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If you click on "Books" in the category list over in the left column, you'll see that for about 18 months -- from early 2010 until early September of 2011 -- I regularly posted short notes about books when I finished reading them. During that time, I heard from a few friends, who said that they found these short book notices interesting and helpful, useful guides for their own reading choices. But after a while, it simply became too burdensome, given the number of books I read, to keep up with the chore. So, I stopped.
But with the arrival of summer -- and the approach of more free time -- I'm ready to resume the book notes, if there seems to be any interest in having them. So, if you're a regular reader and liked having those short notes, please comment here or send me an email (click on the email link at the bottom of the left column) to let me know that. Thanks.
Meanwhile, here's a list of all the books I've read since my post on September 5, 2011, about Rules of Civility, the wonderful book by Amor Towles. They're listed here in reverse chronological order, with the most recently read listed first. Yes, it's a lot of reading. Eighty-five books between Labor Day and Memorial Day -- an average of a little more than two a week.
Almost all of these books are fiction. Regular readers here know that my tastes are eclectic. So, this list contains the usual broad mix.
Meredith Maran, A Theory of Small Earthquakes
Donald Ray Pollock, The Devil All the Time
Karin Slaughter, Triptych
Kristan Higgins, My One and Only
Karin Slaughter, Snatched
Frank Roberts, Jackass on a Camel
John Irving, One Person
Elin Hilderbrand, The Love Season
Vanessa Diffenbaugh, The Language of Flowers
Jennifer Probst, The Marriage Bargain
Mark Allen Smith, The Inquisitor
Liz Moore, Heft
Adam Wilson, Flatscreen
Joshilyn Jackson, A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty
Anne Korkeakivi, An Unexpected Guest
Deborah Copaken Kogan, The Red Book
Meredith Goldstein, The Singles
Carol Anshaw, Carry the One
Charlotte Rogan, The Lifeboat
Pete Dexter, Spooner
Anne Tyler, The Beginner’s Goodbye
Susan Wilson, The Dog Who Danced
Carmine Gallo, The Apple Experience
Thomas Mallon, Watergate
William Landay, Defending Jacob
Suzanne Collins, Mockingjay
Suzanne Collins, Catching Fire
Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games
E L James, Fifty Shades of Grey
Amber Dermont, The Starboard Sea
Chris Pavone, The Expats
Caroline Leavitt, Pictures of You
Lauren Fox, Friends Like Us
Lauren Fox, Still Life with Husband
Hilma Wolitzer, The Doctor’s Daughter
Hilma Wolitzer, Hearts
Hilma Wolitzer, An Available Man
Stewart O’Nan, Last Night at the Lobster
Stewart O’Nan, Emily, Alone
Stewart O’Nan, The Odds
Penelope Lively, How It All Began
Penelope Lively, Consequences
Alan Lightman, Mr g: A Novel About the Creation
Ruta Sepetys, Between Shades of Gray
Rosamund Lupton, Sister
Ali Smith, There But For The
Susan Fales-Hill, One Flight Up
Bridget Asher, The Provence Cure for the Brokenhearted
Sarah Rayner, One Moment, One Morning
Deborah Kay Davies, True Things About Me
Leah Hager Cohen, House Lights
Leah Hager Cohen, The Grief of Others
Evan Thomas and Mike Allen, Playbook 2012: The Right Fights Back
Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending
Justin Torres, We the Animals
Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus
David Bell, Cemetery Girl
Alison Espach, The Adults
Therese Fowler, Reunion
Alan Bennett, Smut
Deborah Reed, Carry Yourself Back to Me
John Rector, Already Gone
Helen DeWitt, Lightning Rods
Jose Saramago, Cain
David Bergen, The Matter with Morris
Elissa Schappell, Blueprints for Building Better Girls
Anne Enright, The Forgotten Waltz
Louise Penny, A Trick of Light
Denis Johnson, Train Dreams
Tom Franklin, Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter
Bonnie Nadzam, Lamb
Samantha Sotto, Before Ever After
Nicholas Sparks, The Best of Me
Jonathan Franzen, Freedom
Alexander Maksik, You Deserve Nothing
Lily Tuck, I Married you for Happiness
T. R. Ragan, Abducted
Charles Frazier, Nightwoods
Chad Harbach, The Art of Fielding
Mary Mcgarry Morris, Light from a Distant Star
Joan Didion, Blue Nights
Jeffrey Eugenides, The Marriage Plot
David Whitehouse, Bed
Patti Callahan Henry, Coming Up for Air
The right-wing claim that government spending under President Obama is "out of control" is, of course, sheer nonsense. Now, we have Forbes magazine and the Wall Street Journal, two bastions of conservative journalism, confirming that, in fact, spending by the federal government is growing at a slower rate than at any time in 60 years -- since Eisenhower! Two compelling charts:
Great, eh? You can get this on a tee-shirt here.
YES! The incredible true story of Mitt Romney strapping his dog to the roof of the car for a long roadtrip. Now available in book form.
Wait . . . what?
Now for the first time, here is the completely true—and only mildly embellished— shaggy-dog story of Seamus Romney, the famously fetching Irish setter whose master, future presidential candidate Mitt Romney, plopped him atop the family station wagon for that infamous 1983 car trip. From the majesty of Mount Rushmore to the fabulousness of San Francisco, from the sacred temple of Salt Lake City to the hallowed halls of Washington, D.C., here at last is Seamus’s rooftop account of that headline-grabbing journey . . . unleashed.
Doggedly chronicled by satirists Bruce Kluger and David Slavin (NPR’s All Things Considered), and cleverly illustrated by Colleen Clapp (The Chris Matthews Show, NBC News), this American tale is more than just the story of a dog on a hot tin roof. It is the inside (well . . . overhead) look at the Man Who Would Be President and the wild ride that’s sweeping—and bewildering—the nation.
Poor Mitt. He just can't shake this awful story. Not only has he had New York Times columnist Gail Collins bringing it up repeatedly over many months and videos that ridicule him over the incident, but now his mistreatment of his dog will be memorialized between the hard covers of a certain bestseller. I know I'll buy it.
You probably saw this item late last week: further proof that people in the hierarchy of the Catholic Church -- not just in Rome, but here in the U.S. -- are totally insane. The idiotic Catholic bishops are attacking the Girl Scouts of America for their support of organizations such as Doctors Without Borders, the Sierra Club, and Oxfam "because they support family planning or emergency contraception." Very scary, indeed.
I enjoyed Wonkette's take on the subject.
We should all support the Catholic bishops in this effort to protect us from the evil Girl Scouts. They are doing a good job of marginalizing the church out of existence. We can only hope.
Yes, the Republicans are always happy to make exceptions:
Source: M. Wuerker @ Politico
