Moving Along

I’m moving my writings about books over to here:

http://shazrasul.wordpress.com/category/books/

If you’ve got links, please update them.

Thanks!

Not keeping up with NYT 100 Notable Books

I always feel a little overwhelmed by the NYT 100 Notable Books list.

This year, I’ve read none of the 2011 Notable Books (although I did purchase “The Information” which made the list).

Looking back at the 2010 list it seems like I still am an Adam Dunne-esque 0-100.

On the 2009 list, I read Ishiguro’s “Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall” and Eggers “Zeitoun“.

2008:  Lahiri’s “Unaccustomed Earth“

2007:  Diaz “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao“,  Alex Ross “The Rest is Noise“.

I don’t think that I’m reading the wrong things, but perhaps I’m missing out on something important?  I’m thinking this is the year that I’ll coordinate my library checkouts with this 2011 list a bit… just to see what (if anything) I’ve been missing…

 

12/18/2011 Update:  I just finished DeLillo’s “Falling Man” which was on of these lists (2007 or 2008).  Progress!

Donating Books

Today’s crate full of books that I’m donating. Typically, I give books to Open Books or the Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference.

Today, I’m admitting that these beginning Russian books from the mid-90s aren’t going to be used again by me.

Books Read in 2010 – List

Here’s my list of Books that I read in 2010 (in reverse chron order). I’ll write separately about the most significant of these.

• The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World by Jacqueline Novogratz
• A Universal History of Iniquity by Borges
• The Fight by Norman Mailer
• Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth by Apostolos Doxiadis
• The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures by Dan Roam
• The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
• Dark Rain: A New Orleans Story by Mat Johnson
• RFK Funeral Train by Norman Mailer
• So Much Reform, So Little Change: The Persistence of Failure in Urban Schools by Charles Payne
• Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino
• The Infinity of Lists by Umberto Eco
• An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro
• Imperium by Ryszard Kapuscinski
• The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education by Diane Ravitch
• Talk of the Devil: Encounters with Seven Dictators by Riccardo Orizio
• Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns by Clayton Christensen
• The Secret History of the Mongol Queens: How the Daughters of Genghis Khan Rescued His Empire by Jack Weatherford
• This I Believe edited by Jay Allison
• Ways of Dying by Zakes Mda
• Pyongyang: A Journey In North Korea by Guy DeLisle
• To Teach: The Journey, In Comics by Bill Ayers
• Travels With Herodotus by Ryszard Kapuscinski
• American Apartheid by D. Massey
• The Road by Cormac McCarthy
• The Education of a British-Protected Child (Essays) by Chinua Achebe
• Disturbing the Peace by Vaclav Havel
• REWORK by Fried & Hannsson
• Nelson Mandela: A Life in Pictures by David Cohen
• “When the Game Was Ours” by Jackie MacMullan
• Building a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism by Muhammad Yunus
• The Ayatollah Begs to Differ: The Paradox of Modern Iran by Hooman Majd
• The Soccer War by Ryszard Kapuscinski
• Superman: Red Son by Mark Millar
• Twitterature by Aciman & Rensin
• The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche
• Footnotes In Gaza by Joe Sacco
• Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling by Ross King
• The Bicycle Diaries by David Byrne
• The Book of Basketball: The NBA According to the Sports Guy by Bill Simmons
• The Other Side of the River: A Story of Two Towns, A Death, and America’s Dilemma by Alex Kotlowitz
• A View From Above by Wilt Chamberlain

Booklog: April 2010 (American Apartheid)

In the spirit of completeness, let me look back to April of this year…

The only book I read was Massey’s classic “American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass” which looked at the scale, mechanisms, and destructive effects of racial segregation in the American context.  Over the years, I’ve been shocked by how many people assume that the social & economic effects of  segregation are limited (they jump to this conclusion that there’s no difference between the enforced separation created by rigid structural boundaries that have pervasive effects and the discrete choices that individuals make to associate with persons with whom they share common traits).  While the idea isn’t in any way counter-intuitive to me, it is nevertheless nice to read a strong explanation of the mechanisms used to preserve segregation and how the cumulative effects have created structural problems in our society that will require significant attention long after our society overcomes its affinity for racial prejudice.

