Books Read in 2012 4

(Note: I’ve written short assessments of most of these books on my shelfari.com bookshelf.  I’ve put a few comments below by sone of them.)

NOVELS

****The Barbarian Nurseries – Hector Tobar (Pulled me in quickly.  Rollicking look at what happens when the housekeeper is left with two boys and the parents don’t come back.  By turns funny and serious.)

**It’s Fine by Me – Per Petterson (Serious/bleak/accurate coming-of-age story of teenager in the 1960s in Norway. He wrote the superb “Out Stealing Horses.”)

***Room – Emma Donoghne (This book gave me goosebumps as it creates a world and world view when one is born confined to a room.)

*The Love of My Youth – Mary Gordon

**Empire Falls – Richard Russo

****Map of the Invisible World – Tash Aw (Set in 1960s Indonesia – political, clash of cultures, CIA – really enjoyed.)

**Wish You Were Here – Stewart O’Nan^ (I enjoyed but not as much as his other novels.  New England – family – closing up the summer home.)

***Last Night at the Lobster – Stewart O’Nan (Red Lobster-closing-last shift)

***The Odds: A Love Story – Stewart O’Nan (Gambling, marriage, taking a last chance)

***Still Alice – Lisa Genova (Harvard professor, develops Alzheimers, well-told)

**We the Animals – Justin Torres (3 wild brothers growing up, Puerto Rican, ends-too-abrumptly, author to watch)

**The Submission – Amy waldman (9/11 memorial contest – anonymously chosen selection by Muslim – backtracking insues)

** Freedom – Jonathan Franzen (sprawling novel – a thing into itself – I enjoyed but didn’t really care about most of the characters)

Adam Haberberg – Yasmin Reza (read it but wouldn’t recommend – just couldn’t care about the characer)

***Songs in Ordinary time _ Mary McGorry Morris

() The Nanny Diaries (Book I) – Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus (fun, fast fluff&nbsp
**The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection (A No 1 Ladies Detective Series Novel) – Alexander McCall Smith (I love the series and this one was enjoyable as usual.)

*Started Early, Took My Dog (Jackson Brodie Series- Book 4) – Kate Atkinson (I don’t tend to be a big mystery reader but this was okay.)

**The Healing – Jonathan Odell (midwifery, folk healing, Southern setting)

*The Paris Wife – Paula McLain (Novel about Hemingway’s 1^st wife – I found her annoying)

*The Painted Bird – Jerzy Kosinski (Harrowing novel about the Holocost in Poland.)

**The Uncoupling – Meg Wolitzer (Premise more promising than execution.  what happens when women withhold sex in a community surrounding a high school play production.)

**The Little Giant of Aberdeen County – Tiffany Baker (Small town oppression of a girl who has a pituitary gland problem.)

**Imperfect Birds – Ann Lamott (Enjoyed.  Kid lying about her drug and alcohol use, parents denying what they know, academic pressures.)

***State of Wonder – Ann Patchett (A magnificent writer not as wondrous as Bel Canto but worth reading.  A revolutionary drug that can change fertility, a missing scientist in S. America, suspense.)

****The Book Thief – Marcus Zusak (Phenomenal book set during the Holocost narrated by death looking at the lives of a young girl and her community.)
**How to be Good – Nick Hornby

() Imperfect Bliss – Susan Fales-Hill (Almost better than fluff because of the subject of the protagonist’s doctoral research but never leaves the lane of a novel where romance wins.  the author is Josephine Premise’s daughter and a television producer.)

SHORT STORIES

***This is Not Chick Lit (Original Stories by America’s Best Women Writers) – Elizabeth Merrick

***20 Under 40: Stories from the New Yorker – Deborah Treisman, editor

MEMOIRS

***Yes, Chef – Marcus Samuelsson

**You Have No Idea: A Famous Daughter, Her No-nonsense Mother & How they Survived Pageants, Hollywood, Love, Loss (& Each Other) – Vanessa Williams & Helen Williams

***Why Be Happy when You Could be Normal – Jeannette Winterson

***A Chance in the World: An orphan boy, a hidden past, and how he found a place called home – Stephen J. Pemberton

**The Tender Hour of Twilight: Paris in the 50s, New York in the 60s, A Memoir of Publishing’s Golden Age – Richard Seaver

NON-FICTION

**A Short Guide to Happy Life – Anna Quindlen (it’s VERY short)

**Our Black Year: One Family’s Odyssey in the African-American Economy – Maggie Anderson

***The Good Food Revolution: Growing Healthy Food, People and Communities – Will Allen

*The Necklace: 13 Women & the Experiment that Transformed their Lives – Cheryl Jarvis

***Changing Lives: Gustavo Dudamel, El Sistema & the Transformative Power of Music – Tricia Tunstall

**Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919 – Stephen Puleo

**The Art of Choosing – Sheera Iyengar

CHILDREN’S BOOKS

The Pushcart Wars – Jean Merrill (Somehow I missed this book when it was published but it’s still fun ro see how a “war” unfolds between pushcart owners and truck owners in NYC.)

The Anna Hibiscus books by Nigerian author Atinuke are quite fun for young reader beginning to read chapter books.  I recommend the series about a little girl who lives in “Africa, Amazing Africa” with an extended family,  Anna is biracial – her mother is from Canada and her father is from Africa.  They are: Anna Hibiscus (Book 1), Hooray for Anna Hibiscus (Book 2), Good Luck Anna Hibiscus (Book 3), and Have Fun Anna Hibiscus (Book 4).  There’s also a picture book for younger kids – Anna Hibiscus’ Song.  All of the books are absolutely joyful and meant to be read aloud.  I highly recommend.

Africa is Not a Country – Margy Burns (The title of this books truck me because this is something I’ve always said this, particularly to young people and educators.  Africa is a continent full of countries!)

Wish I hadn’t read:

A Boy Called It –  Dave Pelzer – Self-published, poorly written to the point that maybe this tale of horrific child abuse was made up. It doesn’t feel authentic at all.

Started but didn’t bother to finish:

The Ginger Man – J.P. Donleavy  (didn’t want to give precious time to the character who I just couldn’t get into – a serious con man with nothing that made him interesting to me.)

Didn’t finish but will in 2013:

Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention – Manning Marable – I just didn’t feel like going there when I started.  I will though.

 
(^ In 2011, I read Emily, Alone by Stewart O’Nan which features one of the characters in Wish You Were Here.  I liked Emily, Alone better than Wish You Were Here.)

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