-
The 10 Most Recent Dispatches
- The Bat Segundo Show: Stephen Fry
- The Bat Segundo Show: Deborah Scroggins
- Komen for the Cowards: Betraying Breast Cancer
- The Bat Segundo Show: Susan Cain
- Forgotten Writers: Dorothy Uhnak
- Dwight Garner’s Revisionist Ignorance: Ayaan Hirsi Ali
- Forgotten Writers: The Novels of John P. Marquand
- The Situation in American Waffles
- The Bat Segundo Show: Elliot Perlman
- The Death of the Heart (Modern Library #84)
Modern Library Reading Challenge
On January 10, 2011, Managing Editor Edward Champion pledged to read the top 100 fiction books from #100 to #1. Read about his progress as he makes his way through the Modern Library canon!
84. The Death of the Heart (January 6, 2012)
85. Lord Jim (November 30, 2011)
86. Ragtime (October 30, 2011)
Books To Jump Up and Down Over
The Call by Yannick Murphy: The always interesting author of Here They Come and Signed, Mata Hari returns with a novel that whips up a worldview from a rather quirky set of limitations: namely, the call logs that a veterinarian maintains as his son is unexpectedly put into a coma and an unforgiving economy denies him work. What emerges is a surprisingly optimistic, often funny, and very moving account on how one family uses acceptance and forgiveness as a way to atone for hard knocks. (Bat Segundo interview with Murphy)
Birds of Paradise by Diana Abu-Jaber: Forget Franzen and Eugenides. If you're looking for a social novel that counts, Diana Abu-Jaber is the author you're looking for. Building from the free-form exploration of consciousness and identity in Crescent and the gripping procedural structure of Origin, Abu-Jaber's latest novel is her finest, equally fluent with gutterpunk culture and smarmy real estate men. It has been suggested by The Washington Post's Ron Charles that you will likely gain some pounds while reading this novel. This is certainly true. Abu-Jaber's description of food is so precise that it often made me want to do more cooking. But I very much admired the way in which Abu-Jaber presents all her characters as unwitting victims of rough capitalism, which permits them some dignity even as they perform terrible acts.
The Last of the Live Nude Girls by Sheila McClear: This memoir isn't so much about the decline of the Times Square peepshow, as it is about one young woman's efforts to pull herself up by by her bootstraps when presented with few economic options. Filled with self-introspective candor and a quiet dignity, McClear's story is one that might befall any of us in these volatile times. While McClear does get back on her feet, her book leads one contemplating the terrible fates of other young women now moving to New York and falling into deadlier vocations. (Bat Segundo interview with McClear)
75 Books Archive
-
75 Books, Books #55-60
Posted on December 15, 2006 | 2 Comments[NOTE: I did live up to the 75 Book Challenge. The current count for the year is apparently 131, with a few more volumes to be finished before the stroke... -
75 Books, Books #49-55
Posted on November 30, 2006 | 1 CommentBook #49 was Tom Tomorrow’s Hell in a Handbasket. This was an entertaining volume of Tomorrow’s This Modern World strip, particularly since these strips were written and illustrated during the... -
75 Books, Books #43-48
Posted on November 29, 2006 | 2 CommentsBook #43 was Harvey Pekar’s The Quitter. As Pekar keeps a great prolificity in his post-retirement years, it’s been fascinating to see him investigating millieus other than the immediately contemporary... -
75 Books, Books #33-42
Posted on November 29, 2006 | 2 CommentsOkay, a version of this post (going through Book #90) has been languishing in my drafts folder for many months. But since I did lay down the gauntlet early this... -
75 Books
Posted on August 15, 2006 | 1 CommentI’m up to Book 89, but the summaries await, even though the books are logged in draft. In the meantime, check out Dan Wickett and Carolyn Kellogg’s lists. -
75 Books: Mini-Reviews Coming
Posted on July 12, 2006 | 8 CommentsFolks, if I’ve been remiss on the 75 Books reviews, the following photo demonstrates why. These are all books I’ve finished or referred to (mostly the former) in the past... -
75 Books: Books #12-32
Posted on March 23, 2006 | No CommentsOkay, I have a tremendous backlog on write-ups. Pardon me if my thoughts are ocassionally rushed here, but the only way to get this out of the way and kill... -
75 Books: Eat the Document
Posted on February 27, 2006 | 1 CommentI’m still woefully behind on logging my 75 Books Challenge. I hope to get to the ten or so books I’ve read in recent weeks as soon as I can.... -
Roundup/Update
Posted on February 22, 2006 | 1 CommentPodbop: Enter your city and listen to MP3 snippets of bands touring in your town this week. (via Irregardless) C. Max Magee, having now shifted to a more RSS-friendly home,... -
75 Books, Books #8-11
Posted on January 30, 2006 | 3 CommentsBooks #8 & #9 were books relating to a future Segundo podcast. Book #10 was a book relating to a future Segundo podcast. Book #11 was Kevin Starr’s California: A... -
75 Books, Books #5-7
Posted on January 23, 2006 | No CommentsLast week was a busy week, but if there was any advantage to MUNI’s stunning inefficiencies of late (thank you, Nathaniel Ford!), it’s the extra 45 minutes per day of... -
75 Books, Book #4
Posted on January 17, 2006 | 1 CommentYou may be shocked to hear this, but I didn’t do a lot of reading over the three-day weekend. Book #4 was David Mitchell’s Black Swan Green. I’ll withhold my... -
75 Books, Books #2-3
Posted on January 9, 2006 | 3 CommentsI apologize for setting all of my ducks in a row. But if I hope to get 75 books under my belt, then this essentially means 6-7 books/month. As regular... -
75 Book Challenge
Posted on January 2, 2006 | 25 CommentsI’ll see your 50 books and raise you twenty-five. Seventy-five books, folks. I’ll be reading 75. Who’s with me? [UPDATE: Tayari Jones has some very good guidelines about what to...