I’m going to try to read some of Massey’s later work to see how he addresses what I’d term the “reshuffling” of the segregated deck that has been brought on by gentrification, and also the remarkable escalation of the consolidation of wealth that we’ve seen in the past decade.

Jhumpa Lahiri @ UCHICAGO (May 2010)

I saw Jhumpa Lahiri read from (and talk about) Unaccustomed Earth in May at the University of Chicago.

I’ve heard Lahiri talk three times now, after each of her major works, and have to say that my appreciation for her has shifted.

At first, I was intrigued by the novelty of the identities that she explored and her ability to convey a scene of emotion. What impressed me most about her latest work “Unaccustomed Earth” though, was her ability to intertwine the various short stories both directly through characters and indirectly through themes.

The more I think about Unaccustomed Earth the more I want to recommend it (and reread some of the stories).

My March 2010 In Books

Here’s what March 2010 looked like for me reading-wise:

• Jackie McMullen w/ Larry Bird & Magic Johnson “When the Game was Ours” : I’m a sucker for 80s hoops stories. The sports media reported on all the big “reveals” before the book was released, but the stories were still engaging. It turns out I didn’t know as much about Larry Bird as I thought I did!
• David Cohen “Nelson Mandela A Life in Pictures” : Nice general history of South Africa & Mandela, with excellent photographs and excerpts of speeches.
• Fried & Hannsson (of 37signals.com) “REWORK” : I don’t read many of these web2.0-style business books, but the hype around REWORK (and the interestingness of 37Signals) made me give this one a try.  It’s a little too slogan-y (but that might just be the genre), but they give anyone who’s trying to run a small organization some ideas and ways to think about priorities.
• Vaclav Havel “Disturbing the Peace” : Probably read this out of order, should have read a solid “standard” biography first.  Havel fascinates me.
• Chinua Achebe “The Education of a British-Protected Child” : The essays/speeches are a little uneven, until Achebe starts talking about Joseph Conrad’s “the Heart of Darkness” and it’s legacy.  Worth reading those if you are interested in the post-colonial interplay between the West & Africa (you’ll probably learn something about Biafra along the way).
• Cormac McCarthy “The Road” : An artful modern classic worthy of acclaim.  I started reading this in the Winter, but had to put it down until the Spring.  It’s too bleak a story to read when your own personal environment feels bleak, but when the sun comes out, you can appreciate McCarthy’s triumph.

Kenzaburo Oe @uchicago 3/4/2010

Kenzaburo Oe @uchicago 3/4/2010

Originally uploaded by shazmosis

My first Literary Event of the Year (?) was seeing the incomparable Kenzaburo Oe speak at the University of Chicago earlier this week.

I’ve read a few books by Oe in the past few years: “A Personal Matter”, “Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness”, “Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids”, and “Hiroshima Notes”. A Personal Matter and Teach Us to Outgrow our Madness were particularly thought-provoking.

My February 2010 in Books

My February 2010 in Books

• “The Thing Around Your Neck” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche
• “Superman: Red Son” by Mark Millar
• “Twitterature” by A. Aciman and E. Rensin
• “The Soccer War” by Ryszard Kapuscinski
• “The Ayatollah Begs to Differ: The Paradox of Modern Iran” By Majd Hooman
• “Creating a World Without Poverty” by Muhammad Yunus

More of writeup sometime soon…

My January 2010 in Books

Haphazard Notes on Reading Books from January 2010

Books A View from Above by Wilt Chamberlain The Other Side of the River by Alex Kotlowitz The Book of Basketball By Bill Simmons The Bicycle Diaries by David Byrne Michelangelo & the Pope’s Ceiling by Ross King Notes from Gaza by Joe Sacco

Events New Year’s Eve / Day “Project Project” Haiti Earthquake MLK Day USA Politics – MA Election / State of the Union Apple Tablet (iPad)