50 Books In 2014 Year-End Recap

Today is December 29, and I am approximately one-third of the way through my thirty-first book of the year, and I probably won't finish by Wednesday. I have read a grand total of 30 books for the year 2014. Of course, my goal was 50, and I would be disappointed, but someone tweeted me this yesterday:

When I started this reading challenge, I knew that 50 books in one year was a lofty goal. Fifty was always kind of an arbitrary number. I knew it wouldn't bother me very much if I didn't finish, as long as I stuck with it throughout the entire year—and that I did. Even though some months passed in which I finished only one or two books, I never went anywhere without a paperback in my purse or a digital copy of something on iBooks. I seriously read a lot of great books this year, and it has been my most fruitful New Year's resolution to date by far.

My biggest realization is that to truly enjoy a book, you've got to take your time, and you've got to read it more than once. I didn't do either one of these things this year, in the interest of completing my goal. Even though 2014 is ending, the challenge isn't (especially since my friend/blogger maven Tyece so graciously included me in her list of 50 Blogs To Take Into 2015—check it out!). 50 Books In 2014 will remain a space where I document and review all the fantastic literature I consume, and hopefully inspire others to read some of the same titles (or any titles, really). Here are some graphs.

Weren't those cute? Special shout outs to: Paolo Coelho for writing the best book I read all year (The Alchemist); Kevin Kunitake for lending me several of these books and being a great literary conversationalist; Amazon for making it possible for me to order books for as low as $0.01 plus S&H; Tyece Wilkins for reading and supporting the blog via Twenties Unscripted; my online pal Courtney for appreciating the blog and being a fellow bookworm; and to everyone who supports my reading habit in one way or another. See you next year!

Book 30: Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller

Title: Tropic of Cancer
Author: Henry Miller
Length: 318 pages
Year Written: 1934
Why I chose this book: A tattered, almost obliterated copy of this book was lent to me by my friend Kevin. I took it, but bought a copy on iBooks for ease of reading.

This was not a bad book, but it was a bad choice. As you can see, it has been a MONTH since I last finished a book, and it's December. This means that I have less than a month to read 20 more books. Fortunately for me, this is one of those challenges that you can still feel good about regardless of the outcome (kind of like running a marathon for charity or something like that). Plus, some people won't read 30 books in 30 years. Hmm. Anyway, I say this book was a bad choice because it certainly would be more enjoyable sans a hovering timeline. It is a book that provides profoundly meaningful tidbits, about life and the human condition, but not necessarily a quick and easily digested storyline.

Tropic of Cancer is one of those books I've always known of (perhaps initially through an episode of Seinfeld) but had no clue about its content. The only thing I knew, just prior to starting, was that it was initially banned, which is not a concept my modern mind can necessarily grasp. It turns out that Tropic of Cancer is a surly, kind of depressing, half-fiction account of author Henry Miller's nomadic life in Paris as a struggling writer. The novel is chock-full of dirt, both sexually and hygienically. Life for Henry Miller between 1930 and 1934 was apparently laden with lice, starvation, and whores. I later learned that he based many of his characters on people he knew in real life, including beastly poetic writer Anais Nin (who I read earlier this year, and now realize was probably writing about cheating on her husband with Miller). They apparently had quite the passionate affair that many speculate to have crystallized in his character "Tania":

"I am fucking you, Tania, so that you'll stay fucked. And if you are afraid of being fucked publicly I will fuck you privately. I will tear off a few hairs from your cunt and paste them on Boris' chin. I will bite into your clitoris and spit out two franc pieces..."

More than the actual novel itself, I am fascinated with the circumstances that led to the novel's creation. I am blown away by the inspiration that two awesomely nasty writers shone onto one another in the nude and then onto paper. I'm also fascinated with the feeling of being a fly on the wall of some unintentional bigot's dilapidated Parisian quarters in the 1930s. The novel can be quite graphic, but honestly contains nothing more offensive than life itself. It has been heralded as the literary work that paved the way for our current freedom of expression in fiction. For that, especially, I am grateful.

Rating: 8.3/10

Book 29: The Giver by Lois Lowry

Title: The Giver
Author: Lois Lowry
Length: 225 pages
Year Written: 1993
Why I chose this book: Like the last book, this one was recommended to me by my friend Kevin (which means it will be a great, meaningful book that I absolutely love).

Long after Brave New World, but years before The Hunger Games trilogy, Lois Lowry wrote this brilliant, powerful, yet simple story about many of the same dystopian visions that seem to recur throughout popular literature. The Giver is a kid's book, but relevant to all ages. For those unfamiliar with Aldous Huxley's masterpiece Brave New World, it is about a society where babies are bred for particular careers, and everyone is too doped up on a drug called "soma" to ever consider the bigger picture, or even the existence of one. People are generally more familiar with The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, in which kids aged 12 through 18 are entered into an annual drawing where boy and one girl are selected from each of the 12 districts to fight in an arena (though more like a complete ecosystem) until one survivor remains. The Giver is not as complex as Brave, nor as violent as Hunger, but much more moving than either.

