This is a little tardy because the end of school was exhausting. Also, I put a new floor down in the kid area which is huge and it was exhausting.
As a side note, I’m going to be updating my top-100 list sometime this month. I missed last year amidst house buying. Prepare yourselves.
- Pops by Michael Chabon (3.5/5) – This was solid. My primary issue was that I’d read all of it before as it was entirely a collection of previously published material. But the observations are good and interesting. A worthwhile read if you haven’t come across the material before.
- Bride & Groom by Alisa Genieva (4/5) – A contemporary Russian novel that doesn’t feel like all the other Russian novels you’ve ever read. A good reminder that what usually makes it into translation from other cultures is not a complete representation of all different segments of that society. Russia is an enormous country and the people who populate this book aren’t characters from Tolstoy or even Nabokov
- The Complete Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino (4/5) – I keep reading Calvino and keep not being disappointed. I didn’t like this as much as the first couple of things I’d read, but I think that’s mostly because it was several volumes packed together and thus not necessarily cohesive. Everything I read of his – and this book is no exception – takes fiction somewhere I haven’t seen it go before.
- Best to Keep Moving by Jeff Worley (4/5) – Wherein I periodically dip into the Larkspur Press books I got hold of a while ago. Nice poetry with a few that really turned things on their head.
- Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse (5/5) – This book was fantastic. Hesse was a “should have but haven’t” read of mine and I’m glad I finally got to him at the strong urging of a friend. My favorite thing about this book was how it played with multiple voices in such a way that they all invalidate each other leaving, by the end, a core idea that hangs out in your head for what seems like it will be a long time.