Reading list

Books I’ve read since I started commuting to work on the T in July, 2010. Also, some brief (pithy? petty?) commentary.

  • McSweeney’s #34. Recommended story: Afterworld, Anthony Doerr.  He also had a great story (Memory Wall) in #32.
  • The Consolations of Philosophy, Alain de Botton. I particularly enjoyed the chapters on Seneca and Nietzsche (I wasn’t expecting to like the latter so much). Schopenhauer, not so much.
  • Birds of America, Lorrie Moore. I loved how these stories progressed throughout the book. It ended in a much different place than it started.
  • The Curious Incident of a Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon. Impressive how the author makes all of the characters sympathetic, even when they’re hurting each other.
  • Veronika Decides to Die, Paulo Coelho. A gift from a friend. Thought provoking, but I didn’t like the story.
  • McSweeney’s #35. Recommended story: Phantoms, Stephen Millhauser. Plus all of the fiction from Norway, which was exciting and surprising.
  • The Bridegroom, Ha Jin. I first tried this book a few years ago and found the stories too harsh. This time, they’re still pointed and powerful, but fascinating too.
  • Shortcomings, Adrian Tomine. Interesting topic, unsympathetic protagonist.
  • Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie. My big reading project of early 2011. I loved the style and spirit of this book, and I learned some of history of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. I started this blog with the plan to write a review of this book, but am far too intimidated to actually write it.
  • McSweeney’s #36. Recommended story: The Street, Colm Tóibín.
  • The Blackwater Lightship, Colm Tóibín. Beautifully written. Painful subject matter, but I’m glad I read it.
  • An Unsuitable Attachment, Barbara Pym. Perfect vacation reading, particularly when Pym pokes fun at her vacationing characters who, though abroad, really want their English-style tea.
  • No Fond Return of Love, Barbara Pym. I first read this years ago. Reread because it was the focal book of the Barbara Pym Society conference. Much funnier the second time around, and the central characters seemed more subtly drawn.
  • *The Lost Language of Cranes, David Leavitt.
  • *The Empty Family, Colm Tóibín.
  • The Housekeeper and the Professor, Yoko Ogawa.
  • *The Bell, Iris Murdoch. Shocking, exciting, sad.
  • McSweeney’s #37.
  • *The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton. Love.
  • Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton. Harsh. I’m so glad I didn’t read this during winter.
  • The Turn of the Screw, Henry James.I disliked this when I read it in college. I appreciated it more the second time around, even enjoyed it. But it’s hard to love. I’m curious to try something else by James.

July 2011

  • Luka and the Fire of Life, Salman Rushdie. After a promising start, it’s a not-so-great sequel. The video game structure seems brilliant at first, but ultimately prevented me from getting drawn in.
  • *The Towers of Trebizond, Rose Macaulay. My second attempt at this one. I nearly gave up in the same spot, about 50 pages in. But it is absolutely wonderful! An odd, delightful, exotic, silly, and moving book.
  • Mystery at Geneva: An Improbable tale of Singular Happenings, Rose Macaulay. League of Nations humor. Also difficult to get into, but not as worth the effort.
  • The Golden Compass, Philip Pullman.
  • The Subtle Knife, Philip Pullman.
  • The Amber Spyglass, Philip Pullman.
  • Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage, Alfred Lansing.
  • McSweeney’s #38.
  • *Little Dorrit, Charles Dickens.
  • Jane and Prudence, Barbara Pym.
  • Coral Glynn, Peter Cameron.
  • *In Youth Is Pleasure, Denton Welch.
  • McSweeney’s #39.
  • Crampton Hodnett, Barbara Pym. Second time.
  • McSweeney’s #40.

July 2012

  • The City of Your Final Destination, Peter Cameron. Second time.
  • *Brooklyn, Colm Tóibín.
  • Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons. Second time.
  • Sorry Please Thank You: Stories, Charles Yu.
  • The New York Trilogy, Paul Auster. Second time.
  • *The Stranger’s Child, Alan Hollinghurst.
  • Quartet in Autumn, Barbara Pym.
  • McSweeney’s #41.
  • The Unicorn, Iris Murdoch.
  • A Few Green Leaves, Barbara Pym.
  • *The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton.
  • *The Line of Beauty, Alan Hollinghurst.
  • The Sweet Dove Died, Barbara Pym. Second time.
  • Lord Dismiss Us, Michael Campbell.
  • Right Ho, Jeeves, P.G. Wodehouse. Also some early Jeeves and Wooster short stories.
  • *Gone to New York, Ian Frazier.
  • Great Plains, Ian Frazier.
  • Wooden Rose, Tami Wicinas.
  • Oblivion, David Foster Wallace. Only the first half!
  • The Semi-Detached House, Emily Eden.

