2011 Year in Review: 2011 Reading List

For the past several years, I've created a list of books I plan to read in the coming year--and then at the end of the year, I've written a post to report on how I did. 


Will I do that for the coming year?  I'm not sure.  For the past year, I've felt this exercise wasn't as useful as I thought it would be.   And my list seems to be made up only of the books that have been published in the past year.  Maybe it's time to rethink or modify this process.  Stay tuned.


So, I'll post the list from my original post below, and I'll comment in purple to report how I did.


So, here's the list. Obviously, I'll be reading more than these books, but I'd like to have read (or attempted and abandoned) these by Dec. 31, 2011.


Fiction:


In a way, my first book feels like cheating, since my book club has already decided to discuss it in 2 weeks. Guess I'd better get cracking!

1. The Lost Books of the Odyssey by Zachary Mason

I read this one--clever concept, but wore thin after about half the book.
2. Generosity by Richard Powers


This book got a glowing review in The Washington Post. It sounds like a novel that's both readable and ambitious (a book that deals with big themes--who are we if we can medicate away our persistent personality traits? a book that does different things with narrative). In fact, it sounds like Mason's book and this one are experimental. Hmm. I haven't always liked experimental writing, even though I wrote my M.A. thesis on James Joyce. But let me maintain an open mind.

I read this one and enjoyed it immensely until the ending, which I vaguely remember as disappointing.


3. The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli

This book wound up on many a person's list. It sounds like an important contribution to Literature of the Vietnam War.

I still plan to read this one, but I haven't yet.
4. Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

Another addition that feels like a cheat, since I'm already partly done with it (although I didn't start it until Dec. 31). I thoroughly enjoyed The Corrections when I read it, so I looked forward to this one. And even with all the controversies that swirl around Franzen, I'm still open to his work. As I've been reading, there have been times when I had to set the book aside because the characters were so unlikable, and I could sense Franzen's disdain for them. How could he spend the amount of time with these characters that was necessary to write this book when he didn't even like the characters? Sheesh.

I found this book compelling, despite the repellent nature of the characters.

5. The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman

This book got raves from an NPR commentator, and it's linked short stories, a form which fascinates me.

I loved this book.

6. Room by Emma Donaghue


When I first heard the premise of this book, I shuddered. But after hearing Donaghue on the Diane Rehm show, and after hearing the praises that so many people heaped on the book, I decided to add it to the list.

Again, an interesting premise, with an interesting experiment in having a 5 year old child narrate.  But that experiment wore thin after 20 pages, and the last half of the book was very disappointing.

Non-Fiction

7. Just Kids by Patti Smith


I determined to read this book a year ago, when a Washington Post reviewer called it the best book about being an artist ever. Ever??!!! Well, sign me up!

What a wonderful, fabulous book.  It made me want to be part of the 1970's art scene in New York, even when I knew that Smith was describing a particularly gritty phase of the city's history.

This book may be my favorite book of 2011--maybe of the decade.  Maybe of all time.

8. Changing my Mind by Zadie Smith


I love the novels of Zadie Smith, so I'm interested to read her essays.

I didn't read this one--I'd still like to.

9. Hamlet’s Blackberry by William Powers


A technology book needs to be on the list, and this will be the one.

I ended up reading a different technology book, Nicholas Carr's  The Shallows:  What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains.  I still may circle back to Hamlet's Blackberry, since I find myself often thinking about The Shallows.  I'd be interested to see how Powers handles this topic.

10. The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson


I love this title--and from what I've read of the reviews, the rest of the books should be a winner.


I didn't get to any of these history titles (#10, #11, #12); I hope to do so eventually.
11. History Matters: Patriarchy and the Challenge of Feminism by Judith Bennett


A book I didn't get to last year--it sounded important, and challenging, and I need more of that in my life.