The main character, Jonas, is a young boy who lives in a community where everything is rigid and controlled. Births are regulated to 50 per year, and each "newchild" is closely monitored so that on their twelfth birthday (which occurs as a mass ceremony every December) they can receive a job assignment from the community's elders, for which they immediately start their training. Though many kids already know what they will be assigned, because of their expressed interests and hobbies, Jonas has no idea what he will get. So, of course, he gets assigned a mystical, prestigious, but super mysterious and scary job: Receiver of Memory. Essentially, his job is to hold all the memories of the world so that everyone else doesn't have to. This turns out to be, like, the biggest gift/curse combo you could ever imagine.

Jonas goes through about a year of very painful self-discovery and newfound awareness, which all culminates in a simple, slightly unfinished ending. Lowry's reserved, elegant style of writing definitely add to the pleasure of reading this story. Moreover, it gives us highly relevant but perhaps uncomfortable food for thought.

Rating: 9.7/10

Book 28: The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield

Title: The Celestine Prophecy
Author: James Redfield
Length: 246 pages
Year Written: 1993
Why I chose this book: This was lent to me under high recommendation from my young Henry Miller-Murakami, better known as my friend Kevin.

In all caps, the back cover of this book boasts: "A BOOK THAT COMES ALONG ONCE IN A LIFETIME TO CHANGE LIVES FOREVER." This might seem a bit corny or pretentious (corntentious), but after finishing this very spiritual novel, I can't say it is inaccurate. This book is similar in content and attitude to others I have read (Siddhartha, The Alchemist), but delivered in a way that is more modern, much more specific, and perhaps more relevant.

The narrator of The Celestine Prophecy never goes into much detail about himself, his life, or even his appearance. Now that I think about it, I'm not sure he ever gives his name, either (though if I missed that completely, I'll feel pretty foolish). The first chapter throws the reader into a dinner with a longtime, rarely-seen woman/friend, where the narrator is informed about a secret, widely-debated Manuscript circulating in Peru. This Manuscript deals with our understanding of ourselves, our purpose on Earth, and what we must do to achieve enlightenment and move towards our destinies. It all sounds cheesy, but I swear, it's not.

The rest of the book follows the narrator as he discovers the different Insights of the Manuscript one by one as he voyages the jungles of Peru, now made dangerous by government officials and police seeking to prohibit dissemination of the document. The Insights are the heart of The Celestine Prophecy, because they actually make sense, and answer a lot of the questions that we have, and ones that we forgot we should have. The Insights discuss things from the proper way to interact with children, to the importance of speaking with every person you make eye contact with. And, of course, the book's content heralds highly the meaning of coincidences. This is the first thing we've got to start paying attention to, if we ever hope to (Andre 3000 voice) vibrate higherrrrrr, and evolve into really kick-ass super-sentient beings.

This book was very interesting, though a bit lacking in the creative style of the language. Every character seems to speak the same way, and deliver information on-time and in full as the plot progresses. I have a sneaking suspicion that before writing this story, James Redfield wrote (or stumbled upon some version of) the Manuscript in question. Nevertheless, it's worth reading, though it may take a while. Redfield packs each sentence with need-to-knows. It's no lazy read.

Rating: 8.8/10

Book 27: Not That Kind of Girl by Lena Dunham

Title: Not That Kind of Girl
Author: Lena Dunham
Length: 262 pages
Year Written: 2014
Why I chose this book: I am a huge fan of Dunham's HBO television series GIRLS. I've always been curious to read the memoirs Hannah is working on in the show, and I imagine that this book is essentially it.

Not That Kind of Girl is only the second non-fiction book I have read this year. However, after reading Lena Dunham blather about her self-centered, vaguely unstable, privileged, prosciutto-eating childhood, and her colorful adult life (that runs virtually parallel to that of the character she plays on GIRLS), you wonder just how reliable of a narrator she really is. At one point in the book, Dunham actually says "I am an unreliable narrator," before proceeding to explain how she retells details about other people's lives as if they were her own—before she even realizes she is lying.

Remember when Hannah's literary agent read her work and asked, "Where's the pudgy face slick with semen and sadness?" It's here, in NTKOG. There's a lot more, though. Behind the pudgy face is what is and always has been a brilliant mind (something Dunham both knows about herself and proves simultaneously). It's clear that Dunham has no qualms about looking or sounding like a jackass, and frequently redeems herself with her special brand of intelligence and wit.

One particularly high point in NTKOG. 

This book reads less like a how-to manual and more like a how-never-to. Never let someone continuously fuck you and fuck with you. Never forget that we are all destined to die. Never underestimate the audacity and spite of a pre-pubescent daughter of crunchy granola types in Brooklyn. Dunham is a piece of work. And she's transformed her life into a pretty entertaining and cleverly written piece of work.

She is morbid, the physical embodiment of the acronym TMI, and her self-deprecating style is as much charming as it is pathetic. I think the moral of the Dunham story is that she doesn't give a fuck. But she really, really does. She wants to make it, to be heard, to have her experiences documented and digested by the new generation. She reminds me that everyone is crazy and unstable. But if you can write about it intelligently and make others laugh while doing so, you've hit the sweet spot. We can't take ourselves so seriously, and it's good to know that Lena is true to her attention-seeking brat of an inner child.

Rating: 8.5/10

Book 26: The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut

Title: The Sirens of Titan
Author: Kurt Vonnegut
Length: 319 pages
Year Written: 1959
Why I chose this book: I really liked Cat's Cradle and dig Kurt Vonnegut as a human (RIP).

