2009: A Year in Reading [Under Construction]

As I have done in previous years, this page will contain an anotated list of all the books I have read in 2009.

I am looking forward to a bunch of the books on my reading list for the coming year. When I began this blog post on 12/31/2008 I was reading a book of poetry by Ric Masten and Randy Pausch's The Last Lecture in preparation for my sermon on January 11th. I was also reading the third edition of John Carver's Boards that Make a Difference as well as slowly savoring a fantastic collection of essays edited by Matt Weiland and Sean Wilsey entitled State by State. Also on my reading list for 2009: books by Chris Adrian, Sarah Vowell, Nick Hornby, Billy Collins, Michael Chabon, Deb Olin Unferth, and more volumes of McSweeney's.

Books That I Will Be Reading Soon:

When Moses Meets Aaron: Staffing and Supervision in Large Congregations - by Susan Beaumont and Gil Rendle
Vacation - a novel by Deb Olin Unferth

Books Finished:

1) The Last Lecture - by Randy Pausch (208 pages)
2) Going Out Dancing - poems by Ric Masten (95 pages)

I read both of these books in preparation for my sermon on January 11. Both books are written by Unitarian Universalists who died from cancer in 2008. Both books deal directly with mortality and all of the attendant questions that come along with realizing that you do not have long to live. Reading these two books side by side provided an interesting contrast. Masten, a poet, approaches death poetically. Pausch, a computer scientist, approaches dying logically, as a problem to be solved. Of course, this is a great simplification. Both books are far more about how to live than they are about how to die.

3) White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son - non-fiction by Tim Wise (200 pages)

During the fall of 2008 I went with my girlfriend Anne to see Tim Wise lecture at UMKC. We will be seeing him speak again in a few weeks at Johnson County Community College. Anne gave me this book for Christmas.

Tim Wise is a white anti-racist activist, educator, speaker, and writer. His prose is conversational and intense, matching the intensity he brings as a speaker. He makes the concept of white privilege easy to understand. He brings the idea home. Even if you think of yourself as open-minded, progressive, and as someone who is not racist, Tim Wise's analysis will shock and challenge you. In particular, his chapter on "Collaboration" is stunning. Equally as powerful is his chapter on "Loss." The section of this chapter entitled "White Privilege and the Danger of Frustrated Expectations" is one of the most important things I have ever read about white racial identity. More than that, it's analysis is tremendously relevant to the economic struggles that our nation faces. I cannot more strongly recommend these three short pages. They will definitely come up in a future sermon.

4) Boards that Make a Difference: A New Design for Leadership in Nonprofit and Public Organizations (Third Edition) - by John Carver (400 pages)

One of the pledges that I've made to myself in 2009 is to read more books about governance and leadership. I can't really say that reading Carver was fun exactly. You'd have to be a much bigger wonk for this sort of stuff than I to actually enjoy it. Yet despite Carver's odd prose and his addiction to exclamation points this is an amazing book. If you've ever served on a board or ever worked for an organization that had a board, you will never see board work and governance the same way. I am a Policy Governance convert. I have seen the light.

(By the way, he actually uses a word that I have never seen before: "farrago." The word means "a confused mixture." He gets huge vocab points for this.)

5) Ballistics - poems by Billy Collins (110 pages)

Billy Collins is both one of the finest and the most popular poets writing today. However, I have to say that I was disappointed with his latest collection. Many of the poems in this collection seem flat. Additionally, by locating some of the poems in Europe, others in the United States, and still others in the Far East, the collection lacks a sense of cohesion. To be charitable, Collins' earlier collections set such a high standard that I can forgive his failing to live up to that standard each time. It is like a great actor getting handed a lousy role.

That said, there are several noteworthy poems in this collection. My favorites were: "Baby Listening", "Le Chien", "Tension," "The Golden Years," and, especially, "Hippos on Holiday."

6) Drink, Play, F@#k - satirical fiction by Andrew Gottlieb (195 pages)

The imaginations of writers have long given us versions of classic stories through an alternative perspective. Anita Diamant's The Red Tent tells the stories of Genesis from the perspective of Jacob's daughter, Dinah. In Ahab's Wife, Sena Jeter Naslund gives us an look at Moby Dick from the point of view of a female protagonist. And, let's not forget Wicked, the retelling of the Wizard of Oz from the perspective of the witch. (Note: I have not read any of these.)

