58 Brief Reviews (The Books of 2012)

1. Man Seeks God:  My Flirtations With the Divine, by Eric Weiner.  I had big plans.  Plans to write a brilliant, serious, light-hearted, witty, moving book called Seven Ways to Sunday.  I never really got around to actually starting it... but I was going to.  Eventually.  Someday.  It was all mapped out in my head.  And then Eric Weiner went ahead and wrote Man Seeks God, and wrote it better than I could have possibly written it, and there you go.  No book for me.  Weiner travels the world, hangs out with Sufis and Buddhists and Wiccans and Christians and many others, seeking a glimpse of God, seeking a sort of an answer, a comfort, a faith.  The book is very funny, but also beautiful and moving and serious and sweet.  Fantastic.
2. The Accidental Buddhist, by Dinty Moore.  Kind of like Man Seeks God, but limited to different schools of Buddhism in America, and, well, just not really very good.  I hate saying that.  The idea is good.  I wanted to like it.  Moore wants to find out what "American Buddhism" is, or if there really is even such a thing, and so he hangs with Zen Buddhists and Tibetan Buddhists and others and tries to sort of work it all out.  Except that at times it seems less than sincere.  It seems more like a book project than a serious search.  He never goes very deeply into anything.  At the end of the book, you haven't learned anything that makes Zen different from Tibetan or Tibetan different from Pure Land, and you haven't really figured anything out with Moore.  
3. Food of Boddhisattvas, by Shabkar.  This is old stuff (early 1800s, I think).  Tibetan Buddhism, made popular in the US by the Dalai Lama, but not exactly the kind of Buddhism that inspires me, not the kind I practice.  Many Buddhists take the precept "not to take life" to mean they should practice vegetarianism.  Tibetans typically don't-- in part, to be fair, because of limited access to crop space up in those Tibetan mountains.  Shabkar, however, didn't like the excuses.  He was a Tibetan Buddhist who went to extremes to maintain a vegetarian lifestyle under difficult conditions, and felt pretty damn strongly about it.  You'd think from that much that this would be a book I'd love, but no.  Awful stuff.  Just thick, dense, reading, and full of all kinds of crap that for me is exactly the opposite of everything Buddhism is about.  You know that sick, unChristian pleasure that Dante got in writing about all the sufferings of sinners is his Hell-fantasy?  Shabkar seems to get too much joy out of reincarnating meat-eaters in the hell-realms (hell realms?  really?) where they are eaten over and over again by demons.  That sort of thing.  Not for me.  Painful book.
4. Money, Sex, War, Karma, by David R. Loy.  One of the better Zen Buddhist books I've read in a long time.  When I read this, I wanted to write a long, detailed review.  It meant a lot to me, and I wanted to get that out somehow, I wanted to go through it, deeply internalize it by repeating it, getting it out there.  Somehow, I never found the time or the right words.  I hope to read this again soon.  
5. Savor, by Thich Nhat Hanh and Lilian Cheung.  I love Thich Nhat Hanh.  I've read many of his books and will, I'm sure, read many more in the years to come.  A wonderful guy.  An important teacher.  But Savor... yeah, Savor just didn't do much for me.  It's Thich Nhat Hanh's attempt to help people live healthier lives.  It sort of applies Buddhist principles to dietary lifestyle. Basically, if we were to savor the pleasures before us, rather than greedily, obsessively, chase after those pleasures again and again out of fear or desire, then our lives would be better.  Our bodies would be better, because we could have only the occasional slice of tofu cheesecake and not feel the need to devour the whole thing in one day, then beg our wives to make more (or is that just me?).  Good premise, true stuff.  But not a great book.  Thich Nhat Hanh's writings on Zen Buddhism are fantastic.  As I said, he's a great teacher.  Not necessarily the greatest health counselor.  Some may find this book to be of great benefit, and that's awesome.  I'm not one of them.
6. Seeking the Heart of Wisdom, by Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield.  Two big writers in the Vipassana Buddhist tradition, co-founders of the Insight Meditation Society.  I like Vipassana.  Goldstein's book Insight Meditation was a big deal for me many years ago, definitely shaped my understanding of Buddhism.  Seeking the Heart of Wisdom is a good book.  One of their early ones, I believe.  Not their best.  But still a good book, one that I'm glad to have read.
