Books of 2008

My favorites are, in the order they were read:

  • The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan — Never as good as The Omnivore’s Dilemma (his follow-up, which I actually read first, in 2007), and I don’t think Pollan quite proves his central thesis, but the book is never dull, full of valuable insights and interesting facts.
  • The Terror by Dan Simmons — A book I was genuinely sorry to put down when I was finished. Which, given the length, is saying something. Easily the scariest book I read all year.
  • Spaceman Blues by Brian Franics SlatteryMatt Cheney called it “songs of all sorts, entire arias and symphonies, and it sings visions, and the visions are both full and fulfilling…” He ain’t wrong, that’s for sure.
  • Logorrhea edited by John Klima — I have never really understood the mass appeal of spelling bees. I remember participating in one or two back in grade school, but the recent fascination with what’s essentially just a trick of good memory has me a little dumbfounded. Maybe I need to get around to finally watching Spellbound on DVD. I was skeptical of John Klima’s anthology — each story inspired by a winning word in the Scripps National Spelling Bee — but the stories speak for themselves. Most are fantasy or science fiction — not surprising given Klima’s background — and almost without exception excellent.
  • The Yiddish Policeman’s Union by Michael Chabon — I don’t think Chabon’s disappointed me yet with one of his novels. His short stories and novellas are sometimes a tougher sell, but he’s in top form here.
  • Grey by Jon Armstrong — Delightfully weird.
  • Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman — This could have easily been a one-joke book. Many of the real-world superhero stories we’ve seen since Watchmen have been. But Grossman’s novel is by turns both funny and touching.
  • The Trouble with Poetry by Billy Collins — Outside of Kaleidotrope submissions, I don’t read enough poetry. I’m really glad I picked Collins’ book as my first step in remedying that.
  • Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee — Makes me wonder why I’ve not read more of his books. I wonder if I still have my copy of Waiting for the Barbarians lying around anywhere…
  • The King’s Last Song by Geoff Ryman — A sweeping story of Cambodia’s ancient (and more recent) past. I’m particularly glad I picked up the Small Beer Press edition, which includes Ryman’s sources and notes on where his story by necessity diverged from historical fact.

And the biggest disappointments of the year:

  • A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole — Ultimately, I think it’s just too dated to still be really funny.
  • Wanted by Mark Millar et al. — Misognyistic and at least borderline racist, it’s little more than a repellent power fantasy that ruins what could have been an interesting “what if we killed off all the superheroes?” story. I didn’t much like the movie either.
  • You Don’t Love Me Yet by Jonathan Lethem — Ultimately a lousy book by a terrific writer; “lesser Lethem” might be the most charitable description. But as Donna Bowman wrote for the AV Club, “The man [was] due for a letdown.”
  • Crooked Little Vein by Warren Ellis — A little like watered-down, or warmed-over, Ellis. It’s not awful, but I didn’t see anything in it to suggest Ellis has a career as a prose novelist. It’s a story that might have worked considerably better on the comics page. (I also wasn’t too impressed with his graphic novel Blackgas, though.)
  • A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle — I think if I’d read this growing up, it might be a cherished childhood classic. Then again, maybe not. It was a quick read, but I’m not in any rush to read the remaining books in L’Engle’s quartet.
  • Farthing by Jo Walton — Likable characters and a quick read — I read this on the plane ride to LA in August — it’s only up here because its alternate-universe premise is pretty shallow, and the whole thing sort of falls apart in the end.
  • Man in the Dark by Paul Auster — For a novelist who used to be among my very favorites, Auster’s had a whole lot of disappointments lately. This reads as very slight, barely qualifying as a story (much less a short novel), and it makes pine for earlier (much better) Auster novels. The so-called political twist, like so much else in the book, is barely examined. I don’t know what’s a more worrisome thought: that he just isn’t trying anymore…or that he is, and this is the result.

2 thoughts on “Books of 2008

  1. Hmm, of your ‘best of” list, I’ve only read The Yiddish Policeman’s Union and Soon I Will Be Invincible, but I agree that they were both really good. The latter, in particular, charmed me a lot.

    A Wrinkle in Time was definitely a cherished childhood classic for me. I got a copy when I was 9 or so, and re-read it until the cover fell off. It may be one of those books you really do need to encounter in childhood.

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