Tag Archives: 2010s

Flighty Lyrical Literary Novel, by Anonymous (2013)

Believe me when I say that great lyrical writing can be some of the most stirring writing there is—I loved Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being, for instance. This novel, though, felt like a poor man’s version, with a heavy emphasis on style and very little in the way of a plot (which was inspired by historical events in Europe a hundred or so years ago, and may have been part of the problem). The passages that flowed well didn’t go anywhere, and the ones that didn’t felt pretentious and masturbatory—with far too many of them.

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Lichtenstein, by Janis Hendrickson (1988, 2012)

This picture-filled guide to Roy Lichtenstein’s career covers both his paintings of starry-eyed comic-book heroines (an example of which graces the cover), his images of everyday objects like washing machines and golf balls, and his later, more abstract paintings.  There’s also a close technical and thematic look at the Benday dots used in so many of his works.  Though I was most interested in Lichtenstein’s Pop Art images, the book covers much more, though the latter half goes into more depth than I was looking for.  Still, a solid introduction to Lichtenstein’s life and work with cool pictures.

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Where I Got It

At a bookstore in the Germantown section of Columbus, Ohio in summer 2015.  I’d been interested in Lichtenstein’s Pop Art works for a while (one of my teachers had a large “I’d Rather Sink Than Call Brad For Help” print on his office door in college, below), and buying this book was my reminder to actually learn more about him.

 

 

1Q84, by Haruki Murakami (2011)

A man and a woman in different parts of Tokyo find themselves drawn into the bizarre world of 1Q84 (kyū is Japanese for nine) where everything looks the same but a sinister religious cult is wreaking havoc.  I enjoyed parts of this book immensely, but others dragged on through its 1,100 pages, and a lot of the slower portions could have been trimmed.  The novel explores the idea of parallel worlds in classic Murakami fashion, and though the ending makes the whole read worth it, I recommend starting with something lighter for your first Murakami experience.

Rating:

Where I Got It

Christmas, 2015.

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Haruki Murakami’s website

Murakami Interview about 1Q84, his early life, and running every day

Once Upon a River, by Bonnie Jo Campbell (2011)

Sixteen-year-old sharpshooter Margo Crane leaves home after a family dispute and follows the river, initially seeking male companions of varying quality before deciding to live by her wits.  Though the story starts out with a literal bang, the rest feels disconnected as Margo undergoes a series of strung-together tribulations.  We see her growing up, but the change feels less satisfying since a lot of it was there all along.  The scenes vary in their effectiveness, with some feeling clunky as they follow that literary fiction voice often copied by graduate writing workshops.  In short: nothing too new here.

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Where I Got It:

Bought online in August 2013 for a graduate writing workshop (the last of several books I bought for that workshop but didn’t actually read until later).

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Author website

The Wicked + The Divine Book 2: Fandemonium, by Kieron Gillen & Jamie McKelvie (2015)

Is fleeting greatness worth the ultimate cost?  How many of us can reach that greatness?  Furthermore, what happens when we feel that greatness lies within our grasp but just can’t seem to reach it?  These questions feel more pronounced in the Wicked + The Divine’s second collection, where mere mortal protagonist Laura tries vainly to reproduce the teensy little miracle we saw in Book 1 and questions her relationship to the Pantheon of reincarnated gods that the world continues to fawn over.  Fantasy works best when it tackles real-world values in relatable ways, and this series does it beautifully.

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Where I Got It

Gift from old college friend, Christmas 2015 (along with Book 1).

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Book trailer on Youtube

Longer review, with pictures

 

The Wicked + The Divine Book 1: The Faust Act, by Kieron Gillen & Jamie McKelvie (2015)

Amaterasu, Baal, and ten other gods from world mythology get reincarnated every ninety years; this time they’re taking the form of teenage pop stars and a little bit of hell breaks loose when Lucifer goes rogue.  The premise promises lots of action, and I loved artist Jamie McKelvie’s style, particularly the splash pages, where there’s always something to look at.  The collection also comes with variant covers and apocrypha that form the graphic novel equivalent of a DVD bonus menu.  Reading more chapters feels necessary to make a more concrete judgement, but I’m definitely liking the start.

Rating:

3-kafkas

Where I Got It

Gift from old college friend, Christmas 2015 (along with Book 2).

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Kieron Gillen’s Tumblr

Jamie McKelvie’s website

Modern Romance, by Aziz Ansari (with Eric Klinenberg, 2015)

Dick pics. Waiting exactly two hours before responding to a flirty text.  Swiping through Tinder while at an actual bar because the people there aren’t quite good enough.  Aziz Ansari reveals string after string of sharp, relatable truths about 21st century phone-based dating and how today’s young adults struggle through a new period of emerging adulthood in their quests for the perfect soulmate.  The book smartly blends sociological research, jokes about rappers, insights into the dating scenes in Japan and Buenos Aires, and actual, useful advice for navigating the ever-changing world of modern romance.  Well played, Aziz.

