Here are the best of my 2011 picks, in the order in which I read them. You will notice one author repeats – once I discover an author’s voice I like, I try to read whatever they have written. This is the case with Kate Atkinson, who wrote a series of mysteries that I thoroughly enjoyed, but I don’t remember enough of them to let them lay claim to a spot on my top ten list. In the interest of fairness, however, let me tell you that they are: Case Histories, One Good Turn, When Will There Be Good News? (which was actually the first of them I read – then I went back to start at the beginning), and Started Early, Took My Dog. I should mention that when I get started talking about books, well, I do go on.
The Know-It-All, by A.J. Jacobs – Jacobs spent a year reading the Encyclopaedia Britannica, and wrote about that year as it happened. I believe he calls this “Stunt Journalism.” Another stunt journalist you might know of is George Plimpton, who wrote about his experiences joining the Detroit Lions’ 1963 training camp in Paper Lion. In The Know-It-All, Jacobs writes about trying to share his newfound knowledge with family and friends, only to be shunned or derided. One very funny sequence depicts Jacobs’ joining of Mensa, the organization for geniuses. Jacobs’ writing is easy and witty and charming, and I became enamored enough to read his other two books. I am anxiously awaiting his next, Drop Dead Healthy: One Man’s Humble Quest for Bodily Perfection.
A Thousand Cuts, by Simon Lelic – Lelic’s book is by genre a police thriller/mystery, but there is so much more to it. Lelic’s protagonist, Detective Lucia May, is the sole woman in her department and must suffer the sexist comments and sexual harassment of her fellow police officers, including her supervisor. To these men, there is no mystery: a history teacher walked into his London school, took out a gun, and killed some students in front of witnesses. But to May, there are intricate and complicated relationships at play, and she wants to discover what pushed the teacher to do what he did. Lelic uses a combination of first-person accounts of the shooting and related events and third-person narrative to present his story, and it is compelling. As a reader, I felt incensed that May herself was experiencing the very things she was learning about her case; as a woman, I wanted her to fight back but I understood her reluctance to do so. This is another writer I will be eager to follow to future books.
The Guinea Pig Diaries, by A.J. Jacobs – This is a collection of essays, some of which were published in Esquire magazine, about some experiments taken on by Jacobs in an attempt to learn more about human nature. In one essay, he writes about Radical Honesty, a movement that encourages not only the suppression of lies but the expression of truths no matter how painful. In another essay, he writes about outsourcing his life to two companies in India, one to arrange his personal life, the other his professional life. The former even sends flowers to his wife! Another essay describes his experience posing as a celebrity at the Academy Awards, and in another, Jacobs decides to agree with everything his wife says and wants. Again, Jacobs’ writing drew me in and I thoroughly enjoyed reading – and learning about what our human nature compels us to do.
The Year of Living Biblically, by A.J. Jacobs – I remember when this book was published, it seemed to be a bit ridiculed in the press. I saw images of Jacobs in his Biblically white gowns, his beard grown according to Biblical instructions. In this year, Jacobs attempted to live according to the moral codes presented in the Old Testament – including rules about eating, celebrating holidays, and how to interact with the world around him. I found this fascinating. Some of the moral codes – such as stoning adulterers – are clearly outdated and rightfully illegal, and Jacobs comes as close to following them in spirit as he can without actually committing them. As in all this books, Jacobs writes about his relationship with his wife and the struggles they endure to become a family, and the result is a satisfying mix.
Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley – This book has been on my to-read list since I was in high school. What made me get to it now? I found an audio version read by Michael York, and I wanted to hear it. It took me a while to get into the book – given the nature of the presentation, there was no turning back to re-read past sections for clarity and understanding – but after a short time, I found myself thoroughly involved in the lives of the characters and the society they lived in. I know comparisons are often made between this and George Orwell’s 1984, but I found this book to be fuller and richer than the other. I was particularly intrigued by the method of creating willing castes – tweaking embryonic development and subsequent brainwashing to encourage members of each caste to consider themselves better off than those in other castes. It made me contemplate how we mold our own class system. I do think I’d like to re-read this sometime, in hardcopy form (or perhaps on the Kindle!) to catch the things I might have missed while trying to figure out which way to point my car.
