Titles Read = 383
The Ox-Bow Incident — Walter Van Tilburg Clark
The Sun Is Also a Star — Nicola Yoon
The butterfly effect with young love and undocumented persons.
1999 — Moxie Mezcal
Blue Velvet — Anonymous
Ooops. Not the same Blue Velvet. This one is good old 19th century pornography.
Metamorphoses — Ovid (+)
The Black Bruins — James W. Johnson
Informative and moving.
The Man Who Couldn’t Die: The Tale of an Authentic Human Being — Olga Slavnikova
C Is for Corpse — Sue Grafton
B Is for Burglar — Sue Grafton
The Case of the Caretaker’s Cat— Erle Stanley Gardner
The Case of the Counterfeit Eye — Erle Stanley Gardner
The Case of the Curious Bride — Erle Stanley Gardner
The Bone Collector — Jeffery Deaver
Intense. I’ll have to watch the movie for comparison.
The Private Practice of Michael Shayne — Brett Halliday
The Kindly Ones: A Novel — Jonathan Littel (+)
There are very strong emotions about this novel. I tend to consider the more matter-of-fact, business-like depiction of the German atrocities much more frightening than a more moralistic approach. The ultimate “Show, Don’t Tell.” Not sure about the parallel story of sexual depravity: it works but is it necessary?
Amelia — Henry Fielding
Interesting. Unlike most novels of this ilk, this one starts with the marriage and deals with the subsequent troubles rather than the wedding being the goal of the narrative. Note that Fielding is a smooth, highly readable writer.
The Beast With Five Fingers — W. F. Harvey
The movie made from this short novel is one of my favorites. I often use it as an example of point-of-view or the unreliable narrator.
Magical Thinking: True Stories — Augusten Burroughs
Daphnis and Chloe – Longus
Cécile is Dead — Georges Simenon
A Crime in Holland — Georges Simenon
The Case of the Silent Partner — Erle Stanley Gardner
The Case of the Gold-Diggers Purse — Erle Stanley Gardner
The Big Country — Donald Hamilton
The movie version is a great memory from the 1950s: especially the music. Classic western. One error: they make fun of the bowler hat when in reality it was a common favorite in the old west, more that the wide-brimmed sombrero.
My Year Abroad — Chang-Rae Lee
A lot goes on: don’t get confused. Note that the author may have included the first episode of sounding outside of pornography.
Pierre, or The Ambiguities — Herman Melville (+)
What? No voyage to exotic lands or symbolic sea creatures? Much more akin to the typical 19th century novel of relationships with a heavy dose of Romeo and Juliet thrown in.
The Small House at Allington — Anthony Trollope
I know that Trollope is the kind of novelist that Henry James opposed, but for me, they’re both on my less-desirable list. One more volume to go in Barchester.
The Rebels — Sandor Marai
I’ll Take You There — Joyce Carol Oates
Schultz — J. P. Donleavy
Wild and raunchy.
A Rage To Live — John O’Hara (+)
Not too deep but a keen sense of humanity and a polished prose that draws the reader into the novel.
God Help the Child — Toni Morrison
I’m always amazed at the quality of Morrison’s writing. Some cats are white and some cats are black and some black cats are so light you’ll probably consider them white.
Quartet In Autumn — Barbara Pym
Baudolino – Umberto Eco
As usual, I got bogged down in Eco’s erudition, but this kept reminding me of Don Quixote meets Gulliver.
Big Breasts and Wide Hips — Mo Yan (+)
Rich, engaging, visceral. Superb author.
The Yellow Sofa — Eça de Quierós (+)
Excellent author. Short work.
The Lost Scrapbook – Evan Dara (+)
There’s a lot to explore in this novel. If you are in fear of toxic sites, the author will make it worse.
A Bell For Adano — John Hersey
Good story.
The Professor of Desire — Philip Roth
Adolphe — Benjamin Constant
Michael Tolliver Lives — Armistead Maupin
Much more gay explicit than the earlier volumes.
Dodsworth — Sinclair Lewis
Good story. Early automobiles for fun. For serious contemplation, a comparison between Europe and America (Old .. Mature World vs. New .. Crass World).
A House To Let — Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Elizabeth Gaskell
Diary of a Blood Donor — Mati Unt
Dracula in Estonia.
The Case of the Howling Dog — Erle Stanley Gardner
The Case of the Lucky Legs — Erle Stanley Gardner
Somewhat dated and difficult to divorce from the image of Raymond Burr, but still really good entertainment.
The Ferrari In the Bedroom — Jean Shepherd
Thank the internet: Shep is available 24/7 on digital radio.
Kornwolf — Tristan Egoif
The Devil went down to Pennsyltuckey. Is this a boxing story, a werewolf story, or an homage to the Blue Ball Devil?
Normal People — Sally Rooney
What is Normal?
