Best books of 2014

As December comes each year it seems that every publication and website publishes their end of year best of collections. Books, music, television, we all have opinions and as some of us (myself included) are natural list makers the end of the year prompts this flood. 

So now the most important lists, those from yours truly will begin to be published. Today I will be writing about my favorite and or the best books I have read this year. It should be noted that this list will encompass not just books from this year. To be eligible for this list the book must only be one I have read this year, so if an older book appears do not be surprised. 

Number TEN: Legacy of Ashes and Enemies both by Tim Weiner. The Pulitzer Prize winning journalist has published in the post 9/11 era these histories of the CIA and the FBI. The author gives enough 
information in both books for the reader to be more afraid of the mistakes made by our agencies than the bad guys gunning for us. Still heroes do emerge in the side of justice. Two fantastic books. 

Number NINE:  Some Luck by Jane Smiley. The first of a proposed trilogy Smiley introduces us to an Iowa farm family in 1920. With each chapter encompassing a single year this first book we move from 1920 to the early fifties. All the books in the series are written and Smiley has promised a quick release of the series. This is great 
news.

Number EIGHT:  An Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris. Harris adds to his list of impressive books (Fatherland, Enigma, Pompeii) with this fictionalized history of The Dreyfus Affair. Historical fiction is a hard project, Harris does it better than most. Best of all for someone like me with little knowledge of this event I learned a great deal. An excellent read


Intermission # 1: Guilty pleasure of the year goes to The Century Trilogy by Ken Follett. I had, on purpose, waited until all three of these books were published to begin and then this fall the folks at Amazon helped out a great deal by, at various times, offering all three of these books at bargain prices on the Kindle. Over the years I have read at least ten or more of his books. As I have become a more serious reader the flaws in his writing have become more apparent. That said this collection, I have only read the first tow thus far, does have a much to speak well of.  Follett writes characters one cannot help be engaged with and with these doorstop books has inevitably pleased his wide audience. 


Number SEVEN:  Three books by Tom Drury. Drury writes short 







books, too rarely, but they are great works. In these books with interconnected characters not much happens. What the reader is given is some strong, wry, writing of the type you will not forget. In order The End of Vandalism, Hunts in Dreams, and this years entry, Pacific. Truly this is a writer to become familiar with. 


Number SIX:  Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. With The Border Trilogy being in my All Time Favorites list this year I 
delved deeper into McCarthy's collection and enjoyed this classic. McCarthy writes in the same sparse way he always does with a thesaurus at his side. This might be his most powerful book as he examines the nature of true evil versus the evil begat by opportunity and or events. 


Intermission # 2:  This summer my daughter and I read a few books together over her vacation from school. Of those We Were Liars, a 
Y.A. Book by E. Lockhart was the best. Family drama, young love, wealth and privilege, with a story that comes with a twist that, I for one, never anticipated. An excellent story. 

Recollection: The Best of Concrete Blonde

A few folks reading this might remember a band by that name and if not they might more easily recall the one single they were successful with on the pop charts, namely a song called Joey in the early nineties.

There was much more to Concrete Blonde than that however. If you were around in the late eighties in Maine and were a rock fan it seems likely you listened at times to WBLM. This radio station which I still admit to tuning in on my trips to southern Maine, I could listen online anytime I want but forget to, dominated a segment of the market at that time.

WBLM loved Concrete Blonde. Many of the songs that you will find on this Best of Collection were songs we all heard on WBLM long before this band ever broke nationally. From True, Still in Hollywood, Dance Along the Edge, God is A Bullet, Tomorrow Wendy, to Ghost of a Texas Ladies Man this band was making great, original, music all through the late eighties.

For those who are going down this memory lane with me I wonder how many remember how often the band played at Raoul's Roadside Attraction on Forest Avenue. I remember seeing them a couple of times and I think that I missed them a few times. This was a band, loved and promoted by a radio station in a small market that created a hotspot of fans for them long before and long after their national success.

