<< Back Reading (Archive) • The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger This is the best love story I've ever read. It's the story of Henry, who is afflicted with a disease that causes him to travel in time without warning, and his wife Clare. It's told from both their perspectives, jumps around in time, and unfolds beautifully with a constant sense of foreshadowing. It's set in Chicago, which makes it even more resonant for anyone who knows the city. • Not the End of the World - Kate Atkinson Short stories with fantastical charm. Some more apocalyptic than others. The plots build on one another and characters recur: angst-ridden teenagers, struggling parents, singletons, young professionals, movie stars, an evil twin, a goddess. A nanny takes flight. A woman falls in love with a tiger. Improbable, mythical, fun. • Jarhead - Anthony Swofford The first Gulf War memoir written by a frontline infantry marine. Swofford offers startling, honest insight–quite distinct from the highly filtered media accounts of Operation Desert Storm. Ever more poignant in light of the current war on terrorism. • The Devil in the White City - Erik Larson A factual account of the events surrounding the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. Tells the parallel stories of Daniel Burnham, the fair's main architect, and H.H. Holmes, a man widely known to be America's first serial killer. Full of suspense and rich detail, it read like a novel. • Rats - Robert Sullivan An account of Sullivan's year spent investigating the New York City rat population. He reveals his own firsthand observations and encounters with a particular group of alley rats, as well as a fascinating social and natural history of the city's longtime rodent residents. • Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri Very rarely does a book make me cry. I still find it hard to believe that written words alone would be powerful enough to hit my gut in such a way. After reading only the first of Lahiri's short stories, I wept. Her stories tell of Indian immigrants and first-generation Americans, of what it's like to feel distant and out of place, of people in and out of love. • You Remind Me of Me - Dan Chaon Chaon's first novel, a non-linear weaving of narratives written from the perspectives of fragmented family members. The characters are unremarkable and often unlikable, yet each evoked my empathy. A sad, honest, poignant portrayal of human emotion. • What's the Matter With Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America - Thomas Frank A must-read for anyone wanting to understand American politics today. Highly credible writing. Frank, a native Kansan and former Republican, chronicles the transition of a fervently leftist state to one now heavily entrenched in conservatism. He charts how masses of everyday Americans in Kansas and beyond have come to believe in conservative "backlash" rhetoric (that a supposedly amoral liberal elite is out to crush their traditional values), repeatedly voting in favor of "moral" issues rather than economic ones–in fact, supporting a program that harms them economically and serves well their corporate and upper class brethren. • The Wind Up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami An ordinary Japanese man loses his job, his cat, and his wife...and then commences on a serpentine journey that is anything but ordinary. Incredibly vivid and surreal all the way through. I lost sleep every night just so I could stay up and read a few more pages. • Galatea 2.2 - Richard Powers Powers inspires me with his unabashed use of autobiogaphy. Apparently this isn't is best work, but I felt so connected to it because it's so close to home–geographically (it's set in "C-U")–and well, the love story... • Stiff - Mary Roach An incredibly fascinating book about the mysterious lives of human cadavers. Roach chronicles the historical uses of our bodies post-mortem with a funny yet reverent tone. The book was nearly impossible to put down. • Pattern Recognition - William Gibson Cayce Pollard, a "cool hunter" whose job is to travel the world finding new trends, is sent on a mission to find the enigmatic maker of mysterious video footage that keeps appearing anonymously on the web. Set in Moscow, Tokyo, and London, (and with references to post 9-11 New York), the story addresses 21st century consumer and digital cultures in a language that is refreshingly familiar and engaging. • The Audible Past - Jonathan Sterne A historical inquiry into sound reproduction technologies and the social and cultural factors that gave rise to their ubiquity in modern life. Sterne focuses primarily on telegraphy, phonograpy, and radio as entry points for discussion of a topic that remains largely untapped: the notion of "sound culture." He challenges the visual biases that predominate theories of modernity. It's an academic book, but well written and not too heavy on the jargon. A must-read for anyone working with sound-based media or remotely interested in the history of sound. • Persepolis - Marjane Satrapi A graphic novel told from an autobiographical perspective. As the great granddaughter of one of Iran's last emporers, Satrapi narrates her own story of growing up in the early 80's during the Iranian revolution . The simplicity of the art and dialogue has a way of bringing closer the distant and unimaginable horrors of war. Ofen ranked in the same category as Art Speigelman's Maus. • Understanding Comics - Scott McCloud A deconstruction of comics written in the form of a comic book. Entertaining and accessible, it dispels the myth that comics are just for kids and are inferior to "higher" forms of art and literature. Offers some interesting insight on semiotics and visual culture. • Fortress of Solitude - Jonathan Lethem A story about two boys–one black and one white–growing up in a Brooklyn neighboorhood amidst the experimental dawn of gentrification. I am not a boy and have never been to NYC, but I found myself entranced and totally engaged by the characters and the story. Lethem's use of metaphor is vivid and dense, at times heart-stopping in its beauty. On a deeper level, the novel addresses issues of race and space–how they are socially constructed and intimately intertwined. • The Seven Sins of Memory - Daniel Schacter Cognitive psychology. Incredibly interesting. Could even be bedtime reading. Quantifies the errors in human memory into seven "sins": transience, absentmindedness, blocking, misattribution, suggestibility, bias and persistence. The results of memory's glitches range from periodic annoyance to serious legal consequence (e.g. false eyewitness testimony). Even so, Schacter argues that these errors are products of an otherwise highly functional system. • Found Magazine - Collection of found items offering a glimpse into other people's lives. • Slightly Out of Focus - Robert Capa WWII Memoir written from the perspective of arguably the greatest war photographer ever. Reads like a novel in Hemingway style. Capa admits that he embellishes the truth. Fiction or not, the story never lacks credibility. And it's dabbled with humor. • Right as Rain - George Pelecanos Mystery novel with interesting characters...I really empathized with them. Cinematic...reads like a movie. • City Come A-Walkin' - John Shirley I haven't read much sci-fi. But this seemed like it would be a good start. Early cyberpunk, published in 1980. Set in the "near future," 2008. Shirley also wrote the screenplay for "The Crow." << Back