Therapy — David Lodge
Saving Piggy Sneed — John Irving
An odd collection of memoir, fiction, and criticism.
The Centaur — John Updike
If you’re like me, the identification with psoriases is actually stronger than the association with ancient myths.
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet — David Mitchell
Good story. The interaction of the West with Japan is a great way to study the mendacity and mistaken self-aggrandizement of the colonizers. And it’s true even today: Follow the Money.
Letting Go — Philip Roth
In America – Susan Sontag
The Island of the Day Before – Umberto Eco
Framley Parsonage — Anthony Trollope
Trollope drops some humorous shade here and there. Otherwise, a long, uneventful 19th Century novel.
The Ancestral Temple in a Box — Chen Qiufan
The Uninnocent — Bradford Morrow
Good stories, Fairly traditional but generally dealing with subjects on the periphery of normal.
The 13 Clocks — James Thurber (+)
Excellent. A captivating fable.
A Memoir of Misfortune — Su Xiaokang
Quite a story. A well written memoir which straddles the politics of modern China and the personal life of a Chinese journalist dealing with tragedy.
Forgotten Peoples of the Ancient World — Philip Matyszak
Everyone should read this informative work. Gradually the American reader should realize that, compared to the many civilizations that are long gone and forgotten, The United States of America is closely following the same ancient pattern … the lone and level sands stretch far away.
Armadillo — William Boyd
R.U.R. — Karel Capek
A fascinating little drama full of imaginative theories which would inevitably lead to WALL-E.
Mudwoman — Joyce Carol Oates
Teenage Wasteland — Anne Tyler
Demons — Fyodor Dostoevsky (+)
A classic. However, I am just a little off frequency reading Dostoevsky, unlike Tolstoy who is always smooth going.
The Fisherman — Chigozie Obioma
Weaponizing fishing gear?
The Hand of Ethelberta — Thomas Hardy
Nothing special. Follows the formula for novels of the day.
Snow Country — Yasunari Kawabata
Facing the Bridge — Yoko Towada
Three short works.
Sure of You — Armistead Maupin
Aids and separation.
The Cricket on the Hearth — Charles Dickens
Pylon — William Faulkner
Shades of Waldo Pepper.
Fingersmith — Sarah Waters
A slick modern version of the typical Victorian novel … with lesbians. Entertaining
Street of No Return — David Goodis
The Burglar — David Goodis
The Moon in the Gutter — David Goodis
The Females — Wolfgang Hilbig
The Misty Harbor — Georges Simenon
Liberty Bar — Georges Simenon
The Grand Banks Café — George Simenon
The Checkout Girl — Tazeen Ahmad
British and not that revelatory.
Nuns and Soldiers — Iris Murdoch
Twisted Tom — Rhys Evans
The Gangster We Are All Looking For — Lé The Diem Thúy
A Fairly Honorable Defeat — Iris Murdoch
Roderick Hudson — Henry James
The Museum At the End of the World — John Metcalf
Saint X — Alexis Schaitkin
The Wonderful Adventure of Nils Holgersson — Selma Lagerlöf
The Big Sky — A. B. Guthrie, Jr.
Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle — Vladimir Nabokov (+)
A Hero of Our Time — Mikhail Lermontov
God Is Not Great — Christopher Hitchens
The Enormous Room — E. E. Cummings
The Red-Haired Woman — Orhan Pamuk
A professor posited that there really is only one plot: the son’s search for the father. Note Homer. the Bible, The Brothers Karamazov, Ulysses, and The Red-Haired Woman. But what about Oedipus?
Doctor Thorne — Anthony Trollope
Broke Heart Blues — Joyce Carol Oates
Not great. Not recommended.
The Ghost In the Machine — Jeff VanderMeer
Empire of the Sun — J. G. Ballard
Two interesting things about this novel: first, it is a true story (even though fiction) of the life of the author. and second, a young Christian Bale portrayed the young J. G. Ballard in the movie made from the book. Good story.
Slender Man: The Curse — Jason St. Amand
Curiosity. Based on photo of Slender Man from an earlier horror contest (I understand).
The Adventures of Harry Richmond — George Meredith
Poor Folk – Fyodor Dostoevsky
Epistolary novel. Short and sad.
Significant Others — Armistad Maupin
Fresh action at a Russian River retreat.
Shuggie Bain — Douglas Stuart
Engaging. Easy to see why this was a winner.
The Humbling — Philip Roth
The Flight From the Enchanter — Iris Murdoch
The Web and the Rock — Thomas Wolfe
I Never Met a Metaphor I Didn’t Like — Dr. Mardy Grothe (-)
Endless quotations. Boring.
Harlem Shuffle — Colson Whitehead
A Little History of Poetry — John Carey
Nice but were poets predominately fluid in their sexuality or are the author’s preferences being highlighted?