Hearing Joey on the satellite today made all these memories come flooding back and I listened to this collection on Spotify. One could find much worse way to spend an hour than by spending this hour down memory lane.

Parenthood Wrap Up and Modern Family's Visit From the Godfather

This was a busy week in television with the return of American Idol and the beginning of the new Kevin Bacon series The Following on Fox. I have already written about The Following and while we watched Idol it is kind of a big yawn.

Not boring this week were a couple of our regular favorites. Parenthood, the much loved but low rated NBC series, ended it's season with a show that wrapped all of the bows of the season up in a nice package. If you were looking for there to be any loose strings you did not find many. The Ron Howard produced show is consistently one of the best shows on the air, people joke about crying each week, but folks only cry when a scene hits home.

NBC finished the series off quickly as they want to make room for their rebooted show SMASH, which coincidentally is another cult favorite that the network would like to see build a broader base. As to Parenthood the worry each spring is NBC will pull the plug but it seems unlikely that they will throw such a well regarded show over the side. If that decision is made certainly it's viewers will have to be happy with the season end.

Over on ABC Wednesday night Modern Family had a smart episode. The plot line was typical sitcom stuff but what made this show standout was the ending sequence which out of the blue put together a spin on the culminating scene in the Godfather when the baby is being baptized and at the same time a wide variety of hits is going down all over Gangster world, even with the " Do you renounce Satan" line. The short clip at the end of the series even had Phil and his son closing the door to the den in Claire's face telling her " not to ask him about his business." This is pretty clever stuff and while silly this is culturally aware silly as opposed to the foolishness that typically goes on HIMYM that I wrote about last week.

Both of these shows are standouts this week.

Our Idiot Brother

I watched this 2011 Comedy movie a week or so ago. The reviews for the movie were middling but with Paul Rudd as the star I thought it was worth checking out.

Rudd stars as Ned Rochin. Ned is an organic farmer who has a heart of gold. As my wife would say he is all " peace, love, and happiness." On top of that he is about as naive as he can be. One day when working at an organic fair selling some of his vegetables a local police officer stops by and tells him of his problems. He is having a bad day and needs a pick me up. His hints do not work and Ned certainly does not offer to give him anything to help, the officer departs with his head hanging, and Ned who trusts everyone calls him back and gives him some rhubarb with a bag of pot. The officer " insists" on paying for it and then punishes Ned's big heart by citing him for selling him the pot.

Wherever Ned goes people love him and prison is no different. He is released early as a result of his good behavior but when he comes home he finds his girlfriend has taken up with another man. This in itself is bad but for Ned the real tragedy is that his now ex girlfriend will not let Ned have his dog, claiming that the dog is hers. Without Willie Nelson ( his dogs name) Ned is bereft.

With no place to go Ned comes home to his family. His Mom and three sisters all love him but all admit to thinking that Ned is a little bit odd. Each of his sisters has their own life situation they are dealing with. Liz, played by Emily Mortimer is married and has a seven year old boy. They are the stereotypical new age parents not allowing the boy to do anything dangerous or, frankly, fun. Elizabeth Banks plays Miranda, an uptight journalist trying to rise to the top and Zooey Deschanel as Natalie his lesbian sister.

Ned moves from sister to sister, usually staying long enough to cause trouble and havoc in the home without meaning to. Ned because of his absolute lack of guile and being so naive often gets himself in trouble by saying too much. Over the course of the movie Ned is always sweet and nice but people do not appreciate his good intent. more than anything however he just wants his dog back.

By the end of the movie the jury is still out on if Ned helped or hurt his sisters with his inadvertent interference in their lives but what is not in doubt is that he is a sweet person that the world might need more of.

Finally reunited with Willie Nelson at the end of the movie it appears things might be looking up with a little help from none other than Dolly Parton

My Head Is An Animal by Of Monsters and Men

With Mumford and Sons breaking the way we are now seeing a great influx of bands with the Mumford sound. For those of us who like this sort of music this is a very good thing. One of the best bands to surface in the last year is Of Monsters and Men.

