2010 Jambalaya Winners

The most interesting books I read for the first time in 2010 (in order of reading) (and always subject to change):


I Am Not Sidney Poitier -- Percival Everett

The Spare Room -- Helen Gardner

The Spellmans Strike Again -- Lisa Lutz

Summertime -- J.M. Coetzee

The Way We Live Now -- Anthony Trollope

The Age of Wonder -- Richard Holmes

A Visit From the Goon Squad -- Jennifer Egan

When Will There Be Good News? -- Kate Atkinson

How to Live: or A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer -- Sarah Bakewell

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao -- Junot Diaz



Honorable Mention

The Innocence of Father Brown -- G.K. Chesterton

The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them -- Elif Batuman

Yoga for People Who Can't Be Bothered to Do It -- Geoff Dyer

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet -- David Mitchell

After Claude -- Iris Owens

The Gentlemen's Hour -- Don Winslow

2010 Reading List

in reverse order of reading:

The Gentlemen's Hour -- Don Winslow


The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao -- Junot Diaz

After Claude -- Iris Owens

Must You Go? My Life with Harold Pinter -- Antonia Fraser

Indian Country Noir -- Sarah Cortez (ed.) & Liz Martinez (ed.)

The Big Boom -- Dominic Stansberry

Hint Fiction -- Robert Swartwood (ed.)

Old Men in Love: John Tunnock's Posthumous Papers -- Alasdair Gray

How to Live: or A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer -- Sarah Bakewell

Gravity's Rainbow -- Thomas Pynchon

The Blue Hammer -- Ross MacDonald

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet -- David Mitchell

Djibouti -- Elmore Leonard

Gulliver's Travels -- Jonathan Swift

When Will There Be Good News? -- Kate Atkinson

The Finkler Question -- Howard Jacobson

My Driver -- Maggie Gee

Packing For Mars -- Mary Roach

Baked -- Mark Haskell Smith

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World -- Jack Weatherford

A Visit From the Goon Squad -- Jennifer Egan

Halls of Fame: Essays -- John D'Agata

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest -- Steig Larsson

Skylark -- Dezso Kosztolanyi

Yoga for People Who Can't Be Bothered to Do It -- Geoff Dyer

All That Follows -- Jim Crace

The Girl Who Played With Fire -- Stieg Larsson

The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them -- Elif Batuman

Joey's Case -- K.C. Constantine

The Age of Wonder -- Richard Holmes

How To Sell -- Clancy Martin

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes -- Arthur Conan Doyle

The Executor -- Jesse Kellerman

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo -- Stieg Larsson

The Way We Live Now -- Anthony Trollope

Summertime -- J.M. Coetzee

Reporting At Wit's End -- St. Clair McKelway

The Ask -- Sam Lipsyte

The Spellmans Strike Again -- Lisa Lutz

Life Itself -- Elaine Dundy

The Chalk Circle Man -- Fred Vargas

The Southpaw -- Mark Harris

Dark Star Safari -- Paul Theroux

The Spare Room -- Helen Gardner

The Water's Edge -- Karin Fossum

The Innocence of Father Brown -- G.K. Chesterton

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes -- Arthur Conan Doyle

Risk -- Colin Harrison

The Hot Rock -- Donald E. Westlake

I Am Not Sidney Poitier -- Percival Everett

The Ticking Is The Bomb -- Nick Flynn

Ghost Stories of an Antiquary -- M.R. James

Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of 'The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour' -- David Bianculli

The Three of Us: A Family Story -- Julia Blackburn

The Original of Laura -- Vladimir Nabokov

The Man Who Loved Books Too Much -- Allison Hoover Bartlett


The Gentlemen's Hour -- Don Winslow


The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao -- Junot Diaz

After Claude -- Iris Owens

Must You Go? My Life with Harold Pinter -- Antonia Fraser

Indian Country Noir -- Sarah Cortez (ed.) & Liz Martinez (ed.)

The Big Boom -- Dominic Stansberry

Hint Fiction -- Robert Swartwood (ed.)

