This was a good reading year for me. I exceeded my goal of 2 books per month, even if I didn’t exactly read them at that rate. There has been a definitely slacking off these last two months, but here’s how it all went down with the 31 books I read:
Chanel: A Woman of Her Own
By Axel Madsen
Coco Chanel was a hero of mine and still is in a way. But she definitely had issues and it seems she was incapable of working through them. It probably never occurred to her to try. Is trauma a prerequisite to success? It’s clear success is no guarantee against loneliness.
The Maltese Falcon
By Dashiell Hammett
This was for the book discussion group at the library. Sam Spade is not nice. I had thought he was a loner with a distinct personal ethic, essentially hard-bitten detective with a heart of gold. Turns out he’s wolfish, sleazy and slightly satanic. I think I must have been remembering some sanitized Hollywood version of the character.
Dog Days: Dispatches from Bedlam Farm
By Jon Katz
Heartening that this book has a note at the start:
“Professor Chernowitz, and other readers: No dogs die in this book.”
After “Marley and Me” last year, I don’t think I could have read it otherwise.
A Moveable Feast
By Ernest Hemingway
I first read this when I was in my 20s and living in Geneva. I loved it then and love it now. It makes me want to move back to Europe even if that place doesn’t actually exist any more. Such is the magic of nostalgia.
Persuasion
By Jane Austen
My least favorite of Austen’s novels holds on to its status.
Jane Eyre
By Charlotte Bronte
This was a childhood favorite that I had to revisit after reading Setterfield’s “The Thirteenth Tale” last year. Just wonderful.
On Writing
By Stephen King
A writer on writing who doesn’t try to discourage other people from writing. So rare. I like this guy even though I don’t much care for his fiction.
Never Let Me Go
By Kazuo Ishiguro
This is a disturbing fantasy of a world divided into organ donors, transplant recipients, and caregivers. Unsettling and bizarre. I’m not quite sure why it was written, but it held my attention throughout.
The Art of Living and other stories
By John Gardner
Gardner was a terrific writer; sad that he died so young. This was another re-read from my 20s. I guess I really got on a nostalgia kick this year. Just full of intriguing character studies and observations.
Far From the Madding Crowd
By Thomas Hardy
Oh, no … another favorite from my youth. When my parents took me and my brother on a summer tour of Switzerland in 1976, this was one of two books that I brought with me. (The other was Orwell’s “1984”.) I read them both obsessively for 6 weeks. Still great. Even at 16 I understood Bathsheba Everdene falling for Frank Troy, but I knew she belonged with Gabriel Oak.
Chilly Scenes of Winter
By Ann Beattie
This particular re-read was not as satisfying as the first time I read it. I wanted to shake these characters and say “Snap out of it!” It did remind me of how hopeless the 1970s seemed and how they actually ended and life went on pretty nicely from there. Until we hit this latest wall, of course.
The Art of Possibility
By Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander
At last something new and nonfiction. I tried to read this book before. To tell you the truth, I think I bought it originally because of the bright yellow cover. This time it caught my attention and I finished it. I particularly like the chapter on “being a contribution.” Instead of constantly judging yourself every day for success or failure … “throw yourself into life as someone who makes a difference, accepting that you may not understand how or why.” Also — remember Rule #6.
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
GGM wears me out. Does he have to give nearly every male character a variant of one of two names? And I’m not a big fan of “Magical Realism.” I’m glad I read this, but I was a little relieved to be done with it.
Evening
By Susan Minot
I finished this and had an immediate impulse to read it again (which I didn’t do). Is that good or bad? It was kind of “What the heck was that about? I think I liked it.” It was a jumbled narrative about the ending of a life–and that whole life. How we aren’t really ever known by another person however close they may seem.
The Namesake
By Jhumpa Lahiri
Loved it. I don’t know why a book about Bengalese expatriates should resonate with me, but then I realized it is being an outsider in American society. Or somehow being part of it but not wholly. Outwardly I look like any other average white American, but in my soul I’m from another planet.
The Kite Runner
By Khaled Hosseini
Another good novel — disturbing but good. I’d like to know if there really is/was a big kite flying culture in Afghanistan. Or am I just being ridiculously literal minded?
Welcome to Hard Times
By EL Doctorow
Also a book discussion read for a series on revenge. I don’t like westerns, even when they are meant to demonstrate what’s wrong with the genre. Bloody and no redemption here. I need a little more hope than that.