I hate to admit that this is a science fiction novel, but it really is. Most of the plot revolves around space and time travel, and a Martian invasion on Earth. But it really doesn't read as Star Trek as that all sounds. [Quick side note: this is the first book I've read on my phone using iBooks. Thought I'd hate it, but I didn't. I've always been a traditional paper-page-turning reader gal, but reading on my phone was surprisingly convenient and even enjoyable. Yay technology!]

Anyway, The Sirens of Titan is really a very deep book presented in a witty, almost goofy way. It is about a vapid playboy named Malachi Constant who becomes a brainless soldier on Mars named Unk, and eventually returns to Earth as a prophesied wandering space traveler. The plot is wildly imaginative and would seem like a coleslaw of non-sequiturs if not for the fact that everything eventually ties together seamlessly and beautifully.

Vonnegut really has a knack for making you examine not just yourself but mankind altogether. The central themes of this book are, in my opinion, free will and purpose. What if our bigger picture is just a speck in a bigger picture? What is the biggest picture? Reading this book made me smile. It reminded me just how much we really don't know shit about life. Vonnegut, like every good writer, writes about the same things in many different ways throughout his works. He has a brilliant, almost sacrilegious sense of humor, and what seems to be quite the lovely take on life and death. It makes me feel so at peace about his being dead (RIP again).

"Luck, good or bad, is not the hand of God. Luck is the way the wind swirls and the dust settles eons after God has passed by."

Rating: 9.8/10

Book 25: Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

Title: Fight Club

Author: Chuck Palahniuk

Length: 218 pages

Year Written: 1996

Why I chose this book: I love Palahniuk but always overlook this book, because in all its acclaim, the story still never appealed to me.

When I first started reading Fight Club, I knew the story, more or less. I thought I'd never seen the movie, either, but had caught enough cable re-run snippets of it that I couldn't be surprised by anything in the plot. Turns out that the more I read, the more I realized I could see Edward Norton and Helena Bonham Carter acting out each scene. I guess I saw more of the movie than I remembered. It kind of ruined the reading experience for me just a bit. 

The basic story is that an insomniac starts a fight club and mischief gang, with the help of his evil friend Tyler Durden who is actually his schizo alter-ego. The book may have been better if I'd read it blindly, not knowing that Brad Pitt is really Edward Norton. 

I've read several books by Chuck Palahniuk, but this was his first. I appreciate the fact that he is incessantly, reliably disgusting, and never shies away from the most grotesque descriptions possible. It wasn't my favorite Palahniuk book, but I already knew it wouldn't be. It seems that he has only mastered his craft of yucky fiction brilliance in the 18 years since his debut novel. It's not a bad book, and I'm sure in some rights it's a classic, but I didn't care for it all that much. 

Rating: 7/10

Book 24: What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver

Title: What We Talk About When We Talk About Love

Author: Raymond Carver

Length: 159 pages

Year Written: 1981

Why I chose this book: This is my roommate's book, and the title interested me. I love reading what people write about love. 

This is the first book of the year that has actually been a collection of short stories. Generally, I don't enjoy short story collections, because I have abandonment issues. I can't stand the idea of investing in characters and a plot for just a few pages before being yanked into another completely different scenario. And if this is what I hate, then I truly hate What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. But strangely, I don't. I liked the book's incompleteness, failure to deliver answers to some of your most important questions, and cryptic realism. My roommate called it a "total snoozefest." She didn't like it because she was left wondering most of the time. But this is the type of book that won't appeal to all readers. Some people read for information, others read for the joy of reading. Carver's stories deliver a short-lived experience packed with startlingly real emotion. I think the point of his stories are simply to feel, to read and absorb ordinary (yet extraordinary in their own right) moments that usually go undocumented.

One example of a story in What We Talk About drops you immediately in a kitchen with two quarreling lovers and their young baby. The woman kicks the man out, and he won't leave without the baby. He grabs for it, and they yank the infant back and forth between the two of them. The story is only three pages long, but fills you with enough discomfort to make it feel like you just saw it happen in real life. There are many cringeworthy moments in this book, and though none of them are particularly dazzling, they are all quite real. The title was a little misleading, because although this book does have much to do with love, it's not in a very romantic or typically pleasant way. Carver is an obviously talented writer, however, and it came as no surprise to find out he started his career as a poet.

Rating: 8/10

Book 23: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Title: The Alchemist

Author: Paulo Coelho

Length: 172 pages

Year Written: 1988 

Why I chose this book: My friend Kevin told me that this book was similar to Siddhartha (novel by Hermann Hesse), and on top of that, I know it's a classic that most people read in school (but again, I somehow didn't). 

I read that Paulo Coelho wrote The Alchemist in just two weeks, because the story was already written in his heart. If you've read The Alchemist, that just makes the most perfect sense. This book transported me to such a pure place, and touched my heart like only a simple, majestic allegory can (read: Siddhartha). It's about a young Andalusian shepherd named Santiago who decides to follow his dreams (literally) to the Egyptian pyramids. All the while. the world is conspiring to help him achieve his destiny. I admit, it sounds a little corny when you describe it to others, but reading it, it completely enchants you. There are so many life lessons to be learned in this book. No wonder it's been referred to as "more self-help than fiction."

