Best Books of 2017

These are the most appreciated books mentioned in this blog during 2017. The books weren’t published in 2017, because then they would be expensive and not on Thriftbooks.

Gold: Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee. Perfect writing. We’d like to imagine it was pounded out on a typewriter that has no corrective tape in one masterful sitting. When Penguin plans to release a 50th Anniversary Edition, if any in-house “genius” offers edit it, the blockhead should be sent to Abu Ghraib for re-education. Not one word can be altered.

Silver: The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. Too long…yes, but enlightening via illustration. Read it. It will change your perspective on everyone, including you.

Bronze: The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell. Some strands of the story aren’t as riveting as others, but at the end you’ll sound like a Saturday morning English Premiere League commentator after a wonder goal struck on the half-volley “Brilliant! Juuuust Brilliant!!!”

Unfortunately, there were a lot of clunkers this year, but a proper shout-out for Absurdistan, Fahrenheit 451, An Actor Prepares (Short Story) and The Dead Mountaineer’s Inn, each of which stand out from the mostly bombs we read this year. If you want to read more detailed reviews, click on the word “Home” & scroll down. Happy Festivus.

The Emerald Light in the Air

It was time to revisit Donald Antrim, author of our 2016 Book of the Year Elect Mr. Robinson for a Better World. The venue, a collection of seven short stories, in a volume called The Emerald Light in the Air. The stories are replete with characters of quirky action, thought and/or past, but only one of the stories captures the magic of Mr. Robinson, An Actor Prepares. Please read it and get turned on to Donald Antrim…

http://www.condenet.com/mags/newyorker/asme/categories/artwork/pdf/06_21_Antrim_Actor.pdf

Elect Mr. Robinson for a Better World

Quick, quixotic and funny read. There are no dopey teenage romances in what we have to guess is a post-apocalyptic, sea-side Florida municipality of author Donald Antrim’s creation. Instead of that sop, nascent mayoral candidate and dedicated educator, Pete Robinson, sits padlocked in his own attic going over a series of recent events, which despite Pete’s best efforts to nurture them as teachable moments, went a bit too far.

Pete’s inner voice is the POV and it is marvelous. The thoughtful enthusiasm at which he tackles his tasks, while analyzing himself and others, will endear him to you. The town civic and business leaders are quirky (half-nuts) as well, which leads to memorable vignettes of the Rotary’s theriomorphism workshop, the use of library reference books to set off the claymores laid in the local park and the defenses at places like the Rainbow Pillbox and Fort Ed & Jane.

But Pete takes the cake with his attentiveness to the previous mayor’s last request, his ruminations on the local MILFs, recruitment of instructors and students for his home school, explanation of the dead’s resurrection into trees, and his campaign slogans – PETE ROBINSON BLEEDS FOR YOUR CHILDREN’S FUTURE.

185-pages of frivolities with no important destination, but well worth the trip.