12. A Cheerful and Comfortable Faith: Anglican Religious Practice in the Elite Households of Eighteenth-Century Virginia by Lauren Winner


I've liked Winner's other works, which read more like memoir than anything else. I'm interested to see how she handles academic writing. History, theology, and insight about the daily life of colonists--let me give it a whirl.

Winner has a new memoir coming out in January--I can hardly wait to read it.  It sounds like a lot has happened (a divorce, a time of spiritual aridity) since she last wrote.  I am fascinated to see how the Girl Meets God writer deals with these issues.


13. One Life by Scot McNight

I haven't read Scot McNight yet, so let me start with his latest. It's getting harder and harder for me to find new theologians whom I like to read. Let's see about this one.

McNight is still on my list of books to read, but I haven't yet.

14. Curating Worship by Mark Pierson

I've been seeing the idea of curating things (a website, a career, an online presence) used as metaphor. Let's see how it's done with worship. My pastor is also reading this book, and he raves about it. Can we actually accomplish some of the ideas in the book, ideas that aren't exactly familiar to Lutherans? We shall see.

I read this one, and was both impressed (wow!  how on earth does he do this???), despairing (I could never do such things, like spreading a truckload of sand across the whole worship space), appreciative (especially about the worship stations done in public spaces as an art installation of sorts) and dismissive (great for non-liturgical churches held in warehouses but difficult for those of us in traditional spaces).


15. The Heroine's Bookshelf: Life Lessons From Jane Austen to Laura Ingalls Wilder
by Erin Blakemore

I just heard about this book yesterday, and I like the premise, which is evident in the title.

Another book I didn't get to--it has yet to get to my local library, and I'm not interested enough in it to pay for it.

My other reading goals? To keep buying and reading complete volumes of poetry (and to remember to add those to my record keeping). I'd like to do more to mention what I'm reading in this blog. Some weeks I'm good at that, but other weeks I'm not.

I haven't been as good at record keeping, but I have continued to read complete volumes of poetry, more this year than any other year.

So, here's the summary:  I read about 40 books of non-poetry, as well as about 5 that I started, read more than 50 pages, and didn't finish for some reason.  I didn't read as many books this year as I did in 2010 that made me gasp with happiness, that made me want to slow down so that I could have the experience of reading the book for the first time for a bit longer, that I wanted to read again right away when I finished.  But I have had books that stayed with me, books that haunted my thoughts, most notably Patty Smith's Just Kids.  If I had had no other book to read this year, that one would have been enough.  But I'm glad that I have a wealth of books, not a paucity.  I'm also glad to have discovered Glen Duncan (I, Lucifer and The Last Werewolf) and Eleanor Henderson (Ten Thousand Saints) is an author to keep our eyes on.

I still feel like I'm not reading as much as I should, as much as I want to; and I know that I'm not reading as much as I once did, at least not traditional paper books.

I read a lot of blogs, which in some ways are memoirs/novels/autobiographies in process.  I learn as much from many blogs as I ever did from books.  But how to quantify that reading?

Reading is far from dead, but our delivery systems are quite different.  Will this be the year that I get an eReader?  Will I start reading on a smart phone?  Of course, I would have to buy a smart phone.  What will I read in the coming year?  I will try to remember to keep blog readers up to date.

The Claustrophobia of "Room"

I am prepared to be the only person who doesn't like Emma Donoghue's book Room.  When it first came out, I said, "Hmm.  A woman held for years as a sexual captive, along with the child who is a result of this captivity.  And the book is narrated by the 5 year old child.  No thank you."

But then I read rapturous reviews.  And I heard Donoghue interviewed by Diane Rehm.  And I heard more and more people who loved the book.  So, I added it to my 2011 list of books to be read.

I've only read half of it.  Maybe it will get better.

Don't get me wrong:  I do admire what Donoghue has done.  By using the 5 year old as narrator, she avoids the trap waiting for writers who write about horrid crimes:  the readers turn into voyeurs.  And she seems to capture the voice and the mind of a 5 year old.

