on a lighter note- books!
Back in January, I resolved to write about every book I read this year. I didn't, for the most part. Instead, I kept a list. So I decided to play catch-up and write a bit about each title. I'm working mostly from memory here and the few notes I did take, so forgive me for the suck. It's not a very long list and a bunch are graphic novels. Not counting books read for class. Click for writeups complete with spoilers. In order:Encyclopedia of the Dead by Danilo Kis -
The Marriage Feast by Par Lagerkvist -
The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists by Gideon DeFoe -
The Pirates! In an Adventure with Communists by Gideon DeFoe -
Arabian Nights by Edited by Jack Zipes -
The Game by Neil Strauss (on a dare. don't ask.) -
The Omnivore's Dilemna by Michael Pollan -
Three Fingers by Rich Koslowski -
Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl -
The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls -
Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton -
Now You Can Go by Vendela Vida -
The Homeward Bounders by Diana Wynne Jones -
Witch Week by Diana Wynne Jones (reread) -
Summer by Edith Wharton -
missing title(s) here -
Nature of Monsters by Clare Clark -
The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman (reread) -
3 Jeeves novels (How right You are Jeeves; Stiff upper Lip, Jeeves; Jeeves and the Tie that Binds by P.G. Wodehouse -
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris -
Half a Life by V.S. Naipaul (half-finished as of this writing. Need to go out on something classy, non?) -
Interspersed reading here and there: selections from The Book of Monsters and Collected stories of Eudora Welty, both gifts from
Wodehouse: A Life - Robert McCrum
Gift from jawalter. I wrote a big screed about it here.
Book of Lost Books - Stuart Kelly
Gift from aphorisic. Literary History (mostly Western canon,) that's also collection of pocket author biographies with a jigger of lit crit. Each chapter concerns some literary works that have not survived the ravages of time or never even made it to the page. Let's just get it out with right away: Kelly is frighteningly literate, and this book left me depressed not only about the thousands of volumes lost to pillaging and fires or lost on the train, but also just that I will never have time enough to read more than an infintesimal fraction of the survivors in my lifetime. Wah. It did, however, help me decide to pursue some of the classics I've neglected.
Don Quijote - Miguel de Cervantes
See above for what inspired me to fill in some of my big honkin' book gaps. Cervantes ate my winter. It took me over two months to finish this book. (I took notes and... the notebook fell apart in my backpack. So much for notes.) I do recall that it was by turns charming and infuriating. Startling bursts of insight into the human condition alternate with lame slapstick gags. Pacing limp as a sweatsock. Sancho's poor donkey. I'm very glad I read it. I will likely never attempt it again, unless I have a few years glued to a hammock to kill. (library)
Vile Bodies - Waugh
Just the palate cleanser I was looking for. Mordant; crisp; delicious. I haven't read much Waugh, apart from a few short stories. From his reputation I was expecting the biting satire, but not so much the descent into the absurd. (The race at the end - Kafka-esque, no?) Disaffected in all the right places. (library)
Madame Bovary - Flaubert
It's tough out there for duplicitous, cheating wives and the adoring husbands they bankrupt. Flaubert has that incredible ear for beautiful prose. I enjoyed that. However, I found his equally keen attention to human weakness and vanity depressing and uncomfortable. (Yeah, you could say the same about Waugh, but the difference is Waugh is funny.) There's plenty of humanity in Madame Bovary, but it's sad lot. And seriously, who gives a shit about the trials of the sad frustrated Madame next to the guy who loses his freaking leg? Ach, that was awful.(After I read this, I saw Little Children, which includes a book club discussion of MBove. As Kate Winslet can sell me anything, anytime, I might be more inclined to read it again with more tolerance.) (library)
Best American Nonrequired Reading 2006 - Edited by Dave Eggars
A freebie my then-boss brought from the company trade show. My expectations were not that high, but they were in some places met and even exceeded. (I was expecting McSweeney's, pretty much.) Basically, quality ranges all over the place. While there are more than a few pieces of forgettable irony-porn, this is balanced by some shockingly good straight essays and articles. You've got your head-shakingly pointless filler (best Onion headlines!) bumping shoulders with the sublime, such as George Saunders' essay about Dubais. Extra special bonus points to Julia Sweeney for "Letting Go of God."
