very simple

Here are the books that I’ve read since I’ve been in Italy…

Here’s something I haven’t done in years. I finished a book in one day. When I finally got my box o’ books, and decided to read this. I’m an avid fan of pamie’s website, and have been keeping up with her writing for a few years. Picked up this book in the morning and finished it at two minutes to midnight.

And lest you think that all I did was sit around and read, I went to the office that day and did about two hours of work, and then wandered around central Milan, window shopping at the few stores that were actually open on a Sunday. Oh, and I slept until almost noon.

This book gets a definite “thumbs up”. The way she captures so perfectly how you can love and hate your family at the same time. Oh, and it’s apparently going to be turned into a TV pilot.

I actually started this back in NY before I left, but it was too bulky to carry around on the bus, so I had put it down for a while. It seemed like just the right thing, however, to drag on the plane. Two separate people, who don’t know each other, both recommended this book to me based on what other stuff they knew I liked to read. It was quite interesting, although I think I figured out some of the “twists” pretty early on. But it’s a fascinating look through different time periods in Eastern Europe, seen through the eyes of some “accidental” Dracula hunters (I don’t want to give too much away). Told pretty seamlessly from the perspectives of several different narrators, through letters written to and stories told to one another. And just a bit of romance thrown in as well…

I picked this up in Italy, while I was waiting for the box o’books to get out of the black hole of customs. I always like Michael Chabon, so I figured, even with the somewhat…awkward title, that there would be more than met the eye. I was right. It’s 1944, and the “old man,” who use to be a “quite famous detective” (see if you can figure it out without reading the Chabon interview at the end) sets himself the singular task of finding a little boy’s parrot. That someone else has already been murdered in an attempt to steal the bird, who has an unceasing list of numbers to repeat, and that the young jewish boy has been rendered mute by the things he’s seen can break your heart. And then it all comes together when the bird gets his own chapter. I actually cried.

The Alienist was one of my favorite books back when I read it, probably in no small part because, at the time, I was actually living in one of the NYC buildings that the narrator would regularly stop into – it made it almost an adventure to go wandering around the neighborhood and see the remnants of the buildings that were essentially characters in the story. But this one’s a little different. Carr was requested to write this book by the representatives of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s estate in America, so he write a completely faithful Sherlock Holmes story, where Holmes, Watson and Holmes’ brother Mycroft (who, as it happens, is a trusted confidant of Queen Victoria), find themselves attempting to solve two murders at one of the royal residences in Scotland. Sure, I cringed at some of the extremely dated sexism in Watson’s descriptions of the women, but I suppose if you’re going to write something that’s true to the original, you can’t exactly reinvent the wheel there,and the mystery was certainly intriguing.

not to be confused with the Nicole Kidman/Sean Penn movie with the same name. The story of a Korean-American woman who works as a translator, has inappropriate relationships with married men, and who begins investigating the death of her parents (and the disintegration of her family) when one of the witnesses she is translating for inadvertently mentions that he knew them. I have to say that I’m usually pretty good at spotting ” twists,” but I really didn’t see the ending until I think I was supposed to. I really enjoyed this.

OK. This one was kind of dumb. Not dumb exactly, but I’m not sure why I decided to buy it. OK, I know why I bought it, because I love all things Pride and Prejudice, but frankly, I kind of wish that I had left this one on the shelf at the store. The “supposed” story of what happens after Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett get married, it’s basically just a romance novel that co-opts some of my favorite characters. Sure I read it the whole way through, but I kept waiting for it to get better. To live up, in some way, to the original, which it never did. But I read it, so it goes on the list.

Now this was an excellent book. Allende takes a well known and well-loved hero and gives us the story of how Diego de la Vega became that hero. The things that drove him, the destiny in his family history, that instilled the sense of justice that Zorro was famous for. Excellent. Plus, pirates!

