kraige (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} josephinebaker) wrote,@ 2006-12-22 20:33:00 |
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Review of the Year Pt.3 - Books
As I'm a pauper and scarcely get to read anything in hardback, my collection will encompass books largely published last year, making it to paperback this. in a secondary list, I will include books where the connection to 2006 is only that i read them then.
best books of 2006
1. ali smith - the accidental
2. camille paglia - break blow burn
3. alice munro - the view from castle rock
4. sarah waters - the night watch
5. lewis hyde - the gift
6. margaret atwood - the penelopiad
yes, ali smith wrote my favourite work of fiction. the story was simple, but intriguing enough; the characters perfectly handled - but it was the style i found most rewarding. prose that sings and never clunks. for my money - the best british writer currenty working. camille's take on poetry was exciting and refreshing - and her appraisal of the form to include the lyrics of joni mitchell made very perfect sense. alice munro wrote the best collection of stories (tho i have yet to read atwood's latest collection, still in hardback) - and sarah waters took me by surprise by writing something beyond her usual middlebrow trash. 'the gift' was a hearty gift indeed - a beautiful evaluation of how the creative process transforms the world. in 'peneopiad' atwood re-writes 'the iliad' from the perspective of penelope. the result is a very light and frothy read, a perfect bathtime accompaniment.
disappointments
lionel shriver - there's something about kevin
ian mcewan - saturday
richard dawkins - the god delusion
shriver's novel was clever but empty. i didn't believe in her kevin, and found her protagonist infuriating. it had its moments, but after the final page i felt bereft - and not in a good way. 'saturday' was a chore to read. he should have called it: monday. and nothing infuriated me more than richard dawkins this year - his stony rationalism might have hit a cultural nerve, but i find it somewhat disingenuous, and secondly: aggravating.
other books i've enjoyed this year - published anytime.
jean rhys - tigers are better looking (my bible on literary style)
elizabeth smart - by grand central station i sat down and wept
al alvarez - the savage god, a study of suicide.
lorca - house of bernardo alba
aescylus - the oresteia
harold bloom - the western canon
christina hoff sommers - who stole feminism?
mark cousins - the story of film
lorna sage - good as her word
e.m. cioran - the trouble with being born
elizabeth bishop - one art: selected letters
john gray - heresies
laura hird - born free
diana athill - after a funeral
flanney o'conner - complete stories
the flannery o'connor stories floor me - they depress me as much as they inspire me - if one day i could write like that i can pass into nirvana; ditto the stories of jean rhys. wonderful to read the tragedians this year - and i was especially taken by aescylus, renowned for being the dullest of the three. al alvarez's study of suicide is the best meditation on the subject i've ever read - really something special; the christina hoff sommers book is all perfectly true.
that concludes my review of the year. happy xmas one and all!
As I'm a pauper and scarcely get to read anything in hardback, my collection will encompass books largely published last year, making it to paperback this. in a secondary list, I will include books where the connection to 2006 is only that i read them then.
best books of 2006
1. ali smith - the accidental
2. camille paglia - break blow burn
3. alice munro - the view from castle rock
4. sarah waters - the night watch
5. lewis hyde - the gift
6. margaret atwood - the penelopiad
yes, ali smith wrote my favourite work of fiction. the story was simple, but intriguing enough; the characters perfectly handled - but it was the style i found most rewarding. prose that sings and never clunks. for my money - the best british writer currenty working. camille's take on poetry was exciting and refreshing - and her appraisal of the form to include the lyrics of joni mitchell made very perfect sense. alice munro wrote the best collection of stories (tho i have yet to read atwood's latest collection, still in hardback) - and sarah waters took me by surprise by writing something beyond her usual middlebrow trash. 'the gift' was a hearty gift indeed - a beautiful evaluation of how the creative process transforms the world. in 'peneopiad' atwood re-writes 'the iliad' from the perspective of penelope. the result is a very light and frothy read, a perfect bathtime accompaniment.
disappointments
lionel shriver - there's something about kevin
ian mcewan - saturday
richard dawkins - the god delusion
shriver's novel was clever but empty. i didn't believe in her kevin, and found her protagonist infuriating. it had its moments, but after the final page i felt bereft - and not in a good way. 'saturday' was a chore to read. he should have called it: monday. and nothing infuriated me more than richard dawkins this year - his stony rationalism might have hit a cultural nerve, but i find it somewhat disingenuous, and secondly: aggravating.
other books i've enjoyed this year - published anytime.
jean rhys - tigers are better looking (my bible on literary style)
elizabeth smart - by grand central station i sat down and wept
al alvarez - the savage god, a study of suicide.
lorca - house of bernardo alba
aescylus - the oresteia
harold bloom - the western canon
christina hoff sommers - who stole feminism?
mark cousins - the story of film
lorna sage - good as her word
e.m. cioran - the trouble with being born
elizabeth bishop - one art: selected letters
john gray - heresies
laura hird - born free
diana athill - after a funeral
flanney o'conner - complete stories
the flannery o'connor stories floor me - they depress me as much as they inspire me - if one day i could write like that i can pass into nirvana; ditto the stories of jean rhys. wonderful to read the tragedians this year - and i was especially taken by aescylus, renowned for being the dullest of the three. al alvarez's study of suicide is the best meditation on the subject i've ever read - really something special; the christina hoff sommers book is all perfectly true.
that concludes my review of the year. happy xmas one and all!
