Book list 2010 ... month one

January 2010 reading list ...

Instead of keeping one huge list this year like I did on the ShotgunProse blog last year, I am going to try (try means an honest effort) to keep a monthly reading diary and go somewhat all Nick Hornby like he did there for some time for some English magazine. I usually read a hand full of books a month and this month has a larger list than most will because I found myself relaxing in front of the fire a lot. This list is in the order that the books were finished as I often have several books going at a time. These monthly lists will have several similar characteristics in the future; books my kids float my way, books on soccer, historical pieces, and some random fiction and science fiction, as I tend to kind of read what I come across in variously other random ways. Also, This particular list includes four books I got for Christmas, a book my dad loaned me, a book my daughter loaned me, a leftover paperback from last year, and the rest are library books that finally came in. The number of books is high this month in part because there are no huge ones. I go into February with little on the nightstand waiting to be read.

Dork Diaries: Tales from a Not-So-Fabulous Life by Rachel Renée Russell
My daughter floated this my way as a part of our "reading books together" thing we do. It is the female counter to the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. I can understand why a girl her age would love this book.

Magic in the Shadows by Devon Monk
Part three of a very enjoyable Urban Fantasy series I stumbled across last year. I have been getting caught up on a lot of urban fantasy television I missed and so I am sort of in the mode for this mentally. This book takes a look at where science and magic might just overlap and how choices can have real consequences and I like that. A fourth book comes out this Spring and that will make a future reading list this year.

Peter and Max: A Fables Novel by Bill Willingham, Steve Leialoha (Illustrator)
The Fables Universe from DC/Vertigo Comics is the best thing going in comics and has been for some time. It translates really well to book format and I hope this story of the Pied Piper, Bo Peep, and others is not the only novel we get a chance to read.

World Whiskey by DK Publishing
This book is about the good stuff, why it is the good stuff, and how it becomes the good stuff. It is a textbook on whiskey and worth the read with some really solid details. I am not sure it was really meant to be read straight through like I did, but now that I have read it all I can more easily refer to it.

Heavy Metal in Baghdad: The Story of Acrassicauda by Andy Capper
The notion of sacrificing for one's art takes an entirely different twist in this story of a group of men from Iraq and their journey from local garage band to refugees in Brooklyn. As of this posting, one of their songs is currently playing on the Keeper Studios MySpace page. We usually don't think of metal heads as political refugees, but these guys have faced an awful lot for their art.

Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper by Diablo Cody
I now know far more about a segment of the population of Minneapolis than I ever really cared to. It was a quick read and think is meant to be that way as it doesn't really take place over a long period of time and I would imagine the writer wants to convey that sense of pace.

Long Distance Love: A Passion for Football by Grant Farred
In 1986 I got a Liverpool fan pen pal in Cape Town, South Africa through World Soccer magazine who I am still in contact with that really makes this story of a young man from the same town in the same era that much more interesting to me. I guess it doesn't matter where someone is from, Liverpool FC is magnetic that way.

The State of Jones by Sally Jenkins, John Stauffer
The Antebellum South is a fascinating place. The post-Reconstruction Apartheid South is not. This book really delves into why the first thing was as true as the second. It is full of interesting characters and shows the ways in which war and peace do not always go as planned.

The Tao of Wu by The RZA
A couple things led me to this book. Recently, a friend reminded me of the movie Ghost Dog and my son has really turned on to Hip Hop recently. So, when I saw this title I decided to give it a read. The RZA is one of the more interesting performers in Hip Hop and this book gives an interesting look into his life and how it has transformed his art. I recently purchased a used copy of Ghost Dog as a result of reading this.

Lost Horizon by James Hilton
This book sold millions of copies in paperback in its day and introduced the world to Shangri-La. I got an early 60s edition paperback along with a bunch of others I read last year. I love this old stuff because the language and writing really tells you about when it was written and the culture and views of the time without a filter.

Brilliant Orange: The Neurotic Genius of Dutch Football by David Winner
The Dutch World Cup teams of the 1970s are the greatest teams to fail to win a World Cup. They reached consecutive finals, against host nations, and despite their brilliant play are known as a team that fell short, much like the Hungarians in the 1950s and the recent Portuguese team. Sport is cruel that way.

The House of Mondavi: The Rise and Fall of an American Wine Dynasty by Julia Flynn Siler
This was on someone else's book stack a few years ago and it caught my eye at the library recently. As I have started taking more winery tours over the past few years I am starting to find this topic much more interesting and this book is worth the time and effort if you too like wine, even though it really isn't actually about wine. However, on principle I obtained a bottle of Woodbridge Pinot Noir 2007 (a French wine bottled in California that is nice and sweet up front but a bit dry on the finish) to sip on in front of the fire place while reading this. On principle.

Rock & Roll Jihad: A Muslim Rock Star's Revolution by Salman Ahmad
Yes, a second book about rock music in the Islamic world. Actually, this is the 4th I have read on this subject in the past year or so. This is a personal reflection by the author on what he has faced as opposed to an outsider looking at the scene.

January total = 13 / YTD = 13 (goal 100)