Best Books of 2013

Every year between Christmas and New Year’s I prepare a list of my favorite books of the year. In 2013 I read 103 books. My husband noted that this means that I met my goal of reading fewer books in 2013, since my average for the last several years has been two a week. So I made it by just one book!

Here is my list of the best of 2013. They are listed in the order I read them – not order of importance. They are also not all newly published books. Some, like John O’Hara’s “New York Stories,” are older than I am (but I note that reading those short stories gave me renewed enthusiasm for the short story form). The list is a mix of fiction, short stories and non-fiction. I read a good bit of mystery, especially Northern Irish and Japanese noir this year. None of those books made the list this year but I want to give a special mention to the new series by Jonelle Patrick, which are set in Japan. She has released three so far and I thought they were all great.

The Yellow Birds – Kevin Powers
The Wife – Meg Wolitzer
My Beloved World – Sonia Sotomayor
The Good House – Ann Leary
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves – Karen Joy Fowler
And The Mountains Echoed – Khaled Hosseini
Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking – Anya Van Bremzen
The New York Stories – John O’Hara
Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk – Ben Fountain
The Barbarian Nurseries – Hector Tobar
Bobcat – Rebecca Lee
The Dinner – Herman Koch
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena – Anthony Marra
The Interestings – Meg Wolitzer
Mary Coin – Marisa Silver
Good Living Street – Tim Bonyhady
Americanah – Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche
Saving Italy: The Race to Rescue A Nation’s Treasures – Robert M. Edsel

The Banishment of Nathaniel P.

I've gotten to be a more judgmental reader as I journey further down the path of being a novelist myself. I used to NEVER leave a book unfinished. I would white knuckle my way to the end, bleary-eyed and anxious, perhaps only allowing myself to skim a bit near the end.

Now, I have something like a 50-page rule. If I'm not completely caught up in the story or have some other reason to keep with the book, it's a goner -- tossed in the back seat of my car to be returned to the library.

That happened yesterday with the The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P. by Adelle Waldman. I got to about page 80 before I realized I just didn't care about the character and that in fact it was making me feel uncomfortable to read any more about him. DOn't get me wrong -- Adelle Waldman seems to be a terrific writer and the fact that she created a character that I so actively disliked is amazing. But I just didn't want to spend another three to four hours in the room with him.

As I often do before abandoning a book, I go on Goodreads to read what others have to say about it. For this one, I was dismayed to see Ron Charles' 5-star review. I really like Ron Charles and respect what he has to say. I felt better when I saw the review posted by "Elizabeth": "Turns out Nathaniel P. is a self-absorbed dick. End of story." I smiled. I felt justified. Out came my bookmark and to the back seat of the car for you, Nathaniel P!

This morning I picked up "The Dinner" by Herman Koch from the pile beside my bed. I'm only 56 pages in and I'm entranced! I want to sit here in my pajamas all day and read.

I'm so glad I banished Nathaniel P. But I will very much look forward to reading whatever Adelle Waldman comes up with next.

Rinascimento

I like to pick a theme or word for a year.

For 2014 my word is "rinascimento" -- Italian for Renaissance.

I'm picking the word now because for me the year goes from Thanksgiving in one year to my birthday in the following January -- so it actually covers a 14-month period. That's a thematic year for me.

I was pretty happy when the word occurred to me a few weeks ago. I'm about two years into trying to learn Italian, through a combination of weekly lessons at the amazing Spectrum Languages in Irvine, Pimsleur tapes and reading the cycling coverage in La Gazzetta della Sport. So I wanted an Italian word, even though I haven't been to Italy since 2010.

The word is also appropriate because I'm recommitting to my novel, which has been lingering in my laptop for a LONG time now. So let's see what we can get going in the 418 days that remain in the year of the rinascimento.

First step - breakfast with my writing notebook at Pascal's Epicerie in Newport Beach. It's been my Friday morning start of the writing week for several years.

Blackmarket Bakery!

So happy -- got to spend an hour or so at the new Blackmarket Bakery location at the Camp in Costa Mesa.

I've been a fan of their stuff for a while -- took a pasta-making class there in the fall that was a life-changing experience (I am no longer afraid of my KitchenAid attachment and have successfully made pasta alla amatriciana for two different dinner parties) and I look for any excuse to buy vanilla meringues, passion fruit marshmallows, etc. Now, they have a new retail location with TABLES, where you can SIT AND WRITE.

I bought a lovely cup of coffee and a package of coconut meringues, then took out the binder with the rough draft of what I have of CN (the working initials for my novel), and rearranged the second half into something that sort of makes sense. Then I brainstormed the missing parts to give me sort of a roadmap of where I need to go next.

A good day.

Permission to Write a Shitty Novel

I spent six months of 2012 arguing with myself over whether I am a novelist. It was a nasty, drawn-out battle that creaked into 2013 with no clear winner. As of January 1 I was eager to have the decision behind me so I could quickly come up with some suitable resolutions and get on with my life.

Not so fast.

Somewhere in the second week of the year I started thinking about some advice I picked up in the last year -- write a bad novel, a shitty novel, but finish one of the half-written ones on the shelf. I can't remember exactly who told me this. Perhaps it was my writing buddy Debby Gaal, herself half way through her second novel (the first is complete and, from the parts I've read, quite good). I also kept thinking about another piece of advice -- don't start working on your goals for the year on January 1 but on January 15 -- give yourself a little bit of runway to get going.

I decided I liked both pieces of advice.

So on January 15 I pulled a book with the working title of "Comfortably Numb" off the shelf. 150 pages, more or less; 40,000 words, more or less. With the beginning well developed, the final chapter written and much of the second half left to write. I had an idea of what would happen in those pages when I put this novel aside about two years ago and I turned away from it not in frustration but because of the excitement of another project. [That other project, which I work-shopped at Squaw last summer and received encouraging feedback on, is what propelled me into the six-month argument with myself.]

So what about it?

I pulled it off the shelf, opened the file on my computer and told myself I would just make the hand-written edits on the first two chapters that I had already marked the last time I read the hard copy. I started and to my surprise, my stomach didn't turn and my palms didn't get sweaty. In fact, when I finished, I felt like I could have done more. And I spent the rest of the day in a nice, calm place -- the place that it used to be EASY for me to be after writing but which has been elusive for months now.

So I did another two chapters the next day. And the next. Etcetera. '

I think I'm back.

Are there clunky sentences? Yes. Are there scenes that need to be fleshed out? Yes. Do I really understand my protagonist? No. But I'm getting to know her and I don't hate her. I'm even a little intrigued.

Intrigued enough to write an entire shitty novel about her? Perhaps.

My Favorite Books of 2012

My favorite books of 2012 (in the order I read them)

My Life From Scratch - Gesine Bullock-Prado

Shards - Ismet Prcic

Steve Jobs -Walter Isaacson

The Greater Journey - David McCullough

The Dud Avocado - Elaine Dundy

Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? - Jeannette Winterson

Widow -Michelle Latiolais

The Man in the Empty Boat - Mark Salzman

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake - Aimee Bender

Wild - Cheryl Strayed

In The Garden of Beasts - Erik Larson

Road to Valor - Aili McConnon

Elsewhere, California - Dana Johnson

NW- Zadie Smith

Joseph Anton - Salman Rushdie

Beautiful Ruins - Jess Walter

This is How You Lose Her - Junot Diaz

Winter Journal - Paul Auster

Where'd You Go, Bernadette -Maria Semple