Mid-Year Update
Well, a lot has happened since the last time I posted. About 2 months ago I had to put my poor little kitty Othello to sleep. I was devastated and I haven't felt much like reading since then. I want to do a quick update on book I've read thus far this year now, with maybe more detailed reviews to come later, but honestly, I doubt it. Classes start in a few weeks and I'll be busy with them.
For Classes (some of these were re-reads):
*The Home and the World by Rabindranath Tagore - pretty good, kind of tragic.
*Untouchable by Mulk Raj Anand - a repeat of a book I believe I already blogged about here.
*Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie - was a partial re-read; I never finished it before. Good, but very dense.
*Nectar in a Sieve by Kamala Markandaya - third re-read, a pretty good book. Sad, though.
*The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde - what a depressing book this is. I'm used to Wilde being funny.
*Kim by Rudyard Kipling - I hate Rudyard Kipling. That's all I really have to say.
*The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald - re-read; I don't even know how many times I've read this before.
*Mumbo Jumbo by Ishmael Reed - I didn't really care for this because it gets confusing and I had a lot going on while I was reading it. But I can see how it informed my understanding of other texts, like The Intuitionist.
*My Life by Lyn Hejinian - I love this one. It's now one of my favorite books, even though it was at least as confusing as Mumbo Jumbo.
*The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai - This was a very solid novel. I enjoyed it, I cared about the characters, I learned things, and it was sufficiently complex for me to explore in a paper. All in all a good experience, but I wouldn't call it love.
*Female Chauvinist Pigs by Ariel Levy - This book rocked. Levy picked up on so many things that bother me about females in our culture and traced them back to their root causes.
*Only Words by Catherine MacKinnon - I like MacKinnon's ideas, but she certainly can make an interesting subject boring as all get out with her style of writing.
*Literature after Feminism by Rita Felski - I liked this book and I thought Felski had a reasonable approach to texts by and about females, but it was almost like her total reasonableness (is that a word?) rendered her text boring and almost inconsequential. I guess I'm used to my theoretical texts being way out there like Barthes or Derrida. It throws me off balance when someone suggests a completely rational and sensible approach to texts.
*Plus I read a ton of theory (esp. feminism and narrative theory) for classes, but I don't feel like digging out syllabi and listing every single article/excerpt I read.
This Summer (some of these were books on tape I listened to at my boring summer job):
*The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie - better than Midnight's Children, I think. I cared more about what was happening to the characters for reasons that remain mysterious to me.
*Fasting, Feasting by Anita Desai - I loved this book. I loved Uma and I loved the description of Arun and the family he stays with.
*Clear Light of Day by Anita Desai - This was pretty good, but I liked Fasting, Feasting much better.
*The Guide by R. K. Narayan - This was okay. Nothing earth-shattering, but not bad for a quick read. I just finished it, and I'd like to think more about it and what Narayan might be saying about Gandhi with his characterization of Raju.
*Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard by Kiran Desai - I read this before The Guide, but they're very similar books, actually. I liked this one better. It was much funnier, and I'm a sucker for the funny.
*Gig edited by John Bowe, Marisa Bowe, & Sabin Streeter - This book is one of the best books I've read in a while. I love the voices of the people and how they all start to blend together, from the lowest-paid illegal immigrant who works in a chicken factory to the richest movie mogul (Jerry Bruckheimer). I love how most of the people say they love their jobs, even though you know it can't be true. I love how a lot of the people talk about how they do well at their job even though you know you've worked with people like that and they're completely worthless workers. I love the insight the book gives you into professions you didn't even know existed. It's also going on list of favorite books.
*Persuasion by Jane Austen - This has to be one of the worst Jane Austen books I've ever read. All her books are so similar that it gets old, but this one really showed no originality.
*Lady Chatterly's Lover by D. H. Lawrence - This was a pretty interesting read, but oh my word how Connie got on my nerves! And the stupid gamekeeper and his stupid dialect. I was ready to scream at them both by the end of the book.
*JPod by Douglas Coupland - This was kind of funny and kind of interesting, but I really got the impression that Coupland was phoning this one in (even more than usual). Microserfs was way better.
*Saturday by Ian McEwan - Gah, this was a boring book. So boring and so annoying. I don't like books about current events, so that kind of bugged me. I was really looking forward to this after reading Atonement, but this one was terrible.
*The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy - I was expecting this to suck because a lot of stupid people I've known in my life have loved this book. But it was pretty good. My advisor kept going on about and I thought he must be nuts, but he was right about Roy. This book has stuck with me after reading it, which is more than I can say for a lot of the other stuff I read this year.
*Life of Pi by Yann Martel - Man, is Yann Martel ever an annoying idiot. This book was a pretty horrible waste of time. I liked the parts where Pi was lost at sea with Richard Parker, but the beginning and the end were stupid, contrived, and completely irritating. This would have been a much better story if the beginning and end were lopped off.
*The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh - I'm not quite done with this one, so I can't say for sure how I feel, but so far it seems to be merely okay, nothing earth-shattering. Ghosh won me over at the beginning when he talked about proper Kolkata chai being made without spices. I don't know how many times I've argued with people (familiar and unfamiliar with Indian cuisine alike) that good chai shouldn't taste like a freaking pumpkin pie. I didn't realize until I read this book that it must just be a Kolkata thing.
*Reading Student Writing by Lad Tobin - This book seems okay so far (again, not done with it). It's a bit boring at times because of all the interjections the author makes about himself, but overall I think it's going to help me a lot with my teaching, so that's good.