If you've never read this book, now is the perfect time. It's a very fast, enjoyable read that is bound to stick with you in one way or another. There are many, many notable quotes in this book, but this one pretty much sums up the feel of the novel:

"The Soul of the World is nourished by people's happiness. And also by unhappiness, envy, and jealousy. To realize one's destiny is a person's only obligation. All things are one. And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it."

Rating: 9.9/10

Book 22: Written On The Body by Jeanette Winterson

Title: Written On The Body
Author: Jeanette Winterson
Length: 190 pages
Year Written: 1992
Why I chose this book: I was assigned this book in a Women's Studies class I took in college. Even though there are notes in the book (in my handwriting), I couldn't remember actually reading any of it.

This was an unexpectedly difficult read, especially coming off the heels of a few more traditional novels with straightforward story lines. Written On The Body, the story of a person and their affair with a married woman, often seems more like poetry than prose. And I use the word "person" because the narrator in this story is genderless. Rather, they do have a gender, but it is never mentioned. This was the only thing I knew about the book when I started to read, and so I caught myself searching for clues as to whether this was a man or a woman. And there really is no way to tell, but that's kind of the point. Jeanette Winterson is telling a story of love and passion beyond gender. Written On The Body is a story about the way love can consume you, get you into ridiculous situations, and run your life so far off course that you don't know what's what.

This book was so fucking quotable, too. It's a Tumblr dream. Winterson has such an ethereal way with words, that even when you aren't quite sure what she means, you feel it anyway. Here are a few of the quotes I marked:

"The day before Wednesday last, this time a year ago, you were here and now you're not. Why not? Death reduces us to the baffled logic of a small child. If yesterday why not today? And where are you?" 

"Why is it that the most unoriginal thing we can say to one another is still the thing we long to hear? 'I love you' is always a quotation. You did not say it first and neither did I, yet when you say and when I say it we speak like savages who have found three words and worship them."

"When she bleeds the smells I know change color. There is iron in her soul on those days. She smells like a gun." 

Rating: 8.5/10

Book 21: A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

Title: A Thousand Splendid Suns
Author: Khaled Hosseini
Length: 367 pages
Year Written: 2007
Why I chose this book: It was recommended to me by my friend Aria!

When I was little, I was big on the Dear America series—these were basically fictional diaries of young girls who lived through slavery, or the Trail of Tears, or the Titanic, or other historical times. They were great books, and educational in a kind of roundabout way. Not since third grade have I read a really good piece of historical fiction, until A Thousand Splendid Suns. It is his second book, published four years after The Kite Runner, indisputably his most famous novel. I haven't read The Kite Runner, but if the storytelling technique and writing style is anything like Splendid (which I would bet a lot of money on), it's probably coming up very soon on my to-read list.

Splendid is a story spanning thirty years, set in Afghanistan against the backdrop of the real-life war and violence that has gripped the country for decades. It is divided between the perspectives of Mariam and Laila, two women with very different upbringings who find themselves in a similar situations of helplessness and captivity. For me, the novel brought to light a perspective I can't imagine I would have come across otherwise. It's astonishing to think that everything we have been told about war with Afghanistan has been filtered and edited so that we are blind, or perhaps numb, to the atrocities the Afghan people have endured—at the hands of the military, the rebels, and the Americans alike. I cried during one part of the book, audibly groaned at others. One scene involving a Caesarian section made my limbs weak and my eyes blur. That's what a good book can do to you.

Khaled Hosseini is a very talented writer with a gift for simple yet illustrative storytelling. Though his characters can at times feel predictable, you always feel that these people are real. And it's probably because, in a way, they are.

Rating: 9.8/10

Book 20: Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruku Murakami

Title: Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage

Author: Haruki Murakami

Length: 386 pages

Year Written: 2014

Why I chose this book: Because I fucking love Murakami!

I fucking love Murakami! I just realized I sort of have a thing in general for Japanese (and even Japanese-American) authors, but when it comes down to it, nothing really beats Murakami. This is the second book by him I've read so far this year. The other day, I tweeted this: 

It sounds like I'm criticizing him, or emphasizing his topical limitations in a negative way, but the fact is that Murakami truly owns the writerly space he occupies. Reading a book by Murakami is like eating a piece of sushi that Jiro made. It's like drinking a cappuccino made by a 10-year barista veteran. Colorless is one of the less complex novels in Murakami's repertoire, but it still involves many (if not all) of the same themes that are found in all of his other novels. When reading Murakami, expect to encounter dreams, fantasies that are realities (and vice-versa), strange spiritual occurrences, and some type of graphic, if not also deviant, sexual activity. It's kind of like Murakami is a chef with just a few ingredients, but can mix them a million different ways to create many uniquely enjoyable dishes.

The main character of Colorless is (no surprise here) Tsukuru Tazaki, a 36-year-old man who has lived his entire adult life in the shadow of something that happened to him in college—his four closest friends cut him off completely and without explanation. As the title suggests, Tsukuru goes on a pilgrimage, or rather, realizes he has been on one for years. It is a very simple story, almost childish at first, before it develops into quite the layered yet placid plotline. It is a book for wanderers, for observers, for special people who don't realize how special they are.

