Reading List 2013: Eight I Loved

1. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. You will read into the night, miss your subway stop, forget to eat. Near the end, you will read in small draughts. Finishing will be a bereavement.   
2. Tenth of December by George Saunders. Saunders will break your heart. Every story. Every time. 
3. Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood and the Prison of Belief by Lawrence Wright. Meticulous, judicious, painstakingly documented. Still leaves you (what the) stunned and slack-jawed (hell?).
4. A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra. How to make sense of war, torture, guns, bombs, refugees, orphans, human trafficking, betrayal, exile, despair. Goodness. Kindness. Hope.      
5. Drunk Mom by Jowita Bydlowska. How to make sense of addiction. (Begin with the truth, as Bydlowska does here.)
6. Are You My Mother by Alison Bechdel.  Remote mother, lost father, theories of attachment, the making of art, and other lifelong puzzles. Graphic memoir, brilliantly and beautifully done.
7. The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaimon. Small book yet spacious enough to contain the Big Bang, the history of myth, and one particular childhood.
8. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson. Smart, skillful novel tracing the many possible lives of the heroine, born in 1911, and her many possible deaths.