This band features the same type of backbeat, orchestration and such but also features a female singer which adds a different dimension. Their success has been significant with a single that went large in the the Top 40, and as to alternative radio, college radio, and even AOR radion they have had even greater success with many of their songs from the album being featured.

The first song on the album is called Dirty Paws and it is one of the more original things you will hear. " And once there was an animal, it had a son that mowed the lawn, the son was on Ok guy, they had a pet dragonfly." That, if nothing else, is one of the more original lyrics you will hear. And it works.

Lionheart and Mountain Song are the next two tracks on the album. The latter has been quite successful but for me the former is the better song. Mountain Song is very catchy though, you have to tap your foot, and the call and response between the female singer and the band is certainly effective.

This band with both female and male co singers, coming from Iceland, is certainly one of the great new sounds I have heard recently. Their first single Little Talks was an international hit and first gained them all the notice that has followed. With an enormously catchy beat, with a driving backing track and then we hear the call and response singing of both the singers the song is about as catchy a single as you will hear these days. Even a little big band sound behind the normal rock guitars.

I liked this album very much. I do not know what the shelf life is. With this sound now moving into the overexposed zone one has to wonder how long it will last. The Lumineers are fun, for example, but one has to assume that when the music business moves onto the next new sound that only a few will survive. This band might not be one of those that do. For now though this is a very good album.

The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe

I should have known better. I love books and any book that talks about how books affect us all or speaks to a love of books gets my attention. When this book came out last fall I saw many write-ups about it and placed it on my reserve list at the library. After about six weeks I received an email telling me that it was ready for me and so I added it to my daily reading list.

In the book the author Will Schwalbe tells us of what happened when his 72 year old mother Mary Ann is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Most of us know that this is one of the most dreaded diagnosis with most folks living less than a year after diagnosis. For the author's Mom this is expected as well. Mary Ann Schwalbe has been an active women. At various times in her life involved in teaching, academic administration, college admissions, and then in her last career she became involved in several different groups and organizations helping refugees and children all over the world. She had traveled several times to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and other dangerous places. In fact it was on a trip to Pakistan that she first felt ill. Upon return to the states she was surprised to find it was not one of the normal bugs she picked up on her travels but advanced pancreatic cancer. As with most folks with this cancer it had spread to her liver before she even knew she had it.

Will's Mother is fortunate in that she has plenty of financial resources as do her children and she receives the best care to be had. Often taking her to chemothearapy himself Will and his Mother talk often about books. In fact he states that they have always talked about books, that " What are you reading" is one of the most common questions they have asked each other for years. So, while waiting for appointments, or while the slow process of chemotherapy takes place Will and his Mom talk about books and choose books to read together and then talk about.

I read a review of the book in The New York Times that was, in my opinion, quite harsh. The author wrote that the book was a bit dull, saccharine at times, and that Schwalbe was too often loyal to his Mother's memory rather than telling us more interesting details. I think that surely this book is not for everyone, I am not sure that I would even recommend it myself, but this book was a love letter from a son to his Mother. To expect him to show us the dirt on his deceased Mom is a silly expectation and were he to do so this would be an entirely different kind of book.

The chapters in the book all are titled after a book that Will and his Mom are reading and their discussions of them. Often these passages in the books can be found to have some meaning to what is going on in their lives currently or to have been meaningful at important times earlier.

Mary Ann is a net-worker, most likely was one long before it became a desired attribute. She is, as the author notes, her families travel agent and for some her style of parenting might even be considered a bit intrusive. One suspects that at various times even her children might have thought so.

It reminds me a bit of an Aunt I have that some people think is nosy and overbearing. I just never see it and agree with it, does she have flaws, of course, but she also has a huge heart that wants to know what is going on in your life, that appreciates caring and consideration, and is generous with her feelings. Sometimes I think we all want people to be that way for us, but only when we want them to be. Few people are there just when we want them, often they are there when we need them not when we want them. They are a treasure and one suspects that with maturity all of Mrs. Schwalbe's children realize how lucky they are to have this Mother.

