Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

What Did You Read This Year?

By

And everything else that I can recall:

Breaking Ranks II:  Strategies for Leading High School Reform by the American Association of Secondary School Principals  (A)

God Is Not Great:  How Religion Ruins Everything by Christopher Hitchens (A)

This Is Your Brain On Music by Daniel Levitin (B+)

The Echo Maker by Richard Powers (B+)

Seaworthy by T. R. Pearson (A)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling (A-)

The Emperor’s Clothes  by Claire Messud (C+)

A Brief Tour of Human Consciousness by V. S. Ramachandran (A+)

Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino (C+)

If On A Winter’s Night A Traveler by Italo Calvino (B)

Mary Ann by Alex Karmel (B+)

Complications by Atul Gawande (A)

Better by Atul Gawande (B+)

In The Wake by Per Petterson (A)

The Bill From My Father by Bernard Cooper (A)

Delights and Shadows by Ted Kooser (A)

The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman (B+)

The Road Through The Wall by Shirley Jackson (C)

Hangsaman by Shirley Jackson (B-)

The Bird’s Nest by Shirley Jackson (B-)

The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene (B)

Body of Work:  Mediations on Mortality From The Human Anatomy Lab by Christine Montross (A+)

On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan (A+)

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins (A-)

Deep Ancestry by Spencer Wells (B+)

Blindness by Jose Saramago (B+)

The First Amendment in Schools by the First Amendment Center (A)

A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon (B)

A Trauma Artist:  Tim O’Brien and the Fiction of Vietnam by Mark Heberle  (A)

Shirley Jackson’s American Gothic by Darryl Hattenhauer (A+)

Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris (A)

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  1. Best book I read this year: What is the What? by Dave Eggers.

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    p>Other interesting reads:
    Isaac Asimov’s Foundation trilogy
    Harry Potter 7 of course
    Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures by by Kenneth Cain, Heidi Postlewait, & Andrew Thomson
    The Last Town on Earth by Thomas Mullen

    <

    p>Probably others, but I don’t remember right now. Any of the above are good reads.

      • Asimov repeatedly called “Nightfall” his favorite piece, and he and Silverberg spun it out to novel-length in 1990.  The novel stands up surprisingly well.

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        p>I thoroughly enjoy Asimov’s books, and if you liked the Foundation series, Benford, Brin and Bear each wrote a book set in the universe that wasn’t too bad.

        • …Random House book from 1959 named Famous Science Fiction Stories.

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          p>It also contains a copy of John Campbell’s story Who Goes There, Robert A Heinlein’s story By His Bootstraps (the most intriguing time travel paradox story I’ve ever read–I counted 8 instances of the same character, two of which were in a fist-fight with each other), and Harry Bates’s story Farewell to the Master, which was the basis for the movie The Day The Earth Stood Still.

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          p>Ah, the good old days of SciFi.

    • with the Eggers, but I’ll check it out.  Can’t say I know anything about the others you’ve listed, either, so that’s cool.

      <

      p>I don’t watch any TV, actually.  Best thing I ever did for myself.  

  2. read in the last year is packed away in moving boxes, but a partial list:

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    p>The Assault on Reason, Al Gore (A-)

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    p>Look Me in the Eye, My life with Asperger’s,  John Elder Robison (A+)

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    p>The Power of Feminity in the New South, Women’s Organizations and Politics in North Carolina, 1880 – 1930, Anastatia Sims (B)

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    p>Maestro, Greenspan’s Fed and the American Boom, Bob Woodward (C)

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    p>Getting It, Persuading Organizations and Individuals to be More Comfortable with People with Disabilities, Melissa Marshall (A+)

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    p>Harry Potter # 7 (A+)

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    p>Marley and Me, John Grogan (A+)

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    p>

      • your list is quite amazing.  When do you find so much time, even not watching the boob tube?   I thought about getting Hitchens’ book after listening to him on Bill Maher, and based on your rating, I will add it to my list.

        <

        p>I read fiction and non-fiction.  One of my all time favorites was Isaac Bashevis Singer’s “Shosha”.  It’s been enough years, I think it’s time to reread it.  When I read for pleasure, I don’t retain the details, so I can put a book away for years and then reread it with almost the same amount of appreciation.  I’m the same way with movies.  Ask me who played in the movie two days later, and I usually can’t say.      

  3. Turns out I did a lot of reading about religion this year.  Of course, this is only the stuff I can remember…sure I’ll spend the day thinking of other things I didn’t include on this list.

