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Booklist 2007 previous picks: [1] [2] [3] [4] Book #4 Munro, Alice: Runaway | (2007.01.31) Oh, Alice, I do love your ways. I wavered on Munro for a long time (read Friend of My Youth last year), thinking her work a bit pedantic, a little monotonous, always about the distraught Canadians and their ruined relationships, but this book changed all my feelings about her. Perhaps because the plots at times wandered further into the fantastic than they had before--an older man tries to befriend 21 year old Juliet on a train; she gets up, harshly ignores him, he later kills himself by jumping under the train and she meets her future lover in the aftermath--you know, that kind of depressing, but tragi-comically realistic enough thing that you're just intrigued enough to keep on going because you love the drama. Or, I do, at least. Read this one. It's perfectly depressing, but still kind of perfect. Book #3 Marai, Sandor: Embers | (2007.01.19) Highly recommended to me by Jake, Embers tells the story of two men who meet after a forty-one year break in their friendship, one a wealthy "general" (Henrik) living in his family's castle in Vienna and the other, Konrad, an artist and free spirit whose disappearance years prior left a shroud of mystery over the entirety of Henrik's life. The two men, now old and near death, spend the duration of one meal together then sit before a dying fire, recounting their lives and the nature of their once devoted friendship. Marai's words are direct, simple, and his sentences brief, but the basic questioning about life's obstacles and the purpose and meaning of true friendship are entangled in the seemingly simple-but-fantastically written scenario of a conversation between geriatrics. His words are--to mimic others--lyric, and the book reads with a cadence that'll keep you fixated. Highly Highly recommended. Book #2 Hegi, Ursula: Salt Dancers | (2007.01.13) A tragically sad tale of a grown woman, Julia, single-but-pregnant, returning home to her childhood home after 23 years to confront her father about why he beat her as a child. Her younger brother Travis still lives in the home taking care of her father, now a frail old man, whose apology she hopelessly seeks in order that she may be a mother to a child without the weight of pains borne upon her as a young girl. Julia's mother mysteriously disappeared from her life at age 9 and as much as she seeks redemption from her father, she seeks to find--and find closure--with her mother too. Book #1 Franzen, Jonathan: The Discomfort Zone | (200701.05) An unmemorable but entertaining collection of quips synthesizing childhood nostalgia, adult discomfort, and self-effacing realizations about his obsessions (bird watching, being cool), his family, and his sometimes-too-self-congratulatory idiosyncracies. A good,light-hearted read for the beginning of the year, but doesn't live up to The Corrections. Booklist 2006 previous picks: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] Book #18 Rand, Ayn: The Fountainhead | (2006.09) Profoundly mesmerizing with engaging characters, plot, and sub-plot. Aside from the suspicion of being brainwashed by Rand's objectivism, this was my favorite book all year--or in years. Howard Roark is a tragic and beautiful character whose strengths and inapparent weaknesses resonated in a resounding and personal way. Dominique, Ellis Toohey, Gail Wynand, and Peter Keating are each developed in as detailed exagerations of a form of person, telling about humans' strengths and many flaws. I highly recommend this book to all. Book #17 Nafisi, Azar: Reading Lolita in Tehran | (2006.08) An interesting idea for a book--that is, learning about oneself through the experiences and teaching of literature--but not especially interesting by way of execution and I felt little empathy or particular interest for any of the characters. The author seemed to seek affirmation in her analyses of literature and it ended up feeling like a meta-book: a book about other books. Book #16 Wharton, Edith: The House of Mirth | (2006.08) Engaging if you're intrigued by turn-of-the-century wealth and frivolity, what it was like to desire being part of high culture, or more so, what it was like to pretend to be part of. Interesting as a historical time-piece, and watching a woman (Lily Bart) climb and tumble up and down social ladders, while trying to save herself. Book #15 Homes, A.M.: The Safety of Objects | (2006.08) Another collection of short stories in the 'dysfunctional family' genre, Homes is the master of ordinary-yet-absurd problems--a story about a boy who is kidnapped, then returned by his kidnapper, another about an older brother's fixation on his younger sister's barbie dolls. The stories are addictive and a definite quick read. Good for the subway, if you can read on moving vehicles. Book #14 Kundera, Milan: Laughable Loves | (2006.08) Kundera is perhaps my favorite writer, whimsical with words, the type to write about the 'human condition' in sweeping statements that seem poetic and TRUE, articulating them with seemingly perfunctory examples that hit on the point exactly. Kundera appears to see life as this great stage on which we are all performing--this book is a collection of tragic-comedies, relationships misinterpreted, gone awry, or suffering from miscommunications that force either concession to their failure or submission to their misunderstood success. Great great read. Book #13 Buford, Bill: Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany | (2006.07) An oft-reader of food-writing, I'm going to venture to say that the best food writers are never the best chefs, the best chefs never the best writers. [If Thomas Keller wrote as well as he cooked, how would he have time for both? If Hemingway were preoccupied with being a chef, when would he have time to write? (or drink?)] That said, Buford hits