June Books
June Books Time for our mid-month review of last month’s books. Your Favorite Band Is Killing Me – Steven Hyden. I’ve been waiting for this one for quite awhile. Hyden has been my favorite music writer for some time now, going back to when he wrote for the AV Club and Pitchfork. His Grantland profile of The War on Drugs…
May Books
It’s becoming habit that I wait well into the new month before I share the list of books I read the previous month. Which, as I always say, makes it hard to write about the books I read six weeks earlier. I’ve been doing this over 10 years, and I still always put off writing my summaries until well after…
April Books
Yikes, I forgot to share my April books. Which is kind of understandable, as it was just a two-book month. A beast followed by a palate cleanser. My Struggle, Book 2: A Man In Love – Karl Ove Knausgaard. My feelings about this mirror my feelings about Book 1: I keep wondering why I’m enjoying it so much. Why am…
March Books
I’m getting a little behind on my reading. I did knock out four books last night – that includes a photography book not listed below – but we’re halfway into April and I’m only halfway through my current book, with about 300 pages to go. Spring break, kid sports, watching baseball most evenings, and a huge book have ground things…
On Witches and Wizards
For several years I’ve been trying to get M to read the Harry Potter series. She loves reading to begin with, and is especially fond of lengthy series, so it seemed like a perfect match. However, each time I recommended the books to her, she said she wasn’t interested. I would point out other kids her age, or even younger,…
February Books
Another productive month, even with a couple wrinkles thrown in. I had my first abandoned book of the year in February. Leif G.W. Persson’s Between Summer’s Longing and Winter’s End has been on my To Read list for a few years now. Occasionally I would breeze by it at the library and take a look. But between its size (550+…
January Books
A slow start to the new year, with only three books completed. But I did have some other things going on in January. I polished off my first book of February Sunday night, so I’ll include it in this list. The Whites – Richard Price writing as Harry Brandt Richard Price is one of the best crime writers around. In…
December Books
December is always a big reading month for me. Each year I read Jean Shepherd’s A Christmas Story, which only takes a couple hours. I generally squeeze in at least one other quick Christmas read. And then the holiday break at the end of the month allows me to really finish the year strong. 2015 was no exception. I knocked…
November Books
A lighter month, as I tackled another beast of a book and then punted most of Thanksgiving week. With a strong finish – and December always includes a few traditional and quick reads – I’ll get to 52 books for the year. The Cartel – Don Winslow What is the official threshold that you need to cross for your book…
October Books
Despite all the baseball last month, I still managed to get through four books. One of which inspired me to read two other of my October selections. For those keeping score at home, I began November with 44 books read for the year so far. Night Soldiers – Alan Furst You may recall I read Furst’s Dark Star a couple…