books 2009! aka i can't handle goodreads, so.
1. the dissident, nell fruedenberger. borrowed from my mother, and better than i thought it would be: about a chinese artist on a fellowship in LA, and a certain late-90's beijing art scene, and interesting.
2. the fabulous sylvester, joshua gamson. a biography of sylvester, the disco singer, former cockette and member of the discotays, LA transgirl club of the early '70s. FABULOUS. so fabulous, he spends several pages discussing what it means to be fabulous. also, smart about race and sexuality and music.
3. sea of poppies, amitav ghosh. oh, so good. he's a great writer, almost always, and this is an old-fashioned 18th century ocean-going page-turner, from which i also learned things about indian ocean trade circa 1830. lots of different characters; this is first of a trilogy and spends most of it's time getting them all in one place, in complicated ways. i want the next one NOW.
4. the sophie horowitz story, sarah schulman. finally, i read this: it was on my list for a while. but it's not very good. one of her earliest, trying to be a mystery novel sorta and not succeeding; the plot doesn't really work. still, as usual, i like her young jewish dykes hanging around the lower east side.
5. run, ann prachett.
6. 1959, thulani davis (reread.)
7. man about town, mark merlis.
8. keeping up with the dow joneses: debt, globalization, welfare, vijay prashad. man, this took me forever: not a good book to try to work through on the train. the books of his that lean more towards cultural studies are more readable, but the prison and welfare chapters of this were great, once i pushed through. it's not pretending to be totally new - at least not to me it wasn't- but it's very smart, the kind of thing you could give as an intro to your friend who wanted good background, but also read to remind yourself things you sort of know but have somewhat forgotten.
a gap of a few months, where i moved and stuff, making these numbers no longer accurate, but...
9. the hungry tide, amitav ghosh
10. dubious conceptions: the politics of teenage pregnancy, kristan luker
11. four souls, louise erdrich
12. sarah, jt leroy
13. grass roof, tin roof, by dao strom
14. fasting, feasting, by anita desai
15. isobars, by jeanette winter hospital
16. body piercing saved my life (some mediocre book about christian rock; can't find author)
17. easter rising, michael patrick macdonald
18. the colorist, susan daitch (reread)
19. sister and brother, ed. joan nestle and john preston
20. fingersmith, sarah waters
(a few other things i can't remember)
21. the autograph man, zadie smith (reread.)
22. sheila levine is dead and living in new york, gail parent
23. the yiddish policemen's union, michael chabon
24. eating chinese food naked, mei ng (reread)
25. woman, an intimate geography, natalie angier.
26. taking charge of your fertility, toni weschler (sort of for work)
27. (large chunks of) home girls, various.
28. arrow's flight, mark merlis (reread.) - read this!
29. lipschitz 6 or two angry blondes, t cooper. i have no idea why people liked this! yes maybe it is jewish and queer, but it is also just a mediocre novel, or two-thirds of one mediocre novel and a third of another. but maybe i'm missing something. what did you think?
30. the brief wonderous life of oscar wao, junot diaz. was fucking awesome. so good. it was everywhere and so i was skeptical but i should have known this was going to be great after how good drown was, years ago.
2. the fabulous sylvester, joshua gamson. a biography of sylvester, the disco singer, former cockette and member of the discotays, LA transgirl club of the early '70s. FABULOUS. so fabulous, he spends several pages discussing what it means to be fabulous. also, smart about race and sexuality and music.
3. sea of poppies, amitav ghosh. oh, so good. he's a great writer, almost always, and this is an old-fashioned 18th century ocean-going page-turner, from which i also learned things about indian ocean trade circa 1830. lots of different characters; this is first of a trilogy and spends most of it's time getting them all in one place, in complicated ways. i want the next one NOW.
4. the sophie horowitz story, sarah schulman. finally, i read this: it was on my list for a while. but it's not very good. one of her earliest, trying to be a mystery novel sorta and not succeeding; the plot doesn't really work. still, as usual, i like her young jewish dykes hanging around the lower east side.
5. run, ann prachett.
6. 1959, thulani davis (reread.)
7. man about town, mark merlis.
8. keeping up with the dow joneses: debt, globalization, welfare, vijay prashad. man, this took me forever: not a good book to try to work through on the train. the books of his that lean more towards cultural studies are more readable, but the prison and welfare chapters of this were great, once i pushed through. it's not pretending to be totally new - at least not to me it wasn't- but it's very smart, the kind of thing you could give as an intro to your friend who wanted good background, but also read to remind yourself things you sort of know but have somewhat forgotten.
a gap of a few months, where i moved and stuff, making these numbers no longer accurate, but...
9. the hungry tide, amitav ghosh
10. dubious conceptions: the politics of teenage pregnancy, kristan luker
11. four souls, louise erdrich
12. sarah, jt leroy
13. grass roof, tin roof, by dao strom
14. fasting, feasting, by anita desai
15. isobars, by jeanette winter hospital
16. body piercing saved my life (some mediocre book about christian rock; can't find author)
17. easter rising, michael patrick macdonald
18. the colorist, susan daitch (reread)
19. sister and brother, ed. joan nestle and john preston
20. fingersmith, sarah waters
(a few other things i can't remember)
21. the autograph man, zadie smith (reread.)
22. sheila levine is dead and living in new york, gail parent
23. the yiddish policemen's union, michael chabon
24. eating chinese food naked, mei ng (reread)
25. woman, an intimate geography, natalie angier.
26. taking charge of your fertility, toni weschler (sort of for work)
27. (large chunks of) home girls, various.
28. arrow's flight, mark merlis (reread.) - read this!
29. lipschitz 6 or two angry blondes, t cooper. i have no idea why people liked this! yes maybe it is jewish and queer, but it is also just a mediocre novel, or two-thirds of one mediocre novel and a third of another. but maybe i'm missing something. what did you think?
30. the brief wonderous life of oscar wao, junot diaz. was fucking awesome. so good. it was everywhere and so i was skeptical but i should have known this was going to be great after how good drown was, years ago.