This is Where I Leave You (Ch. 1-3)

Just started reading Jonathan Tropper's This is Where I Leave You (2009). I'm on Chapter 3 and already it's so full of brilliant, dazzling constructions that I have to record a few of them somewhere so I don't forget.

"He is the Paul McCartney of our family: better-looking than the rest of us, always facing a different direction in pictures, and occasionally rumored to be dead."

"My landlords are the Lees, an inscrutable, middle-aged Chinese couple who live in a state of perpetual silence. I have never heard them speak. He performs acupuncture in the living room; she sweeps the sidewalk thrice daily with a handmade straw broom that looks like a theater prop. I wake and fall asleep to the whisper of her frantic bristles on the pavement. Beyond that, they don't seem to exist, and I often wonder why they bothered immigrating. Surely there were plenty of pinched nerves and dust in China."

"We knew marriage could be difficult in the same way that we knew there were starving children in Africa. It was a tragic fact but worlds away from our reality."

The New List and Selection Process

So far, this year, I've read:

1. The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
2. Wildwood by Colin Meloy
3. In the Woods by Tana French
4. Knucklehead by Jon Scieszka
5. Dovey Coe by Frances O'Roark Dowell
6. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
7. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
8. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins


Judging by the fact that 6 out of those 8 books are technically YA novels (though Wildwood is enormous and The Hunger Games trilogy packs an adult-sized emotional punch), I'd say I need to get moving on some of the adult books on my list.


Coming soon . . .


1. The Best American Short Stories 2011 (downloaded to my Kindle)
2. The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides (sort of waiting for paperback or when it comes to my small-town library)
3. What Maisie Knew by Henry James (this has been chilling on my Kindle for almost a year. Over the summer I finally landed firmly on the love side of my love-hate relationship with Mr. James.)
4. The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka (2011 National Book Award finalist)


I've recently decided that most of the books I read should be award-winning books. I've wasted a lot of time and energy and come away angry at too many sub-par books. If I know it's won an award, at least I know even if I personally don't care for it, it will be worth my time. All the books I read so far this year, and all the books on my to-read list, are award-winners or nominees. (The exceptions are books you can rely on to be excellent because of the authors, like James or Doyle, books that will be excellent because of the selection process, like the Best American series, books in a series that follow an award-winning debut, such as the Hunger Games series, or books by authors* I already like, such as Colin Meloy).  


*Not technically an author before Wildwood, but I've listened to and owned enough Decemberists albums to know that he's a talented lyricist. 

The Final Tally

Obviously, due to the drop-off in number of items added to the list and of postings posted over the last three months, life has been busy. Teaching is a job to love for the holidays and summers off, but it is a relentless beast during the actual working days. Even though it's break, I spent the last two days grading papers. I do, however, have a couple of books to add to the List, therefore completing it for 2011.

Books I've read this year

1. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
2. White Noise by Don DeLillo
3. Enormous Changes at the Last Minute by Grace Paley
4. American Tabloid by James Ellroy
5. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom by August Wilson
6. Babel-17 by Samuel Delaney
7. Stuck Rubber Baby by Howard Cruse
8. Reservation Blues by Sherman Alexie
9. Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides
10. Bastard out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison
11. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
12. Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
13. The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown
14. The Story of Avis by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps
15. Austenland by Shannon Hale
16. Sisterhood Everlasting by Ann Brashares
17. Daisy Miller by Henry James
18. Maggie, a Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane
19. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain
20. The Rise of Silas Lapham by William Dean Howells
21. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
22. Just After Sunset by Stephen King
23. Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
24. The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman
25. Bossypants by Tina Fey
26. The Group by Mary McCarthy
27. Both Ways is the Only Way I Want It by Maile McCoy
28. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
29. The House of Silk: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery by Anthony Horowitz

So, I guess the grand total has to be 29. I was hoping for 40, but maybe in 2012!

Just for fun, a few of the YA books I read (though I can't say I honestly remember if this was all of them)

1. Closed for the Season by Mary Downing Hahn
2. Peeled by Joan Bauer
3. One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies by Sonya Sones
4. Heist Society by Ally Carter

And, a preview of my to-read list for 2012:

1. The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (reading now)
2. His Last Bow by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
3. Wildwood by Colin Meloy
4. Inheritance by Christopher Paolini
5. The Marriage Plot by Jeffery Eugenides

Happy New Year!

