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I'm shooting for one hundred books this year. Wish me luck!
JANUARY
1. Tailchaser's Song by Tad Williams
A group of cats set forth to vanquish an old evil from their land, with breaks for afternoon napping. If you're in the mood for epic fantasy, it's very comforting -- like rolling in a warm bath of mashed potatoes.
2. Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler
If nothing else, I would love this book for one sentence: "Then suspicion climbed all over her face, like a kitten, but not so playfully."
3. The Labyrinth Gate by Alis A. Rasmussen (aka Kate Elliott)
Newlyweds Chryse and Sanjay are transported, via a mysterious deck of tarot cards, to an alternate 19th-century England filled with magic and machinations. It doesn't break new ground on the "Victorians with magic wands" genre (which is an oddly old and venerable one), but it deals out the traditional elements (top hats, classical artifacts, demons) with generosity.
4. Ethan of Athos by Lois McMaster Bujold
On the planet Athos, obstetrician Ethan Urquhart is happy with his job (delivering babies grown in canisters) and his society (an exclusively male culture founded two hundred years ago to escape pernicious women). But when Athos' ancient ovarian cultures begin to fail, Ethan is forced to venture into the wide, uncircumscribed galaxy to find new tissue samples for the sake of Athos' future sons. Things become more complicated when he unwittingly stumbles into a murderous conspiracy and an association with Elli Quinn, a flippant female mercenary. Hijinks! Ensue!
5. Macdonald Hall Goes Hollywood by Gordon Korman
This is the first "Bruno and Boots" book I've read. I think I will have to pick up more, as it was fast, smart, and clever.
6. In the Forests of Serre by Patricia A.McKillip
Sometimes I find McKillip's books a tad oblique and cold, but not this one. All the traditional stylistic quirks -- the random specific details, the free-floating adjectives -- align perfectly with a set of compelling, complicated characters. (The mid-book conversation between Sidonie and the disguised Gyre is heart-breaking.)
7. King's Dragon by Kate Elliott
I suppose a great deal of the scene-setting and throat-clearing of the novel's first half is necessary for the emotional weight of the dramatic action in the second half; I just wish the two halves were more tightly integrated. (And also that the two ostensible lead characters had some sort of interaction to justify their prominence as dual protagonists.)
8. Reasons to Live by Amy Hempel
At times, the stories can be too oblique for their own good: the reader spends all their energy trying to decode the implied catastrophe. But the best stories in the collection, which include "Beg, Sl Tog, Inc, Cont, Rep" and "Nashville Gone to Ashes," are clean and clever.
9. Distant Stars by Samuel R. Delany
Much of this story collection feels padded out: the font is enormous, the illustrations are indulgent, and half the stories read as if they were fished out of some desk drawer to further the page count. On the other hand, "Omegahelm" is a rising crescendo of horror, and "We, in Some Strange Power's Employ, Move on a Rigorous Line" is fantastic.
10. Prince of Dogs by Kate Elliott
Minus the obvious (and intentional) aspect of gender equality in the novel, the novel avoids the common epic-fantasy problems of Technicolor serfs and Andrew Lang princesses. Everything is very dirty and very unfair.
11. The White Feather by P. G. Wodehouse
If I was going to write a Freshman English Paper on this book, it would be on the issues of conformity: Sheen's actions are impelled by a need to belong to the school but require anti-conformist maneuverings, such as breaking school rules and keeping secrets. He is initially true to the letter of the law, which brings his initial troubles. Eventually, he is only true to himself. Not incidentally, Polonius is cited extensively by Sheen's boxing trainer. Also: hijinks.
JANUARY
1. Tailchaser's Song by Tad Williams
A group of cats set forth to vanquish an old evil from their land, with breaks for afternoon napping. If you're in the mood for epic fantasy, it's very comforting -- like rolling in a warm bath of mashed potatoes.
2. Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler
If nothing else, I would love this book for one sentence: "Then suspicion climbed all over her face, like a kitten, but not so playfully."
3. The Labyrinth Gate by Alis A. Rasmussen (aka Kate Elliott)
Newlyweds Chryse and Sanjay are transported, via a mysterious deck of tarot cards, to an alternate 19th-century England filled with magic and machinations. It doesn't break new ground on the "Victorians with magic wands" genre (which is an oddly old and venerable one), but it deals out the traditional elements (top hats, classical artifacts, demons) with generosity.
4. Ethan of Athos by Lois McMaster Bujold
On the planet Athos, obstetrician Ethan Urquhart is happy with his job (delivering babies grown in canisters) and his society (an exclusively male culture founded two hundred years ago to escape pernicious women). But when Athos' ancient ovarian cultures begin to fail, Ethan is forced to venture into the wide, uncircumscribed galaxy to find new tissue samples for the sake of Athos' future sons. Things become more complicated when he unwittingly stumbles into a murderous conspiracy and an association with Elli Quinn, a flippant female mercenary. Hijinks! Ensue!
5. Macdonald Hall Goes Hollywood by Gordon Korman
This is the first "Bruno and Boots" book I've read. I think I will have to pick up more, as it was fast, smart, and clever.
6. In the Forests of Serre by Patricia A.McKillip
Sometimes I find McKillip's books a tad oblique and cold, but not this one. All the traditional stylistic quirks -- the random specific details, the free-floating adjectives -- align perfectly with a set of compelling, complicated characters. (The mid-book conversation between Sidonie and the disguised Gyre is heart-breaking.)
7. King's Dragon by Kate Elliott
I suppose a great deal of the scene-setting and throat-clearing of the novel's first half is necessary for the emotional weight of the dramatic action in the second half; I just wish the two halves were more tightly integrated. (And also that the two ostensible lead characters had some sort of interaction to justify their prominence as dual protagonists.)
8. Reasons to Live by Amy Hempel
At times, the stories can be too oblique for their own good: the reader spends all their energy trying to decode the implied catastrophe. But the best stories in the collection, which include "Beg, Sl Tog, Inc, Cont, Rep" and "Nashville Gone to Ashes," are clean and clever.
9. Distant Stars by Samuel R. Delany
Much of this story collection feels padded out: the font is enormous, the illustrations are indulgent, and half the stories read as if they were fished out of some desk drawer to further the page count. On the other hand, "Omegahelm" is a rising crescendo of horror, and "We, in Some Strange Power's Employ, Move on a Rigorous Line" is fantastic.
10. Prince of Dogs by Kate Elliott
Minus the obvious (and intentional) aspect of gender equality in the novel, the novel avoids the common epic-fantasy problems of Technicolor serfs and Andrew Lang princesses. Everything is very dirty and very unfair.
11. The White Feather by P. G. Wodehouse
If I was going to write a Freshman English Paper on this book, it would be on the issues of conformity: Sheen's actions are impelled by a need to belong to the school but require anti-conformist maneuverings, such as breaking school rules and keeping secrets. He is initially true to the letter of the law, which brings his initial troubles. Eventually, he is only true to himself. Not incidentally, Polonius is cited extensively by Sheen's boxing trainer. Also: hijinks.
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FEBRUARY
12. A Reading Diary by Alberto Manguel
The author spent a year re-reading twelve of his favorite books and reflecting on them. Manguel's literary consciousness is alarmingly broad: his diary is worth reading just to see how Manguel manages to yoke disparate novels together into themed lists.
13. The Grandmother's Tale and Selected Stories by R. K. Narayan
Narayan writes wry, understated stories about domestic life in small-town India during the twentieth century. This collection is filled with tiny heartbreaks and minute revelations; the modulated restraint is so sustained that the rare streaks of malice or wit in these stories are almost shocking.
14. Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman
Gaiman's brand of gentle horror and hard-edged fantasy sneaks up on the reader, and every single time you're surprised by the big reveal: the monster, the cannibalism, the transformation. But then it evaporates -- I have a hard time remembering Gaiman stories a month after I read them.
15. The Warrior's Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold
At loose ends after failing his military entrance exams, Miles Vorkosigan stumbles into heading a team of mercenaries and dodging accusations of treason. The book is fun but imperfect: the plot is built entirely on coincidences, and a little bit of Miles goes a very long way.
16. Go Jump in the Pool! by Gordon Korman
Bruno and Boots lead a school-wide fund-raising effort for a pool. I think I love the Macdonald Hall books, and one of the reasons is Mr. Sturgeon. The school headmaster is a figure of both dread and affection; he is always the heavy but never the villain. His students adore and fear him in equal measure, making Mr. Sturgeon the dreamiest of authority figures.
17. Dime-store Alchemy: the art of Joseph Cornell by Charles Simic
A slim, elliptical collection of historical details of Joseph Cornell, personal memories triggered by his art, and brief musings on how Cornell fits into the dual contexts of surreal and American art. The end result, intimate and oblique, is about what you might expect from a biography written by a poet.
18. Of Love and Shadows by Isabel Allende
Normally I dig Isabel Allende, but this novel was a disappointment. There is evidence of some greater aim to knit together love and hatred, lust and death, the affirmation and the denial of life, but the actual result reads like a romance novel with interludes of political oppression.
19. The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold
The novel possesses a strange, flailing plot structure -- but at this point in the Vorkosigan books, shambling narratives just seem like part of the series' charm. Why is the first fourth of the novel so geographically and thematically detached from the following three-fourths? Well, why not? It's Miles Vorkosigan!
20. Uncertain Magic by Laura Kinsale
Loved the first one hundred pages. Then things went downhill.
12. A Reading Diary by Alberto Manguel
The author spent a year re-reading twelve of his favorite books and reflecting on them. Manguel's literary consciousness is alarmingly broad: his diary is worth reading just to see how Manguel manages to yoke disparate novels together into themed lists.
13. The Grandmother's Tale and Selected Stories by R. K. Narayan
Narayan writes wry, understated stories about domestic life in small-town India during the twentieth century. This collection is filled with tiny heartbreaks and minute revelations; the modulated restraint is so sustained that the rare streaks of malice or wit in these stories are almost shocking.
14. Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman
Gaiman's brand of gentle horror and hard-edged fantasy sneaks up on the reader, and every single time you're surprised by the big reveal: the monster, the cannibalism, the transformation. But then it evaporates -- I have a hard time remembering Gaiman stories a month after I read them.
