Top 10 Books of 2008 - Second 5
Tracy Chevalier - Girl With A Pearl EarringAn excellent novel by Tracy Chevalier, published in 2003 it became an instant bestseller and has since been remade into a movie and a play. Inspired by the Dutch Painter Vermeer's famous painting of the same name, Chevalier set out to fictionalise the circumstances under which the painting was created including the girl herself, the subject of the painting and protagonist of the novel.
The novel is short but moving, the prose careful and precise and the historical detail accurate, if not deep. It paints an interesting picture of late 17th century Dutch life including the cultural divisions between Catholic and Protestant, and rich and poor.
A short but excellent read.
Zadie Smith - White TeethThe Whitbread Award winning debut novel that turned Zadie Smith into a powerful force in 21st century literature and showed her to be one of the UK's, and the literary world's, brightest new talents.
Smith has a knack for being able to capture the realities of the seemingly mundane characters portrayed in her books and turning them into characters we can identify with, relate to and sympathise with. Her use of the modern vernacular and the, once again, mundane but important details of every day life in British suburbian paints a realistic and very contemporary cultural picture of British life.
Her books are also pretty funny.
Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian GrayA modern classic and an amazing book, extremely easy to read and highly recommended to those that want to "get into" classics but haven't yet plucked up the courage or struggled with Dickens/Austen in high school. The book falls under the "gothic horror" genre and, yes, it's quite horrifying though not in the demons and ghosts way you would expect. I personally found it very unsettling, particularly the ending, and Wilde dealt well with building a sense of dread throughout the book. I'm not sure what exactly Wilde's overall moral is, given his life (and the repeated accusations of decadence) it would hardly make sense to write a moralistic cautionary tale about overindulgence...
Nick Hornby - High Fidelity
If we talk about books that have been influential on modern pop culture then surely High Fidelity must spring to mind. Published by Nick Hornby in 1995, the grunge revolution was waning and a new musical era was starting, the return of pop and R&B, plus the coming advent of electronic/techno music. With these cultural trends in mind, we can look at High Fidelity as a last gasp from the alternative/indie scene. We can also look at it as a book that was tremendously influential for the new wave of indie fanatics. I'm sure if followers of PitchforkMedia had to read a book in their twenties, this would be it.
Having spawned a film starring John Cusack and even a Broadway adaptation, the book is now the cornerstone of Nick Hornby's fame. And it is an excellent book, entertaining, witty, hilarious, human and one we can all relate to as it dissects popular music and relationships side-by-side. Hornby has a knack for creating sarcastic loser characters that are somehow irredeemably lovable. If you're looking for a light and breezy but fantastic novel to read this summer (Aussies!) read this.
Haruki Murakami - What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
Those of you that know me well will know that I am a "Murakami nut" or at least someone who loves the author enough to devour everything he's ever written (got the biography by Jay Rubin sitting on my shelf waiting for me now too) so it should come as no great surprise that this book appears in my top 10 list. I did also read another Murakami book this year, his last novel "After Dark" which didn't impress much as it didn't compare favourably to his previous work.
The memoir, "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running" on the other hand was excellent and a welcome departure from his usual fiction/non-fiction. Unsurprisingly, Murakami writes much like his usual protagonists think which just shows that the characters of his fiction are often at least partly autobiographical in nature. His prose is always light but detailed, dismissive of some things and yet obsessive about others, this duality is what, I believe, makes Murakami a great writers. His novels are easy to read and easy to relate to yet are profoundly deep and have many layers (often revealed further upon rereading).
The memoir itself is a short meditation on Murakami's long career of writing superimposed on top of his long pursuit of long-distance running as his main hobby. As Murakami himself says “most of what I know about writing I’ve learned through running every day.” Murakami sees the two activities as inextricably linked, both are endurance activities that require a lot of commitment, mental stamina, preparation and hard work. The most interesting thing about this novel is the deep parallel Murakami draws between the two seemingly very different activities. In fact, if you really read it, the book tells you more about Murakami as a writer than it does as a runner.
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So that concludes my Top 10 for the last year, any comments or any thoughts on the books I've reviewed if you have read them or any recommendations if you have them would be very welcome.
I may post another top-something as I dont think I'm quite done with 2008 yet, the loser that I am.
Nick Hornby - High FidelityIf we talk about books that have been influential on modern pop culture then surely High Fidelity must spring to mind. Published by Nick Hornby in 1995, the grunge revolution was waning and a new musical era was starting, the return of pop and R&B, plus the coming advent of electronic/techno music. With these cultural trends in mind, we can look at High Fidelity as a last gasp from the alternative/indie scene. We can also look at it as a book that was tremendously influential for the new wave of indie fanatics. I'm sure if followers of PitchforkMedia had to read a book in their twenties, this would be it.
Having spawned a film starring John Cusack and even a Broadway adaptation, the book is now the cornerstone of Nick Hornby's fame. And it is an excellent book, entertaining, witty, hilarious, human and one we can all relate to as it dissects popular music and relationships side-by-side. Hornby has a knack for creating sarcastic loser characters that are somehow irredeemably lovable. If you're looking for a light and breezy but fantastic novel to read this summer (Aussies!) read this.
Haruki Murakami - What I Talk About When I Talk About RunningThose of you that know me well will know that I am a "Murakami nut" or at least someone who loves the author enough to devour everything he's ever written (got the biography by Jay Rubin sitting on my shelf waiting for me now too) so it should come as no great surprise that this book appears in my top 10 list. I did also read another Murakami book this year, his last novel "After Dark" which didn't impress much as it didn't compare favourably to his previous work.
The memoir, "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running" on the other hand was excellent and a welcome departure from his usual fiction/non-fiction. Unsurprisingly, Murakami writes much like his usual protagonists think which just shows that the characters of his fiction are often at least partly autobiographical in nature. His prose is always light but detailed, dismissive of some things and yet obsessive about others, this duality is what, I believe, makes Murakami a great writers. His novels are easy to read and easy to relate to yet are profoundly deep and have many layers (often revealed further upon rereading).
The memoir itself is a short meditation on Murakami's long career of writing superimposed on top of his long pursuit of long-distance running as his main hobby. As Murakami himself says “most of what I know about writing I’ve learned through running every day.” Murakami sees the two activities as inextricably linked, both are endurance activities that require a lot of commitment, mental stamina, preparation and hard work. The most interesting thing about this novel is the deep parallel Murakami draws between the two seemingly very different activities. In fact, if you really read it, the book tells you more about Murakami as a writer than it does as a runner.
---------------
So that concludes my Top 10 for the last year, any comments or any thoughts on the books I've reviewed if you have read them or any recommendations if you have them would be very welcome.
I may post another top-something as I dont think I'm quite done with 2008 yet, the loser that I am.
Labels: literature
posted by LX @ 5:42 AM
Comments: 0
