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Every year in June, I like to compile and publish my list of
books read and music that defined that last academic year (including the
previous summer). I do this really for myself, kind of like a journal entry,
but also just as one would with a blog, I share it with others as well. I’ll
begin with the books read- and this is limited to only those that I read in
their entirety, and excludes texts such as those multiple readings to the boys
of Dr. Seuss or the “Parts” series, which are wonderful, by the way:
Fiction (Novels):
Crime & Punishment- Fyodor Dostoevsky (1866) (translated
from Russian by Jesse Coulson): A deliberately incongruous choice to bring on
our family’s trip to Disney World last summer. Still, it certainly kept me
riveted through the plane ride.
The Sun Also Rises- Ernest Hemingway (1926) (RR)
The Giver- Lois Lowry (1993) (RR)
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian- Sherman Alexie
(2007): I read this with a class of boys, 6th and 7th
graders, last summer and they loved it. One kid laughed so hard at a certain
section that he upchucked a little in the middle of class. Another kid read a
section aloud in class, which wouldn’t seem to be such a big deal except that
he was in the 4th percentile for reading ability at the time and his
educational consultant told me after observing our class that it was the first
time he had ever volunteered to read aloud in school.
Strangers on a Train- Patricia Highsmith (1950): In my
opinion, the movie version is generally inferior to the book. However, with
Hitchcock films, the inverse can often be true. For instance, “Rear Window,”
with the addition of the romantic storyline and the parallels with neighbors
was more interesting than the short story it’s based on (“It Had To Be
Murder”). And while the novel of “Strangers” still contains the brilliant
premise, the characters are not as compelling as in the film plus the things
that Hitchcock and his screenwriters added, subtracted or altered make for a
much better film than book. For example, changing Guy from an architect to a
tennis player allows for some nice visuals in the film, plus the symbolic
aspect of the ‘opponent,’ first embodied by his faithless wife, then by the
terrifying Bruno character.
Great Expectations- Charles Dickens (1861)
Gathering Blue- Lois Lowry (2000)
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy- Douglas Adams (1980)
Demian- Herman Hesse (1925)
The Thirty-Nine Steps- John Buchan (1915)
As I Lay Dying- William Faulkner (1930): “The Sound and the
Fury,” which I finally got around to reading (see below) is the more famous
classic and I can see why but this one gets the edge for me. It’s easier to
follow, certainly more fun (although it contains quite a few genuinely humorous
moments, it also has some graphically tragic ones as well). In other words,
unless I had to do it for a class or something, I don’t know that I would
choose to ever re-read “Sound and Fury” but I look forward to pulling this one
out ten years or so from now and enjoying it all over again.
Hatchet- Gary Paulsen (1987)
Jane Eyre- Charlotte Bronte (1847)
The Catcher in the Rye- J.D. Salinger (1951) (RR)
The Age of Innocence- Edith Wharton (1920): Edith at her best
never fails to capture me. But rather than blather on about why, I’ll just note
one cool detail to illustrate. I’m sure you are familiar with that phenomenon
in which you are speaking with someone and you can’t come up with a quip to
reply on the spot, but then it comes to you a minute later after the
appropriate time has passed? In one of her magnificent turns of phrase, Edith
describes that, through her Newland Archer character, as the “belated eloquence
of the inarticulate.”
The Unbearable Lightness of Being- Milan Kundera (1984)
(translated from Czech by Michael Henry Heim)
The Sound and the Fury- William Faulkner (1929)
Flowers for Algernon- Daniel Keyes (1966)
In Cold Blood- Truman Capote (1966)
The Kite Runner- Khaled Hosseini (2003) There really is
something to be said for plot. I plowed through this 300+ page novel in just a
few days, so utterly did its story pull me in, whereas Virginia Woolf’s
brilliant but essentially plot-less “To The Lighthouse” took about three weeks
of sustained attention to complete.
