(no subject)
Happy New Year, folks! As usual, I find myself with the typical backlog of New Year's posts waiting to be written: a book post, a post in which I think about goals and plans for the coming year, a post in which I tell you about the fascinating and strange museum that Ms. E and I visited on my birthday... But I'll start with the books.
This was a rather lackluster year for me in terms of reading. I'm not exactly sure why--I read plenty of books that I wanted to love, books I thought I would love, books by authors whose other works I've loved... And I admired quite a number of them, but very few ignited any sort of real passion in me. I also did not quite meet my goal for the year; I had decided that I wanted to read 33 books, and I only made it through 32 and a half. I considered putting on a push in these last few days in order to make the number, but decided against it. Trying to rush through a book under the pressure of a deadline (and a rather arbitrary one at that) rarely helps me get the most out of what I'm reading.
With no further ado, here's the list (links go to the post that contains the closest thing to a review of each book that I wrote):
1. Tree of Codes by Jonathan Safran Foer
2. The Cows by Lydia Davis
3. The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
4. Life Times by Nadine Gordimer
5. A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
6. Here's Your Hat, What's Your Hurry by Elizabeth McCracken
7. The Birthday of the World by Ursula K. Le Guin (Re-read)
8. Gut Symmetries by Jeanette Winterson
9. Pale Horse, Pale Rider by Katherine Anne Porter
10. Towards Another Summer by Janet Frame
11. Cowboys Are My Weakness by Pam Houston
12. Are You My Mother? by Alison Bechdel
13. The Waves by Virginia Woolf
14. Atonement by Ian McEwan
15. A Fan's Notes by Frederick Exley
16. Ransom by David Malouf
17. The Fixer by Bernard Malamud
18. The View from Castle Rock by Alice Munro
19. The Longest Journey by E.M. Forster
20. Bluets by Maggie Nelson
21. The Stranger's Child by Alan Hollinghurst
22. The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin (Re-read)
23. Teaching a Stone to Talk by Annie Dillard
24. The Story of the Night by Colm Tóibín
25. Little Black Book of Stories by A.S. Byatt
26. When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro
27. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
28. Skippy Dies by Paul Murray
29. The Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett
30. The Empty Family by Colm Tóibín
31. Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin
32. Death in Venice and Other Tales by Thomas Mann (trans. Joachim Neugroschel)
It's very rare for me to read according to any sort of plan or program, so it's often a bit of a surprise to see the patterns that emerge when I put together this year-end reading list. Only two re-reads this year, for instance--I think I often have more than that. And so many short story collections! I wouldn't have said I was focusing on short stories specifically, yet they make up a large portion of the list. For my own interest, then, here is the list divided up a few different ways:
Novels
The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
Gut Symmetries by Jeanette Winterson
Towards Another Summer by Janet Frame
The Waves by Virginia Woolf
Atonement by Ian McEwan
A Fan's Notes by Frederick Exley
Ransom by David Malouf
The Fixer by Bernard Malamud
The Longest Journey by E.M. Forster
The Stranger's Child by Alan Hollinghurst
The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin
The Story of the Night by Colm Tóibín
When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
Skippy Dies by Paul Murray
The Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett
Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin
Short Story Collections
Life Times by Nadine Gordimer
Here's Your Hat, What's Your Hurry by Elizabeth McCracken
The Birthday of the World by Ursula K. Le Guin
Pale Horse, Pale Rider by Katherine Anne Porter (Sort of. It's a collection of three novellas.)
Cowboys Are My Weakness by Pam Houston
The View from Castle Rock by Alice Munro
Little Black Book of Stories by A.S. Byatt
The Empty Family by Colm Tóibín
Death in Venice and Other Tales by Thomas Mann (A mix of short stories and a few novellas.)
Non-fiction
Bluets by Maggie Nelson
Teaching a Stone to Talk by Annie Dillard
Comics
Are You My Mother? by Alison Bechdel (Could also count as non-fiction...)