I picked this up shortly after I finished reading Wicked. It’s told in the same vein, the classic fairy tale, grounded in reality, and told from the point of view of one of the “bad guys.” Here the stepmother is still pretty evil, but the stepsisters are merely plain. And “Cinderella” (or Clara) withdraws herself to the hearth rather than be forced there. Iris (the smart yet plain stepsister) and Ruth (the dumb one) are actually the ones that convince Clara to go to the ball. Of course there’s jealousy, and pettiness, and extreme beauty, but altogether it’s a much more human tale. Clearly I’m now going to have to add Son of a Witch to my “to read” list now.

I picked up trace first, in the english-language section of the Rizzoli bookstore in Milan. I had really liked the serialized version of At Risk that had appeared in the NY Times magazine, and I needed some less “serious” stuff to read because my box seemed to be filled with a bunch of books that required serious attention. Cornwell’s books are pretty much CSI in novel form, but they’re certainly enjoyable to read (if a bit gruesome), and I managed to find a few more at the other bookstore in town. Little hint though – it’s probably better to read them in order. by reading Trace first, it pretty much spoiled me for some secrets involved in the earlier novels. But I still enjoyed finding out how they got to those points.

I had actually started about six different books since I finished the last one, and couldn’t get through any of them. Biographies, fiction, political, etc. Nothing caught my interest for some time (Seriously – I finished Take the Cannoli on May 15, over 3 months ago).

Well, a few weeks ago, I was at the bookstore (again) obsessing in the travel section, when I started looking at the “travel writing” books. And I remembered how much I had liked the last Bill Bryson book that I had read. So…

Besides, Diana had recommended it in comments, so it had to be good, right?

I loved this book. I started it only last week, while on the train to Westchester to visit some friends, and I finished it today (and given that most of my free time is taken up with Italian classes, Italian homework, and actual work, that’s remarkably fast). I’m not exactly what you’d call an adventuresome person, but I have been camping and hiking (not in a long while, but still…), and the sharp detail and wit with which Bryson writes makes you feel like you’re right there. More entertaining still were the honest assessments of others (often crazy people), as well as himself.

And now I know. Next time I’m in a reading slump, pick up another Bryson book.

I finally went back and read the first of Vowell’s books…I first fell in love with Vowell’s stories on the radio, where she contributes regularly to This American Life. And of course, I picked up here more recent books, The Partly-Cloudy Patriot and Assassination Vacation. Vowell writes from a place of deep and abiding love for history, particularly American history. Here, she travels the Trail of Tears with her twin sister Amy, to try to get some insight into their heritage. She goes all the way to Italy because of her love for The Godfather, but can never quite bring herself to the right town in Sicily. She gushes forth about her love for Frank Sinatra, who she calls the original punk, and attempts to look less friendly by getting a goth makeover. Oh and she drags her “friend David” to Disney World. That would be David Rakoff, author of Fraud and Don’t Get Too Comfortable.

One of the most interesting things in reading this book now, however, is the realization that she originally wrote it back in 2000. Before Bush, before 9/11, before any of it. Yet, I felt a creepy sort of familiarity when she was describing Andrew Jackson during the forced migration of the Cherokee…

…On hearing of the ruling, the president is said to have replied, “John Marshall has made his ruling. Now let him enforce it.” Think about that, what that means: a breakdown of the balance of power in such boasting, dictatorial terms. Jackson is violating his own oath of office, to uphold the Constitution.

I don’t know about any of you, but the phrase “signing statements” immediately flashed through my mind when I read that sentence. Vowell viewed this kind of action as unfathomable today (or really, 7 years ago). But the idea that one branch of government (namely the executive) can simply choose to ignore the legislative or judicial branches when it suits him…was simply unfathomable when she wrote that. Now we still have not had trials (or any sort of judicial process) for the Guantanamo prisoners, despite a Supreme Court ruling requiring otherwise, and we have a President who really believes that simply because he is president, he can choose which parts of the laws Congress passes (and this is a Congress run by his own party, mind you) are constitutional all by himself. Even though he isn’t the judiciary.