Making Love to the Minor Poets of Chicago- James A. Conrad
Minor, indeed. I picked this up hoping for a catty sendup of University English department politics in the vein of Moo, complemented by some juicy discussion of poetry. That's...not this book. The writing was flat and surprising weak on sensory interest. Non-compelling, sketchy characters. Farfetched plot. Lots of bedhopping, but not what I'd call sexy. (library)
Emil and the Detectives - Erich Kastner
I read many books because they are name-dropped in other books. I met Emil because he's present in Kindergarten by Peter Rushforth, which is a book of amazing richness that I've read many times and will no doubt read again. Anyway, Emil on his own is the so sweet (loves his momma!) and well-mannered that you love him instantly. This is an old-fashioned book in the best way. Now I can see what a sweet counterpoint it makes to the darker themes in Kindergarten and I love them both more. (library)
Jimmy Corrigan, The Smartest Kid on Earth - Chris Ware
One of the best and most heartbreaking books I've ever read. Brilliant in visual storytelling. Emotionally devestating. NB read the harcover; the printing is better.(library)
Understanding Comics - Scott McCloud
A meta-textbook. McCloud glories in the know-it-all teacher role. He's preaching what many I'm sure already know, or get instinctively, but I did not grow up reading comics and a lot of it was news. If there are college classes about comics, this must be a teaching text, but then again, it's probably already dated by now. (library)
Villette - Charlotte Bronte
This is great stuff, but very very sad when you realize how much of this was autobiographical. Lucy is painfully real. Although I had no love for the prof. Compared to Rochester, most male love interests suffer, but him, I actively wanted to relieve of his thumbs by the end of the book. Oh, poor Charlotte. (library)
Goodbye, Tsugumi - Banana Yamamoto
Yamamoto has a talent for mood; for verbalizing the ineffable. She's terrific writing about grief, loss, and friendship. Bad: there's some clumsy telling-instead-of-showing, although I wonder if some of this might be the fault of the translation. Tsugumi herself is often one of the most obnoxious young heroines in memory. Still, this book made me nostalgic for somewhere I've never been, and that makes me a fan. (library)
The Good Soldier - Ford Maddox Ford
I love a good unreliable narrator, and this one is superb. I just want to keep using superlatives. Superb. Exquisite. Knock-out. Literature with a big L. All the characters are kind of hateful; the women esp. don't fare so well. That's ok, though. Read for structure, for insanely good managing of suspense, and for writing sharp enough to carve roast. Whee! (bought at the now-defunct Commonwealth Books)
The Blue Flower - Penelope Fitzgerald
This might be the strangest book I read this year. How to descibe it? A statuatory-rape romance set in 18th century Germany. Fitzgerald has a way with family dynamics that I really enjoyed, and I will say, it's hard to put down. But I am no closer to deciding how I feel about this one than I was when I read it. (Commonwealth, see above)
Spillway - Djuna Barnes
Short stories; some of which reminded me of Waugh, some of Malamud. They were good, ok. To be honest, this was in an anthology that included Antiphon, and I couldn't make myself go on. I used to be nuts about Djuna, while she is personally fascinating, and I'll always heart the Ladies Almanack, her writing just doesn't appeal to me anymore. (library)
Ghost World - Daniel Clowes
Things I did not expect: I saw the movie first, and I am surprised in retrospect by how much was different. The conflation of the personal ad gag with the invented antiques-collector dude. Steve Buscemi was fantastic in the movie, but somehow his face took on a composite of all the oddball 40-somethings they encounter in the book. Where was Tim in the movie? I don't even remember him. The decision to make Enid the one to have leanings towards the mainstream, rather than the other way around, that was different. Enid reminded me very strongly of Lynda Barry's Marlys, both in their insatiable restlessness and cravings for validation and attention. Both are the friend you want to play with, the one who has the best ideas for games but wants you to perform your play exactly to her specifications. There's even something common about their looks, what with their round spotty faces and questionable hair choices. (library)
The Bloody Chamber - Angela Carter
Some of these stories were so very, very good. The first one struck just the right Victorian-gothic note, although I shouldn't have liked the deus ex-machina ending. Puss-in-boots was hysterical. The vampire one, though, with the boy who loses his bike in the fountain? Godawful. Just unforgivably bad. (library)
Stuck Rubber Baby - Daniel Clowes
I feel bad saying anything negative about this one, because Clowes is just so earnest, so much the not-racist-guy-who-owns-up-to-his-white-priveledge, so I-was-a-dumb-kid-but-now-I-am-trying-to-be-a-good-person, so bloody rightminded, that it is hard to throw a swing. Ok, here go some easy ones: The word "rubber" in the title made me imagine a vastly different book, and was never explained. I didn't really care for the drawing style, although that's just my own taste. Finally, I'll say this really quietly, but this book was one big fat unsubtle lesson in tolerance and I've already been to school. It was be a good book for teens, though. (library)
Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
An enterprising young lady takes on a houseful of gloomy relatives and reforms their melodramtic, self-dramatizing lives. Pygmailion for the rural novel. Funny! Even if our gal did overdo the marriage angle a little bit. I still loved it. (Side note: the covers of this book I've seen did not get the message across that this is a comedy. It's like the designers were just given the title to work with. Odd.) (Commonwealth)
Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - Michael Chabon
I had unrealistically high expectations for this one. It's such a fabulous, juicy great-American-dream story, but I think it needed tighter editing. Nevertheless, I ate it up with a spoon. I'm a sucker for fiction about the artistic process, and Jewish immigrants, even with the broadly stated metaphor. (Behemoth and Noodle)
(+Escapist comics #s 1-8 - Various)
Loan from Joe. Totally delightful.
