Wednesday, December 24, 2008

2008 Book List

Revolutionary Road - Richard Yates - Outstanding writing. Captures suburuban dementia like no other.
Lunar Park - Bret Easton Ellis
Glamorama - Bret Easton Ellis
Choke - Chuck Palahniuk - Crazy book, curious how they get all these themes into a movie.
American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis - It's been nearly 20 years since I read this, and I had forgotten how great of a book it is. The gore gets all the attention, but the rest of the book is such a piercing statement on the culture and a must read.
Rules of Attraction - Bret Easton Ellis - 3rd time I have ready this one
Survivor - Chuck Palahniuk - Can see the Bret Easton Ellis influence when Tender gets famous. Worth reading another of his books.
Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk - Great writing, wish i did not know the ending from the movie, would have been better
Cell - Stephen King. Pretty sub standard knock off of the stand and dark tower.
Into the Wild - John Krakauer
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess. Pretty crazy book with all the Nadsat language. You pick up on what most of the words mean and there's always the good ol internet. Watched the movie right after, pretty faithful to the book, other than the "controversial" 21st chapter.
Less than Zero - Bret Easton Ellis - 2nd time I have read, 20 years later. Still really good. funny how uncool the 80s is now, even for us refugees from that era.
The Delivery Man - Joe McGinnis Jr
KnockemStiff - Donald Ray Pollock http://www.donaldraypollock.com/index.htm
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini - really good book. the movie follows the story very closely. so sad how vibrant afghanistan once was and what religious tyranny has reduced it to.
I am Legend - Robert Neville
Bankrupt: The Intellectual and Moral Bankruptcy of Today's Democratic Party - David Limbaugh
Hooking Up - Tom Wolfe
The Blind Side - Michael Lewis
Sacred Hoops - Phil Jackson - Life changer
Teacher Man - Frank McCourt
On Writing - Stephen King
The Natural - Bernard Malamud