a crucial intersection between both fields--a better writer than Reichl or Chelminski or Anthony Bourdain--most obviously because of his background as a writer and an editor, but even moreso because he understand the most important ingredients in this recipe: how to write a good story.Passionate foodie to an excess, willing to travel to Tuscany to work with a raw-meat eating butcher with enlarged hands and a fiery temper, Buford makes his experience the experience of He Who Has Always Wanted To LEave His Desk Job To Be A Chef, but more generally he appeals to He Who Has Always Wanted To Follow An Idea with Passion. His friendship (more like courtship) of red-headed, clog-wearing Italian chef Mario Batali is professional, but also social, the flexibility of his lifestyle unnerving, but overridden by admiration for his addiction to the food, the food-ideas, and the willingness to go all the way. Having spent due time in the heat of a kitchen, Buford's account strikes me as true-to-life. The kitchen is fast, and brutal, and you cut your finger tips and are expected to carry on. There is pressure and each must orchestrate their steps to the tune of the other, from the executive chef to the garde mange. But, when all break for lunch and Jerome the French sous chef lifts his glass of sparkling water, plops a fresh berry on your plate, gives you a hug, and tells you a story about the best artichokes he's ever eaten, you realize a great restaurant is only ever the love-child of a happy marriage between a chef and his food. And that said, read the book, for it's the love-child of a good writer and a good idea. Book #12 Amis, Martin: The Rachel Papers | (2006.06) Hilarious coming-of-age story of 20 year old Charles Highway, who tries to seduce a girl en route to his studies at Oxford. Fun, funny, and well-written, recommended. Book #11 Fitzgerald, F. Scott: This Side of Paradise | (2006.06) Classic Fitzgerald story of love, wealth, and great loss. Not his best, not his worst. Book #10 Moody, Rick: The Ice Storm | (2006.05) A fairly forgettable dysfunctional family story set in the 1970's, infested with consumer culture, trying to apathetically rediscover the meaning of love, and dealing with affairs, first loves, and death in the meantime. WAIT. Haven't I read this EXACT. SAME. BOOK. about 37 times before? [100% beach read material] Book #9 Ellis, Bret Easton: Lunar Park | (2006.05) Perhaps the trashiest book I've read in the last 10 years, excepting Ellis' 3 other novels, Less Than Zero, The Rules of Attraction, and American Psycho, an damage-ingly addictive 416-page novel that I felt compelled to continue reading in the self-injurious way a suicidal person is compelled to slit their own wrists. It has that loving quality. Lunar Park bears similar traits of wretched, yet addictive writing, nearly intolerable narcissism on Ellis' part, and the qualities of a book that should and was rightly placed on a bookstand next to another novel of equal literary merit: The Da Vinci Code. Book #8 Roth, Phillip: The Human Stain | (2006.05) Never a big Roth fan [and by Roth I somehow mean a larger category of Roth-Bellow-Updike who've always been one in the same to me], but this was the best book I've read in the last 3 or 4 months. Coleman Silk, age 71, a former dean at Athena college is accused of racist remarks then takes to having a love affair with a 34 year old janitor who claims to be illiterate. This is Coleman's tale, told from the retro-perspective of author-friend Nathan Zuckerman, interspersed with the events in the moments they are happening. Thing is: Coleman has hidden the fact that he's a black many from the world, fair enough to pretend he is white. His life, a constant contradiction, leads him on a tumultuous path of self-discovery, with Roth's commentary and cultural insight to boot. Highly recommended. Book #7 Ishiguro, Kazuo: Never Let Me Go | (2006.04.20) Disappointing novel with overly simplistic l9nguage that supposedly touches on love, loss, life, growing up, and what it's like to be an outcast. Struggled to finish, not recommended. Book #6 Munro, Alice: Friend of My Youth | (2006.04.01) Canadian essayist Alice Munro touches on the lives of ordinary Canadians, often with poignant tales of women, characterizing the laymen as characters indeed. Dull sometimes, but sincere. Book #5 Reichl, Ruth: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise | (2006.03.01) NYTimes food critic Ruth Reichl, narrates a tale of what it's like to be a mother, a wife, an eater, and simultaneously traverse the culinary landscape of New York. Fun beach read. Book #4 Homes, A.M.: In a Country of Mothers | (2006.02.08) At the end of last year (2005) I picked up Homes' Music For Torching, which ended up being one of the best reads of the year. This, an earlier work, is almost as good, investigating the potential perversities of a relationship between a therapist and a patient. Claire, the therapist, fixates on patient Jody, who she is deluded to think is the lost daughter she gave up for adoption as a teenager. Jody, an aspiring filmaker who falls sick dashing many of her dreams while at UCLA film school, depends on Jody in an overtly maternalistic way. The relationship affects each of their peripheral relationships, but what's really great about the way Homes writes is her ability to be continually shocking -- small turns and surprises in the story line that make you think she is rather f*cked up (for lack of a better world), but then it is always refreshing that had the gumption to write what she did. Good book. Book #3 Smith, Zadie: White Teeth | (2006.01.30) What a let down. I'd put off reading this, but heard rave reviews, none of which proved true to life. Unable to relate to the characters nor having any desire to obsess over them, the novel's complex interweaving of stories renders itself more abstract and distracting than it's worth. Skip it. Book #2 Marquez, Gabriel Garcia: Love in the Time of Cholera | (2006.01.15) Beautiful and tragic. Marquez, reminiscent of Saramago (or Saramago, reminiscent of Marquez) writes these exquisitely long sentences that wind themselves into their own fairy tales. His characters are parodied versions of themselves -- here, the tale of a man who falls in love, then, upon his love, Fermina Daza, marrying another man, spends the remainder of his life waiting for her to return to him. By creating characters he is evidently hopelessly in love with writing about, and painting the scenes of the Central American terrain in which they reside, Marquez, (only to employ a cliche) is, true to claims, magically realistic. Book #1 Coetzee, J.M.: Slow Man | (2006.01) A disappointing work by Coetzee. Typically wrenching, and full of the weighty topics of love, love lost, unattainable love, injury, and being an artist. At one point I loved Coetzee for his weightiness, but he seems compelled to force such topics on his reader, not always in a whimsical or effective way. Booklist 2005 previous picks: [1] [2] [3] [3.5] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] [39] [40] [41] [42] Book #42 Evans, Walker & James Agee: Let Us Now Praise Famous Men | (2005.12.11) I originally read this book for a history class several years ago, but reread it this weekend on assignment, but also out of personal interest. The book -- an experimental text pairing Agee's portraits of sharecroppers' and tenent famers' daily lives in the deep south during the 1930's accompanies a handful of images by Walker Evans. At their best, they depict steeley gazes of sooty children, ramshackle houses unfit for living, and both Evans an Agee seems to guiltily, but desperately need to share what they find. There is constant verbal justification for the exploration of the farmers' lives, acknowledgement of their privilege, and a constant yearning to cast it off. A must-read, though not an easy-read. Book #41 Nelson, Maggie: Jane: A Murder | (2005.12.08) Nelson, the niece of her slain aunt Jane, a victim of one of a series of ruthless murders in Michigan during the mid-1960's uses myriad documentary sources -- books, police reports, interviews -- which are interwoven through prose, poetry, diary excerpts and direct quotation to offer a stunning, and moving voice reflecting on the murder of a loved one never known. Nelson's poetry reads like schizophrenic prose that in order to convey the utmost to the reader, must jump between voices, only occasionally her own. Book #40 Yates, Richard: A Special Providence | (2005.12.04) Good because it has all the classic elements of Yates's others, an overbearing mother, ever-craving more for her child, insufferably selfish, and constantly yearning a life out of her own means, and a teenage son obsessed with his inadequacies and the ways they define him. However, this pales in comparison to Revolutionary Road or The Easter Parade, though Yates himself admitted this was one of two published books (out of 9) he was embarassed by, the other being Young Hearts Crying. Book #39 McInerney, Jay: Bright Lights, Big City | (2005.11.22) Something on the order of if Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho were diluted and his character stripped of his psychopathic tendencies and given an ounce of humanity and integrity, McInerney's protagonist is a dillusioned twenty-something--a drug-taking, former husband of a model, party hopping soulseeker in that city that we all come to to live the American dream. Good read, definitely recommended. Book #38 Fitzgerald, F. Scott: Tender is the Night | (2005.11.12) A good book for just before you depart for the Costa Brava, Dick Diver is classic Fitzgerald, at first stunning, brave, fearless, the kind of heroes you ask for, then ultimately undermined by these same traits and the way they make a man vulnerable. Fitzgerald always paints such pretty pictures and when one is willing to indulge, this, like The Great Gatsby, makes for quite a good trip. Book #37 Wright, Douglas: I am My Own Wife | (2005.11.05) A one-man play that tells the story of the 65-year old East German transvestite Charlotte von Mahlsdorf is a masterfully crafted portrayal about the way people morph themselves both on stage and in real life. I'm not usually a huge fan of plays but whipped right through this. Book #36 LeBlanc, Adrian Nicole: Random Family | (2005.10.30) An intense sociological/journalistic study of drug culture in the South Bronx during the 90's through the relationships--and the intimacies and brutalities this encompased. LeBlanc embedded herself in the rough-and-tumble social fabric of the South Bronx neighborhood, spending years upon years with families, the complex and random families that simultaneously tie the community together, yet constantly rips it back apart. Book #35 Carver, Raymond: Cathedrals | (2005.10.18) Maybe I'm not being fair, but after reading my first collection of Carver short stories, I'm not impressed. So he's supposed to be a master of minimalist short stories, and write knowingly of the intricacies and intimacies of marriages, friendships, relations. Sometimes he does, but not in a spectacular way. After Didion and Yates, well, sorry buddy, but you just don't even compare. Book #34 Didion, Joan: The Year of Magical Thinking | (2005.09) I've always been a bigger fan of Joan Didion's non-fiction writing than her fiction, so my interest was piqued by this selection, where Didion reflects and publicly mourns the loss of her life's partner, her husban John. Compounded by the tragic hospitalization and eventual passing of her only daughter Quintana, Didion exposes a side of her that's missing from her cultural critique, her prescient observations of place and time and the people whose lives she has exposed. Didion comes off foremost as a wife and a mother (rather than a writer); unfortunately, at times it takes