The Red Badge of Courage

The Red Badge of Courage (1895) by Stephen Crane. I am scarcely competent to judge this book, having (like Crane) never experienced war first-hand. It has been described by some as the greatest war story ever written, but I hesitate to endorse that opinion. I can say that it has held up remarkably well for a book that is over 100 years old -- but also that some aspects of it are extremely dated. I read it with great interest, and found it almost always engrossing. As a piece of Americana, it is probably unmatched. Grade: B+

The Complaints

The Complaints (2009) by Ian Rankin. In Scotland, the Internal Affairs department of the police is known as "the complaints." Malcolm Fox, the protagonist of this book, is a member of the complaints of Edinburgh. When his sister's abusive lover is killed, Fox becomes an object of suspicion himself. Rankin does a good job of mixing Fox's personal life with his professional life so that the reader has something to care about other than just the case. Unfortunately, although I found the book to be a pretty good read, the case Fox was investigating got a little too complicated; I lost interest in all the ins and outs of the case before the end of the book. Plus, I was thrown off now and again by the Scottish dialect, which occasionally became confusing. Still, readers who love a good police story with some personal life thrown in will enjoy this book. Grade: B+

Nashville Chrome

Nashville Chrome (2010) by Rick Bass. Nashville Chrome is a novel, but it's about real people. "Nashville Chrome" is a catch-phrase that was used back in the '50s and '60s to describe the country music sound of the Browns, a trio of siblings who grew up dirt poor end ended up challenging Elvis for supremacy on the music charts. The Browns -- Maxine, Jim Ed and Bonnie -- were full-on country, but their sound featured highly polished harmonies which were unmatched anywhere in popular music. Even the Beatles tried to take a lesson in harmonizing from the Browns, but were never able to equal them. The book follows the rise and fall of the Browns, and their virtual enslavement by a record industry executive and agent named Fabor Robinson. Fabor signed them early to an exclusive contract, and grew rich off the fruits of their labors. He made them famous, as he had promised, but he did not share the wealth that they generated with them. Later, rock 'n' roll made the Browns irrelevant. Jim Ed and Bonnie adjusted, but Maxine never could accept the passing of fame. Their story is not only interesting in itself, but is told in flowing, poetic prose by author Bass, who really only goes astray when he is telling the story of Maxine's dotage. This is not a "true story"; it is a novel based on real people. It's a great read. Grade: A-

How I Became a Famous Novelist

How I Became a Famous Novelist (2009) by Steve Hely. This is one of the funniest books I've read in a month of Sundays. The fictional protagonist, named Pete Tarslaw, decides that he wants to become a famous author so that he will have riches, a teaching post at a college, and lots of sex with co-eds. His strategy is to look at the New York Times best-seller list and take elements from all the most successful writers and incorporate them into his "novel." Along the way, he takes a writing course, and not being able to remember the teacher's name, he dubs her SpaghettiHair HamsterFace. I found this hilarious, along with most of the rest of the book, which was a real page-turner. By writing a fake book about how he became a famous novelist, Hely may have succeeded in becoming a famous novelist. This book was a real treat, all the way through. Grade: A

How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe

How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe (2010) by Charles Yu. Charles Yu is a character in his own book, which is a book within a book, and in which he becomes stuck in a time-travel loop that has him shooting his future self after he gets out of his time machine. Do you find that at all confusing? Because I found it dense as hell. This book was an easy read, but I had to skim portions of it because they just did not make sense to me, encrusted as they were with pseudo-scientific, made-up jargon. Unless you're a supreme science geek, or a science-fiction geek, I would not recommend this book. Otherwise, you might really enjoy it. Grade: B

The Help

The Help (2009) by Kathryn Stockett. Set in the early 1960s in Jackson, Mississippi, "The Help" explores the lives of black domestic workers and their white housewife overlords. Stockett is a writer of profound skill as she switches voices between Aibileen and Minny, two of the black housekeepers, and Skeeter, the white woman who sees injustice and decides to write about it. Stockett's writing is pitch-perfect and she captures beautifully the place and time she's writing about. The character of Miss Hilly is a villain comparable to any in literature. This is, quite simply, among the best books I've read. There's a good reason it's been on the best-seller list for 90 weeks. Grade: A

The Surrendered

The Surrendered (2010) by Chang-Rae Lee. With a historic sweep from the Korean War to modern-day Italy, "The Surrendered" is one of the best books I've read this year. It starts with June, a Korean girl, fleeing south from the North Korean army in 1950. Along the way, she meets Hector, a handsome American soldier of Irish descent. And the two of them end up at an orphanage run by the Tanners, Sylvie and Ames, after the war. Lee's writing is like poetry, image piled upon image to make a solid whole. The book has passion and betrayal, beauty and violence, healthy love and terminal illness. It's wholly different from any book I've read -- popular books involving the Korean War are rare. But it's certainly an involving and worthy read. It's a work of beauty. Grade: A

Water for Elephants

Water for Elephants (2006) by Sara Gruen. Jacob Jankowski is 90 -- or 93, he can't remember exactly. He is living in a nursing home. But his memories, which make up most of the novel, are of the years he spent working in a circus. Most of the book is spent in flashbacks, as Jacob describes how he quit veterinary school when his parents died, and how he came to join the circus. It's a very well written book, poignant and dramatic, at times funny, and genuinely entertaining on all levels. As best I can tell, all the plot elements are resolved satisfactorily and the story has a (sort of) happy ending. The descriptions of circus life, mostly behind the scenes, are priceless (customers are referred to as "rubes"). Rosie the elephant is a major star of the book, and her secret (that she understands only Polish) is an important pivot point in the plot. Marlena, Jacob's love, performs in the circus but is married to another man. That situation is resolved neatly, as are the rest of the plot's tendrils. "Water for Elephants" is a very satisfying book to read and ponder. Grade: A

Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life

Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life (2005) by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. This book is pretty much what the title suggests, although at 220 pages it's a mighty thin encyclopedia. But it's not the length of a book we judge it by, it's the quality. This is a very fun and entertaining book, which amounts to a memoir in encyclopedic form. There are alphabetical entries, covering everything from "Amy" to "You." If nothing else, Rosenthal has performed a remarkable feat of memory, recalling detailed lists of things from her earliest youth to the year before publication. She also offers chronologies, such as "Childhood Memories." It's all about her, and that's as it should be. A fun book and a quick read. Grade: B+

The Cookbook Collector

The Cookbook Collector (2010) by Allegra Goodman. Jess and Emily are sisters, but they have profoundly different temperaments. Jess is a tree-hugger, while Emily is the hard-charging CEO of a Silicon Valley start-up. How they approach life, love and money makes up the meat of this novel, set in the late 20th and early 21st Centuries. The central event of the book, not surprisingly, is Sept. 11, 2001, when two hijacked passenger planes slammed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. Emily's boyfriend, Jonathan, is a passenger on one of the planes, a plot twist that took me by surprise and neatly embroidered the events of the book into real-life events. But elsewhere, Jess, the flibbertigibbet, falls happily in love with a book store owner 16 years her senior; and Emily, the career woman, discovers after his death that Jonathan has betrayed her and stolen business secrets from her. The book is a great read and scarcely has any flaws worth mentioning. Grade: A