Time is a runaway train. Another year has rushed past me. It was a really good one, looking back, but it was also a bit slippery. I had some big adventures, like a two week writing residency at Monson Arts that was profoundly good and creatively life giving, a wonderful jaunt to Denmark where I saw a city and it’s people make decisions about how they want their lives to look (bikes, social equality, art, beauty, and a whole lot of pickled herring). Smaller adventures on trains, in saunas, downeast, and out to the breakwater. A lot of great time with the people and animals I love, and a lot of time reading books, watching movies, and walking in the woods of Maine. Walking, eating food, laughing with my friends, and reading are pretty much all I want or need most of the time, and finding them at the center of things as I look back on 2023 is a real privilege. I’m lucky to have built this life, I’m grateful for it. I read 40 books this year but I kept a few off this list, re-reads and some such. Let’s take a look.
Fiction
- A Home at the End of the World, Michael Cunningham, 1990
This is the same author who wrote The Hours (genius). This novel examines the friendship of two boys, Jonathan and Bobby, from childhood through the twists and turns and despairs and joys of life, from the suburbs of Cleveland to Manhattan to an old farmhouse upstate and beyond. There is so much I love about this book, it is rich, and beautifully written. The characters are all intricately and finely wrought; Alice, Jonathan’s mother, Clare their friend who becomes like family, and the various others that come in and out of their lives are fascinating and complex. The people and places and times (it starts in the 1960s and runs through the late 90s) are so vivid they bustle right off the page. I also love that despite touching on a many societal issues this book is not here to moralize but simply tells a wonderful and captivating story. Masterful, pitch perfect, clean, and clear, a perfect book.
2. They’re Going to Love You, Meg Howrey, 2022
This is the story of a family. Carlisle is a choreographer, in her 40s, living in Los Angeles, when she is summoned to the bedside of her estranged Father, who is dying. In bits and pieces we learn the story of how this family was formed, how it broke apart, and where it’s members washed ashore. Carlisle’s father, Robert, was a famous ballet dancer and choreographer, and although gay, he fell in love with and married a ballet dancer (Carlisle’s mother) and had a child, but they parted ways soon after. Robert’s long time partner James is like a second father to Carlisle, who herself studies dance and in her youth seems to have a shot at real stardom. You’ve got the cut throat world of dance, you’ve got the complexities of a family built upon sand, you’ve got big personalities, and New York City, and betrayal. It packs a wallop and it’s great.
3. Howard’s End, E. M. Forster, 1910
I love Forester. One of my favorite authors. And this is a masterpiece of a novel. Spanning decades, full to the brim with family, and houses, and intricate social conventions that make the head spin. Three families of different class and station become intermingled and enmeshed and struggle to right themselves in the tumbling tumult that carries them through decades. At the center of it all is Howard’s End, a big country house loved by many. I love houses, and I can understand the inexplicable draw of a piece of property. It’s romantic, it’s very British and it is a perfect blend of style and narrative. This is a book to be savored, to live in for awhile.
4. Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver, 2022
Another home run from another one of my favorite authors. This take on the classic David Copperfield (a great novel that a read a few times in my 20s and loved) is lush, terrible, beautiful, and hard to bear. Demon is born into poverty in Appalachia and seems to be always racing from, running into, battling and courting addiction, loneliness, loss and the injustices of our society. This novel shows with humor, grace, and loving care the often insurmountable obstacles poverty, addiction, class, and our own broken hearts can put in our way. It’s a fabulous and much celebrated book. Worth all the praise.
5. A Kiss Before Dying, Ira Levin, 1953
I loved this so much. It is a peak inside the mind of a sociopath. It is suspenseful, and the writing is so wonderful and meticulous. An absolute treat.
6. Cold Heaven, Brian Moore, 1983
This one I stumbled upon and could not put down. It is scary, genuinely scary. Very unique story of a woman vacationing with her rich doctor husband overseas when he is tragically killed in a speedboat accident. She is shattered. The next day when she goes to sign the papers and arrange for the body to be shipped back home the men at the morgue nervously inform her that the body is gone. She is baffled. When she returns to her hotel room she realizes that someone has been there, and it seems clear that it was her husband. It just gets crazier from there. The story twists and turns and ends up in a strange monastery on the coast of California. It’s a wild ride and an excellent read, highly recommend.
