Eva's 2017 Selected Book List, in no special order, except non-fiction is first. Compiled Dec. 5, 2017

1. Shen Fu compiled by Patrick Guinan ©2017, 96 pp. Photographic Plates. Shen Fu was a nickname for my uncle Dan Casey (1912-2000), O.P., who was a missionary in China 1946-49. Patrick solicited memories and photographs from all us cousins, and made this book available on Amazon. It’s a memorial not only to Fr. Dan, but to Patrick (1936-Sept. 8, 2017).

2. The Seven Storey Mountain, by Thomas Merton ©1948. Autobiography by a 31-year-old. “A classic is a book that remains in print”—Mark Van Doren (a favorite Columbia prof. of Merton’s). I am surprised that this was on the National Review’s list of the 100 best non-fiction books in the century. When Robert Giroux got the manuscript at Harcourt Brace he read it overnight (462 pp!)—I had the 50^th anniversary edition with an intro by Robert Giroux, giving a heads up about pre-Vatican II Catholicism, and exactly what the sins were that Merton thought were so bad they might disqualify him from the priesthood, but that are never itemized in the book. Merton was only 2.5 years younger than Fr. Dan--same era. I remember my mother reading this in the 1950’s.

3. Giant of the Senate by Al Franken ©2017, 10 CDs. The book was published before the women Franken had touched inappropriately came forward. In the worst post-book reveal, he stuck his tongue in a colleague’s mouth during a rehearsal. Franken touts the USO tour where that happened in the book. This tells me that men, until now, haven’t even thought about such offenses. Some of those currently shamed, like Al Franken, have an overall lifetime record of positive relations with women. As for the book: I loved it. It’s about deciding on an encore career in politics, running a campaign, winning in a recount, and then serving in this polarized Senate.

4. If a Tree Falls, A Family’s Quest to Hear and be Heard by Jennifer Rosner ©2010, 244 pp. Memoir. The author’s two daughters, Sophia and Juliet, born in 2000 and 2003, were, respectively, severely deaf and profoundly deaf. Before this, the parents had no idea that the family tree had some asterisked entries with the footnote “*deaf and dumb.” Chapters on how the family dealt with this challenge are interlaced with imaginative chapters on what life must’ve been like for two deaf sisters in the 19^th century Shtetl.

5. The Family Gene, A Mission to Turn my Deadly Inheritance into a Hopeful Future by Joselin Linder ©2017, 6 CDs. The author’s father, a physician, died of a mysterious fluid-in-the-lungs illness in 1996 at age 49. His grandmother had died of “pleurisy” in her mid-fifties, though that diagnosis never fit. His uncle died at 34 of excess lymph fluid leaking into his body. Joselin developed symptoms in the 21^st century. A researcher discovered the genetic variance on the X-chromosome of the afflicted family members in this new-to-science disease. The grandmother may have been patient zero. Seven in the Linder family have died of it, 7 are living with it. No one has passed it on to the next generation yet. This is the state diseases like Cystic Fibrosis and Huntington’s Disease were in 500 years ago (or so); It would really save a lot of suffering to not let this genie out of the bottle. If a man has this variant he will necessarily pass it on to all of his daughters and none of his sons. Women tend to get the disease less severely than men because their other X-chromosome tempers it. Having identified the gene, researchers now have to figure out its function.

6. My Life, My Love, My Legacy by Coretta Scott King (1927-2006) as told to the Rev. Dr. Barbara Reynolds over 30 years. ©2017, 12 CDs. An account of the ups and downs of a full and eventful life. Coretta recalls her missteps setting up the King Center, the setbacks she and her children had in their educations and careers, personal conflicts and jealously within the Civil Rights movement. More than once, in her childhood and married life, her home was firebombed. MLK felt “called” and did not recognize she was too.

7. Born a Crime, stories from a South African childhood by Trevor Noah ©2016, 7 CDs. Noah’s father was Swiss, his mother Xosa. He could not be seen in public as the son of either of them during apartheid. He experienced privilege vis-à-vis his black cousins, discrimination in the larger society. Trevor was not only born a crime, he committed crimes, like pirating records, in his adolescence to get money and peer validation. Healthy paths were closed. His extraordinary mother married when Trevor was nine. There was domestic violence. Trevor Noah succeeded Jon Stewart as the host of Comedy Central, but that’s outside the scope of this memoir.

8. Lit by Mary Karr ©2009, 386pp. I liked the accounts of motherhood (her mother and her son) and her descriptions of her father, and of her career and education. I didn’t enjoy so much reading about alcoholism, and finally conquering addiction by getting spiritual.