Armadale — Wilkie Collins
Lots of words. Lots of plot. Too many Alans.
The Green Knight — Iris Murdoch (+)
Complex and engaging with the ever present hint to Gawain and Bercelak.
Huck Out West — Robert Coover
Savage Theories — Pola Oloixarac
The Flaming Corsage — William Kennedy
The Accident — Ismail Kadare
The African — J. M. G. Le Clézio
A short memoir that focuses on the author’s experiences of Africa and his father, The African.
Absurdistan — Gary Shteyngart
Three Trapped Tigers — G. Cabrera Infante
Like Ulysses, there’s a lot of fun in this novel. Loaded with twisted references and waves of plurasignation; how does the fun survive the translation process. This seems like a good one to read in the VO.
The Old Capital — Yasunari Kawabata (+)
Le Docteur Pascal — Émile Zola
A good one that ties up the whole series so makes sure you read it last.
Warlock — Oakley Hall
Self-absorbed men running around with guns and killing people? It’s amazing how history repeats itself.
The End: My Struggle Book 6 — Karl Ove Knausgârd
The last volume of the aauthor’s reality fiction, My Struggle. The best and the wort of the six volumes and decidedly the longest and probab;ly the most meta.
The Captain and the Glory: An Entertainment — David Eggers
A savage satire of the United States in the throes of insanity. This blisteringly funny novel tells the story of a noble ship, the Glory, and the loud, clownish, and foul Captain who steers it to the brink of disaster.
Babycakes — Armistead Maupin
The saga continues.
The Anarchist Banker — Ferdinando Pessoa
A new way to approach tyranny.
Ghost Chant — Gina Ranalli
Second Foundation: Foundation 3 — Isaac Asimov
This series is classic and the author is both prolific and imaginative, but it’s boring.
A Children’s Bible — Lydia Millet (+)
Dystopean? Cautionary? Moves fast but packed with a lot to think about.
Sweet Bean Paste — Durian Sukegawa
Confectionary and Hansen’s disease.
Calypso — David Sedaris
Excellent personal essays.But it’s still all fiction, right?
Komodo — Jeff VanderMeer (-)
Mercifully short.
Love Among the Ruins — Robert Clark
Brought me back to being in LA watching the election results which were decimated by the assasination of RFK, but otherwise a misunderstood teenage love story that ends badly.
Ugly Heaven — Carlton Mellick III
What if God lost interest in Heaven?
How Beautiful We Were — Imbolo Mbue
Africa. Oil, Greed. Well done.
They Ate the Waitress — D. N. Schmidt
Entertainment.
Journeyman — Erskine Caldwell
An under appreciated author.
The Sleepwalkers — Hermann Broch (+)
This has it all: history, society, philosophy, even sex. Unfortunately, Broch writes circles around the average reader and often reads more like a textbook than as a novel.
The Counterlife — Philip Roth
Definitely not light fare. “The obsessive reinvention of the real.”
North & South — Elizabeth Gaskell
The Rabbit Factory — Larry Brown
Rollicking fun with enough complexity, interesting characters, sex and gore to keep the pages rolling by.
Fu Ping: A Novel — Anyi Wang
Life in China in the forties and fifties.
Weymouth Sands — John Cowper Powys
Son Excellence Eugène Rougon — Émile Zola
The Chrysalids — John Wyndham
Queen of America — Luis Alberto Urrea
A dream that follows a historical timeline. Great story. Impressive author. I want more.
Foundation and Empire: Foundation 2 — Isaac Asimov
Although Adimov might be a pioneer in this genre it’s still hard to appreciate what are now silly clichés.
Klara and the Sun: A Novel — Kazuo Ishiguro
Very well done. Understated, imaginative, and a refreshingly enigmatic narrative. I can’t wait for the B4.
The Parade — David Eggers
Good story. Tightly written with that quality of not explaining everything that I admire.
Deacon King Kong — James McBride
Good story. Will there be a movie or a Netflix series?
An American Type — Henry Roth
The final volume of Roth’s excellent narrative about growing up in America. Incomplete and pieced together very nicely by an admiring editor.
Styx — Bavo Dhooge (-)
Starts as an interesting procedural detective story and gradually degrades into genre zombie fiction.
Bodega Dreams: A Novel — Ernesto B. Quinonez
Life and death in Spanish Harlem. Interesting comment on evolving language.
Americana — Don DeLillo
Author never engaged me in narrative.
Some Rain Must Fall: My Struggle Book 5 — Karl Ove Knausgârd (+)
Homeland Elegies — Ayad Akhtar (+)
Excellent author makes it difficult to believe you’re actually reading fiction. Still, he covers most thinking and events of the last twenty or thirty years in a very convincing manner, especially those that involve being a Muslim in America.
Panther In the Basement — Amos Oz
A little coming of age story for a boy and a nation.