Wow. Didn’t actually mean to get onto that sort of rant there.

In any event, I finished this book on my way over to London, where I am right now. I should be back home Wednesday night. Gotta love being indispensable. and jet-lagged.

I managed to finish a few books on my vacation, in between the scuba diving, brother fete-ing, and general laziness of my behavior…

Chalk this one up to my need to always read the book before I see the movie (well, except for Lord of the Rings, but I’ll excuse myself from that one for having tried to read those books repeatedly). The first “true crime” book, reads like a novel, is fascinating and shocking. I may be the only person left on earth who hasn’t read this book until now, but if I’m not, I heartily recommend it. It reads as well in 2006 as it probably did in 1966. And it only makes me want to see Capote even more.

I think I mentioned before that I had put off reading this one for a variety of reasons. For some reason, during the whole Oprah-Franzen controversy back in the late 90s (which so, so, so gets overshadowed by the Oprah-Frey controversy of today), I came to the conclusion that the book was so overhyped that it actually couldn’t be good (or at the very least, couldn’t live up to the hype that surrounded it), and I lost interest in it. Then I read How to be Alone, a book of essays by Franzen, and I absolutely fell in love with his writing style. Really captivating. And I figured, what the hell. So…I read this book in a day. A day! granted, I was marooned down on Carp Island for part of it, and had nothing else to do but read, but I couldn’t put the thing down. Then I gave it to my brother, who (while still reading it on his way to Bali Wednesday night) also couldn’t put it down. He actually had to force himself to stop reading it in order to be able to keep having it to read on his trip. Suburban malaise, urban angst, and a most incredibly dysfunctional family (that’s also frighteningly familiar). You find yourself identifying with and hating these characters at the same time.

This is one of those compilations that I always think about reading (“Best American Short Stories”, “Best American Poetry”, etc.). Truth be told, I didn’t enjoy this very much. Coming off of reading In Cold Blood, I thought I’d like to read some other good old fashioned mysteries. However, very few of these stories were “mysterious” in any way whatsoever. And yes, I get (as it states in the introduction) that “mystery” is not necessarily synonymous with “crime”. However, there wasn’t much mystery in these stories either. More like a bunch of stories about people who did bad things in the past and are telling about how much they regret those things. There were at least two stories that I couldn’t even finish. I wanted surprises, twists, actual…you know…mysteries in my compilation of the best mystery stories. Sad to say that the only reason I finished this one at all was that it was the only other book I brought down to Carp after The Corrections.

Continuing with another fascination of mine – anything that has to do with the history of New York. This one is about the history of the Dutch Colony of New Netherland (and its capital, New Amersterdam) before it was taken over by the British. Much of the history was lost (or thought lost) prior to the 1970s, until a trove of archival documents were discovered in a basement in Albany. Unfortunately, they were all in Old Dutch (which, like, Old- or Middle-English, is practically unrecognizable when compared to the modern versions of such languages). So there’s this one guy who is an expert, and has been dutifully translating the papers since the early 1970s. He’s published 18 volumes of translations, and he’s nowhere near done. In the meantime, Shorto has written this fairly concise history based on the work done so far. Really fascinating. When you read this, you realize just how much of “American” culture can date back to the Dutch occupation of this region, rather than the Puritanism of Massachusetts. Sure the Puritans were seeking “religious freedom”, but only for themselves – the Dutch actually tolerated everyone, because it was better for business (and Manhattan, being a colony of the West India Company, was all about business). Multitudes of languages spoken on the streets, religious intermarriage going on constantly, it’s a direct predecessor to the New York of today in its most wonderful ways. New Amsterdam was also the first place where the citizens demanded some sort of representation in the larger government (granted, they got turned down, but they tried!). All tied in with the Anglo-Dutch wars of the 1600s, and the crazy machinations of royalty (and those who would claim to be royalty) on the other side of the Atlantic.