9. Words Without Music by Philip Glass (1937- ) ©2015, 396 pp. Photo plates. Autobiography, with emphasis on his education and influences in all the artistic mediums. Glass grew up in Baltimore. His father had a record store. He went to the U of Chicago, then Julliard, then studied 2 years with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. He worked day jobs until he was 41. His mother never commented on his music, “but she could count”—at the first performance of his work she attended there were 8 people in the audience, including Ida Glass. But just six years later she came to Einstein on the Beach at a sold-out Met (1976). He loves his summer place in N.S.

10. In Love with Art, Francoise Mouly’s Adventures in Comics with Art Spiegelman by Jeet Heer ©2013, 122 pp. Bob Cooper added this to his list of books about Art that people should read. I would not go that far, because I feel I was primed to resonate with the material, and I did, but I could have “put it down.” Francoise Mouly is the Art Editor of The New Yorker since 1993. Mouly briefly studied architecture in her native Paris, then, in NYC, found her true vocation, initially as a hands-on printer and cartoon editor. Some New Yorker covers she designed are the US Flag with the shadow of Abu Ghraib on it, and the black-on-black Twin Towers.

11. Around the Way Girl, a Memoir by Taraji P. Henson (1970- ) read by the author. ©2016, 6 CDs. Normally I don’t enjoy reading about show biz or the underclass, but this was good. The only thing I’ve seen Taraji in is Hidden Figures, but she played Queenie in The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons, and Cookie in the TV series Empire. She’s the only child of a remarkable single mother, and she’s the single mother of an only child herself. She did have an involved father. Although Boris Henson was an alcoholic who physically abused Taraji’s mother, he encouraged, supported, and loved his daughter. Taraji put herself through Howard University.

12. Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls ©2013, 6 CDs, and When You Are Engulfed in Flame ©2008, 8 CDs, by David Sedaris. Amusing essays that contain insights and acute observations, read by the author. How-to-stop-smoking books are “Quit Lit.” There are travelogue pieces (Japan, Australia) & Domestic scenarios (Normandy, Sussex). If exaggerated for humor is it still non-fiction?

14. At Home, a Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson ©2010, 13 CDs. Considers the iceman found perfectly preserved in the Alps in 1991. Life in Victorian England and earlier was harsh. Until late Victorian times Parson was a great career. Lots of tidbits.

15. One Summer in America, 1927 by Bill Bryson ©2013, 14 CDs. Describes events of the summer of 1927 in the US. Bryson is a master of the telling details that hold the reader. Lindbergh’s flight happened in May 1927. There’s much about that and other flyers’ efforts at same that I never knew before; Around this time radio took off. David Sarnoff recognized that programming was key; Eugenics was in the zeitgeist; Sacco and Vanzetti were executed; Al Capone was nearing both his peak and his conviction (on income tax evasion—a woman lawyer came up with that tack). The U.S. murder rate was higher than now. Tommy guns were sold in hardware stores; Henry Ford retired the Model T and developed the Model A; Anarchists set off a lot of bombs in the ’20’s. Restrictive immigration laws were enacted; Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs; The first Talkie; I like to ponder my parents’ decades.

16. Fordlandia, the Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City by Greg Grandin ©2010, 13 CDs. This book is repetitious. The epilogue was discouraging: Soybean farming is wrecking the Amazon as much as cattle-raising and logging. Fordlandia was developed by Henry Ford for about 20 years until he abandoned it in 1945. Rubber plants originated in the Amazon, but so did the insects and blights that preyed on them. Rubber plantations moved to Malaya which did not have the native blights that could spread from tree to tree in a monoculture. I was telling Ida about Fordlandia. She said “I’ve been there.” Brazil is a big birding destination.

17. The Past by Tessa Hadley ©2016, 310pp. Book group pick. Set in a family vacation house in Somerset. Around page 150 three things happened that made me want to turn the page: Pilar revealed that she might be the biological child of a disappeared couple in Argentina; Harriet was falling in love with Pilar, a state that was never likely to manifest outside her head; and the children made some disturbing discoveries in an abandoned cottage. But none of those three things were referenced again for 100 pages.

18. Go, Went, Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck, translated from the German by Susan Bernofsky. ©2015, 283 pp. Richard is a recently retired academic, 5 years a widower. He was an East Berliner until reunification. He befriends African refugees camping out in Orienplatz. The novel covers about 10 months. We meet Richard’s social circle. He gets more and more involved with the refugees. Several of his friends become involved too. Several people in my book group, like Richard, are personally involved w/ refugees. No solution.

19. Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld ©2016, 11 CDs. I’d need to re-read Pride and Prejudice to fully appreciate this takeoff. The five Bennett sisters of Cincinnati are unmarried. The two oldest, in their 30s, live in NYC. The other three are in their twenties, not gainfully employed, and at home in Cincinnati. Dr. Fitzwilliam Darcy appears. One sister marries Hamilton Ryan, a transsexual.

