You shouldn’t underestimate the value of an Amazon wishlist–you’ll get what you want. I’m not one of those folks that obsessively updates or tweaks the selection of books on my wish list (out of sight, out of mind), so every Christmas I’m initally surprised by the perfect but unexpected books I receive from relatives. You read my mind, I think. No, it was the vast and glorious Amazon wishlist, with which we can thrust our desires out into the world, forming the simulacrum of an intimate conversation with others. The first thing I thought upon opening a pristine copy of Booth’s The Rhetoric of Fiction from the in-laws was Great! Then How? Then Oh yeah; cool.

Books I received for Christmas:

• The Rhetoric of Fiction, Wayne Booth
• Literary Theory: An Introduction, Terry Eagleton
• White Oleander, Janet Fitch
• Death of a Writer, Michael Collins
• The Eye of the Story: Selected Essays and Reviews, Eudora Welty

Books Mr. Ambergeek received:

• The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More, Chris Anderson
• Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers, Robert Scoble and Shel Israel
• Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time, Brian Tracy

Books the progeny received:

• Zin Zin Zin a Violin (a Caldecott Honor Book), Lloyd Moss and Marjorie Priceman
• Snowmen at Night, Caralyn Buehner and Mark Buehner
• Go, Train, Go!, W. Rev. Awdry and Tommy Stubbs
• Casey At the Bat: A Ballad of the Republic Sung in the Year 1888 (a Caldecott Honor Book), Ernest L. Thayer and Christopher Bing

 Can I get a side of free time with those books?

So, here I am with a long list of books to devour. I’ll asess what’s come before, this year, last week, etc. Last week I read Jane Shapiro’s The Dangerous Husband in two sittings. It would have been one, but life happens. It’s the funniest book I’ve read all year. Well, it might tie with Leonard Michaels’ A Girl With A  Monkey: New and Selected Stories. At one point while glued to The Dangerous Husband, my husband asks me what I’m reading. And I say, this guy is just so clumsy his wife must hire a hit man! I probably looked giddy, elated. My husband looked horrified. It’s a great book, a funny book.

I also read Victor LaValle’s The Ecstatic last week. It was a really good book that somehow manages to be boring and enthralling at the same time. Boring isn’t the right word….maybe pedestrian? No, it’s extraordinary and ordinary. It’s the first person voice that captivates, in addition to the bizarre family dynamics at play. It’s feels so real it’s sad, and some of it is so sad it’s funny, and that’s life.

Best book I’ve read all year: The Effect of Living Backwards by Heidi Julavitz.  I don’t know what is up with some of the poor reviews on Amazon. Some folks obviously found it too difficult to read; several reviews say the storyline is too obtuse. I thought it was incredible, thrilling. And the reviewers who give only one star and admit to not being able to get past the first chapter–classy, real classy. In close second (or maybe a tie?) comes Kathryn Davis’ The Thin Place, which pretty much floored me on first read.

I’m in the middle of The Intuitionist right now…