adventures manga by Hidenori Kusaka & Mato.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan. Queer people lost a huge chunk of our history to the AIDS epidemic, and he honors that with a beautiful book about modern queer kids told with the voices of those lost members of our culture. It's gorgeous, and a book that holds up to re-reads anyway, but the first time I felt like I was joining something bigger than myself.
Book that was a guilty pleasure:
I don't really believe in guilty pleasures. Like what you like, and approach what you like honestly! I do read a lot of Star Wars books, though, and as a bookseller... well, I have a lot of other things I could be reading. I definitely recommend any of Claudia Gray's additions to the canon, though: Lost Stars, Bloodline and Leia, Princess of Alderaan.