Wednesday, September 13, 2006

My book list

In spite of staying (relatively) busy with residency, I'm trying to make a habit of reading more. Who needs television? (Except, of course, for my two official shows, The Office and Lost, returning this fall on September 21 and October 4, respectively.)

I have a few novels to recommend from this spring and summer. Actually, I'm just going to list all of them, and a few highlights from each.

Old School by Tobias Wolff. A Jewish boy's senior year at a northeast boarding-prep school in the early 1960's. In itself, a "celebration of literature," according to the first editorial reviewer on Amazon.com. And one of my favorite lines from the book, appropriately captured by a spotlight reviewer, is in reference to the narrator's dream of rubbing shoulders with the likes of Frost and Hemingway: "My aspirations were mystical...I wanted to receive the laying on of hands that had written living stories and poems." I enjoyed the compact, elegant prose in the book; a sort of spare writing style. I thought, however, that the last forty pages or so were an odd-fitting ending to the book.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran. A tale of a nine-year-old's loss & recovery in the aftermath of September 11. I most enjoyed the quirky perspective of a kid and the tender father-son relationship portrayed in the book. Drawbacks, for me at least, included the book's toeing the gimmicky line with its use of color, illustration, and text-art. The parallel narrative of the grandparents was also strangely disjointed and disturbingly sensual.

In the Lake of the Woods by Tim O'Brien. A rising political star is haunted by secrets from the Vietnam era. Part murder mystery, part modern commentary. Rather dark, but if you like Tim O'Brien... The Amazon.com editorial review notes that the use of quotations from fictional newspapers mixed with actual reports create "a mélange that lends the novel an eerie sense of verisimilitude." Does this guy take himself seriously?

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I bought a pocket-sized copy several months ago at Half-Priced Books for a dollar or two. It became my subway reading material for a few weeks this summer. Years ago I'd picked up the book, but quit reading after 20 or 30 pages, because--this is hard to believe now--it was boring...the pages were filled with women talking about balls and the like. After my second encounter, however, I consider it one of the funniest classics I have read! And Elizabeth almost became a friend, so to speak, on my daily subway rides. Amazingly sharp & quick to see ironies and pretense, she is at the same time consistently polite. This book will probably garner its own post in the near future.

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. I'm only 100 pages in to this book my brother gave me, but it's proving to be a quick and interesting read on the history of, well, nearly everything. I enjoy the way Bryson puts "common" scientific knowledge into the historical context of the discoveries as they were made. Already I've read about origins of the universe, the construction of the solar system {"...with Earth reduced to [the size of] a pea, Jupiter would be over a thousand feet away and Pluto would be a mile and a half distant (and about the size of a bacterium...)}, and the British Geological Society.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

definitely enjoyed the short history of nearly everything. it was so engaging... and i'm glad to see a male enjoying jane austen as much as most women seem to. a sign of an open and understanding mind!

Jonathan said...

Hey, anonymous in Illinois is back!

And as far as P&P, real men read Jane Austen.