12-27-10

Fiction/Memoir/History

• The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis by Lydia Davis
• Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
• The Savage City by T.J. English
• Shadow & Claw by Gene Wolfe
• Tales of Old Time Texas by Frank Dobie
• The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss

Philosophy/Theology

• After You Believe by N.T. Wright
• Common Prayer by Shane Claiborne
• God's Century by Monica Duffy Toft
• The Kingdom and the Cross by James Bryan Smith

Re-Reading

• Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

12-16-10, The Priest, and To The End of The Land

Fiction/Biography/Memoir/History

• The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis by Lydia Davis
• Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
• The Savage City by T.J. English
• Shadow & Claw by Gene Wolfe
• The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss

Philosophy/Theology/Criticism

• After You Believe by N.T. Wright
• God's Century by Monica Toft
• Infinite Jest Reader's Guide by Stephen Burn

Re-Reading

• Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

To The End of the Land is off the list, but not because I finished it. I couldn't. I'm not going to say it was poorly written or try to make a case against it. I was bored by it, is all. I was not drawn in for a second. So, I put it down. And don't see picking it up again.


The Priest is off the list because I finished it, and quickly. It's not going to change your life, but it is one of the more engrossing detective novels that I have read in some time. If you're looking for what you love about Lehane and Pelecanos, but with a Dublin twist, check out Gerard O'Donovan.

12-7-10

Fiction/Biography/Memoir/History

• The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis by Lydia Davis
• Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
• The Priest by Gerard O'Donovan
• The Savage City by T.J. English
• Shadow & Claw by Gene Wolfe
• To The End of The Land by David Grossman

Philosophy/Theology

• After You Believe by N.T. Wright
• God's Century by Monica Toft
• Poor People by William T. Vollmann

Re-Reading

• Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

Breakfast of Champions

Just finished re-reading Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions and, with this go 'round, it has become my favorite of his novels (making it second only to Welcome To The Monkey House as my favorite of all his work). The voice is pure Vonnegut (literally; he serves as the first person narrator) and what is hackneyed gimmick when Stephen King does it -writing himself into his own novel- is brilliant fun when Vonnegut does. He writes about humanity as a bunch of machines and yet this observation, in his hands, only serves to make us all more human. He cares enough about comedy to take it seriously and enough about tragedy to find the humor in it. Vonnegut's writing is always as full of pathos as it is passion, but nevermore in his novel about what it means to be human.

11-26-10

Fiction/Biography/Memoir/History

• The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis by Lydia Davis
• Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
• The Priest by Gerard O'Donovan
• The Savage City by T.J. English
• Shadow & Claw by Gene Wolfe
• To The End of the Land by David Grossman

Philosophy/Theology

• After You Believe by N.T. Wright
• Common Prayer by Shane Claiborne and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove
• The Sabbath by Abraham Heschel
• Spiritual Writings by Soren Kierkegaard

Re-Reading

• Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
• Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

11-21-10

Fiction/Biography/Memoir/History

• The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis by Lydia Davis
• Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
• The Savage City by T.J. English
• Shadow & Claw by Gene Wolfe
• To The End of The Land by David Grossman

Philosophy/Theology

• After You Believe by N.T. Wright
• Common Prayer by Shane Claiborne
• The Sabbath by Abraham Heschel
• Spiritual Writings by Soren Kierkegaard

Re-Reading

• Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut
• Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

Other Possible Contenders

A list of books that I meant to read and plan to read that may, in fact, have made my best of 2010 list, had I read them in time:

• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
• Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes
• Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
• The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
• Just Kids by Patti Smith

11-18-10

Fiction/Memoir/Biography/History

• The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis by Lydia Davis
• Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
• The Savage City by T.J. English
• Shadow & Claw by Gene Wolfe
• To The End of The Land by David Grossman

Philosophy/Theology

• After Virtue by Alasdair MacIntyre
• After You Believe by N.T. Wright
• The Present Age by Soren Kierkegaard
• The Sabbath by Abraham Heschel

