Book Update
My pace from earlier in the year hasn't picked up any, which is why I've read a pathetic 37 books thus far this year. That'll be less than half of what I read last year, and honestly if I didn't go on vacation that number would be even lower. I knocked off 5 books in North Dakota, 7 in New Mexico and 2 more in Chicago. Cut them out and I'm down at 23. Ouch. On the plus side, a lot of the books I've read this year are pretty darn good. I may not be reading much, but I'm doing a good job at picking out the cream.
For example, when I picked up Spider Kiss I assumed that it was a cool retro hip skewering of the rock & roll industry. Nope. Harlan Ellison actually wrote it back in 1961. The shenanigans of Elvis-like rock star Stag Preston make it seem like Ellison had advance knowledge of all the stories that would come out about Elvis later in his life, and it's entertaining to boot.
I read another Michael Chabon book, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. Joe Kavalier is an analog for Jack Kirby and Sammy Clay is essentially a Stan Lee stand in. Their prize creation the Escapist frees the downtrodden and punches Hitler in the face, in large part reflecting Kavalier's frustration that he can't free his family from occupied Europe. Clay is juggling the scripting duties for a dozen titles and his boyfriend. Somehow this all pulls together into a vastly entertaining novel that will make pretty much anyone happy even if they don't read comics. And if you, you should go grab this right away. I preferred The Yiddish Policemen's Union, but only just.
A Midsummer Night's Dream will always be one of my favorite Shakespeare plays, in large part because it's the first one I can recall seeing on stage. It's appearance in Sandman didn't hurt either. It's also nearly unique in that you can read nearly the entire play with nary a glance at the footnotes to figure things out, although that might just be because of my familiarity with it.
Why did I so enjoy Love in the Time of Cholera, and how come it reminded me of The Bridge of San Luis Rey? I cannot answer either question, but I'm glad I read it.
New books from yuki_onna! I finished Deathless. I've always liked Koschei (particularly the Hellboy variant), and that made this my favorite book by Cat for 6 full days. Then I read The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, which is the kind of book that people will be giving to 9-year-olds for the next fifty years and more. It quite deservedly hit the New York Times bestseller list, and let me tell you it would make a really fantastically weird and delightful movie. Also, the picture leading off the last chapter features a small but amiable dog who looks an awful lot like Hamlet. I highly recommend this for 9-year-olds of all ages.
I cruised through Romeo and Juliet. Heck, there were times when I reciting the lines out loud even before my eyes fell on the line. I've seen two movie versions and one stage version, and read it in high school. That's not a lot in the big scheme of things, so why do I have so much of it memorized? Is it that deeply tied into our cultural landscape?
I read The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga, which is phrased a long letter from an Indian man to the Chinese premier. In this letter he reveals the secret to his success, which involves describing in brutal detail the corruption and inequality present in Indian society. It's engrossing and hard to put down.
Somewhat surprisingly, A Thousand Splendid Suns was also engrossing. I have to admit that I assumed it was merely a trendy mainstream novel of dubious quality, but I had a lot of trouble putting down this story of two woman in Kabul. So it's a trendy mainstream novel of actual quality.
Erik Laron's The Devil in the White City is one of the best pieces of non-fiction I've read in a long time. This history intertwines the story of the 1893 World's Fair that made Chicago a truly international city with the story of H.H. Holmes, a man sometimes credited with being the first serial killer, and certainly one of the creepiest.
I finished the Tom Robbins novel Still Life with Woodpecker, thereby completing the trinity of Robbins books that pussygalore66 holds highest in her esteem. This one didn't work quite as well as Skinny Legs and All or Jitterbug Perfume, but it was still an entertaining read.
Ever wonder what would happen if Judge Judy was on the Supreme Court? Christopher Buckley has, and Supreme Courtship is the hilarious result.
I could probably write entire posts about songs I like and why I like them, but I doubt it would turn out as well as Nick Hornby's Songbook. He takes 31 different songs and talks about the reasons he loves them. Some he listens to nearly every day; others he hasn't listened to in years and may never listen to again. All are compellingly described.
We Need to Talk About Kevin is one of those books that is very emotionally difficult to read. From the very beginning you know that the letters Eva is writing to her estranged husband are eventually going to zero in on the uncomfortable fact that their son Kevin killed several of his classmates in a school shooting. However, as the tension builds you realize that something else arguably even more horrible is waiting to be revealed. I don't know that I could bear to read it again, but it does what it does very well and in compelling fashion.