Heart, You Bully, You Punk - Leah Hagar Cohen (reread)
This is going to make me sound like a tool, but I think that I got more out of it this time b/c I've matured a little. The grownups' story was more interesting and more moving. Cohen draws adolescents well, but I think I'm seeing that it's really Esker's story at the core. (hate the name, though, it sounds so made up) If Cohen has a fault as a writer, it's slipping into twee-ness and self-indulgence, and those are big faults of mine, so they stand out for me. Nevertheless, this is a really good novel and it's too bad it didn't get more attention.
My Name is Red - Orhan Pamuk
I should have liked this book, but I didn't. I know, I know: I said I liked unreliable narrators, and here's a book with like nine of them, not even mentioning themes of subversive art and I should have been drooling all over the gorgous Chip Kidd-designed cover, but I, um, wasn't. Seriously, the cover was what I liked best about the book and the more I read, the more I liked it. I wish it had been a nonfiction book all about the art of miniature-painters and how fashions in art related to politics, with lots of color plates, and I could have ignored the chilly, technically-accomplished prose and the unengaging characters and the whodunit that I couldn't bring myself to care about. Ok, I did like it when the dog talked. And the tree. That might have been it. (Commonwealth)
Howl's Moving Castle - Diana Wynne Jones
I saw the movie first, and found it hard to understand (granted I was perhaps chemically enhanced at the time,) and I kept thinking, oh that's just DWJ, she has really weird complex plots. I'm sure I'll follow it better in the book. I did follow it better in the book, but I kind of adored the animation, incomprehensible as it was, so what are you going to do. (Trident Booksellers)
Encyclopedia of the Dead - Danilo Kis
If I try to descibe these stories I will sound like an idiot. Well, I will anyway, so I will just huff on a bit about their greatness. Shattering. How about that. Like Borges? You will love this. Read it. Bring it to the desert island, savor-forever good. The only negative thing I have to say is about the last story - I really couldn't tell where it was going and I was actually getting frustrated and even kind of bored, and then it took a turn and i was just OH WOW. (library)
The Marriage Feast - Par Lagerkvist
They're wonderful little cotton-wrapped razors of short stories. My favorite one was the fable about a war fought with a child army. Ohmygawd chilling. (And it reminded me of some sci fi short story i read years ago on a similar theme...but damned I can think of the author.) (Commonwealth)
The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists - Gideon DeFoe
Pure love. Rainbows and kittens and puppies, in the form of a book that made me lol. (lent by Joe)
The Pirates! In an Adventure with Communists - Gideon DeFoe
See above, more of the same.
(--I'm pretty sure missing some title(s) here when I neglected to update the list--)
Arabian Nights - Edited by Jack Zipes
Ohhh ummmm. I don't think i have the brainpower right now to give these the critique they deserve. Some of the most racist, classist, ist-ist stuff I've ever read. Still, some great storytelling in there. Fairy tale characters are so frakkin flat, though. Sheherazade is, on the one hand, the most awesome feminist-friendly character ever, because, seriously, who could be smarter or think faster on her feet? On the other hand, she ends up hitched to a mass-murderer, so it's not exactly win-win. (Trident Booksellers)
The Game - Neil Strauss (on a dare. don't ask.)
A jaunty guide on how to become the womanizing douchebag you always wanted to be. May also be read as a cautionary tale; your choice. Bonus: fun dirt on Courtney Love. (online file. for free, needless to say.)