7. Ethics for the New Millenium, by The Dalai Lama.  Yeah, this was alright.  I mean, it's The Dalia Lama.  You've got to read The Dalai Lama from time to time.  The first half of the book-- the part we he basically describes the problem-- is mostly right on. It's the "hey, look what we've done to ourselves, look what we've done to the world" part.  The Dalai Lama's prescriptions for getting things back on track, don't quite do it.  Because that's the hard part.  I myself am pretty good at seeing the problem, but I haven't figured out a way to solve it yet, and certainly wouldn't be able to offer that solution in a couple of chapters meant for a wide audience.  So, yeah, this was alright, but not fantastic.
8. On Chanting Hare Krsna, by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.  Not a book really.  More of a booklet.  But I was so pleased when I found a free copy in one of my favorite coffee shops downtown.  Typical Hare Krsna stuff.  I always enjoy Hare Krsna stuff, even though I find much of it silly.  But I went on and on about that in an earlier post, no need to repeat that here.
9. Unholy Night, by Seth Grahame-Smith.  This is the guy who wrote Abraham Lincoln:  Vampire Hunter (which I have not read).  My wife emailed me a brief blurb on it-- basically it said "it's a book about the baby Jesus' blood-thirsty bodyguard, Balthasar."  From that, I knew I had to read it.  And what a wonderful book it turned out to be!  The premise is basically this:  Balthasar is a bandit hanging out near Jerusalem.  He likes to kill Romans.  He and a couple of other ruffians are running from the authorities, disguised as wise men, when they stumble upon a baby in a manger.  Eventually, Balthasar is working to get the baby and his parents to Egypt so that they are not caught up in Herod's slaughter of newborn babes.  The book is very funny.  But not just funny.  It's well-researched, it's thoughtful, and it's deeply serious at times.  I got teary more than once while reading.  
10. Lamb, by Christopher Moore.  This is the "Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal."  After reading it, I questioned some deeply held beliefs.  Specifically, the intelligence and good taste of two younger siblings who have told me again and again what a wonderful book this is.  I can't look at them the same anymore.  Where Unholy Night managed to be meaningful in it's bizarre treatment of the Jesus story-- managed to possibly bring new feelings, new meaning, to an old story-- Lamb is shooting for the cheap laughs.  Constantly.  It's buffoonery.  It's just non-stop guffaw humor, and 440 pages of that is just way too much.  Truly, there is a dumb joke within every paragraph, often one per sentence.  Cheap humor.  Not thoughtful stuff.  And there's just so much that is tacky and offensive-- to Jews, Christians, Buddhists, Taoists, women, the Chinese.  Jesus encouraging Biff to sleep with prostitutes on a nightly basis so he can listen and get a better understanding of sin?  Tacky, and as it becomes a major theme throughout the book, just way overdone, over the top, too much.  The complete lack of historical understanding?  Annoying.  The shallow representations of Taoism and Buddhism?  Disappointing.  The cheap ethnic humor and one-dimensional objectification of women?  Annoying, and also poorly executed.  This book annoyed the crap out of me.  Just about every page of it.  Yet, I didn't exactly hate it.  Underneath the piles and piles of crap, there was what could have been a good story, a better book.
11. The Wanting Seed, by Anthony Burgess.  Burgess is one of the masters.  The Wanting Seed is one of his very good books.  From the guy who most famously brought you A Clockwork Orange, The Wanting Seed is a dystopian fantasy set in a future where overpopulation has led to the official endorsement of homosexuality.  "It's Sapiens to be Homo."  Very good stuff.  
12. "Ajax," by Sophocles.  I got really caught up in Greek tragedy again this year.  I was a big Greek tragedy enthusiast was I was 19 years old, living in my own apartment for the first time in my life, often hungry, usually drunk, and a regular at the local community college library.  I got hooked on the Greeks.  About a year ago, I picked up some Euripides at a used book sale and rekindled that love affair.  This year, I burned through a bunch of Sophocles and Aeschylus.  "Ajax" is a grim tragedy.  The hero basically loses his mind and goes on a killing spree, then kills himself when he realizes what he has done.  But it's all done so poetically, it's hard not to find it quite beautiful.
13. "The Women of Trachis," by Sophocles.  Also grim.  Through trickery, the mighty Heracles is accidentally killed by his own wife. 
14. "Electra," by Sophocles.  Also decent.  
15. "Philoctetes," by Sophocles.  Kind of depressing.  Philoctetes gets the screws from his supposed friends.  
16. "The Suppliant Maidens," by Aeschylus.  Maidens.  Who are suppliant.  They don't want to marry their Egyptian cousins.
17. "The Persians," by Aeschylus.  Nice play.  The only Greek tragedy based on real events, not myth.  In it, Aeschylus shows an inspiring sympathy for the recently defeated Persians.  The ability to respect and treat as human a bitter enemy... how novel.
