Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon

So, it's been about a week since I finished this, because I was waiting on purpose to collect my thoughts and write a really good review. But of course I've forgotten most of what I wanted to say.
It's taken me a while to jump on the Chabon bandwagon. I've started Kavalier and Clay three or four times and never gotten into it. Wonder Boys was a little slow to start but I was hooked around the time he said shibboleth (I'm not really a you-had-me-at-hello kind of girl). Seriously, the man's vocabulary is insane and wonderful.
I finished the book on the train to work and felt really unsteady. It was just so true and ordinary and heartbreaking. So I guess I'll stick to mysteries while commuting.

When I got to work and told J.P. about it he goes, "oh, like that movie with Katie Holmes?" Urgh, how disappointing. But I'll probably watch it anyway.

I'm not summarizing, deal with it. It was hilarious and tragic, with a little Gatsby thing going on, but better than Gatsby. so, read it.

The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano

This bad boy is the story of a Mexican literary movement, the Visceral Realists, told in two parts. Bolano is sort of a cross between Hunter S. Thompson and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Which is to say, good. It's the kind of story that makes me feel restless and lonely.

The first part is the journal of the poet Juan Garcia Madero. He spends a lot of time in bars and the beds of various young ladies. He's this slacker student living off of someone else's money, and like so many Thompson characters lives in a desperate, hungry way.

Then there's this middle part that I read rather absentmindedly, which is terrible I know, which is kind of a retrospective of the movement told by a bunch of different people and not as interesting and the Garcia Madero storyline.

Then, back to him and some other poets, although they hardly ever write, and they go off to escape Lupe's pimp and also to find Cesarea Tinajero, who is sort of the founder of the movement. They find her, but the pimp finds them, and there's a shootout, and Garcia Madero separates from his friends and his diary becomes just a list of towns.

Honestly, this is a horrible description. It's a really big book, epic, so I've left out tons. But I loved it. So there.

Angels and Insects by A.S. Byatt

This is actually two novellas. The second one, "The Conjugal Angel," was a ghost story and I wasn't really into it. It's based on Tennyson's In Memoriam, which I haven't read (unless it was in American Lit, which I'm trying to repress). So, if you're into that poem and/or ghost stories, check it out. For me it was kind of meh.

The first one, though, "Morpho Eugenia," I liked a lot. It's victorian and gothic, so there are all these vaguely tubercular beauties and a vague creepy "The Fall of the House of Usher" vibe. Also, insects, natural selection, and anagrams. These are a few of my favorite things.

Chick Lit

This interview might make me actually read one of Jennifer Weiner or Laura Moriarty's books.

Love is a Mixtape by Rob Sheffield

I decided to read this book because I read somewhere that Sheffield said some things about the Replacements, who are my favorite band for many reasons, the least fucked-up of which is that they are very good. By page 5 I didn't give a shit about them and was instead completely in love with Renee. Renee is Sheffield's late wife, and this book is an homage to her, as well as an account of the ways music affects us. I am a sucker for mixtapes, I'm always making them for boys I'm secretly in love with (this has yet to work out for me), and yeah, there are some songs that just become synonymous with certain times in our lives. I never listen to Transatlanticism anymore (though I still love it), because it reminds me of junior year, knitting and crying in my room. Also there was no heater, so that album makes me feel cold. Anyway, file this one under Books About Love that I Don't Hate, and Books That Make Me Wish I Was Born Ten Years Earlier. And read it now.

see also: Tiny Mix Tapes, especially this one.

How Language Works by David Crystal

This was a really good overview of language, which is no small feat. It was easy to read without being condescending. I skimmed the first few chapters about learning language, because that stuff is interesting but I still remember it from psych 425. I got hooked (on phonics, sort of) in the later chapters about morphemes (the smallest units of language that have meaning) because I'm into etymology (and also entomology, but that's different). He does a nice analysis of different language structures, although I would have liked more examples. There's also a good section about electronic communication. Unlike Crystal, I'm resistant to a lot of the ways English is changing, mostly because I'm a grammar slut of the Eats, Shoots, and Leaves variety. And yes, I believe in Oxford Commas. Anyway. Language! It's neat!

p.s. the only infix in English is "fucking," as in un-fucking-believable or fan-fucking-tastic.

