I tried to do the Seattle library summer book bingo challenge this summer and failed. I was supposed to read 25 books each a different type. (That's where I got the categorizations below.) I did read 17 books, but several were comfort reading, rereading old mysteries for bedtime. On the other hand, I read five books of poetry, which is important for my professional development. I read three novels that were ok, but I really wouldn't have read if I weren't pushing myself. And I read one novel, The Book Thief, that I adored.

1. Under the Egg by Laura Marx Fitzgerald: YA, library
YA art mystery. Sweet didn't totally grab me.

2. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak: recced by friend
Nazi Germany and a young girl. I loved it. I couldn't put it down. Rose recommended it to me. Death narrates which is kind of weird.

3. Alone and Not Alone by Rod Padgett: poetry, library
meh, it's ok. It's not knocking my socks off. These days I'm enjoying reading from old men reflecting, so it has that. He's also, as far as I can tell, a minor poet in the beat generation, so I'm starting to fill in the gaps. He's pretty plain spoken.

4. Children of the Days by Eduardo Galeano: poetry, non-fiction, diversity, library, translated

I love learning my painful history from Galeano's poetic snippets. I probably won't remember most of the Latin American ones because I don't have the context, but some new horrors will stick.

5. The Drop by Dennis Lehane: recced by friend, library, made into a movie

Loved it! Tightly written, great foreshadowing, parallelism, setting. Every evil character came alive. I rooted for them all.

6. Late Wife by Claudia Emerson, poetry, one sitting, library, prizewinner, finished in a day

I don't know why this book showed up in my library shelves--Pulitzer prize winner? I saw a poem in another anthology and liked it? I definitely liked it. The poetry was uncomfortable because it was about divorce and death. It was also about being country and poor--two topics that make me feel ashamed I'm not there. But, I could both understand every poem and felt the reverberations of metaphor--my favorite type of poetry, the type I strive to write.

7. Eyes of Something Sanford, reread. There were a couple of these. Great comfort reading.

8. St Maizie by Jaimie Attenberg, library

A novel about a girl working the ticket booth at a NYC movie theater and saving bums based on a true story.
It was probably written up in EW. It was ok. I'm not a huge epistological fan. I liked Maizie's world, but the story was slow for awhile.


9. The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict by Trenton Lee Stewart: ya, reread

Fabulous as always

10. The Unfortunate Importance of Beauty by Amanda Filipacchi: library

At times a laugh out loud farce about New York creatives, beauty, women's bodies, and love. I truly was barking with laughter at certain scenes but I did get a little tired of people desperately in love with jerks.

11. Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki by Haruki Murakami: Japan

It's a good novel. Kind of Kafkaesque. You're never sure if the dreams really happened. He just wakes up one morning destroyed. Intense but flat. I don't care what the girlfriend says, but I still want to know why the one friend disappeared.

12. The Pine Effect by Andrea Spofford: poetry, under 30

I liked some of the poems, some of the techniques. I certainly noticed the links between poems.

13. Sex Talks to Girls by Maureen Seaton: memoir, diversity, read in a day

I like it when poets write memoirs because the writing is tight and lyric. This one has really short chapters 2-4 pages, little image vignettes or expanded poems. It's about a world that fascinates me--religious, alcoholic, lesbian, crossing race lines, butch/femme. I couldn't put it down, but I wouldn't say in the end that I loved it. I kept hoping for her, but I didn't want to get too close.

14. Maybe the Saddest Thing by Marcus Wicker: poetry, diversity

Again, I have no idea why I ordered this from the library. I like random chance when it comes to poetry. Wicker is young, African American, many honored, and includes a lot of pop culture references in this work. I didn't read every word of every poem. I started a new thing where I read the first line slowly and carefully and if it didn't grab me, I moved on. But, I liked a lot of these poems. I thought they were brave and necessary in how they addressed racism, homophobia, male gender roles. I love this pattern of writing love letters to famous people, like Justin Timberlake and Ru Paul.

15. Kon Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl: memoir

This is the true story of an academic who had a theory. He believed the inhabitants of the Polynesian Islands came from Peru in rafts. No one would believe such a thing was possible. So, he built a raft and did it. I thought this book was a total hoot. The chutzpah of these guys.

16. Guess Who Fish Face? by Gary Trudeau: reread

I was clearing out my bookshelves from Mom's house and hello the Doonsbury.

17. Sixkill Parker: reread

Fun as always