28. A Girl Named Zippy--Haven Kimmel

**Book Club Pick** A Girl Named Zippy is the perfect summer read--quick, light, and funny. Haven Kimmel sweetly relates stories of her family and of an outstanding cast of supporting characters (and animals) in tiny Mooreland, Indiana in the 1970s. The tales feature the innocence and poignance of childhood lessons learned and the unconditional love of family. Overall, an uplifting memoir.

27. Terrorist--John Updike

I probably wouldn't have read Terrorist right away (it was released at the beginning of June) except that I walked into the library at the exact moment Charles (World's Greatest Librarian) was first putting it out on the shelf. It's my first Updike experience. I'm also not sure I would recognize his literary superiority from only this read. It is well-written, no doubt, but the characters, once introduced, play predictable roles, and you can pretty accurately predict the climax of the story from just looking at the cover. However, to me, this work is significant because Updike has touched on something all but ignored post-9/11. Namely, to attempt to understand what about our culture is held to be so detestable by those who wish us harm. Instead, we puffed out our chests, said "thanks, but no thanks" to the rest of the world, and set upon a course that may lead to truly disastrous consequences for our nation. No leadership encouraged introspection; instead we were told to go out and spend. These two responses reinforce what is already loathsome about us. Now, I'm not saying that we shouldn't be proud as a nation, that we should go about collectively mea culpaing. But pride, hubris, that isn't tempered with a little humility, compassion, and understanding is a dangerous thing. You might want to reference your favorite Greek tragedy if you need a reminder. I don't know if Updike intended all of what I got out of the book. But I do think that he was motivated by an attempt to understand the mentality of this hatred, and this is an obvious strength of the work.

26. The Stone Diaries--Carol Shields

The Stone Diaries, winner of the 1995 Pulitzer Prize, is a fictional autobiography (complete with photos) of Daisy Stone Goodwill Flett. Daisy's life (she was born in 1905) and experiences parallel the stereotypical experience of the twentieth-century woman. At each era, Shields deals with the taboos and choices women faced, examining the issues as experienced by Daisy or another female character in the work. From death in childbirth and the stigma of divorce at the beginning of the century, to the difficulties of child rearing, work outside the home, and even women's liberation, the stories told run the gamut of common female experience. Men are secondary characters, some good, some bad, and some merely baffling, but all only tangential to the stories of the women. Overall a good read. Would make an excellent book club pick.

Here's to the Descendants of Fred & Gladys

I've gotten behind in posting because of a family reunion over the weekend. Had a wonderful time reconnecting with my cousins, comparing family neuroses, and laughing. Let's do it again soon guys!

25. Veronica--Mary Gaitskill

In Veronica, Alison, an aging model, whose body is wracked with pain and disease, looks back on her life in snapshots, as if she is flipping through a portfolio of memories. In her prime, Alison was beautiful and flawed. She related to the world with vanity, but also with a vague sadness and misunderstanding. She tells her stories as if her life is over in her 40s, which I guess for Alison, it is. The most telling of the flashbacks involve the title character, Veronica. Alison dislikes her and begrudgingly befriends her, but after Veronia finds out she has AIDS, Alison, out of both pity and self-aggrandizement, becomes one of the few friends to help her through the disease. The friendship has a shiny, photograpic quality, even as it deals with the fleshy horrors of AIDS. And Veronica, though the title character, is quite one-dimensional, relfecting the shallowness of Alison's view of her. Gaitskill's prose is beautiful and haunting. The reader is forced to look at the ugly side of physical beauty and the end-of-life sadness of a life lived, literally, in vain. This is not an uplifting book, but one that sheds light our cultural obsession with youth and beauty like nothing else I've read. I highly recommend it.

Critical Mass finds the Rest of the Best

The folks at Critical Mass polled the writers who nominated books for the New York Times Best American Novel of the Last 25 years to try to find the titles that received only one vote (the Times' list included only titles that received at least two votes). John Irving voted for himself (Cider House Rules), but gave props to both Updike and Roth. They are continuing to compile their list of who-voted-for-what. To me, it's interesting to see which writers chose which books--it's like literary voyeurism.

24. Chronicles, Volume One--Bob Dylan

What American of the last half-century has been more deified than Bob Dylan? The proof is in all the little Dylans running around out there. They ain't named after Dylan Thomas, dig? I myself have considered Dylan a God dating back to my adolescent Dylan phase. So, how appropriate it is that this book is really Dylan, demystified. Dylan, in his own words, steps down off the pedestal and becomes human (which he was, of course, all along). He takes the reader through his musical development, naming his inspirations, describing his songwriting and album-making process, and talks about being cast as the voice of a generation, a mantle he didn't ask for. He heartbreakingly recounts the backlash against him in the late 1960s when he was accused of abandoning the movement which he was asked, repeatedly, although he refused, to lead. Also, turns out Dylan can write. Did I really think this poet couldn't? As the Beats, no doubt, influenced the folk music revival of which Dylan was a part, Dylan pays them back in his spare, lean, Kerouac-like prose. Much like many of his early songs, Dylan makes his life seem like the story of a man, like any other. Amazing.