Oh, yeah, I just found the list I'd made for New Year's Resolution reading....

Kasey Cox

You might have wondered, seeing me every week standing here next to this stack of books in my photo, just what titles are on those spines. Well, as everyone keeps reminding us, it’s a new year, so I cleared off the old stack and started a new pile. Here’s a list of some of the books I am definitely hoping to read in 2008.

Let’s see, Kasey’s sister is getting married this coming July, so how does that rhyme go? Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue …. Sounds like a good recipe for a book list, as well….

In preparation for the nuptials, we’ll probably spend some time with a book I saw Kasey grab from the shelf recently – “The Bridesmaid’s Guerrilla Handbook”, by Sarah Stein and Lucy Talbot. Kasey has found this witty but practical guide extremely helpful already. She even shared the suggested “timetable” with her sister as we all snuggled together on New Year’s Eve. Though there are too many books out there on every possible aspect of weddings, this one is a great fit for the first-time bridesmaid – easy to read, funny, well-organized. Sadly, it is out of print, but still easy enough to find.

If it’s out of print, does that count as “something old?” Not necessarily. I think we need to add at least one of the “classics” to the list. Last year, I was mesmerized by both Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel “The Namesake” and the movie that was made from it. Lahiri is one of the few authors ever to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for a collection of short stories. “The Namesake” is the novel that followed her Pulitzer-winning anthology, “The Interpreter of Maladies”. The young man at the center of Lahiri’s novel is Nikolai Gogol’s namesake. At one point, the father tells his son how one day he will realize that we all come from Gogol’s “Overcoat”. I didn’t understand the reference, because, in general, I haven’t read the great Russian works of literature. Most of these greats are from the movement known as Russian realism – therefore, much disillusionment, pain, suffering, betrayal. I’m sure it’s beautiful writing, but those books have intimidated me, seeming long and full of long-suffering. So, this year, a start: “Diary of A Madman and Other Stories” by Nikolai Gogol. Because it’s time I read some Russians. And I want to know what’s under Gogol’s overcoat, and why Lahiri would form an entire beautiful novel around it.

While we’re on the subject of Indian and Indian-American writers like Lahiri, I’m going to add “something new” to my list. If you haven’t read anything by Calcutta-born-now-Houston-resident Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, you’re missing out. She’s got a new novel being released in February, “The Palace of Illusions”. Check it out, but be sure to look at all of her works, because she’s quite a maestro, spanning novels, poetry, fantasy, and young adult literature.

“Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir”, by National Book Award winner Paul Monette will serve an important place on the list. I read Monette’s award-winning book, “Becoming A Man: Half a Life Story”, when I was in college, when it was shocking that Tom Hanks would portray a gay man in a Hollywood movie, when I thought I’d never met a homosexual, when “no one knew” the real statistics of AIDS. Now we do, and we still are playing ostrich. This book is both a slice of history and a warning, as the numbers of HIV-infected people in the U.S. begin to rise again.

For “blue”, I’m planning on reading “Something Blue”, by Kasey’s fellow Wake Forest alum Emily Giffin. I’d seen Giffin’s books for sale in many places over the last few years, but never picked one up. The reviews, the title, and the WFU-connection have cinched it, though. Sure, it’s chick lit, but that doesn’t mean the girl can’t write!!! And sometimes, girls – even book nerds like Kasey – just wanna have fun. And who says books can’t provide tons of fun? Just look at this year’s reprint of Dr. Seuss’s “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” – in celebration of its 50th year in print, the covers are shiny metallic red and underneath the title, capital letters inform us that we’re holding “THE PARTY EDITION” in our hands. Now that’s a book to keep on hand!

What’s on your New Year’s reading list? Don’t forget to add a second “Hobo” adventure to your list of books to watch for in 2008. If you need to catch up on the first one, or on any older reviews, email me at frommyshelf@epix.net or go to the Hobo archive at http://frommyshelf.blogspot.com