I can't claim that it's a work great literature, but singer/songwriter Josh Ritter has written a novel called Bright's Passage, which follows a WWI vet and his guardian angel as they flee his wife's family after her death. Or maybe it's about an insane guy who hears voices. Your call.
So what have you been reading lately?
For example, when I picked up Spider Kiss I assumed that it was a cool retro hip skewering of the rock & roll industry. Nope. Harlan Ellison actually wrote it back in 1961. The shenanigans of Elvis-like rock star Stag Preston make it seem like Ellison had advance knowledge of all the stories that would come out about Elvis later in his life, and it's entertaining to boot.
I read another Michael Chabon book, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. Joe Kavalier is an analog for Jack Kirby and Sammy Clay is essentially a Stan Lee stand in. Their prize creation the Escapist frees the downtrodden and punches Hitler in the face, in large part reflecting Kavalier's frustration that he can't free his family from occupied Europe. Clay is juggling the scripting duties for a dozen titles and his boyfriend. Somehow this all pulls together into a vastly entertaining novel that will make pretty much anyone happy even if they don't read comics. And if you, you should go grab this right away. I preferred The Yiddish Policemen's Union, but only just.
A Midsummer Night's Dream will always be one of my favorite Shakespeare plays, in large part because it's the first one I can recall seeing on stage. It's appearance in Sandman didn't hurt either. It's also nearly unique in that you can read nearly the entire play with nary a glance at the footnotes to figure things out, although that might just be because of my familiarity with it.
Why did I so enjoy Love in the Time of Cholera, and how come it reminded me of The Bridge of San Luis Rey? I cannot answer either question, but I'm glad I read it.
New books from yuki_onna! I finished Deathless. I've always liked Koschei (particularly the Hellboy variant), and that made this my favorite book by Cat for 6 full days. Then I read The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, which is the kind of book that people will be giving to 9-year-olds for the next fifty years and more. It quite deservedly hit the New York Times bestseller list, and let me tell you it would make a really fantastically weird and delightful movie. Also, the picture leading off the last chapter features a small but amiable dog who looks an awful lot like Hamlet. I highly recommend this for 9-year-olds of all ages.
I cruised through Romeo and Juliet. Heck, there were times when I reciting the lines out loud even before my eyes fell on the line. I've seen two movie versions and one stage version, and read it in high school. That's not a lot in the big scheme of things, so why do I have so much of it memorized? Is it that deeply tied into our cultural landscape?
I read The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga, which is phrased a long letter from an Indian man to the Chinese premier. In this letter he reveals the secret to his success, which involves describing in brutal detail the corruption and inequality present in Indian society. It's engrossing and hard to put down.
Somewhat surprisingly, A Thousand Splendid Suns was also engrossing. I have to admit that I assumed it was merely a trendy mainstream novel of dubious quality, but I had a lot of trouble putting down this story of two woman in Kabul. So it's a trendy mainstream novel of actual quality.
Erik Laron's The Devil in the White City is one of the best pieces of non-fiction I've read in a long time. This history intertwines the story of the 1893 World's Fair that made Chicago a truly international city with the story of H.H. Holmes, a man sometimes credited with being the first serial killer, and certainly one of the creepiest.
I finished the Tom Robbins novel Still Life with Woodpecker, thereby completing the trinity of Robbins books that pussygalore66 holds highest in her esteem. This one didn't work quite as well as Skinny Legs and All or Jitterbug Perfume, but it was still an entertaining read.
Ever wonder what would happen if Judge Judy was on the Supreme Court? Christopher Buckley has, and Supreme Courtship is the hilarious result.
I could probably write entire posts about songs I like and why I like them, but I doubt it would turn out as well as Nick Hornby's Songbook. He takes 31 different songs and talks about the reasons he loves them. Some he listens to nearly every day; others he hasn't listened to in years and may never listen to again. All are compellingly described.
We Need to Talk About Kevin is one of those books that is very emotionally difficult to read. From the very beginning you know that the letters Eva is writing to her estranged husband are eventually going to zero in on the uncomfortable fact that their son Kevin killed several of his classmates in a school shooting. However, as the tension builds you realize that something else arguably even more horrible is waiting to be revealed. I don't know that I could bear to read it again, but it does what it does very well and in compelling fashion.
I can't claim that it's a work great literature, but singer/songwriter Josh Ritter has written a novel called Bright's Passage, which follows a WWI vet and his guardian angel as they flee his wife's family after her death. Or maybe it's about an insane guy who hears voices. Your call.
So what have you been reading lately?