Like this:

In 2011, I undertook a project in which I read three books I’d previously maligned for various and difficult-to-remember reasons. These were Eat, Pray, Love (maligned because I’m not generally interested in memoir and because of the cult surrounding the book, among other fairly obvious reasons), Freedom (I think my maligning had to do with the cult of Franzen and that the book seemed bougie, which is the same reason I didn’t listen to NPR until last year, which I acknowledge is totally ridiculous), and What is the What (maligned when I was heavily into African lit because I thought the Eggers book was a copout). I was pleased and rather startled to find that I loved all three of those books. Freedom was one of the best things I read last year. With the exception of Patty, Franzen’s female characters aren’t developed and can’t even drive (spoiler alert), but he’s able to conjure an intense and often painful empathy that left me obsessed and weepy. What is the What is a brave book. Someone from The Wire does the audio version, which is cool. I’m going to write more about EPL later in the context of my trip to Bali, but I will say that I still occasionally read negative reviews of the book for fun and I agree with all the feminist and class critique, of course, and that the countries she visited weren’t viewed in their own cultural and historical terms as much as blank spaces on which to project her own needs and expectations, and with much of the other critique too, though a lot of it seems misguided. I listened to the audio version of this book; Gilbert reads it herself and is a fantastic reader. Even though I know it’s a cheesy, problematic book, I loved the descriptions of food, the honest way she talks about depression, the honest way she’s unafraid to portray herself as a total bonehead in some situations, the humor, the irony that she chose Bali, the place where everyone you meet inquires about your relationship status as a polite form of greeting, as a place to set her heart right.

Last year also saw the release of lots of books by friends and friends of friends, which was exciting! I feel lucky to know such talented and innovative writers. Here’s a list of the books I finished in 2011:

1. My Horse and Other Stories, Stacey Levine

2. Beauport, Kate Colby

3. At Play in the Fields of the Lord, Peter Matthiessen

4. Goldengrove, Francine Prose

5. Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert (on CD)

6. Tough Skin, Sarah Eaton

7. The Return of the Native, Kate Colby

8. In Cold Blood, Truman Capote (on CD)

9. Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman, Jon Krakauer (on CD)

10. Freedom, Jonathan Franzen

11. Awe, Dorthea Lasky

12. Georgic, Mariko Nagai

13. Sparrow & Other Eulogies, Megan Martin

14. America Pacifica, Anna North

15. Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded, Simon Winchester

16. The Adderall Diaries, Stephen Elliott

17. Down From Cascom Mountain, Ann Joslin Williams

18. Fun Home,  Alison Bechdel

19. The Tiger’s Wife, Téa Obreht

20. Black Life, Dorthea Lasky

21. Red April, Santiago Roncagliolo (trans. Edith Grossman)

22. Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy

23. How To Shit Around the World: The Art of Staying Clean and Healthy While Traveling, Dr. Jane Wilson-Howarth

24. Map of the Invisible World, Tash Aw

25. What is the What, Dave Eggers (on CD)

26. Possession, A. S. Byatt (reread)

27. Room, Emma Donoghue

28. Love in Infant Monkeys, Lydia Millet

29. Suite Française, Irène Némirovsky (trans. Sandra Smith)

30. Song for Night, Chris Abani

31. Waveform, Amber DiPietra and Denise Leto

32. State of Wonder, Ann Patchett

33. Nine-Headed Dragon River: Zen Journals 1969-1982, Peter Matthiessen

34. Tin House vol. 13, no. 1: The Ecstatic