The book critics at LA Weekly have their end-of-year book list out and I like it. The theme is "undernourished" books and for once, out of all the list madness and all my irritations with lists that look the same (Chabon, Diaz, Johnson) and do little to embrace smaller presses, I'm pleased.
Who's on their list?
- The Descendants by Kaui Hart Hemmings
- The Long Embrace by Judith Freeman
- Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You by Peter Cameron
- Ten Days in the Hills by Jane Smiley
- Out Stealing Horses by Per Patterson
- The Exception by Christian Jungersen
- Radiant Days by Michael Fitzgerald
- Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris
- Creem: America's Only Rock 'n' Roll Magazine by Robert Matheu and Brian J. Bowe Collins
- What We Say Goes by Noam Chomsky and David Barsamian
- Storming the Gates of Paradise: Landscapes for Politics by Rebecca Solnit
- Listen Again: A Momentary History of Pop Music by Eric Weisbard
- My Lobotomy by Howard Dully and Charles Fleming
Bravo LA Weekly, b-r-a-v-o. A list that isn't too safe, that doesn't pander, that doesn't try to run with the big boys and water down all reading in the process.
Go check it out - the comments from the contributors are just as good as the list itself.