Rating:

5-kafkas

Where I Got It

Bought online this September after telling myself for months that I was finally going to read the damned thing.

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Aziz Ansari essay, Everything You Thought You Knew About L-O-V-E is Wrong

Eric Klinenberg’s website

The Five-Year Party, by Craig Brandon (2010)

Craig Brandon exposes some of higher ed’s most pressing problems: rising tuition, overconstruction, bloated administrator salaries, and too many administrative positions, which lead to decreased education standards, unsafe party school atmospheres, worthless degrees, and lots of debt.  Unfortunately, though, Brandon writes like a sarcastic and angry old millennial-basher who overgeneralizes, repeats a lot of his points, and writes to an audience of worried parents rather than exploring the issues facing college students’ independence from their level.  This makes for eye-rolling chapters that leave the reader feeling angry, even though dumbed-down college-student experiences ultimately affect everyone.

Rating:

2-kafkas

Where I Got It

Bought online in Summer 2015, years after originally seeing it reviewed in a list of new author releases.

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The Five-Year Party on Amazon

Wall Street Journal review (summarizes Brandon’s points more succinctly than the actual book)

Higher Ed review (expands on the party school phenomenon with some solid insights)

The Sunshine Crust Baking Factory, by Stacy Wakefield (2014)

An indie novel about twentysomething punk squatters in New York City in the ‘90s—where do I sign?  I was really excited to read this book but was disappointed by the plot (which does a fair amount of wandering), the characters (which, apart from the coolheaded but hasn’t-found-her-place-yet narrator, never quite stand out), and some lackluster scenes.  What Wakefield does really well instead, though, is show the hazards of Brooklyn squatting life (which is a lot more organized than I’d imagined) by capturing the mechanics of garbage disposal and squatters’ rights in ways that feel intricate and real.

Rating:

2-kafkas

Where I Got It

Bought new at Quimby’s bookstore in Chicago while on a trip, Summer 2015.

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The Sunshine Crust Baking factory at Akashic Books

Interview with Former-NYC squatter Stacy Wakefield

We Are Market Basket, by Daniel Korschun & Grant Welker (2015)

Full Disclosure: I worked for Market Basket ten or so years before the 2014 protests made national news, but I would have enjoyed this book either way.  In case you missed it: a rivalry among the Demoulas family split the grocery chain between the workers and the board, with the power-hungry directors firing CEO Arthur T., who believed in supporting workers and treating customers fairly.  This book explains not only the history behind the protest, but the business practices that both fostered it and allow Market Basket to flourish in a world dominated by Milton Friedman’s shareholder-favoring philosophies.  Nice.

Rating:

4-kafkas

Where I Got It

Christmas Gift, 2015.

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More on the Market Basket Protests (Wikipedia)

When the Market Basket Workers Fight Back, Everyone Wins (my 2014 thoughts on the protests)

Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls, by David Sedaris (2014)

I like David Sedaris’s writing because it’s funny, easy to read, and poignant, and most things I like satisfy at least two of these.  His latest collection is mostly essays with a few fiction monologues thrown in (the best of which, “I Brake for Traditional Marriage,” features a disoriented right-winger who murders his family and wants to grow a mustache like Yosemite Sam’s), but I enjoyed it slightly less than his earlier work because most of the essays (about, say, losing your passport or picking up highway trash) feel less zany.  It still earns a solid four Kafkas, though.

Rating:

4-kafkas

Where I Got It

Christmas Gift, 2015.

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David Sedaris’s Website

David Sedaris Reads 50 Shades of Grey (video)

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, by Haruki Murakami (2014)

With fewer fantastical elements than Kafka on the Shore or Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, Murakami’s most recent novel covers more realistic scenarios that still raise larger, otherworldly questions.  The title character, a quiet loner, becomes estranged from his four childhood friends without explanation, and embarks on a quest from Nagoya to Finland to find out why. We never discover the secrets of Tsukuru’s past exactly, but that’s never the point with Murakami.  My one qualm is the flat exposition in the opening chapters, though this (fortunately) gives rise to more significant scenes quickly enough.

Rating:

4-kafkas

Where I Got It

Impromptu Christmas gift (2015) from my brother, who got two copies and gave me the paperback edition while keeping the hardcover (pictured above, much cooler).

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Haruki Murakami’s website

Wikipedia page