So I was trying to read more books this year. It has kind of been happening. I've noticed that while I still read fantasy, young-adult and children's literature when I want a quick book fix, some of the most satisfying things I've read this year are what I consider "grown-up" novels and non-fiction.
- Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell
I wouldn't call Outliers brilliant non-fiction writing but Malcolm Gladwell is a journalist by trade, so it's interesting and easy to read. Outliers is about success and how it happens. Gladwell's main thesis challenges the idea of a meritocracy, instead claiming that success is a combination of being in the right place in the right time and working hard. It's a thought-provoking read, and seemed especially apt during this LVC year because we're all about dissecting privilege and discovering the root causes of things like poverty and success.
I've also read Blink, by the same author and it has confirmed my suspicion that his books are all similar in tone and content. I'd say you'd only need to read one to really enjoy. Because Outliers is about success, I found it more interesting than Blink. However, if you're more into decision-making and psychology, Blink might be the better recommendation.
- Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World, Tracy Kidder
Everyone should read this book, for a variety of reasons. For me, I learned more about Haiti, public health and grassroots change through this book than any college class could teach in the same amount of time and pages. In addition, simply reading about the issues, I started to care about world health and the situation in Haiti (this was before the earthquake), which was a personal change for me. But most importantly, Mountains Beyond Mountains showed me both the variety and complexity of problems facing the world (tuberculosis in Haiti and Chile, who knew?) but also the change that can occur when one person bends their will to a very specific task. An enlightening and empowering read.
- Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
I could not tell you plot details of this novel or exactly why I remember it as being so good. But it was. It's a slightly dark, cob-webby kind of novel, taking its cue from its namesake--a book named "Shadow of the Wind" within the story. (At work today I learned that there's a word for titles-related-to-contents-of-book--eponymous. But I still don't know enough about the word to use it casually in writing. /tangent) The story is a heady rush through the back streets of Spain, hidden libraries and ghostly mansions; my highest praise is that it evokes my memories of Spain, only with a fantastic magical lens, and it is glorious.
- The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
I'm tempted to compare this to Shadow of the Wind because a) it is not an American novel in style, setting or author, b) I read it really quickly and c) it has the same atmospheric, evocative quality of Shadow of the Wind, firmly established in a place as part of the story.
However, I read The God of Small Things more recently, so I can also say that Arundhati Roy is a master storyteller, cleverly revealing the plot in bits and pieces as she simultaneously paints a portrait of a family and a place. The language and imagery is fantastic, perfectly suited to the Indian setting.
- Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky
It took me at least two months to finish this book, mostly because Dostoevksy is all-too-brilliant at putting the reader inside the mind of an insane man and I couldn't read more than a couple of chapters without needing to rest my head. I also needed to remind myself that one does not read Dostoevsky novels for plot--they're all about character and ideas. Once I'd spent a couple of weeks slogging through those two parts of the Russian-novel-reading training regime, I breezed through the end in a week or so.
Dostoevsky, how do I love/hate thee? Let me count the ways. I'm pretty sure I would never read him if he wasn't considered a "classic" author. I also probably wouldn't get as much out of his novels if I wasn't deliberately looking for depth. But because it *is* Dostoevsky and I *am* looking for profundity, I thought Crime and Punishment was brilliant. His characters are incredibly real. You may have to wade through a swamp of words to get there, but Raskolnikov is REAL, from head to toe, crazy actions and crazy thoughts. Dostoevsky also deals with some heavy stuff in Crime and Punishment--you know, murder, alcoholism, prostitution, rape, the usual--and because the characters are so real, I was completely in sympathy with them. Then there's the actual political and religious ideas that Dostoevsky plugs into the mouths of his characters--questions of utility, order, and forgiveness. I'll need to read Crime and Punishment again to get a handle on what he was trying to say there.
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