If you read my book list from 2007 you will learn that I panned Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love. When I saw the cover of DPF at an airport bookstore, I knew I had to read it. If you are familiar with Gilbert's spiritual memoir of spending a year in Italy, India, and Bali, you know that she begins the book by leaving her husband, who seemed like a pretty decent guy. In DPF we learn about her husband's search for healing and happiness. He spends the year drinking in Ireland, gambling in Vegas, and looking for romance in Thailand.

OK, the book is completely sophomoric although it certainly isn't dirty. It is funny, not to mention a great spoof. If you disliked Eat, Pray, Love you might enjoy Gottlieb's humorous send up of it.

7) Even Now - poems by Susanna Lang (66 pages)

Three weeks ago Susanna Lang came to the church to speak and read poetry at our morning forum. She is a Unitarian Universalist, poet, activist, mother, and public school teacher from Chicago. This collection is published by Backwaters Press.

While I found some of the poems difficult to access, others were really stunning. I especially enjoyed the collection's first poem, entitled "Chairs" as well as the poems "Misplaced" and "Canvassing on Troy Avenue." Her poems cover a diverse range of subject matter, from gardening and the relationship between nature and urban landscapes, to birds, to baseball, to motherhood, and more, my favorite poems by Susanna Lang were the ones that dealt with our country at war and with becoming engaged in politics. In these poems her voice is clearest.

8) State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America - essays edited Matt Weiland and Sean Wilsey (585 pages)

As a part of the New Deal the Work Projects Administration (WPA) put more than 6,000 writers to work producing hundreds of books and pamphlets about our nation's places including guides to each of the 50 states. The list of contributors included Saul Bellow, Ralph Ellison, Zora Neale Hurston, Wallace Stegner, Studs Terkel, and Richard Wright.

Seventy years later, State by State is the modern, miniature version of this project. Anne, my girlfriend, gave me this book as a Christmas present and I have been slowly savoring it over the past two months. The 50 writers contributing essays on the 50 states are a who's who of contemporary writing. Contributors include Jonathan Franzen, Jhumpa Lahiri, Ann Patchett, Dave Eggers, Ha Jin, Sarah Vowell, and Rick Moody.

That is just some of the fun though. Some of the contributors are known for things besides writing. John Hodgman of The Daily Show with John Stewart writes a hilarious essay on Massachusetts. Food celebrity Anthony Bourdain reminisces about childhood in New Jersey. Alexander Payne, the director of movies such as Sideways and Election, takes us through his home state of Nebraska. Carrie Brownstein, a former member of the band Sleater-Kinney, describes Washington state.

In these essays the writers struggle between representing their state in broad strokes or narrowly focusing on one particular element. Two of my of my favorite of the more narrow essays were Dagoberto Gilb's description of the corn industry in Iowa from the perspective of Latino campesinos (farm workers) and NPR correspondent Jacki Lyden's portrait of St. Lous, Missouri from the perspective of the large Bosnian community there.

This anthology includes diverse voices. The writers are male and female, gay and lesbian and straight. They are white, black, latino and latina, Chinese, Jewish, Indian, Muslim of African descent, and Korean. Graphic novelists Alison Bechdel and Joe Sacco contribute cartoon essays on the states of Vermont and Oregon respectively.

This book is an absolute treasure. It is laugh-out-loud funny. It is also often painfully sad as the writers describe environmental degradation, the genocide of Native Americans, and disasters like Hurricane Katrina. Tellingly, many of the writers make mention of the growing homogeneity in our nation, referencing suburban sprawl and strip mall culture. Ann Patchett puts another spin on it when she writes, of Nashville, Tennessee, "If the growth and modernization of a city means you get rid of the Klan but have to endure bad condos, I say so be it." Her essay is one of the shining stars of the collection.

I can't say enough about this book but I should probably conclude by naming my three favorite essays. Charles Bock's essay about Nevada tells the story of growing up as the son of owners of a pawn shop in Las Vegas. Lydia Millet's extraordinary essay about Arizona is situated at a local gas station on the outskirts of Tucson. Her essay captures the stunning beauty of the Sonoran Desert and the human footprint upon the land. My favorite essay, though, was Kevin Brockmeier's creative essay about a bumper sticker battle in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Total pages read: 1,859