#18: The Imperfectionists, Tom Rachman
Read for the Bluestockings once again, and utterly enjoyed. It got a slobberingly positive review in the New York Times, but really, when you consider that this is a novel written by a 35-year-old, it’s pretty merited. It’s the tale of a fictional English-language newspaper based in Rome and staffed mostly by Americans. Various staffers get their own chapters and the story of the newspaper is woven throughout. It would make excellent beach reading for people who like good books, because it’s well-written, but also easy to pick up and put down.
#19: To Change the World, James Davison Hunter
I was tired of talking about the book before I read it so I really don’t want to say too much. Parts of it I agreed with; other parts I found off-putting. Ultimately, while I think the thesis is right, I think the book’s tone implies that “faithful presence” is a fairly new idea for this era, and I think that’s sort of out of touch.
And one other thing: I found the copious (for this type of book, anyhow) typographical and grammatical errors utterly jarring, so much that I found myself more wary of the ideas in the book. One would think Oxford University Press would put more care into a manuscript of this kind of heft.
#20: The Believers, Zoe Heller
I haven’t read Heller before but I loved the movie Notes on a Scandal, which was based on her book What Was She Thinking? Notes on a Scandal. So I have been eyeing this one since it came out and managed to slip it in between books. It’s not terribly innovative, but it’s very readable if you like tales of dysfunctional New York families (which I always do). Think of it kind of like a Noah Baumbach film populated entirely by Jews and dealing with issues around what we believe and how those things are shaped and shaken. I actually could barely put it down, which may say more about me than the book – but I’d recommend it.