The Creation of the American Republic

I’m gearing up to read Wood’s The Radicalism of the American Revolution, but now I wonder whether it isn’t high time I read Bailyn. (g)

Middlesex

Oprah made me read it. Now I ♥ intersexuals. (g)

Kindred

When Butler died last year I thought it was especially sad, but I hadn’t actually read anything she had written. To rectify that, now that I’ve finished The Golden Bowl, I’m taking a break from Henry James to read Kindred. (g)

The Golden Bowl

How two Americans, owners of the finest sort, come to possess their spouses. It’s a difficult novel, sparse in characterization but rich in depth and awareness of the smallest detail. More here. (g)

The Road

“Then they set out along the blacktop in the gunmetal light, shuffling through the ash, each the other’s world entire.” (My. God.) (g)

Everyman

The best way I can appreciate Everyman is as a post-9/11 novel: an artistic, shallow man runs in fear from the city to fulfill his life in retirement—to make life meaningful, really—but discovers he cannot. Fear makes no man change. (g)

Gilead

Robinson’s prose is meandering, artful, full, in a stunning novel that pinpoints the difficulty of forgiveness in the face of prejudice. It deserved all the accolades it receieved, and it is worth many readings. (g)

Half of a Yellow Sun

Adichie’s second novel is a brutal, loving portrait of a family during the Biafran/Nigerian Civil War. No character survives unscarred, though Adichie is wise enough to recognize that, no matter how evil anyone’s deeds, they learn to return to living. (g)