Thursday, January 11, 2007
Saturday, January 06, 2007
Great Books of 2006
My resolutions for 2007 include visiting my gynecologist regularly (to ensure that my polyps don’t get too comfortable living in my body), avoiding flings with younger men (don’t ask, don’t ask), and reading more books. Of these three resolutions, I feel pretty sure that I’ll stick to the last one til the end of 2007.
To give thanks to 2006 for being magnificent to me, here is a list of the best books I’ve read in the last year. Don’t expect literary criticisms of the intellectual sort. These are my favorite books because they kept me amused and out of mischief. And they gave quite a few good one-liners to text to my boy toys of the month (lightning strike me now)
1. Home from the Vinyl Café by Stuart McLean – it’s a compilation of essays about Dave, the owner of a used record store, his wife Morley and his kids Stephanie and Sam. It tells of how Dave becomes a hypochondriac over a zit on his face; how Arthur, the family dog, rules over the entire household; how Dave toilet trained their cat Galway; and how Morley had to purchase an…uhhhh… athletic cup for Sam; and how the family sends off Stephanie on her first date. It’s such a great book that I bought its sequel, The Vinyl Café Unplugged, where Sam learned how to knit, which inspired me to do the same. Also included a great selection of early rock and roll stuff.
2. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris – David Sedaris is my new favorite gay man, next to the Fab 5 and the gay merman of my dreams. He lives in a bubble of his own grandeur, where he floats on clouds perfumed by the drama of daytime soap operas and the drama of his five sisters, his hippie mom and his strait-laced dad. He laments about having a lisp in grade school, nearly dies of embarrassment at being a real nudist camp, and freaks out at being mistaken for a housecleaner who cleans in the buff. All his books are great (Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, Barrel Fever, Naked, and Holidays on Ice, although Holidays on Ice was a bit dark and uncomfortable for me, which is how David Sedaris probably is in real life). The one time he was in Manila for a book signing, I had to work late in the office. But I‘m not worried, I will meet him one day on the set of whatever his favorite daytime soap is. And we will have champagne and hit it off.
3. The Electric Michelangelo by Sarah Hall – tells of a tattoo artist in Coney Island in the 1920s and his masterpiece, The Lady with One Thousand Eyes. Any work of fiction about tattoos will certainly be on my must-read list. It was from this book that I got my concept for next year's Halloween costume.
4. Wicked by Gregory McGuire – a good follow-up read after you’ve gotten too old for fairy tales. This book will tell you that The Wicked Witch of the West was not all evil, and that the Witch of the East was not all good, and that Dorothy is slightly annoying. Must read Mirror Mirror, and Son of a Witch. Haven’t gotten around to Lost yest, although I hear good things about it.
5. My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult – the one book that drove me to tears while reading it. If you have a sibling who’s your best friend, you must read this book and have your sibling read it too and you’ll give your kidney, liver, eyeballs, ovaries, split-ends and any other body parts your sibling will need to survive.
6. Stainless Longanisa by Bob Ong – he gives the words “Super sorry” and “Super thank you” a whole new meaning. Perfect reading when lounging in Tamaraw Beach in Puerto Galera. If I meet Bob Ong in real life, I wouldn’t ask him to sign my books. I’d invite him to have a beer with me.
7. Different Dances by Shel Silverstein – the only book Shel Silverstein drew expressly for adults. Some cartoons are dark, some laugh-out-loud hilarious, some too awwwww for words, all beautiful. Shel Silverstein is a scary-looking dude (shiny bald head, dark and fully-bearded chin, glowering expression, dirty feet) but understands children perfectly. It still saddens me that he passed away seven years ago but am comforted that he still is the light in my attic.
8. The Time Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Niffeneger – the saddest story about waiting. Henry moves forward and backward in time with no prior notice, and his wife Clare waits for him from whenever he comes from. This book is also a great reference of British punk rock in the 80s; first time I read about Violent Femmes' “Blister in the Sun” in a novel.
9. The Venetian’s Wife by Nick Bantock – not a sequel to the Griffith and Sabine books, as I thought. No envelopes to open, no love notes to eavesdrop on, no postcards from another dimension to read. But there’s a diary to snoop into and a ghost to deal with. And the art is exquisite.
10. Anonymous Rex by Eric Garcia -- it's about a dinosaur private investigator dressed as a human being. There's this great big bunch of dinosaurs that managed to evade extinction and live dressed as humans and interact with humans. Dinosaurs get drunk on herbs and emit a scent, each as individual as fingerprints. I want to be a dinosaur.
Must reads for 2007.
1. Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s How to Paint Sunlight
2. Marcel Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past
Can’t find either book in Manila. Saw them in Singapore but didn’t buy them because I was too kuripot for words. I live to regret this.
Any other book I should know about? Let me know, got loads of free time on my hands.
To give thanks to 2006 for being magnificent to me, here is a list of the best books I’ve read in the last year. Don’t expect literary criticisms of the intellectual sort. These are my favorite books because they kept me amused and out of mischief. And they gave quite a few good one-liners to text to my boy toys of the month (lightning strike me now)
1. Home from the Vinyl Café by Stuart McLean – it’s a compilation of essays about Dave, the owner of a used record store, his wife Morley and his kids Stephanie and Sam. It tells of how Dave becomes a hypochondriac over a zit on his face; how Arthur, the family dog, rules over the entire household; how Dave toilet trained their cat Galway; and how Morley had to purchase an…uhhhh… athletic cup for Sam; and how the family sends off Stephanie on her first date. It’s such a great book that I bought its sequel, The Vinyl Café Unplugged, where Sam learned how to knit, which inspired me to do the same. Also included a great selection of early rock and roll stuff.
2. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris – David Sedaris is my new favorite gay man, next to the Fab 5 and the gay merman of my dreams. He lives in a bubble of his own grandeur, where he floats on clouds perfumed by the drama of daytime soap operas and the drama of his five sisters, his hippie mom and his strait-laced dad. He laments about having a lisp in grade school, nearly dies of embarrassment at being a real nudist camp, and freaks out at being mistaken for a housecleaner who cleans in the buff. All his books are great (Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, Barrel Fever, Naked, and Holidays on Ice, although Holidays on Ice was a bit dark and uncomfortable for me, which is how David Sedaris probably is in real life). The one time he was in Manila for a book signing, I had to work late in the office. But I‘m not worried, I will meet him one day on the set of whatever his favorite daytime soap is. And we will have champagne and hit it off.
3. The Electric Michelangelo by Sarah Hall – tells of a tattoo artist in Coney Island in the 1920s and his masterpiece, The Lady with One Thousand Eyes. Any work of fiction about tattoos will certainly be on my must-read list. It was from this book that I got my concept for next year's Halloween costume.
4. Wicked by Gregory McGuire – a good follow-up read after you’ve gotten too old for fairy tales. This book will tell you that The Wicked Witch of the West was not all evil, and that the Witch of the East was not all good, and that Dorothy is slightly annoying. Must read Mirror Mirror, and Son of a Witch. Haven’t gotten around to Lost yest, although I hear good things about it.
5. My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult – the one book that drove me to tears while reading it. If you have a sibling who’s your best friend, you must read this book and have your sibling read it too and you’ll give your kidney, liver, eyeballs, ovaries, split-ends and any other body parts your sibling will need to survive.
6. Stainless Longanisa by Bob Ong – he gives the words “Super sorry” and “Super thank you” a whole new meaning. Perfect reading when lounging in Tamaraw Beach in Puerto Galera. If I meet Bob Ong in real life, I wouldn’t ask him to sign my books. I’d invite him to have a beer with me.
7. Different Dances by Shel Silverstein – the only book Shel Silverstein drew expressly for adults. Some cartoons are dark, some laugh-out-loud hilarious, some too awwwww for words, all beautiful. Shel Silverstein is a scary-looking dude (shiny bald head, dark and fully-bearded chin, glowering expression, dirty feet) but understands children perfectly. It still saddens me that he passed away seven years ago but am comforted that he still is the light in my attic.
8. The Time Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Niffeneger – the saddest story about waiting. Henry moves forward and backward in time with no prior notice, and his wife Clare waits for him from whenever he comes from. This book is also a great reference of British punk rock in the 80s; first time I read about Violent Femmes' “Blister in the Sun” in a novel.
9. The Venetian’s Wife by Nick Bantock – not a sequel to the Griffith and Sabine books, as I thought. No envelopes to open, no love notes to eavesdrop on, no postcards from another dimension to read. But there’s a diary to snoop into and a ghost to deal with. And the art is exquisite.
10. Anonymous Rex by Eric Garcia -- it's about a dinosaur private investigator dressed as a human being. There's this great big bunch of dinosaurs that managed to evade extinction and live dressed as humans and interact with humans. Dinosaurs get drunk on herbs and emit a scent, each as individual as fingerprints. I want to be a dinosaur.
Must reads for 2007.
1. Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s How to Paint Sunlight
2. Marcel Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past
Can’t find either book in Manila. Saw them in Singapore but didn’t buy them because I was too kuripot for words. I live to regret this.
Any other book I should know about? Let me know, got loads of free time on my hands.
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