I read a book a day. At least.
Of course, my “book a day” total includes poetry and
graphic novels, which many people think don’t “count”
as books because they tend to be slender. I’m a firm believer of
the tenet that the best thing to come from the New Critics was close
reading, though, so, let me assure you, I read carefully, whether the
book is “thin” or “thick.”
There are some people who suggest that science fiction, my favorite
bookish brain candy, is not as “hard” to read as, say,
literary fiction. OK, so Kim Stanley Robinson is no Leo Tolstoy or
David Foster Wallace. Still, you read The Years of Rice and Salt
and tell me it’s “easy.” That’s a whole passel
of alternate history, which makes no sense unless you look up the real
thing.
So it’s not that my expertise is based on taste, but rather on
my breadth of experience. Well, that and a couple of English degrees,
which have to be good for something. Nonetheless, it’s a pleasure
to list here the books I’m moving to the top o’ the
winter-reading stack.
Winter sports? Bah! It’s time for endurance reading.
Here, in no particular, are the 10 books that will top my
hibernation stash. Oh, there will be more books in the
stack—there always are—but these are the ones I’m
waiting for most impatiently.
Jumpin’ Jupiter
Kim Stanley Robinson is—excuse the fan-girl fawning—soo
smart. His new novel, Galileo’s Dream (Spectra) is set in
a distant future among Jupiter’s moons and involves time travel
and ethical decisions. The story: Ganymede, who lives on one of the
moons, suspects it would be a good idea to travel back in time and
bring Galileo for a visit. He hopes to alter history so that science
will be assured pride of place over religion. Given Robinson’s
descriptions of an iced-over and flooded planet in his trilogy of
novels about global climate change, I’m excited to see what
he’ll do when describing the ice-world of Jupiter’s moon
Europa. And that’s not to mention that time travel is, uh,
really, really cool. This book hits the shelves at the end of December,
a tad too late for my Christmas list, but just in time to spend gift
certificates on.
Presidential cranium
University of California, Davis professor Sasha Abramsky takes a look
at the people who shaped the thinking of the president in his newest
book, Inside Obama’s Brain (Portfolio). While Abramsky
didn’t get an interview with the man himself, he did interview
almost a hundred of his friends, classmates, teachers, book editors and
others who have known him well since his youth. Inside Obama’s
Brain goes on sale Dec. 10.
Green party animal
The late Peter Camejo was at the forefront of many progressive causes,
including as a vice-presidential candidate in Ralph Nader’s 2004
independent run for president. North Star: A Memoir will be
published by Haymarket Books in February and will be a must-read for
those of us who followed his career, as well as anyone interested in
the history of the Green Party.
Observe and report
The work of the late Gary Webb, who worked at the Sacramento News &
Review at the time of his death, has been selected and edited by his
son, Eric Webb, who is also a journalist. The Killing Game: The
Writings of an Intrepid Investigative Reporter published by Seven
Stories Press on Dec. 1. Anyone who read his work—from the
Pulitzer Prize-winning team coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake to
his groundbreaking work on the CIA drug-running scandal—was left
breathless by his talent. This book will, I hope, provide a sourcebook
for aspiring young journalists.
Utopia or dystopia?
Sarah Schulman is, in my opinion, one of the most underrated American
novelists alive today. I can’t help but think that she’d be
more famous if only people could get their hands on her books;
she’s had difficulty finding publishers for novels like The
Child, due to the edgy (to say the least) content. But Arsenal Pulp
Press, a small press in British Columbia, just published her most
recent novel, The Mere Future, and it tops my holiday wish list.
It’s described as the first “post-Obama” novel, set
in a supposedly utopian New York City. But utopias are in the eye of
the beholder, and a dystopia lurks beneath the surface.
Schulman’s fearless and literate style can be counted on to make
this the sort of novel that is reread many times.
Far-out fables
I’ve raved that Fables is the best comic-book series ever,
and I really mean it. Author Bill Willingham takes the familiar fairy
tales and fables—be they Aesop, Grimm or Andersen—and makes
them new again with all sorts of contemporary twists. Now he’s
written an illustrated novel, also published by Vertigo, called
Peter & Max: A Fables Novel. Like the comic-book series,
Willingham keeps all the dark flourishes that are present in the
original tales. Hey, those stories? They were never really for
kids.
Universal lunch line
If you’re at all concerned about the state of food in our
country—you know, important issues like health and
sustainability—then the latest book in the University of
California Press’s California Studies in Food and Culture will
grab your interest. Free for All: Fixing School Food in America
by Janet Poppendieck offers an intriguing solution for the current
state of affairs: universal school meals. After all, why should poor
children be the only ones stuffed full of salt, sugar and fat? In
actuality, though, her theory is that if every school in America serves
lunch to all its students, the pressure to provide healthy food will be
overwhelming, so much so that systemic change will be inevitable, and
to the good of all.
Women in science
Technically, it’s still a winter book—it’s due to be
published March 1 by the Feminist Press at the City University of New
York—so also making the list is The Madame Curie Complex: The
Hidden History of Women in Science by Julie Des Jardins. Why are
there still relatively few women scientists? Early reviewers have
praised Des Jardins for going beyond the easy answers—lack of
opportunities and access, deliberate exclusion—to look at the
history of women scientists. Apparently, she argues that women bring to
science a new way of approaching methodologies. I’m anxious to
read it for myself.
Whale tale
And finally, I’m looking forward to The Whale: In Search of
the Giants of the Sea by Philip Hoare (Ecco), due the first week of
February, just in time for my birthday—hint, hint. Early
reviewers, including Mark Kurlansky, author of the marvelous Cod: A
Biography of the Fish That Changed the World, have praised it for
both a comprehensive approach to whales and some seriously good
writing. Besides, whales are very, very cool.