NOTABLE

What a year for reading. There was a lot on my list and, while I did get through most of it, there remains plenty more. Without a doubt, the best and most memorable book of the year for me was one I read just recently, Anthony Marra's A Constellation of Vital Phenomena. This is one that takes you to a place you may not know much about, Chechnya, specifically over a span of time that includes both wars there since the collapse of the Soviet Union. This is Marra's first book and with its quality he sets a high bar for himself. But, he is one from that favorite of places for me, the Iowa Writer's Workshop, so the high caliber of his work is not a surprise at all. He is also a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. Two things that stood out were, firstly, the unique way he structured the book, moving back and forth over the course of about twenty years and giving us the points of view of a number of characters, all of whom are so well-constructed that they will make you ache. Instead of feeling as if you are reading a collection flashbacks, though, it is more akin to watching the pieces of a puzzle fall steadily into place in a satisfying kind of way. The second thing to savor was the absolute quality of his prose. It sings. Find this book and read it.

And what of my favorite end-of-year list? Take a moment to peruse the New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2013. In the fiction portion, you will find Marra's book as well as our friend, Jhumpa Lahiri, and her novel, The Lowland, which is one that I wholeheartedly recommend, of course. I was also able to read Philipp Meyer's The Son and The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis, yet another first time novelist with roots at the Iowa Writer's Workshop. I picked up We Need New Names fully expecting to be blown away, but I am getting much better at not wasting my time with books that do not grab me and this was one. Two that I have not gotten to yet but that are lying on the desk beside me as I write are Local Souls by Allan Gurganus and Dirty Love by Andres Dubus III. These two are from the house for which I am honored to work, W.W. Norton. Though I have generally only hinted at my work in publishing here on the blog, I have to take the opportunity to share my good fortune through my job to have gotten to meet and chat with Andre Dubus over the summer. It was a treat, not only for his openness and willingness to talk about his writing, but also for his gracious inquiries about my own and his genuine curiosity about the place I call home.

The year was unusual for me with very little in the way of nonfiction added to my list of reads, though I did read Sonia Sotomayor's My Beloved World and enjoyed it very much. And the NYT list definitely adds to the t0-be-read list, including the new book by Doris Kearns Goodwin, The Bully Pulpit, Sheri Fink's Five Days at Memorial, though I am not quite sure I am up for it yet, and Rick Atkinson's The Guns at Last Light, which will likely take some serious commitment. The one I really want to read and plan to grab from the library as soon as I see it there is Ari Shavat's My Promised Land, which I actually started in a bookstore but did not plunk down the money to buy. I have heard good things about both Wave from Sonali Deraniyagala and Year Zero by Ian Buruma, so while I am at it, I might as well add them to the list, too.

And just like that, I am already behind.