2013 Reading List

Happy belated New Year!  Here you will find descriptions of all the books I read in their entirety last year.  It wasn't as good a reading year for me as was 2012, so whereas I simply listed the largely enjoyable 2012 list in the order I read them, I will group the 2013 list by the degree of enjoyment.  Not that the less enjoyed group of books was bad... (I did finish them).  It's just that for varying reasons I don't think they are universally good recommendations.  Either I enjoyed them but most people won't, or I hated them but others might like them, or in a few cases they really are just bad.  Within each group, the order is mostly still chronological rather than a ranking.

Books I Recommend

1)  The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare: One of the lighter, more entertaining Shakespearean plays in which I don't think anyone dies!  A lot of classic archetypes like the woman using a test to determine which of her suitors is worthy of her.  The play is especially interesting when looked at from the perspective of antisemitism and how the Jewish characters are portrayed.  I believe I read somewhere that this play was quoted and referenced in later years by people who sought to vilify Jews.

2) The Tempest by William Shakespeare: Another of Shakespeare's better comedies.  I read and saw this one performed, and both experiences were pleasant.  This was the last play he ever wrote, and if you read the last monologue with this in mind it seems to be a farewell speech not just by the main character but also by Shakespeare himself.  

3) I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb: I am a big fan of longer, character driven stories, which this is.  In simple terms it is about a man who must continue to live his life despite the struggles he faces, the biggest of which are a schizophrenic twin brother coupled with a personal need to always be the strong one in the family.  

4) Doubletakes by various authors and compiled by T. Coraghessan Boyle: A collection of pairs of short stories by thirty different writers.  I would personally recommend Barthelme, Bender, Coover, Davis, Gaitskill, Moore, O'brien, Saunders, and Wolff the most, though nearly all works within are of significant value.  

5) Pricksongs and Descants by Robert Coover: a very post-modern collection of short stories with extremely unique structure, style, and subject matter.  Examples include "The Brother," a re-telling of the story of Noah's ark from the perspective of someone who doesn't get on the ark or "The Babysitter," which changes perspective every paragraph to the point where you lose track of which events are actually happening and which events are fantasies.  

6) Animal Farm by George Orwell:  This was one of three re-reads for me this year.  It is the tale of the first ever farm run by animals for animals, and it is meant to parallel the rise and failure of Communism in Russia.  

7) Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck: This is the tale of George and Lenny, two buddies seeking work during hard economic times.  It's got some great commentary on loyalty and loneliness.

8) All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque: My favorite book of the year, this is the tale of the common German soldier during World War I.  Great depictions of how value systems change as a result of extreme circumstances.  Unique in its focus on the side that eventually lost.  Amazing scene of terror and survival when the main character gets lost in no man's land and can't tell which side is his and which is the enemy's.  

9) Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis: A series of letters from a senior demon to a junior demon concerning the best ways to go about corrupting souls.  Some great commentary on faith, good vs. evil, and relative goodness/evilness.  

10) Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller: portrayal of a man (and his family) set on greatness, on the American Dream, on being liked by everyone, on starting with nothing and becoming something.  He is set on this, and teaches them to be, but is starting to realize failure.  Is the fault in himself or in a society that misled him?

11) Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman: A re-read of one of my favorite 2012 books, this is a collection of very short stories in each of which time functions in a unique way.  For full review go here: http://uglinessandinspiration.blogspot.com/2012/02/einsteins-dreams.html.

12) Othello by William Shakespeare: The tale of a man tricked into jealousy and violence as a result of his own insecurities.  I recommend this mainly because of Iago, one of the best literary villains ever.  He is such an ingenious asshole who is enemy to all but perceived as the truest of friends.

13) Seeking Common Ground by David Tyack:  This book provides a history of education in America and a strong examination of what a truly democratic education should look like vs. what our education system actually looks like.  Of particular interest to me were chapters 3 and 4 concerning the challenges of educating diverse populations.

The Rest of the Books:

14) King Lear by William Shakespeare: My least favorite Shakespeare play because who are you supposed to empathize with?  Every main character is a terrible, overly flawed and unlikable person.  The best character doesn't even get a name.  He is simply called the Fool, and he disappears halfway through.  

15) Henry V by William Shakespeare: It's got some famous lines, but mostly it's just boring.  Henry goes to war, the French underestimate him, and he wins despite terrible odds.  That's all that happens.  

16) The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare: My second least favorite Shakespeare play.  Few likable characters, though unlike King Lear you don't have to endure any of them for very long.  Also it's just really cheesy.

17) Safe House by Chris Ewan: Sort of a mystery thriller.  Enjoyable at the time, but I've already forgotten most of what it was about.  

18) These Things Happen by Richard Kramer: This is about the son of a gay man whose best friend has also just come out of the closet.  It's about love in spite of unusual family structure.  It starts out strong but drags toward the end.  

19) The Lightning Thief by Rich Riordan: kind of poorly written young adult fiction about the half-mortal children of gods.  It reads quickly, but too quickly.  I was never invested enough to stop as a result of some meaningful thought or emotion to be contemplated. It's all plot.  The first of a series that did not compel me to read the second.

20) The Magicians by Lev Grossman: sort of a more angst-y version of Harry Potter.  A teenager find out he has an aptitude for magic and gets into a super secret school for magicians.  But magic doesn't prove to be all fun and fantasy.  It's a lot of hard work.  The story is really more about growing up than about magic-- but not in the "Oh man, I went through that" kind of way. It's more like, "Man this kid sure whines a lot." 

21) Teach Like a Champion by Doug Lemov: Most of my colleagues hated this book because it seems to suggest that teaching is a procedural thing easily broken down into steps that can be applied to any student body.  However, it does provide some helpful and detailed strategies for accomplishing very specific goals within the classroom.  It's kind of like a teacher's playbook.

22) Whistling Vivaldi by Claude M. Steele:  This book details the very interesting topic of stereotype threat by using the very boring style of in-depth step-by-step description of research methods.  Stereotype threat is a situation in which a person perceives that they are being stereotyped and as a result of their anxiety about this they end up feeding into the stereotype.  Super interesting concept, but you can read just the beginning and end of the book and you'll get the gist.  The middle is mostly pedantic fine-tuning of research strategies.

23) The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne: The psychological tale of how one sin weighs on the lives of three different people.  This book has value and probably belongs on the other list, but it just seems too predictable to me.  I am probably just over-saturated after having spent a month and a half teaching it to students who mostly hated it.  If you like character-based, in-depth examinations of souls and value systems, this book is a good choice for you.  

24) The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz:  A lot of people really like this book, but it just didn't do it for me.  I found myself a lot more interested in the narrator, Yunior, and in the historical details about the Dominican Republic than in the actual main character Oscar or anyone in Oscar's family whom the story surrounds.  I didn't get what was wondrous about his life.  He didn't seem to do much of anything with it, and then when he finally does try to do something he gets beaten to death.  There's probably something metaphorical or allegorical going on there that I'm missing.

That's it for this year.  As always there were several books I read part of that were not included in the list.  If you want further details on any of the books or want to recommend me something, please do so.  Peace.