Books of 2011

It's that time again, kids - time to put the footer aside for a bit and put on our cultural criticism hats. Last year I was musing about my book consumption and wondering if I should get a Kindle - haven't done it yet. How about the rest of you? I'm still leaning heavily on the SUNY interlibrary loan system for my new reads. Here are my favorites from 2011:

1. David Sirota – Back to Our Future: I chose this gem to start off our summer LOB reading this year. Sirota makes a compelling case that 80s cultural artifacts played no small role in advancing Reaganite policies that still afflict us today. Here’s how good it is – it’s the model for my second book.
2. Karen Russell– Swamplandia : Although superficially about a strange but wondrous family who run the kind of small gator parks that dot the peninsula, this is more about the loss of old Florida and perhaps about the loss of traditional America as well. A book for the ages.
3. Simon Reynolds – Retromania: Reynolds - one of the most thoughtful music culture writer in Britain these days - tackles the recent penchant for nostalgia in musical culture.
4. Ann Patchett – State of Wonder: Patchett’s new novel is set deep in the Amazon rainforest of Brazil in Manaus, but it’s really an exposition on the state of academic work.
5. Sarah Vowell – Unfamiliar Fishes: Vowell points out in this lively and readable quirky history of the annexation of Hawaii that the late 1890s represented the United States’ first major foray into imperialism, a policy that now dogs us in the early 21st century.
6. Declan Hill – The Fix: Hill’s superbly researched book made me wonder about players such as Wayne Rooney and Fernando Torres who have alleged gambling habits and have had disastrous drop-offs in form. Every time something strange happens in a match, I think of Hill's book.
7. Albert Brooks – 2030: Brooks can usually be relied upon for some chuckles, but his novel about the near future portrays an America in the throes of crisis – earthquakes, health care morass, unemployment – and worse, with few ideas as to how to solve it.
8. Ellen Schrecker – Shrecker expands on some recent articles about the “New McCarthyism” in higher education to discuss the threats posed by attacks on academic freedom from within and without the academy.
9. Erik Larson – In the Garden of Beasts: Larson specializes in small narratives within larger historical events. In his latest, he traces the complicated path that the American ambassador to Berlin in the early 30s took in relation to the rise of Nazism.
10. Gary Younge – Who are We? Guardian columnist Gary Younge’s new book delves into the thorny issues of identity politics, including vignettes from the Sonia Sotomayor nomination, the Tiger Woods scandal and the Barack Obama “birther” nonsense.

Notable Others:
• Jonathan Kay – Among the Truthers
• Kevin Kumashiro – Troubling Education
• John Sayles - A Moment in the Sun
• Kathryn Stockett - The Help

Disappointments:
• Jonathan Franzen – Freedom: Franzen is so insistent on trying to write “The Great American Novel” here that he forgets the need to craft a compelling narrative with likeable characters.
• Tom Perotta – The Leftovers: Perrotta’s latest dystopian novel about suburbia misses the mark by focusing on the tired “Rapture” meme.