But it's not a voice I want to spend hundreds of pages with.  What's charming for 20 pages quickly turns exhausting.

I wondered if Donoghue intentionally spent so many pages in the world of the garden shed turned jail.  Once again, at first I found it a charming place, full of imagination, even as I was realizing how reduced its horizons were.  As I read the first half of the book, I started to scan it; I only need so many examples of how the mother and child have turned trash and tidbits into toys and imaginary companions.

I'll finish the book, since it's a quick read.  But I must admit that if I had picked up this book without the benefit of any reviews or interviews, I wouldn't have continued reading.

Thankful Thursday: All the Books of Poems I Read Last Year

Ah, Thanksgiving, one of my favorite holidays!  No gift giving anxiety--just a day set aside to eat good food and to remember that we have lots for which to feel grateful.

I decided to do a different take on the old gratitude exercise.  I looked back through my blogs and bookshelves and thought about all the great poems I've read in the last year.  The following list is not exhaustive.  It's a list of the books of poems which have made me particularly happy in the past year.

Coming over the next few days will be recommendations for all the gift recipients on your list.  Poetry makes a great present.  Why not support our cottage economies with your holiday purchases?

But for now, a list of the great books of poems I have read in the past year (arranged alphabetically by author's last name):


The Doors of the Body by Mary Alexandra Agner: a chapbook of poems that revisit primarily female characters from classic Greek mythology and fairy tales (Mayapple 2009).

Letters from the Emily Dickinson Room by Kelli Russell Agodon:  An original voice, poems that change the way I see the world, poems that plagiarize moonlight and confuse macrame and macabre and firmly situate themselves in the pantheon of American literature. (White Pine Press, 2010)


The Boatloads by Dan Albergotti: I have wanted to read this book since I read the poem “Things to Do in the Belly of a Whale”—it did not disappoint. Poems that explore modern existence—and many of them use Biblical and classical imagery in new and delightful ways. (BOA 2008)

A New Red: a fairly tale for grown ups by Lana Hechtman Ayers: This book modernizes the tale of Little Red Riding Hood, while not turning all the characters into humans. Interspecies relationships, the possibility of sex with a real wolf—a treat! (Pecan Grove Press 2010)

I Stand Here Shredding Documents by Kristin Berkey-Abbott: My chapbook brought me lots of joy this year. These poems show both the absurdities and joys of modern life, particularly as experienced by office workers and by women. (Finishing Line Press 2011)

Saint Monica by Mary Biddinger: Poems that explore a Catholic childhood, poems the explore what it means to be a woman, poems that explore the intersections between religion, gender, and class. (Black Lawrence 2011)

Odes to Tools by Dave Bonta: Bonta writes a poem for every almost every tool in the shed (unless you've got a really well-stocked shed). Even those on your list who don’t like tools will find the poems in this chapbook delightful and accessible. (Phoenicia 2010)

Frontier Literature by Shefali Choksi: Choksi accomplishes amazing feats with her use of fairy tales. The last section of the book uses the mythology of her native India. (Cyberwit 2010)

Corinna A-Maying the Apocalypse by Darcie Dennigan: Poems that juxtapose the odd, the normal, the surrealistic in ways that leave me stunned. (Fordham University Press, 2008)

Framed in Silence by Lynn Domina: The first section imagines a Creator God in the act of creation, but these poems are informed by scientific knowledge. The middle section has lyrical poems that explore regular life often by using theological imagery. The third section "Peaceable Obsession" offers inspired by the paintings by Edward Hicks, who painted many versions of "The Peaceable Kingdom," images which are probably familiar to most of us. (Main Street Rag 2011)

The Cloud Corporation by Timothy Donnelly: Interesting experimeints in composing poems comprised from other documents into new and startling creations. (Wave 2010)

From the Fever-World by Jehanne Dubrow: Dubrow creates a convincing voice in these poems that explore the fictional life of a Jewish woman in pre-WWII Eastern Europe. (Washington Writers' Publishing House 2009)