Old School- Tobias Wolff (2003)
To The Lighthouse- Virginia Woolf (1927)
Elijah of Buxton- Christopher Paul Curtis (2007): In
everything I’ve read this year, nothing made me laugh so hard as Chapter Two of
this book. I won’t give it away but it has to do with famous abolitionist
Frederick Douglass and an infant. Maybe parents would find it funnier than the
average person. This is another instance of a book that’s written for
middle-schoolers but is eminently entertaining for adults too
This Is Where I Leave You- Jonathan Tropper (2009): Recommended
highly by a handful of colleagues. Some parts of it I found rather contrived,
especially towards the beginning, like the painfully perfect dialogue of the
meet-cute scene at college between the main character and his wife, or the
nephew flinging feces from his potty onto the dinner table. At the same time,
there were scenes that really nailed me like the protagonist’s solitary
wandering through the parking lot of a strip mall late at night, by the
“Cheesecake Factory, Applebee’s, Rock & Bowl, the Szechaun Garden… all
flashing and blinking, burning pink and red streaks into my eyelids when I
close them. Generations of broken glass twinkle like glitter in the pavement…
every few stoplights, traffic slows to a crawl, cars ejaculated out of the
bottlenecks one by one, burning rubber just to make a point, since there’s
really nowhere here worth rushing to.”
The Invention of Morel- Adolfo Bioy Casares (1964)
(translated by Ruth Simms)
Fiction (Novellas)
The Pearl- John Steinbeck (1947) (RR)
The Call of the Wild- Jack London (1903)
Seize the Day- Saul Bellow (1956)
The Eye- Vladimir Nabokov (1930, English translation by
Dmitri Nabokov, 1965)
The Lilies of the Field- William Barrett (1962)
The Crossing- Gary Paulsen (1987): This narrative about a
young Mexican boy trying to cross the border into Texas and his intersection with an alcoholic
U.S. Army sergeant is written for young adults but is deceptive in its
simplicity, almost achieving a Hemingway-like brilliance.
Nightjohn- Gary Paulsen (1993)
The Red Pony- John Steinbeck (1933)
Fiction (Short Story Collections)
Ethan Frome (RR) & Selected Stories (1908-1916): I read
“Ethan” aloud to my daughter Hannah, now eleven, over the course of a few
weeks, in preparation for a visit to Wharton’s summer home, The Mount, out in
Lenox. This collection also features “Xingu,”
which is as sharp as Wharton can be and the funniest of her stories that I’ve
read.
Tales of Men and Ghosts- Edith Wharton (1910): This
collection is uneven to say the least, containing some meandering, forgettable
stories alongside gems like “Afterward” and “The Eyes.” But even when she’s got
a weak plot or premise, Wharton still delights with her turns of phrase. For
instance, when describing a character living in a cheap hotel having to share
soap and other bathing supplies with other residents, these objects are
referred to as “promiscuous implements of ablution.” At another point, Wharton
is describing a writer who is so successful and self-absorbed that he’s utterly
bored by his situation in life, especially interactions with his adoring
audience, so she begins a sentence/idea with, “When the thick broth of praise
was strained through the author’s vanity…” Mmmm-mmm, I love that Edith.
Nine Stories- J.D. Salinger (1953) (RR)
Poirot Investigates- Agatha Christie (1925)
The Golden Ball & Other Stories- Agatha Christie
(1924-1934)
Alfred Hitchcock’s Noose Report (1966)
Alfred Hitchcock’s More Stories My Mother Never Told Me (1963)
Drama:
I taught two drama classes this year: Reading Modern Drama
and a Shakespeare course so I bulked up on reading plays more than usual.
Interestingly, I ended up relying on plays I’ve read and taught before since a
lot of these that were new to me didn’t do much for me. For instance, “The
Children’s Hour” is well-written but its shock value has decreased with age.
“Equus” and “Gamma Rays” also seem dated while “Angels In America” is not only
much longer than it needs to be but is a jumbled mess at times, although the
Roy Cohn character is fantastic, especially when interacting with his nurse. I
just found myself not caring too much about some of the other principal
characters. And I cannot see why “Our Town” has ever become a classic. Is it
just because it’s so obviously (albeit uninterestingly) universally
sentimental?