Morte d’Urban — J. F. Powers
Pleasant. More human that religious.
The Kraken Wakes — John Wyndham
The mythological parallels with the horror of T***pism are amazing.
Maigret In Court — Georges Simenon
Garbage — Stephen Dixon
Inner city angst: A fable.
The Circus of Dr. Lao — Charles G. Finney
Strange circus .. strange book.
Quincannon — Bill Pronzini
A detective story from frontier days.
Black Betty— Walter Mosley
The White Butterfly — Walter Mosley
The Red Death — Walter Mosely
Easy Rawlins.
The Rabbit’s Rebellion — Ariel Dorfman
Fable for children?
Territory of Light — Yuko Tsushima
The Wild Palms — Willian Faulkner
Two stories interweaved. Subtle comparison but each story strong enough on its own.
The Con Man — Ed McBain
87th Precinct. Interesting notes about character development.
The Bostonians — Henry James
A bit of feminism.
Black Wave — Michelle Tea
Sex, drugs, and a postmodern apocalypse.
Sometimes a Great Notion — Ken Kesey (+)
There’s a lot of living in this novel. Epic.
The Professor — Charlotte Brontë
The Rainbow — D. H. Lawrence
Mercy of a Rude Stream: Requiem For Harlem — Henry Roth (+)
Part 4 of the author’s autobiographical novel.Possibly the best most under appreciated American writer of the last century
Mercy of a Rude Stream: From Bondage — Henry Roth (+)
Part 3 of the author’s autobiographical novel. Roth’s treatment of his character’s sexuality is a revelation.
The Folding Star — Alan Hollinghurst
Gay sex seems to be much more descriptive than non-gay sex, although sometimes reading it is indistinguishable from a professional Twister match.
L’Argent — Émile Zola
A good narrative of early Capitalism and eternal Greed. Is it different now than in 1870?
Second Person Singular — Sayed Kashua
The Last Taxi Ride — A. X. Ahmad
Entertaining but not overly engaging.
De Niro’s Game — Rawi Hage
Hint: the final twist parallels The Deer Hunter.
The Flood — J. M. G. Le Clézio
Hummingbird Salamander — Jeff VanderMeer
Nope. This might be my last VanderMeer.
Arcadian Nights — John Spurling
If you took classical literature in college, these stories are quite familiar; however, if you are new to the stories of ancient history and myth (at least the Western version) then these are very approachable renderings.
A Book of American Martyrs — Joyce Carol Oates
I sometimes think JCO generates her big fat books out of themes and stories she collects and subsequently plugs into a simple text to generate extra interest and extra pages (à la creative writing school boilerplate fiction). Here, I strongly felt the boxing theme was forced into the narrative but after finishing this novel, I’m not so sure.
Old Rendering Plant — Wolfgang Hilbig
Seven Samurai Swept Away in a River — Jung Young Moon
A Korean author answers the age old question: “Wa’s up?”
Libra — Don DeLillo
Less a story of the assassination than a treatment of Oswald. Still, it’s old news and tedious.
Teeth — Hannah Moskowitz
Gay Fish Boy?
Dancing in the Dark: My Struggle Book 4 — Karl Ove Knausgârd
Booze, pedagogy, and premature ejaculation.
Forever Flowing — Vasily Grossman (+)
A shorter work with a familiar gulag narrative replete with a great deal of editorial comment on the evils of Stalin and Lenin, not so much for the Communism, but more so for the way it was implemented. One thought that sticks: The communist Russian state needed enemies so they manufactured them from their own people, resulting in fear and the Gulag. A key word here is Slavery.
Vengeance Is Mine — Mickey Spillane
Spillane has an outdated view of women.
Foundation: Foundation 1 — Isaac Asimov
I actually read this long ago but it’s probably time to fill in a bit of classical science fiction. And now I notice there is a video version of Foundation coming to Apple TV.
At Dusk — Hwang Sok-yang
I’m always impressed with Korean literature.
Up the Down Staircase — Bel Kaufman
Too Vinnie Barbarino? It’s not that this has aged but rather that it represents a very personal historical view of the inanities which remain in similar endeavors to this day. Think Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Clueless or specifically Teachers with the great Richard Mulligan.
The Case of the Sulky Girl — Erle Stanley Gardner
Interesting how the author closes one novel (case) with the introduction of the next novel (case).
The Case of the Velvet Claws — Erle Stanley Gardner
The first Perry Mason.
The Arabian Nights — Hasain Haddawy (+)
Great translation but there are so many variations on the stories that it’s probably best to read several versions.
Parade — Hiromi Kawakami
Maigret On the Defensive — Georges Simenon
America Is Not the Heart — Elaine Castillo
Nice. Narrative flips between fear of violence in the Philippines and the struggle to advance in the American dysphoria. Note abundance of references to language and to food.