The One Percent Doctrine by Ron Suskind

This is one of those rare books that I didn't even finish. Sometimes I feel guilty about this, but I just couldn't stomach it. Basically, I'm a dirty hippie and this book was about why the Bush Administration is doing a fine job. Perhaps you will consider me closed-minded, and trust me, I'm working on it. But the one percent doctrine is this: If there is even a one percent chance that some terrorists are out there, we ought to take pre-emptive action, because we are tired of sifting through all the intelligence and it's just too hard. Well I'm sorry that you're tired, but that is just not acceptable. And also, I object to calling all the men by their last names, in keeping with journalistic convention, yet consistently referring to Condoleeza Rice as "Condi." It's the naughty aughties, Ronnie baby. Give the woman some respect.

The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less by Barry Schwartz

You may have noticed that about half of what I'm reading lately comes from Laurie's Blog, and this is no exception. Here, Schwartz describes 2 kinds of decision-makers (Satisficers and Maximizers), then describes each one's decision-making process in terms of buying a sweater. A satisficer has a set of criteria regarding cost, fit, color, etc. When a satisficer finds a sweater that meets the criteria, he or she stops looking. A Maximizer, though, will attempt to find the very best sweater available to him. The paradox is that the satisficer, who may have actually settled for an inferior sweater, will be much more satisfied than the Maximizer, largely due to regret (e.g., what if there was a better sweater she missed?). So, Schwartz says, the glut of options available to us as consumers actually produces feelings of less satisfaction, as well as more pressure to maximize our decisions. The book is really a meta-analysis of decision-making studies, some of which I remembered from Professor Laughlin's class. I thought it was really interesting, and I'm trying to pay more attention to the decisions I make. But like I said, I'm a dirty hippie. I love to rail against our consumer culture.

I Like You by Amy Sedaris

Those Sedarises are a funny bunch. This is a snarky compendium of useful tips for hostesses, the best of which is "Keep a supply of chips, napkins, and booze at a neighbor's house. That way you know whose door to knock on at 3 in the morning when you run out." That's good advice.
The illustrations are nauseatingly retro, out-kitsching even that master of kitsch, Betty Crocker herself. The fake cakes are lovely, and I identify with Sedaris' penchant for gluing googly eyes on all manner of household junk. And her party-planning tips can't be beat, as they always include copious amounts of booze, marijuana, or both. For all the sass, she really does get entertaining: a way to say "I Like You."

Trans-Sister Radio by Chris Bohjalian

I really like Bohjalian. I picked this up because his new book was checked out, AGAIN. Curses. Anyway, it doesn't disappoint. This one's about a MTF transsexual who meets a woman the summer before his operation, they fall in love, and stay together after he becomes she. The girlfriend has a child and an ex-husband, and Bohjalian switches between all four points of view, exploring gender, sexuality, love, and tolerance. Also, lots of his books take place in Vermont and have an appealing (to me, anyway) crunchy-granola quality. Here, the father and daughter work for NPR.
I like the pacing of Bohjalian's books. He always does the alternate viewpoints thing, and it lends a little suspense to their storylines. He does have a slight tendency to throw in sentences like "I had no way of knowing that x would cause y," but not enough for it to be annoying. The prose feels relaxed, but always like it's leading somewhere (though it often ends up somewhere else). He tells stories of families, friends, towns, first on the cusp of falling apart, then broken, then beginning, slowly, to rebuild themselves. Good Stuff.

Dream Angus by Alexander McCall Smith

This is a retelling of an Irish and Scottish myth, featuring Angus, a god who is conceived in trickery and grows up clever and mischevious, doling out visions from his bag of dreams. I loved it. I'm really attracted to mythology for so many reasons. It's larger-than-life and magical, especially when told well. This was the first I had read in The Myths, a series by popular modern authors retelling myths from a bunch of different cultures. If you like Neil Gaiman, check these out. This one led me to ...