15. The Warrior's Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold
At loose ends after failing his military entrance exams, Miles Vorkosigan stumbles into heading a team of mercenaries and dodging accusations of treason. The book is fun but imperfect: the plot is built entirely on coincidences, and a little bit of Miles goes a very long way.
16. Go Jump in the Pool! by Gordon Korman
Bruno and Boots lead a school-wide fund-raising effort for a pool. I think I love the Macdonald Hall books, and one of the reasons is Mr. Sturgeon. The school headmaster is a figure of both dread and affection; he is always the heavy but never the villain. His students adore and fear him in equal measure, making Mr. Sturgeon the dreamiest of authority figures.
17. Dime-store Alchemy: the art of Joseph Cornell by Charles Simic
A slim, elliptical collection of historical details of Joseph Cornell, personal memories triggered by his art, and brief musings on how Cornell fits into the dual contexts of surreal and American art. The end result, intimate and oblique, is about what you might expect from a biography written by a poet.
18. Of Love and Shadows by Isabel Allende
Normally I dig Isabel Allende, but this novel was a disappointment. There is evidence of some greater aim to knit together love and hatred, lust and death, the affirmation and the denial of life, but the actual result reads like a romance novel with interludes of political oppression.
19. The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold
The novel possesses a strange, flailing plot structure -- but at this point in the Vorkosigan books, shambling narratives just seem like part of the series' charm. Why is the first fourth of the novel so geographically and thematically detached from the following three-fourths? Well, why not? It's Miles Vorkosigan!
20. Uncertain Magic by Laura Kinsale
Loved the first one hundred pages. Then things went downhill.
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MARCH
21. The Crack-Up by F. Scott Fitzgerald
This posthumous collection of letters, notebooks, and published essays by Fitzgerald reveals an author still haunted by his collegiate failures and a dread of unfulfilled potential. For me, the essays -- especially the eponymous 1936 account of his depression -- were uncomfortably reminiscent of reading The Bell Jar two years ago: it is not a good sign when you empathize overmuch with these narratives.
22. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
Catherine Morland, a heroine in her own mind, invents Gothic intrigue while remaining oblivious to the prosaic plots being hatched around her. Catherine is callow and ridiculous, but while the narrator acknowledges her absurdity, she also unobtrusively underlines Catherine's modest virtues. Given the wrenching distance between Catherine's interior imagination and the mercenary plotters who surround her, the reader can only feel relief when she finds a middle ground with the aid of the Tilney siblings.
23. Libby's London Merchant by Carla Kelly
On one hand, the novel feels distinctly anachronistic within its ostensible Regency setting: there's lots of kissing, there's lots of feminism, and there's lots of careful exposition of class distinctions to guide any comatose readers in the audience. In these things, the novel follows the tradition of other books by the author. On the other hand, the novel also follows the tradition of charming characters and a wonderful sense of their physicality.
24. Explosion in a Cathedral by Alejo Carpentier
As revolution sweeps back and forth across the Atlantic at the conclusion of the 18th century, two Cuban cousins witness a world trembling between rebirth and regression. The novel is stuffed with technical achievements, chief among them the single point where the narrative jumps from Sofia to Esteban. In the leap, the narrative elides a pivotal event so effortlessly that the reader only realizes the omission alongside Esteban a hundred pages later.
25. Venetia by Georgette Heyer
The novel is an unusual beast, given the Heyer canon: sex is openly referenced, social elitism is ridiculed, and the supporting characters are unusually multi-dimensional. Much like Arabella, the book is strangely modern and feels peculiarly unlike the rest of Heyer's novels. I'm not sure it hangs securely together -- and it's hard to overstate the dire handicap of that opening -- but the major portion is charming and surprising.
26. Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones
I have joined the rest of the universe in not understanding the ending, but that's all right, because the novel strikes the perfect balance between exposition and the unexplainable. Comprehension is beside the point; the novel is one of the rare novels in which the author's trademark convolutions serve a higher purpose than mere confusion. The reader, like the characters, only has a hazy, intuitive understanding of the situation.
27. The Silver Pigs by Lindsey Davis
The Silver Pigs is soaked in pulpy insouciance, larded with British slang (wideboy?), and framed with props from Ancient Rome. The mixture is occasionally interesting but usually uneasy. The novel hews very closely to Chandlerian plot principles: if you're familiar with the genre, you'll be able to spot the True Villain by page 50.
28. The Member of the Wedding by Caron McCullers
The novel has all the markers of mid-century Southern Gothic: the staccato repetition, the excess description, and the To-Be-Martyred Christ Figure who appears on page one, promptly on schedule. Despite the shopworn stylistic tics, McCullers beautifully portrays the hellish limbo that is childhood.
29. The Inimitable Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse
This novel is liberally stuffed with excellent episodes, although the manic sequence concerning a vicious gambling pool based on long-winded church sermons is a particular delight.
21. The Crack-Up by F. Scott Fitzgerald
This posthumous collection of letters, notebooks, and published essays by Fitzgerald reveals an author still haunted by his collegiate failures and a dread of unfulfilled potential. For me, the essays -- especially the eponymous 1936 account of his depression -- were uncomfortably reminiscent of reading The Bell Jar two years ago: it is not a good sign when you empathize overmuch with these narratives.
22. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
Catherine Morland, a heroine in her own mind, invents Gothic intrigue while remaining oblivious to the prosaic plots being hatched around her. Catherine is callow and ridiculous, but while the narrator acknowledges her absurdity, she also unobtrusively underlines Catherine's modest virtues. Given the wrenching distance between Catherine's interior imagination and the mercenary plotters who surround her, the reader can only feel relief when she finds a middle ground with the aid of the Tilney siblings.
23. Libby's London Merchant by Carla Kelly
On one hand, the novel feels distinctly anachronistic within its ostensible Regency setting: there's lots of kissing, there's lots of feminism, and there's lots of careful exposition of class distinctions to guide any comatose readers in the audience. In these things, the novel follows the tradition of other books by the author. On the other hand, the novel also follows the tradition of charming characters and a wonderful sense of their physicality.
24. Explosion in a Cathedral by Alejo Carpentier
As revolution sweeps back and forth across the Atlantic at the conclusion of the 18th century, two Cuban cousins witness a world trembling between rebirth and regression. The novel is stuffed with technical achievements, chief among them the single point where the narrative jumps from Sofia to Esteban. In the leap, the narrative elides a pivotal event so effortlessly that the reader only realizes the omission alongside Esteban a hundred pages later.
25. Venetia by Georgette Heyer
The novel is an unusual beast, given the Heyer canon: sex is openly referenced, social elitism is ridiculed, and the supporting characters are unusually multi-dimensional. Much like Arabella, the book is strangely modern and feels peculiarly unlike the rest of Heyer's novels. I'm not sure it hangs securely together -- and it's hard to overstate the dire handicap of that opening -- but the major portion is charming and surprising.
26. Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones
I have joined the rest of the universe in not understanding the ending, but that's all right, because the novel strikes the perfect balance between exposition and the unexplainable. Comprehension is beside the point; the novel is one of the rare novels in which the author's trademark convolutions serve a higher purpose than mere confusion. The reader, like the characters, only has a hazy, intuitive understanding of the situation.
27. The Silver Pigs by Lindsey Davis
The Silver Pigs is soaked in pulpy insouciance, larded with British slang (wideboy?), and framed with props from Ancient Rome. The mixture is occasionally interesting but usually uneasy. The novel hews very closely to Chandlerian plot principles: if you're familiar with the genre, you'll be able to spot the True Villain by page 50.
28. The Member of the Wedding by Caron McCullers
The novel has all the markers of mid-century Southern Gothic: the staccato repetition, the excess description, and the To-Be-Martyred Christ Figure who appears on page one, promptly on schedule. Despite the shopworn stylistic tics, McCullers beautifully portrays the hellish limbo that is childhood.
29. The Inimitable Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse
This novel is liberally stuffed with excellent episodes, although the manic sequence concerning a vicious gambling pool based on long-winded church sermons is a particular delight.
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APRIL
30. Searching for Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede
As the sequel to Dealing with Dragons, this novel is very sweet but lacking in the first book's sharp eye (with the exception of its inclusion of the Right Honorable Wicked Stepmothers' Traveling, Drinking, and Debating Society, Men's Auxiliary).
31. Vargas of Brazil by John W. F. Dulles
My copy (a well-weathered library volume) has obviously disappointed scholars who came before me, because the book is thoroughly glossed and dissected by different hands in multiple colors of ink. For example:
Cursive writing on page 62: "hasta ahora -- no attempt at any form of interpretation...the author just gives an account of what is happening, a chronicle."
Written on page 160: "the author keeps giving the idea that Vargas was a very passive fellow, not a leader at all. SEE THIS."
Scribbled on page 274: "Dulles should have some opinion on Vargas's motives! Did V. do it out of patriotism, to avoid civil war, or to avoid personal ridicule -- that is what makes a book, not merely an account of events."
32. The Vargas Regime: The Critical Years, 1934-1938 by Robert M. Levine
This is altogether better than Dulles's biography, although Levine is focused on a much narrower period of time, and his book is necessarily not comprehensive. And he doesn't have much more success in getting close to Vargas, who is wrapped "behind a shield of inscrutability." On the other hand, Levine is aces at uncovering and emphasizing the emblematic characters of the era.
33. This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Baby-faced Fitzgerald lacks a crucial level of critical distance from his equally baby-faced protagonist, and the protagonist's concluding epiphanies come off as tinny, facile, and unearned. In contrast, the first half of the book, dealing with the adolescent Amory, evidences a more dispassionate eye: young Amory is an autobiographical sketch drawn with both bile and compassion, and his natural egotism is shot through with self-loathing.
34. The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon by Sei Shonagon
Sei Shōnagon is a bitch by today's standards -- and there is evidence to suggest that her contemporaries considered her a bitch by 11th-century standards -- but it is difficult not to love her and her narrow-minded, elitist, and exacting views. When she announces, with great seriousness, that "ugly men should sleep only at night, for they cannot be seen in the dark," what can the modern reader do but laugh?
