2008 Reading Redux

As usual, there were some standouts in the year's (2008) reading, as well as some clunkers. Reading is such a personal experience, 'though, that I hesitate to mention the latter, since my clunker may someone else's well-oiled machine. I'm reminded of The Memory Keeper's Daughter, which I read in '07 and thoroughly, deeply disliked. It was a selection of my book club, and at least half of the group -- and we have a large group -- thought it was terrific.

I had a great time reading or re-reading several classics -- Jane Eyre, especially. I'd forgotten what a smart and strong (and feminist) character Jane is. (I was so taken with the book that I wrote about it here.) I enjoyed my sojourn into Henry James country, re-reading some novels and savoring some short stories for the first time. I went on a bit of a Henry James jag and also read a very good biography, The Mature Master, the second of two volumes on James by Sheldon Novick, and an equally good fictional version of James's literary life by David Lodge: Author, Author.

Other books that have stayed with me -- which is one way I judge a book's value, with the caveat that some of the truly bad ones also won't go away -- include When Will There Be Good News, the third book in British author Kate Atkinson's series about Jackson Brodie (wonderfully written and cleverly crafted); A Long Way Down, by Nick Hornby (as usual in Hornby's work, funny and touching at the same time, but never sentimental); Per Petterson's Out Stealing Horses (a quiet, lyrical novel), Child 44, by Tom Robb Smith (a compelling thriller set in Russia during Stalin's regime), and The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, by Kate Summerscale. This last focuses on the actual murder of a child in 1860s England, and Summerscale uses her extensive research to explore the rise of the English detective and his role in English society. Wilkie Collins' The Moonstone, which I'm reading now, and which was written a few years after the case described in Summerscale's book, borrows much from that book's real-life detective.

I loved Three Junes, Julia Glass's first novel, which I came to late, after having read and enjoyed The Whole World Over a couple of years ago. I liked Willilam Gay's Twilight (no, not that Twilight), a strange, striking novel set in the Tennessee country in which the author lives; enjoyed The Accidental Masterpiece, essays on art and artists by Michael Kimmelman, and Valentines, a slim volume of poetry by Ted Kooser; and was nourished by poet Kathleen Norris's thoughtful The Cloister Walk, about her retreats in a Benedictine monastery.

Thankfully, I didn't read anything last year as unfortunate as The Memory Keeper's Daughter. Still, there were ho-hum books, the kind that take up time that could have been spent reading something one enjoys more. Among these were In the Garden of Iden, The Society of S, The Spellman Files, The Writing Diet, (a weight-loss book by Julia Cameron of Artist's Way fame) and Zen and the Art of Motorcyle Maintenance (what's with all the fuss over the years about this one?). But, as one good friend says: "If you like this kind of thing, then this is the kind of thing you'll like."

Here's to all the books yet to be explored in 2009. Happy reading.

[Photo Credit: Woman Reading by Henri Matisse]

BookGirl's 2009 Reading

This is my work-around to Blogger's unfortunate inability to create separate "pages" (something Wordpress, for example, can do), so don't concern yourself with the date above. So I'm creating this list as a separate post and will link to it from an item on the sidebar of my blog's home page. I'll keep it up to date.

My 2009 Reading

• The Raphael Affair - Iain Pears
  
• The Pickwick Papers - Charles Dickens
  
• The Creative Habit - Twyla Tharp
  
• Painted Paper - Alisa Golden
  
• The World to Come - Dara Horn
  
• Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonders - Lawrence Wechsler
  
• 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel - Jane Smiley
  
• The Elegance of the Hedgehog - Muriel Barbery
  
• People of the Book - Geraldine Brooks
  
• A Flaw in the Blood - Stephanie Barron
  
• The Private Patient - P.D. James
  
• Fat Chance - Simon Gray
  
• Downtown Owl - Chuck Klosterman
  
• Tender is The Night - F. Scott Fitzgerald
  
• The Dress Lodger - Shari Holman
  
• The Turn of the Screw - Henry James
  
• The Moonstone - Wilkie Collins
  
• The Pleasure of My Company - Steve Martin
  
• Fearless Creating - Eric Maisel
  
• Softspoken - Lucius Shepard
  
• The Comforts of a Muddy Saturday - Alexander McCall Smith
  
• Blink - Malcolm Gladwell
  
• Jim the Boy - Tony Earley
  
• The Book Thief - Markus Zuzak
• Ask the Dust - John Fante
• Winesburg, Ohio - Sherwood Anderson

