Monthly Reading
Novels
American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld
Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
The Fiction Class by Susan Breen
The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor
The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen
The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline B. Cooney
Only novels this month. I am sadly behind in my New Yorker reading and my aversion to anything related to America’s Next Top President ‘08 means that my usual sources of nonfiction are somewhat limited. Raves this month include Bel Canto and Prep.
August Reading
Is it September already?
Novels
Galatea 2.2 by Richard Power
Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohen and David Levithan
After Dark by Haruki Murakami
That Summer by Sarah Dessen
Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison
Bullyville by Francine Prose
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
When Zachary Beaver Came to Town by Kimberly Willis Holt
Cures for Heartbreak by Margo Rabb
Short Stories
Glory Goes and Gets Some by Emily Carter
Nonfiction
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson
I had no idea I read that much this month. Obviously, the theme was YA lit. Some raves include: Cures for Heartbreak, Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, and Galatea 2.2. I also started, but can’t seem to finish The Savage Detectives. Oh well.
July Reading
Novels
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
On a Night Like This by Ellen Sussman
A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines
Freshman Lies by Linda A. Cooney
Freshman Guys by Linda A. Cooney
Someone Like You by Sarah Dessen
Alternatives to Sex by Stephen McCauley
Short Stories
Notable Nonfiction
Billy the Kid: The Endless Ride by Michael Wallis
The Writer’s Desk by Jill Krementz
“The Lion and the Mouse” by Jill Lepore
Hibernating
Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
I have a couple of great novels to recommend this month. I really enjoyed On a Night Like This and Someone Like You. The latter is a YA book that made me wish that someone was writing YA like this when I was a teen. I think I would have read more.
On the other side of that coin, I tried Twilight and I simply could not finish it. It didn’t help that I kept playing Buffy DVDs as I was reading it. I really wanted to like it because I’ve been getting more into YA lately (more on that later) and I’m usually up for a good vampire tale, but this book lacked the character development that I need to really pull me into a story. And so, permanently hibernating it is.
June Reading
Novels
The Van Gogh Cafe by Cynthia Rylant
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
In Her Shoes by Jennifer Weiner
No One You Know by Michelle Richmon
Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner
Short Stories
“Deep Holes” by Alice Munro
Notable Nonfiction
Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer
Hibernating
The Yiddish Policeman’s Union by Michael Chabon
Crossing Brooklyn Ferry by Jennie Fields
May Reading
Stories
- Girls in Trucks by Katie Crouch
Novels
- The Senator’s Wife by Sue Miller
- Asking for Trouble by Elizabeth Young
- Bergdorf Blondes by Plum Sykes
- The Solomon Sisters Wise Up by Melissa Senate
- Monkey Beach by Eden Robinson
Notable Nonfiction
- None
And there we have my reading list for my travels. Not really highbrow, but it was nice to take a break from what I feel I should be reading and focus on some fun stuff.
A rave goes out to Monkey Beach, which I found in a wonderful Canadian independent bookstore. I’ll definitely be looking for more of Robinson’s work because this book was phenomenal. Also, I really enjoyed Melissa Senate’s The Solomon Sisters Wise Up. I read See Jane Date several years ago and didn’t love it so much, so I was pleasantly surprised by this novel. Both are recommended.
In other reading related news, I have to report that I visited no fewer than eight bookstores on our Alaskan adventure. Highlights included Green Apple Books in San Francisco (spent a good hour browsing there), Hearthside Books and Rainy Day Books in Juneau, and Book Warehouse in Vancouver.