35. With This Ring by Carla Kelly
As usual with the author's books, I can adore the novel so long as I mentally divorce it from its ostensible Regency setting. (In this case, Lydia's late career as a barber was the final straw.) "Marriages of Convenience" are a dime a dozen in the genre, but this book gets points for recognizing -- and then effortlessly puncturing -- the more idiotic elements that tend to arise in the standard narrative blueprint. Such puncturing is also usual in the author's books.
36. Moon-Flash by Patricia A. McKillip
The novel is an interesting experiment in genre science-fiction that consciously avoids European paradigms (the characters are non-white; the mythology is non-Western), but it feels slight and underdeveloped.
37. Dark Lord of Derkholm by Diana Wynne Jones
In a land forced to imitate bad epic-fantasy novels for the benefit of foreign tourists, the wizard Derk is roped into pretending to be the villainous Dark Lord. While Derk concentrates on the logistics of running a continent-wide quest, his children--two teenagers and five gryphons--struggle to assert themselves despite successive layers of institutional oppression.
38. Faro's Daughter by Georgette Heyer
When his young cousin falls in love with the unsuitable Deborah Grantham, grim Max Ravenscar (yes, Max Ravenscar) tries to bribe her into going away. Incensed, Deb retaliates by accepting the cousin's marriage proposal. Max tries to blackmail Deb; Deb tries to kidnap Max. Events escalate from there.
39. Fireworks by Angela Carter
Most of the stories in Carter's first collection seem like interesting initial chapters to never-written novels. A few seem fully formed: "Penetrating to the Heart fo the Forest" examines both the benign and malignant aspects of an Edenic South American wilderness, while "Master" follows a big-game hunter into the Amazonian forests, where he purchases an indigenous woman who will become (in succession) his victim, his help-meet, and his predator.
40. Hard Times by Charles Dickens
Hard Times is Dickens Lite, both in scope and length, but given its subject (the crushing power of inhuman institutions such as industrialization and marriage) and tone (heavy, heavy, heavy sarcasm), a longer treatment would likely drive a reader to suicide. As it is, it's the perfect length for prolonged despair.
41. The Unknown Ajax by Georgette Heyer
When the inheritance of Darrocott Place falls to an unknown and virtually disowned cousin, the eccentric Darracott family braces for the worst. Irascible Lord Darracott expects a country bumpkin to be cowed into submission, Vincent anticipates a rival to be vanquished, and Anthea resents a stranger whom she is pressured to marry. But when Hugo Darracott finally appears, he exceeds everyone's expectations at once.
42. Od Magic by Patricia A. McKillip
Strange things happen after Brenden Vetch arrives to be a gardener at a wizarding school within a repressive kingdom. A mysterious wandering magician appears in the capital; a princess balks at royal restrictions; a scholar uncovers peculiar details about a wizard's labyrinth; a soldier falls in love; one wizard contemplates rebellion while another watches for subversion; and Brendan Vetch tries to figure out the strange magic blooming within him.
43. Still Love in Strange Places by Beth Kephart
When the author (an American raised in northern suburbia) marries her husband (an artist from El Salvador), she experiences difficulties finding her place within his intimidatingly foreign family, language, and country. The best parts of this collection of essays involve Kephart's examination of how twentieth-century Salvadorean politics are intertwined with her husband's family history. But the memoir is more interested in wielding a vast metaphor (marriage as an act of emigration) than in examining El Salvador itself, and the metaphor is far less interesting than the author's precise impressions of the country.
30. Searching for Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede
As the sequel to Dealing with Dragons, this novel is very sweet but lacking in the first book's sharp eye (with the exception of its inclusion of the Right Honorable Wicked Stepmothers' Traveling, Drinking, and Debating Society, Men's Auxiliary).
31. Vargas of Brazil by John W. F. Dulles
My copy (a well-weathered library volume) has obviously disappointed scholars who came before me, because the book is thoroughly glossed and dissected by different hands in multiple colors of ink. For example:
Cursive writing on page 62: "hasta ahora -- no attempt at any form of interpretation...the author just gives an account of what is happening, a chronicle."
Written on page 160: "the author keeps giving the idea that Vargas was a very passive fellow, not a leader at all. SEE THIS."
Scribbled on page 274: "Dulles should have some opinion on Vargas's motives! Did V. do it out of patriotism, to avoid civil war, or to avoid personal ridicule -- that is what makes a book, not merely an account of events."
32. The Vargas Regime: The Critical Years, 1934-1938 by Robert M. Levine
This is altogether better than Dulles's biography, although Levine is focused on a much narrower period of time, and his book is necessarily not comprehensive. And he doesn't have much more success in getting close to Vargas, who is wrapped "behind a shield of inscrutability." On the other hand, Levine is aces at uncovering and emphasizing the emblematic characters of the era.
33. This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Baby-faced Fitzgerald lacks a crucial level of critical distance from his equally baby-faced protagonist, and the protagonist's concluding epiphanies come off as tinny, facile, and unearned. In contrast, the first half of the book, dealing with the adolescent Amory, evidences a more dispassionate eye: young Amory is an autobiographical sketch drawn with both bile and compassion, and his natural egotism is shot through with self-loathing.
34. The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon by Sei Shonagon
Sei Shōnagon is a bitch by today's standards -- and there is evidence to suggest that her contemporaries considered her a bitch by 11th-century standards -- but it is difficult not to love her and her narrow-minded, elitist, and exacting views. When she announces, with great seriousness, that "ugly men should sleep only at night, for they cannot be seen in the dark," what can the modern reader do but laugh?
35. With This Ring by Carla Kelly
As usual with the author's books, I can adore the novel so long as I mentally divorce it from its ostensible Regency setting. (In this case, Lydia's late career as a barber was the final straw.) "Marriages of Convenience" are a dime a dozen in the genre, but this book gets points for recognizing -- and then effortlessly puncturing -- the more idiotic elements that tend to arise in the standard narrative blueprint. Such puncturing is also usual in the author's books.
36. Moon-Flash by Patricia A. McKillip
The novel is an interesting experiment in genre science-fiction that consciously avoids European paradigms (the characters are non-white; the mythology is non-Western), but it feels slight and underdeveloped.
37. Dark Lord of Derkholm by Diana Wynne Jones
In a land forced to imitate bad epic-fantasy novels for the benefit of foreign tourists, the wizard Derk is roped into pretending to be the villainous Dark Lord. While Derk concentrates on the logistics of running a continent-wide quest, his children--two teenagers and five gryphons--struggle to assert themselves despite successive layers of institutional oppression.
38. Faro's Daughter by Georgette Heyer
When his young cousin falls in love with the unsuitable Deborah Grantham, grim Max Ravenscar (yes, Max Ravenscar) tries to bribe her into going away. Incensed, Deb retaliates by accepting the cousin's marriage proposal. Max tries to blackmail Deb; Deb tries to kidnap Max. Events escalate from there.
39. Fireworks by Angela Carter
Most of the stories in Carter's first collection seem like interesting initial chapters to never-written novels. A few seem fully formed: "Penetrating to the Heart fo the Forest" examines both the benign and malignant aspects of an Edenic South American wilderness, while "Master" follows a big-game hunter into the Amazonian forests, where he purchases an indigenous woman who will become (in succession) his victim, his help-meet, and his predator.
40. Hard Times by Charles Dickens
Hard Times is Dickens Lite, both in scope and length, but given its subject (the crushing power of inhuman institutions such as industrialization and marriage) and tone (heavy, heavy, heavy sarcasm), a longer treatment would likely drive a reader to suicide. As it is, it's the perfect length for prolonged despair.
41. The Unknown Ajax by Georgette Heyer
When the inheritance of Darrocott Place falls to an unknown and virtually disowned cousin, the eccentric Darracott family braces for the worst. Irascible Lord Darracott expects a country bumpkin to be cowed into submission, Vincent anticipates a rival to be vanquished, and Anthea resents a stranger whom she is pressured to marry. But when Hugo Darracott finally appears, he exceeds everyone's expectations at once.
42. Od Magic by Patricia A. McKillip
Strange things happen after Brenden Vetch arrives to be a gardener at a wizarding school within a repressive kingdom. A mysterious wandering magician appears in the capital; a princess balks at royal restrictions; a scholar uncovers peculiar details about a wizard's labyrinth; a soldier falls in love; one wizard contemplates rebellion while another watches for subversion; and Brendan Vetch tries to figure out the strange magic blooming within him.
43. Still Love in Strange Places by Beth Kephart
When the author (an American raised in northern suburbia) marries her husband (an artist from El Salvador), she experiences difficulties finding her place within his intimidatingly foreign family, language, and country. The best parts of this collection of essays involve Kephart's examination of how twentieth-century Salvadorean politics are intertwined with her husband's family history. But the memoir is more interested in wielding a vast metaphor (marriage as an act of emigration) than in examining El Salvador itself, and the metaphor is far less interesting than the author's precise impressions of the country.
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MAY
44. Medicine and Society in Early Modern Europe by Mary Lindemann
An undergraduate primer on the current historiographical landscape in regards to European medicine between 1500 and 1800. The focus is on breadth, not depth, but Lindemann does a competent job sketching out the historical controversies of the moment, which include the role played by male doctors in creating child-bed mortality, how (and whether) to diagnose past conditions using current medical systems, medical education, the evolution of secular hospitals, how medicine interacted with mercantilism, and the historical invisibility of the patients themselves, despite the active role such patients played in their own treatment. Lindemann sharply rejects the Foucauldian premise that the Scientific Revolution marked a violent break with the medicine of early modern Europe; instead, she argues that the medical developments of the Enlightenment were a logical extension of the trends that preceded it.
45. The Quiet Gentleman by Georgette Heyer
When Gervase Frant, new Earl of Stanyon, returns unscathed from the Napoleonic Wars, he finds a unwelcoming household. His stepmother is miffed at his survival, his half-brother resents him as a rival, and somebody is going to great lengths to kill him. Gervase sighs and sets out to straighten the familial tangle.