Rating: 9.6/10

Book 19: The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger

Title: The Catcher In The Rye
Author: J.D. Salinger
Length: 216 pages
Year Written: 1945
Why I chose this book: I know that this is an important piece of literature, one I somehow managed to sidestep in my many English classes throughout life.

Before opening my copy of The Catcher In The Rye, I had absolutely no idea what it would be about. I didn't want to spoil my sense of wonder by checking Wikipedia or SparkNotes, and so, once I started reading, I was a bit surprised. The story seemed so normal. It was just about a kid who seemed to hate everything. He didn't have friends, didn't have sex, and kept getting kicked out of schools. I kept reading and reading, waiting for the big moment of clarity about why this book is such a heralded work. There was never a big moment. It was more the general after-impression left by this narrative that was remarkable. The main character, Holden Caulfield, is seriously maladjusted. He thinks everything and everyone is fucking stupid and phony—except for himself, of course. In the same vein, it is also unsettling that the book is narrated by Holden. I have serious trust issues with first-person narratives. Anyway, as you read, you learn some things about him, and continue to see him unravel, until you realize the book is over and you've just experienced one of the all-time greatest novels ever written. The feeling you feel at this point certainly begs for a much closer re-read. Especially for those who were lucky enough to actually study this book in high school, reading it again as an adult would almost certainly prove to be a rewarding experience. Salinger is awesome. I read this book and I just wish we could be text buddies.

This book took an unusually long time for me to read, considering its relatively short length, but I blame it on a 10-day vacation I took recently (I was reading another book originally, and left it in Houston on a connecting flight).

The most striking part of the book is when you find out the meaning of the book's title. I remember always wondering what in the fuck a catcher in a rye was. Now I know. Oh, how I know. It also reminds me a lot of the much newer novel The Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, which must have found some slight inspiration in Holden Caulfield. Both are decently funny, semi-depressing stories of an awkward boy. Overall, The Catcher In The Rye is a tale of growth, pain, and alienation—but most people already know that. I'm the one who just found out.

Rating: 9.3/10

Book 18: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

Title: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Author: Betty Smith

Length: 493 pages

Year Written: 1943

Why I chose this book: Only knew of it in the sense that it’s an important, classic novel. And I love to tackle those.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn took an excessively long time for me to finish reading. The book is just shy of 500 pages, and more importantly, it covers nearly two decades of the life of a poor family in Brooklyn. I read about how Katie met Johnny, they got married, had Francie and Neeley a year apart—then I followed Francie through childhood, adolescence, and eventually adulthood. I am, at this point, thoroughly invested in Francie and her family. I’ve spent three weeks with them.

In the book’s introduction, Anna Quindlen writes that A Tree in Brooklyn is “not the sort of book that can be reduced to its plot line.” It is about the human experience. It is about family, failures, fortunes, friendships. It is about a little girl who is aware that her younger brother is favored, a little girl that reads no less than one book a day, a girl that pretends with her family that they are in the North Pole awaiting  rescue when there is no food in the house. It is about her alcoholic dad, her proud mom, her wise grandmother, her irreverent aunts. It is sometimes heartbreaking and most of the time intriguing, reading about this small slice of life during a time I can’t fathom living through. Times in this book were hard, but nothing that the human spirit won’t fight against with utter resilience.

All in all, the book was a bit long, but ripe with realness. It’s almost reminiscent of To Kill A Mockingbird, with Francie and Neeley giving a little bit of a Jem and Finch vibe at times. I see why it’s a classic, and is probably worth a closer re-read at some point in my life.

Rating: 8.6/10

Book 17: She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb

Title: She's Come Undone
Author: Wally Lamb
Length: 469 pages
Year written: 1992
Why I chose this book: I've wanted to read this book for a while, not having known much about the plot but knowing so many people have read and enjoyed it (including Oprah).

Dolores Price is an ordinary girl who is subjected to an extraordinary lifetime of unfortunate events, filling her with pain, confusion, and resentment. Tragedies occur in Dolores' life like they are set on a timer, and are outlined by her bitter sense of sarcasm and wit. She reaches a weight of 257 lbs. after being raped by a neighbor and spiraling into a depression of overeating. Her mother is confounded with guilt, her dad faces brutal emotional retaliation and alienation for having previously left Dolores and her mother, and her grandmother is uptight—not someone Dolores can exactly relate to. In her oversized body, Dolores feels more and more isolated from the world, a feeling that follows her to college and eventually to Cape Cod, where she decides to disappear from it all.

Dolores eventually begins healing, part of which includes a physical transformation. After shedding over one hundred pounds, she is able to start dating and eventually marry who she always considered to be her "dream guy." However, she soon realizes she has fallen back into her previous patterns of powerlessness. He is a perverted high school English teacher, a failed poet with a bad attitude—but handsome. Dolores struggles with repeated troubles which manifest themselves in her life in different ways. When she does have genuine breakthroughs, they are simply triumphant. Following the trajectory of her downfall and eventual climb back to the surface, we become attached to Dolores and regret having ever judged or ignored a person based on their physical appearance. It's true. I definitely thought about my casual use of the word "fat." It's not nice. It doesn't matter. People are people. And they are the people they are for good reason.