11-15-10

Fiction/Memoir/Biography/History

• The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis by Lydia Davis
• Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
• The Four Stages of Cruelty by Keith Hollihan
• The Savage City by T.J. English
• Shadow & Claw by Gene Wolfe
• To The End of The Land by David Grossman

Philosophy/Theology

• After Virtue by Alasdair MacIntyre
• After You Believe by N.T. Wright
• The Present Age by Soren Kierkegaard
• The Sabbath by Abraham Heschel

Best Books of 2010

1. Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
2. The Instructions by Adam Levin
3. The Book of Harold by Owen Egerton
4. The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer
5. Welcome To Utopia by Karen Valby
6. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell
7. A Visit From The Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
8. Let's Take The Long Way Home by Gail Caldwell
9. Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself by David Lipsky
10. The Passage by Justin Cronin

The Walking Dead and Y: The Last Man

I am a comic book nerd. And just because I haven't bought a comic book in over a decade doesn't diminish my love for comic books and for the graphic novel. But it does mean I'm less familiar with what's out there and sometimes have to catch up.


Two series that I've been meaning to catch up on for awhile now are The Walking Dead and Y: The Last Man. Both had an intriguing premise (a zombie novel that doesn't focus all its attention on zombies and a story about the last man on earth) and both had been talked up by numerous co-workers. The Walking Dead was what I went with first, mostly because it was the one a co-worker lent me first.


I was disappointed. I like the premise and even the plot, but found the characters and dialogue to be clunky, at best. While I appreciate a zombie apocalypse that focuses more time and attention on how to, as a human survivor, do the day to day of said apolcalypse, the one dimensional characters and sometimes silly prose makes it read like how I imagine Pride and Prejudice and Zombies reads. I like the general idea, but I wanted more done with it. That said, I saw the first AMC episode of the show based on the graphic novel and dug it very much. Turns out all it needed was the Frank Darabont treatment. That discovered; I will be done with the graphic novels and fixing my attention on the television show.


Y: The Last Man has turned out to be much better and it, frankly, had a better chance of going awry. The last man on earth among a planet of women? This could have been a one note joke about some dudebro getting laid. It isn't. The way this story addresses politics; personal, sexual, and international; is nothing short of brilliant. The story is sharp and the characters and their relationships are spot on. It paces like a great movie and needs no help from Darabont to do so. I've flown through 3/4 of the series in just two days and am as excited to see where it's going as I will be sad to see it end. If you have the chance, I highly recommend picking this up.

Fiction/Memoir

• The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis by Lydia Davis
• Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
• The Four Stages of Cruelty by Keith Hollihan
• Shadow & Claw by Gene Wolfe
• Y: The Last Man series by Brian K. Vaughan

Philosophy/Theology

• After Virtue by Alasdair MacIntyre
• After You Believe by N.T. Wright
• The Good and Beautiful God by James Bryan Smith
• The Present Age by Soren Kierkegaard
• The Sabbath by Abraham Heschel

11-2-10

Fiction/Memoir

• The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis by Lydia Davis
• Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
• The Four Stages of Cruelty by Keith Hollihan
• Shadow & Claw by Gene Wolfe
• Skippy Dies by Paul Murray

Philosophy/Theology

• After Virtue by Alasdair MacIntyre
• After You Believe by N.T. Wright
• The Good and Beautiful God by James Bryan Smith
• The Present Age by Soren Kierkegaard
• The Sabbath by Abraham Heschel

White Noise

Maybe you can't really appreciate DeLillo in high school. No, that's letting myself off too easily. There are surely a lot of precocious high school readers who dig DeLillo. Maybe it takes 3 or 4 authors to get to DeLillo from, say, Ralph Ellison, a favorite of mine, even at 17. Maybe you just have to give DeLillo a second try before you can ever appreciate DeLillo for the first time. Maybe you don't, but I do. I did. And this is my blog.


I read White Noise my senior year of high school and I hated it. Loathed it. Disliked it enough to use it as my go to reference in college in order to a) show that I was the kind of guy who had read DeLillo and b) show that I was the kind of guy who could dismiss him. I don't like some writer just because you and your literary buddies say he's a genius! I'm contrarian! But not because I don't understand!! Because there's nothing to understand!!!


I could be a tad unbearable in college. That said, I really did hate that White Noise book.


I've mellowed a bit since college, but DeLillo's name still comes up from time to time (I read a lot and work in a bookstore) and I always say something along the lines of "Yeah, I don't know what it is, I just can't stand that guy's writing. I'm not saying he's a bad writer, I just don't get it."


Then a combination of forces came together in such a way as to compel me to revisit DeLillo; specifically, White Noise. I've become quite the David Foster Wallace fan, and he was quite the DeLillo fan. I had a co-worker, whose tastes I respect quite a bit, talk about how much they enjoy DeLillo's work. And I had a conversation with two co-workers and a customer about books we were required to read in high school that we revisited later in life and found out we enjoyed. While White Noise was never required reading, I decided to give it a go.


I loved it. Really, truly loved this book. It was funny and sad and weird in all the ways I like fiction to be. I love the dialogue, the plot, the characters, and the dialogue. Seriously, I love the dialogue.


White Noise gets dismissed by some as a rather obvious and heavy-handed take on consumer America, but I thought it was obvious when it needed to be and subtle when it didn't. It's somehow world weary and winsome and once, which is much of what I love about Wallace and much of what, I imagine, Wallace loved about DeLillo.


I cannot wait to read more of DeLillo's work and am taking suggestions from those who are fans. Let me know where's the next place you'd go.


But, mostly, I am writing to remind myself, and you as well, to give a "bad book" (or album or movie or some such) a second chance. You may discover a new favorite you would have missed.


That said, I've given Gravity's Rainbow and Ulysees their fair share of chances, and I just hate those books.

10-30-10

Fiction/Memoir

• The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis by Lydia Davis
• Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
• The Four Stages of Cruelty by Keith Hollihan
• Nemesis by Philip Roth
• Shadow & Claw by Gene Wolfe
• Skippy Dies by Paul Murray
• The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obrecht

Philosophy/Theology

• After You Believe by N.T. Wright
• The Good and Beautiful God by James Bryan Smith
• The Sabbath by Abraham Heschel

A Game of Thrones

It's not often that I read fantasy fiction and even less often that I enjoy it enough to make a plug for it. So much fantasy fiction feels overdone and silly, a step away from RenFest or a Civil War reenactment. So little of it carries the weight of Tolkien or manages to be fantastic without becoming ridiculous. Robert Jordan's Eye of the World is a notable exception (although that series bogs down something fierce by book 3 or 4) as are the first four books in Stephen King's Dark Tower series (don't get me started on the silliness of King's deus ex machina in the last few) and Patrick Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind. Still, the exceptions are notable because they are few, and so I never pick up fantasy fiction without a strong recommendation from someone whose taste I trust.


That someone was my good friend Adam Sweeney and the book was George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones. The story is strong, the characters are distinct, and the pacing is excellent (due, in large part, to the change in perspective from character to character in chapter to chapter). Martin has three or four stories going at once, but he never loses track of them or forgets why and how they are connected.


Martin has been accused by some fans of fantasy fiction as not being "much of a stylist", lacking "beautiful descriptions or choice turns of phrase." My guess is that the "style" these critics mean is that style I mentioned just two paragraphs ago. I enjoy Martin because his language is descriptive without being flowery, polished, but never purple.


A Game of Thrones isn't going to change your life or make you think more critically or possibly even feel more deeply. But it is a heck of a lot of fun. The tale is epic, the telling engrossing, and the teller efficient in his writing. If you need a break from McCarthy or Murakami, but still want to read something of quality, I'd highly recommend Martin.

