Books I’ve Read in 2016 Through About July
1 Graham Greene
The Heart of the Matter
January 7, 2016
Note: An irresistible story about a man so hopelessly wrapped up in trouble of his own making.
2 Ann Patchett
Truth and Beauty
January 13, 2016
Note: A number of friends read this book and it is a great book to read with friends and loved ones. It's also great on its own terms: personal, sweet, tragic.
List Note: I became a fan of Ann Patchett's when my teacher included a single paragraph of her novel Bel Canto in a lecture.
3 Jeffrey Eugenides
The Virgin Suicides
January 19, 2016
Note: I love this book. The voice, the words, it's amazing.
4 Ann Patchett
Bel Canto
January 23, 2016
Note: Ann Patchett's remarkable novel. The promise of the book, "Read this book, it's about an opera singer in a hostage drama. Lots of Japanese people." This book does cartwheels over its promises.
5 Anthony Burgess
A Clockwork Orange
February 3, 2016
Note: I read Anthony Burgess "The Wanting Seed," and it blew me away. That novel's brio, its disregard or disdain of genre, its prizing of character and dialect all carry through Burgess' more famous A Clockwork Orange.
6 Leo Tolstoy
War and Peace, Translated by Pevear and Volokhonsky
February 8, 2016
Note: I love every character and every page of prose, but I had to put it down later in March.
List Note: DNF
7 Piers Anthony
A Spell for Chameleon
March 27, 2016
Note: Because I picked up this terrific fantasy from Piers Anthony. I may officially be the last person on the Piers Anthony bus.
List Note: DNF
8 Various
Zoetrope: All Story
March 28, 2016
Note: Note: Literary magazine
List Note: Yes, it's a magazine. But it took up a chunk of reading time, so it's on the list. It's my list, I can put whatever I want on here. So there.
You may be thinking, based on that, why don't I include my stereo instructions or the copy on the back of my Garnier Fructis conditioner for shiny or straight hair?
The rules here are simple: if I read it in 2016 AND I took a picture of it, that's a signal that the work was one that I regarded as a significant reading event. I realize that if anyone reads this list with a critical eye, and I welcome that, that critical-eyed reader may well be wondering what constitutes an SRE? An SRE is anything that I photograph and caption "Currently Reading."
There are a handful of exceptions to this definition, see "asterisk" section below.
9 Alice & Oliver
Charles Bock
May 8, 2016
List Note: DNF
10 Joan Didion
Slouching Toward Bethlehem
May 23, 2016
Note: Deserves status as classic.
11 Don Briethaupt
Steely Dan's Aja
May 29, 2016
Note: I love Steely Dan and I love reading!
12 Various
Paris Review
June 15, 2016
Note: Literary magazine
List Note: See list Note: to #8
13 Robert C. O'Brien
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
June 20, 2016
Note: I didn't see the movie. At my grade school, we had a book fair from time to time and I ordered the comic-book version of this movie because at the book fair that was the closest thing to a legit comic book to be had. So I wanted a comic book. What I got was a well-told, harrowing tale. This book, the novel Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, will be read widely again by a new generation. I hereby predict it.
List Note: DNF (shut up)
14 J.M. Coetzee
Disgrace
June 24, 2016
Note: Like a Graham Greene novel, this work is about a man with problems. It is melancholy and tragic but it's also written with such skill that every page is captivating.
List Note: I was also exposed to this novel in a writing class. Learning: it works.
15 J.M. Coetzee
Waiting for the Barbarians
June 30, 2016
Note: I remember having loved this book because it felt so present and new in 2008 or so. Still is, but I got a completely different vibe from it this time around.
16 Ben H. Winters
Underground Airlines
July 8, 2016
Note: A great high-concept suspense thriller. I went to college with Mr. Winters and I’m proud to know him. This book is very very good.
17 Elizabeth Strout
My Name is Lucy Barton
*
Note: If anyone ever stands up and says "Here is the list of things that a novel has to have," take your copy of this book out of your bag and shove it into his or her mouth. The novel-rules person will look funny because this book is far wider than most mouths. This book's wideness is what allows the author to write such wonderful, meandering, touching words.
List Note: This is the "asterisk" section in which I’ve included books whose read-dates are un-marked.
18 Brian K Vaughn and Fiona Staples
Saga vol. 1-6
*
Note: I'm so late to the party on this. You can go ahead and raise your expectations, Saga is that good. The Thing #4, from 1984, in which The Thing of the Fantastic Four, encounters a disabled child in the deep south. Reading The Thing #4 comic as a kid was the first time I cried reading a comic and it didn't happen again until I read Saga.
List Note: I read this series over the course of a few months, some of which were probably in 2015, only my book retailer knows for sure.
19 Don Delillo
White Noise
*
Note: Retains classic status for one more year.
List Note: I re-read this in July but it was a quick read and maybe I didn't realize I was full time reading it until after it was over. So, no photo.
20 Andy Miller
The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society
*
Note: I love The Kinks! I love reading!
List Note: Also a very quick read.
yousharknotpass
romaincrisis
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
kianamaiart
jimmyeatworldofficial
origamiaround