2011 in Review: Books and Music
I'm a bit late to the game, but here are my wholly unsolicited thoughts on my favorite reads and music of 2011.
I read lots and lots and lots for my dissertation, but here are my favorite books read in 2011 unrelated to the Big D.
Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick
This book is mesmerizing. I re-read passages as I would in a novel, read parts aloud to my uninterested (but polite!) housemates, and still, months on, I’m thinking about this book, talking about it, and recommending it to others. I’ve always been curious about North Korea: isolated, totalitarian and enmeshed in a cult of personality, it’s a mystery and an oddity. Demick skillfully tells the life story of 6 North Korean citizens, over the span of 15 years, which gives the reader a chance to see life in North Korea not as an outsider, but through the eyes of citizens struggling to survive in the midst of dismal suffering. This book has a love story, a story of ambition, a story of escape¸ it’s got everything. JUST READ IT, OKAY?!
A Song of Fire and Ice by George RR Martin
I read fantasy occasionally and knew of these books for a long time before finally picking them up, having been prompted to do so by HBO’s excellent adaptation of the first book, A Game of Thrones. These books are about politics, war, family and power struggles with a good bit of fighting, feasting and lusting thrown in. The first four books are full of war, subterfuge, adventure and all sorts of unsavory characters. They’re hard to put down, absolutely engrossing reads. There are definitely fantasy elements - dragons, firemages, ghouls, etc - but at its heart A Game of Fire and Ice is a saga about power and the struggle for it.
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
Harold Bloom suggested that no other American author has given us a book as “strong and memorable” as Blood Meridian. I’m not sure I entirely agree, but it is damn well strong, and it is certainly memorable. It’s definitely both the most violent and the most beautifully written book that I read in 2011. It’s a western but more so a story about the depths of cruelty. Haunting is such an overused word in describing books, but I’m just going to jump on that bandwagon and say that haunting is an apt adjective here. This story lingers.
Salvation on Sand Mountain by Dennis Covington
(Full disclosure: I actually read this book this month, but I checked it out of the library in 2011, so…)
As a one-time religion major I feel secure saying that I love learning about belief systems. This book is an engrossing and unsettling memoir about factions of Holiness churches who also “take up serpents” as a part of their worship services. The writer starts out covering the trial of a snake-handling Holiness preacher, accused of attempted murder (he tried to kill his wife with the rattlesnakes he used in his church services), and ends up on a spiritual journey, exploring life in snake-handling churches and examining his own faith. The passages about spiritual ecstasy and snake-handling were especially riveting.
Music
My two favorite albums of the year are El Camino from The Black Keys and The Harrow and the Harvest from Gillian Welch. Two very different albums, but I think they're both fantastic.
The Black Keys delivered a fantastic rock album, with plenty of songs worthy of driving fast with the windows rolled down. Or running through the woods, your run fueled by elaborate revenge fantasies while your ears are being blasted by some surly guitar and fearsome drums. Other activities which benefit from a listen to this album includes (but is not limited to): dancing in your living room, cleaning, cooking, walking the dog, showering, reading the newspaper.
Gillian Welch's Harrow and the Harvest is beautiful, with a simple, clean sound. Her music typically reminds me of home and makes me feel wistful. The stories seems distant but somehow very familiar and her vocals are at turns somber, playful, and hopeful. This album - like all of her previous outings - is tinged with melancholia, but I can't not be happy when I listen to it, which makes it my second pick for best album of 2011.
F'list, tell me about your 2011 favorites!
I read lots and lots and lots for my dissertation, but here are my favorite books read in 2011 unrelated to the Big D.
Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick
This book is mesmerizing. I re-read passages as I would in a novel, read parts aloud to my uninterested (but polite!) housemates, and still, months on, I’m thinking about this book, talking about it, and recommending it to others. I’ve always been curious about North Korea: isolated, totalitarian and enmeshed in a cult of personality, it’s a mystery and an oddity. Demick skillfully tells the life story of 6 North Korean citizens, over the span of 15 years, which gives the reader a chance to see life in North Korea not as an outsider, but through the eyes of citizens struggling to survive in the midst of dismal suffering. This book has a love story, a story of ambition, a story of escape¸ it’s got everything. JUST READ IT, OKAY?!
A Song of Fire and Ice by George RR Martin
I read fantasy occasionally and knew of these books for a long time before finally picking them up, having been prompted to do so by HBO’s excellent adaptation of the first book, A Game of Thrones. These books are about politics, war, family and power struggles with a good bit of fighting, feasting and lusting thrown in. The first four books are full of war, subterfuge, adventure and all sorts of unsavory characters. They’re hard to put down, absolutely engrossing reads. There are definitely fantasy elements - dragons, firemages, ghouls, etc - but at its heart A Game of Fire and Ice is a saga about power and the struggle for it.
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
Harold Bloom suggested that no other American author has given us a book as “strong and memorable” as Blood Meridian. I’m not sure I entirely agree, but it is damn well strong, and it is certainly memorable. It’s definitely both the most violent and the most beautifully written book that I read in 2011. It’s a western but more so a story about the depths of cruelty. Haunting is such an overused word in describing books, but I’m just going to jump on that bandwagon and say that haunting is an apt adjective here. This story lingers.
Salvation on Sand Mountain by Dennis Covington
(Full disclosure: I actually read this book this month, but I checked it out of the library in 2011, so…)
As a one-time religion major I feel secure saying that I love learning about belief systems. This book is an engrossing and unsettling memoir about factions of Holiness churches who also “take up serpents” as a part of their worship services. The writer starts out covering the trial of a snake-handling Holiness preacher, accused of attempted murder (he tried to kill his wife with the rattlesnakes he used in his church services), and ends up on a spiritual journey, exploring life in snake-handling churches and examining his own faith. The passages about spiritual ecstasy and snake-handling were especially riveting.
Music
My two favorite albums of the year are El Camino from The Black Keys and The Harrow and the Harvest from Gillian Welch. Two very different albums, but I think they're both fantastic.
The Black Keys delivered a fantastic rock album, with plenty of songs worthy of driving fast with the windows rolled down. Or running through the woods, your run fueled by elaborate revenge fantasies while your ears are being blasted by some surly guitar and fearsome drums. Other activities which benefit from a listen to this album includes (but is not limited to): dancing in your living room, cleaning, cooking, walking the dog, showering, reading the newspaper.
Gillian Welch's Harrow and the Harvest is beautiful, with a simple, clean sound. Her music typically reminds me of home and makes me feel wistful. The stories seems distant but somehow very familiar and her vocals are at turns somber, playful, and hopeful. This album - like all of her previous outings - is tinged with melancholia, but I can't not be happy when I listen to it, which makes it my second pick for best album of 2011.
F'list, tell me about your 2011 favorites!