A HOLOGRAM FOR THE KING by Dave Eggers

Nope. Not this time. Loved A HEARTBREAKING WORK..., WHAT IS THE WHAT. Liked ZEITOUN a lot. Am a fan of Eggers. But this one is a snoozer. Protagonist is in Saudi Arabia to pitch his IT company's services to the king. Each day he travels from Jeddah to a Pie-in the-Sky, partially built city of the future nearby, to make his presentation. Each day the king is a no-show. Wash, rinse, repeat, yawn. Like Groundhog Day, but not funny.

THE POLYSYLLABIC SPREE by Nick Hornby, BROOKLYN by Colm Tóibín, THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE HER by Junot Díaz, LP Colombia, LP Cambodia

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This month’s reading felt very male. XY.

THE POLYSYLLABIC SPREE by Nick Hornby

A year of his columns from The Believer, chronicling a year of reading, and reviews of what he read. Chatty, funny, smart… bibliophilia without the pretension. A pleasure.

BROOKLYN by Colm Tóibín

What a disappointment. This book was recommended by so many people whose reading tastes I respect. Please tell me what I missed. A naïve Irish girl comes to the New World and becomes a New Yorker. Sweet and clear… but pretty much just a melody with no real harmony, undertones or any real surprises.

THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE HER by Junot Díaz

Well, he’s got his voice back. I loved Drown, fell right into Díaz’ smartass characters and his smartass language. Waited for a follow-up, but Oscar Wao didn’t do it for me. The writing felt self-conscious, and I didn’t buy the teenage characters. (Job hazard for a middle school teacher?) This is How You Lose Her felt authentic, again. And I was hooked on getting a peek at the ‘sucio’s’ side. The writing in parts of this story collection is a little too True Confessions-esque, but most of it is raw and magnetic.

Lonely Planet Colombia

Lonely Planet Cambodia

Where to next?

THE TRAGEDY OF ARTHUR by Arthur Phillips, some of NERUDA, SELECTED POEMS, THE CORRESPONDENCE ARTIST by Barbara Browning, THE SENSE OF AN ENDING by Julian Barnes, HOME by Toni Morrison

Not exactly a lost summer--more like a lost and happily found summer, but the usual time to read and write was in the lost column. Also lost: my mid-summer blog post, which I'd thought I'd uploaded, but is nowhere to be found, and that featured the stellar TRAGEDY OF ARTHUR, and a couple of other books I can't recall. I'll repost a dusty couple of sentences about the former, and let the latter go.

THE TRAGEDY OF ARTHUR by Arthur Phillips
Brilliant! Phillips manages to roast the cult of Shakespeare, while simultaneously honoring the guy. Rollicking, funny, fresh, wildly inventive, and just plain fun. Man, can this guy write. A brother and sister are in possession of a lost Shakespeare play. Or is it the work of their con artist father? This is one of those stellar reads that made me wonder why I ever try to write anything at all.

NERUDA: SELECTED POEMS
Yum. 'Nuff said.

THE CORRESPONDENCE ARTIST by Barbara Browning
After having spent several years with a Distant (sic) lover, flapping my digital wings with all my might to keep the shaky plane in the air, Browning's novel had particular resonance for me. The Correspondence Artist is an e-pistolary romance with a twist: the emails the protagonist sends are to four invented lovers, who form a composite of the one love whose name she dare not speak. With smart humor and in simple, direct language, the heroine tells her erotic story.

THE SENSE OF AN ENDING by Julian Barnes
Barnes writes an elegant sentence and a tightly constructed novel. His blue chip rep is deserved. But he's not a chick's writer--at least not this chick. The female lead in this spare novel could only have been dreamed up by a man, and there's something old boys' club about the texture of his writing.

HOME by Toni Morrison
A shell-shocked Korean War vet's love for his baby sister, set against a background of Southern racial politics. Touching and tender, a taut little read, but not star quality like some of her early works.

WE THE ANIMALS by Justin Torres; CONSIDER THE LOBSTER by David Foster Wallace

WE THE ANIMALS by Justin Torres

A taut, fast ride—crisply and finely written, especially when he keeps it simple—about three scrappy brothers from the wrong side of the tracks; the protagonist is the youngest brother. Rendered effectively as a series of linked short pieces, I found the first third or half or so stronger than what followed. Midway, it started feeling a little tired, repetitive; the movement, the change, the growth of the protagonist didn’t start to kick in until late in the slender book. Nevertheless, I think Torres is a new talent to watch. His writing and characters are full of compelling energy.

CONSIDER THE LOBSTER by David Foster Wallace

Sampling my way through these brilliant, dense, rich essays a few at a time. A worthwhile project.

SMUT by Allan Bennett

I missed a few again. Last one I can remember... Smut. A little gem. Erotic, unshowy, simply and beautifully written, and published on thick, pleasing paper (well, wouldn't you want your provocative fiction to please your sense of touch)? And yes, newsflash, middle-aged people can make good protagonists in sexy fiction. Smut, by the man who wrote the play "The History Boys," is two novellas, the first one quirkier and stronger than the second.

TEN THOUSAND SAINTS; THE OTHER WES MOORE; YOU DESERVE NOTHING; WHAT WE TALK ABOUT WHEN WE TALK ABOUT ANNE FRANK

Time to make the doughnuts. At least four books I haven’t yet posted here. Maybe more, but I’ve forgotten what they are.

TEN THOUSAND SAINTS by Eleanor Henderson

You got me at the setting, time period and subject matter: The offspring of the hippie generation struggle to come of age in NY and Vermont, in the late 80s. But you lost me in the telling of it. Great reviews… but a snooze of a read.

THE OTHER WES MOORE by Wes Moore (duh).

Ditto. Interesting concept, but I fell off in the telling. Author Wes Moore is a Rhodes scholar and type-A success; his namesake is in prison for murder. Author reaches out to convict. They have many things in common. There but for the grace, etc. The author is going to be the graduation speaker for my 8^th grade students this year… I want to sell this one to them, but I can’t.

YOU DESERVE NOTHING by Alexander Maksik

You got me at the setting and subject matter: English teacher in an international school in Paris. You held me in the telling. Not up there with Tobias Wolfe’s OLD SCHOOL, but a keen and sometimes lyrical look at teachers and their students. Nicely done. Worth the read.

WHAT WE TALK ABOUT WHEN WE TALK ABOUT ANNE FRANK by Nathan Englander

Englander rocks. This new collection of stories may be uneven, but the guy is totally brilliant. One of our best contemporary writers, IMHO. Does he translate for non-Jews? I’m not sure. Go read him and let me know.