The Public Burning — Robert Coover (+)
Dick Nixon vs. the Rosenbergs. A fascinating narrative.
The Betrothed: I Promessi Sposi — Alessandro Manzoni (+)
Pot-Bouille — Émile Zola (+)
The Belles of Bruges — Georges Rodenbach
The Beach At Night — Elena Ferrante
Indian Killer — Sherman Alexie
Complex social issues wrapped in a murder mystery. Well done.
The Caretaker — A. X. Ahmad
Good tension involving immigration, global politics, and murder.
Readopolis — Bertrand Laverdure
The Line of Beauty — Alan Hollinghurst
The world of art, literature, and homosexuality sharpened by AIDS.
Robert B. Parker’s Blind Spot — Reed Farrel Coleman
Shirley — Charlotte Brontë
Unfortunately, tedious.
Attack of the Killer Frogs — Peter Clover
Just for fun.
The Year of the Comet — Sergei Lebedev
Borne: A Novel — Jeff VanderMeer (-)
In an apparent post-apocalyptic world there are ersatz magical creatures named Mord and Borne? Silly.
The Warden — Anthony Trollope
Starting a new career reading Trillope.
A Pair of Blue Eyes — Thomas Hardy
Ever since Native in HS I have been a Hardy fan. Although this is not on the A-List, it’s a good story but don’t expect anything too shocking. Compare rendition of affair on the cliff to Dickey in Deliverance: Dickey scared me but I could see Hardy as a comic scene in a romantic movie.
The Domino Boys — D. M. Mitchell
The Last Rectangle and other Short Stories — Akram Najjar
Boyhood Island, My Struggle Book 3 — Karl Ove Knausgârd
The Eighth Detective — Alex Pavesi
Well thought out narrative structure. Fun.
Under the Udala Trees — Chinelo Okparanta
Growing up lesbian in a repressive society.
A Lie Someone Told You About Yourself — Peter Ho Davies
A well-observed representation of parenthood. Good.
Pacific Heights — Paul Harper
Robert B. Parker’s Buckskin — Robert Knott
Robert B. Parker’s Revelation — Robert Knott
Robert B. Parker’s Blackjack — Robert Knott
NW: A Novel — Zadie Smith
Engaging. Question: I have always espoused that it is immaterial to know a person’s ethnic background but sometimes such knowledge is key to the theme of the work. Think of Joe Christmas.
My Friend Maigret — Georges Simenon
Maigret’s First Case — Georges Simenon
The Madman of Bergerac — Georges Simenon
L’Ombre chinoise — Georges Simenon
Nexus — Henry Miller (+)
The Rosy Crucifixion Book 3. More philosophical.
Plexus — Henry Miller (+)
The Rosy Crucifixion Book 2. Miller trades literate jabs just like Joyce.
Sexus — Henry Miller (+)
The Rosy Crucifixion Book 1. Intriguing naughtiness common to Miller novels.
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall — Anne Brontë
Definitely an early feminist text.
Group Portrait with Lady — Heinrich Böll (+)
The Talisman — Sir Walter Scott
King Richard in the Holy Land.
The Liar’s Dictionary — Eley Williams
Lanark: A Life In Four Books — Alisdair Gray (+)
Chatter: Poems — Neil Hilborn
No Name — Wilkie Collins (+)
Collins is generally designated as a secondary novelist but I really enjoyed this one.
Bunny Lake Is Missing — Evelyn Piper
Entertainment.
The Winter Queen — Boris Akunin
Fandorin, Erast Fandorin. A literary ancestor to James Bond .. and from Russia (with love?).
The Melancholy of Resistance — Lásló Krasznahorkai (+)
The Spell — Alan Hollinghurst
The Boys In the Band meet The Return of the Native.
The Pit — Frank Norris
Wheat. Wheat. Wheat. The story of how wealthy capitalists can manipulate the market and on the other side of the world a child goes to bed hungry because bread is too expensive for the family to buy.
Outer Dark — Cormac McCarthy
From the author’s backwoods Tennessee period.
The Bridge on the Drina — Ivo Andric (+)
A Balkan history told through the life of one bridge. Very powerful. Award winning even.
Ragnarok: The End of the Gods — A. S. Byatt
Ratner’s Star — Don DeLillo
The bat cave? What is it about this esteemed author that escapes me?
First Person Singular: Stories — Haruki Murakami
I’d conjecture that the author was cleaning out a drawer.
The Tool & the Butterflies — Dmitry Lipskerov
A strong and evocative narrative and I agree that without their dicks, men bring little to the table and should stand aside and let women take over.
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead: A Novel — Olga Tokarczuk
Did the deer do it?
The Death of Vivek Oji: A Novel — Akwaeke Emezi
A Man In Love: My Struggle Book 2 — Karl Ove Knausgârd
Proust or just a detailed diary?
