It is the time of year for lists, the best of this, the worst of that. I do the same thing. Perhaps my credentials aren't any more persuasive than Paris Hilton's although I haven't seen any list from her. However, again this year I'll list some good books culled from the many I read in 2007. My reading habits are eclectic at best. I read for entertainment, enlightenment, education and by necessity, for a day is not complete without by daily dose of the reading drug. Herewith the year's group of books I'm glad I read. The mind candy has been winnowed out.
Haynes, Publish and Perish . This collection of short stories touching on the supernatural is included because he is such a fine and elegant writer. Not Poe but not too far away, either. It's a joy to read even if you don't care much for the supernatural.
Weller, First into Nagasaki . Here is eyewitness history at its very best. Weller was the first correspondent to enter that ruined city but his reports were confiscated by General MacArthur's censors. This is an important book and should be read before our memories of those fateful times have dimmed to near darkness.
Allende, Ines of My Soul . This historical novel is about the conquest of Chile in the 1550s and, besides being a good read, is an insightful revelation of dominating cruelties religion imposes and reminds us that the rewards of conquest are only to the conquistadors and not always then.
Seierstad, The Bookseller of Kabul . This book takes you into a middle class family caught not only in a country that has been at war for over thirty years, but also in the inevitable cultural clash of changing times.
Holland. Bingo Night at the Fire Hall . Holland writes with elegance and compassion as she documents a community that is threatened by urban sprawl. She understands the people, both the natives and those from "away" who are bearing hard witness to the end of one part of the American dream/myth.
Rubinstein. Ballad of the Whiskey Robber . This is a true story that reads like a crazy, fun mystery waiting for a film treatment. A Tanzanian has illegally immigrated to immediate post Communist Hungary, joins the world's worst hockey team and is the worse goalie ever to lace up skates. No matter, his day job is robbing banks. He is very good at it. Seldom sober (thus the title) he gives the inept underpaid police a run for the bank's money.
Hitchcock, Mad Mary Lamb . Charles Lamb's sister murdered their mother. She was sent to a mad house until her insanity was "cured." Each time it returned, back to the mad house she went. She spent more time in a variety of such places than she did living with her brother. She was her brother's in-house editor and an innovative children's author but her contributions are either forgotten or little known.
Codrescu, Casanova in Bohemia . This novel is fun as well as a commentary on aging. Casanova has retired to be librarian at Dux castle someplace in the middle of Bohemia. Retired he may be, but when the lusts for which he is best known stir his soul he finds relief even if at times the flesh is weak. Here he contemplated his old age and his legacy, his scholarship has lapsed but never lost, his poetry still one of his muses. Like a coming of age story Casanova learns his world is changing. He'll be remembered not for his poetry, his scholarship, his criticism, but for his ability to attract the fairer sex and that he does.
A Note:
Resident author Neil McKinnon's book, Tuckahoe Slidebottle was runner up for the Giller Prize, the prestigious Canadian literary award.
So there it is, folks: My list of good books are all in Lake Chapala Society library. Happy Reading.