Town for Trees by Justin Evans: Poems set in Springville, Utah, where the landscape becomes as important, if not more so, than any of the characters in the book. (Foothills 2011)

She Returns to the Floating World by Jeannine Hall Gailey: poems that look at codes of all sorts: scientific, fairy tales, and folklore. Her love of Japan weaves through the book, as does her fascination with nuclear imagery. (Kitsune 2011)

The Insomniac’s Weather Report by Jessica Goodfellow: Some of these poems are stunning experiments (successful!) with language, while some are more traditional—all give us interesting insight into the essential elements of our world, both the scientific elements and the social elements. (Three Candles 2011)

Lighthead by Terrance Hayes: Poems rooted in African-American experience and history (Penguin 2010)

The Animals Beyond Us by Michael Hettich: Poems of modern life and love, particularly modern life as experienced in Miami, modern love as experienced by people at midlife (New Rivers 2011)

Unincorporated Persons in the Late Honda Dynasty by Tony Hoagland: a devastating critique of modern life. (Graywolf 2010)

Trill and Mordent by Luisa Igloria: These poems ask us to think about the lives we’re living, the trellises that undergird our lives, the armor that we try to construct to protect our lives. (WordTech 2005)

Broken Sonnets by Kathleen Kirk: Kirk experiments with the sonnet form, including the first prose sonnet that I’ve ever read. She shows that even in brokenness, life holds sweetness, whether it’s in the perfection of the sonnet form or the imperfections of love. (Finishing Line 2009)

Lucky Fish by Aimee Nezhukumatathil: Poems of modern life, particularly modern life as seen through the eyes of immigrants , children, and other outsiders. Lots of wordplay and experiments with language too. ( Tupelo 2011)

Mercy Island by Ren Powell: Poems that drip and bleed with fecundity—and loss. These poems remind us that even though life leads us to bloody/gory places, we can survive and perhaps even find redemption in the suffering. (Phoenicia 2011)

Dark And Like A Web: Brief Notes On and To the Divine by Nic Sebastian: In April, thinking she would write a poem a day, Sebastian started writing prayers and charms. She posted them to her blog for about a week before she realized she was creating something deep and special. Months later, lucky readers receive this collection of 15 poems in a chapbook. (Broiled Fish and Honeycomb 2011)

The Little Office of the Immaculate Conception by Martha Silano: Poems that explore what it means to be a woman and a mother in our modern world, poems informed by a vast scientific knowledge (Saturnalia 2011)

Cyborgia, by Susan Slaviero: Slaviero mixes fairy tales, sci fi, and technology and comes up with unique mashes. (Mayapple Press 2010)

Life on Mars by Tracy K. Smith: pop culture (especially the songs of David Bowie) mixed with cosmology mixed with other scientific strains and missing a dead father. (Graywolf 2011)

Tropicalia by Emma Trelles: Trelles captures the complexity of life in South Florida, from various exile communities to weird crimes to the scary majesty of the Everglades. (University of Notre Dame Press, 2011)

"The Imperfectionists" Seems Close to Perfect to Me

I spent the last week reading Tom Rachman's The Imperfectionists, one of the books on my list of books to read in 2011.  What a treat!

I chose it because it's a book of linked short stories, which is a form which fascinates me.  Each short story could stand on its own, but taken together, it gives us an amazing portrait of a workplace and a chunk of history.

Each story is told from the perspective of someone who's working on an English language newspaper that's based in Italy.  In between each story, we get an even shorter bit that shows us the birth of the paper and its lifespan from the point of view of the patriarch who founded it and his family.  The whole book works as an interlocking creation that begs me to reread it.

Each story gives us a pitch-perfect presentation of a character, and most of the stories have an interesting twist near the end.  As we move through the book, we've met the characters tangentially in other stories, so each story takes on additional nuance.