My 2008 Reading

• The Poetry Handbook - Mary Oliver
  
• The Great Man - Kate Christensen
  
• The Cloister Walk - Kathleen Norris
  
• Absalom, Absalom - William Faulkner
  
• When Will There Be Good News - Kate Atkinson
  
• Astrid & Veronika - Linda Olsson
  
• Print, Pattern & Colour - Ruth Issett
  
• Art & Fear - Bayles and Orland
  
• Three Junes - Julia Glass
  
• The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher - Kate Summerscale
  
• Away - Amy Bloom
  
• The War of Art - Steven Pressfield
  
• Author, Author - David Lodge
  
• Valentines - Ted Kooser
  
• As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner
  
• About Alice - Calvin Trillin
• The Accidental Masterpiece - Michael Kimmelman
  
• The Gate of Angels - Penelope Fitzgerald
  
• The Writing Diet - Julia Cameron
  
• We Are Now Beginning our Descent - James Meek
  
• Shakespeare: The Word as a Stage - Bill Bryson
  
• The Girl of His Dreams - Donna Leon
  
• The Bluest Eye - Toni Morrison
  
• The Chessmen of Doom - John Bellairs
• Maps & Legends - Michael Chabon
  
• Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
  
• A Long Way Down - Nick Hornby
  
• Child 44 - Tom Rob Smith
  
• The Archivist - Martha Cooley
  
• Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri
  
• Out Stealing Horses - Per Petterson
• Altered Books Workshop - Bev Brazelton
  
• Twilight - William Gay
  
• What the Dead Know - Laura Lippman
• The Film Club - David Gilmour
  
• The Society of S: A Novel - Susan Hubbard
  
• The Haunting of Lamb House - Joan Aiken
  
• The Mature Master - Sheldon Novick
  
• The Careful Use of Compliments - Alexander McCall Smith
  
• Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
  
• Pleading Guilty - Scott Turow
  
• 'Measure for Measure - William Shakespeare
  
• Daisy Miller - Henry James
  
• The Beast in the Jungle - Henry James
  
• One Good Turn - Kate Atkinson
  
• The Aspern Papers - Henry James
  
• The Spellman Files - Lisa Lutz
• Tourist Season - Enid Shomer
  
• What Maisie Knew - Henry James
  
• The Garden of Iden - Kage Baker
  
• The Merchant of Venice - William Shakespeare
  
• Washington Square - Henry James
  
• Fingersmith - Sarah Waters
  
• The Uncommon Reader - Alan Bennett
  
• Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare - Stephen Greenblatt
  
• Midwives - Chris Bohjalian
  
• Trespass - Valerie Martin
  
• A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - James Joyce
  
• Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen
  
• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert M. Pirsig
  

My 2007 Reading

• Photographing Arts, Crafts and Collectibles - Steve Meltzer
  
• The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
  
• The Feast of Love - Charles Baxter
  
• The Tenant of Wildfell Hall - Ann Bronte
  
• The Brontes at Haworth - Ann Dinsdale
  
• The Man Who Smiled - Henning Mankell
  
• Howard's End - E.M. Forster
  
• Lord Jim - Joseph Conrad
  
• Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
  
• The Mists of Avalon - Marion Zimmer Bradley
  
• The Tattoo Artist - Jill Ciment
  
• Dead Clever - Scarlett Thomas
  
• The Ballad of Frankie Silver - Sharon McCrumb
• Lions and Liquorice - Kate Fenton
  
• Special Topics in Calamity Physics - Marisha Pessl
• Angelica - Arthur Phillips
  
• Homeland and Other Stories - Barbara Kingsolver
• On Chesil Beach - Ian McEwan
• Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith - Anne Lamott
• Digital Art Studio - Karin Schminke, et al.
• In Case We're Separated - Alice Mattison
• The Forest Lover - Susan Vreeland
• Truth and Beauty - Ann Patchett
• How to Read a Novel - John Sutherland
• The Orchid Shroud - Michelle Wan
• The Golden Compass - Philip Pullman
• Same Sweet Girls - Cassandra King
• The Art of Fiction - David Lodge
• The Amateur Marriage - Anne Tyler
• Cry Me a River - T.R. Pearson
• Have Mercy on Us All - Fred Vargas
• Drinking Coffee Elsewhere - Z.Z. Packer
• Polio: An American Story - David Oshinsky
• Friends, Lovers, Chocolate - Alexander McCall Smith
• Tell Me a Riddle - Tillie Olsen
• The Death of Ivan Illych - Leo Tolstoy
• London: A History - A.N. Wilson
• Balzac and the Little Chinese Princess - Dai Sijie
• Awake in the Dark: The Best of Roger Ebert - Roger Ebert
• Blue Arabesque - Patricia Hampl
• The Piano Tuner - Daniel Mason
• My Name is Red - Orhan Pamuk
• The Sunday Philosophy Club - Alexander McCall Smith
• Eat, Pray, Love - Elizabeth Gilbert
• The Mystery Guest - Gregoire Bouillier
• All is Vanity - Christina Schwarz
• Prague - Arthur Phillips
• Creative Collage Techniques - Nita Leland/ Virginia Williams
• Reading Like a Writer - Francine Prose
• Collage Techniques - Gerald Brommer
• Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic - Alison Blechdel
• My Antonia - Willa Cather
• The Places in Between - Rory Stewart
• Lady Into Fox - David Garnett
• The Keep - Jennifer Egan