Book 49: Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon (National Book Award Fiction 2010). Busy weekend, with this 3rd book finished yesterday evening. Interesting novel and prose set against the backdrop of early 1970s West Virginia claim racing.
Book 48: Not on my lifetime goal list, but I felt it was a needed read when I came across it in my local bookstore: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. Definitely a quirky read.
Book 47: The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson (Hugo and Locus winner 1996). Anathem still stands as the best Stephenson book I’ve read.
Book 46: The Eighth Day (National Book Award Fiction 1968). While operating with similar themes as The Bridge of San Luis Rey, I felt the latter was the stronger novel.
Book 45: Fortune Smiles by Adam Johnson (National Book Award Fiction 2015). My second book by Johnson this year. Like The Orphan Master’s Son, I recommend. Unlike that book, it is a collection of short stories, but has similar themes.
Book 44: Spartina by John Casey (National Book Award Fiction. In some ways, my 2nd book this year that uses the North Atlantic as its setting (The North Water being the other in a much further northern latitude), but most of this much less grim novel is set in the brackish waters of Rhode Island.
Book 43: The Collected Stories of Jean Stafford (Pulitzer Fiction 1970). I enjoyed this book. The were no standouts like O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” or Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily”, but just a steady state of fine vignettes, like Cheever, Welty or Porter.
Book 42: So Long, See You Tommorrow (National Book Award Fiction, paperback 1982) by William Maxwell. Concise, containing shades of Shadow Country by Matthiessen and Angle of Repose by Stegner.
Book 41: Middle Passage, by Charles Johnson (National Book Award Fiction 1990), my first read by this author. Recommended.