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?- Edward Albee (1962)
Blues For Mister Charlie- James Baldwin (1964)
The Boys in the Band- Mart Crowley (1968) (RR)
Alison’s House- Susan Glaspell (1930)
Trifles- Susan Glaspell (1916)
A Raisin in the Sun- Lorraine Hansberry (1959) (RR)
The Children’s Hour- Lillian Hellman (1934)
The Little Foxes- Lillian Hellman (1939)
An Enemy of the People- Henrik Ibsen (1882) (translated from
Norwegian by Rolf Fjelde) (RR)
Angels in America- Tony Kushner (1993)
My Fair Lady- Alan Jay Lerner & George Bernard Shaw
(1956)
The Belle of Amherst- William Luce (1976)
All My Sons- Arthur Miller (1947) (RR)
Long Day’s Journey Into Night- Eugene O’Neill (1956)
The Birthday Party- Harold Pinter (1958)
Equus- Peter Shaffer (1973)
Macbeth- William Shakespeare (RR)
Twelfth Night- William Shakespeare
The Taming of the Shrew- William Shakespeare (RR)
Hamlet- William Shakespeare (RR)
Romeo and Juliet- William Shakespeare (RR)
Pygmalion- George Bernard Shaw (1912) (RR)
Our Town- Thornton Wilder (1938)
A Streetcar Named Desire-
Tennessee Williams (1947) (RR)
The Glass Menagerie-
Tennessee Williams (1944) (RR)
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom- August Wilson (1984)
The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-In-The-Moon Marigolds- Paul
Zindel (1970)
Memoir:
Are You My Mother?- Alison Bechdel (2012)
Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo & Me- Ellen
Forney (2012)
Heartache and Hope in Haiti:
The Britney Gengel Story- Len & Cherylann Gengel (2013): Britney was a
local college student who died in the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Both of
her younger brothers were former students of mine and their parents are known
for being very gregarious and generous folks. They’ve just opened an orphanage
in Haiti
after years of fund-raising and construction. Len Gengel is a particularly
inspiring guy who grew up in a relatively poor family, began a successful
construction business from scratch and has now devoted himself to this
orphanage project, following his simple but understandable three-stage
progression through life, what he calls, “Learn, Earn, and Return.”
When I Grow Up- Juliana Hatfield (2008): She’s kind of a
whiner (although she herself would be the first to admit it) but I really
enjoyed how easily I could relate to her descriptions of all these nightclubs
and soundmen and dressing rooms and awfulness.
Non-Fiction:
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop
Talking- Susan Cain (2012): This is one of those instances where you learn
something about yourself that you always kind of knew already but it sharpens
your perspective to the point where you feel like you can make an actual improvement
in your own life. Reading about introversion (according to personality tests
I’ve taken, I’m not only deep on the introvert side but of the sixteen Jung
personality archetypes, mine is the smallest (2% of the population), tinier
even for males, so that when you figure in my sex, only .5 % of the population
shares my personality characteristics. Anyway, I urge you to check out Susan
Cain’s TedTalk if you’re interested in the introvert/extrovert dynamic here:
And while reading the book last summer, I arrived at a
mini-epiphany while on vacation in Disney World, which can be read here:
Teaching With Your Mouth Shut- Donald Finkel (2000)
A Whole New Mind: Why Right Brainers Will Rule the Future-
Daniel H. Pink (2005)
What Teachers Make- Taylor Mali (2012)
Mindset- Carol Dweck (2003)
The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest Book- The New Yorker/
Robert Mankoff (2008): One of my student’s mothers got me into this contest,
but I’m sporadic in my submissions, to say the least. She, however, has won
three times and has been nominated six. In fact, as I write this, she is yet
again a finalist this month.