a way from the narrative as though while she is writing at her most capable, her most capable post-tragedy paragraphs can't help that they are not her best. Book #33 Bailey, Blake: A Tragic Honesty | (2005.09.28) Of all the writers I've discovered this year, Richard Yates is the one that I love the most. Maybe I'm drawn to personal tragedy, but so much of Yates's tragic life is self-inflicted. He is selfish. He is masochistic. He is tactless and ungraceful. He is a womanizer, wrapped in hierarchical tradition, lacks some basic tenants of personal hygiene. But, at the same time Yates was tortured, relentless, and pitiable, but enviable. He was noble to his profession, sold only to survive, survived only to write. He valued his children and good writing. He was frugal except in matters of alcohol and cigarettes (which, in some people's estimation could make him awful). He was awkward, outrageous, hard on himself, hard on others, unbearable. I love that he was so extreme and the way he is not afraid to offend his readers. He writes sad characters in novels with irresolute endings and is overly apologetic. Richard Yates is lucky that his biographer was obsessed with the minutae of his life, and wrote a novel that does justice to his oft-forgotten novels by writing sentences as good as the ones that he himself once wrote. Book #32 Malcolm, Janet: The Journalist and the Murderer | (2005.09.25) Another quick read, this is Janet Malcom's critical essay on the psychology between the journalist and his subject. Using the 1980's lawsuit between convicted murderer Jeffrey McDonald brought against Joe McGinniss, author of Fatal Vision (in which McDonald was his subject), Malcolm alludes to the to the insincerities that a journalist can be forced to take on in order to do his job "well," and the subjectivities that, in the most drastic of circumstances, can forever affect subjects' lives. Book #31 O'Hara, John: Appointment in Samarra | (2005.09.10) Another author reminiscent of F. Scott Fitzgerald, O'Hara pins down a 1930's small-town sentiment with his story of gentleman Julian English's break away from high society. Entertaining, it's not The Great Gatsy nor is it Revolutionary Road. Book #30 Fadiman, Anne: Ex Libris: Confession from a Common Reader | (2005.09.05) Fadiman pieces a gorgeous collection of anecdotes about the ways that we cherish, collect, store, exchange, and inscribe books -- stories that hit close to home for bibliophiles like myself from bibliophile families. Her first story is about the challenges of merging libraries with her bibliophile husband George, where, confronted by different systems of organization, duplicate books, sentimental copies vs. copies of books in better condition, one has to learn to negotiate the ways in which they look at their most prized possessions. A great (fast) read. Book #29 Robinson, Marilynne: Gilead | (2005.09.05) Like her first novel, Housekeeping, Gilead is lyrical and beautifully composed. But, either because of the religiosity or an aversion to Robinson's intentional (slow) pace-setting character development, I was bored and glad to be done by the end. Technically, however, a masterpiece. Book #28 Ellis, Bret Easton: American Psycho | (2005.09.03) Ellis casts despicable, money-guzzling, perverse, materialists as the subjects and narrator of American Psycho -- it's easy to hate the Patrick Bateman(s) of the world and Ellis makes you realize how much you (and I) do. A book that made me writhe to read and by far the most grostesquely trying of books I've ever read, don't pick this one up unless you've got a strong stomach. Book #27 Eugenides, Jeffrey: The Virgin Suicides | (2005.08.20) Mystical and macabre, this might stand out as my favorite book of the year. I realize I say that on every third book, but this was exceptional, mostly for the enchanting quality of Eugenides's protagonists, the five Lisbon daughters, the first and youngest of whom commits suicide at the books commencing, the remaining four, who jointly scheme a collective suicide near the book's end. The narrator is an onlooking peer, now grown up, reflecting on the phenomena of the suicides and the nostalgia and memory for these untouchable girls, a narrator representing the every-man, made personal by an explicit sense of grief and confusion and desire to understand a people (the Lisbon daughters) who everyone wanted so desperately to know, but couldn't while they lived, and can't now, because they're dead. I haven't yet seen the movie, and don't know that I should, for fear of spoiling the book and envisioning Kirstin Dunst every time I think of this book...opinions...? Book #26 Plath, Sylvia: The Bell Jar | (2005.08.??) Finished this novel a while ago, but forgot to count it in my list. The largely autobiographical account of a talented, capable young woman's slippery slide into insanity. As others remark, it's written with modern flare, not dense as a "typical classic" might be. Somehow reminiscent of a female version of Catcher in the Rye or One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Book #25 Yates, Richard: The Easter Parade | (2005.08.16) The second consecutive Yates book of the summer, he is quickly becoming a new favorite author. A product of two divorces and father of three daughters, he creates characters who seem real--too real--because they are likely the people of his life, morphed and fused and recombined into troubled daughters and crazy aunts and abusive fathers. Another good read. Book #24 Yates, Richard: Revolutionary Road | (2005.08.13) Slated as a 1950's version of The Great Gatsby, this first novel written by of Yates' novels is resoundingly poignant, remarking on the facade of vapid suburban relationships and the failings of marriages and friendships in which everything ought to be right on paper, but is wrong in person. April Wheeler is the tragically beautiful heroine of the story, the victim