Making Toast, by Roger Rosenblatt – When his 38-year-old daughter died suddenly, Rosenblatt and his wife moved in with their son-in-law and grandchildren to help. This is the story of that time. His expression of his deep loss, combined with the humor necessary to raise small children, make this a lovely book. I found it sad and yet enlightening, and all too familiar in its depiction of grief, surrender, and delusion.
365 Thank Yous, by John Kralik – I don’t remember why I initially wanted to read this – one day I found I had purchased it and loaded it on my Kindle – but I am glad that I did. Kralik was living a life of negativity; his personal life was a mess, his professional life was no better, and it looked like there was no end to the downward spiral. Then a friend suggested to him that he might want to change his outlook on life, and his ex-girlfriend wrote him a thank you note – and both of these things inspired him to begin thanking the people in his life. He vowed to write thank you notes – one a day for a year – and in the process, found that his life was changing for the better. I would love to do this, just to see what change might be wrought in me – but I also know that I tend to take on New Year commitments that far outweigh my ability to maintain them. If I can do this on a smaller scale, I will.
A Discovery of Witches, by Deborah Harkness – Okay, I admit it: I read books about vampires. I’ve read the Twilight series (good story, terribly written, neglectfully edited), the Sookie Stackhouse series (entertaining if inconsistent), the first of the Vampire Diaries (eh), and lots of other books about vampires, many in connection with a course I developed a few years back called Vampire Literature. When this book was published and I heard there was a vampire, and that this was a story for adults instead of for teens and tweens, I was interested – but it wasn’t until a colleague of mine plunked it down on my desk and told me I had to read it that I actually gave it serious thought. Even then, I didn’t get to it for a few months, but when I did, I loved it. I am frustrated that it is the first in what is proposed to be a trilogy, and that much of what I, as a reader, looked to get out of the first book was delayed to a future book, but I will read the next in the series.
V is for Vendetta, by Sue Grafton – Back in 1988, pregnant with my oldest son and headed out with my husband for our delayed honeymoon on Nova Scotia (I thought we had better have our honeymoon before the baby was born, or we’d end up one of those elderly couples on their overdue honeymoon on Love Boat), I packed four paperbacks I had heard were worth a read: A is for Alibi, B is for Burglar, C is for Corpse, and D is for Deadbeat. Because I was sick with a cold for the first few days of our trip, we spent a lot of time in our hotel rooms and I spent a lot of time with my nose in these books. I loved them, and have continued reading the series since. There have been great entries in the series, and some not-so-great, but I kept reading because I needed to know what would happen next – and this is the hallmark of great writing. This latest in the series is one of the best: fast-paced action, emotional weight, easy accessibility even to those new to Kinsey Milhone. There are four letters left in the alphabet, and Grafton says that when she finishes those, she will be through. She is 71 now and with approximately 8 years of writing to go, she figures she’ll be old enough to retire respectably. What I love about Grafton is her refusal to sell film rights to these books, which leaves Kinsey firmly in our own imaginations. (She says she will haunt her children if they ever sell those rights after she is dead.)
Fiction Ruined My Family, by Jeanne Darst – The last of my ten best list is a memoir written by the daughter of a would-be writer father who rarely achieved publication and a mother who allowed her alcoholism to take over the family’s emotional and financial stability. I will always remember this book because of the circumstances of my reading it: nestled in a cushy chair in front of a fireplace at the home of one of my dearest friends, having been invited for a few days of respite during a particularly difficult time of my life. With my daughter gleefully entertained by my friend’s daughters, I had the luxury of reading and dozing in the warmth of the firelight. The book itself is written in an easy, breezy tone, and though it gets a little heavy when Darst begins to deal with her own writing and drinking issues, the humor continues throughout.
So there you have it: my chosen ten best of the books I read this year. Each of them meant something very special to me, and it’s been a wonderful trip back over the year in the remembrance of them.
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