"Holy Crap, Batman! Wait Till You See What Made "The New York Times 100 Most Notable Books List"--At Least Those The Raving Queen Read!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                        Let us start with all MY favorites, making the list.  As for the Ten Best, which will follow later, ugh!  Get through this first!  Let us take a look at what I have read.

                                                                        

                                           1.  "Afterparties--Stories," by Anthony Veasana So--Not my favorite short story collection--that honor would go to "Milk, Blood, Heat," by Daniel W. Moniz--but this collection, made bittersweet by So's untimely drug death after such a promising debut makes these tales of coming out, immigration, drugs, and life off the mainstream, so compelling that this volume deserves a place, and I urge you to read it.

                                                                                

                                          2.  "Beautiful World, Where Are You?" by Sally Rooney--How much more of this can I endure?  All three of Sally Rooney's books, which I have read, are the same; each character from each book could be interchanged and put into any other Rooney book, with no difference.  Go ahead, let the feminists attack me; I don't care.  What bothers me most about Sally Rooney is not that she cannot write; she cannot decide what kind of a writer she is--a novelist, or a playwright?  Make up your mind, Sal, because with this book, unless you improve, you have lost me.  Not recommended, girls!!!!!!!!!!

                                                                            

                                       3.  "A Calling For Charlie Barnes," by Joshua Ferris--Interesting this follows Sally Rooney, because, after his short story collection, "The Dinner Party," I resolved to give up Joshua Ferris, as I am now doing with Rooney.  Someone recommended this book to me, and I am glad I took a chance.  The best book since his first, Ferris makes the reader question the truth about Charlie Barnes by giving us multiple narrators, whom we may not recognize till near the end.   Which is the most truthful? 

Ferris leaves the reader to decide that.  But what a ride, and what points of view!  Don't miss this one!

                                                                                 

                                               4.  "Cloud Cuckoo Land," by Anthony Doerr--All who loved "All The Light We Cannot See" are sure to love this blend of science, whimsy, practicality, and yearn for a place in the clouds, which Doerr picks in a loving, but lucid, style, unseen since Eugene Field.  This transported me to realms I often wanted to remain in.  No book has done that as effectively for me Lewis Carroll's 'Alice' books.  To convince myself, I read those again, following this.  One of my favorites of 2021!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   Grab it and whisk yourself away to another world!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                                                

                                                    5.  "Crossroads," by Jonathan Franzen--Hey, it is Jonathan Franzen; what more can I say?  Plenty, because while I read and admired "Purity," I really did not like it.  I LOVED "Crossroads."  With the Hildenbrandts, he is back to what he does best--dissecting American family life.  Set in Seventies, my teen years, the times and references resonated with me: Franzen gets it all right.  But his skill for language, dialogue and human vulnerability restores him to the King Of American Novelists. Those afraid Franzen had gone away need not fear.  He is back--and at full strength!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                                                 

                                          6.  "Detransition, Baby," by Torrey Peters--As woke as one can get, darlings.  Too bad this character study of three women grappling with socio-sexual issues did not engage me.  I will give you this--it was not a phony, like "The Other Black Girl," by Zakiya Dalila Harris.  I am willing to give Peters another chance.  Good for some, did not work for me.

                                                                                 

                                            7.  "Harlem Shuffle," by Colson Whitehead--I had so looked forward to this, but it is only half successful.  His depictions of Harlem of another era are beautifully written, but the gangster narrative is only half successful.  In going for something Doctorow-like, Whitehead gets lost along the way.  Still, the man is so gifted, this work is worth reading, just to keep up with him.

                                                                                   

                                              8.  "How Beautiful We Were," by Imbolo Mbue--I read this early in the year, having loved Mbue's debut, "Behold The Dreamers."   Its blend of political and racial tensions and climate change rang true without having a contrived agenda attached to it.   In the year of BLM, this was the best of all those books, and was both enjoyable and informative.

