10

.

050) Created in Darkness by Troubled Americans: The Best of McSweeney's, Humor Category edited by D. Eggers, K. Shay, L. Epstein, J. Warner and S. Kleid, finished June 9

I'm highly ambivalent about McSweeney's (which I've been blogging about a long time, starting here), but this collection of funny stuff is great. Not all of it of course, but Rehnquist dunking over Stevens? It doesn't get any better than that. And some of the lists (pop-song sequels screams to mind) are simply hilarious. Check it out! Skip the ones you don't like! Roll over the others! Now!



under two weeks

049 Bikeman by Thomas F. Flynn, finished June 5

Advance praise of this book is almost deafening (it comes out in August). Everybody loves it! Flynn is a national newsman and other national newsmen with names like Dan Rather and Diane Sawyer are quoted on the dust jacket. Rather also writes a foreword, accompanied by an introduction by a Princeton professor of literature (emeritus).

You can hear a 'but' coming, can't you? Well, let's hold off on that.

The book is good. At places it is excellent.

Bikeman is a seventy-five page poem recounting Flynn's experience on September 11, 2001. He grabbed his bike and hurried down to Ground Zero to see what he could see. "Curiosity is my muse, one I follow / without hesitation. My muse, / no friend, pushes me toward calamity."

In his foreword, Rather writes about the difference between 9/11 and 9/11 in New York. I don't doubt it. I woke up that "forever September morning" in an apartment without a tv. The radio made it so abstract. We were still horrified. We still cried. We went to campus to watch the images of smoke and collapse. But it was not in my backyard. It was nowhere near my backyard.

And the news was washed. It was many months before I saw an image of a plumetting body. Flynn saw dozens, falling in slow motion, thrown against the tower by unkind winds.

I remember clearly the image taken by a cameraman as he turned and ran from the oncoming debris of a fallen tower. Flynn was nearly crushed, then almost buried alive.

And this is the first time I've ever heard of people drowning in the river. How did that happen?

So this is my but: These people loved Flynn's book, but they are connected to New York. It is their home and dear to them. It is not my home, though part of my native land, and I will never be as connected to it as they are. This book is a vital description of one man's 9/11, but I will always view his experience from the outside.

But I'm glad I can view it at all.

(I won't comment here on the actual poetry, which I did not find uniformly excellent--more utilitarian than beautiful or sublime. It has its moments certainly but I wouldn't call it an immortal masterpiece or anything--no matter the insinuations of certain Princeton men. I do agree with the professor though that this book has a chance of selling well and being a step towards returning poetry to the public eye. Which would be excellent. Good luck, Bikeman!)

six days

048) Fool Moon by Jim Butcher, finished June 5

So I know: the title's lame. Let's move on from that.

I only heard of these books because a student recommended them to me and I only read the first one because he forced it on me. Yes, I liked it, but that's rarely reason enough to read more than one book in a series. Usually I read one and check it off my list and call it knowledge enough.

But he brought me the second one and, as I'm all about creating a climate of book-reading, I accepted it. And you know what? Good move.

The first book, if you will recall, impressed me with its excellent world-building. This one surprised me by revealing more depth. In fact, I now wonder if maybe there isn't an overall story arc here ala Harry Potter. The plot has thickened in other words. And naturally dead parents are involved. (Note: timing of publication is such that Harry Potter copying is very unlikely.)

Also, the police station scene was one of the most astonishing things I have ever read. And pretty bold as well. Big story-taking chances were taken.

My hoped hadn't been high for this book--werewolves have never impressed me. But Butcher changed my mind.

All those nice things said, this book did take a few pratfalls on the way to the finish lines.

TO SUM UP: I hope this series is going somewhere. And if some kid wants to lend me book three in September, I'll read it. But if I end up feeling this is just a dairy farm, you can count me out.

couple weeks maybe

047) The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick, finished June 2

There is really only one word to properly describe this movie: cinematic. The somewhat stilted writing lends to that effect; the fullpage images lend to that effect; the titles lend to that effect; the black-bordered pages lend to that effect.

The book is by far the most marvelously cinematic book I have ever read.

The fact that it has been connected to movie-lover Scorsese is perfect. Only a film historian could do render this cinematic book into a movie the way it should be done. And if it won't be perfect, just read the book.

It's practically a movie already.

The author's appropriate name.
An appropriate film to watch before, during or after reading.

a week or two

046) Sixty Poems by Charles Simic, finished May 30

I'm not a huge poetry reader, I'm afraid, but I try to fit some into my diet. One means of doing this is trying to keep up with reading something by whoever the poet laureate of the U.S. is. Charles Simic is the laureate now, so when I saw his book at the library, I checked it right out. Sorry to say I didn't end the book a fan. Not that it was terrible, but....