10-25-10

Fiction/Memoir

• The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis by Lydia Davis
• Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
• The Four Stages of Cruelty by Keith Hollihan
• A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
• Nemesis by Philip Roth
• Skippy Dies by Paul Murray
• The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obrecht
• White Noise by Don DeLillo

Philosophy/Theology

• After You Believe by N.T. Wright
• The Good and Beautiful God by James Bryan Smith
• The Sabbath by Abraham Heschel

10-19-10

Fiction/Memoir

• Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
• The Four Stages of Cruelty by Keith Hollihan
• Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
• Nemesis by Philip Roth
• Skippy Dies by Paul Murray
• The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obrecht
• Townie by Andre Dubus III
• White Noise by Don DeLillo

Philosophy/Theology

• After You Believe by N.T. Wright
• The Sabbath by Abraham Heschel

10-11-10

Fiction/Memoir

• Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
• Dubliners by James Joyce
• Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
• Nemesis by Philip Roth
• Skippy Dies by Paul Murray
• The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obrecht
• Townie by Andre Dubus III
• Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell

Philosophy/Theology

• After You Believe by N.T. Wright
• The Sabbath by Abraham Heschel

10-5-10

Fiction/Memoir

• Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
• Dubliners by James Joyce
• Nemesis by Philip Roth
• Skippy Dies by Paul Murray
• The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obrecht
• Townie by Andre Dubus III
• Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell

Philosophy/Theology

• After You Believe by N.T. Wright
• Longing For Spring by Elaine Heath
• The Sabbath by Abraham Heschel

Alive In Necropolis

So, here's the reason why I like The Sixth Sense. It isn't the big twist ending (though I loved that) or the slow burn and chilly atmosphere (though they were exceptional). It was that the ghost story worked both literally and metaphorically, without the metaphor getting in the way of a good story. The Sixth Sense is about the distances that can exist even in the closest of relationships and the series of small losses that add up to slow death.


And that's what I loved about Doug Dorst's Alive In Necropolis. It's ghost story is about literal ghosts. The main character, Michael Mercer, sees dead people. But, more importantly, it's about the ways that we die every day that we don't decide to live. Mercer's unwillingness to make the difficult choices and hard sacrifices that give life meaning, make him a sort of ghost among ghosts, even if he is, technically, still breathing. And though Mercer may be carrying death around inside him, he and the rest of Dorst's cast of characters come alive on every page. The dialogue is loose in the way that real conversation is, the plot moves in the way that all good stories should. Alive In Necropolis is a ghost story that isn't dominated by ghosts, but that doesn't make it any less haunted. Doug Dorst can count me among his fans.

Rock N' Roll Will Save Your Life

This was my first time to read Steve Almond, even though his writing has been recommended to me by various friends on numerous occasions. This will not be my last attempt, even though my first attempt was fairly "meh". 

I'm not sure why I didn't enjoy this book. It's by a middle-aged, married, white guy with a kid who begins the book with an essay on Bruce Springsteen. In theory, this book was written just for me.

Unfortunately, the book turned out to be less about a love letter to rock music and more about a series of "you should have been there" kinds of stories along the lines of "man, back in the day when we didn't have any money and used to go see Nil Lara..."

He wraps up writing about his man-crush on Bob Schneider. That wasn't the way to win me over.

I guess I had hoped it would be funnier or more thought-provoking or intriguing or something. I enjoy this sort of music talk with my Uncle Norm, but in large part because he's my Uncle Norm. This book felt like the sort of music talk I'd have with my uncle's college roommate whom I had, heretofore, never met. I kept trying to nod my head along, but my heart wasn't in it.

Still, Almond's not a bad writer and I look forward to seeing if his essays or short stories fare better than this did.