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    p>1491 by Charles Mann.  Interesting portrait of life before European arrival, if a bit willing to believe the best and most amazing about pre-contact Native Americans.  Still fascinating.  B+

    <

    p>Tested by Linda Perlman.  A journalist actually goes into a school to see what No Child Left Behind is doing, rather than engaging in bromides and antiquated assumptions.  Imagine that!  A

    <

    p>The God Delusion: by Richard Dawkins.  No more softie-softie pussyfooting around about atheism, but a forthright investigation and defense along the lines of the innumerable evangelical shills; so of course people call him “angry”.  A-

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    p>The End of Faith: by Sam Harris.  No Richard Dawkins this one, and spends as much time hating Islam as explaining atheism.  Bleah.  C

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    p>The Christ Clone Trilogy, books 1 & 2: by James BeauSeigneur.  A faux science-fiction novelization of the End Times (which is a ripping good story), that makes it to the end of the second book before becoming intolerably smarmy.  Didn’t read the third one.  C-

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    p>Harry Potter…: by JK Rowling.  As good an ending as can be managed after the build-up and hype, but sad to see the characters go.  A-

    <

    p>God Speaks Again: Kenneth Bowers.  An interesting but too often ponderous introduction to the history and tenets of Bahai’ism.  B-

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    p>His Dark Materials series: by Philip Pullman.  My annual read, and much much better than the disastrous movie made of the first book, The Golden Compass.  Narnia with human soul and courage, and a must.  A+

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    p>I am America, and So Can You? by Stephen Colbert.  Funny, not hilarious.  B-

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    p>The Onion’s This Dumb World reliably risible, best read in small doses.  Makes laughing at African poverty easy.  A-

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    p>The Telling: Ursula K Le Guin.  Typical le Guin, a soft warm tale that’s sort of science fiction.  Good story, simple.  B

    <

    p>You Suck by Christopher Moore.  Not nearly as funny as Biff by the same author, and the first book that started to suggest to me that he’s running out of ideas.  C+

    <

    p>~~~~
    What I don’t say here, I say here.

  4. Hundred Dollar Baby by Robert Parker

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    p>First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde

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    p>The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde

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    p>Quartered Safe Out Here by George MacDonald Fraser

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    p>Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke

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    p>Incident of the Fingerpost by Ian Piers

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    p>The Bluest State by Jon Keller

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    p>A Mormon in the White House by Hugh Hewitt

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    p>Thunderstruck by Erik Larson (not as good as Devil in the White City)

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    p>The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Moshin Hamid

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    p>The Headmaster’s Dilemna by Louis Auchincloss

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    p>Jane and the Barque of Frailty by Stephanie Barron

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    p>And…well…dozens of others.

    <

    p>

  5. Normally more than 100+ books a year (I don’t really watch television). A few that stuck out:

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    p>1. The Dew Breaker by Edwidge Danticot
    2. The Audacity of Hope by Barak Obama
    3. Empire by Nial Ferguson
    4. A Short, Victorious War by David Weber
    5. Jesus by Marcus Borg
    6. America: The Last Best Hope (VI&2) by William Bennett
    7. The Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle
    8. Mexifornia by Victor Davis Hanson
    9. How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler
    10. Passionate Declarations by Howard Zinn.

    <

    p>There are tons more, but these are the ones that are jumping out in my mind.  

  6. The Choice: How Bill Clinton Won – Bob Woodward
    Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty – Buster Olney
    Baltimore Noir – Various (short stories)
    The Summer Game – Roger Angell
    Best American Political Writing 2007 – Various
    The Assault on Reason – Al Gore (in progress)
    Dreams from My Father – Barack Obama (in progress)

    <

    p>No grades – but I’d highly recommend any of them.

  7. In Jan., 2007, I resolved to read a book a week…I got off to a good start, but my resolution wilted under the pressure to earn a living and I found myself falling asleep at night with a book still in my hands…which slowed my progress considerably.  But, all the same, I did manage to read some good books in 2007, some to learn, some to entertain, some to escape into… Here are my top three, followed by a selection of also-rans…

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    p>Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

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    p>A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

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    p>April,1865: The Month That Saved America by Jay Winik