Sperm Wars: Infidelity, Sexual Conflict, and Other Bedroom Battles — Robin Baker
Who knew? Is this a good read for religious fundamentalists?
The Friends of Eddie Coyle — George V. Higgins
Here both the book and the movie were quite good.Mitchum tips it for me.
Tornado Alley — William S. Burroughs
Reiko: A Japanese Ghost Story — James Avonleigh
Ghosts are different in Japan.
Trafik — Ricki Ducornet
See also Joseph McElroy’s Plus.
Psychedelic Apes: From Parallel Universes To Atomic Dinosaurs – The Weirdest Theories of Science and History — Alex Boese
Nothing really new but a succinct accounting of unusual (not really weird) events in the history of science and history.
Robert B. Parker’s The Bridge — Robert Knott
Robert B. Parker’s Bull River — Robert Knott
Robert B. Parker’s Ironhorse — Robert Knott
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry — Neil Degrasse Tyson
Good. Interesting. Informative. Yet gentle on our brains.
Life and Fate — Vasily Grossman (+)
The Franchiser — Stanley Elkin
Little Dorrit — Charles Dickens (+)
No One Is Talking About This — Patrician Lockwood
Freewheeling prose, very current, and emotional.
Jack: A Novel — Marilynne Robinson
The Gilead quartet concludes.
The Infatuations — Javier Marías
Le Cousin Pons — Honoré de Balzac
Going Native — Stephen Wright
Cam Girl — Isa Mazzei
Teen angst meets the sex industry, or How To Be So Wrong But Make So Much Money.
The Bride of Lammermoor — Sir Walter Scott
The Pornographers: A Novel — Akiyuki Nozaka
Interesting. I would have thought this narrative exposing the development of a pornographer (as a business, not as a crime) would have been obvious for years but this is actually the first time I have read or heard about it. “That little bare ass man has—up and down, up and down it goes. It makes you sad just to look at it.”
What Are You Going Through — Sigrid Nunez
Interesting. Thought provoking.
Girl A — Abigail Dean
A Death in the Family: My Struggle Book 1 — Karl Ove Knausgârd
Is this six part novel series the Recherché of the 21st century?
Mexican Gothic — Silvia Morena-García
Beware the Gloom! Like so many horror stories, this one is a little musty. Think of it as Rorschach Goes to the House of Usher.
La Joie de vivre — Émile Zola
Irony right there in the title.
Hades, Argentina — Daniel Loedel (+)
The Argentine Dirty War remembered. A complex and intimate meditation on love, guilt, and the decisions that haunt us forever. — Kirkus. Traditional flash-backs but with ghosts. Well done.
The Blind Earthworm in the Labyrinth — Veeraporn Nitiprapha
Worth reading twice.
The Room Next Door — Nicolas Papaconstantinou
Further Tales of the City — Armistead Maupin
What do Jonestown, Sitka, and Barbary Lane have in common?
Lit Up — David Denby
Literature, reading, and High School students. The mush starts to come together.
Baby Moll — John Farris
Hard Case Crime.
The Max — Ken Bruen
Hard Case Crime.
House Dick — E. Howard Hunt
Hard Case Crime.
The Door — Mary Roberts Rinehart
Traditional who-done-it: complexities, twists, revelations. Noticed far more variety of detail than Simenon.
Honey In His Mouth — Lester Dent
Almost reminded me of the original Mission Impossible .. with real killers.
Fade To Blonde — Max Phillips
Hard Case Crime.
Choke Hold — Christa Faust
Our favorite sex worker writes another crime novel.
Histories — Herodotus (+)
High praise for detail and historical importance but reading this one is a bit of a chore.
The Silver Swan — Benjamin Black
Banville again. Didn’t hold my interest.
Zorrie — Laird Hunt
A life .. and more Indiana. Have to admit that the early episode with painting clock dials with radium put a damper on the narrative to follow.
Zadig — Voltaire
Parallel Stories — Péter Nádas
Long. Exhausting. Spermy.
Monestary — Sir Walter Scott
Romola — George Eliot
Take a pile of historical fiction, focus on Florence in a time long ago, drop several historical names, and throw in a common Victorian story of love, pursuit, mistaken identity, and quaint morals, and you get Romola. The excitement is palpable.
The Untouchable — John Banville
East Is East — T. C. Boyle
A bewildered foreigner being pursued by the authorities in an unfamiliar part of America? Is this the Sushi Curtain?
Galápagos: A Novel — Kurt Vonnegut (+)
The quintessential Last Man irony where mankind is wiped out except for a sparsely populated tour boat to the Galapagos Islands where a new breed of humans thrives amongst the iguanas and blood finches.
Transcendent Kingdom: A Novel — Yaa Gyasi
Patrimony: A True Story — Philip Roth
As a man grows older he remembers his youth and especially his father. Autobiographical.
