Reading List Round-Up 2012: Books 1-11

I've been keeping to my most ambitious New Year's resolution of reading 100 books by year's end, and have decided that instead of spending valuable reading time writing drawn-out reviews that few people will appreciate, I'll sum up my (brief) thoughts each month on what I've read, for anyone who might be interested in recommendations.  


The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta
Perrotta's most recent work is one of my instant favorites.  It features his usual combination of dark humor and suburban tragedy in a fresh story that I wasn't expecting to engage me so much.

The Romantics by Pankaj Mishra
Quite honestly, this one was disappointing.  It's something of a coming-of-age tale, and maybe it's because I've read too many of those, but whatever the case I couldn't get on board with Samar's story, despite some great prose about India that sneaked in along the way.

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
I don't remember the last time I read a book and felt like throwing up afterward.  And that's not a compliment, either.  Maybe I read it in the wrong mood or something, but this book for me was just not enjoyable.  I think the biggest reason for that is the detachment from the central characters, and the fact that no wisdom or catharsis seems to come from their untimely demises.  I mean, I was hardly expecting happily ever after, but this novel is pretty much just a 200-plus dwelling on misery.

The Hunger Games
Catching Fire
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

I've already expressed my full thoughts on these three, but to sum up, they are terrific, as long as you keep in mind that they're written for teenagers.

Pawnee:  Greatest Town in America by Leslie Knope (but really by Mike Schur and the writers at Parks and Recreation)
It might seem silly to have included this one, but it's actually a really rich, expansive book.  It's every bit as quirky and funny as the show, and a must-read for nerdy fans like myself, who always want to know more about Pawnee and the mish-mash of crazy citizens who live there.

A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
Whoa.  There's not much else that can be said about this book.  I've tried to articulate it, but there is so much going on in this story already (it's hard to believe there are still a handful of other, equally long books which succeed it) that I'm afraid I'll leave out the most important part through sheer oversight.  This is a perfect book for the lover of a story with huge scope and numerous fully-realized characters young and old and possessing varying degrees of evil.  It's part sweeping pseudo-historical tome, part medieval-esque adventure, part supernatural intrigue.  And yes, at nearly 700 pages it's a slow trek, but by the final pages you find yourself forgetting the more tedious chapters and excited for more.


The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin
This book is great if you're interested in reading about how a wealthy white female writer who's happily married with 2 kids and lives on the Upper East Side in New York spent a year trying to explore and increase her happiness.  The tidbits of wisdom to eye-rolling ratio really isn't worth the effort.

Seriously...I'm Kidding by Ellen DeGeneres
This is a fast read and is absolutely hilarious.  It's Ellen doing what Ellen does best:  dispensing sincere advice as frequently as jokes and silly observations, about everything from health to relationships to using web-speak on the Internet.  

Spring Awakening by Frank Wedekind
I've seen the musical based on this play (and of course, fell in love with the angsty yet rockin' tunes), but had never read the source material.  It's a pretty quick read, one that I finished during a single sitting, and while it has a couple of variations from the show, there wasn't much that I didn't see coming.  The play articulates its themes a bit better, and the characters have a bit more depth.  Definitely worth a read.

Best Book: 
Tie, A Game of Thrones and The Leftovers

Worst Book:
The Virgin Suicides

Easiest to Get Through/Fastest Read:
Tie, Seriously...I'm Kidding and The Hunger Games trilogy

Slowest Read:
A Game of Thrones

Book Review: Little Children by Tom Perrotta

There is a lot of suburban dysfunction literature floating out there right now (and I love so much of it), but few people do with quite the same snap as Tom Perrotta.  I've been meaning to read Little Children for a while now, and after reading his novel The Abstinence Teacher earlier this summer, I fast-tracked it to the top of my list.  I can say now that I do not regret this decision in the slightest.

Little Children is a strange book when one attempts to describe it in minimal terms.  It's about two parents who engage in an affair with one another in an attempt to revive their dismal, unhappy existences.  But it's also about a pedophile who moves into the very same neighborhood to live with his ailing mother, and the social ostracism which results.  Sounds like a strange pitch, but the two narratives meld together in such a way that by novel's end it seems impossible to have told the story in its fullness while neglecting one of them.