July 2013

  • *Are You My Mother?, Alison Bechdel.
  • McSweeney’s #43.
  • Gryphon, Charles Baxter. Only the first half, so far.
  • The 3,000 Mile Garden, Leslie Land and Roger Phillips
  • Palladian, Elizabeth Taylor.
  • Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont, Elizabeth Taylor.
  • McSweeney’s #44. Favorite story: The Dance Competition by Wells Tower.
  • The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami.
  • Wesley the Owl, Stacey O’Brien.
  • The House on the Strand, Daphne du Maurier.
  • McSweeney’s #45. Bradbury and Hitchcock Fistfight in Heaven.
  • Excellent Women, Barbara Pym. Reread for Pym Conference 2014.
  • Thus Was Adonis Murdered, Sarah Caudwell. Reread.
  • A Girl in Winter, Philip Larkin.
  • The Martian, Andy Weir.
  • Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves, P.G. Wodehouse.
  • *A Boy’s Own Story, Edmund White.
  • McSweeney’s #46. Latin American crime fiction.

July 2014

  • *The Custom of the Country, Edith Wharton.
  • The Bookshop, Penelope Fitzgerald.
  • Memory Wall, Anthony Doerr.
  • *Middlemarch, George Eliot aka Mary Ann Evans.
  • Remedies For Hunger, Anara Guard.
  • McSweeney’s #47. Little booklets.
  • Euphoria, Lily King.
  • The Cry of the Owl, Patricia Highsmith.
  • Egg and Spoon, Gregory Maguire.
  • *Americanah, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
  • Quartet in Autumn, Barbara Pym. Reread for Pym Conference, 2015.
  • *Tenth of December, George Saunders.
  • McSweeney’s #48. Favorite story by John McManus. Favorite Croatian story by Damir Karakas.
  • Local Souls, Allan Gurganus. Three novellas. Read this for the third, Decoy, which was my favorite.
  • *How To Think About Exercise, Damon Young.
  • Pulphead, John Jeremiah Sullivan.
  • The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, Alexander McCall Smith.
  • Tears of the Giraffe, Alexander McCall Smith.

July 2015

  • Coral Glynn, Peter Cameron. Reread.
  • Morality For Beautiful Girls, Alexander McCall Smith.
  • *Can You Forgive Her?, Anthony Trollope.
  • Emma, Jane Austen.
  • *The Lowland, Jhumpa Lahiri. Book club.
  • The Great Railway Bazaar, Paul Theroux. Only the first half.
  • The Burn Palace, Stephen Dobyns. Book club.
  • *Phineas Finn The Irish Member, Anthony Trollope.
  • Lucky, Gabrielle Bell.
  • The Blind Assassin, Margaret Atwood. Book club.
  • Some Tame Gazelle, Barbara Pym. Reread for Pym Conference, 2016.
  • *Home Cooking, Laurie Colwin.
  • Hand-Drying in America and Other Stories, Ben Katchor.
  • *Under the Banner of Heaven, Jon Krakauer.
  • The Bone Clocks, David Mitchell. Book club.
  • The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera.
  • The Eustace Diamonds, Anthony Trollope.

July 2016

  • The Architecture of Happiness, Alain de Botton.
  • At Home: A Short History of Private Life, Bill Bryson.
  • *The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead.
  • The Art of Racing in the Rain, Garth Stein. Book club.
  • Happy All the Time, Laurie Colwin.
  • *The Lone Pilgrim, Laurie Colwin.
  • *All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doer.
  • Dogtown: Death and Enchantment in a New England Ghost Town, Elyssa East.
  • The Garden of Evening Mists, Tan Twan Eng. Book club.
  • Less Than Angels, Barbara Pym. Reread for Pym Conference, 2017.
  • *The Nix, Nathan Hill.
  • Blankets, Craig Thompson.
  • A Man Called Ove, Fredrik Backman. Book club.
  • Phineas Redux, Anthony Trollope.
  • The Abundance, Annie Dillard.
  • Too Much Happiness, Alice Munro.

July 2017

  • More Home Cooking, Laurie Colwin.
  • *Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro.
  • On Beauty, Zadie Smith. Book club.
  • Hogs Wild, Ian Frazier.
  • *The Good Lord Bird, James McBride.
  • The Tender Bar, J.R. Moehringer. Book club.
  • What She Ate, Laura Shapiro.
  • McSweeney’s #50.
  • The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas. Book club.
  • The Prime Minister, Anthony Trollope.
  • The Sweet Dove Died, Barbara Pym. Reread for Pym Conference, 2018.
  • A Complete Unknown, Anara Guard. Manuscript.
  • Our Young Man, Edmund White.
  • *Less, Andrew Sean Greer.
  • McSweeney’s #51. LGBT story count: 2 (highest ever!)
  • *The Miseducation of Cameron Post, Emily M. Danforth.
  • McSweeney’s #52. Migrant literature. LGBT story count: 1
  • Improbable Libraries, Alex Johnson.
  • The Swimming-Pool Library, Alan Hollinghurst.

July 2018

  • When You are Engulfed in Flames, David Sedaris.
  • My Favorite Thing is Monsters, Book One, Emil Ferris.
  • The House of Impossible Beauties, Joseph Cassara.
  • Faceless Killers, Henning Mankell.
  • *Homegoing, Yaa Gyasi.
  • *The Gift of Rain, Tan Twan Eng.
  • McSweeney’s #53. Vinyl, balloons. LGBT story count: 1. Lots of women writers.
  • The Duke’s Children, Anthony Trollope.

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