Books of 2009
Books I’ve read so far this year:
(Frans and I keep all our books cataloged using LibraryThing.)
1. New Sudden Fiction: Short-Short Stories from America and Beyond, edited by Robert Shapard and James Thomas (finished 1/3/09). Does it count as my first book of 2009 if I actually started it a few days before 2008 ended? Anyway, I liked it a lot.
2. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie (finished 1/5/09). I was all excited to finally read an Agatha Christie novel. And then it was over. And I was like, eh. I guess mysteries just don’t do much for me.
3. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (finished 1/5/09). Very very good. An overweight nerd from the Dominican Republic who’s into sci-fi books and role-playing games, looking for love and haunted by the fuku.
4. Food Matters by Mark Bittman (finished 1/8/09). Good book, not as profound as I’d expected, but I guess I already knew (and agreed with) most of what he was saying. Still, I’m excited to play around with some of the recipes he suggests, and overall I’m glad I bought and read it.
5. Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri (finished 1/10/09). Excellent excellent excellent. I love her writing.
6. Learning in the Museum by George E. Hein (finished 1/21/09). I did not enjoy this book.
7. The Vintage Book of Indian Writing, edited by Salman Rushdie and Elizabeth West (finished 1/26/09). I had been reading this for nearly a month. But it’s GOOD so that’s okay. Lots of new authors, a handful of authors I already know and appreciate, some selections from novels and some short stories.
8. Honolulu: The First Century by Gavan Daws (finished 1/29/09). Here’s the general idea: take a Pacific History PhD dissertation first written in the 1960s, don’t revise or rewrite ANYTHING apart from adding diacritics to the Hawaiian words, and publish the sucker. Recipe for a long-winded boring disaster, right? Wrong! I read this for class – I should actually be working on my review of it right now – and I thoroughly enjoyed it. And learned a bunch.
9. The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga (finished 2/1/09). Winner of the 2008 Man Booker Prize – first book I’ve ever bought because it won a prize, but I’m glad I did. Good story. Balram escapes the Rooster Coop.
10. Morality for Beautiful Girls by Alexander McCall Smith (finished 2/6/09). Third book about the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. I love this series. An easy read but pleasant and satisfying. And Mma Ramotswe says the most profound things! Time to start scouring the used book store for number four…
11. The Conqueror by Jan Kjaerstad (finished 2/22/09). Fantastic book – I want to write more about it but that will have to wait. My first book for the Lost in Translation Reading Challenge.
12. Folks You Meet in Longs and Other Stories by Lee Cataluna (finished 2/23/09). Fun and touching pidgin-laden short-short stories, or monologues, or something, straight from the aisles of Longs Drugs. My favorite? A two-page rant from “Grandma” urging her grandkids, “No treat old folks like we know more just cause we older than you. We not smart. We just old. . . So you gotta go find one nodda old lady for be your kupuna because I lived long time but I neva figure out shit”.
13. Metropole by Ferenc Karinthy (finished 2/25/09). Creepy, in a good way. And it’s about a linguist! Translated from Hungarian . . . don’t know if I’ve read anything translated from Hungarian before!
14. Fasting, Feasting by Anita Desai (finished 3/17/09). Excellent.
15. Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov (finished 3/20/09). Sweet and sad.
16. My Little Red Book by Rachel Kauder Nalebuff (finished 3/26/09). This is an awesome little book, and I would recommend it to anyone. I might send my copy to my sister.
17. The Red Convertible: Selected and New Stories by Louis Erdrich (finished 3/29/09). Good book.
18. Imagined Communities by Benedict Anderson (finished 4/9/09).
19. The Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith (finished 4/11/09).
20. Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature by Ngugi Wa Thiong’o (finished 4/13/09).
21. Mr. Midshipman Hornblower (finished 4/21/09).
22. Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman (5/14/09). Apart from Strange Omens, which he co-wrote with Terry Pratchett, this is the first book of Gaiman’s I’ve read. It’s a bit funny, because I’ve been following his blog for a few months now. So it was almost like I knew I liked him before I read his “real” writing. And now that I’ve read it, I like him even more. Lovely, lovely book. Short stories, poems, random bits of this and that. It inspired me to put a hold on two more of his books at the library.
23. H.M.S. Surprise by Patrick O’Brian (finished 5/20). It was SO good to be back in the world of Aubrey and Maturin. #3 in the series – fantastic. Loved the bit about the drunken sloth.
24. Nation by Terry Pratchett (finished 5/21). This one blew me away. A young adult novel, I guess, but one that dealt with some very big ideas and just happened to be spectacularly funny and touching all at the same time. I borrowed it from the library but will probably buy my own copy one of these days.
25. A Breath of Fresh Air by Amulya Malladi (finished 5/22). Lovely, lovely. A sad story but it left me feeling so GOOD about life and love and people…
26. 2666 Part One (The Part About the Critics) by Roberto Bolano (finished 5/23).
27. Neil Gaiman’s Anansi Boys. (5/31/09) As I announced on Twitter, “Not sure if I liked it as much as I thought I would, but then, it’s been a weird week.”
28. Mary Roach’s Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex (finished 5/31). Neither as exciting nor as enlightening as I thought it might be . . . still, a fun read.
29. Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We (6/2/09). Why do I like crazy Russian novels so much? I do. And this one was a winner. Plan to buy my own copy in order to re-read. (That link on the title is actually to George Orwell’s review of the book.)
30. Toni Morrison’s A Mercy (finished 6/5/09). I hadn’t read Toni Morrison since high school, and only one or two of her books then, but reviews I’d seen of this one prompted me to put a hold on a copy at the library. I really liked it – there was something raw about the characters and their voices; also, it was almost entirely about the world of women and girls. Men were there, but they were mostly known through their long absences. The women were central – their relationships to each other, their lives, their pasts.