                                                                                   

                                                 9.  "Intimacies," by Katie Kitamura--I have no idea why this book has garnered so much attention.  Sally Rooney, I can understand, but THIS?  Shoot me, if you want to, but I am telling you girls.... fuhgeddaboudit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                                                    

                                           10.  "Light Perpetual," by Francis Spufford--After his triumph with "Golden Hill," I was not sure how Spufford's follow up would be.  This was another I read earlier in the year, and I am telling you, girls, were it not for the Big Blockbusters, this might have made my list.  A group of people, who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time--the bombing of a Woolworth's, that actually took place in 1944 London--travel back and forth in time, with the results being poignant, moving and insightful.  With Anthony Doerr's book and this, time travel and alteration were big topics this year.  Don't overlook this one!

                                                                                     

                                             11.  "The Lincoln Highway," by Amor Towles--Everything good you have heard is true, darlings.   Amor Towles has done it again.  An eighteen-year-old man and his precocious eight-year-old brother, embark on a road trip to California to start anew, but the trip turns into a determent that is unputdownable, and something out of the boys' adventure books us Baby Boomers grew up with.  I sped through every one of its six hundred plus pages, hungering for more.  Not to be missed, and I cannot wait to see what Towles does next.

                                                                                 

                                            12.  "The Magician," by Colm Toibin--Another gem.  I loved what Toibin did with Henry James in "The Master," so I was curious about how Thomas Mann would be dealt with here.  Not only did Toibin outdo himself, but he also made me want to read some Mann, whom I have managed, unintentionally, to avoid.  Perhaps I will do one of his novels next year.  "The Magician" mixes biography and fiction so seamlessly, I cannot wait to see who Toibin tackles next!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

                                                                                     

                                       13.  "My Year Abroad," by Chang-Rae Lee--What is this doing on ANY list?  Not much to say, here.   Overrated, unmemorable, overdone.  Forget it.  Lee and Gary Shteyngart both!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

                                                                                 

                                          14.  "Our Country Friends," by Gary Shteyngart--See above.  I am officially done with him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                                                       

                                             15.  "The Plot," by Jean Hanff Korelitz-- Unquestionably the thriller of the year; definitely Hitchcockian.   A once successful novelist, now cribbing in a low-end creative writing program in a third-tier liberal arts college steals a novel's plot from one of his successful students, now deceased.  Or is he?  Because someone starts come after him for this deed.  Who could have known?  The last several pages had me gasping, but should it really be on a literary list?  Think about it, girls, but don't let these comments stop you from reading it!

                                                                                

                                   16.  "The Prophets," by Robert Jones, Jr.--The South, slavery, and homosexuality!  Sounds improbable, right?  Maybe Toni Morrison, if alive?  Perhaps, but Jones, Jr. does a wonderful job with the touching relationship between Samuel and Isiah.  Why this did not turn up on more lists, escapes me, but it deserves the place here, and is well worth reading.  Perhaps the best of all the year's Black-centric novels!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

                                                                                 

                                      17.  "Razorblade Tears," by S.A. Crosby--Two young men, one Black, one White, are a happy gay couple, till one of them is murdered.  Their fathers, none the most accepting, join forces to seek revenge on the killer who did this, and what begins as a routine revenge tale turns into a meditation on insight, humanity, racial and gay acceptance, with a plot twist I never saw coming.  This one is the real thing, girls, thrilling entertainment, while touching on current social issues.

                                                                                 

                               18.  "The Sentence," by Louise Erdrich--Like "The Plot," this is a must for lovers of fiction.  I am ashamed I have not read Erdrich recently, and she is such a great writer.  Combining American Indian folklore and literary acumen, this tale centers on a bookstore (which Erdrich actually owns in real life) being haunted by the ghost of its most annoying customer. For those of us having worked in public service, think about that for a minute, darlings!  It is enough to drive one crazy!  "The Sentence" is both hilarious and touching, and Flora, the ghost, is the most delightfully addled character since Madame Arcati in "Blithe Spirit!!!!!!!!!!"  Which I saw onstage, darlings, with Blythe Danner!  The prose flows like a river in a novel both whimsical and moving. 

                                   Well, girls, that's it.  Only eighteen titles that I have read.  Lower than in previous years.  I don't know if that says more about me, or the publishing industry.  Anyway, look for, in future posts, the books on the list I WANT to read, the Top Five In Fiction Of  "The New York Times," plus my own personal Top Five.  Let me assure you, it is vastly different from "The New York Times!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

                                       But isn't that just me, darlings??????????????????????????