I am a total nerd

duh!

I'm about to start John Irving's new one, "The Last Chairlift." I wish TheSuze was still around to enjoy it with me.

I liked it. I think I offered my review upthread but it was many months ago. If you're fond of Irving you'll like it. It has many of his familiar themes and totems and his trademark mix of absurdity and tragedy. It's incomplete only in that there are no bears.

 

I liked it. I think I offered my review upthread but it was many months ago. If you're fond of Irving you'll like it. It has many of his familiar themes and totems and his trademark mix of absurdity and tragedy. It's incomplete only in that there are no bears.

I’m still not done yet but the screenplay stuff is difficult for me to read.

Started listening to Hell Bent, the sequel to Leigh Bardugo's The Ninth House, which I really liked.  The premise is, Yale has eight "secret societies" who deal in straight-up magic, benefitting their members and alums with wealth and influence.  The "Ninth House" is established to keep them in check, and monitor for abuses of this power.

It's kind of Young Adulty, with pretty gnarly descriptions of some of the rituals performed by these societies.  Not exactly heavy reading, though this installment is certainly more hard-boiled than the first one.  At the end of the last one, a major character ends up trapped in Hell; this one is about their attempts to rescue him.  Not enjoying it quite as much, but I'll finish it.

There are two on my list I'm very much looking forward to, though:  Zoey Is Too Drunk For This Dystopia, by Jason Pargin, the third in his Zoey Ashe series.  This author has not missed with me - I love all his stuff (his most recognizable title would be John Dies At The End).  If I'm honest, Pargin is not the best with character development, but the stories are all imaginative and hilarious, and serve as vehicles for what he does do well, deliver these little nuggets of wisdom and observations about how society works embedded in the madness.

The other one is the latest in Martha Wells' Murderbot Diaries series, System Collapse.  Another author that hasn't failed me yet, though I haven't read anything else by her other than the Murderbot books.  I should remedy that.

Finished Hell Bent.  It's obvious she's going to make a series of this, but I think that one might do it for me.

Started Zoey Is Too Drunk For This Dystopia, and am loving it.  I'm noticing what I mentioned even more with this one - the thing where he's way more interested in dissecting social and political phenomena through the conversations our "everyman" Zoey has with a wild array of caricatures of real-world personality types, but those conversations are thought-provoking and the story is colorful, fun, and I've laughed out loud several times.

I am coming off a nonfiction binge. Over the last few weeks I have read:

 

Why We Love Baseball: A History In 50 Moments, by Joe Posnanski

 

Pastures of The Empty Page: Fellow Writers on the Life and Legacy of Larry McMurtry; and

 

Singing In Musical Theatre: the Training of Singers and Actors, by Joan Melton (2007).

 

The first and last were random suggestions from the Libby app. The middle one I saw at the library, on one of their displays of new books. I enjoyed all three, although I might have skimmed through parts of the last one. I have no idea why I chose to read the last one - yet I did find it interesting.

What they have in common is that they are all full of bite-sized pieces. You can read 5 pages or 20 pages and then put it down for a while. 

The book about Larry McMurtry got me thinking that I might want to read some of his prodigious output. Our local library branch had a meager selection, and I didn’t want to start with the gigantic Lonesome Dove. So I am reading Loop Group now.

I always enjoyed the wacky characters in Larry McMurtry’s books. I think you’ll like his stuff.

My last book of the year was finished today. Here is my year in reading:

33. Des Linden "Choosing to Run" - Very different side of the sport in comparison to the Goucher book. She is an underdog with a blue collar work ethic who earns the big victory at the 2018 Boston Marathon.

32. Thomas Hardy “The Mayor of Casterbridge” - Mariani’s choice. An old-fashioned drama filled with marriages, betrayals, dumb decisions made in a rage, poverty, wealth, back to poverty, and a life full of regrets. Lots of fun reading the 19th century soap opera.

31. Anna Burns "Milkman" - I loved this book! The writing style is completely unique and so funny. It takes place in 1970s Belfast during the Troubles, but turns the depressing topic of Irish people killing each other over politics and religion into dark comedy.