Experimental, difficult-to-categorize works
Tree of Codes by Jonathan Safran Foer
The Cows by Lydia Davis
American
Jonathan Safran Foer
Lydia Davis
Elizabeth McCracken
Ursula K. Le Guin
Katherine Anne Porter
Pam Houston
Alison Bechdel
Frederick Exley
Bernard Malamud
Maggie Nelson
Annie Dillard
Edith Wharton
Sarah Orne Jewett
Mark Helprin
British
Julian Barnes
E.M. Forster
Jeanette Winterson
Virginia Woolf
Ian McEwan
Alan Hollinghurst
A.S. Byatt
Kazuo Ishiguro
Irish
Colm Tóibín
Paul Murray
Australian
David Malouf
New Zealand
Janet Frame
South African
Nadine Gordimer
Canadian
Alice Munro
German
Thomas Mann
My favorites this year:
Pale Horse, Pale Rider by Katherine Anne Porter: With these three stories, Porter proves that the novella can be just as rich and powerful as the novel. Haunting and deeply felt explorations of memory, family history, and mortality. A wonderful book.
Are You My Mother? by Alison Bechdel: I know that a lot people were not in love with this book, but I was. I read it immediately after hearing Bechdel read from it and talk about it, and I'm sure that influenced my feelings about it, but the book gripped me and resonated with a lot of my own personal history. It's thorny and sort of messy and at least a little bit self-indulgent, but I loved wrestling with it.
Skippy Dies by Paul Murray: Sprawling, ambitious, and definitely flawed. The ending was disappointing and Murray allowed it to drag on for way too long, but the first two thirds of this book were as fun, inventive, and devastating.
Death in Venice and Other Tales by Thomas Mann: I liked Mann's novellas better than his short stories, but the novellas alone are good enough to earn him a spot in the favorites list. "Death in Venice" is the famous one, and it certainly is brilliant, but my sentimental favorite was "Tonio Kröger."
Other titles that I recommend include Tree of Codes, Life Times, The Birthday of the World, The Waves, Ransom, The Fixer, and The Empty Family.
By far the worst books on this list are Winter's Tale (sloppy, incoherent, way too long, utter nonsense!) and A Fan's Notes (misogynistic, manipulative, unpleasant from start to finish). Stay away from those two!
Here's to lots of great reading in 2013, both for me and for all of you!
This was a rather lackluster year for me in terms of reading. I'm not exactly sure why--I read plenty of books that I wanted to love, books I thought I would love, books by authors whose other works I've loved... And I admired quite a number of them, but very few ignited any sort of real passion in me. I also did not quite meet my goal for the year; I had decided that I wanted to read 33 books, and I only made it through 32 and a half. I considered putting on a push in these last few days in order to make the number, but decided against it. Trying to rush through a book under the pressure of a deadline (and a rather arbitrary one at that) rarely helps me get the most out of what I'm reading.
With no further ado, here's the list (links go to the post that contains the closest thing to a review of each book that I wrote):
1. Tree of Codes by Jonathan Safran Foer
2. The Cows by Lydia Davis
3. The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
4. Life Times by Nadine Gordimer
5. A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
6. Here's Your Hat, What's Your Hurry by Elizabeth McCracken
7. The Birthday of the World by Ursula K. Le Guin (Re-read)
8. Gut Symmetries by Jeanette Winterson
9. Pale Horse, Pale Rider by Katherine Anne Porter
10. Towards Another Summer by Janet Frame
11. Cowboys Are My Weakness by Pam Houston
12. Are You My Mother? by Alison Bechdel
13. The Waves by Virginia Woolf
14. Atonement by Ian McEwan
15. A Fan's Notes by Frederick Exley
16. Ransom by David Malouf
17. The Fixer by Bernard Malamud
18. The View from Castle Rock by Alice Munro
19. The Longest Journey by E.M. Forster
20. Bluets by Maggie Nelson
21. The Stranger's Child by Alan Hollinghurst
22. The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin (Re-read)
23. Teaching a Stone to Talk by Annie Dillard
24. The Story of the Night by Colm Tóibín
25. Little Black Book of Stories by A.S. Byatt
26. When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro
27. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
28. Skippy Dies by Paul Murray
