At long last, the end: it was hard to write most of these, to figure out a way to gush without saying the same things over and over again. I gave up and used the heady adjectives (lovely lovely beautiful) often—they are accurate. lovely lyrical novels: Edinburgh by Alexander Chee Oh how I loved the [...]
Archive for the ‘year in reading 2009’ Category
the finale: my year in fiction (part 3 of 3)
Posted in year in reading 2009 on January 20, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
my year in fiction (part 2 of 3)
Posted in year in reading 2009 on January 15, 2010 | 2 Comments »
the fun stuff: Wake Up, Sir! by Jonathan Ames (I’m going to be using the word “fun” a lot for the next batch of books.) Fun! One of the few books this year that I could continue reading while laboring on cardio machines (that takes catchy writing and a good dose of tension). My memory [...]
my year in fiction (part 1 of 3)
Posted in year in reading 2009 on January 13, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
After considering the list of 58 novels I read in 2009, I decided to pick 15 or so to review and let the rest of them sit quietly in an ignored pile. Then Mo, a terrible influence, convinced me to suck it up and do all the year’s books, break the wrap-up into a few [...]
my year in memoir (so many lives, so little time)
Posted in year in reading 2009 on January 8, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Another long one given all the quotes, so I’m going to put the great ones at the top, where they belong. the best: Out of Sheer Rage by Geoff Dyer For the third or fourth time that day a strange, floaty indifference to everything came over me. Since this sensation was utterly unfamiliar and not [...]
my year in non-memoir nonfiction
Posted in year in reading 2009 on January 6, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
in my possession for not more than a quarter: War of Art by Steven Pressfield I remember a lot of internet noise about this little book about a year ago, so when it showed up on a discount rack, I picked it up. The first third, about Resistance and gluing one’s ass to one’s seat, [...]
my year in poetry, with poems
Posted in year in reading 2009 on January 6, 2010 | 4 Comments »
It’s disconcerting to think that I started my serious literary time, way back in the 90s, in poetry. Since then, I’ve fallen completely off the horse: I don’t tend to pick it up, I rarely read about it, and it’s like I never knew how to write or talk about it, let alone make some [...]
my year in short stories, with a bunch of quotes
Posted in year in reading 2009 on December 29, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Although I’ve made good-faith efforts before, I’ve never read more than a few short story collections in a year. Something changed this year: twelve collections and I enjoyed the hell out of them. Would recommend to anyone: The Turning by Tim Winton I haven’t shut up about this book since I finished it, and I [...]
