K. Starkey's List #1: Books I've Read This Year Worth Mentioning

Katherine today. I just finished off two books this morning so I'd be ready for fresh reads when we head to Mexico on Saturday. I dutifully wrote the titles, authors, and my personal ratings in my journal. I always do that. My journal is full of lists. Not just book lists. Anyway, I decided to share an abbreviated and annotated list of the books I read last year. I'm as good a reading guide as anybody I suspect.

Here goes: What I read last year(mostly)and what I thought of it(mostly):

1. "Born to Run." McDougall. An article in "5280" and an interview on "The Daily Show" led to this one. A non-fiction narrative about a writer/wannabe runner constantly struggling with injuries. His quest to run without pain leads to the Tarahumara Indians of Mexico's Copper Canyons and numbers of ultra-runners (all bizarre and interesting folks). The Tarahumara run hundreds of miles in their bare feet, sometimes sporting cool looking capes, fueled by some drink made of chia seeds (yes, like the chia plants they sell at Christmas time). This is a cool book. ***

2. "Eat, Pray, Love." Gilbert. I'm supposed to love this book. I don't love it. It bothers me. All I see is an incredibly self-centered and selfish woman who gets a publishing company to pay for her personal year of doing whatever the fuck she wants to do. Only Seymour Glass could smile at this. *

3. "The Last Night at the Lobster." O'Nan (I think that's the name--I can't read my handwriting). This is the tale of the last night at a Red Lobster restaurant outside a mall in Minnesota or someplace like that. The manager is struggling with his personal life, but makes a mission of making the last night, in the midst of an awful storm, run as smoothly as a place devoted to elderly eaters can be. It's not great, but a wonderful portrait of how regular folks heroically plug away. **

4. Books by Jeffrey Long. Long is my new favorite writer. He writes very passionate love stories. They are not traditional and not really happy, but I love the passion.
In "A Peculiar Grace" he explores the nature of the artist through the eyes of a modern blacksmith. The blacksmith idealizes a love of the past while loving a girl grounded in reality in the present.
"In the Fall" tells the stories of three men who all fall in love in such a way their lives are forever altered--always in the fall. A better book, not as happy.
"Lost Nation" puts together two very lost souls who fill each other's gaps as they try to become part of a new western "nation." Don't get attached to the dog.
Long's books are poetry to read. I have his newest set for Mexico.
****

5. "Fool." Christopher Moore. This is "King Lear" from the fool's point of view. I like "A Dirty Job" and "Coyote Blue" better, but this one is fine and funny. Made me think of Jim teaching Lear and then turning into Lear. Lots of bodily fluids. Really. I emailed Moore about the book and actually got a reply. That was very cool. **

6. "The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet." Larson. A beautiful book in content and presentation. It's about a gifted 11 year old map-maker from Montana who wins a prize from the Smithsonian that he's afraid to tell his parents about (a hardcore rancher and a failed biologist). He hops a train and goes to DC by himself. The maps in the margin are gorgeous. Lots of moments I stopped and thought about sentences and how they meant something in my life. ****

7. "The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo." Larsson. This book was next to the one above at the book store and had a bright yellow, green, and orange cover. Impulse purchase that turned out just fine. This is a terrific mystery about missing people and Swedish banking systems. It's a good time, but not much more than that. **

8. "Drood." Simmons AND "The Last Dickens." Pearl. Dickens was working on a mystey about opium eaters when he died of a stroke and both these books explore what was going on with that. "Drood" comes from the point of view of a envious contemporary writer and "The Last Dickens" follows an American publisher trying to find the ending to the unfinished novel. I read one last spring in Belize and just finished the other this morning. Both are good, but I wouldn't do them together unless you're Dickens obsessed. **

9. "Bandolino." Umberto Eko. This book is long. I finished it. I've read two others by Eko. I liked "The Name of the Rose." I own one more book by Eko. We'll see. *

10. "March" and "The People of the Book." Brooks. "March" is a fine book as the Pulitzer people have acknowledged. It tells the tale of "Little Women" from the father's point of view while he is away at the Civil War. Powerful. ****
"The People of the Book" traces the story of a remarkable religious book over history. I was in a books-about-antique-books mode last year ("Sixteen Pleasures," "The Book of Air and Shadows," etc.) and this would have fit right in. **
I'm taking a book by Brooks about the plague in England in 1666 to Mexico. I like this lady's stuff.

11. Nevada Barr and C.J. Box books. Barr is a National Park ranger and writes mysteries occuring in the parks. C.J. Box writes mysteries about a park and game ranger in Wyoming. No sentence crafting here, but I like to read one or two before we head to the Tetons to get in an outdoorsy kind of mood. Sheer escapism. **

That's enough for list number one. I read lots more, but that's a start.