My Reading Life: Top Five Books of 2013

Note: This list is limited to books released since the tail end of 2012.  One of the most amazing books I read this year was The Book Thief by Markus Zusak ..... but it had been around since 2006, so won't be on the list.  Likewise The Fault of our Stars by John Green, which was released in January 2012.  Both worthy reads, however.)

Number Five

Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala
It's hard to believe that someone could suffer the loss that Sonali Deraniyagala did when her parents, husband, and sons were killed in the 2004 tsunami.  It is harder still to imagine how she wrote this deep meditation on loss and the aftermath so soon after such a tragedy.  I almost avoided this one because of the content, but the reviews were so good, I got too curious about it.  Throughout the reading I just kept wondering how I could have handled such a situation.  Yet, Deraniyagala never is self-pitying or self-indulgent.  She takes us into the heart and mind and physicalness of suffering and comes out on the other end -- not perfectly healed, but making progress. And she introduced me to a song by the Smiths called "There is a Light that Never Goes Out" which about sums everything up.


Number Four

Calling Me Home: Gram Parsons and the Roots of Country Rock by Bob Kealing
I have been a Gram Parsons fan for nearly forty years and this book lent a great deal insight into the man and the time period he lived.  I was particularly surprised and taken with the fact that Parsons grandparents owned Cypress Gardens and lived in the big white house on the property (now Legoland).  Coming from a combination of riches and family suicides, Parsons was primed for the times he lived.  He envisioned his form of "Cosmic Rock" which led directly to the marriage of country and rock -- one of my favorite genres of music.  On top of that, he "discovered" Emmylou Harris -- and well, the rest is history.  The main thing I loved about this book is that it helped me really understand how specific musicians and songwriters and artists created a vibrant form of music -- and that the Florida Youth Centers were a feeding ground for it.  Florida gets lost in American music history.  Kealing gives it its rightful place. 

Number Three

Z: a Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler
As an instructor of American literature, I studied up on F. Scott Fitzgerald.  This book came along to give balance and insight into his wife Zelda, and Fowler does an incredible job capturing the voice and the spirit of the times in which Zelda lived.  There isn't a false moment in the book and yes, the men do come out on the short end of the stick -- Scott quite a bit, and Ernest Hemingway even more. But didn't we always know that?  This book was a good companion to the newly released Gatsby movie, which is not making my top movie list.  It did help me appreciate the movie more, and Gatsby in general.  Writers write what they know and live and absorb.  Zelda was a woman of her times and suffered for it in many ways.  Fowler takes us into the soul of the woman and we are better for it.  And let me add that, as a writer, I think what Fowler did was extremely brave. She must have overcome a great deal of fear to take on this literary couple.  The results are impeccable.

Number Two

Brewster by Mark Slouka
Two young men growing up in the 1960's in a dismal town called Brewster.  Two young men with very different lives, making their way through the confusing times.  This book is described as being a Bruce Springsteen song in novel form and, well, that's a compliment.  The writing is direct and evokes the late 60's in all its mixed messages, as well as the added misery of high school frustrations and family dysfunction.  The pacing of this novel is wonderful, and we never doubt the main character's actions.  Tragic, beautiful, candid, gritty, well-formed, fascinating -- yes, exactly like a Springsteen song.


Number One

A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
I used to think if I could have written any book it would have been A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle.  And then came A Tale for the Time Being.  As I wrote in My Personal Magna Carta in June, I go for stories about the following: writers,  geography I know well or would like to know well, nature, spirituality, in particular Buddhism, experiences of women, not necessarily motherhood, generations, fathers and daughters, music, culture clashes, effects of war, stories drawn from other stories, road trips, reunions, time manipulation, and coming of age.  Maybe it seems impossible that all of these made it into one book but, honestly, they did -- and in an engaging way.  On top of it, the author puts herself in the book as one of the characters.  Masterful, with character voices that are captivating and absorbing and eventually liberating. Every aspect of it heart-wrenching and revealing and an opening to so much more. I just don't think I have words for the masterpiece I believe this book to be.  I recommended it many times, but don't think anyone ever took me up on it.  I plead with you out there -- please read this book.  Let's talk!  There will be a theme in here that will touch your heart. 

Honorable Mention:
Bad Monkey by Carl Hiassen  (because he is a Floridian and hilarious)
Whistling Past the Graveyard by Susan Crandall  (a sweet story of a girl from Mississippi traveling with a black woman to Nashville to find her mother -- 1960's, of course!)
Palisades Park by Alan Brennert  (generations of a family connected to the famous New Jersey amusement park -- a tribute to the park and those who lived through the times and events of the twentieth century)