Knopf 100--Day 22

I'm in Oklahoma tonight, and previously I posted from Colorado, so officially this series has spanned three states. Also, we've made it to the 80's! The end is nigh.

81. The Secret History by Donna Tartt, originally published in 1992. I have a long history with this book. The first time I tried to read it was around 1998, when I had just graduated from college, and for whatever reason I couldn't get into it. I tried again around 2003 or so because many of my friends never shut up about it. The third time was the charm, though, and once I dove in with both feet I was hooked. I got it. And it's great. The Secret History features one of my favorite settings for a book, a school campus, and is about a clique of classics students under the spell of a professor. They grow close and their relationships extend beyond the classroom...until things spiral out of control and into dangerous territory.

82. The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran, originally published in 1923. We'd be remiss not to include this classic on a list of Knopf books. We're approaching its own 100th anniversary and it's a favorite of many, many people worldwide. Gibran's essays are an inspirational philosophy for life. Topics from religion to love to death to knowing who you are in the world make it a moving, personal read for all those who come to its pages. If you're looking for one book to hold up as an emblem of what makes Knopf great, The Prophet would be a good one to champion.

83. Born to Run by Christopher McDougall, originally published in 2009. Chris McDougall created magic with Born to Run, a blend of history, science, and personal narrative. What started as an exploration into why his feet hurt when he ran turned into a journey into the history of running and the human anatomical features that make us uniquely able to run great distances. The author talks to Harvard scientists, ultra-marathon runners, and an indigenous tribe in Mexico where running through the Copper Canyons is a way of life. Born to Run also helped ignite a huge barefoot running craze.

84. A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan, originally published in 2010. Jennifer Egan is high on my list of favorite authors. I met her once and typically was starstruck. I think I grunted a little. A Visit from the Goon Squad is an experimental novel that moves back and forth in the lives of Bennie, an aging music executive, and Sasha, his assistant. Part of the story is told as a PowerPoint presentation and it works; Egan is a genius. Goon Squad gathered up a heap of awards including a Pulitzer Prize.

An Author a Day for Thirty Days: Day 6

I confess it. I am late to the Donna Tartt party.  I think we may have mentioned her in passing on the blog,
but I'm pretty certain that we've never dedicated a entire post to her. I'm sure that Gianna will read through all of our previous posts to make sure I'm playing by the rules. It's about time she starts following this blog.

Donna Tartt

I've read two Donna Tartt novels, and the word is that she'll have a new book hitting shelves this fall. Tartt's second book, The Little Friend, was actually the one I read first, when it came out about ten years ago. Here's what I remember: creepy, and snakes. I was never scared of snakes when I was a kid, but then they became the subject of some of my recurring nightmares and I can't even read about them without horrible dreams. If your primal fears don't mind the reptiles, though, and you enjoy plucky child protagonists and a fair amount of Southern Gothic, you'll enjoy The Little Friend.

Tartt's better known book, though, is The Secret History, and many of my five friends list it as a favorite novels set in schools. Tough. I'm not starting over. I was sitting on a plane at 6:20 this morning, I have an altitude-related headache, and I am grumpy. You're stuck with Donna Tartt. (You're so lucky that you're stuck with Donna Tartt.) I love books that take place on school campuses because everything is amplified in these environments. They are insular worlds full of competition, stress, and every real world issue you could imagine, but often clouded by friendships, rivalries, and secrecy. I was an RA in college and I'm still trying to forget some of the things I saw.  Anyway, Richard is the California guy who transfers to the elite east coast liberal arts college. Richard falls in love with a group of Greek students and their professor, but the tight knit group fractures. Alcohol, sex, betrayal, murder. Sweet!
book. Crap. I just remembered that I wrote about this book in a blog post about

Read Donna Tartt.

Good and Cheap (Books)! Day 20

so much fun on vacation!

Curtis Sittenfeld is someone you should bring on vacation this summer. And of course when I say "bring Curtis Sittenfeld on vacation this summer," I mean bring Man of My Dreams, Prep, or American Wife. I’m not saying not to ask her on vacation if you think that’s what you want to do; personally I think it's creepy, but whatever.

I read Prep at the urging of the literary director of the Texas Book Festival and ended up devouring it on my seven-hour flight to Alaska a few years ago. It was the only book I brought with me, so I was pretty much forced to look at nature and make conversation for the next ten days.  Prep follows Lee Fiora as she leaves the Midwest to attend a prestigious prep school on the east coast. The book is told semester-by-semester, culminating at graduation. It clocks in at just over 400 pages but believe me, you won’t believe how quickly it goes.

Intense teenage girl relationships and general young adult angst not your thing (really, what’s wrong with you)? Well may I suggest American Wife, a novel loosely based on Laura Bush? I’ve written about this novel a couple of times so won’t drone on here but to say, for me, this was a novel about how smart, ambitious women can easily get lost behind a powerful man.  This book exceeded my expectations in every way.

Sittenfeld has a new book due this June, and yes, I will be bringing it on vacation.