Somehow I managed to read about thirty-five books last year (I abandoned a few half way through). It’s not the most impressive tally but a book every week and a half or so isn’t so bad. I’m not concerned with staying up to date with the latest releases, so, I’m surprised how many of these books are either from 2017 or only a few years before.
Here are a few of my favorites (and a couple of disappointments).
The Tsar of Love and Techno
I knew nothing about this book when I got it for Christmas but I was hooked once I started. A series of interconnected stories, it was my favorite fiction of last year. Set in Russia and spanning many generations, it was interesting to read after reading My Father’s Words (see below).
The Disaster Artist
As I said here, this was a great book. Tommy Wiseau and The Room are easy targets but Greg Sestero’s genuine admiration for Tommy’s fearlessness gives heart to this book. It also gives something of a behind the scenes in the filming of this movie which is really satisfying for anyone who has ever wondered, “No, really, how did this get made?”
Trouble Boys & Guided By Voices: A Brief History
I’m putting these books together because both The Replacements and Guided by Voices are hard-drinking, midwestern, critically acclaimed bands with a rabid following and a mercurial lead singer and main creative force. They’re both unlikely underdog rock stars whose albums I have had in heavy rotation since this past spring and summer when I read these books.
The Village & St. Mark’s Is Dead
I’m putting these together since they’re both New York books that manage to expand upon and diverge from the typical New York book narrative: the Lenape, the Dutch, Walt Whitman, the Beats, Dylan, CBGB’s, gentrification ruined everything. The Village, in particular, offered so many stories and characters. St. Mark’s Is Dead was written by a woman who grew up there and had a slightly different take on how romantic old (i.e. 70’s and 80’s) New York was.
The Stranger in the Woods
I wrote about this book here. The ideas about loneliness and the lengths one might go to to live on his own terms stuck with me long after I was doing reading.
On Edge
I find that when people “suffer from anxiety and depression,” depression usually gets the bulk of the attention. But rarely is anxiety discussed on its own. I’ve felt depressed but it’s never been debilitating for me like it has for so many others and for that I’m fortunate. Anxiety, on the other hand, has been a major component of my life for as long as I can remember. Fearing the worst. Scanning my body for tumors. Debating whether or not to go to the emergency room. Worrying if I humiliated myself with a comment I made at a party three weeks ago. Unlike author, Andrea Peterson, I thankfully have never had a panic attack but, like her, I’ve lost a relationship because of it. Some of the descriptions actually made me feel more anxious. “Wait, do I have that behavior?” But mostly it was nice to read about someone who knows what I go through. Finally my mental illness represented in the media!
The Sellout
This book kicks political correctness’s teeth in and in so doing managed to make me think about race more than I ever have before. It’s deeply, uncomfortably funny and, while I usually think people who use the word “satire” are actually just saying “it’s funny but I also want you to think I’m smart,” this book is brilliant satire.
Honorable Mention
The Night of the Gun
Who can resist a good addiction memoir? This one has the added dimension of being written by a successful reporter who interviews all the people who knew him during his addicted years. Well written but, as with the addict’s life, the themes are repetitive. Got incredibly drunk, incredibly high, can’t believe that happened, repeat.
My Father’s Words
I wrote more about my English teacher Charles Turk’s life story. I had no idea of the path that Mr. Turk had travelled from Hungary to the United States to back breaking work to college to one of the most influential teachers I ever had. I also knew so little about the horrors of living under Communism. It was an eye opening book.
American Gods
A friend of mine asked me what I thought of this book just assuming I had read it. I took her assumption of my pop culture completism as a compliment but I hadn’t read it. I knew that many a geek truly loved Neil Gaiman, so, I thought it would be right up my alley. I went in not knowing what to expect and I was satisfied with the story. I wasn’t blown away, though, perhaps the novelty of a story like this has diminished since it came out. Though, I really enjoyed looking through the lens of an English author to see America.
A Few Disappointments
Since We Fell
Dennis Lehane was my man in my late twenties and early thirties. I dismissed him as an Oprah’s Book Club level author when I saw the movie trailer for Mystic River. But then I happened upon the short story Until Gwen and was hooked on his writing. I loved the first five Kenzie and Gennaro novels and Shutter Island. I even loved the novel Mystic River. Then I read The Given Day, a sweeping historical novel and a bit of a departure, and it was… okay. A few years later I read Moonlight Mile – the sixth Kenzie and Gennaro novel – and I wondered if Lehane’s writing had changed or if maybe I had just grown up a bit. I wanted to give him another chance with Since We Fell. Told from the perspective of a woman (a first for Lehane), it built slowly and suspensefully and I thought it could really be something. But, by the end, the resolution to everything was comically far fetched that it all fell apart.
Can’t Stop Won’t Stop
After watching Hip Hop Evolution on Netflix, I was eager for more hip hop knowledge. Can’t Stop Won’t Stop seemed like a natural progression. I’d heard it referred to as the Please Kill Me of hip hop. It was not. Lots of attention was paid to DJ Kool Herc and Afrika Bambaattaa, as it should have been, but the book seemed to focus intently on certain areas at the expense of the narrative of hip hop as a whole. I wasn’t that interested in Jamaican politics or the story behind The Source. The focus on street gangs and even Public Enemy proved to be a bit too exhaustive. Though, the book claims to be about “the hip hop generation” and all that entails, not hip hop. So, it may have been my misplaced expectations about the book I was picking up.