Selected Stories
By Andre Dubus
Also for the series on revenge. The discussion was only on one of the stories, but I read the whole thing. I confused Dubus with his son, Andre Dubus III, who wrote “The House of Sand and Fog.” Both are gritty but I liked Dubus senior more.
The Sweet Hereafter
By Russell Banks
Also for the revenge series. The cover copy said it was a morality play and so it was. Not a lot of depth here.
Comfort Food
By Kate Jacobs
Just a snack, thanks. A bit formulaic, not terribly engaging.
Certain Girls
By Jennifer Weiner
I liked this one well enough in a summer-novel kind of way, but I’m having trouble remembering the details now. Maybe it’s me, maybe it’s the book.
The City of Falling Angels
By John Berendt
I relished this one. If you can’t got to Venice, at least read this book. Vivid and engrossing.
Becoming Madame Mao
By Anchee Min
Apart from reading Fox Butterfield’s “China: Alive in the Bitter Sea” and Pearl S. Buck’s “The Good Earth,” I haven’t thought much about China and Chinese history, huge topics, of course. This fictionalized version of the life of Madame Mao was a good read and made me want to learn more.
The Sun Also Rises
By Ernest Hemingway
I must have read this short novel once, but I don’t remember when. Certainly I’m familiar with the characters, but then Hemingway did tend to revisit certain types over and over so I might be thinking of a different novel. Good solid, descriptive writing.
Interpreter of Maladies
By Jhumpa Lahiri
Good short stories by a good writer. Isn’t that the very definition of perfection?
Morningside Heights
Cheryl Mendelson
Another lightweight-ish novel. I read this after spending a weekend in NYC and enjoyed it for the big-city flavors. But I saw the end coming a mile off. Don’t you hate that?
The Death of Vishnu
By Manil Suri
I heard Manil Suri speak on a book discussion panel while I was in NYC and was interested enough to get this book and read it. I liked it and plan to read his second novel, “The Age of Shiva” when I have the time.
Goldengrove
By Francine Prose
I liked Francine Prose’s nonfiction “Reading Like a Writer” and still dip into it when I’m looking for a recommendation on something new to read. She didn’t have the nerve to recommend her own fiction, which was probably the right call.
Here If You Need Me: A True Story
By Kate Braestrup
I heard Braestrup on NPR a year or so ago and made a mental note to check out her memoir. She makes no bones about having somewhat exploited the “plucky widow” angle, but still worth reading.
Brideshead Revisited
By Evelyn Waugh
How could I have lived so long and not read this one? Loved it. Now I can finally watch both the BBC miniseries and the new movie.
Stradivari’s Genius: Five Violins, One Cello and Three Centuries of Enduring Perfection
By Tony Faber
Enjoyable history of both Stradivari and his instruments. I’m still not sure why his “Messiah” violin is considered so magnificent when it has hardly been played. Ever. I really do believe that a mediocre instrument can be played into greatness. Perhaps not by me, though.
In addition to the books I finished this year, I have some “in progress” and abandoned titles:
New and Selected Poems
By Mary Oliver
It’s hard to sit down and read whole book of poems so I keep this one by the bed and dip into it when I need a fix. A lovely writer and observer of nature.
Nothing to Be Frightened of
By Julian Barnes
The library has been sending me emails reminding me to return this, but I’ve been stalled for a week. Julian Barnes has a problem with death. He seems to be dealing with this by turning from atheism to agnosticism.
Lady with Lapdog and other stories
By Anton Chekhov
Chekhov is credited with inventing the modern short story and for that I think him.
InDesign Production Cookbook
By Alistair Dabbs
Not sure you can really read this kind of book. My method is to wait until I have a problem doing something in InDesign and then I look in the index for a solution.
China: Alive in the Bitter Sea
By Fox Butterfield
“Madame Mao” got me thinking about this early 80s nonfiction book about China. I found it on Alibris and have been dropping in and out of it for a few months.
The Rough Guide to Costa Rica
By Jean McNeil
We are planning to go to Costa Rica next year so I’m reading this in preparation. We will be staying just south of Limon on the Caribbean side. My friend Carol describes it as the “hippie” part of the country. That might be her way of telling me not to expect any spa treatments.