There was a time when i would read at least a book a week. Then i bought my first PC (it ran Windows 95 and had an impressive 2 GB hard drive) and now i read maybe a book a month. I read a lot on the Internet – news sites like CNN, the St Louis Post-Dispatch and The Register, various music blogs, etc., none of that Kindle stuff, but this post will be about the dead tree versions of books, and books are my friends.
All but a couple of these were new (to me). You'll notice that an unusually large number were Americana, too, and there may be a reason for this: i love the U.S.A., so i've been looking back into their history trying to make sense of the mess they're in these days – a desperately divided country full of hate, corruption and corporate greed. I still haven't figured it out, though.... (I may be looking too far back: i'm not finding a real answer in the 18th and 19th centuries – i think maybe i should be looking at the post-WWII years, when America decided to take over the world.)
There were also three books about Josephine Baker, a woman whose extraordinary life fascinates me.
There were also three books about Josephine Baker, a woman whose extraordinary life fascinates me.
But enough of that, i'm sure you're all anxious to know what my favourites were, so here goes.
In non-fiction, Ron Chernow's biography of George Washington from 2011 gets the nod. It won a Pulitzer Prize for biography and it was well-deserved. Washington truly was the father of his country, and without his efforts during the War Of Independence, there would be no America today (although his ideals were diametrically opposed to what the place has become). Runner-up is Christopher Skaife's book about his experiences with ravens. I love birds and my favourite birds are corvids and my favourite corvids are crows – but ravens are basically just big crows, so this was a real treat. I would also give a tip of the Hatlo hat to Anderson Cooper's memoirs and Catherine Clinton's biography of the amazing Harriet Tubman.
In fiction, it's an easy one: Michael Shaara's "The Killer Angels," an absolutely riveting drama about the Battle Of Gettysburg – the bloodiest battle ever fought on American soil (51,000 dead!). It won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1975 but, hey, i've never claimed to be au courant. It was the basis for the amazing film "Gettysburg," but i'll deal with that in "My Year In Movies" (coming soon to a blog near you). It's a compelling novel, told from both sides, each chapter alternating between viewpoints, the Union army's and the Confederate army's.
The runner-up, though, has to be Haruki Murakami's "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (1997)." This is a work of genius and Murakami's approach to fiction – kind of a cross between Lewis Carroll, Mikhail Bulgakov and Franz Kafka – dream landscapes with nightmares popping in from time to time – is mind blowing. I haven't read anything else of his – yet – but i shall soon be rectifying that. A major discovery, for sure.
Anyway, here's the complete list:
Jan. 15: Sherry Jones –
Josephine Baker's Last Dance: A Novel
Jan. 29: Catel Muller &
José-Louis
Bocquet -- Josephine Baker
Feb.
8: Elmore Leonard -- Out Of Sight
Feb.
19: Christopher Skaife – The Ravenmaster: My Life With The Ravens
At The Tower Of London
Mar.
8: Ian Rankin – In A House Of Lies
Apr.
28: Ron Chernow – Washington: A Life
May
6: Elmore Leonard – Road Dogs
May
12: Anderson Cooper – Dispatches From The Edge: A Memoir Of War,
Disasters, And Survival
May
25: John M. Allegro – The Sacred Mushroom And The Cross
June
4: Maria Semple – Where'd You Go, Bernadette
June
13: Ben Edward Akerley – The X-Rated Bible: An Irreverent Survey Of
Sex In The Scriptures
June
23: Peggy Caravantes – The Many Faces Of Josephine Baker
July
3: John M. Marzluff & Tony Angell – In The Company Of Crows And
Ravens
July
10: Ryan Schuessler, ed. -- The St Louis Anthology
July
15: Elmore Leonard – The Switch
July
30: Michael Shaara – The Killer Angels
Aug.
6: Anderson Cooper & Gloria Vanderbilt – The Rainbow Comes And
Goes
Aug.
29: Elmore Leonard – The Complete Western Stories
Sept.
22: Haruki Murakami – The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
Oct.
9: Nicolas Freeling – Wolfnight
Oct.
22: David Lagercrantz – The Girl Who Lived Twice
Nov.
14: Salman Rushdie – Quichotte
Nov.
29: Catherine Clinton – Harriet Tubman: The Road To Freedom
Dec.
13: Daniel Tate & Rob Bowman – The Flyer Vault: 150 Years Of
Toronto Concert History
Dec.
28: Nicolas Freeling – Flanders Sky
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