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ARCHIVE - MATT'S 50 BOOKS READ IN 2018
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JANUARY 1.
by Hernan Diaz (no photo)Finish Date: January 2, 2018
Genre: American West, Fiction
Rating: A-
Review: An intrepid American pioneer Odyssey that takes place in the opposite direction-a man moving east against the tide of settlement. Also, a meditation on the benefits of solitude from a slanted immigrant yet American perspective, while at the same time questioning the limits of human endurance. A must-read for anyone obsessed with the American West or adventures of any kind.
FEBRUARY 2.
by
Jan Tomasz GrossFinish Date: February 17, 2018
Genre: History, Holocaust, National Book Award Finalist, Nazi, WWII
Rating: B+
Review: I have recently just finished reading this book with my classes in a course I teach on 20th Century World History. This was the second time I read this monograph, and this time around I had a much more balanced approach to what Gross was trying to do. First and foremost, Gross wrote this story to shock and remind the complacent that the history of violence (in WWII or elsewhere) may have limitless reckonings. Many criticize Gross as being biased or overly harsh on Poles who were complicit or bystanders. These criticisms show the desensitization towards death that modern culture has embraced. If we can't be shocked and disheartened by the death of 1600 of our fellow human brethren by the hands of petty and small (but I guess ordinary) men and women, then what will we be shocked by? Those who seek to avoid feeling guilty by willful blindness miss the point, namely, that guilt is not the object of making amends. The purpose of digging up stories that are hard to tell is to make all of us take responsibility for a darker past that can never really be fixed. Perhaps songwriter Ryan Adams captured it best when he sang, "I can't win, but for you I would try," and therefore echoed Gross's sentiment that we truly can't win to get justice for those crushed by the Holocaust, but at least with Gross he takes us closer to peace.
3.
by
Edward AbbeyFinish Date: February 25, 2018
Genre: American West, Fiction, Novel, Appalachian Literature, Autobiography
Rating: A+
Review: This novel was the most gripping I've read in a very long time. I've been obsessed with the Edward Abbey/Wallace Stegner literary exploration of the American West for a while now. I've made it my pledge to flip-flop from one author to the author until all of their catalogs are exhausted. What I didn't expect with this novel was to see so much Appalachia in Abbey's narrative. I knew that this novel was to be Abbey's unofficial autobiography, but I didn't foresee just how much pain and beauty of Abbey's life would bleed into his normal cynical take on almost everything. This whole effect is firmly cemented in the last 100 pages of the book as Henry Lightcap (Abbey) walks destroyed and dying, dragging his dog in a duffel bag, just to get back home to be with his family one last time. Abbey's genius is making us feel just how precious but ferocious our humanity truly is.
MARCH 4.
by
Neil deGrasse TysonFinish Date: March 11, 2018
Genre: Astrophysics, Goodreads Choice Award Winner, Nonfiction, Science and Nature
Rating: B+
Review: This was the first time since maybe my childhood that I picked up a book that had anything to do with the exploration of the universe, and while it wasn't quite as "adult" as I may have been hoping, it surprised me with how succinctly but richly the universe was briefly explained. Initially I thought Tyson jumped around too much and felt dizzied by the lack of vocabulary that I felt I needed to understand even basic astrophysical concepts, but Tyson does a great job revisiting this vocabulary often enough to make the concepts at least as graspable as possible given that the book is being written for those "in a hurry." At the end of the day, this brief palette taster is supposed to make us dig deeper into how the universe works while also making us feel smaller (with a much-needed ego reduction), and though I probably would have been fine with another 100 pages, I feel full enough of information to at least begin to have a conversation about the cosmos.
5.
by
Jason ReynoldsFinish Date: March 19, 2018
Genre: Class Studies, Fiction, National Book Award Finalist, Poetry
Rating: B-
Review: A very unique literary interaction about the senseless cycle of violence that keeps America's young people from upward social mobility. At the same time, there was too much vagueness for my liking and the story never really resolved (may have been the point).
APRIL 6.
by
John GreenFinish Date: April 22, 2018
Genre: Fiction, Novels, Coming of Age, Goodreads Choice Award Winner
Rating: B
Review: I was late to the table in reading this novel, but I was pleased that it was much more interesting than the box of "teenage fiction" that it has been put in over the last few years. The character development is solid and realistic, and the novel reads irreverently in the best possible ways. Still, I felt like the scenes never truly took root, especially the trip to Amsterdam.
MAY 7.
by
Pamela Rotner SakamotoFinish Date: May 18, 2018
Genre: WWII, Japanese American, Classroom Books
Rating: B-
Review: This historical narrative is written from an incredibly interesting premise: a family separated by war in Japan and America struggling to find how to contribute to their own nations but also how to preserve their lives and family ties. Sakamoto does an incredible job showing the complexity of this dynamic, and her research into this family's experience is professionally executed. At the same time, I found the book a bit too tedious. I didn't think it was necessarily interesting to recount Frank's experiences at Icchu in the detail that it was reported on, especially when we get a surprisingly sparse recollection of Harry's experience island hopping up to Japan.
8.
by
Charles FrazierFinish Date: May 30, 2018
Genre: Civil War, Fiction, Novel, Appalachian Literature
Rating: A
Review: One of the best gifts I've ever received was a signed first edition (first printing) of Cold Mountain made out to my newborn daughter, Ada, by Charles Frazier. I still remember the day I walked into the bookshop in Asheville, The Captain's Bookshelf, and found the copy bound in parchment brown paper ready to take home. Some would say that my retrieval was nothing more than an exercise in relic collecting, but to me, it was a connection with an author that evokes landscapes and the human condition in a manner that echoes the timelessness and mystique of Southern Appalachia, a region I have come to call home.
