The book stack: 2007
Here's my reading list from this year, linked to reviews when I've written them.
Contemporary-ish Novels
1. Invisible Circus by Jennifer Egan
2.Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami
3. Getting Mother's Body by Suzan-Lori Parks
4. Like Never Before by Ehud Havazelet
5. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
6. The Echo Maker by Richard Powers
7. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
8. Interesting Times by Terry Pratchett
9. Small Gods by Terry Pratchett
10. Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
11. So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell
12. Symptomatic by Danzy Senna
Classics-ish Novels
13. He Knew He Was Right by Anthony Trollope
14. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (re-read)
15. Children are Civilians Too by Heinrich Böll
16. Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (re-read)
17. The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Phillip K. Dick
18. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Short Story Collections
19. Female Trouble by Antonya Nelson
20. Things You Should Know by A.M. Homes
21. No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July
Poetry
22. The Woman Who Fell From the Earth by Joy Harjo
Plays
23. Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
24. Frozen by Briony Lavery
25. Afternoon of the Elves by Y. York
26. The Yellow Boat by David Saar
27. As You Like It by William Shakespeare
28. Bless Cricket, Crest Toothpaste, and Tommy Tune by Linda Daugherty
Non-Fiction/Memoir
29. All God's Children by Rene Denfield
30. The Mistress' Daughter by A.M. Homes
Comics
31. Fun Home by Alison Bechdal
32. Abandon the Old in Tokyo by Yoshihiro Tatsumi
33. American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
34. A Tale of One Bad Rat by Brian Talbot
35. Rex Libris by James Turner
36. Box Office Poison by Alex Robinson
37. More BOP by Alex Robinson
38-46. Fables Volumes 1-8 by Bill Wilmingham
47-52. Fruits Basket Volumes 13-17 by Natsuki Takaya
53-54. Hopeless Savages Volumes 1-2 by Jen Van Meter
55. Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Long Way Home by Joss Whedon
Children's Books
56. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
57. The Diamond in the Window by Jane Langton
Additionally, I read about 500 more pages of excerpted stories and articles for school, a year's worth of New Yorkers (which I mostly kept up with), and a year's worth of Alaska Quarterly Reviews. Not too bad, for a year in which I hauled my ass and all my belongings halfway across the country.
So here's the run-down: favorites include Richard Powers' amazing Echo Maker, Murakami's Hard Boiled..., McCarthy's Road, and Bechdal's Fun Home. The most exciting new (well, new-to-me) writer I encountered this year was William Trevor, but he's not on the list because I didn't read a whole book. I plan to remedy that in the coming year.
The only thing I flat out hated was Danzy Senna's ridiculous Symptomatic, though Homes' memoir and Denfield's excoriating true-crime book made the list of disappointments. Also, Fables is the second most over-rated comic I've read in a while (right after Y: The Last Man). It's all right for a bit of fluff, but it's not nearly as innovative as people make it out to be.
Now that I'm back in school, I'm looking at changing my book-list (I usually read to fill a certain number of categories, to make sure I'm reading somewhat diverse stuff). I plan to concentrate on re-reading things that will be helpful to me as I begin my own novel, so there will be
more re-reads than usual.
Now back to my sexy New Year's plans of jammie-jams and Rock Band. Peace.
Contemporary-ish Novels
1. Invisible Circus by Jennifer Egan
2.Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami
3. Getting Mother's Body by Suzan-Lori Parks
4. Like Never Before by Ehud Havazelet
5. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
6. The Echo Maker by Richard Powers
7. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
8. Interesting Times by Terry Pratchett
9. Small Gods by Terry Pratchett
10. Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
11. So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell
12. Symptomatic by Danzy Senna
Classics-ish Novels
13. He Knew He Was Right by Anthony Trollope
14. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (re-read)
15. Children are Civilians Too by Heinrich Böll
16. Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (re-read)
17. The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Phillip K. Dick
18. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Short Story Collections
19. Female Trouble by Antonya Nelson
20. Things You Should Know by A.M. Homes
21. No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July
Poetry
22. The Woman Who Fell From the Earth by Joy Harjo
Plays
23. Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
24. Frozen by Briony Lavery
25. Afternoon of the Elves by Y. York
26. The Yellow Boat by David Saar
27. As You Like It by William Shakespeare
28. Bless Cricket, Crest Toothpaste, and Tommy Tune by Linda Daugherty
Non-Fiction/Memoir
29. All God's Children by Rene Denfield
30. The Mistress' Daughter by A.M. Homes
Comics
31. Fun Home by Alison Bechdal
32. Abandon the Old in Tokyo by Yoshihiro Tatsumi
33. American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
34. A Tale of One Bad Rat by Brian Talbot
35. Rex Libris by James Turner
36. Box Office Poison by Alex Robinson
37. More BOP by Alex Robinson
38-46. Fables Volumes 1-8 by Bill Wilmingham
47-52. Fruits Basket Volumes 13-17 by Natsuki Takaya
53-54. Hopeless Savages Volumes 1-2 by Jen Van Meter
55. Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Long Way Home by Joss Whedon
Children's Books
56. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
57. The Diamond in the Window by Jane Langton
Additionally, I read about 500 more pages of excerpted stories and articles for school, a year's worth of New Yorkers (which I mostly kept up with), and a year's worth of Alaska Quarterly Reviews. Not too bad, for a year in which I hauled my ass and all my belongings halfway across the country.
So here's the run-down: favorites include Richard Powers' amazing Echo Maker, Murakami's Hard Boiled..., McCarthy's Road, and Bechdal's Fun Home. The most exciting new (well, new-to-me) writer I encountered this year was William Trevor, but he's not on the list because I didn't read a whole book. I plan to remedy that in the coming year.
The only thing I flat out hated was Danzy Senna's ridiculous Symptomatic, though Homes' memoir and Denfield's excoriating true-crime book made the list of disappointments. Also, Fables is the second most over-rated comic I've read in a while (right after Y: The Last Man). It's all right for a bit of fluff, but it's not nearly as innovative as people make it out to be.
Now that I'm back in school, I'm looking at changing my book-list (I usually read to fill a certain number of categories, to make sure I'm reading somewhat diverse stuff). I plan to concentrate on re-reading things that will be helpful to me as I begin my own novel, so there will be
more re-reads than usual.
Now back to my sexy New Year's plans of jammie-jams and Rock Band. Peace.