46. The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins
I'm sold on the conception of genes as the determinant actors who define an organism; I'm less sold on Dawkin's attempts to stretch and expand the conception so that it becomes a universal theory of everything.
47. Tithe by Holly Black
After ramshackle years spent trailing her musician mother, 16-year-old Kaye returns to her grandmother's house and the secret faerie friends from her childhood. But the faeries are more complicated -- and more deadly -- than Kaye remembers, and she is quickly embroiled in an internecine struggle between warring elfin courts.
48. The Twinkie Squad by Gordon Korman
Thaddeus G. Little Middle School's Special Discussion Group is the consciousness-raising purgatory to which odd-ball and dysfunctional students are sentenced. Their classmates mock them until the inadvertent efforts of Douglas Fairchild -- philosopher, sixth grader, and Pefkakian national -- make the Twinkies the unexpected darlings of the school.
49. Wheel of the Infinite by Martha Wells
Exiled priestess Maskelle returns home for a centennial ritual designed to renew and preserve the world. Unfortunately, something is going wrong with the ritual, and Maskelle has to salvage the situation despite a hostile royal court, foreign conspirators, and guidance from an unreliable, inhuman source. Finely observed, carefully characterized, free of clichés, and progressively minded. But most importantly, the book off-handedly introduces a cursed puppet. When the puppet later becomes demonically possessed, he is regarded with the same degree of weary nonchalance by the other characters. You know times are bad when the demonically possessed puppet is the least of your worries.
50. Zelda: A Biography by Nancy Milford
The biography is at its strongest (and most indignant) in cataloging Scott's jealous sense of ownership over their marriage as a source of material, especially after Zelda began writing her own stories and novels. As a historical analysis, the book uses a system of invisibly annotated endnotes (which has happily fallen out of fashion), and there are jarring glimpses of an academic dissertation (complete with tedious literary criticism) poking through the skin of the biography.
51. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J. K. Rowling
There's a line in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone that sums up the defining charm of the entire series: "In years to come, Harry would never quite remember how he had managed to get through his exams when he half expected Voldemort to come bursting through the door at any moment."
52. White Apples by Jonathan Carroll
When informed that he has died and been resurrected, Vincent Ettrich initially resists the idea. But then his life begins crowding with fantastic things -- including the return of an ex-girlfriend, a voracious guardian angel, murderous children, an embodiment of chaos, a giant talking rat named Alan Wales, and the omnipotent influence of Vincent's unborn son -- and Vincent must remember his purpose in coming back to life. The novel has moments of transcendent weirdness, but the characters are flat and didactic: when they are not carefully articulating their personality, they are uttering relentless expository paragraphs about the meaning of life.
53. The Time of the Ghost by Diana Wynne Jones
There is a ghost. She knows that she is one of four neglected sisters, but as she slips between times and memories, she has trouble identifying herself. And that identity becomes increasingly important as she watches her sisters attract the notice of a malignant power. The novel manages to finely balance its grim themes, to the point where a blood sacrifice seems less terrifying than the scene in which the sisters watch their father stifle his habitual "bitches" in the presence of a disinterested outsider.
44. Medicine and Society in Early Modern Europe by Mary Lindemann
An undergraduate primer on the current historiographical landscape in regards to European medicine between 1500 and 1800. The focus is on breadth, not depth, but Lindemann does a competent job sketching out the historical controversies of the moment, which include the role played by male doctors in creating child-bed mortality, how (and whether) to diagnose past conditions using current medical systems, medical education, the evolution of secular hospitals, how medicine interacted with mercantilism, and the historical invisibility of the patients themselves, despite the active role such patients played in their own treatment. Lindemann sharply rejects the Foucauldian premise that the Scientific Revolution marked a violent break with the medicine of early modern Europe; instead, she argues that the medical developments of the Enlightenment were a logical extension of the trends that preceded it.
45. The Quiet Gentleman by Georgette Heyer
When Gervase Frant, new Earl of Stanyon, returns unscathed from the Napoleonic Wars, he finds a unwelcoming household. His stepmother is miffed at his survival, his half-brother resents him as a rival, and somebody is going to great lengths to kill him. Gervase sighs and sets out to straighten the familial tangle.
46. The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins
I'm sold on the conception of genes as the determinant actors who define an organism; I'm less sold on Dawkin's attempts to stretch and expand the conception so that it becomes a universal theory of everything.
47. Tithe by Holly Black
After ramshackle years spent trailing her musician mother, 16-year-old Kaye returns to her grandmother's house and the secret faerie friends from her childhood. But the faeries are more complicated -- and more deadly -- than Kaye remembers, and she is quickly embroiled in an internecine struggle between warring elfin courts.
48. The Twinkie Squad by Gordon Korman
Thaddeus G. Little Middle School's Special Discussion Group is the consciousness-raising purgatory to which odd-ball and dysfunctional students are sentenced. Their classmates mock them until the inadvertent efforts of Douglas Fairchild -- philosopher, sixth grader, and Pefkakian national -- make the Twinkies the unexpected darlings of the school.
49. Wheel of the Infinite by Martha Wells
Exiled priestess Maskelle returns home for a centennial ritual designed to renew and preserve the world. Unfortunately, something is going wrong with the ritual, and Maskelle has to salvage the situation despite a hostile royal court, foreign conspirators, and guidance from an unreliable, inhuman source. Finely observed, carefully characterized, free of clichés, and progressively minded. But most importantly, the book off-handedly introduces a cursed puppet. When the puppet later becomes demonically possessed, he is regarded with the same degree of weary nonchalance by the other characters. You know times are bad when the demonically possessed puppet is the least of your worries.
50. Zelda: A Biography by Nancy Milford
The biography is at its strongest (and most indignant) in cataloging Scott's jealous sense of ownership over their marriage as a source of material, especially after Zelda began writing her own stories and novels. As a historical analysis, the book uses a system of invisibly annotated endnotes (which has happily fallen out of fashion), and there are jarring glimpses of an academic dissertation (complete with tedious literary criticism) poking through the skin of the biography.
51. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J. K. Rowling
There's a line in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone that sums up the defining charm of the entire series: "In years to come, Harry would never quite remember how he had managed to get through his exams when he half expected Voldemort to come bursting through the door at any moment."
52. White Apples by Jonathan Carroll
When informed that he has died and been resurrected, Vincent Ettrich initially resists the idea. But then his life begins crowding with fantastic things -- including the return of an ex-girlfriend, a voracious guardian angel, murderous children, an embodiment of chaos, a giant talking rat named Alan Wales, and the omnipotent influence of Vincent's unborn son -- and Vincent must remember his purpose in coming back to life. The novel has moments of transcendent weirdness, but the characters are flat and didactic: when they are not carefully articulating their personality, they are uttering relentless expository paragraphs about the meaning of life.
53. The Time of the Ghost by Diana Wynne Jones
There is a ghost. She knows that she is one of four neglected sisters, but as she slips between times and memories, she has trouble identifying herself. And that identity becomes increasingly important as she watches her sisters attract the notice of a malignant power. The novel manages to finely balance its grim themes, to the point where a blood sacrifice seems less terrifying than the scene in which the sisters watch their father stifle his habitual "bitches" in the presence of a disinterested outsider.
6Adobe
JUNE
54. The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy
It's as if Bertie Wooster had a secret identity -- and that secret identity was Jeeves.
55. The Oracle Glass by Judith Merkle Riley
As Louis XIV reigns over a perilously decadent Versailles, a network of witches -- poisoners, abortionists, feminists -- construct a covert, corporate empire in Paris at the end of the 17th century. The heroine wobbles between two untenable positions: docile feminine conventionality (which treacherously fails her beautiful sister) and brutal, mercenary pragmatism (which treacherously fails the Mafia-esque witches).
56. Dom Casmurro by Machado de Assis
Boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy proceeds to enact tragicomic variations on Othello. My family is officially sick of me bursting into a room and saying, "Okay, wait, you've got to hear this bit, no, really, it's brilliant," and then reading chapters from this novel.
57. Regency Buck by Georgette Heyer
This novel is a mystery written along similar lines as The Quiet Gentleman: any reader can identify the real villain by pinpointing the one character who has no discernible flaws. On the other hand, if you ignore the plot and the characters, the novel becomes a rollicking travelogue of Beau Brummell's London, complete with cock fights, curricle races, and snuff recipes.
58. Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers
Lord Peter Wimsey -- aristocratic twit, calculating detective, and traumatized veteran of the trenches -- involves himself in two strange mysteries.
59. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling
This volume begins the grand tradition of scapegoating Harry Potter for crimes he did not commit but for which he will suffer with stoic martyrdom.
60. Frederica by Georgette Heyer
This novel has a perfect, bubbly first half; the second half contains fewer giddy episodes and more artificial obstacles. However, the biggest problem is that Heyer only invests humanity in half the cast.
61. The Columbian Exchange by Alfred W. Crosby
Breezily written in tones suitable for a college freshman.
62. The Burning Stone by Kate Elliott
"Mawwiage, that bwessed awwangement, that dweam within a dweam..."
63. Child of Flame by Kate Elliott
Possibly too much sugar for a dime.
64. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling
Scabbers as a sleeper agent is a stroke of slow-burn genius.
65. Clouds of Witness by Dorothy L. Sayers
Lord Peter Wimsey tries to solve a murder that implicates, by turns, his brother, his sister, and a host of suspects.
66. The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank
A collection of short stories centered around Jane Rosenal as she dates older men, hates working in publishing, and lives in New York. Sparse, brittle, and forgettable.
67. Summer Campaign by Carla Kelly
The bad guys are all hyper conscious of social delineations; the good guys are all merrily egalitarian, physically affectionate, and totally alien to the Regency period.
68. Beauty by Robin McKinley
I read this novel -- a cozy retelling of "Beauty and the Beast" -- so many times as a child that the words are burned into my subconscious. Re-reading the book now feels like mouthing the words to a well-rehearsed play or swallowing something well-chewed.
