The eighth addition of the "Scooties" books of my year was marked by trilogies and a dearth of time to invest in as much reading as I would've liked. Of course, as usual, a few tales picked me up and shook me.
Without further ado ...
#1: “Girl
with the Dragon Tattoo,” by Stieg Larsson
What I
Say Now:
This
novel passed the border from engrossing to mesmerizing, with Larsson’s seamless
merging of the Blomkvist and Salander storylines halfway through the book being
a true feat of literature. Larsson’s prose is stilted and factual—belying the
journalist he was in life—but the absorbing mystery of the story steamrolled
any potential issues with translation. Lisbeth Salander is hailed in some
quarters as the most fierce and complex heroine in the history of literature,
and it is her intricate, many-edged psychology that truly powers the book, which
features one of the most memorable closing lines I’ve read: “She tossed Elvis
into a dumpster.”
Passage
to Remember:
“An
unloved girl with odd behavior … a taciturn girl with hostile vibrations.”
“Blomkvist
had opened the door to hell.”
#2: “White
Plague,” by Frank Herbert
What I
Say Now:
This
30-year-old tour de force builds a steady momentum, spreading like the virus it
tracks throughout the plot. With shifting perspectives, it can be difficult to
keep characters straight, but Herbert reels you in with subtle humor and
manages to eclipse even the political and societal reverberations described
throughout with a walloping conclusion. Like Larsson, Herbert quietly builds a
story that runs on—and pays homage to—girl power, long before the Spice Girls
stumbled into the spotlight.
Passages
to Remember:
“Every
outrage has its own euphemism, Enos.”
“ … the
essence of diplomacy—creating acceptable solutions out of lies?”
“The
failure of civilization can be detected by the gap between public and private
morality. The wider the gap, the nearer the civilization to final dissolution.”
#3: “Revival,”
by Stephen King
What I
Say Now:
The King
of foreshadowing hits his trademark hard in this one. While channeling his
personal stance on religion in the form of “The Terrible Sermon,” King makes
the audience wait for the creepy shit to get rolling with the minister. When it
finally arrives, the payoff is well worth the suspense, as he paints a scene on
par with any horror he’s described during his illustrious career. Somehow King
has managed to forge new ground here by intertwining questions of faith and the
politics of religion with a coming-of-age tale that deals with the consequences
of innocence truly and irrevocably lost.
Passages
to Remember:
“I muse
on that, sometimes, Jamie. When I can’t sleep. How a little paint can make
shallow water seem deep.”
“I
remember sunsets as red as the blood on my father’s knuckles, and how that
makes me shiver now.”
“He
spoke with the patience of a true believer. Or a lunatic. Maybe there’s really
no difference.”
“I
thought of how life had been before I realized I was a frog in a pot.”
#4: “A
Short History of Nearly Everything,” by Bill Bryson
What I
Say Now:
It took
me quite a while to slog through this one, but Bryson did a pretty good job of
taking textbook-y material and making it readable, with a few comedic wrinkles
sprinkled in. I will say it that it made me feel a little bit smarter by the
end of it, which is no small feat.
Passages
to Remember:
“It is a
curious feature of our existence that we come from a planet that is very good
at promoting life but even better at extinguishing it.”
“There
seemed to be a mystifying universal conspiracy among textbook authors to make
certain the material they dealt with never strayed too near the realm of the
mildly interesting and was always at least a long-distance phone call from the
frankly interesting.”
“It’s an
unnerving thought that we may be the living universe’s supreme achievement and
its worst nightmare simultaneously.”
#5: “Slow
Getting Up,” by Nate Jackson
What I
Say Now:
Jackson’s
hilarious, revealing and thoughtful autobiography peels back the façade of
modern-day pro football. From painkillers to sexcapades to Cognac on the
sideline, he destroys the romanticism of the game, shedding light on how
players must assimilate or disappear. He stops short of diming out specific players
at times, but he eviscerates former Denver coach Josh McDaniel. The book has
some repetition and a few mistakes, but overall this was a clever tale, told
from the perspective of the guy whose NFL existence is decided week to week,
far from the glow of ESPN and fantasy football.
Passages
to Remember:
“In the NFL, you are alive until
you are dead. There is no in between, and no way to put yourself on the other
side mentally. You fight every day to keep your job by convincing yourself that
you belong. And every day you return to work and see your name still posted
above your locker is proof that you deserve that locker. Then one day, fate
sneaks up behind you, taps you on the shoulder, and breaks your nose—or blows
out your knee.
“Then
it’s over.”
“Football
players are conditioned for violence. We are at home in the melee. We may have
moments of quiet reservation and doubt when lying on our living room couches,
but on the field we are pulled toward the mayhem. The feel of the helmet and
shoulder pads, the sound of the whistle, the taste of the mouthpiece, the smell
of grass and sweat: sacraments for bloodshed.”
“One day after the next: all days
the same. It’s the routine of football in the lives of football men that quiets
the demons within. It’s the routine that keeps them at bay. And it is the end
of the routine that we all fear.”
“Satisfied
that my endless pursuit of football perfection has finally been reached, or is
finally revealed as unreachable, the hand of fate steadies, lines up the scope,
and pulls the trigger. No doubts this time. The sniper hits his mark.”
Honorable
Mention (in 10 words or less):
“Zen of
Marketing,” by Seth Godin: Fascinating and unique look at applying practical
marketing applications.
“A Drink
Before the War,” by Dennis Lehane: Absorbing debut novel from a promising
writer who chose cinema.
“Mr.
Mercedes,” Stephen King: Foray into detective genre lacks characteristic King
pacing.
“Girl
Who Played with Fire,” by Steig Larsson: Salander and Blomvkist return to tackle
conspiracies and sex trafficking.
“Divergent,” Veronica Roth: “Hunger Games” Lite.
“Insurgent,” Veronica Roth: “Hunger Games”
Lite-r.
“Allegiant,” Veronica Roth: “Hunger
Games” Lite-est.
