5 Books that came out this year

It’s been a good week and this blog’s still got that new Car Smell. I decided to go a different way with this post and collect up some of the books I nabbed in 2015, that might be of interest.

1. Quixote: The Novel and The World – Ilan Stavans

I’m a huge fan of Don Quixote, that’s no secret. So when the 400th Anniversary hit this year, I was excited to see this book. Stavans goes in and talks about the impact and the world wide influence of The Quixote, also provides some context of Cervantes, his world and writings. It traces the history of the book. What this has going for it is that Stavans traces this influence without going into a super dense, and dull literary analysis. It’s worth a read if you’re even mildly interested.

2. Disagreeable Tales – Leon Bloy

This book is a trip. Plain and simple. Leon Bloy compiles “thirty tales of theft, onanism, incest, murder and a host of other forms of perversion and cruelty”. I know what you’re thinking, “Sergio…what the fuck? Why would I read that shit?” The crazy thing Bloy does in this book is he takes these tropes and stylings of the literary movement  (Theater of Cruelty) and flips it so it points back at the church. The subversion of a movement that is trying to subvert society and culture is a trip, so while you feel uncomfortable reading it, part of you realizes, Good! You should feel that way. Bloy does a great job of pointing out the misery and wretchedness of mankind and showing why God is necessary even if we fail to see, grasp, or appreciate that.

3. Mr. Kafka and other tales from the time of the cult  – Bohumil Hrabal

Hrabal is a favorite writer of mine. Every time an English translation becomes available, I jump on that. So this was exciting for me personally. Mr. Kafka is a wonderful collection and probably a great way for some people to dive in and introduce themselves to Hrabal’s dazzling writings of everyday folks in imaginative ways.  Yeah, Get on this.

4. The Woman who was poor – Leon Bloy

Bloy had a pretty good year, getting not one but two translations out this year. I haven’t gotten to this yet, but I stand by Bloy in hype and excitement. Any book that starts with the sentence: “This place stinks of God” and ends with “There is only one misery… and that is NOT TO BE SAINTS” is probably worth a read. Especially when it comes from a literary master like Bloy. I’m gonna try to polish this sucker off this coming Christmas break.

5. The Story of My Teeth – Valeria Luiselli

This book was all sorts of fun. Luiselli is a younger writer who only has a couple books out but if she produces more works like this, she’s gonna be a career worth watching. This is a story about an auctioneer who decides to sell of his “infamous” collection of teeth, spinning yarns about Marilyn Monroe, Augustine of Hippo, Virgina Woolf, Plato, and Petrarch. It’s a relatively short read, but is incredibly hard to put down. It’ll keep you hooked from cover to cover.