of domestic boredom and an inkling to DO SOMETHING, GO SOMEWHERE, but, in the ironic, but cool placidness that befalls the motivated-but-not-motivated-enough, particularly those caught in the suffocation of suburbia, she and husband Frank do NOT escape, do NOT better their relationship, and the temporary regeneration of lust and excitement that returns to their marriage only proves to be its ultimate downfall. Another great book. I'm tempted to read his entire body of work. Book #23 Robinson, Marilynne: Housekeeping | (2005.08.03) Young Ruthie and her sister Lucille are left with their grandmother after their train-conductor-father's tragic death and their mother's apparent suicide. Their grandmother passes on, and they are left to two crazy aunts, before their enigmatic and transient aunt Sylvie shows up to take their place as caretaker. In the tale that follows, Ruth, the narrator is placed in a continual struggle between memory and reality and dream, finding solace in the crazed antics of her Aunt Sylvie, while remarkably undefined to the exterior. In a story where the protagonist is confronted by death and chaos so early on, it is the ABSO-F*CKING-LUTELY BRILLIANT WRITING and sentences you want to quote over and over again, that made me plow through this book, despite drooping eyes and persistent yawns. A MUST READ. Book #22 Orringer, Julie: How to Breathe Underwater | (2005.07.31) Orringer writes like exactly who she is -- a good writer honed into a great writer, with carefully crafted stories offering unpredictable turns of events in a predictable way. But, this is a good thing. Her character are complex enough -- boyfriends and brothers and crazy aunts and tragically beautiful cousins, whose lives are accessible, never enviable, such that they could be your neighbor or even you. Orringer writes deliberately (cue comment about Thoreau), and you get the impression while reading that every sentence was toiled over for the perfect words. An easy read, and intense, yet comforting. Book #21 Klosterman, Chuck: Killing Yourself to Live | (2005.07.28) In a several hundred page book of essays written in locations of rock stars' deaths, Klosterman manages to make a scant 2 memorable pieces of commentary, the first about relationships and how there is always THAT ONE PERSON who becomes your bar-standard, who is always your #1 even though you might be their #3 or 4*, and, secondly, well, I can't remember. These essays would read much better as weekly installations into a magazine (as was Klosterman's original assignment), rather than as an entire book that meanders and tries to save itself by defaulting to drugs and relationships. *not an original thought, just well-articulated Book #20 Moore, Lorrie: Birds of America | (2005.07.21) In a collection of 12 stories, at least 3 struck out as excellent, my favorites being "Agnes of Iowa" and "People Like That Are The Only People Here." Weaving the pathos of old with ideas of new, Lorrie Moore is an accomplished essayist who writes less poignantly about culture or cultural trends than she does about specific people. This was an enjoyable read. Highly recommended. Book #19 Murakami, Haruki: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle | (2005.07.16) The third Murakami book I've read this year, and reputation-wise, the one that generated the greatest expectations, I was either turned off by this novel's 600-page meandering, or lost on the inconclusiveness of some of the characters' stories (namely, Malta & Creta Kano), finding Murakami's simultaneous ability to exaggerate the mundane, yet weave the fantastic and make it seem utterly normal disconcerting, but so consciously so. Suffice to say, it's more the genre of fantasy or fantastic elements that can sometimes turn me off; not to compare this series to Harry Potter or The Hobbit or novels created in entirely fictitious worlds, but the dream-like states inhabited by his characters left me less grounded than I would have liked. Book #18 Ellis, Bret Easton: The Rules of Attraction | (2005.07.03) This book takes on the challenge of narration from the perspective of multiple eff-ed up kids' college diaries, ranting, raving, and proudly acknowledging their drug-induced, sex-driven voyeuristic tendencies and the subsequent consequences -- both downfalls and highpoints -- that come from relationships partially rooted in self-destructive behaviors. Though I am repeatedly stricken by Ellis' fantastic use of cameo appearances across his novels, this one was fairly disappointing. Book #17 Ellis, Bret Easton: Less Than Zero | (2005.06.19) Bret Easton Ellis, probably best known for The Rules of Attraction and American Psycho, writes a sad, but entrancing experience-story about 18 year old Clay's few weeks back home in Hollywood while on winter break from college. Jumping right (back) into incessant sex, drugs, and the desperate, vacuous money-absorbed and meaningless lives lived by both young and old, narrator Clay is simultaneously portrayed as blond-haired, too tan, and empty-behind the eyes (like everyone else), but also, as narrator, you're tempted to think he's someting different, someone who wants more in life, not as empty as everyone else he talks about.. Not an upper, Less Than Zero's stream of conscious, fast-chapter, life-as-a-continuous party writing style lend to an addictive page-turning read, depressing, but only in the way that it makes you feel better about your own life when y ou're done. Recommended -- very quick read. Book #16 Yoshimoto, Banana: Goodbye Tsugumi | (2005.06.17) A quick novella I picked up at Strand, I enjoyed Yoshimoto's story and thought her characters posessed extreme potential, but was let down by her writing (or the poor translation of her writing). The simplistic language often seemed childish and error ridden rather than simple for refinement, brevity, or lending to nuancing to invoke thought in the reader. I've