Blueprints for Building Better Girls: Stories by Elissa Schappell

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This collection of short stories, all centered on female characters, displays not only Schappell's sharp prose and sensitive wit, but provides a respite from the deluge of male-centric fiction so currently prevalent. A must read for anyone - male or female - who likes well-crafted, well told fiction.



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Oh Pure and Radiant Heart by Lydia Millet

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Beautifully written. Oddly compelling. It sort of lost me toward the middle for a bit but overall, a really good read.



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Tunneling to the Center of the Earth: Stories by Kevin Wilson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Though some are stronger than others, overall the stories in this collection are well-crafted, "quirky" without being annoyingly so and some are even harrowing, or beautifully moving. While he's not "George Saunders" (as per the comparison on the back cover), Wilson is a solid writer whose characters are compelling, story lines veer away from the mundane, and whose skill with language makes for a quick and worthwhile read.

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Don't Try This at Home by Dave Navarro

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I remember when Neil Strauss wrote for Rolling Stone (does he still?) and, along with a very few others, was the closest thing to a reporter I'd met in the music industry. Mostly for fans of Navarro this book is a scrapbook of photo booth photos (all unidentified - some obviously recognizable), limited & somewhat stilted prose by Strauss (some of the cliches are REALLY painful) and Navarro, supposed transcripts of conversations, even a diary entry from one of Navarro's "girlfriends." It makes for a quick and somewhat compelling read, albeit a sad portrait of drug addiction, self-obsession, and really, selfishness. Also a good reminder to me why I quit working with musicians.

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The Golden Age by Michal Ajvaz

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Another lesson in not letting myself be misled by hype. This book came VERY highly lauded and yet I found the language - even the basic sentence structure - is so stilted as to make it an incredibly dull read. I'm all for experimental. I'm all for odd. But this was just dull and with nothing new to offer. Next...

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52 books in 52 weeks

52 books in 52 weeks

I'm woefully behind on my reading this year. apparently. still. and this means I'm either forgetting some (a lot?) of books I read this year, or I have 12 books to read between now and 12/31. Which, really, is do-able.

1. drift/victoria patterson

2. once the shore/paul yoon (sp? gave it away so can't look it up)

3. sense & sensibility & sea monsters

4. point omega/delillo

5. face/sherman alexie (poems

6. war dances/sherman alexie

7. Inspector Alleyn Calls (3 novels)/Ngaio Marsh

8. Nevermore (a graphic adaptation of Poe's short stories)

9. off the reservation/paula gunn allen

10. neither here nor there/marcel jolley

11. the passion/j. winterson (2nd/3rd? read)

12. tapping the source/kem nunn

13. the dogs of winter/kem nunn

14. breathe/tim winton

15. dirt music/tim winton

16. the particular sadness of lemon cake/aimee bender

17. solar/ian m.

18. hell/robert olen butler

19. rat girl/kristin hersh

20. nights at the circus/angela carter

21. invisible cities/calvino

23. tinkers/paul harding

24. diary of a bad year/coetzee

25. the boy detective fails/joe meno

26. brooklyn/colm toibin

27. on the nat. history of dest./sebald

28. let the great world spin/colum mccann

29. zoli/colum mccann

30. unquiet mind/kay jamison

31. by night in chile/bolano

32. inherent vice/pynchon

33. the third elevator/aimee bender

34. the signal/ron carlson

35. essential/kathy acker (re-read)
36. new orleans noir (akashic anthology)
37. french quarter fiction: the newest stories of America's oldest bohemia
38. haunted/chuck p.
39. Emma & the vampires

I guess I have posted a new list of these since '09 (really? has it been that long??) so here goes. There may be some repeats from '09 but hopefully not:

52 books in 52 weeks:

1. drift/victoria patterson

2. once the shore/paul yoon (sp? gave it away so can't look it up)

3. sense & sensibility & sea monsters

4. point omega/delillo

5. face/sherman alexie (poems

6. war dances/sherman alexie

7. Inspector Alleyn Calls (3 novels)/Ngaio Marsh

8. Nevermore (a graphic adaptation of Poe's short stories)

9. off the reservation/paula gunn allen

10. neither here nor there/marcel jolley

11. the passion/j. winterson (2nd/3rd? read)

must be more than that but that's all I can come up with. not reading 2 books a week now that I'm no longer in grad school (what?!?)