A year and three days later…

I’m alive! The only thing that motivates me to write on this blog is to review books I have read this last year.  Sometimes blogging strikes me as being sooo 2009, but I have got a bit of time on my hands so I might as well crack the whip.  Maybe this will spark me to post more frequently.

I have noticed that I have about four or five general interests that all of my reading seems to consist of:

• Sci-fi, especially over the last few years from the glorious Ms. LeGuin.
• Russian Literature, especially from the 19th century.
• Czech Literature
• Dystopias/Utopias
• Good LDS literature (stuff you actually have to look for, not usually found at your neighborhood Deseret Book)
• and recently books dealing urban planning and transportation

I also occasionally dabble in classics or books that have won awards or new and notable books.  That about covers it, now that it now includes almost every book ever written!  But for the record, I do not prefer to read Romance, Westerns, most Young Adult, Mysteries, Thrillers, Belgian Literature, Self-helps, and Political stuff.

Books I actually finished:

The Dispossessed Ursula K. LeGuin

Worlds of Exile and Illusion Ursula K. LeGuin

UKL is I think I have to now admit is my ALL-TIME favorite  science fiction author.  Every time I pick up one of her books I am just blown away by her style of writing, her creative ideas, and a little of je ne sais quoi.  Maybe it is because she is a female writing in a male-dominated field.  Maybe it’s because she lives in Portland.  When I am reading her books, it instills in me my egoizing desire to write an even better sci-fi book, which would be impossible.  She really does take a fresh spin to sci-fi, focusing on social and cultural elements rather than scientific and adventure. 

A Thousand Splendid Suns Khaled Hosseini

This is another great book by the author of The Kite Runner.  It takes the reader deep into the awful, horrible world of women living in Afghanistan under shahs, mullahs, and the Taliban.  It was a good book to read at work because it reminded me that there are places worse than work (I chose to read 1984 at work next for this very reason).

Freakonomics Steven D. Levitt

This is a work of nonfiction based on a blog that I frequently read.  It tells the story of a rogue economist and some of his ideas that go against conventional wisdom, such as:  the biggest reason crime dropped so significantly in the 1990s was because so many would-be criminals were aborted fetuses, and how your name can affect how people look at you in your life and can affect if you get a job or not.  Good thing I have a strong Hebrew name like Joel.  I did enjoy reading this book.  It’s really hard to prove that anything really happens because of something else, and it’s also easy to prove anything when you meddle enough with the stats. 

Bright Angels and Familiars Eugene England

Canyons of Grace Levi Peterson

The first book is the seminal collection of quality LDS literary short fiction.  Almost every story in here is very well-written.  This book provided the jumping off point for me looking into some new authors, such as Levi Peterson.  Let me just say it is refreshing to read stories about my own culture, my own people that deal with the whole range of human emotions and experience.  Most LDS fiction gets a deservedly bad rap, but these books offer a glimmer of hope. 

The Golden Age Michal Ajvaz

This book is written by a Czech author and tells the story of a fictional island nation.  But the book does not really have a story per se, it just tells all about this people, their culture, and about a stranger visiting it.  Why does a story need a plot, anyhow?  This book proved to me that it is possible to just write a descriptive novel, full of great ideas but lacking the rigid plot format that English teachers insist every book must have. 

Green Metropolis: Why Living Smaller, Living Closer, and Driving Less are the Keys to Sustainability David Owen

I just read that the word “sustainability” was voted the most jargony word of 2010.  No one knows what it really means anymore.  Anybody can claim that they are sustainable.  This nonfiction book is basically a collection of essays explaining that the most energy-efficient places are actually the most densely populated places, not far-flung country dwellers who live off of solar power.  His arguments made sense to me, but I of course agreed with him before I even started reading it.

Time Traveler’s Wife Audrey Niffenegger

Alyssa read this book first, said she didn’t really like it, and going against her judgment I read it anyway.  Mostly because it’s about time traveling, something which I have looked into myself.  It’s a so-so book, she was right.  I sorta never really actually liked either of the two selfish main characters. 

Blazermania Wayne Thompson

Dad got me this awesome coffee table book, replete with color pictures depicting the history of the greatest basketball team ever.  I devoured it instantly.  RIP CITY!

Didn’t finish:

The Scar China Mieville

Good book.  Probably the most bizarrely creative book I read all year.  I got it from the library, and couldn’t finish it in time.  I want to read more of Mieville in the future. 

Altered Carbon Richard Morgan

This was also from the library, bizarrely creative, but it wasn’t doing it for me. 

Earthsea Ursula K. LeGuin

Alyssa and I have been trying to read this book together for about a year, and we are not very diligent at it.  It is LeGuin, I know, but it is fantasy instead of sci-fi and I like it but don’t love it like the rest of her oeuvre.

Already read, wanted to read again:

1984 George Orwell

Self-explanatory.

Referenced in my book review last year:

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay  Michael Chabon

I liked it but couldn’t finish it.  I lost interest.

How We Are Hungry Dave Eggers

I read all of this.  It’s a collection of short stories that I have now all forgotten. 

The Natural Bernard Malamud

I mentioned this in my last book review, and I how I didn’t really like it and like the movie a whole lot better.  That was before I read the novel’s ending, which is a lot more tragic than the movie.  And…I actually loved the original ending because it made me really think of how much of a jerk Roy Hobbes really was (at least in the novel, but it is there a little in the movie too) thus turning my world as I know it upside-down.

Books I’m currently reading:

An American Tragedy Theodore Dreiser

Dispensation: Latter-day Fiction Angela Hallstrom

The BLDBLOG Book Geoffrey Manaugh

Books on the docket:

Shine: An Anthology of Optimistic SF  Jetse de Vries

Judge on Trial Ivan Klima

The Gulag Archipelago Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn