Continuing to play catch up on books read in 2008. Thank goodness this is a short week.
21. Ragtime – E.L. Doctorow
This is a book that I shelved a million times while working at a used book store. It always seemed to hit my daily pile, making me assume that it was some kind of massive but passing trend book, but my interest remained piqued. It emerged on a reading list for Urban Studies and I decided to give it a go; much to my delight, it was great. Not only do you have Bob Everyfamily wandering their way into the sparkle-shiny 20th century, but they seem to encounter every famous person who was alive at the time.
22. Bel Canto – Ann Patchett
HOSTAGES! Also, opera. Also, the ever popular unnamed South American Country. Guerrilla terrorists take over a highfalutin government shindig with plenty of foreign visitors for ransom… and then they get to know each other? While I was reading this, it felt like there was a huge slow-down, a languid slide of time that took me in with it. I wasn’t complaining, the story was moving along, but I was in as much of a time-slip as the characters seemed to be. “How long,” I asked myself, “is this book?” I was blown away to find that I’d read over 100 pages in an afternoon without even realizing it. The ending rocked me, and this book is definitely not as it appears.
23. Fables books 1-8 – Bill Willingham
I haven’t been a weekly comic reader in… well, ever. I’ll wait for trade paperbacks, or borrow already-completed stories and read through them that way. I was at my friendly local comic/game/everything store and was rummaging around for something new and the clerk muttered, “Um, a lot of chicks like Fables.” I’m glad my white blinding rage didn’t deter me from the books, and in 2008 I read through the first 8 collected books of the series like I couldn’t get enough. Basic, basic premise: the storybook and nursery rhyme characters of legend (calling themselves Fables) have fled their homes, which have been overrun by a menacing and mysterious Adversary, and have now taken up secret residence in a section of New York City they have dubbed Fabletown, and a farm upstate for those Fables who can’t pass as human (think the Three Pigs, or Reynard the Fox). For those of you poor suckers who still think that comics are just kiddie picture books, not only are you living in a wet hole of sad, you’re missing out on one of the great modern stories of the last decade. Willingham hits every genre square on the head and then rumbles for more; with such a dynamic cast at his disposal, every note rings clear. I haven’t cried over a long story like this since Sandman, and Fables has made me a weekly comics reader, much to my delight. Books 1 and 2 are being published as a jumbo-mega edition, which is what I would suggest new readers start out with; it gives you the first two big storylines, and a generous peek at the massive crazyquilt underneath it all.
24. The Secret History – Donna Tartt
Yes, from one of my favorites of the year (Fables made the top 5), to hands down one of the worst. I saw this book on some list, a “What book club book changed your life” roundup, and decided to give it a go. Strange coming of age story in an elite college setting? Someone dies? They speak Greek and Latin? I like snooty, sign me up. What a mistake. This book was tortuously bad, and instead of just, you know, selling it back to the bookstore, I kept on reading. I was determined that if I gave up, then this book would win. Also, I was waiting to see if the book would ever redeem itself. Alas, no. A young man utterly void of personality transfers to a New England School of Prestige, to fall in with the “weird” and “nerdy” and “strange” clique who study the classics. He becomes desparate to emulate them and become one of them, even though they show no traits to classify themselves as interesting. They love to ignore him, and because it’s in first person, you’re stuck with this crap-ass whiner while he freezes his ass off in some kind of barn over the winter while the rest of the Fabulousness goes off to Rome. Everything is very dramatic for them, and then someone dies, and nobody really cares? Ever? UGH, even rehashing this makes me annoyed. I kept thinking I was missing something, that there was some key point that I just wasn’t picking up on… and maybe there is, but I have a negative amount of desire to go back and find it. Incidentally, I still have a copy of this book on my shelves, just so that when people ask about it, I can remember to tell them never to read it.
25. The Blind Assassin – Margaret Atwood
I think I was so wound up and angry from The Secret History that it clouded my memory and my judgment (see upcoming book #26, Twilight. AAARGH). I only remember vague parts of this book, mostly the stories within the story, but it’s all muddled up. I guess that’s what happens when you stick a book in the middle of a reading-rage sandwich, and then don’t review it for over a year and a half. Sorry, Margaret Atwood. I really liked The Handmaid’s Tale!
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