Book list for 2010
Okay, after cutting out re-reads, graphic novels, and in progress/half-read books, my list comes out to a whopping...
14 books! EXTREME FAIL. I was aiming for 30 new books read. OH WELL. I will just have to try harder in 2011.
I added a little bit about my favorite and least favorite books because the list is so short.
In chronological order:
The Historian, Elizabeth Kostova
Dracula, Prince of Many Faces: His Life and His Times, Radu R. Florescu, Raymond T. McNally (non-fiction)
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke
What Is The What, Dave Eggers
The Angel's Game, Carlos Ruiz Zafón
The Stranger, Albert Camus
The River Ki, Sawako Ariyoshi
Machine of Death (Anthology)
Kraken, China Miéville
The Waiting Years, Fumiko Enchi
Dracula's Guest, Anthology
Real World, Natsuo Kirino
Grotesque, Natsuo Kirino
The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists and The Pirates! In an Adventure with Ahab, Gideon Defoe
Favorite book: It is a tie between What Is the What and Grotesque, two very different kinds of books. They have been constantly on my mind since I read them, though, and I would be happy to re-read them in the future.
What Is The What is a story of a Sudanese refugee trying to live in the United States. It is based on a real story, but is listed as a novel as the narrator, Valentino Deng, cannot confirm the truth of the events he remembers, and (according to the introduction) has incorporated the stories of other Sudanese into his personal narrative. As large parts of the novel cannot be classified as nonfiction, Deng and David Eggers (who helped write the book) decided to write a novel rather than take out these sections out.
The novel is very moving without being saccharine or gruesome, which is quite a feat when dealing with a subject like the Lost Boys of Sudan. There are a number of horrifying sections, but they are described with...a certain elegance, a lack of excess. As a reader I did not feel removed from the horrors described, but neither did I feel that the narrator was overplaying the shock factor as sometimes happens with 'human interest' stories.
As a narrator, Deng is quite adept at understanding the motivations that drive people's actions without losing touch with his own personal emotions. This makes for some very moving, sometimes painful scenes where Deng is extremely angry, disappointed or depressed - but he can understand why people have acted they way that have, which heightens the effects of his own reaction. What Is The What is a book that earns the emotional depth it strives to achieve.
Grotesque is a very different kind of novel. It is written by Natsuo Kirino, a female Japanese author, whose books tend to be described as 'psychological crime novels.' I think this description is fairly accurate, if you read it as 'novels that focus on the psychology of those who commit a crime' rather than 'crime novels with a psychological bent.' Grotesque starts with two murders, that of the narrator's younger, prostitute sister and one of the narrator's high-school friends, who worked at a highly-regarded financial firm by day and was a prostitute at night. Instead of focusing on the search for the killer and his motivations, the novel is devoted to exploring the lives of the two women (and the life of the narrator) and how they got to a point where they could be killed.
One major aspect of the book is how throughly unlikeable the main characters are. The unnamed narrator has no redeeming qualities whatsoever - she is cold, detached, and dismissive of literally everybody. She reacts to the death of her mother with what amounts to a shrug, only sees her father as a source of money, and her grandfather and his house as a place for her to stay. The other two women, Yuriko (the narrator's sister) and Kazue (her classmate) fare a bit better, but their flaws are far more compelling than their 'good' qualities. Yuriko's exceptional beauty is seen as monstrous and abnormal - almost disgusting - instead of, well, beautiful. Kazue's intensity and drive to excel in the world are the source of her misery and lead to her eventual demise, instead of helping her through tough situations. The narrator describes her one talent as 'endless malice towards everyone.' Basically, everyone sucks.
And yet, the book is compelling because of all these flaws; I can't think of another book I've read where women are allowed to be fully-developed, yet fully unsympathetic characters. Kazue, especially, has a heartbreaking storyline - she is alone, nobody appreciates her hard work, and she can't understand why. What is worse is that it is very easy to see women in the real world in the same situation as she is - before she turns to prostitution as a way to find self-worth, at least. (SPOILER: it doesn't work) Even then...the way she manages to delude herself into believing she's doing what she wants and is the most talented, most special person in the world made me want to shake some sense into her at one minute, then cry and wish she could find just one real friend the next.
I have a hard time recommending the book because of the subject matter and because, reading reviews, it seems like a lot of people found the story boring or frustrating. I can see why, as it is very long and mostly talks about feelings (lol) but I can't stop thinking about it and its characters.
Least Favorite book: The Angel's Game. It is a book that talks about great writing without actually demonstrating great writing. Some of the dialog between characters is quite witty and a few otherworldly and chilling passages, but mostly it's just a guy whining about writing a book for a publisher who is more boring than he is mysterious.
