2017 Reading Challenge: The Best of the 60

1. Just Kids by Patti Smith: I wasn’t really familiar with Patti Smith’s work before reading this. To be honest, I wasn’t even familiar with Mapplethorpe either. In the end it didn’t matter, because Smith paints such a vivid portrait of a New York City long past, a prominent artist long dead, and an era long forgotten by younger generations. Her prose completely envelops you in all of it.
2. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey: In my quarter of a century on this planet, I had somehow managed never to experience Cuckoo’s Nest in any form. The movie was old and never interested me. The only Ken Kesey I knew was the one written about in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, and what could that LSD laden hippie possibly have to coherently say about patients in a mental institution? I soon discovered that Randle Patrick McMurphy might just be one of the greatest literary antiheroes of our time, and Nurse Ratched the greatest villain. You know how sometimes a good book/movie/piece of music just seems to fall into your hands at the right time? I think Cuckoo’s Nest could not have come at a better time. I laughed a lot, I shed a tear or two, and I had a few existential crises while reading it. Definitely a story that has held up over time, and the movie (I’m pleased to say) actually does credit to the novel.
3. Theft by Finding by David Sedaris: I have been an avid reader of David Sedaris since I was in high school, so I was absolutely delighted when I heard that his diaries were being published. Fans of Sedaris will recognize some of the familiar names found in this first volume of diaries such as David’s boyfriend Hugh, sister Amy, and his curmudgeonly upstairs neighbor, Helen. It was so much fun to read through these diary entries, and recognize some seeds for jokes, and even whole stories that Sedaris would later write and publish.
4. Spaceman of Bohemia by Jaroslav Kalfar: I’m not usually a fan of science fiction, but when the alien in the novel is a huge space spider with luscious lips, and a taste for Nutella, I couldn’t help but be interested. Of course, that’s not all there is to this adventure. In the meat of the story, readers follow orphaned, Jakub Procházka, through his humble upbringing in the Czech countryside, to becoming the country’s first astronaut. Also, there is a very beautiful passage that eulogizes Laika, the space traveling dog, that is nearly worth the price of admission alone.
5. Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders: You probably know Saunders from his short stories, but this (his first novel) was wild, strange, a little bit grotesque, heartfelt, and just downright good. George Saunders definitely has a voice of his own, and he knows how to use it. I guarantee it isn’t quite like anything you’ve read before. Also, the novel has even been turned into a virtual reality experience.
   
6. The White Album by Joan Didion: When I first read Didion (Slouching Towards Bethlehem being my first book) I was disappointed, because I thought her to be outdated. However, when I picked up and read through The White Album I discovered I wasn’t reading Didion with the right kind of mindset. I realized that she does manage to write without dating herself, and on the occasions when she does date herself (for instance when she writes about the Manson Murders and the end of the ’60’s) she’s ultimately teaching you about a time gone by instead of trying to  appeal to a generation. I also learned about what really goes on in the film industry when making a movie, breeding orchids, and migraines.
7. The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne: I think we’re all a bit tired of the archetype of the tortured gay man in literature, but in The Heart’s Invisible Furies, I found myself rooting for the protagonist even when he made mistakes. It helped that subtle humor is wonderfully threaded throughout the story. I swear there was a chuckle on almost every page.
8. Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood: Definitely one of the funniest books I read last year. Patricia Lockwood’s father is not your average priest. He’s slightly vulgar, prances around the house in only his underwear, and decided to enter the priesthood after watching the 1973 film The Exorcist. That, and he has a wife and kids. Lockwood is a poet with a sense of humor, and her lyrical prose shines throughout this memoir. One minute you’re laughing, and the next you have to stop and take a moment, because “Damn! That was a good sentence that my eyes just graced over.”
9. Mama Black Widow by Iceberg Slim: I discovered Iceberg Slim by way of a David Sedaris diary entry in Theft by Finding. At first I though Iceberg Slim was some late 1980’s rapper I had never heard of. He was actually a pimp turned author, and has a number of novels to his credit.  This was a gritty and real read, and not just about the sex trade. Don’t be fooled by Slim’s debauched past.
10. The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester: Did you know that one of the biggest contributors to the Oxford English Dictionary was a retired army doctor who went mad, and lopped off his own penis? I didn’t either, and Simon Winchester tells you all about it an easily digestible work of nonfiction.

These books are listed in no particular order.

If you would like to see a list of the best books I read in 2016 CLICK HERE!