I thought "Paradise" and "In the Library" and " Country Fair" and "Serving Time" and "Description of a Lost Thing" were all pretty good. "My Turn to Confess" and "In the Planetarium" were sound, but excellent? A poet to remember? Not so sure.

I think Simic must write with an erection most of the time--I don't think I've ever read the word "naked" so many times. Which is a nice, strong word. Until you use it in every single poem.

Many of the poems had great moments, but did not manage to be great wholes (endings were particularly problematic). I'll share some excellent potential epigraphs I gleaned at the end of this post.

And--besides naked people, his other great love is frying pans. Which were sometimes combined. Was "Crazy About Her Shrimp" a joke? I can't tell. But all naked and frying all the time gets repetitive. I expect more--especially from a greatest-hits compilation. Shame. (I even read most of them aloud!))

Toy soldiers were in big demand,
The kind made from clay.
The lead ones they melted into bullets, I suppose.

"This Big War"


I believe in the soul; so far
It hasn't made much difference.

"The Old World


XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXreading about stars
How they can afford to spend centuries
Traveling our way on a glint of light.

"My Nameless Entourage"


The great labor was always to efface oneself,
Reappear as something entirely different:
The pillow of a young woman in love,
A ball of lint pretending to be a spider.

"The Lives of the Alchemists


A god trying to write a poem on why he barks,
That's me, dear reader!

"My Turn to Confess

Most of those, interestingly, fall right at the beginning of their respective poems.

just shy of twenty-four hours

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Previously:

045) Replay by Ken Grimwood, finished May 28 044 The Age of the Conglomerates: A Novel of the Future by Thomas Nevins, finished May 27
044 The Age of the Conglomerates: A Novel of the Future by Thomas Nevins, finished May 27
043) W;t by Margaret Edson, finished April 19
042) Halo and Sprocket Volume 1: Welcome to Humanity by Kerry Cullen, finished May 17
041) Storm Front by Jim Butcher, finished May 16>
040) 20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill, finished May 9
039) I Am the President of Ice Cream by Geoff Sebesta, finished May 4
038) On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan, finished May 3
037) The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester, finished May Day
036) The Drifting Classroom Vol. 1 by Kazuo Umezu, finished April 30
035) The Complete Peanuts 1965 - 1966 by Charles M. Schulz, finished April 29
034) Nextwave: Agents Of H.A.T.E Volume 1: This Is What They Want by Warren Ellis et Stuart Immonen et al, finished April 29
033) Batman: Hush, Vol. 2 by Jeph Loeb et al, finished April 29
032) Batman: Hush, Vol. 1 by Jeph Loeb et al, finished April 28
031) Chéri by Colette, finished April 17
030) Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett, finished April 13
029) Animal Farm by George Orwell, finished April 8
028) Macbeth by William Shakespeare, finished April 7
027) On the Road to Heaven by Coke Newell, finished April 4
026) The Great American Citizenship Quiz: Can You Pass Your Own Country's Citizenship Test? by Solomon M. Skolnick, finished March 23
025) Long After Dark by Todd Robert Petersen, finished March 23
024) The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch, finished March 21
023) Robot Dreams by Sara Varon, finished March 10
022) The Complete Peanuts 1963-1964 by Charles M. Schulz, finished March 9
021) Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters, finished March 7
020) Unorthodox Practices by Marissa Piesman, finished March 5
019) Happy Hour at Casa Dracula by Marta Acosta, finished March 4
018) A War of Gifts: An Ender Story by Orson Scott Card, finished Leap Day
017) Watership Down by Richard Adams, finished February 26
016) Old Boy Volume One by Garon Tsuchiya and Nobuaki Minegishi, finished February 25
015) Case Histories by Kate Atkinson, finished February 18
014) Ultimate Spider-Man: Ultimate Collection, Vol. 1 by Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley, finished February 15
013) Trusting Jesus by Jeffrey R. Holland, finished February 11
012) Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall by Bill Willingham et al., finished February 11
011) Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife by Mary Roach, finished February 4
010) The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, finished February 3
009) American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang, finished LDotFMotNY
008) Zombification: Stories from National Public Radio by Andrei Codrescu, finished January 22
007) Marriage Lines: Notes of a Student Husband by Ogden Nash, finished January 22
006) Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen, finished January 20
005) The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time by Douglas Adams, finished January 14
004) Lord of the Flies by William Golding, finished January 10
003) Rising Sun by Michael Crichton, finished January 7
002) The Marketing of Sister B by Linda Hoffman Kimball, finished January 2
001) Animal Farm by George Orwell, finished January 1



The First Five ( 001 / 005 )
The Second Five ( 005 / 010 )
The Third Five ( 011 / 015 )
The Fourth Five ( 016 / 020 )
The Fifth Five ( 021 / 025 )
The Sixth Five ( 026 / 030 )
The Seventh Five ( 031 / 035 )
The Eighth Five ( 036 / 040 )
The Ninth Five ( 041 / 045 )