14 books! EXTREME FAIL. I was aiming for 30 new books read. OH WELL. I will just have to try harder in 2011.
I added a little bit about my favorite and least favorite books because the list is so short.
In chronological order:
The Historian, Elizabeth Kostova
Dracula, Prince of Many Faces: His Life and His Times, Radu R. Florescu, Raymond T. McNally (non-fiction)
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke
What Is The What, Dave Eggers
The Angel's Game, Carlos Ruiz Zafón
The Stranger, Albert Camus
The River Ki, Sawako Ariyoshi
Machine of Death (Anthology)
Kraken, China Miéville
The Waiting Years, Fumiko Enchi
Dracula's Guest, Anthology
Real World, Natsuo Kirino
Grotesque, Natsuo Kirino
The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists and The Pirates! In an Adventure with Ahab, Gideon Defoe
Favorite book: It is a tie between What Is the What and Grotesque, two very different kinds of books. They have been constantly on my mind since I read them, though, and I would be happy to re-read them in the future.
What Is The What is a story of a Sudanese refugee trying to live in the United States. It is based on a real story, but is listed as a novel as the narrator, Valentino Deng, cannot confirm the truth of the events he remembers, and (according to the introduction) has incorporated the stories of other Sudanese into his personal narrative. As large parts of the novel cannot be classified as nonfiction, Deng and David Eggers (who helped write the book) decided to write a novel rather than take out these sections out.
The novel is very moving without being saccharine or gruesome, which is quite a feat when dealing with a subject like the Lost Boys of Sudan. There are a number of horrifying sections, but they are described with...a certain elegance, a lack of excess. As a reader I did not feel removed from the horrors described, but neither did I feel that the narrator was overplaying the shock factor as sometimes happens with 'human interest' stories.
As a narrator, Deng is quite adept at understanding the motivations that drive people's actions without losing touch with his own personal emotions. This makes for some very moving, sometimes painful scenes where Deng is extremely angry, disappointed or depressed - but he can understand why people have acted they way that have, which heightens the effects of his own reaction. What Is The What is a book that earns the emotional depth it strives to achieve.
Grotesque is a very different kind of novel. It is written by Natsuo Kirino, a female Japanese author, whose books tend to be described as 'psychological crime novels.' I think this description is fairly accurate, if you read it as 'novels that focus on the psychology of those who commit a crime' rather than 'crime novels with a psychological bent.' Grotesque starts with two murders, that of the narrator's younger, prostitute sister and one of the narrator's high-school friends, who worked at a highly-regarded financial firm by day and was a prostitute at night. Instead of focusing on the search for the killer and his motivations, the novel is devoted to exploring the lives of the two women (and the life of the narrator) and how they got to a point where they could be killed.
One major aspect of the book is how throughly unlikeable the main characters are. The unnamed narrator has no redeeming qualities whatsoever - she is cold, detached, and dismissive of literally everybody. She reacts to the death of her mother with what amounts to a shrug, only sees her father as a source of money, and her grandfather and his house as a place for her to stay. The other two women, Yuriko (the narrator's sister) and Kazue (her classmate) fare a bit better, but their flaws are far more compelling than their 'good' qualities. Yuriko's exceptional beauty is seen as monstrous and abnormal - almost disgusting - instead of, well, beautiful. Kazue's intensity and drive to excel in the world are the source of her misery and lead to her eventual demise, instead of helping her through tough situations. The narrator describes her one talent as 'endless malice towards everyone.' Basically, everyone sucks.
And yet, the book is compelling because of all these flaws; I can't think of another book I've read where women are allowed to be fully-developed, yet fully unsympathetic characters. Kazue, especially, has a heartbreaking storyline - she is alone, nobody appreciates her hard work, and she can't understand why. What is worse is that it is very easy to see women in the real world in the same situation as she is - before she turns to prostitution as a way to find self-worth, at least. (SPOILER: it doesn't work) Even then...the way she manages to delude herself into believing she's doing what she wants and is the most talented, most special person in the world made me want to shake some sense into her at one minute, then cry and wish she could find just one real friend the next.
I have a hard time recommending the book because of the subject matter and because, reading reviews, it seems like a lot of people found the story boring or frustrating. I can see why, as it is very long and mostly talks about feelings (lol) but I can't stop thinking about it and its characters.
Least Favorite book: The Angel's Game. It is a book that talks about great writing without actually demonstrating great writing. Some of the dialog between characters is quite witty and a few otherworldly and chilling passages, but mostly it's just a guy whining about writing a book for a publisher who is more boring than he is mysterious.