This year in books

Favorite books this year

1.       Submergence: Jim Ledgard, absolutely love this guy’s writing. There is a darkness to it, as one who is in darkness observing beautiful things.

2.       Giraffe: Jim Ledgard, beautiful… let me just read you a line… “A crane whirls. I am raised up, off the blade. This my point of departure. I am no longer in Africa, nor yet set down on the deck of the freighter. I float here, a reticulated giraffe, a camelopard, between shore and ship, sky and ground. My colors are white, dark chocolate, liver-red, russet-rayed in chestnut, yellow, black about my hooves. Saliva drools in strings from my mouth. My eyes are liquid opals, meeting the world enormous…”

3.       The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle:  Haruki Murakami, with this book I discovered an new author. I love the fact that he crawls down to the bottom of a well to think. I loved the Mongolian scene, the characters and the physicality mixing with dream.

4.       A Naked Singularity:  Sergio De La Pava. David Foster Wallace like. A lawyer of most excellent smarts decides to use his intelligence in a different manner. Think Wu-Tang.

5.       A Wild Sheep Chase: Haruki Murakami, true power, desolation, hunting a lone sheep in the remote mountains.

6.       South of the Border, West of the Sun: Haruki Murakami, I related to this character. Maybe it is a midlife thing. Not the philandering bit, but the past mistakes, midlife sort of thing. Actually now that I think about it, I don’t really relate to this character, I just liked the character.

7.       The Circle: Dave Eggers. A slowed down less lingual version of what I am used to from Eggers, yet a compiling-Orwelling romp.

8.       Both Flesh and Not: David Foster Wallace.

9.       This is How You Lose Her: Junot Diaz. Short stories of love from a Pulitzer Prize winner.

10.   A Visit from the Goon Squad: Jennifer Egan, another Pulitzer Prize winner. Fun read because of the fresh little tricks never seen before, but mostly because of the music references.

Notables that didn’t make the top 10.

11.   American Icon: dragged on a bit and seemed predictable. Some great take-a-ways.

12.   AntiFragile: am really liking this book, some great concepts, but a little too black and white.

13.   Zealot: anything re-visioning Jesus is worth a read.

14.   100 Things Every Presenter Needs to Know: humans and their behaviors

15.   How to Get People to do Stuff: More on behaviorisms.