2012 in Books

The 2012 Book List

I'm not exactly one of those inveterate readers who knocks off 30 or 40 books in a year (see my friend John Williams for that sort of thing---he being a NY Times book reviewer and all), but the advent of the iBooks app for the iPhone might just get me a little closer. All five of the books above were read in their entirety on my iPhone. Not an iPad. Not a Kindle, not a Nook, not even a page from a hard-bound book. Many complain that it's just too small to read whole books on a phone, but with tremendous flexibility to change font size, brightness, and screen color, it's entirely possible to come up with an appealing combination that doesn't strain your eyes or your patience. I personally prefer the white text on a black background. Indeed, the days of schlepping books to and fro are over for me. It simply wasn't practical to lug around a 700-page book in the rain, in the snow, from borough to borough to wherever I go. And the end result of this "switch" is somewhat of a reading renaissance for me. The five books pictured above represent one of my most prolific years of reading in the last ten years. I actually look forward to long, late night subway rides just so I can squeeze in a few chapters. Yes, I realize five books is hardly the breakfast of champions, but let's for the moment celebrate the joy of rediscovering the written word...be it one book, five books, or fifty books. In the end, they all count.

I'm not going to give full-blown reviews of these books---I mean, this is the first blog I've written in just over 15 months and I don't want to over-extend myself, okay?---but I will give a brief sentence or two for the official record.

Breed (2012) by Chase Novak

This was supposed to be my guilty pleasure for the year---the kind of easy-reading book that is literally advertised in a subway car (as it was on my A-train)---but instead it's just guilty...of being a really, really poor book. I was lured to it by promises of it invoking Ira Levin's Rosemary's Baby, and the deal was ultimately sealed when I learned that its climax centered around my place of employment, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. But in the end, it's just a silly book about parents trying to eat their children. Literally. Interestingly, in what you'll see is a theme with the few books I read this year, the movie rights were acquired just two weeks ago. Burr Stevens (Igby Goes Down, 17 Again) is slated to write and direct and, despite the general shittiness of the book, there is some modest potential here for a decent movie. The book never felt remotely dark enough, but in the hands of a competent director this could be a creepy, atmospheric thriller. This is one of those rare moments when you can easily predict before a single frame has been shot that the film will be better than the book.

Boomerang (2011) by Michael Lewis

Lewis is perhaps our country's most popular writer of non-fiction these days, and not without good reason. From football (The Blind Side) to baseball (Moneyball) to finance (The Big Short), Lewis makes the inaccessible accessible in often exhilarating ways. And it doesn't hurt to have two wildly successful film adaptations under your belt either. In Boomerang, Lewis continues his dissection of the global financial crisis in a sometimes whimsical journey across the globe, one that reads a lot more like a travelogue than a book about serious economic problems. On the one hand, his negative generalizations of entire countries comes across as a bit glib and too accepting of the worst stereotypes, but on the other hand...it sure is a lot of fun to see him mercilessly skewer Icelanders and Greeks. Without a doubt this was the easiest read of 2012. If you're not well-versed in global economics, Boomerang is a breezy, fun intro that doesn't dig deeper than you need it to.

Unbroken (2010) by Laura Hillenbrand

If you seek evidence that truth is stranger and more compelling than fiction, look no further. The true story of Louis Zamperini, as wonderfully chronicled here by Hillenbrand, is nothing short of amazing. From a troubled youth committing robberies in California, to an Olympic athlete in Berlin, to a WWII Air Force pilot in Hawaii, to a prisoner of war in Japan---and so, so much more---the life story of Zamperini is one so extraordinary that I checked Wikipedia at least a dozen times to verify the veracity of what I was reading. His tale is that special. If you only read one book, this is the one I would advocate you picking up. Whether you seek inspiration or exhilaration, Unbroken has it in spades. And, just last week, it was announced that Angelina Jolie will be directing the film version...a project which apparently has been in development since the 1950s! It's being described as Forrest Gump meets Life of Pi which instantly makes my body go numb, but I suspect it will be virtually impossible to fuck this one up. Louis Zamperini turns 96 next month and I hope he lives long enough to see the final project. I've not heard any casting suggestions yet, but good lord, Leonardo DiCaprio would eat this roll alive. And by the same token, Mark Wahlberg would be eaten alive. I'm going to get this on the record right now: Oscar for Best Picture of 2014.

The Leftovers (2011) by Tom Perrotta

The pitch is a winner: What happens to the people of the world who are left behind when a rapture-like event instantly causes millions of their friends and family to vanish into thin air? The catch is that the "rapture" doesn't seem to have discriminated in the people it took, thus leaving the "leftovers" with existential concerns about what really happened, why they weren't taken, and what happens to them next. It's an absolutely compelling idea that goes absolutely nowhere. I kept waiting for the next big plot point to be revealed, but instead it's just a bunch of meandering story-lines that slowly intersect one another and amount to NOTHING. Often I wish plot-heavy books would focus more on the characters, but it's rare for me to want the opposite. The Leftovers has all the makings of a creepy, thought-provoking sci-fi-like mystery, but instead it opts for character studies that never seem quite authentic or genuine enough. It's not hard to imagine why these people weren't taken. Who would want them? And, continuing this year's book theme for me, this, too, is being adapted---this time for HBO as a series with Damon Lindelof on board as a writer and producer. Considering Lindelof was the creative force behind ABC's Lost, he seems an ideal choice to helm a show that teases greatness but delivers very little (admittedly, Lost has lost a tremendous amount of my initial respect upon a second viewing).

The Terror (2007) by Dan Simmons

There's a lot to like in this 992-page epic tale of Arctic survival---a sort of Jack London meets Patrick O'Brian meets The Thing---but the final 200 pages or so are so overwhelmingly disappointing that it's hard to give it my ultimate approval. Blending historical fact with supernatural fiction, Simmons has a command of his subject material that is nothing short of impressive. This isn't cheap, disposable beach (or igloo?) reading. It's a thoroughly researched piece of work that is compelling as much for its historical accuracy as its Ten Little Indians the monster-got-another-one plot progression. But for the final act, this could easily have become one of my favorite novels. Alas, that final act cannot be unread, and following an investment of 700 pages that skillfully built up my expectations, the finale is all the more a bitter pill to swallow. Shockingly, despite its obvious cinematic value, there are no known plans to adapt this for the big screen.