I have a somewhat long commute to work these days, but usually I don’t mind the ride when I have a book to keep me company. Recently, my literary companion was the New York Times Arts section, featuring book critics Michiko Kakutani, Janet Maslin, and Dwight Garner. Those lucky ducks get to pick *ten* best books of the year! I can only dream of such critical richness. I read through the article several times: first for how many LJ Reviews had reviewed and/or selected for *our* Best Books of 2015, the second time for book recommendations (most def gonna read Lucia Berlin’s A Manual for Cleaning Women [Farrar] and Richard Price-writing-as-Harry Brandt’s The Whites [Holt]). The intro to the piece also drove me to the dictionary for the meaning of “rebarbative,” and I made a note to self to use the term sometime real soon.
Another note to self was to use buzzwords as deftly* and with as much suppleness* as Ms. Kakutani. I actually highlighted some of her best ones:
- The –ly phrases (I’m sure there’s some highfalutin’ term for these): achingly beautiful; keenly observed; richly detailed
- Other ly words: nimbly; arguably; timely; eloquently
- some very good descriptors: dazzling; kaleidoscopic; fleet-footed; inventive; artful; resonant; powerful; virtuosic; captivating; intertwining
- and one classy verb: showcases
She deploys these words nimbly*, but I actually agreed more with Dwight Garner’s picks. He’s got an interesting style, a little more self-referential but fun: He wrote about Asne Seirstad’s One of Us: The Story of Anders Breivik and the Massacre in Norway (Farrar) that “it’s a sober book that smells like fresh construction,” and referred to another title’s “mental heat” that is at the “far end of the Scoville scale”—pretty gripping* stuff! Not to mention that review of Helen Macdonald’s H Is for Hawk (Grove: Atlantic—an LJ Best Book of 2015, btw), in which he says “this memoir draws blood, in ways that are curative.” Impressive*.
Another thing that I admire in Garner’s body of criticism is the admission that maybe, just maybe, he made a goof. He says about Nell Zink’s Mislaid (another title I put on my TBR list*) that he initially gave it a mixed review, but adds that the book “stuck with me.” I know that second-look, second-guessing feeling quite well.
Janet Maslin also made some interesting picks, and she coined my favorite term in the piece: “Dylanageddon,” referring to when Bob Dylan went electric at the Newport Folk Festival (she was talking about Elijah Wald’s Dylan Goes Electric!, which LJ reviewed favorably in our July issue).
So as usual, what I’m reading made me wonder what you’re reading. Do you have a book that made you reconsider your initial review? Any books that “draw blood,” or are dazzling, kaleidoscopic, etc.? What are some of your top books for 2015?
*Buzzy buzzwords we like