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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!

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

• 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

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.

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).

• 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.

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.

• “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…

New Year’s Eve is my least favorite holiday by a fair margin.  I don’t have any rational reason for disliking the day, but, nevertheless, I do.  The past few years I’ve retreated from it, opting for a quiet solitude rather than all the noise.  Being neither a malcontent nor a sociopath, I’m as perplexed by all this as you are!

So, when I found a copy of “A View from Above” by noted malcontent Wilt Chamberlain in the “free” box outside of Powell’s Books on New Year’s Day, I knew that I had to read it!  Chamberlain, the famous basketball player, had authored (or authorized) several biographies after his playing career had ended.  “A View…” (1992) had gained some notoriety for being the vehicle for his assertion that he had had sex with at least 20,000 women during his life, his preference for short asian women (who purportedly viewed him as sexual challenge), as well as for his commentary on the contemporary NBA.  The book itself was expectedly uneven, even by the standards of sports autobiographies, and revealed an almost stereotypical machismo that screamed “overcompensation”.

Chamberlain was the most physically dominating player in the NBA for most of his career, to the extent that the league changed its own rules to limit his impact on the game, but he never enjoyed the team success (or the personal adoration) of his rivals.  The Chamberlain that comes across in “A View…” is so defensive about this that it overwhelms all of his writing about his playing career.  The contrast between the bitterness about his NBA days and his joy for his days with the Harlem Globetrotters or his involvement with the new Pro Volleyball league is stark.  I’d feel bad for Chamberlain, the unappreciated giant, but he reportedly got his satisfaction(s) along the way.

Chamberlain’s “woe is me” routine was being read in the background during the first week of January, while I was writing a serious piece for a project (a classic “low probability / high impact” effort, which you’ll hear about in April if anything comes from it).  It seems to have been a good match, as Chamberlain’s story served as a cautionary tale about how not to take your failures to heart and diminish your successes.

Next, I finally got around to reading “The Other Side of the River” by the incomparable Alex Kotlowitz.  From a purely “quality of writing” standpoint, I admire Kotlowitz. There were passages in “Other Side of the River” that I’d go back to afterwards and say to myself “how on earth did he think to tell this story in this way?”.  The story itself, an account of the circumstances and history around an unsolved death, touched deftly upon the open sore that is (still) the state of race relations in this country.   I feel bad giving the details of the story such scant mention, but still heartily recommend “Other Side of the River” to anyone who wants to read a masterfully done, nuanced, and fair look at how these issues play out in the real world.  Journalistic literature of the highest order.  I’ve got Kotlowitz’s “There are No Children Here” on my “NEXT” shelf and am looking forward to reading it in the Spring.

I grew up reading NBA biographies, so I jumped at the chance to get Bill Simmons’ 700 page “the Book of Basketball” on swaptree.com in exchange for a CD.  Simmons epitomizes the brashness of internet writing, and he makes no concessions to printed page.  While Simmons’ gimmicks and homerism (as a kid he had season tickets to 80s Celtics games) can grate at times, you’re almost buoyed along by his rampant enthusiasm for the game.  I enjoy reading his internet columns, and the big book of Basketball functioned as a colossal monument to those columns.   At 700 pages, it enforces its insistence that you be a serious fan to begin with.  It’s not for me here to question the details of Simmons’ gimmicks (“The Secret”, “The Pantheon”, his rankings of the all-time greats, etcetera), but simply to say that there is clearly enough to keep a serious fan entertained.

I had an opportunity to hear Professor Harris-Lacewell give the University of Chicago’s Annual MLK day address in the immediate aftermath of the terrible earthquake off the coast of Haiti.   Her speech, starting off with Haiti (and Pat Robertson) essentially reminded us that MLK was a pragmatic tactician that was often attacked by his left (not unlike President Obama), then took an interesting turn to remind us that there is a role for faith in the public discourse.  The quality of her address has me starting to read her articles at The Nation.  The earthquake off the coast of Haiti brought forth some of the best that is within people, but now as the immediacy of it recedes, we start seeing the full range of reactions, including what you could only term as the misanthropic backlash.  I hope the sum total of the response to this disaster remains positive.

I read Ross King’s “Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling“ and David Byrne’s “The Bicycle Diaries” alternately.   Byrne doubtlessly lost out in the comparison, so I’m hesitant to be too harsh in my treatment of the Bicycle Diaries.  It wasn’t bad in any way, it simply wasn’t engrossing.  Byrne’s writing here is almost more webloggish than literature, it possesses the unevenness of the mundane interspersed with a handful of epiphanous realizations… none of which are necessarily going anywhere. He’s interesting, and has an entirely unique perspective, but the Bicycle’s Diaries simply isn’t worth running out to read.  It’s not this year’s “Chronicles, V1“.   Ross King’s “Michelangelo….” though, assuming your interests include medieval history, art history, or biography, is worth running out to read.  I read Brunelleschi’s Dome a few years ago and was impressed by the seemlessness of the connections between the history, art, and architecture.  “Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling” is more character-driven (Michelangelo, the Pope, Raphael) than Brunelleschi’s dome, but that only amplifies King’s ability to expose the richness of the stories.

Apple’s Tablet announcement (the very cool but unfortunately named iPad) could have ramifications for how we read books. As a books person, I’m not really inclined to believe that we’ll really ever see the “end of books”.  As an educator, I’d like to see some textbooks (and most textbook policies) go the way of the dodo, and have hoped for some technological innovation that would bring us closer to one to one computing in schools (so that technology does not remain another one of society’s uneven playing fields).  Finally, as a gadget enthusiast, I’m always intrigued by the next leap forward.   I liked the first look at the tablet, and am looking forward to seeing how well it works when it is released.

Finally, Joe Sacco’s graphic novel “Footnotes in Gaza“ demonstrates yet again how powerful the medium of graphic novels has become.   It’s a well told story that educates about history and exposes you to unpopular points of view.