To Do List

It is the summer, and I am finally done with grad school, but I still don't seem to have enough time to read all the books on my "To Read" list. There are simply too many wonderful books out in the world! I wish I had a prepared book review for today, but you are simply going to have to settle for a short, annotated listing of the novels and short story collections that will (hopefully) be popping up here on Wednesdays in months to come.

Currently Reading: Feed by M.T. Anderson

A fascinating, chilling satire on the consumerist society teenagers find themselves in. As babies, people are outfitted with a feed, a chip that is implanted into their brains that compels them to buy, buy, buy. Only 63 pages in, but am completely convinced that Anderson has reached into my brain and pulled out my fear that humans, in less than 100 years, will be exactly as he describes in his young adult novel.

To Read: American Music by Jane Mendelsohn

A war veteran who has been particularly traumatized begins physical therapy sessions with a young masseuse. During their appointments, both begin having visions of people neither knows: a man who loves jazz, a woman who cannot carry a pregnancy to term. Mendelsohn weaves the stories with the present-day, and connects everything back within 300 pages. Sounds a bit epic and thoroughly original.

Wilson by Daniel Clowes
An graphic novel for adults, Clowes sets up one-page vignettes about a pessimistic misanthrope named Wilson. He repeatedly attempts to engage in the world and others, but is knocked down every time. Wilson tries to connect with his ex-wife, young IT nerds, among others, but cannot get past the mundane niceties. Graphic novels are almost like palate cleansers for more wordy, description-laden literature, and I hope this one doesn't disappoint.

The Passage by Justin Cronin

Oh, y'all, this should be a delicious, spooky novel. Cronin has created a world where a military attempt to create a super-soldier has backfired, and vampires now wander the world. A small enclave of survivors live in the Colony, a government-built compound with technological defenses designed to protect those inside. The lights and walls are beginning to fail, though, and the small group of those left must find a way to remain safe despite the encroaching danger. I don't do a ton of vampire literature, but I'm intrigued by all the excellent press Cronin is getting for this novel, and his past works have won him the Hemingway Award.