Title: The Leftovers
Author: Tom Perrotta
Genre: Fiction
Year: 2011
Acquired: From the publisher for review consideration
Rating: 
Review: The Leftovers is the best September 11 novel I’ve read that never actually mentions September 11, which it turns out is exactly the kind of book I wanted to read about September 11.
BAND — Bloggers’ Alliance of Nonfiction Devotees — is a group organized to promote the joy of reading nonfiction. We are “advocates for nonfiction as a non-chore,” and we want you to join us. Each month, a member of BAND hosts a discussion on their blog related to nonfiction.
The host for November’s BAND discussion is Amanda (Opinions of a Wolf) who writes about her tendency to read books related to specific social causes. She asks:
Do you read nonfiction to help support a cause(s)?
The short answer to this question is yes, I love finding a topic I care about and reading as much about it as I can. I have a particular soft spot for books about the state of women in the Middle East and books about current social issues, social anthropology books, perhaps. But I decided to take a different angle when answering this question and share a book list for a cause I’m hoping to learn more about: the financial crisis.
My interest in the topic got it’s first big boost earlier this year when Boyfriend and I rented Inside Job, a documentary by Charles Ferguson about the financial meltdown. In the movie, Ferguson interviews a number of authors, which of course caught my eye. I started writing down titles and doing a little research until I had a pretty extensive list a books to read to teach myself about the financial crisis, an issue that makes me more and more frustrated with each small new piece of information I understand.
I got a start on my list over the weekend when I finally picked up The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis, which tries to explain the causes of the crisis by looking at the few people who actually profited during the collapse by betting against the major Wall Street investment firms. Lewis focuses on a few different and very eccentric people, but what they have in common is the bravery (or craziness) to go against the grain in a huge way.
I have to admit that I didn’t understand about half of the financial terms or issues that Lewis was writing about, but that didn’t stop me from getting into the book. I could have used a glossary to refer to as a way to help remind me what credit default swaps and collateralized debt obligation are, but I suppose that’s what Wikipedia is for. The fact that most people on Wall Street and most of the people making the various trades didn’t have any idea what they were dealing with either also probably made reading without entirely comprehending more acceptable.
In any case, by the end of the book (after Lewis had explained the series of debts and betting and false financial markets that the players in the game were messing around with multiple times and in multiple ways) I felt like I was starting to get a grasp on what had happened. And that makes me even more confident that putting together a reading list on the crisis could help make things marginally clearer. These are the books I have on my list so far:
What causes do you like to read about? Any other economics books I should add to my list?
I went on a stunt memoir reading binge this week that I think has reinvigorated my reading brain. Huzzah!
I’ve written a lot about my love of stunt memoirs. For our first BAND discussion, I called them the “candy in my nonfiction diet” because reading then doesn’t demand a lot out of me. They’re also my “genre kryptonite” — a type of book that I have a strange weak spot for reading. I’ve also thought that perhaps stunt memoirs are my nonfiction form of chick lit.
Personally, I like the dessert comparison best because I like the idea of cultivating a well-balanced reading diet where the different kinds of books I love to read have a balance between stories that help my brain grow and the books I like to read for the rush that comes from whipping through a story that’s easy. I also like the idea that dessert can fall on a quality spectrum, from cotton candy to a fine cheesecake, the same way I see stunt memoirs.
Because I read the three books in my stunt memoir binge without really taking notes or thinking too much, I decided to do mini-reviews of them all together. Read on for my thoughts about My Year with Eleanor, Falling for Me, and Learning to Breathe.
Off the Stacks is a weekly-ish feature where I highlight a nonfiction book I’m excited about but may not get to read any time soon. I’m hoping that by highlighting titles this way, I can encourage other people to give the book a try, and, if it’s great, consider nominating it later this year for the Indie Lit Awards. Consider these books stamped with the “Sophisticated Dorkiness Seal of Curious Approval.”
Title: Blue Nights
Author: Joan Didion
Publisher: Knopf
Nonfiction Type: Memoir
Topics Covered: Loss of a child, aging
What It’s About: Following in the wake of Joan Didion’s first memoir of grief, The Year of Magical Thinking, Blue Nights is about the loss of her daughter, Quintana Roo, and Didion’s “thoughts, fears, and doubts regarding having children, illness, and growing old.”
Why I Want to Read It: The Year of Magical Thinking is a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful book, and I think it’s impossible to think about Blue Nights without being reminded of that piece. I mean, even the covers are designed the same way. I am a little nervous about possibly reading this one, nervous that the comparison to a previous book might be too much for it to hold up to, but I also don’t think this is a book I can skip reading.
Who Else Might Like It: People who love Joan Didion, possibly parents (although I’m not sure it’s possible to read books about losing children after you have one yourself?), everyone?
Reviews:
Title: Down the Mysterly River
Author: Bill Willingham
Genre: Middle grade fiction
Year: 2011
Acquired: Book Expo America
Rating: 
Summary from Indiebound:
Max “the Wolf” is a top notch Boy Scout, an expert at orienteering and a master of being prepared. So it is a little odd that he suddenly finds himself, with no recollection of his immediate past, lost in an unfamiliar wood. Even odder still, he encounters a badger named Banderbrock, a black bear named Walden, and McTavish the Monster (who might also be an old barn cat)—all of whom talk—and who are as clueless as Max.
Before long, Max and his friends are on the run from a relentless group of hunters and their deadly hounds. Armed with powerful blue swords and known as the Blue Cutters, these hunters capture and change the very essence of their prey. For what purpose, Max can’t guess. But unless he can solve the mystery of the strange forested world he’s landed in, Max may find himself and his friends changed beyond recognition, lost in a lost world…
Review: I grabbed this book at BEA because I have a bit of an author crush on Bill Willingham and his Fables series of graphic novels. I don’t read a lot of middle grade/young adult fiction, but the idea of Down the Mysterly River reminded of a lot of what Willingham does in Fables — play around with stories we think we know and finding ways to explore them in new ways.
In this case, Willingham mashes together some slightly unfamiliar children’s stories into an adventure tale in a unfamiliar world. I read this one during the October Read-a-Thon and thought it was charming and perfect for reading in that setting. Max is exactly the sort of precocious kid that I adore, plus there were talking animals and dastardly criminals and a mystery to solve. Willingham also isn’t afraid of letting bad things happen to characters (off the page, but still bad things), which I wasn’t expecting in a book for this age group.
I do wonder if it’ll even be possible for kids to figure out the central mystery of this book, given the source material that Willingham is working with. I wasn’t familiar with most of the stories, so I was well behind Max in figuring everything out. I don’t think that necessarily makes the book bad, just something I’m curious about.
Down the Mysterly River isn’t a life-changing book, but I was charmed by it and think it’s the kind of book I’d suggest for readers who enjoy smart and literary mystery adventure tales.
Other Reviews: Good Books and Good Wine |
If you have reviewed this book, please leave a link to the review in the comments and I will add your review to the main post. All I ask is for you to do the same to mine — thanks!