29. The Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett
30. The Empty Family by Colm Tóibín
31. Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin
32. Death in Venice and Other Tales by Thomas Mann (trans. Joachim Neugroschel)
It's very rare for me to read according to any sort of plan or program, so it's often a bit of a surprise to see the patterns that emerge when I put together this year-end reading list. Only two re-reads this year, for instance--I think I often have more than that. And so many short story collections! I wouldn't have said I was focusing on short stories specifically, yet they make up a large portion of the list. For my own interest, then, here is the list divided up a few different ways:
Novels
The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
Gut Symmetries by Jeanette Winterson
Towards Another Summer by Janet Frame
The Waves by Virginia Woolf
Atonement by Ian McEwan
A Fan's Notes by Frederick Exley
Ransom by David Malouf
The Fixer by Bernard Malamud
The Longest Journey by E.M. Forster
The Stranger's Child by Alan Hollinghurst
The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin
The Story of the Night by Colm Tóibín
When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
Skippy Dies by Paul Murray
The Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett
Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin
Short Story Collections
Life Times by Nadine Gordimer
Here's Your Hat, What's Your Hurry by Elizabeth McCracken
The Birthday of the World by Ursula K. Le Guin
Pale Horse, Pale Rider by Katherine Anne Porter (Sort of. It's a collection of three novellas.)
Cowboys Are My Weakness by Pam Houston
The View from Castle Rock by Alice Munro
Little Black Book of Stories by A.S. Byatt
The Empty Family by Colm Tóibín
Death in Venice and Other Tales by Thomas Mann (A mix of short stories and a few novellas.)
Non-fiction
Bluets by Maggie Nelson
Teaching a Stone to Talk by Annie Dillard
Comics
Are You My Mother? by Alison Bechdel (Could also count as non-fiction...)
Experimental, difficult-to-categorize works
Tree of Codes by Jonathan Safran Foer
The Cows by Lydia Davis
American
Jonathan Safran Foer
Lydia Davis
Elizabeth McCracken
Ursula K. Le Guin
Katherine Anne Porter
Pam Houston
Alison Bechdel
Frederick Exley
Bernard Malamud
Maggie Nelson
Annie Dillard
Edith Wharton
Sarah Orne Jewett
Mark Helprin
British
Julian Barnes
E.M. Forster
Jeanette Winterson
Virginia Woolf
Ian McEwan
Alan Hollinghurst
A.S. Byatt
Kazuo Ishiguro
Irish
Colm Tóibín
Paul Murray
Australian
David Malouf
New Zealand
Janet Frame
South African
Nadine Gordimer
Canadian
Alice Munro
German
Thomas Mann
My favorites this year:
Pale Horse, Pale Rider by Katherine Anne Porter: With these three stories, Porter proves that the novella can be just as rich and powerful as the novel. Haunting and deeply felt explorations of memory, family history, and mortality. A wonderful book.
Are You My Mother? by Alison Bechdel: I know that a lot people were not in love with this book, but I was. I read it immediately after hearing Bechdel read from it and talk about it, and I'm sure that influenced my feelings about it, but the book gripped me and resonated with a lot of my own personal history. It's thorny and sort of messy and at least a little bit self-indulgent, but I loved wrestling with it.
Skippy Dies by Paul Murray: Sprawling, ambitious, and definitely flawed. The ending was disappointing and Murray allowed it to drag on for way too long, but the first two thirds of this book were as fun, inventive, and devastating.
Death in Venice and Other Tales by Thomas Mann: I liked Mann's novellas better than his short stories, but the novellas alone are good enough to earn him a spot in the favorites list. "Death in Venice" is the famous one, and it certainly is brilliant, but my sentimental favorite was "Tonio Kröger."
Other titles that I recommend include Tree of Codes, Life Times, The Birthday of the World, The Waves, Ransom, The Fixer, and The Empty Family.
By far the worst books on this list are Winter's Tale (sloppy, incoherent, way too long, utter nonsense!) and A Fan's Notes (misogynistic, manipulative, unpleasant from start to finish). Stay away from those two!
Here's to lots of great reading in 2013, both for me and for all of you!