Books 2019

Just about every single year, I tell myself I'll read more and watch less.  I don't know how many nights I end up clicking on some Netflix thing that looks mediocre just so I have something to entertain me during the late hours when everyone else in the house is asleep.  I'd love to say I was awesome at cutting that out so that I could read (something I did with abandon as a child), but I'm still pretty mediocre at it.  Here's to 2020 being the year of the book!

Here is everything I read in 2019:

1. Stephen King - The Outsider.  While there is definitely a part of me that wants King to go back to the more supernatural-centric stuff of his old books, I'm also well aware that much of the meat of his old books, like this one, have nothing to do with the actual monster but instead focus on how the humans cope with the monster in their life.  Another quick, easy read from King, I crushed this one in like 3 days, with about half of it devoured on Father's Day when I had a good excuse to ignore everyone and read.  Two odd observations about this one, which he based in Oklahoma (for some reason).  The majority of his books have been based in Maine, and because he has inhabited that space all his life, the scenery and quirks of that environment are perfect.  For his vision of Oklahoma (and a little Texas), he very much made it Trump country, with repeated references to Trump signs and graffiti and ephemera.  OK, that is probably true, if a little odd (being that I don't recall his prior books ever mentioning signs for Reagan or Carter or Bush or Clinton, so why start that so heavily now?)  The other thing that I found odd is that the only beer that I recall being mentioned in the book is Shiner.  Like three different times - once when a main character was drinking them in his backyard, and a second time when talking about some litter.  I would honestly be surprised if anyone in Oklahoma drank much Shiner.  I think the more realistic thing for these characters to have in shitkicker rural Oklahoma is like Miller Lite or Budweiser.  But maybe I'm wrong and everyone in OK loves the taste of an old school University of Texas tailgate.  Anyway, I got off track here.  The book was good, I liked the characters and the development of the first conflict was very good.
2. Daisy Jones & The Six - Taylor Jenkins Reid.  I enjoyed this book, even though it was pretty well chock full or generic tropes of the rock and roll lifestyle.  Sex, drugs, & rock and roll, with some jealousy and egos rolled in.  More than anything, I wish they were a real band and I could hear the tunes.
3. Sound of Gravel - Ruth Wariner.  Oh fuck me, man.  This book was really hard.  We listened to it as an audible book on a road trip (with the kids in headphone-land) and the kiddie sexual assault and twisted life of the Mormon folks in this book is just disturbing.  I guess it was good?  It was a memoir, so I'll definitely say that the author did a damn good job of telling the story and making it all accessible, but its a really difficult story to listen to.
4. The Passage / The Twelve / The City of Mirrors - Justin Cronin.  A trilogy set in a dystopian future, written by a Rice professor and therefore containing a good number of fun Texas references.  The start is pretty plain - government idiots think they can control a discovered virus/sickness that turns people into vampire-ish things, but that doesn't work out and the whole world goes to hell.  But I very much enjoyed some of the little worlds that Cronin built in here, the California settlement, the Kerrville space, even the horrible one in Iowa, they all get rich detail that sucked me in even when some of the narrative threads got thin.  And that is the one downfall to this, to me, is that he stretches out this story into like 2,500 pages when it probably could have been told in half that.
5. Ben Ratliff - Every Song Ever.  This was a really damn hard read.  I read a glowing review of it in Rolling Stone a while back, and tossed it in the Amazon cart, to then receive it for Christmas.  I've spent the last three or four months slogging through the text.  The intro made it sound really interesting, discussing how the instant access to an unimaginably wide scope of music makes this one of the most interesting times for music.  He also talks, in that intro, about this unlimited source of music can be a bad thing, and lead to a calcification of taste and silo-ing into certain musical styles because the offering is otherwise so overwhelming.  This part sounded interesting to me.  And then the book itself is just a series of deep dive essays into individual aspects of music - like a chapter on sadness in music, or quiet in music, or whatever.  And he'll use some modern/mainstream examples, but then throw in some world music or obscure metal band, and so without actually going to Spotify and listening to the tunes (that I don't already know), it makes it hard to comprehend his point.  But there is little in the way of narrative or connective tissue, just him jumping around to different obscure pieces of music and noting how some certain aspect of those pieces of music reflect a certain attribute.  I think it would work much better as a video presentation or podcast, where could could play the bits of the songs he wants you to notice.
6. The Power - Naomi Alderson.  This book has an extremely cool concept - one day almost every 14-16 year old girl in the world suddenly gains the power to create electricity from their fingertips - but I didn't feel like it developed the story enough.  Quick and easy read - one of those where the characters each get a chapter at a time and then later some of them blend together.  And like I said, the concept, and what it would mean for the world if the balance of power - actual, physical, complete power - shifted to women, was a fascinating idea and a good spark to get my brain running in fun directions.  I just wish the stories would have been more fully fleshed out and some rabbit trails followed.  Felt like the author had this great idea but then had a deadline to publish.
7. Night Road - Kristin Hannah.  Oh God, this book was brutal.  We listened to it on audiobook thing while driving on vacation, and I was initially excited about it.  Her book The Nightingale was a solid story based in World War Two occupied France, so I was hopeful about this one.  No.  Instead, I got like 18 hours of tortured prose that focused very heavily on the style of clothing each character was wearing in any given scene, and page after page of describing how difficult grieving can be.  After a while, the wife and I just laughed at some of the tired and tortured lines.  Basic story is a teen dies because of drunk driving and the effect on everyone around the death.  Oh, and one of the character voices was the most annoying thing ever - I know its likely super hard to make a million different voices for all the characters in a book, but this was nails on chalkboard.  Also one of those where the resolution doesn't feel especially earned - like, I just spent seventeen and a half hours in despair and anger and sadness WITH NO WAY OUUUUUTTTT!, but then a switch flipped and we cool.  Nope.
8. The Last House Guest - Megan Miranda.  Also did this one via audiobook, and it was vastly better.  A who-done-it mystery set in a tiny Maine vacation town and following the lives of both the poorer locals and the filthy rich summer folks.  Held our attention well, the ending was a good surprise, and no major complaints.
9. Wise Blood - Flannery O'Connor.  Holy shit, this was a mind-fuck of a book.  If you read my normal blogging, then you know that I had reviewed Weyes Blood, the "band" made up of a lady who is a large fan of this book.  When I found that out, I needed to read the book, as O'Connor's short story collection was an old favorite.  This thing is crazy as hell, a weird, violent, contradictory tale of a confused young man who either loves or hates religion and is continually in a state of existential crisis.  Beautifully written (albeit with some offensive pieces that might have been more acceptable when the book was published).  Enjoyed it for sure.