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    p>Some others that held my interest cover to cover:
       Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin
       Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
       Easter 1916, Irish Rebellion by Charles Townshend
       The Greatest Story Ever Sold: Decline and Fall of Truth                          
           9/11-Katrina by Frank Rich
       Where God Was Born by Bruce Feiler
       Alice (Alice Roosevelt Longworth, From Princess to Power          
           Broker) by Stacy A. Conroy
       Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
       The Secret Man by Bob Woodward
       The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama (not so much…
           long on hope, very short on audacity)
       American Bloomsbury by Susan Cheever
       Hope Dies Last by Studs Terkel
       Atonement by Ian McEwen
       Life’s A Campaign by Chris Matthews  (not so much    
            …very thin gruel…wait for the paperback)
       The Known World by Edward P. Jones
       Politics Lost by Joe Klein
       Shakespeare:The Invention of the Human by Harold Bloom
       A Common Good by Helen O’Donnell (daughter of Kenny  
            O’Donnell)
       Gettysburg: The Second Day by Harry Pfanz
       Plan of Attack/Bush at War/State of Denial by Bob
            Woodward  (tragic trilogy)
       On Beauty by Zaide Smith
       Fooling With Words by Bill Moyers (I like all things  
            Moyers, articles, books, whatever)
       Reading Lolita In Tehran by Azar Nafisi
       Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
       Before You Know Kindness by Chris Bohjalian
       The Great Shame by Thomas Kenneally

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    p>2008 I hope to read more and watch TV less…but not when the Amazing Race is on…can’t mindlessly help it, I got hooked on it.

    <

    p>

    • Read serious books when you are sitting up, in your chair, with the light one, a cup of coffee/tea at hand. When you are laying in your bed, read something light and fun. I used to try to read all these dense nonfiction books before bed, and I’d get exactally two pages in before the book ended up on my face in a puddle of drool. Now I only read fiction before bed, usually something fun (science fiction, etc.) It’s a good strategy. Try it! You’ll find that you can read two books at once.

      <

      p>(Actually, I’m normally reading three books at once, sometimes four: a book at school, like a young adult novel [I’m a teacher], a serious book, a fiction book before bed, and sometimes a book where you read just one or two pages per day (like The Intellectual Devotional).

      <

      p>Read, read, read, my friend. It’s the best thing for you.  

      • I keep 3 books within reach on the bedstand…one fiction, one non-fiction (usually historic or biographical) and one nonsense for fun book…how tired I am determines which book gets read each night…I also read Sidney Poitier’s biography last year that someone gave to me and it was a good and interesting read.

  8. These are the most noteworthy books that I remember from the past year:

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    p>”Waiting for Gadot” by Samuel Beckett
    “Guns, Germs, and Steel” by Jared Diamond
    “Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon” by Daniel Dennett
    “Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why” by Bart D. Ehrman
    “Slaughterhouse-Five” by Kurt Vonegut
    “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston
    “Letter to a Christian Nation” by Sam Harris
    “The God Delusion” by Richard Dawkins
    “The Historical Jesus in Context” edited by Levine, Allison, and Crossan
    “The Autobiogrophy of Malcolm X” with Alex Haley
    “Why We Can’t Wait” by Martin Luther King, Jr.
    “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” by August Wilson
    “Know What I Mean?: Reflections on Hip Hop” by Michael Eric Dyson

    <

    p>

  9. Here is a my partial list…

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    p>The Secret Servant – Daniel Silva
    Often Wrong, Never in Doubt – Donny Deutsch
    The Choice – Nicholas Sparks
    The World Without Us  – Alan Weisman
    Richistan – Robert Frank
    Exile – Richard North Patterson
    Falling Man: A Novel – Don DeLillo
    The Last Tycoons: The Secret History of Lazard Frères & Co. – William D. Cohan
    Who Killed HealthCare? – Regina Herzlinger
    The Greek Way – Edith Hamilton
    The Names – Don DeLillo
    Team of Rivals – Doris Kearns Goodwin
    Transfer of Power – Vince Flynn
    Act of Treason – Vince Flynn
    Andrew Carnegie  – David Nasaw
    The Road – Cormac McCarthy
    Gone Baby Gone – Denis Lehane

    <

    p>Be careful reading McCarthy’s books. It may take a couple of weeks to adjust to all the extra words used by other authors.

    <

    p>BTW –  I love TV and books!

    <

    p>

    • Your list reminded me…I also read The Road by Cormac McCarthy and thought it was very good…and thought provoking.

      • I actually went on a McCarty binge last summer – after The Road, I read No Country for Old Men and All The Pretty Horses.  Still think The Road was best.  Heard it was being made into a movie, maybe with Viggo Mortenson as central charachter….

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