American Gods by Neil Gaiman

I watched a graduation speech that Neil Gaiman gave this year, which left me wanting to read some of his writing. I have never read a book like this one, and it amazes me that Gaiman was able to think up such an intricate and ultimately fulfilling plot. He takes as an underlying assumption that individuals brought their gods with them when they came to America. These immigrants then forgot about their gods, leaving them on the fringes of society, trying to survive on whatever scraps of belief they can get. Odin is a swindler; the Egyptian gods run a funeral parlor in Cairo, Illinois; djinns drive taxis in New York. When these old gods come up against the new American gods, such as television and interstates, an ex-prisoner named Shadow gets caught up in the drama.

This book is certainly good art.

Love Story by Erich Segal

I finished this book in an afternoon, and it is exactly what the title says. I hope my love story has a happier ending.

In the Woods by Tana French

I'm a bit late jumping on the Tana French bandwagon, but, man, I'm glad I finally caught up. My best friend lent me this book about 8 months ago, and it has been sitting next to my bed just waiting for me to finish my graduate program and have time for it. I do not usually read mystery novels, but French's twisting, psychological work kept me entertained from the beginning. Read it, pay attention to the details, and prepare to be enthralled.

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

I guess most people read The House on Mango Street in high school, but I did not pick it up until a trip to Nashville a couple of months ago. I had brought along a thrilling (read: dense and boring) book for one of my seminars and found that, unsurprisingly, it was more fun to read Cisneros. She gives the reader a chance to look at the world from the perspective of a Chicana girl. In the process, she writes about difficult topics while also managing to show that despite her narrator's desire to leave Mango Street, there is an element of beauty there. She can never really leave, no matter how much she may try.

The book got me thinking about living in Memphis. There are definitely problems to this city, but there is a certain beauty that is also unique to this place. I see it when I walk around my neighborhood at twilight and when I sit with friends on patios. It sneaks in the cracks on the sidewalks and the way people smile when you pass by. It is a place you can leave, but not without leaving a bit of yourself behind. I get the sense that my roots are here.

When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka

I remember being in sixth grade when I happened to read a fictional book about an interned Japanese-American girl. It was the first time that I learned about Japanese internment during World War II. It wasn't until high school that I learned much more about it, and even then, it was not a topic that we talked about in much detail. It still amazes me that there are people who never talk about these events in school or have no idea that this chapter of our nation's history even happened.

Otsuka writes beautiful fiction about one of the darkest and most blatantly undemocratic actions in our country's recent past. It is a good reminder that we should always remember where we as a nation have been. The photo is of chains of origami cranes at the 9/11 memorial in NYC.

My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok

I read this book on my honeymoon in Costa Rica, so my memories of it are a bit obstructed by thoughts of zip lining and sitting on the beach.

Like Potok's other novels, this one gripped me from the beginning and did not let go. My heart broke for Asher like it did for Danny two years ago. If you have never read Potok, do it now; you won't regret it.

On The Beach by Nevil Shute

This book was delivered to my work mailbox after my boss thoughtful acquired it for me. We were talking about scifi books, and I mentioned that I had never heard of this one when it came up. It deals with how humans might handle knowing that they would certainly die from the fallout of a nuclear world war. It is incredible and most definitely a product of the late 1950s. So good on so many levels.

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

I read this for my Atlantic World seminar as an example of literature that can illuminate the complexities of the Atlantic world and its multidirectional networks of exchange. Additionally, it gives a lot of insight into the economic thought of the period. Also, it freaking rocked to read some literature for a graduate seminar. Novels, I have missed you.

In the United States of Africa by Abdourahman A. Waberi

In thinking back over the books that I have read, I realized that I have a predictable tendency to gravitate towards American and English authors. Due to this revelation, I decided that I needed to broaden my literary choices. I have no idea how I discovered Waberi's book since Djiboutian authors are not normally on my radar, but I decided that reading fiction written from an African perspective could only be a positive thing.

This work is essentially a thought experiment. What would happen if Africa had been the colonizer instead of the colonized? It is the most complex 80 page book I have ever read.

Waiting by Ha Jin

I had been wanting to read something else by Ha Jin since I read The Bridegroom in my freshman Intro to World Lit class. ("After Cowboy Chicken Came to Town" is still one of my favorite short stories.) He tells the story of a man who married a good women that he can only see for a few weeks every year because of his job as a medical officer. Over the years, he falls in love with a nurse at his base and tries to work up the courage to ask for a divorce. The years of waiting and what it does to each of the characters makes for a compelling story.

Bicycles are part of the story; it's not that much of a stretch.

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie

Sijie writes a fictionalized account of two boys sent to the country to be "reeducated" during China's Cultural Revolution. They end up in possession of several illegal foreign novels, which become crucial to their mission to educate the Little Seamstress. It's a good read, and I'd rather not give any more of the plot away.