The Omnivore's Dilemna - Michael Pollan
I've always had a hard time articulating the convictions that are the basis for my vegetarianism, but really what it boils down to is the desire not to promote animal suffering. Pollan has examines what suffering means in the context of contemporary farming, and it's the most eye-opening thing I've read in years. I was nodding along, yelping "yes, that's it" at this book, scaring people on the bus. Thoughts: a) I had no idea about the politics of corn. Damn, agriculture in this country is fucked up. b) I did know about cattle, but the description in the book is even a little worse than I thought. c) Organic farming is fucked up too. I really didn't know how badly. d)I think I get hunting now in a way I didn't before. e)If every farm were managed like Polyface, I'd probably be ok with eating chicken. (After I read this book, I made the decision to eat only local food. Unfortunately, this resolve lasted for one trip to whole foods before I gave up in frustration. This spring I'm going to talk to Joe and Karen and see if they'd be interested in doing a farmshare.) (Behemoth and Noodle)
Three Fingers - Rich Koslowski
Good and creepy graphic novel. (bought from Pandemonium and then given to my little bro.)
Special Topics in Calamity Physics - Marisha Pessl
Ok, Curtis Sittenfeld did cliques and social exclusion in Prep and did it better, and Donna Tartt did guilt and murder and um, secrets in a school setting in The Secret History and did it better. Pessl wins for some clever verbal pyrotechnics, but for all that, her writing reminded me of her illustrations: precocious and accomplished, but ultimately empty. I did love that she had illustrations. And the character of the father: a piece of work. I did like the relationship between Blue and her dad. It's worth a read, but all the too-clever stuff is distracting as hell. She's incredibly well-read, though. (library)
The Glass Castle - Jeanette Walls
I wrote a big rant about it here (library)
Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton
Gift from bromius many moons ago. Oh, it's awesome. I'm losing steam, can I just say it's awesome? It's Wharton, of course it's awesome. It was especially neat reading this while I was actually *in* NYC. I especially enjoyed a line about the "crystalline purity" of the air. Heh. (I'm curious to see Gillian Anderson in the movie - she's not at all the actress I would have imagined for Lily.)
Now You Can Go - Vendela Vida
Another New York book. This one a first novel about a woman who has an encounter with an armed man and what happens after that. The first half of the book had me in its hot little palm. A uniquely caustic and vulnerable voice. Wonderfully observed characters - loved the weird-ass, oh-so-telling behavior of people towards someone who has experienced trauma. Then the last third of the narrative gets bogged down by a trip, and then there's a needlessly contrived ending that's supposed to be the sort of thing that is the culmination of all sorts of threads laid down in the story, but it didn't come off as good foreshadowing, it came off as me shouting at the book "no! what the hell! you didn't just do that!" (bought at a Salvi's in NYC)
The Homeward Bounders - Diana Wynne Jones
Good, solid Jones. Not much else to say. Nothing wrong with it, but didn't love it like I do the Dalemark Quartet, say. (Trident Booksellers)
Witch Week - Diana Wynne Jones (reread)
Sigh. I do love me some Chrestomanci. These were comfort reads. (Waldenbooks? Maybe 16 years ago? Mom must have bought it for me.)
Summer - Edith Wharton
Surprising. This reminded me of DH Lawrence. Bummer. Dull heroine. She stands up for herself, which is refreshing, but otherwise her only noticable trait is her animal passion and whatnot. Meh. kind of shocking for the time, though, no doubt. (Behemoth and Noodle)
missing title(s) here
Nature of Monsters - Clare Clark
Oh dear. this was hastily picked from the shelf. It's a gothic historical horror novel and it's wayyy over the top. Nice evocation of smelly London. Kinda reminded me of Fingersmith. Not really my cup, but it had its moments.(library)
The Golden Compass - Phillip Pullman (reread)
I know I wrote about this some other time, but i can't seem to find it. Anyway. Intense, intellient fiction that respects the reader's intelligence and offers a stunning, gripping, rich story. (The movie...not so much. Good try, though, coulda been much worse.) (Behemoth and Noodle)
3 Jeeves novels (How right You are Jeeves; Stiff upper Lip, Jeeves; Jeeves and the Tie that Binds - Wodehouse
Verbal equivalent of gin and tonic served by a preternaturally wise butler. Love. (library)
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim - David Sedaris
Ok, he's a very gifted writer, but if he recognizes that he's violating his family members' privacy in such a huge way, acknowledges it even, why does he do it anyway? I wanted to kick him. (library)
Half a Life - V.S. Naipaul (half-finished as of this writing. Need to go out on something great, non?)