More Tales of the City — Armistead Maupin
My Brilliant Friend — Elena Ferrante
Le Faute de l’Abbé Mouret — Émile Zola
Death by daisy. Lush, poetic, not high on the R-M list.
The Fifth Child — Doris Lessing
Boy Toy — Barry Lyga
After school special with naughty bits and fastballs.
Imperial Bedrooms — Bret Easton Ellis
They Were Divided — Miklós Bánffy (+)
Wieland; or the Transformation — Charles Brockton Brown
Very early American Gothic. Mildly spooky.
Homegoing — Yaa Gyasi
Lila — Marilynne Robinson
More Gilead.
Suttree — Cormac McCarthy (+)
La Cousine Bette — Honoré de Balzac
I’m not aa big Balzac fan but this one is pretty good. As is much of Balzac, knowledge of the complete Comedy exposes the interconnection of characters and events in this and many other stories and novels.
A Martian Examines Christianity — Arthur Levett ***
My 9th grade math teacher had an angel that didn’t know mathematics and needed explicit, detailed instructions to do the simplest things. But that was different: Angels and Martians may not be true but mathematics is a fact. Levett codifies the many facts and debunks the many myths that primitive man developed into the concept of a god and the supremacy of faith. The real surprise is that such absurdity is still believed. Some fun logic and Socratic wrestling in this one.
Robert B. Parker’s Someone To Watch Over Me — Ace Atkins
A blunt treatment of a fictional sleaze who works out of Florida (and Boston) procuring underage girls for prominent politicians and business moguls who also happens to own a small island convenient for private parties. Roman à clef?
The Aosawa Murders — Riku Onda
Can we ever know the truth .. the whole truth? Remember, it’s all fiction.
Christine Falls: A Novel — Benjamin Black
John Banville.
An Instance of the Fingerpost — Iain Pears (+)
Long, detailed treatment in the form of a historical period told from multiple viewpoints (Rashoman Effect). Lots of twists and reversals. An engaging narrative that flies by .. it is a big fat book.
The Marble Faun: Or, The Romance of Monte Beni — Nathaniel Hawthorne
I read that this novel was a departure for Hawthorne. I agree and it didn’t work for me. But was it the world classic Italian art or just that I couldn’t handle a character called Donatello that wasn’t green.
Bedtime Eyes — Amy Yamada
Three intense studies of highly personal relationships. often smutty.
History. A Mess. — Sigrún Pálsdóttir
Not sure of this one. Rereading may be required.
An Ice-Cream War: A Novel — William Boyd
Great narrative relating events in Africa during The Great War .. stuff that never seems to be commonly known. Remember the Louisa?
Villette — Charlotte Brontë
The usual narrative of a young Victorian woman making her way in the world but with a little gothic mystery and an inconclusive ending.
Une Page d’amour — Émile Zola
A lesser known novel from the Rougon-Macquart world but pretty good. Sad.
Carnival: A Novel — Rawi Hage
Lookout Cartridge — Joseph McElroy (+)
Read very carefully.
Innocents Abroad — Mark Twain
An historically interesting commentary on the author’s tour of Europe and the Holy Land, with the objective travelogue infected by the wit and opinions of the author. Conclusion: the reality of the Old World is a disappointment compared to the anticipated glory represented in the fictional representations. Art triumphs; reality attracts flies.
Earthlings — Sayaka Murata
I’m uncertain about this one: Is it a gross and evil mess or is it a powerful metaphor for escaping from our impersonal and stultifying civilization? From being orally raped to eating choice parts of friends/not-friends, there’s a lot to consider in this small, disturbing novel.
Stealth — Sonallah Ibrahim
Ghost Town — Robert Coover
Every B-Western trope with a decidedly postmodern twist.
The Balcony — Jean Genet (+)
Don’t miss the excellent cinema version of Genet’s play from the ’60s .. especially Leonard Nimoy.
They Were Found Wanting — Miklós Bánffy
Love and war in Transylvania: Book 2.
Miss Iceland — Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir
Agnes Grey — Anne Brontë
Looking For Bapu — Anjali Banerjee
Juvenile.
The Pilot; or, A Tale of the Sea — James Fenimore Cooper
Even at sea there is a Natty Bumppo character. And who is the mysterious pilot? Cooper’s answer to Scott’s The Pirate.
Interior Chinatown — Charles Ya
Clever execution of important theme but not a favorite read. Interesting: Asians were in America before the Irish and Italian immigrations, yet Asians are still viewed as foreigners whereas the Irish and Italians are considered good Americans. Why is that? And why are Asians grouped with African-Americans on questionnaires .. why not a category like Irish/African American?
Jailbird — Kurt Vonnegut
Cities of the Plain — Cormac McCarthy (+)
The final volume of the excellent Border Trilogy. If you love testosterone you’ll really like these three novel. If you’re a feminist .. not so much.
