Williams.

I am sitting on the couch in our OKC apartment, drinking apricot beer and watching the Republican National Convention on mute while Kyle works on grad school applications. We just got internet at home this week so I thought maybe I would update this thing some people call a "blog."

The easiest thing to do seems to be just to post about the books I have been reading rather than about the things I have been doing or have been thinking about. Ok. How about we talk about books of 2012.

January:
Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky - I, embarrasingly, had read only parts of this. I knew what was coming at the end but not along the way. Dostoevsky/Raskolnikov is agonizingly obsessive and unstable. It is so uncomfortable and stressful to read, but that's what makes it good, right?

February:
The Moviegoer, Walker Percy - First intro to Percy, and he is great. Really funny, poignant, Southern. Loved the book. Wish he had written more novels, but I plan to read the others that are there. We watched a documentary about him that was good too.

April:
The Man Who Was Thursday, GK Chesterton - this was a re-read - listened to the audiobook at work. Zany story of anarchists in London. Exactly who was Thursday? I still think I don't understand the end of it. I need to read more Chesterton.

May:
Persuasion, Jane Austen - another at-work re-read. A lesser-loved Austen classic, but still good. I wouldn't want to refuse an offer of marriage and eight years later still be unmarried and regretting it. I think Austen is good at describing conversations and how they make people feel.
Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy - so gruesome! So much blood and scalps and bullets and etc. His writing style is so strange and compelling and distant and beautiful but weird. He doesn't use quotation marks - not sure if that's for every book or just this one. Very wild West, but not in the kitschy way.
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Annie Dillard - she spends a year (?) at a cabin, Thoreau-style. Great nature writing, but I'm not sure that that's my thing. She's very, very good, but there is no plot and I have trouble with that.
East of Eden, John Steinbeck - audiobook re-read. Probably one of my favorite books ever. Follows two families through several generations in California. Superb writing. Beautiful story of relationships, sin and grace. I need to read it again. I think I posted about this one a few years ago.
Anne of Green Gables (and Anne of Avonlea, Anne of the Island, Anne's House of Dreams, in June&July), L M Montgomery - these were fun to re-visit, but I also definitely had a different take on the series. Pretty annoyingly moralistic. Really wordy - the books could be a lot shorter. But still very lovable and nostalgic.

June:
North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell - I have to say it wasn't everything I thought it would be after seeing the movie. Listened to it at work. She tries to put too many social issues into the book and ends up treating them too lightly. The main character is overly dramatic. Kind of over-written, or something. But the story is good, and the movie is good. This might be the rare occasion where I think the movie is better.
With God in Russia, Walter Ciszek - An American Jesuit priest goes to Russia for missions and ends up in Siberian work camps/exile for 30 years. Crazy story. He was never angry at God, just angry at the Russians for being unreasonable. Ha.
The Brothers K, David James Duncan - Kyle and I read this one out loud. A re-read for me. It is WONDERFUL. Incredibly funny, incredibly sad.. A dysfunctional family of 4 brothers, 2 sisters, a fundamentalist 7th Day Adventist mother, and washed-up minor league pitcher dad. Follows the whole family into the brothers' adulthood. So much pain and hurt and humor and love and baseball. I laughed and cried a lot which is more of an issue when you are reading out loud.

July:
Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck - read this out loud with Kyle. Short, depressing, classic Steinbeck piece. Lennie just wanted to pet the rabbits and live off the fat of the land....is that too much to ask?
The Seven Storey Mountain, Thomas Merton - a fascinating, dramatic spiritual journey of a great Catholic writer. I don't know. Parts of it were good. But the way he rhapsodizes about the Catholic Church and revisionistically talks about his earlier mistakes got on my nerves. I would recommend it, but not to just anyone.
Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri - short stories by a contemporary Indian-American writer. Good stuff. Lots about immigrants and children of immigrants.
My Antonia, Willa Cather - great American book about a Bohemian immigrant family transplanted to the Nebraska plains. Farm life, small town life, immigrant life.

August:
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke - two magicians bring practical magic back to 19th century England. This was way better than I expected - riveting, funny, interesting, surprisingly scary, really well-written and practically believable. Magic is awesome, and fairies are scary.
The Awakening, Kate Chopin - reread from high school. I don't know. I sort of like it and sort of don't. It's not the feminist thing, it's just Edna is just so annoying.
The Good Thief, Hannah Tinti - short novel about a young boy taken from an orphanage by a man pretending to be his brother. They proceed, in a very Dickensian fashion, to live on the street and steal. Kind of a kids' book but really kind of not.
The Narnian, Alan Jacobs - excellent biography of C. S. Lewis. Beautiful and also sad. He very deftly handles that parts of Lewis's life that are hard to understand. But he's also writing about CS Lewis, and he has great stuff about magic and imagination and fairy tales.
Boy, Roald Dahl - Dahl's memories of the first 20 years of his life. Hilarious. Dahl is the best.
Being Consumed, William Cavanaugh - the subtitle is Economics and Christian Desire. I don't know if I've ever heard that kind of Christian thinking on economics. The Eucharist speaks to desire, scarcity, globalization, consumerism, and all those questions that should be troubling us. I need to think about this one a lot more. But it's only 100 pages so you should probably read it.