never found translation to be a huge problem in Murakami's works, so maybe I am just less fond of her style. Book #15 Quinn, Daniel: Ishmael | (2005.06.13) I really couldn't stand this book. In part, because I turned off by books that offer statements like "adventure in mind and spirit" in their titles, but mostly because I just can't stand novels/stories/essays narrated by animals. I. JUST. DON'T. LIKE. IT. Book #14 Didion, Joan: Slouching Towards Bethlehem | (2005.06.09) I liked this second collectio of Joan Didion essays lots, but not as much as I enjoyed The White Album. One essay, however, clinched my attention. It is available online and called, "On Keeping A Notebook. Book #13 Didion, Joan: The White Album | (2005.05.20) Joad Didion is someone, who, much like Susan Sontag, was a familiar name throughout college, albeit an author I largely ignored. My brother visited last weekend and dropped this collection on my bookshelf for later reading. I picked it up immediately, intoxicated by Didion's oft-remarked-upon prescience and awareness of California (and America's) lifestyles, obsessions, and downfalls narrated in language with addictive fluency and precise analysis. Hallmarked by a sense of the author's hypervigilence to her own surroundings, and the know-how to write essays of cultural phenomenon while they were occuring in the late 1960's and through the 1970's, Didion is the archetype of my ideal essayist ... at least, that is, for now. Read a passage from The White Album. Book #12 Burroughs, Augusten: Dry | (2005.05.20) Dry, the memoir and sequel to Burroughs' Running with Scissors recounts the author's struggle with alcoholism, and subsequently, rehab. It's disturbingly addicting to read about other people's problems (maybe this is why I was a psych major), and the fluency and willingness of Burroughs to expose himself -- his homosexuality, his addictions, his failure to stay dry -- only increases the accessibility of the reader into the story line he creates. Book #11 McEwan, Ian: Atonement | (2005.05.04) Though all indicators pointed towards my resignment of this project (again), I made it through Atonement in early May, my first McEwan novel -- not my last. The love story bred between Robbie and Cecilia is a persistent, but tragic one; the relationship between Cecilia and her precocious sister, Briony, evermore enticing. I had a tough time getting lost in the details of McEwan's interwar period, a testament to my hyperactive website reading tendencies, that lend to my failure to focus on even a provocative story like this for more than 100 pages at a time. Book #10 Hadden, Mark: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time | (2005.04.03) The first full-length novel by a children's book writer, Hadden's simple prose is addictive and rolls off the tongue like a continuous stream of thought. Prime-numbered chapters interspersed with cutesy diagrams compose this tale, narrated by a neurotic and socially defunct fifteen year old boy in England. Though I wish I'd saved this light and quick read as a break between two Dostoevsky novels, as Book #10 on the year, it's still pretty good. Book #9 Murakami, Haruki: After the Quake | (2005.03.30) Sometimes there is nothing better than simple, elegant, prose. These stories read like children's parables with equal amounts of fantasy and moral instruction. Book #8 Eugenides, Jeffrey: Middlesex | (2005.03.20) This. Is. A. Great. Book. Not one to usually judge a book by its Pulitzer Prizes, I'm glad I read this one. Eugenides weaves a wonderful (and tragic) story of family and their secrets; relationships and their flaws. The protagonist, a hermaphrodite at first known as "Callie," but later as "Cal," narrates his/her tale of self-discovery based on a long family history that weaves nearly a century in time. Eugenides gives voice to a modern biological and social conflict regarding notions of gender and categorization, making poignant the difficulties of being unclassifiable. I highly recommend all 529 pages of this novel. Book #7 Wolff, Tobias: In the Garden of North American Martyrs | (2005.02.22) I know you're thinking, "GODDAMN! IT TOOK HER A MONTH TO READ THAT? THIS PROJECT'S GOING DOWN THE DRAIN FASTER THAN SPOILED MILK!" And, normally I'd agree with you except I'm really not behind schedule at all, it now being the 8th week of the year and me being on BOOK #8 so yeah, YEAH! TAKE THAT! Ok, so this is a decent collection of short stories, but it's not J.D. Salinger's Uncollected Writings and really, my favorite of all of Wolff's writing is his memoir, This Boy's Life (except GOOD LORD don't go watch the movie starring none other than Leonardo DiCaprio). Of his short stories, I like, Bullet in the Brain [link is to an annotated version]. Book #6 Murakami, Haruki: Norwegian Wood | (2005.01.22) After many suggestions to read Murakami's work, I finally finished one of his novels. I found his writing extraordinarily elegant; this book is riddled with instances of suicide and death, yet it evokes more feelings of compassion and caring instead of explicit sadness. The translator's note at the end points out that many of Murakami's readers were displeased that this novel seemed to be "just a simple love story," and love story it is, but simple it is not. I will certainly read more Murakami novels after this, which I'm told become fantastic and mystical. Book #5 Sontag, Susan: On Photography | (2005.01.18) I wish I'd read this 10 years ago. If I had, I might have picked up a camera and taken it seriously a long time ago. Book #4 Lahiri, Jhumpa: The Interpreter of Maladies | (2005.01.12) People have long encouraged me to read about the "minority experience" and I've resisted because I've found minority authors tend to develop characters based on stereotypes [even when the intent is to do exactly the opposite]. The characters in The Interpreter, written by Korean novelist Suki