Interspersed reading here and there: selections from The Book of Monsters and Collected stories of Eudora Welty, both gifts from jawalter.
The Marriage Feast by Par Lagerkvist -
The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists by Gideon DeFoe -
The Pirates! In an Adventure with Communists by Gideon DeFoe -
Arabian Nights by Edited by Jack Zipes -
The Game by Neil Strauss (on a dare. don't ask.) -
The Omnivore's Dilemna by Michael Pollan -
Three Fingers by Rich Koslowski -
Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl -
The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls -
Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton -
Now You Can Go by Vendela Vida -
The Homeward Bounders by Diana Wynne Jones -
Witch Week by Diana Wynne Jones (reread) -
Summer by Edith Wharton -
missing title(s) here -
Nature of Monsters by Clare Clark -
The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman (reread) -
3 Jeeves novels (How right You are Jeeves; Stiff upper Lip, Jeeves; Jeeves and the Tie that Binds by P.G. Wodehouse -
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris -
Half a Life by V.S. Naipaul (half-finished as of this writing. Need to go out on something classy, non?) -
Interspersed reading here and there: selections from The Book of Monsters and Collected stories of Eudora Welty, both gifts from
Wodehouse: A Life - Robert McCrum
Gift from jawalter. I wrote a big screed about it here.
Book of Lost Books - Stuart Kelly
Gift from aphorisic. Literary History (mostly Western canon,) that's also collection of pocket author biographies with a jigger of lit crit. Each chapter concerns some literary works that have not survived the ravages of time or never even made it to the page. Let's just get it out with right away: Kelly is frighteningly literate, and this book left me depressed not only about the thousands of volumes lost to pillaging and fires or lost on the train, but also just that I will never have time enough to read more than an infintesimal fraction of the survivors in my lifetime. Wah. It did, however, help me decide to pursue some of the classics I've neglected.
Don Quijote - Miguel de Cervantes
See above for what inspired me to fill in some of my big honkin' book gaps. Cervantes ate my winter. It took me over two months to finish this book. (I took notes and... the notebook fell apart in my backpack. So much for notes.) I do recall that it was by turns charming and infuriating. Startling bursts of insight into the human condition alternate with lame slapstick gags. Pacing limp as a sweatsock. Sancho's poor donkey. I'm very glad I read it. I will likely never attempt it again, unless I have a few years glued to a hammock to kill. (library)
Vile Bodies - Waugh
Just the palate cleanser I was looking for. Mordant; crisp; delicious. I haven't read much Waugh, apart from a few short stories. From his reputation I was expecting the biting satire, but not so much the descent into the absurd. (The race at the end - Kafka-esque, no?) Disaffected in all the right places. (library)
Madame Bovary - Flaubert
It's tough out there for duplicitous, cheating wives and the adoring husbands they bankrupt. Flaubert has that incredible ear for beautiful prose. I enjoyed that. However, I found his equally keen attention to human weakness and vanity depressing and uncomfortable. (Yeah, you could say the same about Waugh, but the difference is Waugh is funny.) There's plenty of humanity in Madame Bovary, but it's sad lot. And seriously, who gives a shit about the trials of the sad frustrated Madame next to the guy who loses his freaking leg? Ach, that was awful.(After I read this, I saw Little Children, which includes a book club discussion of MBove. As Kate Winslet can sell me anything, anytime, I might be more inclined to read it again with more tolerance.) (library)
Best American Nonrequired Reading 2006 - Edited by Dave Eggars
A freebie my then-boss brought from the company trade show. My expectations were not that high, but they were in some places met and even exceeded. (I was expecting McSweeney's, pretty much.) Basically, quality ranges all over the place. While there are more than a few pieces of forgettable irony-porn, this is balanced by some shockingly good straight essays and articles. You've got your head-shakingly pointless filler (best Onion headlines!) bumping shoulders with the sublime, such as George Saunders' essay about Dubais. Extra special bonus points to Julia Sweeney for "Letting Go of God."
