Almost a year and a half ago I moved from small-town Staunton up to Alexandria on the periphery of DC. One of the many things that changed was that I started doing something I hadn't done with regularity since my early teens: read.
Now I've always loved reading and it's not like I ever stopped reading, it's just something that I did less of in high school and then very little of in college. Obviously I read a ton for class while in school (shoutout to Professor Pinsker) but I did little to no reading for my own pleasure. Being raised mostly without TV (and completely without video games) I spent a lot of time reading and I probably have more of an attachment to books than many folks in my generation.
Starting a job in the big city was an abrupt change and one of the major changes was the commute, which continues to reign as the bane of my existence. I could write pages about how much I hate my commute, but I'll boil it down to the (only?) positive: I have hours a day with nothing to do but read. Those sleepy mornings and the long, dark metro rides home are mostly spent reading whatever I can find in the apartment or at the library. I had forgotten how caught up I can get in a good mystery, whether fiction or non, or how easily I can slip into a fantasy world of magic or spaceships.
I personally tend to look for new suggestions for reading material on blogs or "best of" lists so I figured I would share what I've enjoyed over the last 18 months or so and hopefully someone else reading this list will also be looking for something new and check it out. Please feel free to add any comments or suggestions.
These are some of the books that I've read in the last year or so that really stood out to me, and things I definitely recommend checking out.
The Windup GirlPaolo Bacigalupi (2009)
I'm pretty picky about my sci-fi, perhaps from a lifetime of being a huge Star Wars nerd/snob/defender, but I was blown away by this Hugo and Nebula award winner from 2010. Set in 23rd century Thailand, global warming has raised the tides and tensions between racial and social castes. Calories have become currency and Anderson Lake is the agent of an economic corporation that has sent him on a dangerous and mysterious mission. His venture brings him into contact with Emiko, one of the New People, a bioengineered but now outdated servant, cast aside to the cruel slums of Bangkok. Together they witness the fall and rise of an empire while international corporations, terrorists, and corrupt factions claw for power in the streets of Bangkok, fighting not just to survive but to control the survival of others. One of the best sci-fi books I've ever read and I absolutely recommend it whether you're a fan of the genre or not.
The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood
James Gleick (2011)
I had no idea what to expect when I started this book, and it turned out to be one of the more interesting things I've ever read. Gleick leads the reader on a study of information theory and its genesis and concepts that spans from African drum communications to Wikipedia; which he terms a modern-day Library of Babel. The Information explores topics from the origins of spoken and written language to the digitization and compression of data which has become an essential component of the modern world. Information theory is something I can honestly say I'd never thought about in depth or intentionally, but Gleick engages the reader and challenges you to assess how and why you know facts or ideas. I've heard him referred to as a "science writer," and some chapters do run a little heavy on scientific or mathematical theory, but overall the book is very readable. It's an extremely interesting text and I feel like I could presumptively say that it will make you think a little differently about the world around you.
The Making of the Atomic Bomb
Richard Rhodes (1986)
When my Dad responded to my interest in the Manhattan Project by providing me with this tome by Richard Rhodes, some quick research revealed to be the authoritative history on the subject. It's 880 pages, but it garnered a Pulitzer and a National Book Award and is must-read for any history buff. The book takes a while to get to the Manhattan Project and the big explosions we all learned about in middle school, filling the first oh-so-many pages with an immensely detailed account of the persons and events responsible for the discovery of radiation and its powers. Despite being a bit dense with chemistry and physics at points, Rhodes binds science and world events together with the personas he provides. By the time you finish the book you're as apt to remember these mathematicians and physicists for their interest in hiking or their part in a play as well as you do for their great scientific accomplishments. It's not for everyone, simply based on length and academic material alone, but if you're interested in the subject area the book is fantastic and the accounts of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end are incredible. The People Who Eat Darkness
Richard Lloyd Parry (2010)
When Lucie Blackman disappeared from Tokyo in the summer of 2000, the British blonde and her family became the focus of an international media storm. Parry, a foreign correspondant in Japan at the time, recalls a bizarre and riveting saga almost stranger than fiction that winds through the Japanese social strata and the criminal investigation. I knew nothing about the case before I picked the book up and I struggled to resist the revealing powers of Google after I quickly got caught up in the building drama of Parry's journalistic style. The People Who Eat Darkness is a fascinating look at Japanese culture and the unraveling of the Blackman mystery is the stuff of nightmares. I definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a gripping read.
