Whenever I am in a job interview and the questions turn to getting a sense of my personal life, I never have an answer besides "I love to read. A LOT." I have learned to stop mentioning "hanging out with my cats" and "occasionally going outside," but I really and truly love to read. We have four bookshelves in our one-bedroom apartment and we need at least two more -- I've taken to using stacks of hardcovers as door stops and shelves. Here are a few books I have enjoyed lately:
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
Give me a novel with multiple, interweaving vignettes and timelines and I won't talk to you until I finish it. I may also drop it in the sink/toilet/pot of whatever I'm cooking because I will refuse to set it down until I'm finished. This book has it all: 90s New York, dystopian New York, pot-smoking maids, teens lost in the slums of Naples, 80s San Francisco, and that thing where a dictator "disappears" a past-her-prime blonde actress.
Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
I actually read this book over a year ago, but it's stuck with me. The story is heartbreaking and glorious, with a touch of the interweaving narrative thing that I love. The story is framed by the day that Philippe Petit walked a tight rope back and forth between the Twin Towers in 1974. Most of the action takes place in the Bronx, amongst strung-out prostitutes and an earnest, ascetic Irish priest. The book travels to Park Avenue, the Irish coast and upstate New York telling a story of ten lives connected by one day.
Just Kids by Patti Smith
It made me cry more than once. Just read it.
Also of note:
The Sense of An Ending by Julian Barnes
Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem
Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion (this woman can basically do know wrong in my mind)
Avoid at all costs:
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
I didn't even finish this giant bag of suck even after making it over halfway through. I absolutely loved The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and 1Q84 was such a disappointment. It's borderline incoherent (and not in a good Haruki Murakami way), the pace is agonizing and most of the narrative is gratuitous and straight-up boring.
All the above links are from Amazon, but I strongly urge you to support your local, independent booksellers.
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