Yes, yes…I know these books were not necessarily
published in 2019. But it’s my list, so I can organize it as I please! Every
year I cull down the books I’ve read over the year to 10ish or so of my favorites. Because I don’t want to stress myself out or hurt anyone’s feelings,
I choose not to include books by friends or even “friends” I interact with on
social media; instead, I list books I’ve read (and loved) that were written by
friends in a separate section. And I’m sorry if I’ve bought your book and not
yet read it…I’ll get to it. One of the great pleasures of reading is
finding the exact right book for the exact right time and place and mental space. (That’s why
I’ve always got at least 250 unread books ready and waiting!)
So, in no particular order:
Dare Me by Megan Abbott: Megan Abbott gets
lumped into the mystery/thriller sections, but no one is better about writing
about women and girls and power and secrets and friendships. Yes, dead bodies
show up, but Abbott’s work is really about group dynamics, and Dare Me
may the best of all, exploring the dark world of competitive cheerleading. Read
the book before you watch the new series on the USA Network. (Now that I’ve
typed that, I’m stressed out, wondering if You
Will Know Me is better than Dare Me.
Hmmm…read them both!)
The Child Finder by Rene Denfeld: Dark and
elegant, literary and gripping, a book you can’t put down. There’s a missing
child, so beware if that’s a trigger for you, but Denfeld finds the humanity in
each character. The ending is something of a miracle, and that last paragraph
makes me tear up, just thinking of it right now.
H Is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald: This book
had been on my shelf forever, and it was my experience last year with falconry
that finally got me to crack open the cover. What a stunning memoir, weaving
together the author’s grief over the death of her father and the way she copes
with this loss, by training a beautiful, wild goshawk named Mabel. I’m not
usually one for long passages of descriptive writing, but I would listen to
Macdonald describe the pavement on a strip mall parking lot. Luckily, she
chooses instead to describe meadows and birds and trees and nature. An
exquisite eye, a singular memoir.
*The Throwback Special by Chris Bachelder:
Keep reading, even if you think this doesn’t sound like your kind of book! A
group of 22 men meet once a year to re-enact the horrifically iconic football
moment in the 80s when Lawrence Taylor tackles quarterback Joe Theismann and
his leg gruesomely snaps as millions watched on Monday Night Football. (Do NOT
google this video.) The book has a tight focus—this one weekend, at this one
hotel where the men gather—but the point of view is expansive, touching (I
believe) each of the men. (That’s right: 22 POVs!) And while it’s helpful to
know something about football, this book is really about men and love and the
meaning of ritual and aging and nostalgia and so much more. *Tied for my most favorite book of the year!
Heaven’s Coast by Mark Doty: A lyrical
memoir of grief set (mostly) in weather-wracked Provincetown, MA. Doty’s lover
has died of AIDS, during the height of the epidemic, and how can one find the
words to convey such a loss? How can one find a way to continue living?
Metaphors of the natural world and the landscape of Cape Cod feel one thousand
percent fresh here; Doty is a highly-regarded poet, and each word in this
memoir feels perfectly, effortlessly selected. Possibly the best grief memoir I've ever read.
The Black Notebooks: An Interior Journey by
Toi Derricotte: Hard questions about identity and race. Not a single easy
answer, only difficult self-revelations leading to more difficult questions.
Feels to me as relevant today as it was when published in 1997. If you
responded to Citizen by Claudia
Rankine, you’ll respond to this book…and if you’re me, you’ll actually prefer Derricotte. (Did I really just say that??!!)
The Hard Way
on Purpose: Essays and Dispatches from the Rust Belt by David Griffels: My
husband randomly picked up this book in an independent bookstore in a town we
were visiting, loved it, and suggested I read it, especially as I was touring
through the Midwest this summer. I loved it too: essays about growing up in the
“Rust Belt”—which is a place
not an oft-annoying political voting bloc—essays that muse about the area’s
rise and fall, and what it means to live in a place that used to “make things.”
If you grew up as a Cleveland Browns fan, there’s an essay in here that you can’t
miss!
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead:
Focused and spare, the haunting story of an African American boy in the 60s who
unfairly ends up in a horrific juvenile facility. Equally awful is the
depiction of regular life outside the facility under Jim Crow laws. (Based on a
real institution in Florida that for years covered up countless deaths of young boys.)
