Reading List: January 2012

In alphabetical order by author:

Berry, Wendell. Jayber Crow.
Child, Lee. The Affair.
Drake, David. Out of the Waters.
Harvey, Greg. Excel 2003 for Dummies.
Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan, or the Matter, Forme and Power of a Commonwealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil.
Kaufeld, John. Access 2002 for Dummies.
Lewis, Michael. The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine.
Millard, Candice. Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President.
Prague, Cary, Michael R. Irwin, and Jennifer Reardon. Access 2003 Bible.
Price, Richard. Lush Life.
Prose, Francine. My New American Life.
Proust, Marcel. A l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs.
Sjowall, Maj, and Per Wahloo. The Laughing Policeman.
Walter, Jess. Citizen Vince.
Zola, Emile. Germinal.

Fifteen books, nine of them novels. Three of them technical works. One work of history, one of journalism, and one of political philosophy.

The earliest of these books was published in the 17th century, the most recent in 2011. Two of them are in French, and one was written in Swedish before being translated into English. (The Laughing Policeman is the only book whose original language was not English ever to win an Edgar Award.)

A number of these books are well-written. Undoubtedly the best-written of them all is Jayber Crow, by Wendell Berry, a Kentucky author. The least satisfactory is Lush Life, by Richard Price, a novel I feel did not live up to its advance notices.