Old Men in Love: John Tunnock's Posthumous Papers -- Alasdair Gray

How to Live: or A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer -- Sarah Bakewell

Gravity's Rainbow -- Thomas Pynchon

The Blue Hammer -- Ross MacDonald

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet -- David Mitchell

Djibouti -- Elmore Leonard

Gulliver's Travels -- Jonathan Swift

When Will There Be Good News? -- Kate Atkinson

The Finkler Question -- Howard Jacobson

My Driver -- Maggie Gee

Packing For Mars -- Mary Roach

Baked -- Mark Haskell Smith

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World -- Jack Weatherford

A Visit From the Goon Squad -- Jennifer Egan

Halls of Fame: Essays -- John D'Agata

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest -- Steig Larsson

Skylark -- Dezso Kosztolanyi

Yoga for People Who Can't Be Bothered to Do It -- Geoff Dyer

All That Follows -- Jim Crace

The Girl Who Played With Fire -- Stieg Larsson

The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them -- Elif Batuman

Joey's Case -- K.C. Constantine

The Age of Wonder -- Richard Holmes

How To Sell -- Clancy Martin

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes -- Arthur Conan Doyle

The Executor -- Jesse Kellerman

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo -- Stieg Larsson

The Way We Live Now -- Anthony Trollope

Summertime -- J.M. Coetzee

Reporting At Wit's End -- St. Clair McKelway

The Ask -- Sam Lipsyte

The Spellmans Strike Again -- Lisa Lutz

Life Itself -- Elaine Dundy

The Chalk Circle Man -- Fred Vargas

The Southpaw -- Mark Harris

Dark Star Safari -- Paul Theroux

The Spare Room -- Helen Gardner

The Water's Edge -- Karin Fossum

The Innocence of Father Brown -- G.K. Chesterton

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes -- Arthur Conan Doyle

Risk -- Colin Harrison

The Hot Rock -- Donald E. Westlake

I Am Not Sidney Poitier -- Percival Everett

The Ticking Is The Bomb -- Nick Flynn

Ghost Stories of an Antiquary -- M.R. James

Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of 'The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour' -- David Bianculli

The Three of Us: A Family Story -- Julia Blackburn

The Original of Laura -- Vladimir Nabokov

The Man Who Loved Books Too Much -- Allison Hoover Bartlett

Four people in their twenties headed up the steps to the gym:

Woman #1: Well? Women's socks -- would they fit you?

Man #1: I don't know, but they're awesome.

"Your room is paid up until the twenty-second of September. . . Is everything satisfactory?"

"It depends," I said haughtily, "on what you're satisfying."

Iris Owens

Inspired Insult

"If looks could kill," I told him in between chews, "you'd soon find out that yours couldn't."

-- "After Claude" by Iris Owens

Law and Superheroes

http://lawandthemultiverse.com/

Questions we have all asked, answered.

Badly Drawn Boy at the Troubadour

Badly Drawn Boy had a difficult last show of the tour at the Troubadour in LA on Thursday Dec. 16.  He was extremely unhappy about the sound.   He was extremely unhappy when voices from the crowd offered encouragement telling him it sounded good from the audience.  ("Yeah but I'm up here.") He was unhappy when audience members strated heckling him about his behavior.  ("Fuck you" "Stupid LA twats" "Cunts").  When an audience member said it was ok that it was late. ( "You are talking nonsense".)


"At least I'm being honest. You could at least applaud me for that."

"It's like being in a roomful of fucking lions or something.
No one should have to go through what I'm going through up here."

"Nobody cares as much as me about this."

"Just don't react to anything I say up here."

http://blogs.laweekly.com/westcoastsound/2010/12/badly_drawn_boy_at_the_troubad.php


It was a marvelous Ricky Gervais / Russell Brand performance.   (And he made it through to the end, and was convincingly contrite about it all.)

Corrections of the Year, etc.

http://www.regrettheerror.com/2010/12/08/crunks-2010-the-year-in-media-errors-and-corrections/

A sample, perhaps familiar:

"This blog post originally stated that one in three black men who have sex with me is HIV positive. In fact, the statistic applies to black men who have sex with men."

Mel Brooks on Leslie Nielsen

I liked him very much. He was lovely, and he'd do anything, and he was funny, and he was just great, and you'd never take him for a Canadian.

2000 Year Old Jokes

Carl Reiner: Of all your girlfriends, who was your favorite?
Mel Brooks: Shirley.
Reiner: And what was so special about Shirley?
Brooks: Her friend Lila.

I was not alarmed. There were only four and I always feel safe with women. Men sometimes punch each other for no good reason but petty theft is my worst experience of women.

   from "Old Men in Love"

Several minutes passed before I saw she has finally moved out, helped by a systematic partner or partners who own or have hired a van. . . . I wandered from room to room in a kind of daze, wondering what to tell the police. My fondness for young things could lead to difficulties if Niki is under the age of consent. What is the age of consent? (Memo: find out.)

 from "Old Men in Love"