The Secret HistoryDonna Tartt (1992)
Described as more of a whydunit than a whodunit, Tartt's first novel is probably my favorite thing I've read in the last year. I can't say I've been more caught up in a book in quite a while. The story takes place at an elite private college in Vermont, following the story of blue-collar Richard Papen as he gets sucked into the secretive and enthralling Classics program. The other class members are Henry, Bunny, Francis, Camilla, and Charles. We know from the outset of the book who dies and and how he dies, but the journey to and from that point is astonishingly well written. Much like Classics professor Julian Morrow's students, the reader is entranced, bound to Richard's story and his inevitable descent into misery. It's not a light-hearted read, but it is one of the more memorable and riveting books I've picked up in a while; I recommend you do the same.
Sabriel
Garth Nix (1995)
This is sort of a cheat, because I read this book in high school and rediscovered it the summer after I graduated college. Set in the fantastical Old Kingdom, Sabriel's eponymous protagonist is a young girl who finds herself unexpectedly pressed into her birthright as Abhorsen (one who puts the dead to rest). It's too hard to describe the whole world that Nix has created in just a couple sentences, but the gist of Sabriel's calling is to serve as a necromancer who combats those who would raise or draw power from the dead. Sabriel is the first in a trilogy, and I have thoroughly enjoyed reading and rereading the set. The way that Nix has woven a world full of magic, death, and history are unique among other fantasy concepts I have come across, and I fully endorse Sabriel as a fun, interesting read for any fantasy fans out there.
The Round House
Louise Erdrich (2012)
I must say that I've rarely been as gripped by a book as I was by Louise Erdrich's excellent The Round House. Erdrich draws from her Ojibwe heritage to tell the coming-of-age story of a teenaged boy, Joe, whose life on the reservation is shattered by his mother's rape. His mother survives physically but is psychologically shattered and refuses to speak of the attack, leading Joe and his father to try to identify the mysterious man who has traumatized their family. There is quite a bit of detective story mystery and intrigue mixed but in the end what gives the novel so much emotional clout is Joe's story. He recounts everything from casual boob jokes and sex stipulations with his friends to the infectious grief spreading from behind his mother's perpetually closed door. Told from Joe's grown-up perspective, his narrative often seems shrouded in a veil of guilt and regret that hangs heavier some times than others. Simply saying that The Round House is about a boy who was forced to grow up too fast, or a boy on a detective mission would be doing the astonishing power of the book a disservice. The Golden Spruce
John Vaillant (2005)
This was the very first thing I read upon reaching Alexandria, at my Mom's recommendation, and all I can say is that I regret not finding it sooner. What begins as a mystery surrounding an abandoned kayak in British Columbia turns into a flowing story about the Pacific Northwest's history and in particular, the history of its trees. This long, sad story ranges from Native American totem poles to the unavoidably scathing record of the logging industry's devastation of coastal North America. Ultimately it culminates with the tale of one man and one very special environmental anomaly: a golden spruce. Like in his previous and also excellent The Tiger, Vaillant writes beautifully and presents a fascinating microhistory that left me with a powerful desire to travel to the places painted on his pages, something I consider a high compliment.
American GodsNeil Gaiman (2011 "Author's Preferred Text")
I had never read any Neil Gaiman before the much-lauded American Gods, but it was completely deserving of the hype (Hugo, Nebula, and Bram Stoker awards among others). I'm not really sure how to begin explaining what this book is about or how far beyond what I expected it went. NY Times reviewer Kera Bolonik referred to it as "noirish sci-fi road trip novel," and I guess that's a good place to start. The novel begins with our large, quiet, prestidigitorial protagonist Shadow being released from jail a day early because his wife has died. The lost and grieving Shadow is tracked and recruited by a mysterious Mr. Wednesday to accompany him as an assistant. We soon discover that Mr. Wednesday is far more than he seems and that in fact very little is as it seems. Shadow learns that gods exist in America and they are pining, waning, and scheming to avoid the only true end for a God: being forgotten. The novel is a myriad of mythologies, dreamscapes, and light societal commentaries blended into a fantastic adventure. I give Mr. Gaiman boatloads of credit for coming up with such an original, unique concept and producing such an interesting book.
Others of Note:
Wonder Boys, Michael Chabon (1995) and Red Dragon, Thomas Harris (1981) - very good books, but also cases where the movie is actually better than the book (re: Fight Club).
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, Mary Roach (2004) - really, really interesting if you can stomach it.
Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy (1985) - it wasn't as great as I expected, but still a masterpiece and something that should be on more reading lists.
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