First Monday Book Day

First Monday Book Day: Two Books

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Two books of note that I read last month.  Both I loved, but only one that I would recommend.

A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing by Eimar McBride - (goodreads link)

The story of this book is a good one, McBride searched for a publisher for 7 years without success, before a tiny Irish press published it and saw it take off and eventually win a whole bunch of awards.  I had heard a bunch about it due to all of this and it was always listed as very experimental, so I finally got around to it this December.  I loved it, but I'm not sure there's any way I would recommend it to someone.

The style is very fragmented in a stream-of-consciousness way. I got swept up in the broken consciousness of the narrator. The first chapters were beautiful, and things get brutal from there. The narrator and her brother (continually fighting the effects of a brain tumor) are the only bright spot, and the final scenes between the two of them are remarkable and powerful.

Upright Beasts by Lincoln Michel - (goodreads link)

A collection of short stories that are all just a little bit weird and alienated.  So, basically catnip for me.  Here's the first story (Our Education) and you should read it. I read the whole collection in one day, and it was and enjoyable quick read.

Final Stats from 2015:

112 books read (34,096 pages)
90 fiction (74 novels - 8 story collections - 8 graphic novels)
62 published in 2014 or 2015
38 by women
33 by independent publishers (loosely defined and probably inaccurate)

(Header image is Reading Two Books by William Wegman)

20 thoughts on “First Monday Book Day: Two Books”

  2. I finally finished Cloud Atlas. Hard to wrap my head around my feelings on this book. The individual stories were interesting, but the book didn't really add up to much for me. I guess I'm not a subtle enough reader.

  3. I finished up J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and am two chapters into the Deathly Hallows (the final novel in the series).

    I'm really enjoying the story and especially appreciate Rowling's reach back to lessons & episodes from the previous books for plot development. The call-backs feel seamless and believable. I also thought she did an excellent job allowing the reader to watch the characters grow into adolescence in ways that make sense in the world they inhabit, but also in ways that are credible in real-world experiences.

    The other part I really like, that the movies didn't delve into as much, was the exploration of Voldemort's genesis and development. It adds a lot to know how (and why) he became what he is and his experiences make him almost pitiable ... I don't think we get that enough in the movies.

    Of the last two, Half-Blood Prince was, if not my favorite book in the series thus far, a close second (the other contender being Goblet of Fire).

    1. Finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows last night this morning at 12:15 ... couldn't put it down. I have to say, the film's version of the climax and dénouement followed the spirit (if not the letter) of the novel's narrative in completely satisfying way, but Rowling's treatment of the finale - both novel and series - felt damned near flawless.

      'Spoiler' SelectShow

      I can see why this series made her billions.

  4. I am 50-some pages into Infinite Jest. I picked it up again last night after having put it down over the holidays (plus). I was really digging it.

    Then my internet started working again and Netflix was calling.

  5. I remember reading.

    Not traveling for work has taken a huge bite out of my reading habits.

  6. Anyone with some year end lists?
    I didn't put mine together, but it wouldn't be much different than this. I've for sure got the same number one.

  7. Over the break:
    The Stranger - Camus (reread)
    Nigger of the Narcissus - Conrad (reread)
    Eyolf, Romersholm - Ibsen
    Tonio Kroger - T. Mann

  8. Reading Boundaries by Cloud and Townsend. I hear Dave Ramsey touting it all the time, finally decided to give it a read. (No correlation with just having visited a bunch of family during the holidays)

  9. I just started reading The Son by Philipp Meyer. I'm about 50 pages in and it's hard to put down. I really liked his first novel, American Rust, so I'm expecting good things from this one.

    1. One of my all time favorites. He really, really nails the voice of Texas. I can't overstate how well his depiction jives with my experience.

  10. Final Stats from 2015:

    112 books read (34,096 pages)
    90 fiction (74 novels - 8 story collections - 8 graphic novels)
    62 published in 2014 or 2015
    38 by women
    33 by independent publishers (loosely defined and probably inaccurate)

    (Header image is Reading Two Books by William Wegman)

    Yeah, I'm not so sure that isn't you.

