New additions (from Powell's Books in Portland and Argosy Books on 59th between Park and Lex):
- Nina Berberova, The Book of Happiness
- Millen Brand, The Outward Room
- Richard Cobb, Paris and Elsewhere
- Ernest Hemingway, Across the River and Into the Trees
- Howard Jacobson, The Finkler Question
- Ed. Erin McKean, Verbatim
- Susan Minot, Lust & Other Stories
- Susan Minot, Monkeys
- Graham Robb, Parisians: An Adventure History of Paris
- Joanna Scott, Tourmaline
- Simon Winchester, The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary
I just finished Sacred Games (Vikram Chanda) and Another Bullshit Night in Suck City (Nick Flynn). Sacred Games was just what I needed for vacation: sprawling but fast paced, absorbing, full of Hindi expletives (bhenchod!). Haven't read many memoirs lately, and Suck City was a pretty good one; it focuses on Flynn's relationship, or lack thereof, with his father, a writer/bank robber/homeless man in Boston who begins sleeping at the shelter Flynn is employed by. At heart, it's just a fascinating story. And it's true: "There are many ways to drown, only the most obvious wave their arms as they're going under."
Sumeet and I are keeping it low-key for the night: trying out Tiffin New York, finding something good on Netflix, listening to our cat mewl, and breaking out the Martinelli's at midnight. Here's to 2011! We (plus my parents) salute you from our great backyard in Milwaukie!