April Reading
Stories
- “Ysreal” by Junot Diaz
- “Betrayal” by Patricia Duncker
- “God’s Goodness” by Marjorie Kemper
- “Greasy Lake” by T. Coraghessan Boyle
- “Material” by Alice Munro
- Alligator Dance by Janet Peery
Novels
- Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore
Notable Nonfiction
- Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion
- The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
- Vintage Baldwin by James Baldwin
Hibernating
- Going After Cacciato by Tim O’Brien
- Little Black Book of Stories by A.S. Byatt
- The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
I did lots of reading this month, but not all of it got finished. A word about hibernating books: I have a 50 page rule. If I’m not enjoying a book or getting something out if it in 50 pages, I give up. I used to never give up on books. I used to force myself to get through anything, but that lead to a lot of slow and unpleasant reading. Thus, the 50 page rule was born.
Book raves for the month include Alligator Dance, which I still cannot coherently talk about, and Slouching Towards Bethlehem.
March Reading
Short Stories
- “The Shell Collector” by Anthony Doerr
- “Burn Your Maps” by Robin Joy Leff
Novels
- The Year of Fog by Michelle Richmond
- The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
- The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman
Notable Nonfiction
- Travels with Charley in Search of America by John Steinbeck
- “The Charms of Wikipedia” by Nicholson Baker, the New York Review of Books
Hibernating
- Lisey’s Story by Stephen King
February Reading
Novels
- Nobody’s Girl by Antonya Nelson
- The Last of the Savages by Jay McInerney
Short stories (inc. collections)
- The Knife Thrower by Steven Millhauser
- “The Thing in the Forest,” by A.S. Byatt
Notable nonfiction
- The Professor, the Banker and the Suicide King by Michael Craig
February was a bum month for reading. Not only did I not read very much, I also didn’t read anything really great. (Nobody’s Girl was a reread. It’s great, but it it doesn’t count.) I had high hopes for the Last of the Savages because Brightness Falls is one of my favorite books and I always enjoy McInerney’s novels, but I was only lukewarm about this one. I loved half the stories in The Knife Thrower, but had a hard time finishing the other half. I have high hopes of finishing Byatt’s Little Black Book of Stories . . . but not this month.
January Reading
Novels
- Second Glance by Jodi Picoult
- Step Ball Change by Jeanne Ray
Short stories (inc. collections)
- The Woman in the Woods by Ann Joslin Williams
- “Cascom Mountain Road” by Ann Joslin Williams
- “Year’s End,” by Jhumpa Lahiri
- “My Old Man” by Melissa Bank
- “The Worst Thing a Suburban Girl Could Imagine” by Melissa Bank
Notable nonfiction
- The Biggest Game in Town by A. Alvarez
- Postitively Fifth Street by James McManus
December Reading
Novels
Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, Marjane Satrapi
A Passage to India, E.M. Forster
The Uses of Enchantment, Heidi Julavits
Carnet de Voyage, Craig Thompson
Bluebeard, Kurt Vonnegut
Short stories
“Or Else,” Antonya Nelson
“Heart Shaped Rock,” Antonya Nelson
“The Geranium,” Flannery O’Connor
“The River,” Flannery O’Connor
“The Life You Save May Be Your Own,” Flannery O’Connor
“Everything that Rises Must Converge,” Flannery O’Connor
“Revelation,” Flannery O’Connor
“Judgment Day,” Flannery O’Connor
“Nobody Said Anything,” Raymond Carver
“The Student’s Wife,” Raymond Carver
“Fever,” Raymond Carver
“Beginners,” Raymond Carver
Notable nonfiction
“Come One, Come All: A Megachurch Grows in New England,” The New Yorker
“Rough Crossings: The Cutting of Raymond Carver,” The New Yorker
Lots and lots of reading this month. The Flannery O’Conner entry can be found here. The Raymond Carver entry is forthcoming, once I gather my thoughts on the selections and the New Yorker article.
I read Bluebeard for next month’s book group. It was my first Vonnegut and I’ll be interested to hear what the rest of the group has to say. A few people were very excited about this choice, but I didn’t think much of it. It was a quick read and there were a few passages with fascinating theories of artistry, but the story and the writing didn’t do much for me. Don’t know if I’ll read anymore Vonnegut any time soon.