18. "Seven Against Thebes," by Aeschylus.  Also good.
19. "Prometheus Bound," by Aeschylus.  This is the famous one.  Prometheus gets in trouble for bringing knowledge to mortals.
20. "A Doll's House," by Henrik Ibsen. According the cover of this book, Ibsen was Norway's greatest playwright.  I sort of did a double take when I read that.  Mostly because it never occurred to me that Norway had any great playwrights at all.  I mean, of course they do.  But it just never really occurred to me.  I think Norway, I think snow, fishing, and gloomy death metal.  Also, Vikings.  "A Doll's House" is a great play.  A little rough.  The ending is hard to take.  But still a great play.
21. Red Shirts, by John Scalzi.  In an interview on NPR, Scalzi claimed he was grabbing the "low hanging fruit" with this one.  If you know Star Trek, you get it:  red shirts.  The guys on the away team who don't come back.  The bad guys can never kill Kirk or Bones or Spock.  So some red shirts-- some low-ranking crewmen who may or may not get names-- go with them.  Kirk yells "Bones, Spock, come with me to search this field.  You two, go look behind that rock."  A minute later, there's a scream from behind the rock.  In Scalzi's book, some of the red shirts on this particular ship start to get wise to the situation.  They do something about it.  The book is a whole lot of fun.
22. The Shadow Rising, by Robert Jordan.  I don't like these "Wheel of Time" books.  This is number four.  All of them have been bad.  And they're all very, very long.  I don't know why I continue to read them.  This was perhaps the worst so far.  I've written extensively about this elsewhere, so I'll leave it at that.
23.  MYTH Inc. Link, by Robert Aspirin.  I've liked all the Robert Aspirin books I've read.  Except this one.  I believe that I have now read them all.  The others were all fine.  Funny.  Light.  Silly.  Nice fantasy stuff for when you don't want to think.  This one just didn't work for me.  Maybe it was not as good as the others.  Maybe I just wore it out, maybe this was just one too many.
24. Blockade Billy, by Stephen King.  A decent short novel about a relief player on a baseball team.  A little creepy.  What makes this is a good book is the longish short story at the end.  "Morality" is much better than Blockade Billy, harder to get out of your head.
25. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, by Stephen King.  One of his funky psychological books, along the lines of Gerald's Game or Dolores Claiborne.  I liked this one an awful lot.  A 9 year old girl gets lost in the woods.  There's a whole lot of tension and creepiness and sitting at the edge of your seat packed into that very simple plot.
26. Desperation, by Stephen King.  I mean, come on, I love Stephen King.  I loved him when I was young, then went years and years without reading his stuff, feeling it was somehow too low-brow for someone smart and sophisticated like me.  Whatever.  Stephen King writes just plain old great stuff, and a couple of years ago I finally came back to my senses.  Anyway, Desperation is terrific.  There's a companion novel called The Regulators.  I have to read that one soon.
27. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.  I started the year planning to read a big stack of Russian novels.  Tolstoy, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Turgenev.  I didn't get around to any of them.  I did read Solzhenitsyn's book, though.  My one Russian novel of 2012.  A little more modern than the greats I meant to tackle.  Not bad.  The story of a guy in a Siberian work camp.  
28. In Our Time, by Ernest Hemingway.  Some absolutely beautiful short stories, strung together with little vignettes.  I read this about 20 years ago, had forgotten most of it.  Glad I read it again.
29. Nonviolent Communication, by Marshall Rosenberg.  A group of activist types that I deeply respect and occasionally spend time with have been into this guy's communication theories.  After watching a video on it, I decided to read his book.  My analysis:  whiny.  Wimpy.  Annoying.  I get it.  I get the basics, I agree with bits and pieces.  How we use language is important.  We need to use words that are honest, not loaded with our fears and prejudices and such.  We need to be respectful of the other.  But Rosenberg just gets so over the top with the PC bullshit that it's unbearable.  
30. The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver.  The best book I read this year.  One of the better books I've read, ever.  Powerful, painful masterpiece of a novel.  Kingsolver is one of the greats.  
31. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, by Roald Dahl.  I'd never read any Roald Dahl before.  Okay, yes, a couple of short stories quite a few years ago.  But that's it.  Someone bought this book for my son, and over the course of a week, I read it to him.  And absolutely loved it.  And subsequently went on a Roald Dahl binge.  I don't know who loves this stuff more, me or the boy.  But there's a reason this guy is considered one of the greats.  These might be "kids'" books, but they're fantastic.  
