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#16: Falconer (1977), by John Cheever
He needed time, but he would not pray for time or pray for anything else. He would settle for the stamina of love, a presence he felt like the beginnings of some stair. Q. Do you think your works will...
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A Dispatch from the Field
I attended the American Library Association’s annual midwinter conference in Philadelphia last month. After braving the snowy weather, navigating the tight but aromatic aisles in Reading Terminal...
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#17: A Death in the Family (1957), by James Agee
That’s what they’re for, epitaphs, Joel suddenly realized. You can feel you’ve got some control over the death, you own it, you choose a name for it. The same with wanting to know all you can about how...
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A New Project: The Stories of John Cheever
I have finished reading the next book in the Time Magazine project, Iris Murdoch’s Under the Net, and will post some thoughts about it very shortly as the series chugs along at its deliberate pace. It...
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#18: Under the Net (1954), by Iris Murdoch
After the dignity of silence and absence, the vulgarity of speech. Iris Murdoch’s first novel Under the Net is a perfectly charming, shambolic escapade filled with colorful characters, whimsical...
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#19: The Berlin Stories (1945), by Christopher Isherwood
Over there, in the city, the votes were being counted. I thought, of Natalia: She has escaped — none too soon, perhaps. However often the decision may be delayed, all these people are ultimately...
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The Best Books Read in 2014
Another year, another barrage of best-of lists for us all to wade through; here’s one more, just in time for Christmas. You know, if you pay enough attention to these lists, you can zero in on a...
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#20: Native Son (1940), by Richard Wright
Anger quickened in him: an old feeling that Bessie had often described to him when she had come from long hours of hot toil in the white folks’ kitchens, a feeling of being forever commanded by others...
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Go Set a Watchman (2015), by Harper Lee
This is a review of Harper Lee’s highly-ancticipated second novel/prequel/abandoned debut Go Set a Watchman. For some thoughts on its more famous predecessor, To Kill a Mockingbird, click here. Let’s...
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The Best Books I Read in 2015
Here’s my annual round-up of the 12 best books I read over the past year, one for every month. They are presented here alphabetically by title, with my favorite of all of them, which I saw on virtually...
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What It Takes (1992), by Richard Ben Cramer
Is there such a thing as being too definitive? The late Richard Ben Cramer’s titanic deep dive into the 1987-88 presidential primary season is rightly regarded as the last word on the crazy-making...
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The Best Books Read in 2016
Here is my annual round-up of the 12 best books I read this year, one for every month. The list is alphabetical by author. For the first time since I started keeping annual lists (about 11 years, I...
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Blood in the Water (2016), by Heather Ann Thompson
A monumental work of reporting, this book is an exhaustive (and exhausting) account of the four-day Attica Prison rebellion that took nearly four decades to resolve*. Indeed, by the time the uprising...
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Walter Becker (1950-2017)
“I intend to keep the music we created together alive as long as I can with the Steely Dan band.” –Donald Fagen, in a statement When you read up on the pop era’s most memorable songwriting teams...
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For the sixth straight year, I have rounded up my favorite books of the year (though not necessarily published this year) and presented them here in the hopes that you might find something that piques...
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