Keeping track, part three

I'm well on my way to thirty-plus books this year; actually, if you count the re-reads, I'm already at 29. Maybe I can make 40 books this year! That's not even counting the textbook I've had to read for the Composition class I teach, nor the numerous YA novels that I end up snacking on throughout the school year. 

Books I've read this year

1. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
2. White Noise by Don DeLillo
3. Enormous Changes at the Last Minute by Grace Paley
4. American Tabloid by James Ellroy
5. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom by August Wilson
6. Babel-17 by Samuel Delaney
7. Stuck Rubber Baby by Howard Cruse
8. Reservation Blues by Sherman Alexie
9. Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides
10. Bastard out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison
11. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
12. Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
13. The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown
14. The Story of Avis by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps
15. Austenland by Shannon Hale
16. Sisterhood Everlasting by Ann Brashares
17. Daisy Miller by Henry James
18. Maggie, a Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane
19. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain
20. The Rise of Silas Lapham by William Dean Howells
21. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
22. Just After Sunset by Stephen King
23. Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
24. The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman
25. Bossypants by Tina Fey
26. The Group by Mary McCarthy

Books I've re-read:

1. The Awakening by Kate Chopin
2. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
3. The Marrow of Tradition by Charles Chestnutt

Updating the List

I don't have time right now to write a complete book review of the last three books I've read, but I so want to share.

The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman

Amusing, wry, and sometimes bittersweet look at the lives of international journalists, editors, and others who work at a newspaper in Rome. Interconnected vignette-style novel. Smart, enjoyable, but not particularly memorable.

Bossypants by Tina Fey

Do not read this alone at Noodles and Co. if you don't want to laugh so hard that you spit Japanese Udon Noodles out through your nose onto your Kindle. That is all.

The Group by Mary McCarthy

Eight Vassar graduates in the early 1930's figure out life and love in New York. Unflinching, honest, daring portrayal of women's inner lives before we all over-shared on Facebook. Functions almost as a sociological text. First published in 1963. A fast read for how thick it is; also another interconnected-vignette style novel (that makes three within the last two months: Let the Great World Spin; The Imperfectionists; The Group. I guess this is my style!)

Three great quotes from The Group:

"In private, they often discussed her, like toys discussing their owner, and concluded that she was awfully inhuman."

"'Who was it said,' she added, twinkling, 'that his wife had a whim of iron? My father always quotes that when he has to give in to Mother.'"

"'I felt sure he'd been invited and was staying away on purpose and that everybody there knew that and was watching me out of the corner of their eye.'"

"'Your grammar, Dottie!' chided her mother, absently; her sky-blue eyes had clouded over."

Currently reading:

Though I may have to pause and pick it back up later - it's through inter-library loan, it's been renewed twice and is now overdue, and I've only read one of the stories in it. 

Axe Cop

This is a brilliant idea. This 29-year-old started writing down and illustrating the crazy stories his 5-year-old brother told. Like most brilliant ideas, simple. The result is hilarious.

http://axecop.com/index.php/achome/index/

Keeping track, updated

Books I've read this year

1. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
2. White Noise by Don DeLillo
3. Enormous Changes at the Last Minute by Grace Paley
4. American Tabloid by James Ellroy
5. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom by August Wilson
6. Babel-17 by Samuel Delaney
7. Stuck Rubber Baby by Howard Cruse
8. Reservation Blues by Sherman Alexie
9. Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides
10. Bastard out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison
11. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
12. Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
13. The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown
14. The Story of Avis by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps
15. Austenland by Shannon Hale
16. Sisterhood Everlasting by Ann Brashares
17. Daisy Miller by Henry James
18. Maggie, a Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane
19. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain
20. The Rise of Silas Lapham by William Dean Howells
21. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
22. Just After Sunset by Stephen King
23. Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann

Books I've re-read:

1. The Awakening by Kate Chopin
2. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
3. The Marrow of Tradition by Charles Chestnutt