It works as a novel, too, for those of you who refuse to read short stories.  And for those of us with less time, I suspect it would work if you just read a story or two--but it's much more powerful when read as a whole.

And for those of us who wonder how we can tackle the linked short story form, here's a way in.  Choose a workplace and give each person who works there a short story of his or her own.

Of course, the trick will be to make each character distinctive.  And Rachman pulls that off in ways that make me both envious (why can't I do that???!!!) and appreciative.

So, if Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad made you want to read more linked short stories that work together as a novel, pick up The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman.  It's not your traditional fluffy summer read, but by now, you may be yearning for something with more structure and oomph.  If so, Tom Rachman should be on your list.

Unlikable Characters and All the Ways We Betray Each Other

So far, 2011 has been the year of unlikable characters in my fiction reading. I didn't plan it this way. And if the characters hadn't been so extremely repugnant, I might not have even noticed. But now I feel like one of my students. I want to howl, "Doesn't anybody write about anything HAPPY?!!"

If Louise Erdrich's book Shadow Tag hadn't ended up on The New York Times Notable Books of 2010, I might not have read it. When it first came out, I read the reviews which gave me enough of a sense of the plot that I thought, ooh, yuck. And now I've read the book, and I still say, "Ooh, yuck."

It's about a woman who's keeping multiple diaries to deceive her husband, who is a painter who specializes in painting her nude in variously compromising positions, in paintings that depict the mistreatment of Native Americans. This book could have been an interesting meditation on identity and how we construct it, and indeed, the book does often come back to that theme. But the two main characters are so repugnant, and they behave so brutally, that it's tough to read the book. There's not much in the characters to like. Their children are far more interesting, but they don't get much time.

My first book of the new year (and last book of the old year) was Jonathan Franzen's Freedom, which is also full of repugnant characters. But they're more well-rounded, which means we see their redeeming qualities, limited as some of them are. And the reader is rewarded with social satire and keen dissections of modern life and bits of truly funny writing.

I'm also reading Zachary Mason's The Lost Books of the Odyssey, which is also full of reprehensible characters. But I'm not reading that book for the characters. I'm reading it for the stunt, which bears more resemblance to music or drama improv, than a novel. Mason retells the plot of The Odyssey in any number of ways; for example, in one story, Achilles is a golem. It's intriguing and it appeals to my intellect, but I'm reading more to see what Mason will do next, not to see what happens.

I'm in the mood for something sunnier. It doesn't have to be uplifting. I don't need pablum. But I'm ready for different subject matter than all the ways that we betray each other. Perhaps I'll read Richard Powers' Generosity: An Enhancement. It's a work of a certain kind of science fiction, a work which asks how our lives might change if science could identify the genetic basis of happiness.

Will it betray me too? Perhaps. After all, novels aren't very interesting when everything is going swimmingly. No conflict, no plot, my beloved undergraduate English professor told us. My obnoxious, late adolescent self declared that oh yes you could too have a story with no conflict. She challenged me to find one. I've been searching ever since, and now, twenty-five years later, I'm willing to say that she was right.

2011 Book List

Over the past several weeks, I've been compiling this list. My lists are always heavy on the recently published, and this year is no exception. I've been looking at best of 2010 lists (most of the fiction comes from The New York Times top 100 books of 2010) and of course, I've been talking to people about what they've read.

So, here's the list. Obviously, I'll be reading more than these books, but I'd like to have read (or attempted and abandoned) these by Dec. 31, 2011.


Fiction:


In a way, my first book feels like cheating, since my book club has already decided to discuss it in 2 weeks. Guess I'd better get cracking!

1. The Lost Books of the Odyssey by Zachary Mason

2. Generosity by Richard Powers


This book got a glowing review in The Washington Post. It sounds like a novel that's both readable and ambitious (a book that deals with big themes--who are we if we can medicate away our persistent personality traits? a book that does different things with narrative). In fact, it sounds like Mason's book and this one are experimental. Hmm. I haven't always liked experimental writing, even though I wrote my M.A. thesis on James Joyce. But let me maintain an open mind.

