2009 literary wrap-up
Ira Glass, ed. The New Kings of Nonfiction
Terry Tempest Williams An Unspoken Hunger
Gabriel García Márquez Love In the Time of Cholera
David James Duncan The Brothers K*
Sarah Vowell The Partly Cloudy Patriot*
Kurt Vonnegut Galapagos
Deborah Rodriguez Kabul Beauty School
Åsne Seierstad The Bookseller of Kabul
Kurt Vonnegut Slaughterhouse Five
Anna Quindlen Rise and Shine
E. O. Wilson The Future of Life
Roald Dahl The BFG*
Kathleen Norris The Cloister Walk
Bill McKibben The End of Nature
Barbara Kingsolver Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
Aldous Huxley Brave New World
Marisha Pessl Special Topics in Calamity Physics
Elizabeth Gilbert Eat Pray Love
I usually try to post this with no explanatory comments, but in this case there are two: 1) an asterisk denotes a second (or third) reading; and 2) as always, there were a few books that I picked up and let sit by the wayside rather than finishing. Rarely - very rarely, indeed - do I actually put something down deliberately because I am so annoyed by it. This year's offender was Salman Rushdie, in his Enchantress of Florence. I plugged along half-heartedly until I reached this description on page 33: "His lips were full and pushed forward in a womanly pout. But in spite of these girlish accents he was a mighty specimen of a man, huge and strong." Excuse me? Did I actually just read the phrase "a mighty specimen of a man"? No, no... bodice-ripper language does NOT belong in my reading list. Sorry, Mr. Rushdie - you've been dumped.
Terry Tempest Williams An Unspoken Hunger
Gabriel García Márquez Love In the Time of Cholera
David James Duncan The Brothers K*
Sarah Vowell The Partly Cloudy Patriot*
Kurt Vonnegut Galapagos
Deborah Rodriguez Kabul Beauty School
Åsne Seierstad The Bookseller of Kabul
Kurt Vonnegut Slaughterhouse Five
Anna Quindlen Rise and Shine
E. O. Wilson The Future of Life
Roald Dahl The BFG*
Kathleen Norris The Cloister Walk
Bill McKibben The End of Nature
Barbara Kingsolver Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
Aldous Huxley Brave New World
Marisha Pessl Special Topics in Calamity Physics
Elizabeth Gilbert Eat Pray Love
I usually try to post this with no explanatory comments, but in this case there are two: 1) an asterisk denotes a second (or third) reading; and 2) as always, there were a few books that I picked up and let sit by the wayside rather than finishing. Rarely - very rarely, indeed - do I actually put something down deliberately because I am so annoyed by it. This year's offender was Salman Rushdie, in his Enchantress of Florence. I plugged along half-heartedly until I reached this description on page 33: "His lips were full and pushed forward in a womanly pout. But in spite of these girlish accents he was a mighty specimen of a man, huge and strong." Excuse me? Did I actually just read the phrase "a mighty specimen of a man"? No, no... bodice-ripper language does NOT belong in my reading list. Sorry, Mr. Rushdie - you've been dumped.