The New Phonebooks Are Here! The New Phonebooks Are HERE!

OK. It isn’t the new phonebook. But Steve Martin’s excitement in The Jerk mirrors my own with the recent publication of the NYT list of the 10 best books of 2010.

Now, admittedly, the NYT Book Review and I don’t always agree, as anyone who read my assault on The Savage Detectives can see (Hee. That rhymed. I told you I’m giddy over this list!!). But, the Times is right more often than wrong, and the reviewers generally provide good direction. You really just have to read the plot description. If it sounds like a snoozer, it probably is.

Below are the books that made the list, none of which I’ve read because I refuse to purchase hardcovers. (Note to publishers: If you want to send me hardcovers to review on this blog, I’ll gladly accept them. I just don’t want to pay for it.) So, I have reviewed all 10 precog style, and made 10 snap judgments about what I will be checking out in the future.

1. Freedom by Jonathan Franzen – From the NYT: “A vividly realized narrative set during the Bush years, when the creedal legacy of ‘personal liberties’ assumed new and sometimes ominous proportions. Franzen captures this through the tribulations of a Midwestern family, the ¬Berglunds, whose successes, failures and appetite for self-invention reflect the larger story of millennial America."

This is so on my list. Not only does the description sound amazing, but The Corrections is one of my favorite novels of all time. I’ve been missing Franzen for years, and I can’t wait to tear into this. In paperback, of course.

2. The New Yorker Stories by Anne Beattie – From the NYT: “As these 48 stories published in The New Yorker from 1974 through 2006 demonstrate, Beattie, even as she chronicled and satirized her post-1960s generation, also became its defining voice.”

This is a skip for me. Personally, I don’t care for The New Yorker and its glib smugness. Seinfeld nailed it in the episode featuring the cartoon that made no sense. I’m just not interested in reading a collection of stories with a similar attitude.

3. Room by Emma Donoghue – From the NYT: “Donoghue has created one of the pure triumphs of recent fiction: an ebullient child narrator, held captive with his mother in an 11-by-11-foot room, through whom we encounter the blurry, often complicated space between closeness and autonomy.”

Hmm. Interesting, no? I’m intrigued, and will probably look into this one.

4. Selected Stories by William Trevor – From the NYT: “Gathering work from Trevor’s previous four collections, this volume shows why his deceptively spare fiction has haunted and moved readers for generations. Set mainly in Ireland and England, Trevor’s tales are eloquent even in their silences, documenting the way the present is consumed by the past, the way ancient patterns shape the future.”

Blech. Definitely a pass. A book that earns praise for “silences,” aka, for what it doesn’t say? That is definitely a clue that what’s actually on the page is boring.

5. A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan – From the NYT: “Time is the ‘goon squad’ in this virtuosic rock ’n’ roll novel about a cynical record producer and the people who intersect his world. Ranging across some 40 years and inhabiting 13 different characters, each with his own story and perspective, Egan makes these disparate parts cohere into an artful whole, irradiated by a Proustian feel for loss, regret and the ravages of love.”

Despite the fact that I suspect this is another non-linear narrative, I’m intrigued, mostly because of the description of the characters. I also read another awesome review about Goon Squad in The New Republic, which predisposed me to be interested. And now I can look forward to calling a novel “Proustian.”

6. Apollo’s Angels by Jennifer Homans– From the NYT: “Here is the only truly definitive history of classical ballet. Spanning more than four centuries, from the French Renaissance to American and Soviet stages during the cold war, Homans shows how the art has been central to the social and cultural identity of nations.”

Meh. Most likely a pass for me. Seeing ballet performed is one thing, but reading about it? And considering that no one really goes to the ballet anymore (well, not in America anyway), can we really say it’s “central” to the identity of nations?

7. Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff – From the NYT: “With her signature blend of wit, intelligence and superb prose, Schiff strips away 2,000 years of prejudices and propaganda in her elegant reimagining of the Egyptian queen who, even in her own day, was mythologized and misrepresented.”

Hell yes! Great subject, and if the writing is even half as good as the Times suggests, this book could be totally amazing.

8. The Emperor of all Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukjerjee – From the NYT: “Mukherjee’s magisterial ‘biography’ of the most dreaded of modern afflictions. He excavates the deep history of the ‘war’ on cancer, weaving haunting tales of his own clinical experience with sharp sketches of the sometimes heroic, sometimes misguided scientists who have preceded him in the fight.”

An awful lot of “quotes” peppered in this write up, which gives me pause… is it a "biography" or not? Are we or are we not at “war” with cancer? I’ll wait on this one. At first blush, I’m inclined to pass, but then again, I adored Atul Gawande’s Complications, so more research may be needed.

9. Finishing the Hat: Collected Lyrics with Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines and Anecdotes by Stephen Sondheim – From the NYT: “The theater’s pre-eminent living songwriter offers a master class in how to write a musical, covering some of the greatest shows, from ‘West Side Story’  to ‘Sweeney Todd.’ Sondheim’s analysis of his and others’ lyrics is insightful and candid, and his anecdotes are telling and often very funny."

No thank you, despite the clever title. This sounds like 300 pages of liner notes. Self indulgent at best, snoozefest at worst. I can tell you now that this book would just piss me off.

10. The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson – From the NYT: "Wilkerson, a former national correspondent for The Times, has written a masterly and engrossing account of the Great Migration, in which six million African-Americans abandoned the South between 1915 and 1970. The book centers on the journeys of three black migrants, each representing a different decade and a different destination."

This sounds pretty decent. I’m not as excited about it as the Cleopatra book, but this could have some very interesting components to it. I’ll probably read, but not immediately.