Whew, I'm fine; I hope to discover that my classmates are, too. But I'm not quite ready to schlep the car to the garage and find out for sure what the damage is -- hence, this 75 books update.
Flashback to #25 & #26, fall LBC nominees that have now been announced.
#25 Sideshow by Sidney Thompson. A fine collection of short stories about southerners.
#26 Manbug by George R. Ilsley. An entomologist, who doesn't see the world as most people do, has his first love affair.
and then leaping to the proper place in my reading sequence, it's final LBC nominee. I'll have more to say about the LBC nominees in October when our discussion ensues.
#30 Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife by Sam Savage. The life and times of a highly literate rat.
#31 Last Mountain Dancer: Hard-Earned Lessons in Love, Loss, and Honky-Tonk Outlaw Life by Chuck Kinder. This memoir and return home to West Virginia is sly and funny and charming. Kinder says he wants it to be a "big jukebox of a book," which it is, more than 70 vignettes that cycle from personal history to West Virginia history (think Matewan) to supernatural mothmen and back again. Kinder heads the writing program here at Pitt and I can't help but let him speak for himself:
It is, I told my old momma and did a stiff shot of Dickel straight, a do-not-go-gently, grumpy, grouchy, corny coming-of-age story, on one level anyway. It is also a forlorn, tear-jerky, but essentially true and finally foot-stomping country-song-of-myself.
#32 The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion. I was in a miserable mood and decided to wallow in despair and read this. Problem is she's such a great writer that reading her, as always, was a pleasure, despite all the death and grief. My black mood didn't lift.
#33 The Open Curtain by Brian Evenson. Now I know that to shake up a dark mood, I should read some high-quality horror. This disturbing and sleek book focuses on a teenage Mormon who's grip on reality may or may not be loosening. Amazing writing. And it shook me right the hell out of my funk.
#34 Shadow Theatre by Fiona Cheong. An eliptical tale set in Singapore, told by a handful of women, involving tragedy, the supernatural and a visceral sense of place.
OK, I've put off the car thing for too long. Must get it to the repair shop so they can deal and I can get to class.
I've got that Evenson sneaking precariously close to the top of my pile, right below his CHP Fall counterpart, Laird Hunt's The Exquisite. Now I'll make sure it doesn't slip back down at all.
Posted by: Dan Wickett | August 29, 2006 at 09:41 AM