The Go-Betweens-David Nichols (2006)
Junk English- Ken Smith (2001)
Catch a Wave: the Rise, Fall, and Redemption of The Beach
Boys’ Brian Wilson- Peter Ames Carlin (2006)
Miscellaneous:
The Gospel According to Matthew- King James Holy Bible
(1952)
The Gospel According to Mark – King James Holy Bible (1952)
Individual Short Stories (of merit):
In A Bamboo Grove- Ryunosuke Akutagawa (1921) (translated from
Japanese by Jay Rubin)
Rashomon- Ryunosuke Akutagawa (1915) (translated from
Japanese by Jay Rubin)
The Kugelmass Episode- Woody Allen (1977)
Sophistication- Sherwood Anderson (1919)
Beach- Roberto Bolano (2011) (translated from Spanish by
Natasha Wimmer)
The Clodhopper’s Halloween Ball- Rick Book (1999)
A Christmas Memory- Truman Capote (1956) (RR)
Peter’s Buddies- Michael Carson (1990)
Neighbor Rosicky- Willa Cather (1930): It took me just about
an hour to read this while monitoring a dorm floor one afternoon. Sometimes I
wonder about all the hours I spend engrossed in reading and whether it is worth
it. This was worth it.
The Bet- Anton Chekhov (RR)
The Lottery Ticket- Anton Chekhov
The Story of an Hour- Kate Chopin (1894)
Wasps’ Nest- Agatha Christie (1925)
The Double Clue- Agatha Christie (1925)
The Case of the Distressed Lady- Agatha Christie (1932)
White Balloons- Judith Ortiz Cofer (1996)
The Secret Woman- Colette
The Most Dangerous Game- Richard Connell (1924)
Lamb to the Slaughter- Roald Dahl (1953)
The Magic Finger- Roald Dahl (1966)
Man from the South- Roald Dahl (1948) (RR)
Sex and Drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll” Part II- Jenny Diski
A Scandal in Bohemia-
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1891)
The Speckled Band- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1892)
On Being Crazy- WEB Du Bois (1907)
A Poetics for Bullies- Stanley Elkin
Bernice Bobs Her Hair- F. Scott Fitzgerald (1920)
The Offshore Pirate- F. Scott Fitzgerald (1920)
The Lover of Horses- Tess Gallagher (1986)
Hills Like White Elephants- Ernest Hemingway (1927) (RR)
Selway- Pam Houston (1993)
Thank You Ma’am- Langston Hughes (1958)
The Scarlet Ibis- James Hurst (1960)
Sure Thing- David Ives (1988)
The Lottery- Shirley Jackson (1948) (RR)
First Sorrow- Franz Kafka (1922)
Children of the Corn- Stephen King (1977) (RR)
Brutal Interlude- Ron Koertge
A Lot to Learn- R.T.
Kurosaka
Through The Tunnel- Doris Lessing (1957)
Pickman’s Model- H.P. Lovecraft (1927)
A Dill Pickle- Katherine Mansfield (1917)
Button, Button- Richard Matheson (1970) (RR)
Was it a Dream?- Guy de Maupassant
Blonde- Katherine Min
Where Have You Gone, Charming Billy?- Tim O’Brien (1975)
A Good Man is Hard to Find- Flannery O’Connor (1953) (RR)
The Life You Save May Be Your Own- Flannery O’Connor (1955)
The Sniper- Liam O’Flaherty (1923)
The Black Cat- Edgar Allan Poe (1843) (RR)
The Murders in the Rue Morgue- Edgar Allan Poe (1841)
The Open Window- Saki (H.H. Munro) (1930) (RR)
The Girls in Their Summer Dresses- Irwin Shaw (1939)
The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner- Alan Sillitoe
(1959)
Mr. Raynor, the School-teacher- Alan Sillitoe (1959)
The Chrysanthemums- John Steinbeck (1938)
Something Old, Something New- Joyce Sweeney (2003)
A&P- John Updike (1961) (RR)
Who Am I This Time?- Kurt Vonnegut (1961)
Carl’s Outside- Brad Watson (2010)
Water Dog God- Brad Watson (2010)
Miss Mary Pask- Edith Wharton (1926) (RR)
Fetch!- Robb White (RR)
It Had To Be Murder- Cornell Woolrich (1942)
1 comment:
I bow to your voracious consumption of the written word ,well done.
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