69. Unnatural Death by Dorothy L. Sayers
Excellent and horrifying, especially as the novel progresses and the villain's gimlet-eyed brutality becomes more and more explicit. (The scene in which Mr. Trig recounts his near-escape, with the wounded woman peering over the sofa, is especially hair-raising.)
70. The Gathering Storm by Kate Elliott
The pawns deployed in the last four volumes finally come home to roost as everyone hustles into position to facilitate two divergent apocalypses. The rising action and definite climax make the novel much shapelier than its predecessors, and even the unresolved sub-plots involving Alain and Hanna have psychological structure: Alain completes the process of grieving for his lost wife while Hanna recovers from her prior captivity.
71. Seven-Day Magic by Edward Eager
"It calls itself 'The Magic Door,' but there's not a speck of real magic in it anywhere! It's just about this boy that learns to get along with these other people by being friendly and stuff. And the magic door's just the door of good fellowship or something. Man, do I despise a book like that!"
54. The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy
It's as if Bertie Wooster had a secret identity -- and that secret identity was Jeeves.
55. The Oracle Glass by Judith Merkle Riley
As Louis XIV reigns over a perilously decadent Versailles, a network of witches -- poisoners, abortionists, feminists -- construct a covert, corporate empire in Paris at the end of the 17th century. The heroine wobbles between two untenable positions: docile feminine conventionality (which treacherously fails her beautiful sister) and brutal, mercenary pragmatism (which treacherously fails the Mafia-esque witches).
56. Dom Casmurro by Machado de Assis
Boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy proceeds to enact tragicomic variations on Othello. My family is officially sick of me bursting into a room and saying, "Okay, wait, you've got to hear this bit, no, really, it's brilliant," and then reading chapters from this novel.
57. Regency Buck by Georgette Heyer
This novel is a mystery written along similar lines as The Quiet Gentleman: any reader can identify the real villain by pinpointing the one character who has no discernible flaws. On the other hand, if you ignore the plot and the characters, the novel becomes a rollicking travelogue of Beau Brummell's London, complete with cock fights, curricle races, and snuff recipes.
58. Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers
Lord Peter Wimsey -- aristocratic twit, calculating detective, and traumatized veteran of the trenches -- involves himself in two strange mysteries.
59. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling
This volume begins the grand tradition of scapegoating Harry Potter for crimes he did not commit but for which he will suffer with stoic martyrdom.
60. Frederica by Georgette Heyer
This novel has a perfect, bubbly first half; the second half contains fewer giddy episodes and more artificial obstacles. However, the biggest problem is that Heyer only invests humanity in half the cast.
61. The Columbian Exchange by Alfred W. Crosby
Breezily written in tones suitable for a college freshman.
62. The Burning Stone by Kate Elliott
"Mawwiage, that bwessed awwangement, that dweam within a dweam..."
63. Child of Flame by Kate Elliott
Possibly too much sugar for a dime.
64. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling
Scabbers as a sleeper agent is a stroke of slow-burn genius.
65. Clouds of Witness by Dorothy L. Sayers
Lord Peter Wimsey tries to solve a murder that implicates, by turns, his brother, his sister, and a host of suspects.
66. The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank
A collection of short stories centered around Jane Rosenal as she dates older men, hates working in publishing, and lives in New York. Sparse, brittle, and forgettable.
67. Summer Campaign by Carla Kelly
The bad guys are all hyper conscious of social delineations; the good guys are all merrily egalitarian, physically affectionate, and totally alien to the Regency period.
68. Beauty by Robin McKinley
I read this novel -- a cozy retelling of "Beauty and the Beast" -- so many times as a child that the words are burned into my subconscious. Re-reading the book now feels like mouthing the words to a well-rehearsed play or swallowing something well-chewed.
69. Unnatural Death by Dorothy L. Sayers
Excellent and horrifying, especially as the novel progresses and the villain's gimlet-eyed brutality becomes more and more explicit. (The scene in which Mr. Trig recounts his near-escape, with the wounded woman peering over the sofa, is especially hair-raising.)
70. The Gathering Storm by Kate Elliott
The pawns deployed in the last four volumes finally come home to roost as everyone hustles into position to facilitate two divergent apocalypses. The rising action and definite climax make the novel much shapelier than its predecessors, and even the unresolved sub-plots involving Alain and Hanna have psychological structure: Alain completes the process of grieving for his lost wife while Hanna recovers from her prior captivity.
71. Seven-Day Magic by Edward Eager
"It calls itself 'The Magic Door,' but there's not a speck of real magic in it anywhere! It's just about this boy that learns to get along with these other people by being friendly and stuff. And the magic door's just the door of good fellowship or something. Man, do I despise a book like that!"
7Adobe
JULY
72. Nicaragua: A Decade of Revolution by Lou Dematteis
A photojournalistic account of the political and military struggle between the Sandinistas and their U.S.-backed opponents in Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990. Both the photographs (collected from dozens of photojournalists who covered the conflict) and the text (written by Anthony Jenkins) are sympathetic to the Sandinista cause.
73. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire b J. K. Rowling
Excellent beginning and ending; meandering and shapeless middle.
74. Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
It is easy to pick apart the hypocrisies and biases in the novel; it is less easy to separate the deliberate hypocrisies of the characters from the author's own unconscious biases. I suspect Dick Diver is supposed to be insufferable, just as I suspect his views on women are not intended as noxious, per se -- but it is hard to tell.
75. The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay
In a faux-medieval world modeled on Moorish Iberia, the culture of peninsular Al-Rassan is ground between warring religious zealots. Picking their way through the tangled issue of nationalist identity, a soldier, a poet, and a doctor try--and fail--to find a compromise.
76. Black Sheep by Georgette Heyer
Never reaches the screwball hysteria that marks the best Heyer novels, but the steady development of its unconventional hero is unusually thorough for the author.
77. The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy L. Sayers
It takes a while for anyone to notice that the aged General Fentiman has expired in his seat at the Bellona Club, but determining the exact time of death becomes vitally important for his heirs once they discover the intricate details of his will. To determine the time and cause of death, Lord Peter Wimsey -- family friend and hobbyist detective -- follows a trail of complications and misdirection laid by culprits working at cross-purposes.
78. The Massacre at El Mozote by Mark Danner
The author diligently sifts through the newspaper coverage, memos generated by the U.S. State Department, interviews with surviving witnesses to El Mozote, and conversations with officers of both the FMLN and the Salvadoran Army to provide a comprehensive account of what happened at El Mozote in 1981 and how the event was deliberately suppressed for the sake of the Cold War.
79. Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers
Instead of the murder, the trial, or the mystery's solution, the high points of the novel are a pair of sequences -- a lock-picking scene and a rigged Ouija board -- which involve neither Peter nor his lady love. (There's probably a freshman English paper to be excavated from the cross-purposes of Peter and the novel itself.)
80. The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler
Liberally (but never gratuitously) studded with post-modern fillips -- the plural narrator, the stylistic shifts into lists and letters, the darting allusions to Austen's novels -- and the fragmentary style serves its greatest purpose in charting the revelations and evolutions of the characters' relationships. I was not completely won over by the book -- I disagree with some of its conclusions and most of its critical analysis of Austen -- but it is a thoughtful meta-text on the source material.
81. Pat of Silver Bush by Lucy Maud Montgomery
Possesses a heroine who is cosily curmudgeonly. I was not charmed.
82. My Car in Managua by Forrest D. Colburn
In short essays based on his sporadic periods of residence in Nicaragua during the 1980s, the author describes the quotidian results of the new Sandinista government. Colburn is even-handed and remarkably non-judgmental.
83. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J. K. Rowling
I was impressed by how closely the loose, episodic structure of the novel (and the rest of the series) echoes the great polyphonous ocean of Harry Potter fanfiction. Fanfiction accrues, barnacle-like, to everything, but the form is particularly well-suited to the Harry Potter books, which juggle dozens of slackly integrated characters and set-pieces.
84. Rose Daughter by Robin McKinley
A cozy and cheerful book, covering the same material as the author's Beauty but dense with details about roses and sisterhood, and somewhat more clear-eyed about the mechanisms operating beneath the original fairy tale. (Hint: nobody really wants the Beast to be restored to his old self.)
85. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J. K. Rowling
Pinched and sour; a slim chronicle of grim events.
86. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling
The same light touch as Charles Dickens.
87. Mistress Pat by Lucy Maud Montgomery
The heroine is a crank, the plot is ramshackle, and the depiction of deliberate alienation from the human race is horrifying.
72. Nicaragua: A Decade of Revolution by Lou Dematteis
A photojournalistic account of the political and military struggle between the Sandinistas and their U.S.-backed opponents in Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990. Both the photographs (collected from dozens of photojournalists who covered the conflict) and the text (written by Anthony Jenkins) are sympathetic to the Sandinista cause.
73. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire b J. K. Rowling
Excellent beginning and ending; meandering and shapeless middle.
74. Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
It is easy to pick apart the hypocrisies and biases in the novel; it is less easy to separate the deliberate hypocrisies of the characters from the author's own unconscious biases. I suspect Dick Diver is supposed to be insufferable, just as I suspect his views on women are not intended as noxious, per se -- but it is hard to tell.
75. The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay
In a faux-medieval world modeled on Moorish Iberia, the culture of peninsular Al-Rassan is ground between warring religious zealots. Picking their way through the tangled issue of nationalist identity, a soldier, a poet, and a doctor try--and fail--to find a compromise.
76. Black Sheep by Georgette Heyer
Never reaches the screwball hysteria that marks the best Heyer novels, but the steady development of its unconventional hero is unusually thorough for the author.
77. The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy L. Sayers
It takes a while for anyone to notice that the aged General Fentiman has expired in his seat at the Bellona Club, but determining the exact time of death becomes vitally important for his heirs once they discover the intricate details of his will. To determine the time and cause of death, Lord Peter Wimsey -- family friend and hobbyist detective -- follows a trail of complications and misdirection laid by culprits working at cross-purposes.
78. The Massacre at El Mozote by Mark Danner
The author diligently sifts through the newspaper coverage, memos generated by the U.S. State Department, interviews with surviving witnesses to El Mozote, and conversations with officers of both the FMLN and the Salvadoran Army to provide a comprehensive account of what happened at El Mozote in 1981 and how the event was deliberately suppressed for the sake of the Cold War.
79. Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers
Instead of the murder, the trial, or the mystery's solution, the high points of the novel are a pair of sequences -- a lock-picking scene and a rigged Ouija board -- which involve neither Peter nor his lady love. (There's probably a freshman English paper to be excavated from the cross-purposes of Peter and the novel itself.)
80. The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler
Liberally (but never gratuitously) studded with post-modern fillips -- the plural narrator, the stylistic shifts into lists and letters, the darting allusions to Austen's novels -- and the fragmentary style serves its greatest purpose in charting the revelations and evolutions of the characters' relationships. I was not completely won over by the book -- I disagree with some of its conclusions and most of its critical analysis of Austen -- but it is a thoughtful meta-text on the source material.
81. Pat of Silver Bush by Lucy Maud Montgomery
Possesses a heroine who is cosily curmudgeonly. I was not charmed.
82. My Car in Managua by Forrest D. Colburn
In short essays based on his sporadic periods of residence in Nicaragua during the 1980s, the author describes the quotidian results of the new Sandinista government. Colburn is even-handed and remarkably non-judgmental.
83. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J. K. Rowling
I was impressed by how closely the loose, episodic structure of the novel (and the rest of the series) echoes the great polyphonous ocean of Harry Potter fanfiction. Fanfiction accrues, barnacle-like, to everything, but the form is particularly well-suited to the Harry Potter books, which juggle dozens of slackly integrated characters and set-pieces.
84. Rose Daughter by Robin McKinley
A cozy and cheerful book, covering the same material as the author's Beauty but dense with details about roses and sisterhood, and somewhat more clear-eyed about the mechanisms operating beneath the original fairy tale. (Hint: nobody really wants the Beast to be restored to his old self.)
85. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J. K. Rowling
Pinched and sour; a slim chronicle of grim events.
86. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling
The same light touch as Charles Dickens.
87. Mistress Pat by Lucy Maud Montgomery
The heroine is a crank, the plot is ramshackle, and the depiction of deliberate alienation from the human race is horrifying.
8Adobe
AUGUST
88. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
Succeeds on the strength of Cassandra's voice, which is wry, charming, thoughtful, and "consciously naive."
89. How to Cook a Wolf by M. F. K. Fisher
"How To Be Cheerful While Starving."
90. Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende
Has it all: adventure, mystery, romance, and kitchen sinks.
91. Holidays in Hell by P. J. O'Rourke
"Just how poor are you?" "Mind if I look around in your hovel?" "Say, you wouldn't happen to have any kids that are a little more crippled or anything, would you?"
92. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
Pirates! Who doesn't love pirates!
93. The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain
Subtitled: 'An Account of American Exceptionalism'
94. Midsummer Moon by Laura Kinsale
Making a virtue out of obstreperous bleariness.
95. Samba by Alma Guillermoprieto
A journalist examines poverty, gender, and how the history of black Brazil is both smothered and reconstructed by the mainstream culture.
96. Wolf Tower by Tanith Lee
Claidi's first act of rebellion is keeping a journal; her second is freeing a charming balloonist imprisoned by the House.
97. The Five Red Herrings by Dorothy L. Sayers
An veritable goldmine of train time-tables.
98. A Brief History of Central America by Hector Perez-Brignoli
Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, along with glancing treatments of Panama and Belize.
99. Wolf Star by Tanith Lee
Claidi is spirited away to a jungle-bound laboratory, where the rooms are always moving and the residents include lifelike dolls, sentient experiments, and one introverted prince.
100. My Soul to Keep by Tananarive Due
A pitch-perfect collection of horrors: grisly murders, poltergeists, and the domestic catastrophe of a marriage that alternately disintegrates and solidifies.
101. Deep Secret by Diana Wynne Jones
Rupert Venable arranges for five potential magicians to converge on a science-fiction convention. Unfortunately, the dynastic struggle of the universe next door also makes an appearance.
Hmmm.
I guess I'm shooting for 150 books now?
88. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
Succeeds on the strength of Cassandra's voice, which is wry, charming, thoughtful, and "consciously naive."
89. How to Cook a Wolf by M. F. K. Fisher
"How To Be Cheerful While Starving."
90. Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende
Has it all: adventure, mystery, romance, and kitchen sinks.
91. Holidays in Hell by P. J. O'Rourke
"Just how poor are you?" "Mind if I look around in your hovel?" "Say, you wouldn't happen to have any kids that are a little more crippled or anything, would you?"
92. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
Pirates! Who doesn't love pirates!
93. The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain
Subtitled: 'An Account of American Exceptionalism'
94. Midsummer Moon by Laura Kinsale
Making a virtue out of obstreperous bleariness.
95. Samba by Alma Guillermoprieto
A journalist examines poverty, gender, and how the history of black Brazil is both smothered and reconstructed by the mainstream culture.
96. Wolf Tower by Tanith Lee
Claidi's first act of rebellion is keeping a journal; her second is freeing a charming balloonist imprisoned by the House.
97. The Five Red Herrings by Dorothy L. Sayers
An veritable goldmine of train time-tables.
98. A Brief History of Central America by Hector Perez-Brignoli
Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, along with glancing treatments of Panama and Belize.
99. Wolf Star by Tanith Lee
Claidi is spirited away to a jungle-bound laboratory, where the rooms are always moving and the residents include lifelike dolls, sentient experiments, and one introverted prince.
100. My Soul to Keep by Tananarive Due
A pitch-perfect collection of horrors: grisly murders, poltergeists, and the domestic catastrophe of a marriage that alternately disintegrates and solidifies.
101. Deep Secret by Diana Wynne Jones
Rupert Venable arranges for five potential magicians to converge on a science-fiction convention. Unfortunately, the dynastic struggle of the universe next door also makes an appearance.
Hmmm.
I guess I'm shooting for 150 books now?
9Adobe
SEPTEMBER
102. Lord Peter by Dorothy L. Sayers
These short stories portray steely figure who can assume a dozen different identities at the drop of a hat in his varied roles as an undercover mole in a criminal syndicate, a magician rescuing an imprisoned lady, and a top-secret foreign agent of the British government. In short, it's Lord Peter as James Bond.
103. I, Rigoberta Menchu by Rigoberta Menchu Tum
The narrative has come under fire for certain inconsistencies between its details and the author's real life, but I'm not sure this invalidates its broader portrait of the life of the indigenous peoples within Guatemala's borders.
104. Wolf Queen by Tanith Lee
In the third book of the series, Claidi marches off to find her missing betrothed and instead meets the girl who should have lived Claidi's life.
105. The Merlin Conspiracy by Diana Wynne Jones
More about delightful moments and details (The personified cities! Roddy's deathly grandfather!) than the plot, which is nearly impossible to reconstruct in retrospect.
106. Sorcery and Cecelia by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer
Delightful, just for the perfect voice of the letters: simultaneously squawking, self-absorbed, and sweet.
107. Have His Carcase by Dorothy L. Sayers
Harriet Vane, mystery author and general figure of notoriety, stumbles across a corpse on the seashore. Lord Peter Wimsey swoops to the rescue, and together they untangle a complicated case involving romantic illusions and pragmatic resolutions.
108. Wolf Wing by Tanith Lee
Resolves every lingering plot thread from the previous three books, but its portrayal of Claidi's personal development feels repetitive and redundant after Wolf Queen.
109. Cetaganda by Lois McMaster Bujold
Snappy and tightly plotted, and it mounts an interesting defense of Cetaganda's purdah-like isolation of women, whom Miles initially undervalues as political players in Cetaganda's government.
110. Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. Sayers
An impeccably observed portrait of office life and the advertising industry.
111. Johnny and the Dead by Terry Pratchett
Familiar jokes still just as funny.
112. The A. I. Gang: Operation Sherlock by Bruce Coville
Genius children! Who design robots and drive dune buggies and foil dastardly plots! Like a book made to order for eight-year-old me.
113. Atonement by Ian McEwan
Briony spends her life attempting to atone for two sins: the first is perhaps forgivable, due to her youth and lack of malice, but her second -- a sin of inactivity, of passivity, of fear -- is ever unabsolvable.
114. Welcome to Temptation by Jennifer Crusie
Two sisters come to a small Ohio town and discover the life-affirming values of pornography.
115. Good Faith and Truthful Ignorance by Alexandra Parma Cook and Noble David Cook
In this account of a minor 16th-century legal battle, a Spanish conquistador charged with bigamy and tax evasion fights to retain his wealth, his family, and his legacy.
116. The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers
The Peter Wimsey books tend to render Peter as an ultimately ineffectual actor (or, worse, a paradoxically toxic one), and this trend emerges fully bloomed in this mystery, where Peter's influence is distinctly subservient to the power of divine, merciless retribution.
117. Good-Bye To All That by Robert Graves
Another writer might have taken the raw material of the book -- the feverish public school brutalities, the senseless deaths in the trenches, the mindless jingoism of the homefront -- and strung together a series of relentlessly dour episodes, but not Graves. Like the poet he is, Graves approaches his odium obliquely.
118. The A. I. Gang: Robot Trouble by Bruce Coville
The teenagers of the A. I. Gang, dead-set on developing a crime-solving artificial intelligence, take a break to launch a musical robot into orbit.
119. This Can't Be Happening At Macdonald Hall by Gordon Korman
Bruno and Boots, self-appointed hell-raisers at Macdonald Hall, are given staid and insufferable roommates in an attempt to dampen their exuberant exploits.
120. Western Attitudes Toward Death by Philippe Aries
In a slim collection of lectures, a changing public perception of death is charted along lines of emerging individuality in the modern era.
121. Leave It To Psmith by P. G. Wodehouse
Psmith is rightly famous in the annals of Wodehousian heroes.
122. Magic By The Lake by Edward Eager
I am seemingly incapable of not loving Edward Eager books. They satiate my inner eight-year-old.