10-2-10

Fiction

• Alive In Necropolis by Doug Dorst
• Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
• Dubliners by James Joyce
• Skippy Dies by Paul Murray
• The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obrecht

Philosophy/Theology

• After You Believe by N.T. Wright
• Christian America and the Kingdom of God by Richard Hughes
• Let Your Life Speak by Parker J. Palmer
• Longing For Spring by Elaine Heath
• The Sabbath by Abraham Heschel

9-28-10

Fiction

• Alive In Necropolis by Doug Dorst
• Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
• Dubliners by James Joyce
• Skippy Dies by Paul Murray
• The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obrecht

Memoir

• Rock N' Roll Will Save Your Life by Steve Almond

Philosophy/Theology

• After You Believe by N.T. Wright
• Christian America and the Kingdom of God by Richard Hughes
• Let Your Life Speak by Parker J. Palmer
• Longing For Spring by Elaine Heath
• The Girard Reader by Rene Girard
• The Sabbath by Abraham Heschel

The Instructions

Adam Levin's debut novel, The Instructions, is out in stores. You need to go buy it. Seriously.


Here's what booksellers (including yours truly) have to say about it.

Museum of the Weird

Amelia Gray's Museum of the Weird is just about the oddest assortment of whatnots I've come across in some time. Some of these stories are winsome, some sad, and some hysterically funny. Some are an inspired mix of all three. The collection as a whole is truly, hilariously, wondrously weird. No story is more than a few pages long; a fact which demands that Gray's writing be concise, though it never feels concise (and I mean that in a good way). While the stories are perfectly set apart, completely unconnected by characters or plot, they are connected by feel and the feel flows from one to the next. Read the first story and see what you think. I was hooked, and I stay hooked until the final page. Amelia Gray has a gift, and I am grateful to her for sharing it.

9-22-10

Fiction

• Alive In Necropolis by Doug Dorst
• Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
• Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
• Dubliners by James Joyce
• Skippy Dies by Paul Murray

Memoir

• Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life by Steve Almond

Philosophy/Theology

• After You Believe by N.T. Wright
• Christian America and The Kingdom of God by Richard Hughes
• The Sabbath by Abraham Heschel

Blue Notebook No. 2

Was recommending Daniil Kharms to a friend today and, as I always am when I recommend a favorite, was reminded of what a brilliant author he was. He wrote children's books, poems, and absurd short (and I do mean short) stories published in underground magazines and banned by Stalin. Here is one example:

    Once there was a redheaded man without eyes and without ears. 

    He had no hair either, so that he was a redhead was just something they said.

    He could not speak, for he had no mouth. He had no nose either.

    He didn't even have arms or legs. He had no stomach either, and he had no back, and he had no spine, and no intestines of any kind. He didn't have anything at all. So it is hard to understand whom we are really talking about.

    So it is probably best not to talk about him any more.

9-13-10

Fiction

• Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
• Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
• Dubliners by James Joyce
• Let's Take The Long Way Home by Gail Caldwell
• Museum of the Weird by Amelia Gray
• Skippy Dies by Paul Murray
• The Yellow Arrow by Victor Pelevin

Sociology/Theology

• After You Believe by N.T. Wright
• Longing For Spring by Elaine Heath
• The Sabbath by Abraham Heschel
• A Testament of Devotion by Thomas Kelly

A Quiet Belief In Angels

R.J. Ellory's A Quiet Belief In Angels is too good a book to end as abruptly and neatly as it does. That is my only complaint. The ending aside, A Quiet Belief In Angels is a compelling mystery as well as a winsome coming of age story, an homage to place (Georgia in the 1940s) and a tale of family and friendship. It insults genre fiction to say that books like this "elevate the genre," but this is a book that you don't have to be a Grisham or Patterson fan to enjoy. A few tiny missteps and, as I said, a mildly disappointing end, but still a very enjoyable read.

9-11-10

Fiction

• The Broom of the System by David Foster Wallace
• Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
• Dubliners by James Joyce
• Skippy Dies by Paul Murray

Theology/Philosophy/Sociology

• After You Believe by N.T. Wright
• The Fragile Absolute by Slavoj Zizek
• Longing For Spring by Elaine Heath
• Please Don't Bomb The Suburbs by William Wimsatt
• The Sabbath by Abraham Heschel
• A Testament of Devotion by Thomas Kelly