20. Work Like Any Other by Virginia Reeves ©2016 260pp. A book group selection. Set in Alabama 1922-32. The wife turns from her husband towards the son. Husband Roscoe still has his fulfilling work as a master electrician, but then they inherit her father’s farm and move back there. Roscoe mopes for a year until he electrifies the farm illegally. The black guy who lived on the property with his family kept the farm going. It’s about a failing marriage, a father-son relationship, race…And it’s mostly about prison!

21. Vow of Celibacy by Erin Judge ©2016, 294pp. “Coming of age novel about a bisexual young woman who’s a plus-size model and fashion designer” does not do it justice. Protagonist Natalie is not always the victim. She has guilt about dumping someone who loved her. If I had only dipped into this and not finished the whole book I would not have appreciated it so much. The author is also a standup comedienne. She’s married to one of Ezra’s friends. I saw her perform in Cambridge this Spring. I enjoyed her material.

22. The Heart by Maylis de Kerangal, translated from the French by Sam Taylor ©2014, 242 pp. A blurb by Atul Gawande says he read this in one sitting, completely absorbed. Another physician says, “The best medical novel I’ve read in years.” It’s about all the people involved in a heart transplant, including their personal lives. Opens with 19-year-olds surfing in the winter in wet suits.

23. Resistance by Owen Sheers ©2007, 306 pp. My book group selected this. Alternative history. Imagines that D-Day failed. The Germans have landed in Britain, but only a small unit on a special mission has arrived in the valley in Wales where this novel is set.

24. The Spectator Bird by Wallace Stegner (1909-1993) ©1975, 204pp. Winner of the National Book Award. A novel about aging, with flashbacks precipitated by a postcard that Joe, a retired literary agent, gets from an old flame. At first, he withholds the postcard from his wife. Joe’s crazy idea of taking Astrid home with them was part of the spell of Midsummer’s night 25 years earlier.

25. Amsterdam by Ian McEwan ©2008, 193pp. Winner of the Booker Prize. My choice from Tom McCann’s library. Opens in London at Molly’s funeral where we meet Molly’s three ex-lovers, a composer, a newspaper publisher, and the Foreign Secretary-- and her husband. Two moral dilemmas follow. The finale is set in Amsterdam, a screwball mix-up involving poisoned drinks.

26. The Japanese Lover by Isabel Allende ©2015, 8 CDs. Irina, a 23-year-old immigrant, goes to work at a funky retirement home in San Francisco. She becomes friendly with Alma Belasco, a resident. Alma’s nephew falls in love with Irina. Seth and Irina become curious about Alma’s weekly outings—Alma still drives. They figure out that Alma loved Ichimei Fukura since her arrival in America as a refugee in 1939. He was the gardener’s son, her age. A few years later the Fukeda family was interned at Topaz in NV. Alma married her gay cousin Nate Belasco when she was pregnant by Ichi. Irina and Seth wonder if Alma’s still seeing Ichi.

27. The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann ©1924, 706 pp. Translated by John E. Woods. I’ve been chipping away at this for years. I finally finished it. It’s not a page-turner, except for a few pages where Hans got lost on skis in a blizzard when he was supposed to be wrapped in a rug taking a fresh-air rest cure on his balcony. If you have misplaced the book for a couple of years no need to review—there’s not enough plot to forget, and who could forget the setting—the TB Sanatorium on a Swiss mountain before WWI. Hans goes there to visit his cousin Joachim, and stays 7 years. If you wanted to speed-read it, you could skip the philosophical discussions between Settebrini and Naphta that Hans Castorp soaks up during their constitutionals, but then maybe that would cut out the “ideas” part of this being a “novel of ideas.” Mann won the Nobel Prize in 1929. A couple of pages about Pribislav Hippe could have stood alone as a short story. Hobbies at the San: Victrola. And who knew amateur color photography existed back then?

28. Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage, the (Mostly) True Story of the first Computer by Sydney Padua ©2015, 257pp. This is a graphic fantasy grounded in Victoriana. The unifying theme is the steam-powered Analytic Engine (never finished, so Queen Victoria stopped funding it) of Charles Babbage (1791-1871) and his collaboration with Lord Byron’s daughter Ada Lovelace (1815-1852), putatively the first programmer. Black and white comic-style artwork. It’s easy to separate the interesting factoids from the flights of fantasy, nonsense and poetic license. At first, I was disappointed, but it grew on me. There are math jokes in Alice and Wonderland. I had not known about Isambard Kingdom Brunel who engineered the first underwater tunnel. George Eliot is in it. There’s a second-rate knighthood, the Guelphic Order, that does not come with the “Sir” honorific. Proud Babbage refused it.