32. The BFG, by Roald Dahl.  Definitely my favorite of the Roald Dahl books.  I think it was my son's favorite too.  The BFG is "The Big Friendly Giant."  To distinguish him from the other, not so friendly giants.  The ones who like to eat children.  
33. James and the Giant Peach, by Roald Dahl.  Again, good stuff.  And there's a theme here.  Orphans, childhood trauma.  It runs through all the books.  But the kids always make it in the end.  And the bad guys always get what's coming.
34. Matilda, by Roald Dahl.  This was fantastic, almost as good as The BFG.  
35. The Witches, by Roald Dahl.  Loved it.  Just loved it.
36. Father's Day, by Buzz Bissinger.  The guy who wrote Friday Night Lights goes on a cross-country road trip with his twenty-something son, who is autistic.  Deeply moving book.  Extremely honest, often in ways that do not flatter the author.  Loved this.
37. Sh*tty Mom:  The Parenting Guide for the Rest of Us, by Laurie Kilmartin, etc.  This was just dumb funny.  Couldn't help but laugh all the way through.  It's the kind of stuff that hits a little too close to home.  When it hits closest, you at least get to laugh at yourself and be glad that you're not alone.
38. Raising Elijah, by Sandra Steingraber.  A fantastic book.  Given to me by one of those previously mentioned activist friends.  She felt that every parent should read it, and I couldn't agree more.  Steingraber explores the environmental dangers our kids face-- from arsenic laced playground equipment (arsenic levels that would call for a strictly regulated toxic clean up at an industrial site are considered "safe" in children's playgrounds) to hormones in food (causing the onset of puberty by as early as 7 years old in some communities) and everything in between.  This is not a shrill book.  Steingraber is not throwing conspiracy theories out there, is not connecting dots where there should not be connections.  She's a scientist, an educator, and a mother, and she presents some disturbing information in a sane but passionate voice.  One of the better books I've read in a while.
39. Eaarth, by Bill McKibben.  Think we're not completely fucked?  Read Eaarth, then get back to me.  McKibben has been a leading voice on climate change for a long time, and no one is listening.  Great book.  Sadly, logic and science don't matter much in this debate.  "Nuh-unh" seems to be a satisfactory rebuttal for far too many people.
40. Hungry for Change.  One of the many study course books available through the Northwest Earth Institute.  This was one of the better courses I've participated in-- exactly the right mix of people and reading material, and, hey, food!!!  Any course that ends with a vegan potluck at a local collective living house is good stuff.  Anyway, this covers everything from organics to climate change to veganism to local farms to healthy living to fair trade and so on.  Really good stuff in here.
41. The Zombie Survival Guide, by Max Brooks.  Having read this, I feel that I am somewhat more prepared to handle a zombie apocalypse.  And if you can handle that, you can handle just about any disaster.
42. The Walking Dead.  Okay, this was actually a bunch of comic books bound into a big graphic novel.  But I'll include it here because it was awesome.  If you watch the show, this basically covers seasons one and two.  The show and the comics take very different twists and turns, but the basic plots follow the same lines.
43. Just So Stories, by Rudyard Kipling.  Another one that I'd never read.  How can that be?  Read it to Sam, and I have to say, this is great stuff!
44. The "Geronimo Stilton" series.  Still at it with these books.  Don't know how many I read, but I'm sure I clocked at least a thousand pages with this adventurous mouse.  I'll admit it, I like these books.
45. The "Magic Tree House" series.  Sam loves these.  Read probably half a dozen of these to him this year.  Some are actually decent.  Perfect stuff for a five year old who loves to fantasize about exploring and great adventures.  
46. Burning Fight, by Brian Peterson.  Not bad.  I'm pushing 40, but I've never lost my love for hardcore.  In particular, the hardcore of the 90s.  Bands like Earth Crisis, Shelter, Fugazi, Downset, Vision of Disorder, Sick Of It All, 108, Refused, Shai Hulud, Path of Resistance and others meant the world to me, helped shape my outlook on life.  This book explores the ethics and philosophies of 90s hardcore, with interviews and commentary on many of the most influential bands of the time.  Lots of good stuff on spirituality, feminism, veganism, environmentalism, straight edge and the rest, from members of Inside Out, Burn, Vegan Reich, Earth Crisis, Racetraitor, Shelter, Judge, Youth of Today, Gorilla Biscuits, 108 and many, many more.  Fun book for someone like me.
47. Where the Sidewalk Ends, by Shel Silverstein.  A coworker kept yelling at me for never having read this book.  So I read it to Sam.  And we both liked it.