This was the first book for author Wally Lamb, and having read all 469 pages in under three days, I'd call it compulsively readable. It's one of those books you can't put down. Many books take a while for me to read because they are difficult, in either language or style. She's Come Undone is as easy as a soft-serve vanilla cone, so that nothing stops your absorption of the plot, of Dolores' life and thoughts.

Rating: 9.5/10

Book 16: Mary by Vladimir Nabokov

Title: Mary
Author: Vladimir Nabokov
Length: 114 pages
Year Written: 1926
Why I chose this book: I was once intrigued with (Nabakov's most famous novel) Lolita, and purchased this book in 2012 to explore more of his writing (as you can see, I have a habit of buying books and not reading them immediately).

I love books that have plots socially predating modern forms of technology. You know, the stories involving letters that take weeks to reach their recipients, and love affairs that spawned from a chance locking of eyes at the local fair. That kind of stuff. No phone numbers, no email addresses. Definitely no Instagrams.

The main character of this book is Ganin (which I believe is his nickname - the book was originally written in Russian so perhaps some things are lost in translation for me), who is a young guy (20s, maybe) staying in a boarding house with a bunch of random roommates. He learns that one of his housemates is awaiting the arrival of his wife, Mary. In some way or another, Ganin determines that this is the same lovely young Mary with whom he'd fallen in love and had a brief affair with a few years prior.

The book is very short, and not much happens. It seems like Nabokov spends a bulk of the novel just setting the scene, and there isn't actually much action. My favorite part of the book comes quite near the end, and it really spoke to me about the validity and importance of memories versus reality. Ganin was holding on to memories of a woman he had only known for a few days, and in his mind their relationship took on a new life. In reality, however, he was likely nowhere as important to her. After all, she'd gotten married to another man. Such is life.

Nabokov is smart and artistic, and although Mary is nowhere near as layered or heavy as Lolita (which comes later, as this was his debut novel), it was still a fairly enjoyable read with subtle yet vivid imagery.

Rating: 7.8/10

Book 15: We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo

Title: We Need New Names
Author: NoViolet Bulawayo
Length: 292 pages
Year Written: 2013
Why I chose this book: This book was actually on display at the library, and after reading a few pages I decided I'd buy it from Amazon.

We Need New Names is the story of a young girl named Darling who is from Zimbabwe, but moves to Detroit to live with her aunt, leaving behind a colorful cast of friends named Bastard, Chipo, Sbho, Stina, and Godknows. The first half of the book follows Darling's life in Zimbabwe, where she spends much of her time ransacking guava trees with her hungry, feisty friends. Though pre-teens, these kids are sharp-witted (though often imprecise) and face an environment of poverty, violence and racial conflict with a flippancy that could come only from children. Darling brags about what she will have in America, only to move to Detroit with her aunt Fostalina and realize that not all Americans live in luxury.

The second half of the book is dedicated to Darling's acclimation to the United States as it parallels with her formative teenage and young adult years. There is a noticeable rift between her and the friends she left behind, and she grapples with her new surroundings and just where she considers "home" to be.

We Need New Names is riveting, and at many times heartbreaking. One of the saddest and most memorable scenes of the book is one that is responsible for its title—it involves a bunch of clueless children attempting to address the issue of 11-year-old Chipo's pregnancy, since her condition hindered their game-playing. It was an extremely unnerving chapter to read. Overall, the book is craftily written, weaving together different cultures and opinions and stereotypes to create a story that feels very honest. Darling's story is the story of many just like her, and reflect even broader themes of cultural identity and negotiation. This is a really great first novel from Bulawayo and I am excited to see more from her.

Rating: 9.6/10

Book 14: Indignation by Philip Roth

Title: Indignation
Author: Philip Roth
Length: 233 pages
Year written: 2005
Why I chose this book: I bought this book on sale when Borders went out of business. It's been laying around for a few years.

Philip Roth is old. Apparently, he's quite the productive author as well. Indignation is third novel Roth released within three consecutive years. He wrote two more in the following two years, and nearly thirty in his entire career. Though this is the first novel of his that I've read, I can bet that many of the book's themes are personal to Roth and appear across his many works.

Indignation takes place in the early 1950s during the Korean War. The main character, college freshman Marcus Messner, is Jewish and overall quite the irritable and indignant (hey!) guy. His father's paranoia about Marcus getting into trouble or getting killed drive him away mentally and eventually physically, when he transfers to an out-of-state college to avoid his dad's overbearing behavior. At his new school, he finds multiple dorm arrangements to be intolerable, and ends up living alone in the worst room on campus. On top of all of this, he goes on a date with the campus nutbag, Olivia (who is a "goddess," but sports a scar on her wrist from an unsuccessful suicide attempt). His strange, stilted relationship with her seems to govern most of his actions thereafter, and for lack of better words (and to avoid revealing too much about the plot), it all spirals downward. I was reminded of the tragic movie The Butterfly Effect (featuring cinematic genius Ashton Kutcher) — as his dad warned him, every small misstep has the potential for tragic consequences.

Roth is funny, disgusting, and powerful as a writer. I'd definitely be interested to read some of his more famed works.

Rating: 8.5/10

Book 13: Sanshiro by Natsume Soseki

Title: Sanshiro
Author: Natsume Soseki
Length: 228 pages
Year Written: 1908
Why I chose this book: I read somewhere that Haruki Murakami is a big fan of Natsume Soseki, and I was curious to know more about my inspiration's inspiration (in fact, Murakami wrote the introduction to this version of Sanshiro).