Earlier I said I should have known better. Why? Well my Mother died two years ago this spring. She was elderly, in her eighties, and it was not a shock as she had been failing. Still it has been a heartache. My Mom and I talked often on the phone and while she was not as outgoing as the authors Mom she was a very caring person who spent her whole life putting others first. Last evening as I was near the end of the book I put it down, telling myself I did not want to read the conclusion, with the inevitable death, right before bed.

This morning when I picked up the book for the last forty pages I was sure that in the light of day it would be sad but I would not get upset. As this woman who I had come to know however had more and more pain that she finally admitted to, like my own Mother questions about how she felt were often met with " just uncomfortable" this while biting her lip, my heart started to get heavy. When she finally dies it is peaceful and her family is with her. It is a death we should all desire, no trauma, no drama, but still in the end this vibrant person is gone. It was too much for me, over the last ten pages my tears were running down my face slowly. A release of pain from my own Mother's death was suddenly very close to the surface. In the epilogue the author talks of still, now two years later, being about to call his Mother to talk about something or a book he is reading and that was what sealed the deal. After putting the book down I did not weep, I sobbed. If you knew how many times I have told my wife that I almost called Mom today then you would understand.

So you see it is hard for me to judge this book in an objective way. Is it a great book? I do not know. Does it have a limited audience? I expect so. Still for me it was a blessing, another way to think about the inevitable death we all face and perhaps a way to release some of the ever-present but mostly ignored pain of my own Mother's death and for that alone I am grateful.

Not many things affect me this much, in that I guess the author did something right.

The Following

Wow! That is the first thing that comes to mind if someone asks me what I thought of The Following. I have seen the headlines of the reviews since the show premiered Monday but as it was patiently waiting for me on my DVR I stayed away from them. I wanted to judge for myself.

I have to say that I was conflicted about this show before I even watched it. I normally do not like dark shows and clearly this show is about some of the darkest material one can find. Combine that with the recent news stories of killing and death and I had legitimate questions if watching a show like this was feeding into the rivers of violence that permeate our culture.

Still I like Kevin Bacon and try to write about new things so I felt I would watch an episode, in the light of day, no bedtime viewing of this show for me.

The show comes as advertised. Before the first commercial break, in the opening scene we are treated to a murder scene that is as gory as anything I have ever seen on network television. Over the course of the next hour we see a woman who has painted Edger Allen Poe references on her skin and then commit suicide in a very public way, we see people being protected by police guard still come to harm and most of all we see the psychotic web that a serial killer has used to attract untold groupies to his cause.

We all have heard about women who befriend men in prison, something about them attracts a certain kind of woman. After watching a show like this one has to be concerned about this sort of thing. Kevin Bacon plays Ryan Hardy an FBI agent who captured the serial killer years ago after he killed many young women in a terrible fashion. When the killer Dr. Joe Carroll, a professor of literature with a Poe fetish escapes from prison Hardy is called out of retirement to work the case, albeit reluctantly.

This is pretty standard fare, how many times did Jack Bauer get called back in in 24, but it is the rest of the storyline that sets this show apart. Somehow, and we learn how, this man even behind bars has been able to program different people, online groupies, prison guards, and others to help him not just to escape but in an elaborate plan to finish his life's work. At the end of this first episode you see how far he will go to do so and once done and he is back in prison we see that as Carroll tells Hardy that was just the beginning, the full sequel is about to begin.

I do not know if I want to watch this show, in fact I am quite certain I do not. I do not know if I want a weekly dose of something this dark to enter my mind and soul. Still for what it is, this show is as well done as anything you will find. Suspenseful, literate, challenging, this show is all those things. I am just not sure if that makes up for the over the top gore and the scary place one has to enter each week to enjoy it. I will watch next week's episode, this I am sure of, but I certainly have no expectation of watching this show over the course of the full season. It is just too good at what it does, too dark for me.