Best Books I Read in 2013

Good buddy Nate just published a list of some of his favorite books he read in 2013, which prompted me to want to do the same. Only one or two of these was actually published in 2013, but they’re all relatively new, and they’re all books that I read for the first time this year.

Novels

Unlike my colleague, I make an effort to keep up with contemporary fiction. I’m usually a year or two behind, but I try to read a least a smattering of the books and authors getting the most attention in the literary world.

Let the Great World Spin – I first heard Irish-American (or maybe just Irish living in America) author Colum McCann reading and discussing Benedict Kiely’s Bluebell Meadow on the New Yorker Fiction Podcast. He struck me as both perceptive and insightful, so I read his latest novel and liked it enough to pick up Transatlantic as well. Both were good, but I liked Spin a bit more. It blurs the line a bit between novel and short story, in that it’s a collection of stories told from the perspective of various characters whose lives end up inter-relating. The author masterfully accomplishes the tricky task of inhabiting the heads of a quite diverse set of individuals, and the end result is a very readable and satisfying work.

Salvage the Bones – I expected Jesmyn Ward’s novel to be about Hurricane Katrina, but in fact the storm does not hit until the very end. Instead, it’s a quiet, powerful story about a teenage girl and her brothers living in poverty with their alcoholic father in rural Mississippi. Ward handles some potentially tricky subjects, including race, poverty, and dog-fighting, with admirable nuance.

Middlesex – Speaking of potentially tricky subjects, Geoffrey Eugenides’ novel about a Greek-American hermaphrodite surprised me in a lot of ways. Chief among them was that the novel is not only about Calliope Stephanides her (for most of the book) self, but also the story of her ancestors fleeing Greece and living through several momentous events in 20th century Detroit.

City of Thieves – David Benioff’s short novel about life in Nazi-occupied Russia was enlightening, gripping, and surprisingly funny. The ending is rather pat and left a bad taste in my mouth, but it didn’t make me regret reading the book.

The Fault in Our Stars – This was a last-minute purchase for reading on a plane, and I didn’t realize when I bought it that it’s technically a Young Adult novel. John Green’s novel is a good example of the harm done by that sort of ghettoization, because even as a grown-ass man I enjoyed it. The story of two young lovers who meet in a support group for teens with cancer has some predictably manipulative moments, but they’re undercut by enough cynicism and gallows humor that I enjoyed reading it nevertheless.

Short Fiction

Civil War Land in Bad Decline – I’m lucky to have a brother with an MA in English (well, poetry, but he keeps up with all forms of literature) and a good sense of what I like, or I never would have come across this gem. Although George Saunders’ first collection of short fiction is a little hit or miss, the title story, which centers around a civil war theme park overrun by gangs in a dystopic near-future, blew me away, and there are a few other good ones as well. Saunders has a vision and an off-beat sense of humor comparable to those of David Foster Wallace, but stylistically he’s much less avant-garde. The best of his stories seem all silly and playful and then hit you with an unexpected emotional punch at the end. Saunders is frequently compared to Kurt Vonnegut.

Girl With Curious Hair – As much as I love David Foster Wallace, reading his fiction usually feels like work to me. I never regret reading Wallace, but the final story in this book in particular was a bit of a slog to get through. Still, it’s an incredibly diverse collection, both thematically and stylistically, and Wallace is such a master that it would be hard not to find something you like.

Non-Fiction

I didn’t read many long works of non-fiction this year – actually I didn’t read much non-fiction at all – but a new collection of David Foster Wallace essays was enough to make my year.

Both Flesh and Not – Though not on a par with Supposedly Fun Thing or Consider the Lobster, this posthumous collection of Wallace’s work still contains several of the best essays I’ve ever read. I’m not even remotely a tennis fan, but I was fascinated by the title piece about Roger Federer.

Best American Travel Writing 2012 – I was able to borrow this collection from my local library, but it’s worth paying for. I’d never read anything from this particular series, but I generally like Best American Short Stories and Best American Essays. As good travel writing should, it opened doors to worlds I never knew existed and gave me the vicarious thrill of exploration.

 Poker Books

Playing the Player – Explained with simple, intuitive arguments that an experienced amateur can follow, but sophisticated enough that this old pro learned a thing or two, Playing the Player is quite simply one of the best mass market poker books there is. You can hear Ed discuss this book, and a bunch of other great poker strategy, on Episode 25 of the podcast.

PLO Quick Pro – It’s not cheap, but in the right hands, I expect John Beauprez’s book would pay for itself. For more information, you can check out my review or John’s appearance on the podcast.