48. Every 12 Seconds, by Timothy Pachirat.  I saw this guy speak at Farm Sanctuary's annual Hoe Down, and then got his book from the library.  Pachirat went undercover and worked in a midwestern slaughterhouse for a good stretch of time.  He wasn't specifically looking to uncover animal abuses, but rather to study how people can become desensitized to killing.  Very interesting stuff in here.  And, unless you like your beef covered in feces, you might find some of it more than a little disturbing.  
49. How To Be Black, by Baratunde Thurston.  Hilarious.  
50. Our Black Year, by Maggie Anderson.  Anderson and her husband decided to only shop from black-owned businesses for a full year.  They found it extremely difficult to do.  Until I read this book, I didn't realize how very, very few black-owned businesses existed out there.  Aside from barbershops/beautyshops and rib places, there's almost nothing.  Anderson found it next to impossible to buy groceries, clothes, odds and ends for the house.  This is a good read.  Educational.  Interesting.  I give her credit for getting this out there.
51. Coming Apart, by Charles Murray.  Murray was my token conservative for the year.  But no, not a token.  I heard him talking about this book on NPR, and I was intrigued.  Murray paints a picture of a huge rift in American society.  The successful and the unsuccessful, the haves and the have nots, are basically living in two completely different worlds, are living with wildly different values and assumptions.  Murray brings a lot of his own baggage to this book, but his conclusions are still solid and interesting.  Definitely a recommended read.
52. What It Means To Be A Libertarian, by Charles Murray.  Not as good as Coming Apart.  Libertarians are silly people.
53. Vegan Bodybuilding and Fitness, by Robert Cheeke.  The book that taught me that while I like lifting weights, I don't want to be a bodybuilder.  But God bless Robert Cheeke for being a great big huge vegan warrior.
54. Your First Triathlon, by Joe Friel.  I don't have a bike and I'm a lousy swimmer, so I had to re-evaluate my plans to run a triathlon sprint in 2012.  Had I gone through with it, I'm sure this book would have been helpful.
55. One World, by Peter Singer.  My favorite controversial philosopher.  Singer is a brilliant guy.  Almost everything he writes is good stuff.  This is no exception.  What does it mean to be moral in an increasingly connected world?  What does this mean for our lifestyles?  For our governments?  
56. Crazy Sexy Diet, by Kris Carr.  Okay, so I wasn't the intended audience for this book.  It's definitely written for "the girls."  But I couldn't help but love it anyway.  Kris Carr, an actress living in NYC, was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer.  She freaked out, and re-evaluated her life and lifestyle.  She took a new approach to food, trading in greasy burgers and fries for green smoothies, raw foods, and a vegan, whole foods lifestyle.  Her cancer has not spread, and she is healthier than she was before the diagnosis.  The book is packed with useful information, and has helped me make some changes of my own.  And her recipe for green smoothies is fantastic.
57. Eat and Run, by Scott Jurek.  Jurek is a vegan ultra-runner.  He's one of those crazy bastards who runs 150 miles through Death Valley.  And wins.  Wins a lot.  The guy once ran something like 188 miles in one day. Me?  Yeah, I've never done that.  As a vegan with a new found passion for running, I found this guy's book to be incredibly inspiring.
58. Finding Ultra, by Rick Roll.  In some ways, similar to Jurek's book, but still very different.  Rich Roll was a recovering alcoholic, married, with children, who, on the eve of his 40th birthday, sat in the living eating cheeseburgers late into the night, got winded going upstairs to bed, looked in on his young daughter sleeping, and suddenly realized that he was not going to live to see her graduate from high school.  He did something about it.  He went on a cleanse.  Then he went vegan.  And he started running.  Running really, really far.  He's now a very successful ultra athlete, regularly competing in triathlons that run 150 or so miles.  He and a buddy once did 5 ultra-triathlons in 7 days, hitting all the major Hawaiian Islands in a week.  This book is a deeply touching, inspiring, personal memoir, covering his youth, the worst days of his drinking, his recovery, and finally his career as an ultra athlete.  

So there they are.  The books of 2012.   More duds in there than usual, but also some really good stuff.  And again, can't help noticing a trend-- lots of books by white men.  Not a lot by women, not a lot by people of color.

Already excited about the books of 2013.  Some good Zen stuff.  The novelization of Rush's "Clockwork Angels" album.  Kaya Oakes' Radical Reinvention.  Some Nietzsche.  And that pile of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky and Gogol and Turgenev.

It'll be a wonderful new year.