30. Hernan Diaz "Trust" - Very good. It makes Wall Street trading during the 20s and 30s intriguing, which would normally have no interest to me. A twist at the end turns everything you had read previously on its head. I had lost a week of reading due to scanning old bike racing results, now I'm back to the normal routine.

29. Eudora Welty "The Optimist's Daughter" - Beautiful writing; almost a gothic family drama. You could hear the Southern accent while reading. Very pleasing, not a Deliverance "Got a Real Purty Mouth" accent.

28. David Grann "The Wager" - My Dad's choice. I don't really look forward to reading these non-fiction books, but they usually have an interesting story to tell. This one is about a 1740 British shipwreck in Patagonia and then a mutiny. This is the current book from the author who wrote "Killers of the Flower Moon."

27. Kara Goucher "The Longest Race" - Great book! A behind the scenes look at professional running. You have to admire her honesty and integrity. On the other hand, Salazar is a creepy guy and unethical coach. These stories of elite athletes usually make me grateful to have only average athletic talent.

28. Keith Ridgway "The Long Falling" - Not great. This was his first novel and probably has too much in it. A gay kid in rural Ireland is not accepted by an abusive father, the Mom kills the Dad after he has killed someone else in a drunk driving incident, and the Mom then joins the twenty-something kid in Dublin. There is homelessness and an abortion rights march featuring Sinead O'Connor. In the meantime, the police are trying to catch the Mom in hiding after they realize that she is a murderer. A bit of a mess, but still good enough that I wanted to read the whole thing to find out the ending.

27. David Chrisinger "The Soldier's Truth" - My Dad's choice. This is about the most famous WWII correspondent Ernie Pyle. I enjoyed it much more than expected. He was no fan of war, but did his job by telling the stories of the regular guys dealing with the hardships of battle.

26. Don DeLillo "Underworld" - Mixed feelings. I definitely liked it, but at over 800 pages it dragged in parts. Many storylines describing life in the U.S. from 1951 to the 1990s. It reminded me of John Dos Passos books from the 1930s.

25. Stacy Schiff "The Witches" - Prepping for Halloween by learning the history of the 1692 Salem Witch Trials. Puritans really were the worst people.

24. Wallace Stegner "The Spectator Bird" - My third book of his. I love his writing. This one has a great line about life lessons - "The lessons of life amount not to wisdom, but to scar tissue and callus."

23. W.G. Sebald "The Emigrants" - Four different stories about people (three of them Jewish) who escaped Germany before WWII. Great writing dealing mostly with memories looking back on their lives of hardship. I will definitely read another one of his books soon.

22. Michael Wejchert "Hidden Mountains" - My Dad's choice. He loves these mountain climbing books. At least this Alaska climbing disaster doesn't end in a death, only someone paralyzed for life. The story ends at a outdoor sports film festival showing at the Regent Theater in Arlington.

21. Toni Morrison "Beloved" - I first read this about 35 years ago. I didn't remember any details though. Great book. The writing style can be a little confusing at times (not James Joyce confusing). I was wondering if DeSantis would be a less horrible person if he read this about the "skills" learned from slavery.

20. Olaf Olafsson "Touch" - This was surprisingly great; I didn't want it to end. I heard an interview with the author a few months ago on NPR and took a chance on it. At the beginning of COVID, a 74 year old guy in Iceland receives a Facebook friend invitation from the Japanese love of his life who he has had no contact with since 1969. He goes to visit her just in time before the world shuts down. This is going on the top shelf of my favorite books.

19. Zadie Smith "On Beauty" - The 2nd book I've read from her. It was good with the exception of an unrealistic relationship between a 20 year old and her professor. It was tied up neatly at the end though.

18. Douglas Adams "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" - just plain goofy; only mildly amusing.

17. Andy McGrath "God is Dead" - God, in this case, was Frank Vandenbroucke. A cycling superstar in the late 1990s during the worst of the EPO era. A sad life after the fame and glory, and was dead by the age of 34. He became an actual drug addict through the cycling doping habits and died by an accidental overdose, suicide, or poisoning.

