March14th

20: The Bridegroom by Ha Jin
21: Possible Lives by Mike Rose
22: Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

18)The Helmet of Horror by Victor Pelevin – Or should I say, “Teh helmet of horror!11111111111 zomg”? A handful of people are trapped in cells of a labyrinth and can only communicate through a computer terminal in their rooms. The entire book is a chatroom log, and therefore it reads really quickly.

19)God Knows by Joseph Heller – Okay, that’s it. Joseph Heller is my new boyfriend. This is his hilarious account of the story of David the King. You know that episode of the family guy in which Peter poses as a Hasidic Jew and says, “I us’ed em down on the price”? There are a lot of those moments.

5) Triple Helix by by Richard Lewontin
You know how you learn that “DNA is the blueprint of the organism” in science class? Well, that statement is oversimplified and misleading. Lewontin argues that biologists are focusing so heavily on DNA and coding genomes that it is becoming a detriment to the science and drawing funds/attention away from other important questions that need to be answered. Interesting, but you have to be in the mood for science.

6 & 7) The Hobbit and the Fellowship of the Ring
I gave up because I like the movies better.

8) The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman
Having now finished the last installment of the His Dark Materials series, I can tell you to stop at the first book, before the author gets caught up in adding too many ideas that he never resolves satisfactorily.

9) Coriolanus by Billy McShakespeare
I’m counting plays as books, okay? Coriolanus is like a play staring Hotspur. He’s a crazy mother, and I want to have his babies. Except then he would probably try to kill them when he sacks his own city.

10) The Mating Mind by Geoffrey Miller
Miller argues that the human brain developed the capacity for complicated language and art so that we can attract better mates; it was sexual selection, not natural selection. Whether or not you want to buy into this theory is up to you, but he does come up with a plausible reason for the existence of the clitoris. Whenever anyone tells you it has no evolutionary function: bullshit. That’s what you say when you haven’t figured out the function yet.

11) The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon
Don’t ever antagonize the horn.
DON’T EVER ANTAGONIZE THE HORN.
If you like the TV show Lost, you’ll like this book.

12 & 13) The Sirens of Titan and Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut
I read these two one after the other, and I ended up liking the juxtaposition because both have omniscient narrators who tell you what’s going to happen and then go back and work up to how these improbable situations come about; however, SoT focuses on a series of accidents that occur to one man, while G focused is not on individuals, but the evolution of the entire species.

14) Understanding Jewish Mysticism: A Source Reader. by David Blumenthal
You had better read this book if you want to learn how to meditate on God’s right thigh. “Joan, give ME your dessert!” “Yes Lord!” “Mmmm… oh that’s going straight to my five thighs.”

15) Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
Please read this if you haven’t yet, I’m begging you.

16) The Twits by Roald Dahl
I missed this book when I was a kid, but I don’t think I would have liked it back then. I wasn’t really the sort of kid who wanted to read about gross people.

17) Povel by Geraldine Kim
This book means a lot to me because my friend wrote it. It’s cracked out, like her. I’m not sure how someone who doesn’t know her would receive it.