Kim, irked me for this exact reason. Fortunately, Lahiri's collection of short stories are varied with narratives based in characters who are young, old, male, female, and culturally adapted to America/India to myriad degrees. Some of the short stories in this collection are remarkable and explain why she won the Pulitzer Prize for it. Book #3.5 Muniz, Vik: Natura Pictrix: Interviews and Essays on Photography | (2005.01.03) This is a remarkable 100-page essay about the discourse of photography, photographs as illusions vs. art, and a good overview of the history of photography. I highly recommend this to any photographer or really, to anyone looking for an insigtful discussion about images, illusions, and art-making. Book #3 Burroughs, Augusten: Running with Scissors |(2005.01.05) This book instantly reminded me of the recent Jonathan Caouette film, Tarnation. Burroughs recounts his [tragic?] adolescence as a homosexual with less-than-together mother and series of dysfunctional relationships. I am going to try and read the sequel, Dry, but this is the type of reading that only makes me feel better because my life wasn't as terrible as Burroughs has described his own. This is easy to read and addicting, perhaps because of the tragedy. Book #2 Albers, Josef: The Interaction of Colors | (2005.01.03) This is a short and informative lecture/book about the components and characteristics of color. I was drawn to it because of my obsession with color, color gradients, and interest in color palettes. I'd like to go to Yale and see the actual color plates used by Albers. This is worth looking at [and sort of a cheat to count as a book!] Book #1 Franzen, Jonathan: The Corrections | (2005.01.02) It took a long time for me to get into the rhythm of this novel, though at 550+ pages, there is plenty of time still left to enjoy the story. The characters are complex and stereotyped in many ways, but, it does get better and better as you become engaged with the Lambert family. Overall? It could be 150 pages shorter and still accomplish the same thing, but, I finished craving a sequel. ---------------------------------- WHAT I'VE READ: Post College (Since May 2004): Auster, Paul: The New York Trilogy Calvino, Italo: The Baron of the Trees de Certeau, Michel: The Practice of Everyday Life, Part II Feirstein, Sanna: Naming New York Frey, James: A Million Little Pieces Gladwell, Malcolm: The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference Houellebecq, Michel: The Elementary Particles Kim, Suki: The Interpreter Klosterman, Chuck: Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs Lethem, Jonathan: The Fortress of Solitude Lutes, Jason: Berlin: Book One Mann, Thomas: Death in Venice Maugham, W. Somerset: The Razor's Edge Mlodinow, Leonard: Feynman's Rainbow Salinger, J.D: Raise High The Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour, An Introduction Salinger, J.D: Franny & Zooey Sebold, Alice: The Lovely Bones Sternfeld, Joel: Walking the High Line Tchen, Jack: New York Before Chinatown White, E.B.: Here is New York During college (mostly): Abu-Lughod, Lila: Veiled Sentiments Achebe, Chinua: Things Fall Apart Adam, Richard: Watership Down Albee, Edward: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Albom, Mitch: Tuesdays with Morrie Arc, Joan of: Joan of Arc in her own Words Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics Aristotle: The Politics Austen, Jane: Pride & Prejudice Axelrod, Robert: The Evolution of Cooperation Bailey, Beth: From Front Porch to Back Seat: Courtship in 20th Century America Baker, Russell: Growing Up Bank, Melissa: The Girls' Guide to Hunting & Fishing Bartlett, Lee: The Beats: Essays in Criticism Bates, Ruth Tompkins: Pullman Porters and the Rise of Protest Politics Behn, Aphra: Oroonoko, The Rover and Other Works Bellow, Saul: Herzog Blume, Judy: Summer Sisters Bourdain, Anthony: Kitchen Confidential Bradbury, Ray: Fahrenheit 451 Brooks, David: Bobos in Paradise Brumberg, Joan Jacobs: The Body Project Calvino, Italo: Numbers in the Dark Cameron, Ardis: Radicals of the Worst Sort Camus, Albert: The Stranger Capote, Truman: Breakfast at Tiffany's Capote, Truman: In Cold Blood Carey, Lorene: Black Ice Cather, Willa: One of Ours Charters, Ann: Beat Reader Chekhov, Anton: The Cherry Orchard Chopin, Kate: The Awakening Cisneros, Sandra: The House on Mango Street Coelho, Paul: The Alchemist Coetzee, J.M.: Disgrace Coetzee, J.M.: Youth Conrad, Joseph: Heart of Darkness Conrad, Robert: Children of God's Fire Cowie, Jefferson: Capital Moves Crane, Diana: The Transformation of the Avant-Garde Crowley, Malcolm: Exile's Return Daum, Meghan: My Misspent Youth Daum, Meghan: The Quality of Life Report Davis, Natalie Zemon: The Return of Martin Guerre De Las Casas: The Devastation of the Indies Dickens, Charles: Great Expectations Dostoevsky, Fyodor: Crime & Punishment DuBois, W.E.B.: The Souls of Black Folk Du Maurier, Daphne: Rebecca Eggers, David: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius Ellsworth, Scott: Death in a Promised Land Erikson, Tai: Wayward Puritans Fadiman, Anne: The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down Ferlinghetti, Lawrence: A Coney Island of the Mind Fielding, Helen: Bridget Jones' Diary Fitzgerald, F. Scott: The Great Gatsby Flagg, Fanny: Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man Flagg, Fanny: Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe Flaubert, Gustave: Madame Bovary Florescano, Enrique: Memory, Myth & Time in Mexico Forster, E.M.: The Longest Journey Frank, Anne: The Diary of Anne Frank Frank, Robert: Passions within Reason Franklin, Benjamin: The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin Freud, Sigmund: Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego Friedman, Thomas: The Lexus and the Olive Tree Garcia, Maria Cristina: Havana USA: Cuban Exiles and Cuban Americans in South Florida, 1959 -1994 Gilman, Charlotte