16. Betty Smith "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" - This is one of those books that it seems like I should have read by now. There is a reason it is a classic; it's pretty great. A family's immigrant story set between 1901-1919. The poverty struggles, the stereotypical drunken Irish dad, the hard work, and hope for a better life.

15. Geraldine Brooks "Horse" - Not great. Intertwining storylines from the 1850s, 1950s, and the present didn't really work. The ending was absolutely horrible; hated that so much. If it was only the story of 1850s Kentucky horse racing through the Civil War, the book would have been much better.

14. Wallace Stegner "Crossing to Safety" - Great book! Although possibly the saddest ending I've ever read. It is such a treat to read beautiful language again especially after the lightweight trash of the last book.

13. Gabrielle Zevin "Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow" - Cheesy, and dumb, and annoying. I liked it for about the first quarter, was ready to throw it out halfway, and finished it out of spite because I'm a glutton for punishment. Why can I never enjoy best sellers like a normal person?

12. Annie Ernaux "The Years" - A unique autobiography. There is no "I" in the book, only "we" or "she." She tells her life story from 1941-2006 through what you would have experienced living in those times. It is very French though - I was lost on many of the pop culture, TV show, musician, and political references. It was still fun reading and there were a few Tour de France mentions.

11. Max Hastings "The Abyss: Nuclear Crisis Cuba 1962" - My Dad's choice. He was in the Army during this time serving in Korea. He remembers how on edge everybody in the military was preparing to fight in a nuclear war. This is not my favorite kind of reading, but now I'm full of even more useless trivia. JFK is portrayed as a great statesman (too bad about the womanizing), RFK not so much.

10. Alice Munro "Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage" - I chose this short story collection to take on vacation because of the limited reading time while away. I love her writing with the twists and turns of everyday life.

9. Jonathan Franzen "Crossroads" - my third book from this author after "The Corrections" and "Freedom". I really enjoy how he takes "normal" Midwest families and creates these epic dramas.

8. Sean O'Casey "Autobiographies I" - not your typical autobiography. Beautiful, lyrical language even though it was a bleak life in the Dublin slums. This book is more working class stories, Irish fables, and history than facts; although it is definitely the life story of this Irish playwright. It takes place around 1880 to 1905. There are two more volumes, which I also plan on reading eventually.

7. Jeffrey Eugenides "Middlesex" - an epic life story going back three generations about a genetically intersex person. It reminded me of the runner Caster Semenya. This book from 20 years ago describes some of the same gender issues that right-wing politicians are trying to use for petty gains today. This book is not political; just a regular person trying to deal with being raised as a girl while genetically being male due to a misdiagnosis at birth. Pretty interesting stuff.

6. George Saunders "Liberation Day" - the fourth book I've read from him. I love his unique style of writing. Some of the short stories aren't as enjoyable as others, but that's the nice thing about these collections. If you aren't loving it, the next story is a few pages away.

5. Brad Stulberg "The Practice of Groundedness" - not much new here, but good reminders about how to live a more focused life. I got this because he is a running coach. There were some running stories, but it is more a philosophy book with Zen, Buddhist, and Stoic ideas.

4. Alice Munro "Runaway" - a collection of eight short stories. This was a great book. The stories immediately get you wrapped up in the everyday lives of these people. There are always twists and turns along the way. I will definitely be reading more from her. This almost made the top shelf of my favorites.

3. Gary Shteyngart "Our Country Friends" - just ok. The beginning of COVID and eight friends escape the city to gather at a Hudson Valley estate to ride out the pandemic. Other than the personal relationships that form, there wasn't really a point to the book.

2. John Williams "Nothing But the Night" - Mariani's choice. Not great. This is the 3rd book I've read from him. This was his first novel, and you can tell he's just trying too hard. "Stoner" is a good one though.

1. Marcel Proust "The Guermantes Way" - Vol. 3 of "In Search of Lost Time." These books are not easy reading. Long meandering sentences with dozens of commas on each page. It is beautiful writing though with this one set mostly in the upper class Parisian salons of the 1890s. I'm planning to read an additional volume each year until all seven are finished.