*What is the What by Dave Eggers - I'm not done with this yet, either, but it's awesome so far. I can't wait to spend more time with it. My love for Dave Eggers is well documented here, I think. I get to see him speak about this book this fall along with its subject, Valentino Achak Deng.
For Classes (some of these were re-reads):
*The Home and the World by Rabindranath Tagore - pretty good, kind of tragic.
*Untouchable by Mulk Raj Anand - a repeat of a book I believe I already blogged about here.
*Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie - was a partial re-read; I never finished it before. Good, but very dense.
*Nectar in a Sieve by Kamala Markandaya - third re-read, a pretty good book. Sad, though.
*The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde - what a depressing book this is. I'm used to Wilde being funny.
*Kim by Rudyard Kipling - I hate Rudyard Kipling. That's all I really have to say.
*The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald - re-read; I don't even know how many times I've read this before.
*Mumbo Jumbo by Ishmael Reed - I didn't really care for this because it gets confusing and I had a lot going on while I was reading it. But I can see how it informed my understanding of other texts, like The Intuitionist.
*My Life by Lyn Hejinian - I love this one. It's now one of my favorite books, even though it was at least as confusing as Mumbo Jumbo.
*The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai - This was a very solid novel. I enjoyed it, I cared about the characters, I learned things, and it was sufficiently complex for me to explore in a paper. All in all a good experience, but I wouldn't call it love.
*Female Chauvinist Pigs by Ariel Levy - This book rocked. Levy picked up on so many things that bother me about females in our culture and traced them back to their root causes.
*Only Words by Catherine MacKinnon - I like MacKinnon's ideas, but she certainly can make an interesting subject boring as all get out with her style of writing.
*Literature after Feminism by Rita Felski - I liked this book and I thought Felski had a reasonable approach to texts by and about females, but it was almost like her total reasonableness (is that a word?) rendered her text boring and almost inconsequential. I guess I'm used to my theoretical texts being way out there like Barthes or Derrida. It throws me off balance when someone suggests a completely rational and sensible approach to texts.
*Plus I read a ton of theory (esp. feminism and narrative theory) for classes, but I don't feel like digging out syllabi and listing every single article/excerpt I read.
This Summer (some of these were books on tape I listened to at my boring summer job):
*The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie - better than Midnight's Children, I think. I cared more about what was happening to the characters for reasons that remain mysterious to me.
*Fasting, Feasting by Anita Desai - I loved this book. I loved Uma and I loved the description of Arun and the family he stays with.
*Clear Light of Day by Anita Desai - This was pretty good, but I liked Fasting, Feasting much better.
*The Guide by R. K. Narayan - This was okay. Nothing earth-shattering, but not bad for a quick read. I just finished it, and I'd like to think more about it and what Narayan might be saying about Gandhi with his characterization of Raju.
*Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard by Kiran Desai - I read this before The Guide, but they're very similar books, actually. I liked this one better. It was much funnier, and I'm a sucker for the funny.
*Gig edited by John Bowe, Marisa Bowe, & Sabin Streeter - This book is one of the best books I've read in a while. I love the voices of the people and how they all start to blend together, from the lowest-paid illegal immigrant who works in a chicken factory to the richest movie mogul (Jerry Bruckheimer). I love how most of the people say they love their jobs, even though you know it can't be true. I love how a lot of the people talk about how they do well at their job even though you know you've worked with people like that and they're completely worthless workers. I love the insight the book gives you into professions you didn't even know existed. It's also going on list of favorite books.
*Persuasion by Jane Austen - This has to be one of the worst Jane Austen books I've ever read. All her books are so similar that it gets old, but this one really showed no originality.
*Lady Chatterly's Lover by D. H. Lawrence - This was a pretty interesting read, but oh my word how Connie got on my nerves! And the stupid gamekeeper and his stupid dialect. I was ready to scream at them both by the end of the book.
*JPod by Douglas Coupland - This was kind of funny and kind of interesting, but I really got the impression that Coupland was phoning this one in (even more than usual). Microserfs was way better.
*Saturday by Ian McEwan - Gah, this was a boring book. So boring and so annoying. I don't like books about current events, so that kind of bugged me. I was really looking forward to this after reading Atonement, but this one was terrible.
*The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy - I was expecting this to suck because a lot of stupid people I've known in my life have loved this book. But it was pretty good. My advisor kept going on about and I thought he must be nuts, but he was right about Roy. This book has stuck with me after reading it, which is more than I can say for a lot of the other stuff I read this year.
*Life of Pi by Yann Martel - Man, is Yann Martel ever an annoying idiot. This book was a pretty horrible waste of time. I liked the parts where Pi was lost at sea with Richard Parker, but the beginning and the end were stupid, contrived, and completely irritating. This would have been a much better story if the beginning and end were lopped off.
*The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh - I'm not quite done with this one, so I can't say for sure how I feel, but so far it seems to be merely okay, nothing earth-shattering. Ghosh won me over at the beginning when he talked about proper Kolkata chai being made without spices. I don't know how many times I've argued with people (familiar and unfamiliar with Indian cuisine alike) that good chai shouldn't taste like a freaking pumpkin pie. I didn't realize until I read this book that it must just be a Kolkata thing.
*Reading Student Writing by Lad Tobin - This book seems okay so far (again, not done with it). It's a bit boring at times because of all the interjections the author makes about himself, but overall I think it's going to help me a lot with my teaching, so that's good.
*What is the What by Dave Eggers - I'm not done with this yet, either, but it's awesome so far. I can't wait to spend more time with it. My love for Dave Eggers is well documented here, I think. I get to see him speak about this book this fall along with its subject, Valentino Achak Deng.
posted by Gina at 3:03 PM
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