Here are some of the better books I have recently read (or am in the process of reading). After all, I am here because I love to read and discuss what I read, so here are a few of the better books I've read and a few you can find on my bookshelf right now.
Spring and Summer 2007:
I have been slack since Fall 2006 in updating this page. This doesn't mean I've stopped reading, just stopped writing about it. As a new (school) year's resolution, though, I vow to write more consistently about my reading beyond the classroom, and to do so, I've set up a book review blog, and in my first review, I've written about William Gibson's Spook Country. I hope to update it at least twice a month, or as soon as I finish a book worth writing about.
Before I simply shift to the blog, though, I wanted to mention a few books I've read over the spring and summer that are well worth the time. To get a synopsis of the plots, go to any online bookseller, but here I offer one or two words as a starter. In random order, here are a few of the best: Sherman Alexie's Flight: Up to his usual high standards and goofiness (the engaging kind). Matt Haig's The Dead Father's Club: a wonderful retelling of Hamlet. Martin Amis's House of Meetings: a nice introduction to morality, passivism, and life in the Soviet gulags. Paul Auster's Travels in the Scriptorium and City of Glass: unlike most reviewers, I liked Travels, and unlike most reviewers, I had never read Auster before, which meant I had to read at least City of Glass. (Here is a wonderful secret about English professors: With a few notable exceptions, we have not read everything, even the books were should not have missed, but we are often afraid--if that is the right word--to admit it for fear of someone revoking our degree and job. For me, Auster is a case in point. I read Travels and loved it, but apparently, I missed Auster in his prime and therefore was expected to know his life's work to understand this most recent novel. Alas, I had missed Auster, and I'm pleased that I've found him.)
Fall 2006:
- Edmundo Paz Soldan, Turing's Delirium. I've become fascinated with cryptography, and this novel--set in Bolivia, presented though the viewpoints of several different characters, and detailing efforts at the "Black Chamber"--satisfied my fascination. I look forward to reading more of his work.
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road. This book demonstrated to me yet again that I disagree with so many professional book reviewers out there. The Road received nearly universal acclaim from so many publications that it had to be superb. About a third of the way through the novel, I wanted to jab a fork in my eye rather than turn the page. Superb. I will say that it is interesting and profound, but the grayness and darkness did not create a page turner for me. Perhaps it was my mood. Try it and see for yourself.
- Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything is Illuminated. This is yet another case in which recommendations undermined my reading experience. Everyone who has read this book called it fantastic, which should always prevent me from reading it, not because it isn't great--it is--but because the hype prevents me from truly appreciating it. It was funny and very interesting, but it still didn't live up to my expectations.
- David Sedaris, Holidays on Ice and Me Talk Pretty One Day. I know, I know--why did it take you so long to read Sedaris? To my credit, I have read several of his essays in different formats, and I've heard him speak (on the radio), but I finally got around to reading his books. Yes, they are superb. Unlike Everything is Illuminated, they hype for these books did not undermine my experience with them.
- Jennifer Egan, The Keep. This is an interesting book about a New York sociolite who travels to a European castle. Meanwhile, we learn of a teaching in a prison trying to get them to write. I thoroughly enjoy this style of metafiction.
Summer 2006:
- Arturo Perez-Reverte, Club Dumas, Captain Alatriste, and Purity of Blood. These were great summer reads. I try to use the term "swashbuckling" whenver I can, and for the latter two novels, it fits perfectly. Club Dumas is a novel about reading and book collecting, topics I always enjoy in literature.
- Louise Gluck, Averno: Poems. This is a wonderful collection of poems that explore the Persephone tale.
- Colson Whitehead, Apex Hides the Hurt. Although not as engaging as his first novel, The Intuitionist (which is most likely the BEST book about elevator inspectors ever written), Apex Hides the Hurt shows Whitehead's amazing ability to find the symbolic importance of common jobs and events--in this case, the process of naming products and places.
- John Barth, Where Three Roads Meet: Novellas. The master of metafiction does a great job of exploring the backbone of many literary tales.
- T. C. Boyle, A Friend of the Earth. As I reread this book about environmental disaster, I kept a newspaper nearby and couldn't help but draw a connection between Boyle's account of the world in 2025 and heat waves and recent natural disasters.
- Matthew Pearl, The Poe Shadow. Many critics derided this novel--a follow-up to the wonderfully fantastical The Dante Club--but I enjoyed it. Detectives investigating the mysterious death of Edgar Allan Poe--what's not to like?
Spring 2006:
- Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go. I had not read any of Ishiguro's books before, but this one is truly enjoyable. I especially like the way he weaves together a powerful social issue (I won't give it away) with more personal elements, such as individuals' memories and the way we reconstruct our past. Whenever a book receives this much broad acclaim, it's bound to be worth reading. (You can find a list of the best books of 2005 from a variety of sources at www.metacritic.com. Never Let Me Go is mentioned on many of these lists.)
- T. C. Boyle, Tooth and Claw. One of my favority contemporary writers, Boyle is one of the few who can write both the novel and short story well. Although not every story is a gem, as a whole Tooth and Claw, along with all of his previous collections, is fine (and, as usual, often funny) reading.
Fall 2005:
- Maureen Corrigan, Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading. Corrigan, book reviewer for "Fresh Air" on NPR, documents her engagement with books over the years. She writes about a variety of literature, which also led me to read . . .
- Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep. This is one of those "classics" that I somehow missed, but Corrigan is right in suggesting it. After reading Chandler's novel, I now better appreciate nods to the "hard-boiled" genre from such diverse sources as "Guy Noir" and Bugs Bunny.
- Louise Erdrich, The Painted Drum. Another fine novel from Erdrich. Whenever I'm in doubt about what to read, I can always turn to Erdrich.
- Edward P. Jones, The Known World: This novel not only explores powerful issues of nineteenth-century life in a slave society, but Jones does so with an engaging use of chronology. This book will become a classic.
- Philip K. Dick, Blade Runner. This is a core text in science fiction. I didn't understand the ubiquity of "kibble" when I was younger, but now I see how right Dick was. I also wonder why Mercerism never caught on.
Summer 2005:
- William Gibson, Pattern Recognition. This book is FANTASTIC! And it gets better every time I read it. Like many others, I too "suffer" from apophenia (read the book and you'll get it too), so connecting the numerous elements of this novel becomes not merely an exercise in close reading, but a quest that keeps me up at night.
- David Liss, A Conspiracy of Paper. This is a great read, even if you are not as interested in the novel's theme--the early British stock market--as I am.
- Louise Erdrich, The Master Butcher's Singing Club. Erdrich is simply one of the best writers today, and this novel shows her range and ability to create a wonderful story.