Ji:
Understanding Power: The Indispensable Chomsky
Edited by Peter R. Mitchell and John Shoeffel (The New Press)
This book is a series of transcribed talks that activist, professor and author Noam Chomsky has given from 1980 to 1999. If you have never read Chomsky, this book is a good starting point to get acquainted with him. It is more conversational than highly theoretical and his breadth and depth of knowledge will surprise you as it surprised me.
Neela:
The Tattoo Hunter
By Juvenal Acosta, translated by Janet Casaverde (Gato Negro Books)
A slim, hot volume about one man and his many women that turns San Francisco into a twisting noir world filled with wine and shadows. “Tattoo or scar of a woman I met in a bar, of 10 women I met in bars and loved me in the motels of drunkenness.” A great, poetic meditation on the dark side of sexuality and desire.
Ethen:
A Fan’s Notes
By Frederick Exley (Vintage Books)
Written in the late 1960s, A Fan’s Notes has been called the “best novel written in the English language since The Great Gatsby.” Exley has a scalding way of writing where he pushes the English language to its limits. At times, the book can get dense. But Exley usually follows through with a laughable (and memorable) line or situation, marking him as the master of the “underachiever” genre. If you have the guts to slosh through this book, give yourself a pat on the back.
Justin:
The Beach House
By James Patterson and Peter De Jonge (Little Brown & Company)
After the mysterious death of his brother, Peter, law student Jack Mullen begins to form doubts about the validity of the local police’s accident claim and the innocence of the summer residents of East Hampton. With the aid of friends, Jack discovers that what separates the rich from others involves more than money. Despite the presence of intense action and intriguing characters, The Beach House is quite predictable and a little tiresome with its working-class hero and Romeo and Juliet-like romance between Jack and Dana Neubauer. Still, I enjoyed this look into the dysfunctional life of the rich.
Andrew:
Reclaiming San Francisco: History, Politics, Culture
Edited by James Brook, Chris Carlsson and Nancy J. Peters (City Lights)
Think you know San Francisco? Think again. This book — a collection of perspectives from scholars, activists and historical researchers — delves under the city’s modern facade of skyscrapers, new-economy riches and kitchy tourist locales to present true tales of the city’s unique urban heritage. For Asian Pacific American readers, Anthony W. Lee’s essay on the Chinese Revolutionary Artists’ club shouldn’t be missed; other selections take a critical look at the origins of redevelopment, the rise of some of the city’s most prominent (and wealthy) figures and even the commercialization of Lake Tahoe — all while encouraging the emergence of a new cultural revival.
Jennie:
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
By Haruki Murakami, translated by Jay Rubin (Vintage Books)
My favorite author this year, once again, engages the reader in a curious matrix that is as real as it is complex. As in most his books, Murakami’s characters hardly ever come nicely packaged with simple solutions to their problems or existences. After Toru Okada loses his cat, a string of bizarre events that leads him to encounters with an odd medley of characters including two sisters with supernatural powers, an unbalanced teenage girl, his wife’s notorious political brother-in-law and an ex-soldier who witnessed the war in China in the 1940s. Murakami is the master at weaving eerie and surreal tales of Japan in the late 20th century.
|
