Books - (Read In) 2013

** Re-read

The Diary of a Young Girl - Anne Frank
Lionel Asbo: State of London - Martin Amis
Thirty-Eight Witnesses: The Kitty Genovese Case - A.M. Rosenthal
Sugar Blues - William Duffy
Vampires in the Lemon Grove - Karen Russell
Winnie-the-Pooh - A.A. Milne
The Midwich Cuckoos - John Wyndham
The Walking Dead Compendium 1 - Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard, Cliff Rathburn, Tony Moore
Breakfast at Tiffany's - Truman Capote
Kick-Ass - Mark Millar, John Romita Jr.
Shopgirl - Steve Martin
Mo' Meta Blues: The World According to Questlove - Amir "Questlove" Thompson
Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West - Cormac McCarthy
The Walking Dead Compendium 2 - Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard
Salt, Sugar, Fat - Michael Moss
You Are All Sanpaku - George Ohsawa
The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe
Steve Jobs - Walter Isaacson
How to Win Friends & Influence People (In the Digital Age) - Dale Carnegie
Impossible Odds: The Kidnapping of Jessica Buchanan and Her Dramatic Rescue by SEAL Team Six - Jessica Buchanan, Erik Landemalm, Anthony Flacco
Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn
The Time Machine - H.G. Wells**
Levels of Life - Julian Barnes
The Good Lord Bird - James McBride
The Stranger - Albert Camus

Some notes:

Steve Jobs will confound you. You'll hate him when he treats people like shit; and then be amazed and inspired by vision and passion for quality and design. This back and forth made Walter Isaacson's biography my favorite read of the year. I'm a slow reader, but I got through this book (656 pages) in about two and a half days. You've probably heard a lot about this book already, but read it anyway -- it will make you think you can do anything.

I should read more children's books. Authors are able to do some amazing things with words when they bring their thoughts and words down to the level of a child. I laughed loudly several times reading Winnie-the-Pooh, and The Little Prince (this is a children's book, right?) is a beautiful tale.

Was very happy that Karen Russell received a Genius Grant from the MacArthur Foundation. She's extremely imaginative and some of her short stories are amazing, in particular the one about the silk factory (felt Miyazaki-esque), and the one about horses.

I powered through some books I hated (Kick-Ass, Shopgirl, Gone Girl). Never again.

I teared up while reading a book for the first time. Didn't know a thing about Captain Phillips before I read Jessica Buchanan's story, so the kidnapping experience was entirely fresh to me. It frightened me; made me lose hope; and finally exhausted me by the end of the book. The rescue by SEAL Team Six is absolutely amazing.

Blood Meridian is by far the bloodiest and bleakest book I have ever read. There were times I asked myself "What is the point of all of this?"

I love this book cover. I'd also like to see an on-screen update of this story. (1960|1995)

  

Things Fall Apart made me very angry. Religion...

Matt and I exchanged emails on the Questlove book. We didn't get to finish our conversation because he had some real life things to deal with, but I might share some of our thoughts in a future post.

Looking forward to another year of reading. If you have any suggestions, feel free to suggest.