3. The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli

This book wound up on many a person's list. It sounds like an important contribution to Literature of the Vietnam War.

4. Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

Another addition that feels like a cheat, since I'm already partly done with it (although I didn't start it until Dec. 31). I thoroughly enjoyed The Corrections when I read it, so I looked forward to this one. And even with all the controversies that swirl around Franzen, I'm still open to his work. As I've been reading, there have been times when I had to set the book aside because the characters were so unlikable, and I could sense Franzen's disdain for them. How could he spend the amount of time with these characters that was necessary to write this book when he didn't even like the characters? Sheesh.

5. The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman

This book got raves from an NPR commentator, and it's linked short stories, a form which fascinates me.

6. Room by Emma Donaghue


When I first heard the premise of this book, I shuddered. But after hearing Donaghue on the Diane Rehm show, and after hearing the praises that so many people heaped on the book, I decided to add it to the list.

Non-Fiction

7. Just Kids by Patti Smith


I determined to read this book a year ago, when a Washington Post reviewer called it the best book about being an artist ever. Ever??!!! Well, sign me up!

8. Changing my Mind by Zadie Smith


I love the novels of Zadie Smith, so I'm interested to read her essays.

9. Hamlet’s Blackberry by William Powers


A technology book needs to be on the list, and this will be the one.

10. The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson


I love this title--and from what I've read of the reviews, the rest of the books should be a winner.

11. History Matters: Patriarchy and the Challenge of Feminism by Judith Bennett


A book I didn't get to last year--it sounded important, and challenging, and I need more of that in my life.

12. A Cheerful and Comfortable Faith: Anglican Religious Practice in the Elite Households of Eighteenth-Century Virginia by Lauren Winner


I've liked Winner's other works, which read more like memoir than anything else. I'm interested to see how she handles academic writing. History, theology, and insight about the daily life of colonists--let me give it a whirl.

13. One Life by Scot McNight

I haven't read Scot McNight yet, so let me start with his latest. It's getting harder and harder for me to find new theologians whom I like to read. Let's see about this one.

14. Curating Worship by Mark Pierson

I've been seeing the idea of curating things (a website, a career, an online presence) used as metaphor. Let's see how it's done with worship. My pastor is also reading this book, and he raves about it. Can we actually accomplish some of the ideas in the book, ideas that aren't exactly familiar to Lutherans? We shall see.

15. The Heroine's Bookshelf: Life Lessons From Jane Austen to Laura Ingalls Wilder
by Erin Blakemore

I just heard about this book yesterday, and I like the premise, which is evident in the title.

My other reading goals? To keep buying and reading complete volumes of poetry (and to remember to add those to my record keeping). I'd like to do more to mention what I'm reading in this blog. Some weeks I'm good at that, but other weeks I'm not.

Will this be the year that I read more books via computer? I can read on a desktop screen more easily than some typefaces in books (I'm having real trouble with the Franzen book, for example--I've tried all sorts of combinations of reading glasses and contact lenses and still, there's some blurriness that doesn't exist when I turn my eyes to other books or the computer screen). I won't buy an iPad yet, since my brother-in-law tells me that this will be the year that Apple releases the next version, which will likely be the same price as the 2010 version and do more (a camera! but will it have a phone? then my hand held needs would be complete-ish--oh, heck, let it also do word processing too--and maybe do the vacuuming--now that would be a true help!).

Now it's back to the realities of life. First day at spin class, first day back at strength training. I've got to finish up an assessment document, and I just found out that one of our adjuncts won't be back with us when classes start next week--luckily, I have some people to contact. Back to meetings and coordinating and dealing with so many different personalities. Let me please remember the example of that TSA agent. Let me please treat people well in this week of many stresses.