So those are the books that I finished. I’m currently attempting to read The House of Morgan, by Ron Chernow, but we’ll see if I actually get through that one or put it down in favor of Kaaterskill Falls. I’ve taken all of the books that I haven’t read off of my bookshelf and put them in a pile in the middle of my living room, so that I’m constantly reminded that I really don’t need to take another trip to the bookstore right now!

At this rate, I’m definitely not going to meet the 50 books challenge – more like 15 books. But hey, that’s still pretty good on my schedule…

This is the second book that I’ve read on the Enron debacle, the first being The Smartest Guys in the Room. Reading about these crooks (on the eve of the Lay/Skilling trial no less) just makes my mind boggle. These guys (and Fastow in particular) were just off the charts. After reading this, I’m almost convinced that Fastow was a sociopath, Skilling needed a therapist (and some Prozac) really bad, and Lay…well, Lay needed to spend more time running his company and less time playing golf with the President (both Bushes and Clinton).

But it’s a fascinating story of greed, ego, and bad management. The entire company was structured in a way that encouraged short-cutting, bad deals, and petulant behavior.

And Anderson…Back when it happened, I didn’t really understand how the entire company could implode over the behavior of one set of accountants on one account. But now I do…Did no one think there might be something wrong when trunks full of documents (trunks!) were shipped to other offices to be shredded?

This is definitely a necessary read for anyone who works with any sort of corporation. And it’s hella entertaining too…

Hey – it’s only January 9 and I’ve finished two books!

First book of 2006 finished!

Okay, fine, so I started it last year, and only finished it last night. At this pace, I’m so not going to finish the 50 book challenge this year (as I have never finished it). Does reading SEC releases count?

So…

I enjoyed it (I know a few people who didn’t). It was too long in a few places – there were certain sections that I probably wouldn’t have noticed if they hadn’t been there, but I’m always a fan of Rashomon-like storytelling. Here you get the story from the Witch’s point of view. The Wizard is a despot, the Witch a freedom fighter, Glinda is actually her best friend (and college roommate), and it still makes perfect sense. 

So I thought I would begin my re-entry into blog life by catching up on the books that I managed to read while I was away…

The Jane Austen Book Club: Thought I would enjoy this, as I thoroughly enjoy all things Jane Austen (and yes, I did go see the umpteenth adaptation of Pride and Prejudice the other night), but I found it it be just…I don’t know. boring? amateurish? Yes I get that each of the characters in this book is "modeled" after a particular Austen character, but frankly, I would have preferred more "book club" time and less "meddling friend" time.

Birth of Venus: Again, somewhat overrated. I didn’t get some of the characters’ motivations, and I would have preferred slightly more focus on the art, rather than the "romance novel" aspects. I found myself often having to google the historical characters and referenced artists in order to fully understand what the characters were talking about. That being said, I read it pretty quickly. But I had to remind myself that I was basically reading a "fancy" romance novel, rather than true historical fiction. And I’m still trying to figure out who the "artist" is supposed to be.

Everything is Illuminated: Now this was a book. I had actually bought it a few years ago, and it ended up in the pile of books that I kept intending on reading and never getting around to. Well, when I was in Italy, I ran out of the books I brought with me, so I went to the bookstore and this was one of five english-language books that they had (the others all being Grisham novels that I had read years ago). So I thought, why not?

Seriously. I couldn’t put it down. I don’t want to spoil the ending, but I was utterly mesmerized at how wrong I was in my assumptions. And I really felt as if I was reading from the points of view of the different "writers" – Foer captured their voices so well. This of course, led me to immediately pick up his new book when I got home…

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: I read this one over the Thanksgiving holiday. and I’m still in awe of it. The connections, the adventure, the overwhelming sadness of a little boy trying desperately to grasp the last clues left by his father who was killed on the "worst day". Again, Foer manages to capture the voice of a character who is so far removed from himself that you forget that you’re reading a novel.