Varina is in many ways the sequel to Cold Mountain in ways that Thirteen Moons and Nightwoods never were. Once again, Frazier uses an Odyssey-like structure with Varina and her band of fugitives as they flee towards Havana away from Federal marauders. Unlike in Cold Mountain , the narrative is constantly interrupted by biographical details of Varina's early childhood or her last weeks conversing with her adopted son, James Blake, both of which serve to augment Varina's personality.
The real strengths of this book lie in the delicate prose and complexities that surround Varina. It is hard to make an 18th-century Confederate widow attractive to a 2018 audience, but Frazier is a master at understanding the human conditions that run consistently through time. Varina is in every way a modern woman though locked for decades behind her husband's defeat and children's sufferings and deaths. It is through this suffering that Varina is released finally to be the witty, outspoken courageous woman that was buried behind her political and familial veils.
This novel is more Southern than Appalachian, at least in setting, but it retains the slow, deliberate unfolding rhythm that has come to characterize the southern mountain landscape. As a result of this tone, the condemnations of slavery and subjection of women do not singe in overt disparagement but unravel slowly and with a more organic, human effect. The flow of time prevails, however, and not all is resolved. Varina still can't seem to grasp why Ellen, her house slave, does not seem to recognize how well she was treated by the Davis family, and even when James points out that inconsistency, that she was actually OWNED, Varina bounds from confrontation.
There are so many levels to this novel, which is why it should automatically be considered great, though maybe not necessarily another National Book Award winner. Frazier will always be in the shadow of his first work, which he actually recognizes through the musings of Sarah Dorsey, but this work should take him one step further in placing him as a masterful writer than can and will stand the test of time.
Matthew wrote: "8. by Charles FrazierFinish Date: May 30, 2018
Genre: Civil War, Fiction, Novel, Appalachian Literature
Rating: A
Review..."
Thanks for the nice review, Matthew. I recently bought the book and I'm looking forward to read it!
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by
Pamela Rotner Sakamoto
Harmke wrote: "Matthew wrote: "8. by Charles FrazierFinish Date: May 30, 2018
Genre: Civil War, Fiction, Novel, Appalachian Literature
..."
Thanks! Let me know when you finish it! It's really good.
JUNE 9.
by
Jim DeFeliceFinish Date: June 29, 2018
Genre: American West, Exploration, American History
Rating: B
Review: It is obvious from the beginning of this very well researched and thorough monograph that it is more of a labor of love by DeFelice than it is actually a pure history of the Pony Express. That being said, you get more of a sense of what was going on in the various locales that the Pony passed through than what the actual pony riders were doing, which at times was disappointing. There are also extensive detours through the events of the Civil War, which I thought was a little bit too tangential, but the book's treatment of the financial intricacies of how the Pony operated and ultimately failed were fascinating. Strange to think that the ascendance of Wells Fargo came on the back of the Pony's failure. I was really hoping to get more in terms of what it was like to traverse the desolate areas of Utah and Nevada, and the parts of the book that DeFelice uses to highlight this terrifying area are well done but sparse. The treatment of the Paiute War is also brief but fascinating.
JULY 10.
by C. Hodge Mathes (No photo)Finish Date: July 4, 2018
Genre: Appalachian History, Short Stories, Turn of 20th Century
Rating: A+
Review: I found this collection of short stories from UNC Asheville's library while looking for a general history of Appalachia. Mathes turns out to be an academic from East Tennessee that documented some of these incredible stories he was told over his time teaching and living on the Tennessee side of the Smokies. Incredibly, there are numerous examples of the same stereotypes that have held general American perceptions of Appalachian characters now for over a century. What Mathes accomplishes is giving a voice to a group of people that were unique yet not victims of the modern world around them, which spins J.D. Vance's narrative on its side a bit. The characters in these Smoky tales have plenty of cleverness and empathy though they're stubborn and isolated. This collection is a true treasure trove of stories just waiting to be retold time and time again in casual or academic settings.
11.
by Elizabeth Catte (No photo)Finish Date: July 12, 2018
Genre: Appalachian History, Class Studies, Environment
Rating: A-/B+
Review: While the pretext of this book is a diatribe against JD Vance and his overly simplistic and stereotypical evaluation of modern Appalachia, I felt that Dr. Catte accomplishing something much more valuable. What she was able to do was fuse the relaxed accessibility of a memoir tone with the strength of academic rigor. She let the sources speak for themselves while also bringing emotion to the story. Vance came to speak at my school in the spring, and I got the sense that he was tired of being the spokesman for all of Appalachia, which may be a title he inherited and never wanted. With this title, however, comes the responsibility of letting the sources and people speak for themselves. Vance seems more interested in caricaturing than digging into complexities, which is Catte's main point at the end of the day. This book may also serve as an example of what history by Millenials will feel and look like-much more off the cuff than pure information, still with the authority of sources.
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Matthew wrote: "Harmke wrote: "Matthew wrote: "8. by Charles FrazierFinish Date: May 30, 2018
Genre: Civil War, Fiction, Novel, Appalach..."
Well, it took me quite a while before I started reading this book, but I finally read it. And I loved it. I agree with you that the strenght of this book is in bringing Varina to life for us, in the 21st century.
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The History Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
Varina (other topics)What You Are Getting Wrong about Appalachia (other topics)
Tall Tales from Old Smoky (other topics)
West Like Lightning: The Brief, Legendary Ride of the Pony Express (other topics)
Varina (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Charles Frazier (other topics)Elizabeth Catte (other topics)
Charles Hodge Mathes (other topics)
Jim DeFelice (other topics)
Charles Frazier (other topics)
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