I did it again. I read a whole book, only to realize at the end that it is the first of a series. First of all, this book took me just over a month to finish (life has been a bit hectic). Secondly, the plot was so subtle that I can't really remember what happened. This 50 book challenge has really been a challenge of a new kind. Let me try to feel my way through this.

Sanshiro is about a 23-year-old guy who's just left a small community college in his rural hometown for a big university in Tokyo. He is the equivalent of a kid who's spent his whole life in Oklahoma and then heads for NYU. He is confused by the banter, the customs, and especially the women (this was written during a time, apparently, when women were like toy poodles and had to be escorted everywhere). He develops an intense crush on a woman named Mineko, who is coy, reserved, and yet bolder than any chick Sanshiro's ever encountered. The pace of the book is very slow, and really seems to spare no expense on setting the scene of Sanshiro's maiden voyage. Compared to Murakami's writing (which came several decades later), Soseki can seem a bit dry, but it does not deduct from the beauty and elegance of his storytelling technique. This book required a bit of patience, but at the least it was an ethereal experience.

Rating: 8/10

Book 12: Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Title: Memories of My Melancholy Whores
Author: Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Length: 115 pages
Year Written: 2005
Why I chose this book: I bought this book as well as Love and Other Demons by Marquez a few years ago, and hadn't read either until recently. It was a very slim book, and I was intrigued to find out what level of storytelling he could accomplish in that number of pages.

One thing I always think about when I'm reading, without fail, is what was going through the author's mind when they chose that thought, that sentence, that idea. Memories of My Melancholy Whores is about an old bachelor deciding to celebrate the end of his run as an octogenarian with a virgin prostitute. Here enters 14-year-old "Delgadina" (he doesn't know, and doesn't want to know her real name). We don't hear directly from her the entire novel, but we are led to believe she fell just as deeply in love with the 90-year-old narrator as he did with her. However, it is the narrator's own assertion that he is prone to telling the same stories to friends over and over — and one can only imagine the credibility (or lack of) that such a fact lends to his perception and honesty in telling this tale. The narrator recounts moments throughout his life, mainly encounters with women that never coincided with romance or love. In Delgadina, he finally finds the elusive fuse in his heart and sets it aflame. While reading, I constantly wondered whether these were the diluted experiences of Marquez himself, and if not, how he dreamed up such a love story.

In our society, this storyline falls under the category of pure perversion. In different cultures, and throughout time, no one would bat an eye at what transpires between Delgadina and the old bachelor. It was very interesting to read this story from the most unbiased perspective I could adopt. In the few pages he wrote, Marquez tells a very tender tale of romance and awakening, if only on the narrator's behalf.

Rating: 7.9/10

Book 11: Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami

Title: Sputnik Sweetheart

Author: Haruki Murakami

Length: 210 pages

Year Written: 1999

Why I chose this book: I really enjoy Murakami. I bought this book in September 2012 and never finished it until now. The receipt from Barnes and Noble was still inside. 

This book is so Murakami. You can spot Murakami a mile away. If you've read one of his novels, you've read most of his novels — and I don't mean that in a bad way. The first two books I read by Murakami were After Dark and Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World, for an Asian-American literature class I took during my senior year of college. These two were OK but I wasn't truly blown away until I read South of the Border, West of the Sun. Murakami really knows how to write about passion without sounding corny or overwrought with dramatic desire. Then, I read Kafka on the Shore, which showed a more complex and supernatural side of Murakami. Anyway, on to the book at hand — Sputnik Sweetheart shares many of the same themes as several of Murakami's other novels, including weird Freudian love triangles and escape into other-wordly realms. It is about a girl named Sumire who falls in love with an older woman, Miu, and eventually vanishes seemingly right off the face of the earth. The book is told from the perspective of Sumire's friend, a relatively easygoing guy who happens to be madly in love with her. 

This was a really quick read, being just north of 200 pages and so engagingly written as well. It certainly provoked a lot of thought with me, about loneliness, love, desire, human existence, all those things that leave you feeling mildly panicked if you dwell on them too long. 

Rating: 9.5/10

Book 10: A Spy in the House of Love by Anaïs Nin

Title: A Spy in the House of Love
Author: Anaïs Nin 
Length: 140 pages
Year Written: 1954
Why I chose this book: I purchased this book when I was 18 or 19, purely based on the feeling I got from the title and back cover description.

I once read a quote by Anaïs Nin that gave me an incredible sense of oneness with her: "If you do not breathe through writing, if you do not cry out in writing, or sing in writing, then don't write, because our culture has no use for it."

I have owned by copy of 'A Spy in the House of Love' for at least six years. It is water-warped and has a brown coffee-ish stain creeping down its slim paper side. I had no idea what the book was really about until I picked it up this year. Most importantly, it is book four of a five-part "continuous novel" called 'Cities of the Interior.' If I'd known that, I'd certainly have started at one, or not started at all. However, this small novel in itself is dreamy, emotional, and strangely moving.