The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood

I love Margaret Atwood more than is normal or healthy. I didn't like the Robber Bride (but I didn't used to like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs either so maybe it's time to revisit that) but she is just so good. The Penelopiad is the flip side of The Odyssey, and it's lyrical and lovely and eerie and sad. Penelope tells the story from Hades, with an unflinching objectivity and some deep regrets. While her acquaintances have drunk from the river Lethe to forget their past lives and begin anew, Penelope clings to her only life, eternally aware and ashamed, learning about Vegas and Liposuction from her vexingly perfect rival, Helen. This awareness makes her frank and likable, and the story is heartbreakingly good.

Books About Love that I Don't Hate

Adverbs by Daniel Handler
After I read this book, I ran to the bookstore and bought a copy to send to my friend Kevin. Actually, I drove there, but the point is, everyone should read this book, RIGHT NOW.
Handler is better known for his Series of Unfortunate Events, writing as Lemony Snicket. (that will get its own review later) Adverbs is not quite a novel, not quite short stories. Each character has his own experience, but they float into each others' stories. Each chapter is an adverb, in this case, a way to love. It seems a little gimmicky but actually works quite well. Like in the Snicket books, Handler sometimes explains things in such great detail that the explanation becomes a tangent. To me, these are endearing, as they typically involve awful puns delivered deadpan, and I love a good pun (or a bad one). My mother finds Handler a bit annoying for much the same reason, so it's a wash. One of my all-time favorites.
The A.V. club has a review here.

A Taxonomy of Barnacles by Galt Niederhoffer
Ok, it's been a while since I read this one. I headed over to Amazon to refresh my memory, whereupon I read pretty much the worst reviews I've ever seen there (such as: worst book ever written, whose wife/girlfriend/niece IS this woman, published by mistake, et cetera). So, I will still (sheepishly) admit that I liked it, but I'm not forcing you to go out and read it.
Anyway, all the characters names start with B, which is confusing, and there are twins (also B names) who sometimes pretend to be each other, which is also confusing. The 5 (or 6 or 7?) Barnacle girls are challenged by their father to guarantee that the Barnacle name will live on (King Lear, anyone?), resulting in all sorts of zany adventures (all those B names add a sense of frenzied chaos to the whole thing, although maybe that's just me desperately trying to keep track of them all). The oldest girls love/hate the twin boys, who they've known since childhood, and in their efforts to get together there are all kinds of schemes involving switching places and climbing on fire escapes (Romeo and Juliet, anyone?) and arguing about baseball. There's also a nice little nature/nurture/Darwin thing going on, hence the title, and as you may have noticed, I love that pseudointellectual crap. Anyway, everything is fine in the end, and people learn lessons about love and families and things, but it's not too sentimental.
I thought it was charming, but not in a way that made me ill. Then again, apparently, the rest of the world hated it. So there you go.

Technorati

So, I've joined up in the hopes of getting some more readership. Here it is: my Technorati Profile. Ta-Da!

No Way To Treat A first Lady by Christopher Buckley
Our intrepid hero, Nick Naylor (from Buckley's Thank You For Smoking) returns, this time on the periphery as a starlet's publicist/handler. The story is really about the Trial of the Millenium, as the first lady has (maybe) killed her husband. Not as thought-provoking as Smoking, but a tasty little farce nonetheless, with all the backstabbing, government conspiracies, and punny headlines a girl could ask for.

Proof Positive by Phillip Margolin
I picked this up hoping for a trashy forensic-science thriller, but it was really more of a courtroom drama (and I always space out during those parts on SVU). Not bad, but the first 5 or so chapters introduce a new character and his/her point of view, and for me, that's a bit much. I like a strangers-lives-intertwine-unexpectedly kind of story, but in a mystery, I'd rather invest in one character's efforts to solve it. Good train or airport read though.

Break No Bones by Kathy Reichs
Ahh, there's my forensic thriller. Not very literary but delicious all the same. You've seen the TV show, but (obviously) the books are better. (I'll save the rant about movie adaptations for when Harry Potter comes out.) Anyway, this one focuses more on Brennan's relationships with Pete and Ryan (analogous to the David Boreanaz character) than on the science, which was too bad, because I like the science part a lot. Makes me feel smart to read about foramens and processes, you know. But, still good.