102. Lord Peter by Dorothy L. Sayers
These short stories portray steely figure who can assume a dozen different identities at the drop of a hat in his varied roles as an undercover mole in a criminal syndicate, a magician rescuing an imprisoned lady, and a top-secret foreign agent of the British government. In short, it's Lord Peter as James Bond.
103. I, Rigoberta Menchu by Rigoberta Menchu Tum
The narrative has come under fire for certain inconsistencies between its details and the author's real life, but I'm not sure this invalidates its broader portrait of the life of the indigenous peoples within Guatemala's borders.
104. Wolf Queen by Tanith Lee
In the third book of the series, Claidi marches off to find her missing betrothed and instead meets the girl who should have lived Claidi's life.
105. The Merlin Conspiracy by Diana Wynne Jones
More about delightful moments and details (The personified cities! Roddy's deathly grandfather!) than the plot, which is nearly impossible to reconstruct in retrospect.
106. Sorcery and Cecelia by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer
Delightful, just for the perfect voice of the letters: simultaneously squawking, self-absorbed, and sweet.
107. Have His Carcase by Dorothy L. Sayers
Harriet Vane, mystery author and general figure of notoriety, stumbles across a corpse on the seashore. Lord Peter Wimsey swoops to the rescue, and together they untangle a complicated case involving romantic illusions and pragmatic resolutions.
108. Wolf Wing by Tanith Lee
Resolves every lingering plot thread from the previous three books, but its portrayal of Claidi's personal development feels repetitive and redundant after Wolf Queen.
109. Cetaganda by Lois McMaster Bujold
Snappy and tightly plotted, and it mounts an interesting defense of Cetaganda's purdah-like isolation of women, whom Miles initially undervalues as political players in Cetaganda's government.
110. Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. Sayers
An impeccably observed portrait of office life and the advertising industry.
111. Johnny and the Dead by Terry Pratchett
Familiar jokes still just as funny.
112. The A. I. Gang: Operation Sherlock by Bruce Coville
Genius children! Who design robots and drive dune buggies and foil dastardly plots! Like a book made to order for eight-year-old me.
113. Atonement by Ian McEwan
Briony spends her life attempting to atone for two sins: the first is perhaps forgivable, due to her youth and lack of malice, but her second -- a sin of inactivity, of passivity, of fear -- is ever unabsolvable.
114. Welcome to Temptation by Jennifer Crusie
Two sisters come to a small Ohio town and discover the life-affirming values of pornography.
115. Good Faith and Truthful Ignorance by Alexandra Parma Cook and Noble David Cook
In this account of a minor 16th-century legal battle, a Spanish conquistador charged with bigamy and tax evasion fights to retain his wealth, his family, and his legacy.
116. The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers
The Peter Wimsey books tend to render Peter as an ultimately ineffectual actor (or, worse, a paradoxically toxic one), and this trend emerges fully bloomed in this mystery, where Peter's influence is distinctly subservient to the power of divine, merciless retribution.
117. Good-Bye To All That by Robert Graves
Another writer might have taken the raw material of the book -- the feverish public school brutalities, the senseless deaths in the trenches, the mindless jingoism of the homefront -- and strung together a series of relentlessly dour episodes, but not Graves. Like the poet he is, Graves approaches his odium obliquely.
118. The A. I. Gang: Robot Trouble by Bruce Coville
The teenagers of the A. I. Gang, dead-set on developing a crime-solving artificial intelligence, take a break to launch a musical robot into orbit.
119. This Can't Be Happening At Macdonald Hall by Gordon Korman
Bruno and Boots, self-appointed hell-raisers at Macdonald Hall, are given staid and insufferable roommates in an attempt to dampen their exuberant exploits.
120. Western Attitudes Toward Death by Philippe Aries
In a slim collection of lectures, a changing public perception of death is charted along lines of emerging individuality in the modern era.
121. Leave It To Psmith by P. G. Wodehouse
Psmith is rightly famous in the annals of Wodehousian heroes.
122. Magic By The Lake by Edward Eager
I am seemingly incapable of not loving Edward Eager books. They satiate my inner eight-year-old.
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OCTOBER
123. Love and Longing in Bombay by Vikram Chandra
In a series of linked short stories, modern Mumbaikars discover love, death, and real estate.
124. Bone Dance by Emma Bull
Tart and dense: its opening portrait of the protagonist's urban fantasia is thick with fabulous details.
125. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
It is probably not common practice to spend the whole of the novel rooting for Mrs. Danvers, but I am that rare exception.
123. Love and Longing in Bombay by Vikram Chandra
In a series of linked short stories, modern Mumbaikars discover love, death, and real estate.
124. Bone Dance by Emma Bull
Tart and dense: its opening portrait of the protagonist's urban fantasia is thick with fabulous details.
125. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
It is probably not common practice to spend the whole of the novel rooting for Mrs. Danvers, but I am that rare exception.
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126. The World According to Garp by John Irving
The ur-text of Irving novels.
127. Microserfs by Douglas Coupland
A gaggle of jejune Microsoft employees break away from Bill's sterile empire to form their own company and build their own lives.
128. The Spanish Character by Bartolome Bennassar
Digressions on Spanish perceptions of time, geography, religion, class, labor, recreation, marriage, honor, and death, as seen through the eyes of foreign travelers, legal records, and the Inquisition.
The ur-text of Irving novels.
127. Microserfs by Douglas Coupland
A gaggle of jejune Microsoft employees break away from Bill's sterile empire to form their own company and build their own lives.
128. The Spanish Character by Bartolome Bennassar
Digressions on Spanish perceptions of time, geography, religion, class, labor, recreation, marriage, honor, and death, as seen through the eyes of foreign travelers, legal records, and the Inquisition.
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129. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
Sprawls blandly.
130. Brokedown Palace by Steven Brust
Aided and thwarted by supernatural forces, four royal brothers reluctantly struggle with one another within a rotting castle.
131. Daily Life in Spain in the Golden Age by Marcelin Defourneaux
Using the travel accounts, legal documents, and formidable literature of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Defourneaux provides capsule analyses of Spain's cities, universities, theatres, armies, churches, and festivals.
Sprawls blandly.
130. Brokedown Palace by Steven Brust
Aided and thwarted by supernatural forces, four royal brothers reluctantly struggle with one another within a rotting castle.
131. Daily Life in Spain in the Golden Age by Marcelin Defourneaux
Using the travel accounts, legal documents, and formidable literature of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Defourneaux provides capsule analyses of Spain's cities, universities, theatres, armies, churches, and festivals.
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132. The Star of Kazan by Eva Ibbotson
Lovely and sweet and stuffed with perfect sentences.
133. Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith
The bright dimensions of a comic strip.
134. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
The Starkadders may have the slow heave of fecund nature on their side, but they are no match for Flora Poste's decorous zeal.
Lovely and sweet and stuffed with perfect sentences.
133. Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith
The bright dimensions of a comic strip.
134. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
The Starkadders may have the slow heave of fecund nature on their side, but they are no match for Flora Poste's decorous zeal.
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135. Inquisition and Society in Spain in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries by Henry Kamen
Does a fine job examining the self-identity of Iberian conversos and the evolution of the Inquisition over time, but its efforts to correct hysterical misapprehensions about the institution are undercut by its haphazard organization.
136. The American Way of Death Revisited by Jessica Mitford
Alternately amusing and distressing.
137. The Broken Vessel by Kate Ross
A wealth of red herrings.
Does a fine job examining the self-identity of Iberian conversos and the evolution of the Inquisition over time, but its efforts to correct hysterical misapprehensions about the institution are undercut by its haphazard organization.
136. The American Way of Death Revisited by Jessica Mitford
Alternately amusing and distressing.
137. The Broken Vessel by Kate Ross
A wealth of red herrings.
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138. Chicana Falsa by Michele M. Serros
Growing up monolingual and Mexican-American in California.
139. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
There are birds among the ruins and survivors in the slaughterhouse.
140. Jhereg by Steven Brust
Vlad Taltos cracks wise, maneuvers through elvish aristocrats, and kills people.
Growing up monolingual and Mexican-American in California.
139. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
There are birds among the ruins and survivors in the slaughterhouse.
140. Jhereg by Steven Brust
Vlad Taltos cracks wise, maneuvers through elvish aristocrats, and kills people.
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NOVEMBER
141. False Colours by Georgette Heyer
The emotional climax of the novel lies not in the romantic entanglements of the Fancot twins but in the poker-faced courtship between their widowed mother and her corseted suitor.
142. Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny
Cheerfully pulpy, horrifically punny, and fatally afraid that someone will label it as "fantasy."
143. Yendi by Steven Brust
It out-Byzantines the Byzantines.
141. False Colours by Georgette Heyer
The emotional climax of the novel lies not in the romantic entanglements of the Fancot twins but in the poker-faced courtship between their widowed mother and her corseted suitor.
142. Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny
Cheerfully pulpy, horrifically punny, and fatally afraid that someone will label it as "fantasy."
143. Yendi by Steven Brust
It out-Byzantines the Byzantines.
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144. Hispanic Nation: Culture, Politics, and the Construction of Identity by Geoffrey Fox
Primer on the process by which Spanish-speaking immigrants to the United States developed a unified identity in the twentieth century through popular politics and mass media.
145. Corrupting Dr. Nice by John Kessel
Climaxes in a courtroom battle between Abraham Lincoln and Jesus Christ.
146. Whom the Gods Love by Kate Ross
In its mounting tension between public lives and private horrors, and in the little explosions caused by those frictions, the novel is nearly apocalyptic.
Primer on the process by which Spanish-speaking immigrants to the United States developed a unified identity in the twentieth century through popular politics and mass media.
145. Corrupting Dr. Nice by John Kessel
Climaxes in a courtroom battle between Abraham Lincoln and Jesus Christ.
146. Whom the Gods Love by Kate Ross
In its mounting tension between public lives and private horrors, and in the little explosions caused by those frictions, the novel is nearly apocalyptic.
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147. The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper
The first chapter is perfect. The rest of the novel degenerates into endless exposition about the pernicious Dark, convoluted fetch-quests, and an absolutely bog-standard mash of English mythology.
