This blog is not exactly the place to go for listicles, but
when it comes to my love of reading (the space being devoted to the three “Rs” –
running, reading and ’riting), I’m making an exception. Safe to say, these titles aren’t your garden
variety best-seller variety. Just my faves at the moment, and who knows, maybe there is something here that will light up your soul while you light up your
Christmas tree and front porch …
1/ David Constantine, “The Life-Writer,” a novel.
Unforgettable voices, gorgeously shaped sentences.
2/ David Constantine, “In Another Country,” stories. Ditto,
ditto.
3/ Colum McCann, “Thirteen Ways of Looking,” a novel,
stories. Strangely entrancing.
4/ David Szalay, “All That Man Is,” A “page” of music.
Wondrously elegiac.
5/ Jarett Kobek, “I Hate the Internet,” a novel (I’m guessing). Manic brilliance of
sloppiness. War cry for our times.
6/ Larry McMurtry, “Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen,”
nonfiction. On the simple joys of reading, esp. for those who grew up in a
literary desert. A Larry who loves books in the most selfless, inviting way.
7/ Alice Munro. Everything.
8/ Mary Morris, “The Jazz Palace,” a novel. Music IS the
page. (Disclaimer: She is my genius wife.)
9/ Valerie Martin, “The Ghost of the Mary Celeste,” a novel.
Love historical literary fiction with a twist? This is the best of the best.
10/ Steve O’Connor, “Thomas Jefferson Dreams of Sally Hemings,”
a novel. Fever dream of imaginative wonder. Think you know Jefferson? Think
again …