Memoirs of a Geisha: This was actually my plane reading back and forth to London on this last trip, because I only travel with paperbacks. I’ve been meaning to read it for years, and again, just never got around to it. But having to follow my rule never to see a movie until I’ve read the book, it was finally time. And it was fantastic. Yet another author who so thoroughly captures a voice that is far removed from his own life. I was enthralled. And compared to Birth of Venus, this is how you write a book that encompasses sex and duty and love so fully without making your reader feel like they have to hide the cover when they’re in public.  

Back when I was in law school, and the Corrections/Oprah controversy erupted, I was befuddled by the whole thing. The one result of my befuddlement? I never read the book (still haven’t), even though it was exactly the type of book I would normally at least make an effort to read.

But recently I picked up How to be Alone, a collection of non-fiction essays by Franzen, and it makes me want to go pick up his earlier work. Stories on the solitary nature of caring for a parent with Alzheimer’s, the isolation of crowds, even a crowd of like-minded political allies, the reclusive nature of writing, Franzen’s take on the whole Oprah thing (including a very funny description of the faux-documentary that they made him film for background before he got "disinvited" from the show), wondering whether books should be written more for the writers or for the audience, and an incredibly fascinating investigation of one solitary person’s attempt to reform the Chicago post office.

This is the first book of short essays that I’ve read in some time, and it was quite liberating. knowing that I could finish an individual story in a matter of a few subway rides, not having to worry that if I put the book down for a few days I would forget what I read and have to start over. I think The Corrections is definitely getting added to my wish list for after the move at the end of this month (I’ve committed to try not to buy anything else that I would have to pack before then, and besides, there are still about 12 other books on my shelf waiting to be read). Now I just have to pick a book short enough that I’ll be sure to finish it before the new Harry Potter gets delivered on the 16th.

Rick tagged me with the book meme that’s going around, so I thought I’d give it a try (my internet is still wonky so this might take some time before it’s published anywhere)…

1. Total number books I own:

My delicious library catalog says I have a little over 300, but that’s just the books in my apartment. It doesn’t count the hundreds of books stored in my parents house, or the books I given away (or that my brother has "borrowed") over the years. Or all of those books from college that I sold back to the bookstore for beer money at the end of the semester.

2. Last book I bought:

The last time I went to the bookstore, I picked up Courtroom 302 and Freakonomics (which I’ve now read).

3. Last book I read:

Bee Season. See the previous entry for my review. I just started reading How to be Alone by Jonathan Franzen.

4. Five Books Of Notable Influence On Me:

This is a really tough one. From childhood, it would definitely have to be The Phantom Tollbooth. I still remember it as the first "long" book that I ever read. Along the same lines, all of the books in the Chronicles of Narnia. I actually have a fresh set ready to be read again before the movies come out.

I was trying to think of some of the feminist books that have influenced me, but there have been so many. Certainly the book that made me want to major in women’s studies was The Feminine Mystique. A bit dated by the time I read it, but amazingly relevant and troubling. I have two editions of Our Bodies, Ourselves on my bookshelf, and use them regularly as a resource (speaking of which, I should probably get the new edition – the last one I have is from the mid-90s).

Wow. Four already. I may need to go over.

The best book on New York City politics that I have ever read, and the book that sparked my interest in the subject generally, is The Power Broker, by Robert Caro (a book I loved enough to drag my dog eared copy of it to a reading Caro gave so that he could sign it).

Others in shorter form:

A People’s History of the United States, by Howard Zinn.
Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
Plato’s Republic
Free Speech for Me but Not for Thee, by Nat Hentoff
The Portable Thomas Jefferson
Democracy in America, by Alexis de Tocqueville
The Federalist Papers, by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay

And about a million others that I can’t think of right now.

I had to remind my self that these were influential books, not necessarily favorite books (although they do overlap by a lot). Otherwise there would be a lot more David Sedaris and Caleb Carr on the list.

So. who to tag next? I’m thinking Greg over at For the H*ll of It.