Making Love to the Minor Poets of Chicago- James A. Conrad
Minor, indeed. I picked this up hoping for a catty sendup of University English department politics in the vein of Moo, complemented by some juicy discussion of poetry. That's...not this book. The writing was flat and surprising weak on sensory interest. Non-compelling, sketchy characters. Farfetched plot. Lots of bedhopping, but not what I'd call sexy. (library)
Emil and the Detectives - Erich Kastner
I read many books because they are name-dropped in other books. I met Emil because he's present in Kindergarten by Peter Rushforth, which is a book of amazing richness that I've read many times and will no doubt read again. Anyway, Emil on his own is the so sweet (loves his momma!) and well-mannered that you love him instantly. This is an old-fashioned book in the best way. Now I can see what a sweet counterpoint it makes to the darker themes in Kindergarten and I love them both more. (library)
Jimmy Corrigan, The Smartest Kid on Earth - Chris Ware
One of the best and most heartbreaking books I've ever read. Brilliant in visual storytelling. Emotionally devestating. NB read the harcover; the printing is better.(library)
Understanding Comics - Scott McCloud
A meta-textbook. McCloud glories in the know-it-all teacher role. He's preaching what many I'm sure already know, or get instinctively, but I did not grow up reading comics and a lot of it was news. If there are college classes about comics, this must be a teaching text, but then again, it's probably already dated by now. (library)
Villette - Charlotte Bronte
This is great stuff, but very very sad when you realize how much of this was autobiographical. Lucy is painfully real. Although I had no love for the prof. Compared to Rochester, most male love interests suffer, but him, I actively wanted to relieve of his thumbs by the end of the book. Oh, poor Charlotte. (library)
Goodbye, Tsugumi - Banana Yamamoto
Yamamoto has a talent for mood; for verbalizing the ineffable. She's terrific writing about grief, loss, and friendship. Bad: there's some clumsy telling-instead-of-showing, although I wonder if some of this might be the fault of the translation. Tsugumi herself is often one of the most obnoxious young heroines in memory. Still, this book made me nostalgic for somewhere I've never been, and that makes me a fan. (library)
The Good Soldier - Ford Maddox Ford
I love a good unreliable narrator, and this one is superb. I just want to keep using superlatives. Superb. Exquisite. Knock-out. Literature with a big L. All the characters are kind of hateful; the women esp. don't fare so well. That's ok, though. Read for structure, for insanely good managing of suspense, and for writing sharp enough to carve roast. Whee! (bought at the now-defunct Commonwealth Books)
The Blue Flower - Penelope Fitzgerald
This might be the strangest book I read this year. How to descibe it? A statuatory-rape romance set in 18th century Germany. Fitzgerald has a way with family dynamics that I really enjoyed, and I will say, it's hard to put down. But I am no closer to deciding how I feel about this one than I was when I read it. (Commonwealth, see above)
Spillway - Djuna Barnes
Short stories; some of which reminded me of Waugh, some of Malamud. They were good, ok. To be honest, this was in an anthology that included Antiphon, and I couldn't make myself go on. I used to be nuts about Djuna, while she is personally fascinating, and I'll always heart the Ladies Almanack, her writing just doesn't appeal to me anymore. (library)
Ghost World - Daniel Clowes
Things I did not expect: I saw the movie first, and I am surprised in retrospect by how much was different. The conflation of the personal ad gag with the invented antiques-collector dude. Steve Buscemi was fantastic in the movie, but somehow his face took on a composite of all the oddball 40-somethings they encounter in the book. Where was Tim in the movie? I don't even remember him. The decision to make Enid the one to have leanings towards the mainstream, rather than the other way around, that was different. Enid reminded me very strongly of Lynda Barry's Marlys, both in their insatiable restlessness and cravings for validation and attention. Both are the friend you want to play with, the one who has the best ideas for games but wants you to perform your play exactly to her specifications. There's even something common about their looks, what with their round spotty faces and questionable hair choices. (library)
The Bloody Chamber - Angela Carter
Some of these stories were so very, very good. The first one struck just the right Victorian-gothic note, although I shouldn't have liked the deus ex-machina ending. Puss-in-boots was hysterical. The vampire one, though, with the boy who loses his bike in the fountain? Godawful. Just unforgivably bad. (library)
Stuck Rubber Baby - Daniel Clowes
I feel bad saying anything negative about this one, because Clowes is just so earnest, so much the not-racist-guy-who-owns-up-to-his-white-priveledge, so I-was-a-dumb-kid-but-now-I-am-trying-to-be-a-good-person, so bloody rightminded, that it is hard to throw a swing. Ok, here go some easy ones: The word "rubber" in the title made me imagine a vastly different book, and was never explained. I didn't really care for the drawing style, although that's just my own taste. Finally, I'll say this really quietly, but this book was one big fat unsubtle lesson in tolerance and I've already been to school. It was be a good book for teens, though. (library)
Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
An enterprising young lady takes on a houseful of gloomy relatives and reforms their melodramtic, self-dramatizing lives. Pygmailion for the rural novel. Funny! Even if our gal did overdo the marriage angle a little bit. I still loved it. (Side note: the covers of this book I've seen did not get the message across that this is a comedy. It's like the designers were just given the title to work with. Odd.) (Commonwealth)
Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - Michael Chabon
I had unrealistically high expectations for this one. It's such a fabulous, juicy great-American-dream story, but I think it needed tighter editing. Nevertheless, I ate it up with a spoon. I'm a sucker for fiction about the artistic process, and Jewish immigrants, even with the broadly stated metaphor. (Behemoth and Noodle)
(+Escapist comics #s 1-8 - Various)
Loan from Joe. Totally delightful.