Sarah and Todd are the two adulterers, young parents who never thought they'd find themselves bogged down with a child and all those other pesky grownup responsibilities.  Their angst as individuals is typical, but their coming together is strange, emerging out of the blue and accelerating in a way that can only spell disaster in the end.  I appreciated Perrotta's depiction for its realism, however semi-tragic it may appear:  both Sarah and Todd believe that this affair is something they not only need but deserve, and both harbor resentment toward just about everyone in their lives outside the affair's bubble, including their children.  Sarah in particular is downright annoyed with her daughter for much of the time we see them together, and while some might read that as too harsh, it's an unfortunate truth:  some mothers just don't like their daughters, and sometimes it's for so small a crime as failing to fill a void for which they were never responsible.  What is a bit wearing about Sarah and Todd's affair, however, is the depiction of their respective spouses.  Sarah's husband Richard is a bit of a pervert but slowly evolves into a complete creep, almost forcing the reader to declare Sarah's adultery justifiable.  Similarly, Todd's wife Karen is the family breadwinner and thus is cast as the obligatory workaholic spouse, who upon learning of the affair promptly becomes even more unlikeable.  I for one didn't need all this extra convincing that Sarah and Todd had considerable motivation for their actions, but Perrotta seems to supply it more for the purpose of enriching the satire than anything else.

Ronnie McGorvey is the town's new pedophile-in-residence, and it's difficult to decide what is more disturbing:  how creepy his every action, word, and mannerism is, or the fact that despite all this the relationship he has with his elderly mother makes them both sympathetic in a strange way.  His mother is to be pitied, that much is clear, but what really enhances this part of the story is the way that, despite all of his horrible behavior, Ronnie does love her very much, and doesn't want to hurt her.  Unfortunately, even this doesn't quite make his alleged kidnapping and murder of a little girl reconcilable.

One of the best things this novel has to offer is its insight into the spectrum of perception and judgment.  Each of the characters plays his or her part in illustrating this, and showing that we misunderstand and misjudge others just about all the time.  Sometimes we think people are much better than they are, sometimes we feel sure we know them and find out we don't at all, and sometimes they're even worse than we could have ever imagined.  Little Children provides a sampling of each, and does it in a way that somehow still manages to leave the shadow of a smirk on your face.

Book Review: The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta

While this book follows in my apparent trend this summer of reading about unhappy suburbanites and their seemingly infinite discontent, The Abstinence Teacher is a witty, sharp breath of fresh air.  Unlike Franzen's Freedom, which dwells overlong on a range of different tedious thing, Perrotta's story follows two intriguing characters (not to mention a cast of equally intriguing supporting players) as their lives unravel.  Ruth is the titular abstinence teacher, but as a fiercely liberal gal, this is definitely not a career path she's chosen for herself.  Tim is a former junkie and alcoholic who has jumped on the Jesus bandwagon in the hopes of finding redemption for his colorful past.  Perrotta does an excellent job setting the scene, giving us both characters' histories in a way that didn't have me skimming through to figure out what the point was, and paints a nuanced portrait of life in this suburb, from the youth soccer team that brings about Ruth and Tim's first meeting, to the crazy for Christ Tabernacle church.  Most everything in this novel feels so real you could practically reach out and touch it, and it was so easy to imagine real people living these lives almost exactly.  This is what contemporary fiction is supposed to look like.

Some specific things I really enjoyed included the characterization, and the note of sarcastic cynicism that looms over most of the book's proceedings.  Ruth is sharp and funny, her sometimes derisive tone adding color to a character who could have easily fallen too far into the role of victim.  And Tim's alternately dopey and insightful awareness of his world was equally refreshing, though in an entirely different way.  It was interesting to see someone who Ruth initially wrote off as a zealot be humanized in a way that generates true sympathy, even from this devout non-believer.  I also liked that it was a love story that strayed from the traditional construction.  Right from the beginning, the reader (and Ruth, as she later comments) think there might be a brewing "opposites attract" type of spark between the two, but it does not come to fruition until the book's end (and even then it's more of a conjecture of what's to come in the couple's future than anything).  I liked that this book dodged the pitfalls of writing the typical "romance"; I think any attempt to smash Ruth and Tim together before their characters were in precisely the right place would have come off as sloppy and formulaic.  What's great about the tension Perrotta builds, however, isn't that they don't hook up in a cliched way, it's that halfway through the book you almost want them to, just because it clearly needs to happen.  His choice is better, ultimately, but the fact that that moment occurs at all is a testament to the story he's written.

I would certainly recommend this book, which is the first I've read of Tom Perrotta's (more will surely be going on my list now).  It is definitely a great summer read, quick and absorbing but without sacrificing the quality of writing.

Additionally, IMDB informs me that this is currently in development to be made into a film.  I think it has the potential for a great adaptation, and I would be very interested to see it.  Even better, Steve Carrell and Sandra Bullock are rumored to be involved and potentially taking on the roles of Tim and Ruth, respectively.  Guess we'll have to wait and see.