The idea of infidelity in relationships being perpetrated by the girl — it's something I don't often see. It's something I can identify with personally, having been torn between different perceptions of myself that were based on dishonorable acts in love. We rarely get to see inside the head of a woman who is obviously smart, obviously wonderful in all ways except her ability to contain her love within the framework of a nice, faithful, cookie-cutter companion. Because these books are "distillations" of Nin's personal diaries, it is easy to imagine that much of her personal life flowed into this story. I can only wonder what percentage is drawn purely from imagination. Her words are poetic, strong, sometimes racist (but I guess that's unintentional, and indicative of her time - oh well). It was a very short novel, and explores themes like love, respect, guilt, and identity. I would love to read the other four parts of 'Cities,' but mostly I want to learn more about Nin.

Rating: 7.6/10

Book 9: Persuasion by Jane Austen

Title: Persuasion
Author: Jane Austen
Length: 188 pages
Year Written: 1818
Why I chose this book: 'Persuasion' was a favorite of the protagonist in Chuck Palahniuk's books Damned and Doomed, which I read (and loved).

I "read" 'Pride and Prejudice' during my junior year of high school. I couldn't remember if I actually tried to read it and couldn't, or if I was just being a lazy asshole. When I was reminded of Jane Austen while reading another book recently (where the 13-year-old dead girl Maddy Spencer adores 'Persuasion'), I added it to my reading queue. What a mistake. I must still be an asshole, because I oh-so-barely enjoyed this novel. Even at under 200 pages, it took me a while to finish - and not for lack of trying. The language is difficult, but not the oldest writing style I've encountered this far in my bookventures. The plot is very slow, very dry, and very detailed about mundane minutiae. I actually had to look up why this book, and Austen herself, is considered so great. I know the issue lies with me, and not the book itself. I've got to pay respect. It just wasn't for me in the least bit.

I did, however, find a great review that explains what it is this book does so well, that everyone else in the world besides me seems to love: http://www.bookdrum.com/books/persuasion/9780141439686/review.html

It's a love story, like so many books are, and I can't say the end was surprising or very satisfying at all. It ends happily, but didn't make me happy. Maybe I've got to wait another eight years to take a stab at Austen appreciation.

Rating: 2/10

Book 8: This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz

Title: This Is How You Lose Her
Author: Junot Diaz
Length: 217 pages
Year Written: 2012
Why I chose this book: This was a birthday gift from another of my book club ladies, Bess (this actually rounds out the birthday-given book collection)!

This was the perfect book to make up for the sluggish pace with which I read the last one. I finished this one in two to three sittings, max. The language is so engaging, so easy to ingest. I'm also glad to have read a second book by Junot Diaz—it's always great to read multiple books by the same author. There tend to be themes that reappear throughout an author's collection of works. Diaz is certainly no exception.

Much like The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, the main characters are Dominican. There is again a Yunior (who some say is a novelized representation of the author himself that he uses in more than one book). There is again a weaving of narratives that portray doomed relationships, family strain, and sexual escapades. This book, written five years after Wao, is more bare-bones, more focused on smaller-scale stories that still mightily represent the human experience. The book's central theme is infidelity, and we see both how a string of relationship fuck-ups dented the main character's life, and how it seems like it was in his blood for him to fuck up as horribly and frequently as he did.

There is something we can all relate to in this book, whether it is trudging through difficult post-infidelity reconciliations, or reminiscing on the struggles of a trying childhood. Lots of people told me I'd love this book, and I'm glad to say that's absolutely the truth.

Rating: 9.5/10

Book 7: The Romance of the Forest by Ann Radcliffe

Title: The Romance of the Forest 

Author: Ann Radcliffe 

Length: 363 pages 

Year Written: 1791 

Why I chose this book: This was a birthday gift from my friend Marianna, who read this book for a gothic literature class in school. 

Wow. It's day 70 of 2014 and three weeks since I last finished a book. That definitely throws me off track, but with good reason! This book was incredibly hard to read, especially coming off of a series of rather contemporary novels. The language in this book is certainly indicative of its time, which also involves haunting abbeys and escapes by horseback. 

Important to note is that I probably never would have chosen to read this book on my own. That is the good thing about books as gifts—you are urged to explore pages that might otherwise have been forever unknown to you. The heroine of this book is named Adeline, and for a while, boy does it seem like she has the worst life ever. She is handed off to strangers by her father, who then turn around and hand her off to more strangers who are on the run from the law. She falls in love with a dude that works for a king-type of guy, and after a scuffle, he ends up injuring the head honcho and is sentenced to death. That same head honcho is relentlessly in pursuit of Adeline, who has not a penny or friend to her name. She adamantly refuses, and although the story becomes somewhat convoluted with names and flashbacks, there is a happy ending. 

This book (much like other historically based movies I've seen recently) made me think about lifestyles before technological conveniences. These were days of "meet me at sunset" scrawled on wrinkled papyrus, far before "come outside" popping up as a blue iMessage bubble. There are also strong themes of power vs. helplessness, as we see with Adeline's plight (and lack of control for her own circumstances) and the Marquis de Montalt (her pursuer) being near tyrannical with his position of authority. 

I wouldn't necessarily recommend this book to anyone, unless gothic literature was already their thing. I certainly wouldn't recommend it for someone on a tight reading schedule. But, if you've got the time and the willpower, this is a pretty unique book to add to one's reading repertoire. 

Rating: 8.1/10