Heart, You Bully, You Punk - Leah Hagar Cohen (reread)
This is going to make me sound like a tool, but I think that I got more out of it this time b/c I've matured a little. The grownups' story was more interesting and more moving. Cohen draws adolescents well, but I think I'm seeing that it's really Esker's story at the core. (hate the name, though, it sounds so made up) If Cohen has a fault as a writer, it's slipping into twee-ness and self-indulgence, and those are big faults of mine, so they stand out for me. Nevertheless, this is a really good novel and it's too bad it didn't get more attention.
My Name is Red - Orhan Pamuk
I should have liked this book, but I didn't. I know, I know: I said I liked unreliable narrators, and here's a book with like nine of them, not even mentioning themes of subversive art and I should have been drooling all over the gorgous Chip Kidd-designed cover, but I, um, wasn't. Seriously, the cover was what I liked best about the book and the more I read, the more I liked it. I wish it had been a nonfiction book all about the art of miniature-painters and how fashions in art related to politics, with lots of color plates, and I could have ignored the chilly, technically-accomplished prose and the unengaging characters and the whodunit that I couldn't bring myself to care about. Ok, I did like it when the dog talked. And the tree. That might have been it. (Commonwealth)
Howl's Moving Castle - Diana Wynne Jones
I saw the movie first, and found it hard to understand (granted I was perhaps chemically enhanced at the time,) and I kept thinking, oh that's just DWJ, she has really weird complex plots. I'm sure I'll follow it better in the book. I did follow it better in the book, but I kind of adored the animation, incomprehensible as it was, so what are you going to do. (Trident Booksellers)
Encyclopedia of the Dead - Danilo Kis
If I try to descibe these stories I will sound like an idiot. Well, I will anyway, so I will just huff on a bit about their greatness. Shattering. How about that. Like Borges? You will love this. Read it. Bring it to the desert island, savor-forever good. The only negative thing I have to say is about the last story - I really couldn't tell where it was going and I was actually getting frustrated and even kind of bored, and then it took a turn and i was just OH WOW. (library)
The Marriage Feast - Par Lagerkvist
They're wonderful little cotton-wrapped razors of short stories. My favorite one was the fable about a war fought with a child army. Ohmygawd chilling. (And it reminded me of some sci fi short story i read years ago on a similar theme...but damned I can think of the author.) (Commonwealth)
The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists - Gideon DeFoe
Pure love. Rainbows and kittens and puppies, in the form of a book that made me lol. (lent by Joe)
The Pirates! In an Adventure with Communists - Gideon DeFoe
See above, more of the same.
(--I'm pretty sure missing some title(s) here when I neglected to update the list--)
Arabian Nights - Edited by Jack Zipes
Ohhh ummmm. I don't think i have the brainpower right now to give these the critique they deserve. Some of the most racist, classist, ist-ist stuff I've ever read. Still, some great storytelling in there. Fairy tale characters are so frakkin flat, though. Sheherazade is, on the one hand, the most awesome feminist-friendly character ever, because, seriously, who could be smarter or think faster on her feet? On the other hand, she ends up hitched to a mass-murderer, so it's not exactly win-win. (Trident Booksellers)
The Game - Neil Strauss (on a dare. don't ask.)
A jaunty guide on how to become the womanizing douchebag you always wanted to be. May also be read as a cautionary tale; your choice. Bonus: fun dirt on Courtney Love. (online file. for free, needless to say.)