Perkins: The Yellow Wallpaper Goldberg, Myla: Bee Season Golden, Arthur: Memoirs of a Geisha Golding, William: Lord of the Flies Gordon, Ian: Comic Books and Consumer Culture, 1890 - 1945 Gourevitch, Philip: We Wish to Inform You... Green, Michael F.: Schizophrenia Revealed Grisham, John: The Firm Grisham, John: The Pelican Brief Grossman, James R: Land of Hope Gunther, John: Death Be Not Proud Hall, Calvin S.: A Primer of Freudian Psychology Halpern, Rick: Down on the Killing Floor Handler, Evan: Time on Fire Hansberry, Lorraine: A Raisin in the Sun Haught, John: Science & Religion Hawthorne, Nathanial: The Scarlet Letter Heller, Joseph: Catch-22 Hemmingway, Ernest: The Old Man and the Sea Hersey, John: Hiroshima Hesse, Herman: Demian Hesse, Herman: Siddhartha Hobbes, Thomas: Leviathan Huxley, Aldous: Brave New World Huxley, Aldous: Brave New World Revisited Irving, John: A Prayer for Owen Meany Irving, John: A Widow for One Year Irving, John: The Cider House Rules Irving, John: The Fourth Hand Irving, John: The World According to Garp Jacobs, Jane: Death and Life of Great American Cities Jacobs-Brumberg, Joan: The Body Project James, Henry: The Turn of the Screw James, William: Pragmatism Joan of Arc: Joan of Arc - In her own Words Joyce, James: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Kammen, Michael: Contested Values: Democracy and Diversity in American Culture Kant, Immanuel: Practical Philosophy Kanter, Rosabeth Moss: Commitment and Community Karon, Jan: At Home in Mitford Karon, Jan: A Light in the Window Karon, Jan: Out to Canaan Karon, Jan: These High, Green Hills Kasson, John E.: Amusing the Million Kerouac, Jack: Book of Blues Kerouac, Jack: On the Road Kerouac, Jack: The Subterraneans Kingsolver, Barbara: The Bean Trees Knight, Arthur & Kit: The Beat Vision Knox, Malcolm: Summerland Kuhn, Thomas: The Structure of Scientific Revolutions Kundera, Milan: Immortality Kundera, Milan: The Unbearable Lightness of Being Kundera, Milan: Ignorance Kundera, Milan: Life is Elsewhere Laing, R.D.: The Divided Self Lee, Harper: To Kill A Mockingbird Lessing, Dorothy: The Fifth Child Lewis, C.S.: The Abolition of Man Lewis, C.S.: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe Lewis, Dioclesian: Our Girls Lewis, Sinclair: Main Street Lippmann, Walter: Drift & Mastery Lipsitz, George: The Possessive Investment in Whiteness Lightman, Alan: The Diagnosis Locke, John: Second Treatise of Government Locke, John: Political Essays Machiavelli, Nicolo: The Prince MacIntyre, Alistaire: Dependent Rational Animals Magorian, Michelle: Goodnight Mr. Tom Mailer, Norman: The White Negro Maira, Sunaina: Desis in the House Marquez, Gabriel Garcia: Chronicle of a Death Foretold Marquez, Gabriel Garcia: One Hundred Years of Solitude Martell, Yann: Life of Pi Martin, Steve: Shopgirl Maugham, W. Somerset: Of Human Bondage McCartin, Joseph: Labor's Great War McCourt, Frank: Angela's Ashes Mead, Margaret: Coming of Age in Samoa Mirandola, Pierro della: Oration on the Dignity of Man Morrison, Toni: Beloved Murdock, Catherine G.: Domesticating Drink: Women, Men, and Alcohol in America 1870 - 1940 Nabokov, Vladimir: Lolita Nabokov, Vladimir: Laughter in the Dark Naipaul, V.S.: Enigma of Arrival Naipaul, V.S.: Half a Life Naipaul, V.S.: Miguel Street Nieburhr, Reinhold: Moral Man and Immoral Society O'Donnell, Rosie: Find Me Okada, John: No-No Boy Orwell, George: 1984 Orwell, George: Animal Farm Orwell, George: Down and Out in Paris and London Otto, Rudolph: The Idea of the Holy Pals, Daniel: Seven Theories of Religion Payne, Charles M: I've Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Struggle Peiss, Kathy: Cheap Amusements: Working Women & Leisure in Turn of the Century New York Peretti, Burton W: Jazz in American Culture Plato: The Republic Polo, Marco: The Travels Powers, Ann: Weird Like Us, My Bohemian America Rand, Ayn: Anthem Rawls, John: A Theory of Justice Roth, Philip: American Pastoral Rousseau, Jean-Jacques: The Basic Political Writings Rowling, J.K.: Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets Rushdie, Salman: Haroun and the Sea of Stories Russo, Richard: Empire Falls Saint-Exupery, Antoine: The Little Prince Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye Salinger, J.D. Nine Stories Sanchez, George: Becoming Mexican American: Ethnicity, Culture, and Identity in Chicano Los Angeles 1900 - 1945 Saramago, Jose: Blindness Saramago, Jose: The Stone Raft Shakespeare, William: Hamlet Shakespeare, William: Juliet Caesar Shakespeare, William: Macbeth Shakespeare, William: Romeo & Juliet Smiley, Jane: A Thousand Acres Sobel, Dava: Galileo's Daughter Sobel, Dava: Longitude Sontag, Susan: Illness as Metaphor Sontag, Susan: AIDS as Metaphor Sophocles: Antigone Spalding, Karen: Huarochiri Stack, Carol: All Our Kin Steinbeck, John: The Pearl Steinhorn, Leonard: By the Color of Our Skin Stoppard, Tom: The Invention of Love Stoppard, Tom: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead Tan, Amy: The Joy Luck Club Testa, Randy-Michael: After the Fire: The Destruction of the Lancaster County Amish Taylor, Theodore: The Cay Thoreau, Henry David: Walden Twain, Mark: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Twain, Mark: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Tyler, Anne: Ladder of Years Tyler, Anne: Saint Maybe Tyler, Anne: Searching for Caleb Updike, John: Bech: A Book Voltaire: Candide Vonnegut, Kurt: Bagumbo Snuff Box Vonnegut, Kurt: Breakfast of Champions Vonnegut, Kurt: Cat's Cradle Vonnegut, Kurt: God Bless You Mr. Rosewater Vonnegut, Kurt: The Sirens of Titan Vonnegut, Kurt: Slaughterhouse Five Vonnegut, Kurt: Welcome to the Monkey House Wiesner-Hanks, Merry: Convents Confront the Reformation Wilde, Oscar: The Importance of Being Earnest Wilder, Thornton: Our Town Wister, Owen: The Virginian Wolfe, Virginia: A Room of One's Own Wolff, Tobias: Back in the World Wolff, Tobias: This Boy's Life |