{"id":5673,"date":"2016-01-19T10:05:33","date_gmt":"2016-01-19T14:05:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/?p=5673"},"modified":"2024-09-05T21:58:19","modified_gmt":"2024-09-06T01:58:19","slug":"december-books-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/2016\/01\/19\/december-books-2\/","title":{"rendered":"December Books"},"content":{"rendered":"

December is always a big reading month for me. Each year I read Jean Shepherd\u2019s A Christmas Story<\/em>, 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.<\/p>\n

2015 was no exception. I knocked out eight books this December! I think that\u2019s even more impressive given the final book was a nearly 800-page beast that took over a week to get through the first quarter or so. But it was worth the effort.<\/p>\n

For the year I ended up with 54 books read.<\/p>\n

Rather than full accountings of each December book, I\u2019ll offer just a few words about most of them.<\/p>\n

Between the World And Me<\/a><\/em> – Ta-Nehisi Coates.
\nOne of the most discussed books of the year, I found Coates\u2019 memoir, written as a letter to his son, both interesting and disturbing. He makes some important points about race relations in this, allegedly, post-racial age.
\nA Christmas Story: Behind The Scenes of a Holiday Classic<\/a><\/em> – Caseen Gaines
\nFull of wonderful trivia about the movie, but too much focus on the modern part of the movie\u2019s legacy like the museum in Cleveland and the Broadway play.
\nA Christmas Story<\/a><\/em> – Jean Shepherd
\nRequired reading before I watch the movie each year.
\nFinale<\/a><\/em> – Thomas Mallon
\nMallon\u2019s fictionalized take on the most trying time of the Reagan presidency: the fall of 1986 when Republicans failed to win several key Senate seats, the Iran-Contra scandal was breaking, and Reagan\u2019s first effort to reach agreement with Mikhail Gorbachev to reduce nuclear weapons failed. I found it far too gossipy. The early glimmers of Reagan\u2019s Alzheimer\u2019s are both frightening – he was president after all! – and incredibly sad.
\nMusic Lust<\/a><\/em> – Nic Harcourt
\nMusic suggestions from all genres by the KCRW DJ, who\u2019s show Morning Becomes Eclectic was a must-listen show in the early days of streaming audio.
\nThe Further Adventures of Ebenezer Scrooge<\/a><\/em> – Charlie Lovett
\nSucked.
\nThe Tooth Fairy<\/a><\/em> – Clifford Chase
\nAnother personal memoir, this time told in brief fragments that seemed pulled from Chase\u2019s journals. They tell the story both of his sexual awakening – he had a long-term relationship with a woman even as he knew he was gay – and retrace the final years of the life of his older brother, who was also gay and died of AIDS in the late 1980s.
\nA Brief History of Seven Killings<\/a><\/em> – Marlon James
\nFinally this.<\/p>\n

Wow, what a book. It is mostly set in Jamaica, and its jumping off point is the assassination attempt on Bob Marley just before the 1976 elections. Each chapter is told in first person by a revolving cast of characters, primarily a series of crime bosses and their underlings, but also through CIA officials, and everyday Jamaicans who get sucked into the plot.<\/p>\n

James is Jamaican by birth, and writes as the narrator of each chapter would speak. Especially early in the book, some of the passages are nearly incomprehensible to my Middle America ear. But eventually, with some help from a few online Jamaican slang guides, I was able to understand what the hell some of these characters were saying. And once I settled in, the last 500+ pages raced by.<\/p>\n

This book is absolutely brilliant. It ticks every box you need to call it epic. It covers a nearly 30-year time range. It travels between Jamaica to New York. It hits Jamaican domestic politics, US foreign policy, the rise of crack in the 1980s, and the move from a country dominated by crime syndicates to one where violence is much more widespread and random. It hits sexual politics and the meaning of personal identity. It\u2019s deeply funny. Its representation of violence and sexuality is difficult to read at times.<\/p>\n

James is beyond ambitious in Seven Killings<\/em>. But he pulls it off wonderfully. It\u2019s one of those huge books that doesn\u2019t necessarily tie up every loose end as it closes. But I did love who James chose to have the final word, and how that character\u2019s story wrapped up.<\/p>\n

Along with Fourth Of July Creek<\/em>, this was my favorite read of 2015.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

December is always a big reading month for me. Each year I read Jean Shepherd\u2019s 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 out eight books this December! I think that\u2019s even more impressive given the final book was a nearly 800-page beast that took over a week to get through the first quarter or so. But it was worth the effort. For the year I ended up with 54 books read. Rather than full accountings of each December book, I\u2019ll offer just a few words about most of them. Between the World And Me – Ta-Nehisi Coates. One of the most discussed books of the year, I found Coates\u2019 memoir, written as a letter to his son, both interesting and disturbing. He makes some important points about race relations in this, allegedly, post-racial age. A Christmas Story: Behind The Scenes of a Holiday Classic – Caseen Gaines Full of wonderful trivia about the movie, but too much focus on the modern part of the movie\u2019s legacy like the museum in Cleveland and the Broadway play. A Christmas Story – Jean Shepherd Required reading before I watch the movie each year. Finale – Thomas Mallon Mallon\u2019s fictionalized take on the most trying time of the Reagan presidency: the fall of 1986 when Republicans failed to win several key Senate seats, the Iran-Contra scandal was breaking, and Reagan\u2019s first effort to reach agreement with Mikhail Gorbachev to reduce nuclear weapons failed. I found it far too gossipy. The early glimmers of Reagan\u2019s Alzheimer\u2019s are both frightening – he was president after all! – and incredibly sad. Music Lust – Nic Harcourt Music suggestions from all genres by the KCRW DJ, who\u2019s show Morning Becomes Eclectic was a must-listen show in the early days of streaming audio. The Further Adventures of Ebenezer Scrooge – Charlie Lovett Sucked. The Tooth Fairy – Clifford Chase Another personal memoir, this time told in brief fragments that seemed pulled from Chase\u2019s journals. They tell the story both of his sexual awakening – he had a long-term relationship with a woman even as he knew he was gay – and retrace the final years of the life of his older brother, who was also gay and died of AIDS in the late 1980s. A Brief History of Seven Killings – Marlon James Finally this. Wow, what a book. It is mostly set in Jamaica, and its jumping off point is the assassination attempt on Bob Marley just before the 1976 elections. Each chapter is told in first person by a revolving cast of characters, primarily a series of crime bosses and their underlings, but also through CIA officials, and everyday Jamaicans who get sucked into the plot. James is Jamaican by birth, and writes as the narrator of each chapter would speak. Especially early in the book, some of the passages are nearly incomprehensible to my Middle America ear. But eventually, with some help from a few online Jamaican slang guides, I was able to understand what the hell some of these characters were saying. And once I settled in, the last 500+ pages raced by. This book is absolutely brilliant. It ticks every box you need to call it epic. It covers a nearly 30-year time range. It travels between Jamaica to New York. It hits Jamaican domestic politics, US foreign policy, the rise of crack in the 1980s, and the move from a country dominated by crime syndicates to one where violence is much more widespread and random. It hits sexual politics and the meaning of personal identity. It\u2019s deeply funny. Its representation of violence and sexuality is difficult to read at times. James is beyond ambitious in Seven Killings. But he pulls it off wonderfully. It\u2019s one of those huge books that doesn\u2019t necessarily tie up every loose end as it closes. But I did love who James chose to have the final word, and how that character\u2019s story wrapped up. Along with Fourth Of July Creek, this was my favorite read of 2015.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7],"class_list":["post-5673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-books"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5673"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5673\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13891,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5673\/revisions\/13891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}