Brida: A Novel by Paulo Coelho

""Magic is a bridge," he said at last, "a bridge that allows you to walk from the visible world over into the invisible world, and to learn the lessons of both those worlds."
"And how do I learn to cross that bridge?"
"By discovering your own way of crossing it. Everyone has their own way.""

My way is going into lovely and deep woods and making myself feel small in the best possible way.

Cloudsplitter: A Novel by Russell Banks

I read this book last June so the details are getting a little fuzzy, but I will say that it was one of the best historical fiction books I have read. The author does a remarkable job of giving you a sense of what it might have been like to be living in the antebellum Adirondacks and Kansas. It's roughly the size of a dictionary, but I would recommend it nonetheless.

Grimm's Fairy Tales by J.L.C. & W.C. Grimm

I suppose it was not completely accurate to include this book in the picture for How to Talk about Books You Haven't Read since I was actually reading it at the time. Some of the stories in this collection were ones I knew well, like Hansel and Gretel, but most were ones that I had never encountered. The last one in the book, Peter the Goatherd, was freakishly similar to Rip Van Winkle. Also, there were a disproportionate number of stories about cats.

Now I feel like I need to go find some Hans Christian Anderson.

Interview with the Vampire by Ann Rice

Let me start by saying that I did not take this picture (I was 5 at the time), but it is my absolute favorite one of Cameron and Ryan.

It was nice to go back to a day when vampires did not glitter in the sunlight or get slayed by supernatural teenage girls (not that I have not enjoyed both of those contemporary vampire twists). Reading Rice's novel, it was easy to see where all the modern vampire hype got its start. Thanks to Chase for the loan.

Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver

I could not fall asleep the other night so I took the time to finish this book, which happens to have been sitting by my bed 2/3rds of the way read since August. To be honest, it is not Kingsolver at her best. Pigs in Heaven is the sequel to Bean Trees, which I read on the plane to Brazil a year and a half ago. The story seemed solid at first, but the ending felt forced, like it was not really what the characters wanted to do. Maybe Turtle and Taylor should never have left Arizona in the first place.

Part of the reason I like reading Kingsolver's books is because I distinctly remember the people who suggested I read them and who I passed the books off to in turn. I grabbed The Poisonwood Bible from a friend's apartment three summers ago and read it in 36 hours because I could not put it down. This summer I found a copy of it at the library used book sale and bought it for a quarter to give to my grandmother. A camp counselor told me to read Bean Trees when I was 15, but I didn't pick it up until I saw it at a used book store a week before I left for Brazil. I left my copy in Brazil with Rahel, the German Ph.d candidate we helped with field research, because she wanted something to read that was in English. I read Animal Dreams last year on the way to California with my mom. I gave it to her when I was finished. She liked it so much that she bought Pigs in Heaven and then passed it along to me. Last April, I walked into an apartment to see a friend reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle for a final paper. I mentioned that I would like to read it, and she told me to come back in two days and she would give it to me.

When I think about the cycle of getting and giving Kingsolver's books, I am reminded of the very different people in my life. Some are still a presence; others I have not talked to in years. Regardless, it makes me think about the network to which I belong when I realize how a suggestion from a counselor at Camp Marymount led to a book being given to a German student living in Brazil six years later. It is just one of those things that makes me pause.

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin Abbott

I found this book in the $1 section at Borders four years ago. I read half of it then and picked it up again a month ago. I like reading before I fall asleep at night, but I am in no way alert enough at that point in the day to do (more) school reading. Thus, I needed something I could read 2 pages of at a time and not feel compelled to finish in a timely manner. Hence, the book I started four years ago. If I liked and/or understood geometry this book probably would have held my attention better given that it is basically a mathematical thought experiment. Although, looking through the lens of all the feminist theory I've been studying, the book is an intriguing take on women's role in British society circa 1884. Interesting that women can never be any shape other than a straight line and should be educated so they can be controlled.

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

I really like dystopia novels, especially when they are imbued with a healthy dose of satire. Atwood seems to be asking what happens when people keep trying to outdo nature and turn a handsome profit in the meantime. For every spliced gene and animal re-combination, the consequences cause more problems that keep the cycle circling closer to a fully unstable point. Do not get me wrong, I think scientific inquiry and invention are wonderful and have an incredible amount of potential. Still, I cannot help but think that at some point humans may go too far and be unprepared for the fallout.

"Why is it he feels some line has been crossed, some boundary transgressed? How much is too much, how far is too far."

The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon

Weird book.

The Postman by Antonio Skármeta

One of my favorite things to do is to let a book choose me. I aimlessly wander the stacks at the library and judge books solely on their covers or titles. I skim the back and then let myself make a snap judgment: to read or not to read. Of course this method has varying success. It has led me to some of my all-time favorite reads (such as The Scarlet Pimpernel) and to some that have been so unbearable that I stop reading halfway through. I rarely pick books in this manner since I always have a long mental list things I want to read. But on those weeks when every day feels like the one before, a bit of spontaneity in the form of reading is the quickest way to fix the problem. The Postman is simple; just the kind of book I needed.