148. Cotillion by Georgette Heyer
Pressured to marry one of her adoptive grandfather's grand-nephews, Kit Charing deliberates over her options, which include a sanctimonious reverend, an idiot earl, an easy-tempered dandy, and a roguish cynic.
149. 1 x 1 by E. E. Cummings
A fantastic ear for juxtapositions, qualifications, and subversions that tends to be obscured (at least in the popular perception) by the sticky keys on his typewriter.
The first chapter is perfect. The rest of the novel degenerates into endless exposition about the pernicious Dark, convoluted fetch-quests, and an absolutely bog-standard mash of English mythology.
148. Cotillion by Georgette Heyer
Pressured to marry one of her adoptive grandfather's grand-nephews, Kit Charing deliberates over her options, which include a sanctimonious reverend, an idiot earl, an easy-tempered dandy, and a roguish cynic.
149. 1 x 1 by E. E. Cummings
A fantastic ear for juxtapositions, qualifications, and subversions that tends to be obscured (at least in the popular perception) by the sticky keys on his typewriter.
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150. Teckla by Steven Brust
Intellectuals hector Vlad about abstract nouns.
151. Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers
Harriet transforms herself not through action or experience but through cognition.
152. The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud
A boy's summoned djinni dramatically outstrips him in cunning, malice, and mercy.
Intellectuals hector Vlad about abstract nouns.
151. Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers
Harriet transforms herself not through action or experience but through cognition.
152. The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud
A boy's summoned djinni dramatically outstrips him in cunning, malice, and mercy.
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153. The Points of my Compass by E. B. White
E. B. White writes with warmth and precision, infusing humble objects with vitality like a scientist systematically galvanizing small frogs. Postage stamps mate like grasshoppers; fir trees cluster like a theater's audience; a dachshund clambers into a sickbed "like some lecherous old physician."
154. Como Agua Para Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
In 1910s Mexico, Tita de la Garza cooks for her family, suffers her domineering mother, and pines for her brother-in-law.
155. Memoirs of Hecate County by Edmund Wilson
A collection of short stories dusted with ghosts, devils, and the stultifying ambience of 1930s upstate New York.
E. B. White writes with warmth and precision, infusing humble objects with vitality like a scientist systematically galvanizing small frogs. Postage stamps mate like grasshoppers; fir trees cluster like a theater's audience; a dachshund clambers into a sickbed "like some lecherous old physician."
154. Como Agua Para Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
In 1910s Mexico, Tita de la Garza cooks for her family, suffers her domineering mother, and pines for her brother-in-law.
155. Memoirs of Hecate County by Edmund Wilson
A collection of short stories dusted with ghosts, devils, and the stultifying ambience of 1930s upstate New York.
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DECEMBER
156. Cowboy Feng's Space Bar and Grille by Steven Brust
Renowned for its matzo ball soup and Irish music, a mysterious bar skips through time and colonized space, always one step ahead of the nuclear warheads.
157. Brothers in Arms by Lois McMaster Bujold
The climax, in which Miles scampers between two competing death squads, is one of the high points of the series thus far.
158. The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
Esperanza, a Mexican-American girl growing up in Chicago, surveys herself and her neighbors in a series of short chapters as dense as poetry.
156. Cowboy Feng's Space Bar and Grille by Steven Brust
Renowned for its matzo ball soup and Irish music, a mysterious bar skips through time and colonized space, always one step ahead of the nuclear warheads.
157. Brothers in Arms by Lois McMaster Bujold
The climax, in which Miles scampers between two competing death squads, is one of the high points of the series thus far.
158. The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
Esperanza, a Mexican-American girl growing up in Chicago, surveys herself and her neighbors in a series of short chapters as dense as poetry.
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159. Walden by Henry David Thoreau
Thoreau's logic may be patchy, but his words are divine. You can open "Walden" to any page and find a perfect line.
160. Taltos by Steven Brust
The novel jumps back and forth in time as Vlad Taltos, on the cusp of his assassination career, is tasked with recovering a Dragaeran heir who has been semi-dead for many years.
161. Point of Honour by Madeleine E. Robins
Defensive about her virtue and untroubled by her unsavory investigations, Sarah Tolerance must make difficult choices about how far she is willing to sell her honor for the murky purposes of her clients.
Thoreau's logic may be patchy, but his words are divine. You can open "Walden" to any page and find a perfect line.
160. Taltos by Steven Brust
The novel jumps back and forth in time as Vlad Taltos, on the cusp of his assassination career, is tasked with recovering a Dragaeran heir who has been semi-dead for many years.
161. Point of Honour by Madeleine E. Robins
Defensive about her virtue and untroubled by her unsavory investigations, Sarah Tolerance must make difficult choices about how far she is willing to sell her honor for the murky purposes of her clients.
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162. A Countess Below Stairs by Eva Ibbotson
In the wake of the Russian Revolution, a young countess flees to London, where she becomes a housemaid in a large country estate. Sweet and simple as a fairy tale.
163. Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
This collection of quiet, unsentimental short stories surveys Indian expatriates in the United States, Indian-Americans returning to the subcontinent, and all the interstitial identities between.
164. When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost by Joan Morgan
In this collection of essays, a journalist tries to find a middle path for black North American women between the outdated gender roles of their ancestors and the inadequate feminism of the ivory tower.
In the wake of the Russian Revolution, a young countess flees to London, where she becomes a housemaid in a large country estate. Sweet and simple as a fairy tale.
163. Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
This collection of quiet, unsentimental short stories surveys Indian expatriates in the United States, Indian-Americans returning to the subcontinent, and all the interstitial identities between.
164. When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost by Joan Morgan
In this collection of essays, a journalist tries to find a middle path for black North American women between the outdated gender roles of their ancestors and the inadequate feminism of the ivory tower.
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165. The Indians' New South by James Axtell
A zestful lecture series on how European policies and products affected the Indians of the North American Southeast during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries.
166. Watership Down by Richard Adams
Bunnies and fascism: two great tastes.
A zestful lecture series on how European policies and products affected the Indians of the North American Southeast during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries.
166. Watership Down by Richard Adams
Bunnies and fascism: two great tastes.
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167. Love, Stars, and All That by Kirin Narayan
A sweet and thoughtful examination of gender roles, academia, and the art of juggling two national allegiances.
168. Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities by Alexandra Robbins
Covering four sorority girls for a year at an unnamed southern university, a journalist discovers rituals of substance abuse and cruelty committed in the search for "sisterhood".
169. Well Wished by Franny Billingsley
The sacrifices and selfishness of female relationships in a landscape of icy perdition. Deliciously creepy.
A sweet and thoughtful examination of gender roles, academia, and the art of juggling two national allegiances.
168. Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities by Alexandra Robbins
Covering four sorority girls for a year at an unnamed southern university, a journalist discovers rituals of substance abuse and cruelty committed in the search for "sisterhood".
169. Well Wished by Franny Billingsley
The sacrifices and selfishness of female relationships in a landscape of icy perdition. Deliciously creepy.
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170. Brutal Journey by Paul Schneider
A popular history that tries to marry scholarly summary with dramatic narrative and does not succeed.
171. The Fifth Head of Cerberus by Gene Wolfe
Doppelgangers struggle for agency apart from their oppressive partner: rival twins; human-like robots; sons and fathers; slaves and owners; clones and creators; natives and colonists; anthropologists and their dehumanized subjects.
A popular history that tries to marry scholarly summary with dramatic narrative and does not succeed.
171. The Fifth Head of Cerberus by Gene Wolfe
Doppelgangers struggle for agency apart from their oppressive partner: rival twins; human-like robots; sons and fathers; slaves and owners; clones and creators; natives and colonists; anthropologists and their dehumanized subjects.
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172. Bel Canto by Ann Pratchett
Every single rough edge has been sanded from the novel, which is composed of sleek planes and good will toward man.
173. Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
A whiz-bang concept with entirely dull execution.
174. And Be A Villain by Rex Stout
Nero Wolfe investigates the death of a man who accidentally drank poison on-air during a popular radio show.
175. Black Orchids by Rex Stout
Two short stories involving dusky flowers.
176. Champagne For One by Rex Stout
Archie Goodwin witnesses the suspicious "suicide" of an unwed mother.
Every single rough edge has been sanded from the novel, which is composed of sleek planes and good will toward man.
173. Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
A whiz-bang concept with entirely dull execution.
174. And Be A Villain by Rex Stout
Nero Wolfe investigates the death of a man who accidentally drank poison on-air during a popular radio show.
175. Black Orchids by Rex Stout
Two short stories involving dusky flowers.
176. Champagne For One by Rex Stout
Archie Goodwin witnesses the suspicious "suicide" of an unwed mother.
28Luv2danse9
wow, way to go!! i'm impressed!!!
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#28 -- thanks, Luv2danse9 :)
177. Piratica by Tanith Lee
Dastardly custard!
178. The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
This novel preserves teenage insecurity the way amber preserves a fly. There is only so long you can look at a fly.
179. Giant Bones by Peter S. Beagle
Sad and lovely and funny and true, with the kind of writing that you just want to wrap around yourself like a blanket.
180. The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean
"John Laroche is a tall guy, skinny as a stick, pale-eyed, slouch-shouldered, and sharply handsome, in spite of the fact that he is missing all his front teeth."
I usually read about a hundred books a year. This year, I read 180. On reflection, this may have been slightly...obsessive. Next year, I may adopt a wider range of non-reading hobbies and settle back into the hundred-book-a-year groove.
177. Piratica by Tanith Lee
Dastardly custard!
178. The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
This novel preserves teenage insecurity the way amber preserves a fly. There is only so long you can look at a fly.
179. Giant Bones by Peter S. Beagle
Sad and lovely and funny and true, with the kind of writing that you just want to wrap around yourself like a blanket.
180. The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean
"John Laroche is a tall guy, skinny as a stick, pale-eyed, slouch-shouldered, and sharply handsome, in spite of the fact that he is missing all his front teeth."
I usually read about a hundred books a year. This year, I read 180. On reflection, this may have been slightly...obsessive. Next year, I may adopt a wider range of non-reading hobbies and settle back into the hundred-book-a-year groove.