*The Blind Side by Michael Lewis: Another
football book? Well, yes—though this book is much more than a book about
football. It’s a book about the education system, white privilege, money,
class, how college recruiting really works, how NFL recruiting really works,
and the myriad ways talented kids fall through mile-wide cracks. If you’ve got in
mind that dopey “white savior narrative” movie starring Sandra Bullock, THIS
BOOK IS NOT THAT. That storyline is tucked in, and of course that’s what
Hollywood would choose to focus on, but on the page, no one escapes Lewis’s sharp
eye, and he is both merciless and merciful. A thorough reporter, but also a
superb narrative writer. *Tied for my
most favorite book of the year!
Paper Lion: Confessions of a Last-String
Quarterback by George Plimpton: More football?? (Confession: I’m writing a
novel about a football player.) Anyway, this classic is a bit dated, but still
hilarious and smart about football and what makes a “team.” Paris Review
editor George Plimpton is a charming and self-deprecating narrator/reporter who
goes “undercover” at the Detroit Lions training camp for the 1963 season…okay,
so no one believes the skinny guy who went to Yale is a professional football
player. But he manages to blend in enough to hear all the good stories, and he
even finds himself out on the field, playing quarterback—!!
____
Here are the books written by my friends that I
loved reading this year:
Crude Angel by Suzanne Cleary: Smart, sharp,
and funny poems by my fabulous Converse low-res MFA colleague/roommate, tackling
a range of subjects to include Morgan Fairchild’s lipstick.
Shelf Life of Happiness by Virginia Pye: Lovely
short stories that take on the writer’s most challenging topic of all,
happiness. Yes, a collection can be cohesive without being linked. This is one
to study if you’re assembling your own collection.
Stay by Tanya Olson: Masterful poems, especially
the long poem “txt me im board” that takes us through a hairy airplane ride through
life and death and art, with these lines I love so, so much: “God takes no poet / until his best poem is
written / You my friend will save us all.”
Meteor by C.M. Mayo: Gorgeous prose poems that offer a sense of narrative, along with an extraordinary wash of language and images.
Anything You Want by Geoff Herbach: Hilarious
and voicey YA book about the world’s most heart-breakingly optimistic boy, by my
new Converse MFA colleague! For all the humor and deluded optimism, these
characters have a tough road, and the author pulls no punches. I loved this
book in 2019, but wow, would I have really loved it when I was 14, back in 19-mumble-mumble.
The Unrhymables: Collaborations in Prose by
Denise Duhamel & Julie Marie Wade: Incisive essays for people who don’t
think “feminist” is a bad word co-written, back and forth, to various prompts, by
two of the most creative writers I know. (Denise is yet another fabulous
Converse colleague, and Julie has visited our program several times!)
The Lightness of Water by Rhonda Browning
White: Gritty and voicey short stories set (mostly) in Appalachia by my
Converse MFA fiction thesis student! I admired these stories when I worked with Rhonda on her thesis, and to see the whole collection honed to a razor's edge, makes me as proud as can be. (debut)
Be with Me Always by Randon Billings Noble:
Blazingly honest and elegant essays about the ways things and absences haunt
us. If you don't believe me, you can read a very short essay from the collection right here...and thank me later:
One Night Gone by Tara Laskowski: Two
storylines intertwine and intersect in this fabulously atmospheric mystery
about a missing girl set in an East Coast beach town, seen in the full
onslaught of summer in the 80s, and then in the eerie off-season in
contemporary times.
Scattered Clouds: New & Selected Poems
by Reuben Jackson: Real DC of “Chocolate City” days, jazz, Trayvon Martin, and
modern life tinged with elegiac undertones create a powerful brew. (I played
Ellington as I read, which was just perfect.)
Once Removed by Colette Sartor: This
collection of short stories won the prestigious Flannery O’Connor Award, and
it’s easy to see why. Lush and aching, each story is a deep dive that could be its
own novel. I didn’t want this book to end. (debut)
I'm guessing that Work in Progress will be quietish (if not fullly quiet) until mid-January, when I'll start up with another round of author interviews. As always, thank you for reading this blog that now contains more than 2000 posts!
~~Happy reading in 2020--and happy new year to all!~~
I'm guessing that Work in Progress will be quietish (if not fullly quiet) until mid-January, when I'll start up with another round of author interviews. As always, thank you for reading this blog that now contains more than 2000 posts!