  11. Books! I sometimes read those! I’ve been reading a bunch of stuff lately that’s been relevant for work but less relevant to share here. (I even started a spreadsheet to track my work reading if someone is really curious! But it doesn’t include page count. No matter how hard I try, I fear I’ll never be Brooks . . . )

    Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War by Steve Sheinkin. YA nonfiction. On the surface, this isn’t my kind of book. There’s just something about the Vietnam War that makes me want to stay away. But this book is gripping—it tells the story of Daniel Ellsberg, the man who leaked the Pentagon Papers. Sheinkin has a way of summing up complex historical events in a way that makes them beautifully clear, and his storytelling and pacing are top notch. The book is very clear about Ellsberg’s reasons for (eventually) opposing the war, but I wondered a little about whether it should have said more about the reasons other people were against the war. Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech “A Time to Break Silence,” which I coincidentally read shortly after finishing Most Dangerous, makes for an interesting companion piece since King is focused on issues of race and class in a way that Ellsberg is not.

    Nagasaki: Life After Nuclear War by Susan Southard. Nonfiction. Between the previous book and this one, I’m really brushing up on my knowledge WWII and the Cold War era. This book is good but not great. It focuses on Nagasaki from 1945 to the present day and weaves together the stories of several hibakusha (bomb-affected people). The individual stories are well presented, but the book sometimes falters when getting into larger-scale political issues. A better critique than I could ever offer is in this New York Times review.

    This Bridge Will Not Be Gray by Dave Eggers, illustrated by Tucker Nichols. Children’s nonfiction picture book. I don’t usually include children’s books, but I was so charmed by this one that I have to make an exception. When I picked it up and saw that it was a whopping 104 pages, I rolled my eyes. But then I started to read. This is a book that any fan of 99% Invisible will love. It describes the origins of the Golden Gate Bridge and describes how it came to be that famous International Orange color. The text is enjoyably cheeky, and the illustrations are simple, graphic, and an excellent match for the text. As some of you may be aware, the bridge played a key role a story I wrote at the CdL, and that connection made Eggers’s book especially meaningful to me.

    1. I fear I’ll never be Brooks

      That's probably for the best.

      That Nagasaki book was on my list for 2016. I find myself interested in history that tied to a specific place (like a city moreso than a country) as a way to focus the work.

      1. Oooh, do read it so that I can discuss it further with someone! I'm now inclined to also read John Hersey's Hiroshima, which caused a bit of a sensation when it was published--in its entirety--in a single issue of the New Yorker.

  12. Read some translated books in December:

    War, So Much War by Merce Rodoreda

    My first Rodoreda experience. It's told in a series of vignettes as a young man travels(?) through a war-torn countryside. I was swept up in the short pieces, and found it a really pleasant read. It was fantastic (in the sense of being kind of a fantasy) and almost weird and surreal.

    Autoportrait by Eduoard Leve

    A short book of declarative sentences about the author's life all starting with "I". It was fragmented and experimental but it still felt complete when I finished it.

    The Story of My Teeth by Valeria Luiselli

    I was excited to read this because Luiselli has been all over a bunch of year-end lists. And I ended up disappointed with this book. It is obviously full of allusions that I was not 100% picking up, and that made it not quite the wonderful reading experience that I had hoped.

  13. Graphic Novels/Comics

    I read the second book in the Rat Queens series. I thought this one was really great, I liked it better than book 1. Both have the adventure quest feel to them and a real tongue in cheek feel to them, but I thought book 2 hit its stride perfectly with great art and a really good story.

    I also read books 2 and 3 in Miss Marvel, which I was a little let down by. After books 1, this was probably my favorite of the two series, but after continuing on, Rat Queens has probably surpassed this one. The "call to arms"? of the millenial generation just fell really flat for me in these books. I'll probably read book 4 (which just came out) and see how the whole arc comes together. (I'm also not a sucker for superhero cameos - so the appearance of Wolverine was not the big deal it might be for bigger comics aficionado)

    And I read The Marvels by Brian Selznick (better known as the author of Hugo that the movie was based on). The drawings were a fun way to introduce the backstory, but the overall story was not too deep, so it was good that it didn't try to carry itself too long.

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