Tomboyland: Essays — Melissa Faliveno (+)
Highly enjoyable essays (memoir) recalling the evolution of a tomboy in the mid-west. Good read.
Home: A Novel — Marilynne Robinson
Gilean #2.
Medea — Rachel Cusk
Reimagining the Greek story in a modern drama.
Maigret and the Millionaires — Georges Simenon
Maigret and Monsieur Charles — Georges Simenon
Maigret and the Informer — Georges Simenon
Taco Noir — Steven Gomez (-)
Pleasant short stories interrupted by thematic recipes. Nope.
Goth Girl Rising — Barry Lyga
Ah, youth.
Just Kids From the Bronx — Arlene Alda
An interesting collection of life growing up in the Bronx. The unspoken idea is that such a diverse and famous group of people came out of the Bronx but how does that compare to, say, Brooklyn, or Chicago .. Cleveland even.
People’s History of the United States — Howard Zinn (+)
You know it’s true.
Bukowski in a Sundress: Confessions from a Writing Life — Kim Addonizio
Definitely a female point of view but still full of relatable observations.
Maigret and the Death of a Harbor-Master — Georges Simenon
Maigret Afraid — Georges Simenon
Maigret Has Doubts — Georges Simenon
Maigret and the Killer — Georges Simenon
The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956 Abridged: An Experiment in Literary Investigation — Aexandr Soltzheritsyn (+)
OK .. abridged .. life is short and the abridgment was by the author. If you’re ever feeling put upon, depressed, or in any way feeling sorry for your life or the cruelty of society or politics, take down this book and read. What I don’t understand is how Republicans seem to gravitate towards Russia.
Mary Barton: A Tale of Manchester Life — Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
The workers in the mills are starving while the mill owners are just getting richer. Nothing has changed.
In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash — Jean Shepherd
A collection of Jean’s Indiana memories held together by the fiction of a visit as a successful New Yorker reminiscing with a local bartender who is also an old buddy from back in the days. But Digger O’Dell was on Riley, not Fibber.
Reveries of the Solitary Walker — Jean-Jacques Rousseau
San Miguel — T. C. Boyle
Fascinating view of a little-known part of California history. I remember in Spanish class reading the story of the lady and the goats on one of the other Channel Islands and of course there is The Island of the Blue Dolphins, but most people (even Californians) are only familiar with Catalina Island. This is a good story not only of the islands but also of the people who braved the isolation and the elements in a not-too-distant past.
Six Walks in the Fictional Woods — Umberto Eco
Getting serious about literature? Eco will expand your mind and you will like it.
The Watery Part of the World – Michael Parker
Not me but I have corresponded just to verify that we are not related. Strong narrative of North Carolina’s Outer Banks.
The Spy: A Tale of the Neutral Ground — James Fenimore Cooper
This is one of those stories where the action probably took place where a White Castle sits today .. on a one-way street. It’s often amusing to realize that the wild frontier was often only a reasonable commute from the center of the future metropolis.
Homeland Security Ate My Speech: Messages from the End of the World — Ariel Dorfman
The author having escaped authoritarian Chile has a lot to say about Trump and America.
The Black Book — Orhan Pamuk
Against Interpretation — Susan Sontag
Essays. Strong insights into films, although I could only wrap my brain around what the author was saying in very few instances. She was a deep thinker that should not fade into history.
John’s Wife — Robert Coover
A postmodern view of small-town USA (interestingly compared to Sherwood Anderson). Quite a trip.
The Secret Garden — Frances Hodgson Burnett
Juvenile but relevant literature, if a little didactic. Remember all the books and stories you read as a kid or had read to you?
A Daughter of the Middle Border — Hamlin Garland
Personal history. Biography? Memoir? It’s important to remember the growth of this country. Read The Son of the Middle Border first.
They Were Counted — Miklós Bánffy (+)
Volume 1 of the Transylvania Trilogy. This is so good. Bánffy is called the Hungarian Tolstoy and I have to agree: depth of narrative, readability of prose, vividness of characters and events, and beaucoup de pages.
The League of Frightened Men — Rex Stout
Early Nero Wolfe. Fun.
Solar — Ian McEwan
What happens when social drama meets global warming?
La Rêve — Émile Zola
Religion. Love. Class. Tragedy.
The Crossing — Cormac McCarthy (+)
Border Trilogy 2.
Blithedale Romance — Nathaniel Hawthorne
Shades of Trilby. Zenobia should have been a much better developed character and the entire idea of Blithedale was unfortunately tossed off as mere background. As you might suspect, a narrative which starts with a Veiled Lady involves a certain amount of mistaken/revealed identity. Not bad but quite disappointing.
Operation Shylock : A Confession — Philip Roth
Remember .. It’s All Fiction.
Snow — John Banville
A Celebration of Reading 