The Omnivore's Dilemna - Michael Pollan
I've always had a hard time articulating the convictions that are the basis for my vegetarianism, but really what it boils down to is the desire not to promote animal suffering. Pollan has examines what suffering means in the context of contemporary farming, and it's the most eye-opening thing I've read in years. I was nodding along, yelping "yes, that's it" at this book, scaring people on the bus. Thoughts: a) I had no idea about the politics of corn. Damn, agriculture in this country is fucked up. b) I did know about cattle, but the description in the book is even a little worse than I thought. c) Organic farming is fucked up too. I really didn't know how badly. d)I think I get hunting now in a way I didn't before. e)If every farm were managed like Polyface, I'd probably be ok with eating chicken. (After I read this book, I made the decision to eat only local food. Unfortunately, this resolve lasted for one trip to whole foods before I gave up in frustration. This spring I'm going to talk to Joe and Karen and see if they'd be interested in doing a farmshare.) (Behemoth and Noodle)
Three Fingers - Rich Koslowski
Good and creepy graphic novel. (bought from Pandemonium and then given to my little bro.)
Special Topics in Calamity Physics - Marisha Pessl
Ok, Curtis Sittenfeld did cliques and social exclusion in Prep and did it better, and Donna Tartt did guilt and murder and um, secrets in a school setting in The Secret History and did it better. Pessl wins for some clever verbal pyrotechnics, but for all that, her writing reminded me of her illustrations: precocious and accomplished, but ultimately empty. I did love that she had illustrations. And the character of the father: a piece of work. I did like the relationship between Blue and her dad. It's worth a read, but all the too-clever stuff is distracting as hell. She's incredibly well-read, though. (library)
The Glass Castle - Jeanette Walls
I wrote a big rant about it here (library)
Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton
Gift from bromius many moons ago. Oh, it's awesome. I'm losing steam, can I just say it's awesome? It's Wharton, of course it's awesome. It was especially neat reading this while I was actually *in* NYC. I especially enjoyed a line about the "crystalline purity" of the air. Heh. (I'm curious to see Gillian Anderson in the movie - she's not at all the actress I would have imagined for Lily.)
Now You Can Go - Vendela Vida
Another New York book. This one a first novel about a woman who has an encounter with an armed man and what happens after that. The first half of the book had me in its hot little palm. A uniquely caustic and vulnerable voice. Wonderfully observed characters - loved the weird-ass, oh-so-telling behavior of people towards someone who has experienced trauma. Then the last third of the narrative gets bogged down by a trip, and then there's a needlessly contrived ending that's supposed to be the sort of thing that is the culmination of all sorts of threads laid down in the story, but it didn't come off as good foreshadowing, it came off as me shouting at the book "no! what the hell! you didn't just do that!" (bought at a Salvi's in NYC)
The Homeward Bounders - Diana Wynne Jones
Good, solid Jones. Not much else to say. Nothing wrong with it, but didn't love it like I do the Dalemark Quartet, say. (Trident Booksellers)
Witch Week - Diana Wynne Jones (reread)
Sigh. I do love me some Chrestomanci. These were comfort reads. (Waldenbooks? Maybe 16 years ago? Mom must have bought it for me.)
Summer - Edith Wharton
Surprising. This reminded me of DH Lawrence. Bummer. Dull heroine. She stands up for herself, which is refreshing, but otherwise her only noticable trait is her animal passion and whatnot. Meh. kind of shocking for the time, though, no doubt. (Behemoth and Noodle)
missing title(s) here
Nature of Monsters - Clare Clark
Oh dear. this was hastily picked from the shelf. It's a gothic historical horror novel and it's wayyy over the top. Nice evocation of smelly London. Kinda reminded me of Fingersmith. Not really my cup, but it had its moments.(library)
The Golden Compass - Phillip Pullman (reread)
I know I wrote about this some other time, but i can't seem to find it. Anyway. Intense, intellient fiction that respects the reader's intelligence and offers a stunning, gripping, rich story. (The movie...not so much. Good try, though, coulda been much worse.) (Behemoth and Noodle)
3 Jeeves novels (How right You are Jeeves; Stiff upper Lip, Jeeves; Jeeves and the Tie that Binds - Wodehouse
Verbal equivalent of gin and tonic served by a preternaturally wise butler. Love. (library)
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim - David Sedaris
Ok, he's a very gifted writer, but if he recognizes that he's violating his family members' privacy in such a huge way, acknowledges it even, why does he do it anyway? I wanted to kick him. (library)
Half a Life - V.S. Naipaul (half-finished as of this writing. Need to go out on something great, non?)
Interspersed reading here and there: selections from The Book of Monsters and Collected stories of Eudora Welty, both gifts from jawalter.