31. Laila Lalami’s Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits (6/7/09). A quick read, but I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I’m looking forward to reading her newest book, Secret Son.
32. Don DeLillo’s White Noise (6/13/09). The whole time I read this I was thinking to myself, “Why do I like this book? I shouldn’t like it. It’s too dry and cynical, overuses the non-sequitur…” But I did like it, in some weird way. Maybe it was the absurdity. Maybe it was that it was slightly dated, having been published in the mid-80s. Maybe it made me think of Walker Percy enough to be redeemed.
33. Nadeem Aslam’s Maps for Lost Lovers (6/18/09). Very beautiful book, but left me feeling drained afterward – in a good way, if that’s possible. It’s about a Pakistani immigrant community in England – and about one specific family within that community – and about the murder of two lovers.
34. The Mauritius Command by Patrick O’Brian (July ‘09). Number four in the series.
35. Desolation Island by Patrick O’Brian (July ‘09). Number five.
36. The Fortune of War by Patrick O’Brian (July ‘09). Number six.
37. The Surgeon’s Mate by Patrick O’Brian (July ‘09). Number seven. Loving the Aubrey and Maturin spree I’m on!
38. The Ionian Mission by Patrick O’Brian (July ‘09). Number eight, and now I need to wait for my dad to send me more.
39. Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi (finished August 16). I worked through this book with a friend/student in Taiwan in 2005 – we would meet at a coffee shop and discuss whatever section she’d read. It was a chance for her to practice her English, and for me to discuss literature and life. Re-reading it required some patience but was well worth it. I know Nafisi has another more recent book out, and I’m hoping I can find a copy soon.
40. Going Solo by Roald Dahl (finished August 16). You all know who Roald Dahl is, right? He wrote children’s books. Really cool children’s books, like Matilda and James and the Giant Peach. But he also wrote an autobiography! Two, actually – the first, Boy, I haven’t read, but this is the second, and it was SO fun and exciting. About his time working in East Africa and then his stint as a fighter pilot in WW2, it’s a fast read (I wish it had been longer) and oh so fun.
41. Clear Light of Day by Anita Desai (finished August 30).
42. Treason’s Harbor by Patrick O’Brian. Number nine.
43. The Far Side of the World by Patrick O’Brian. Number ten.
44. Anton Chekhov: Five Great Short Stories.
45. Leo Tolstoy: The Death of Ivan Ilych and other stories. Why does every single thing he writes feature an unhappy marriage?!
46. Patrick O’Brian: The Reverse of the Medal. Number eleven.
47. Patrick O’Brian: The Letter of Marque. Number twelve.
48. Nikolai Gogol: The Overcoat and other short stories.
49. A Thousand Years of Good Prayers by Yiyun Li. A beautiful, gentle, compassionate collection of short stories.
50. Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson. First book by a Norwegian author I’ve read. I’m Norwegian. I mean way back, I’m Norwegian, partly. I feel kind of bad – I liked it, but not as much as I feel I should have. I guess it’s just one of those things. Good book, but not amazing, at least not to me.
51. That Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Adichie. My new favorite author. Short stories.
52. Learning to Bow by Bruce Feiler. A book that my mother SO randomly found out about and bought from Amazon.com for me – but a really fun read! About a guy from Georgia (the state) who moves to a small town in Japan to teach English for a year. Even more interesting as I taught in Taiwan – lots of similarities.
53. Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Adichie. Like I said, my new favorite author.
54. One More Year by Sana Krasikov. Short stories. Pretty good.
55. Memoirs of an Arabian Princess from Zanzibar by Emily Ruete. Amazing.
56. Principles of Uncertainty by Maira Kalman. I love her. Have I mentioned that?
57. The Thirteen Gun Salute by Patrick O’Brian. Number thirteen. Oh my goodness, you’ll never guess what happened to Ledward and Wray!!
58. The Nutmeg of Consolation by Patrick O’Brian. Number fourteen. Oh, the platypus. Now that this one is done, I have to wait until Thanksgiving (okay, all of nine days) to get more from my dad.
59. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
60. The Truelove by Patrick O’Brian. Number 15.
61. The Wine-Dark Sea by Patrick O’Brian. #16. Oh, a volcano!!!!
62. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen. My first e-book on my new phone. And the first Austen novel I’ve read in a long time. Interesting combination.
63. The Commodore by Patrick O’Brian. #17. I can’t believe I’m almost at the end of the series. I wish it would go on forever.
64. The Wild Things by David Eggers. Cool.
65. The Yellow Admiral by Patrick O’Brian. #18. In which Aubrey does NOT get yellowed.
66. The Hundred Days by Patrick O’Brian. #19. Oh, the agony of being almost done!
67. Blue at the Mizzen by Patrick O’Brian. #20. It’s over!
68. Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich. Reading this book left me mentally/emotionally exhausted. It’s good.
69. Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz (finished 12/25). Awesome book; glad there are two more in the series.
70. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (finished 12/25). Weird to be reading this again after having read it so many times in and around my undergrad years. If anything the writing is better and the story spookier than I remembered.
71. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (finished 12/26). I’m loving the free public domain e-book downloads on my new phone. Read this one after my sister mentioned she was also reading it; like her I found myself constantly comparing it to Muppet Treasure Island (the movie). Stevenson’s Ben Gunn, the maroonee, becomes Benjamina Gunn, played by Miss Piggy.
72. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (finished 12/27). Woohoo. Glad I found her and can’t wait to read more of her books. This one really made me think about sex, relationships, marriage, power . . . all those good things.
73. Palace of Desire by Naguib Mahfouz (finished 12/31). Second in his Cairo Trilogy.
(Just a note, I’m trying to link these to publishers’ websites rather than Amazon whenever possible.)