7. The Summer He Didn’t Die, Jim Harrison, 2005
I read two novella collections by this guy and they were both stunningly beautiful.
8. Less, Andrew Sean Greer, 2017
I loved this. One of my favorite things are books about unlikable people making messes. It’s fun and funny, a satirical romp.
9. The Rabbit Hutch, Tess Gunty, 2022
A dark and gritty novel, full of modern despair.
10. Silver Nitrate, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, 2023
A fabulous ghost story, I love this author.
11. The Boys from Brazil, Ira Levin, 1976
12. Fairy Tale, Stephen King, 2022
13. Bury Your Dead #6, A Trick of the Light #7, A Beautiful Mystery #8, the Chief Inspector Gamache series, Louise Penny, 2010/2011/2012
After watching the Amazon series “Three Pines” (so good!) I dug into these. They’re great and I’ll definitely be reading more.
14. Hollow Kingdom, Kira Jane Buxton, 2019
This is a fun and weird post apocalyptic tale narrated by a crow named Shit Turd. Unusual and rewarding. I read a lot of it in Denmark.
15. The Heart Goes Last, Margaret Atwood, 2015
16. The River Swimmer: Novellas, Jim Harrison, 2004
17. Local Woman Missing, Mary Kubica, 2021
18. Short Cuts: Selected Stories, Raymond Carver, 1993
18. Whereabouts, Jhumpa Lahiri, 2018
19. River Sing Me Home, Eleanor Shearer, 2023
20. My Heart is a Chainsaw, Stephem Graham Jones, 2021
Love this author but this one wasn’t it for me.
21. The Doll: The Lost Short Stories, Daphne du Maurier, 2011
22. Perfume: The Story of a Murder, Patrick Suskind, 1985
People love this (and I thought it would be good) but I hated the narrator who is not a human and is gross and boring. Tedious and unpleasant.
23. Fame: A Novel in Nine Episodes, Daniel Kehlmann, 2009
24. Orlando, Virginia Woolf, 1928
I don’t know if other people like this novel or not, I didn’t bother to look, but I really hated it. And it pains me because To the Lighthouse and Mrs. Dalloway are some of my all time favorites. This is a weird period piece mess that doesn’t work and is long and complex, and I read the whole damn thing. Bleck.
Non-Fiction
- We Are the Luckiest: The Surprising Magic of a Sober Life, Laura McKowen, 2020 This is a bold and beautiful memoir.
2. By Myself and Then Some, Lauren Bacall, 2005
I went on a Humphrey Bogart spree this year (see my bogart blog https://thibeautown.com/2023/04/15/deep-dive-on-bogie/) and picked this up having fallen in love with Bacall. Who hasn’t fallen for her, she is charming beyond words and sizzles right off the screen. This is a chatty memoir, you can pretty much hear her lighting a cigarette and tipping a rocks glass to her mouth as you read about her wild ride in the Hollywood of the 40s.
3. The Devil’s Candy: The Bonfire of the Vanities Goes to Hollywood, Julie Salamon, 2008
This is a book about the making of a movie that is easily one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen (and that’s a favorite genre of mine). The Bonfire of the Vanities (a novel I really enjoyed by Tom Wolff) was made into a bomb of a movie starring Tom Hanks in what has to be his most unlikable role ever. It’s great.
4. The Art of Loving, Erich Fromm, 1956
5. A Profound Mind: Cultivating Wisdom in Everyday Life, Dalai Lama XIV, 2005
6. A Quick and Easy Guide to Asexuality, Molly Muldoon, 2022
7. As for Ireland, M. Mallace, 2001
8. How to Use Yoga: A Step-By-Step Guide to the Iyengar Method of Yoga, for Relaxation, Health and Well-Being, Mira Mehta, 1994
Very comprehensive Yoga manual that I use almost everyday.
9. No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference, Greta Thunberg, 2019
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