1. How Should a Person Be? A novel from life by Sheila Heti
This book has been so polarizing for readers and critics in 2012. People love it, people hate it. I err on the side of loving it. It’s challenging, it’s strange, it’s about being a young woman and an artist in a world that doesn’t really respect either. I’ve never read anything like this book. I didn’t know books like this were allowed! (And I find it quotable, too. The book’s main character, Sheila, is trying to write a play that will save the world, and she claims that if it doesn’t, she will “weep into [her] oatmeal.” Now, whenever something in my life threatens to be an insurmountable problem, I think of that line.) If you don’t love this book, I will weep into my oatmeal!
2. The Most Human Human: What artificial intelligence teaches us about being alive by Brian Christian
Here’s the year’s quiet nonfiction stunner. Brian Christian decides to enter the Turing Test, which is a competition for computer weenies to create a program that can converse with judges and convince them they’re talking to a human. The judges talk to one program and one person, and then vote on which/who is more “human.” Christian enters the competition not as a programmer, but as a human, and in this book he documents his training process to become the “most human human.” He talks to psychologists, philosophers, behavior therapists, linguists, and a whole slew of other people to determine what will make him the most “human,” and along the way he raises some striking questions about how we define this pretty basic aspect of ourselves.
3. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain
Susan Cain’s Quiet continues to be on my mind, even though I read it in February and even though it’s more of a pop-psych book than I usually dig. The message is: introverts, unite! Rather than try to articulate her lovely, nuanced argument about why our society should value the traits of introverts as much as those of extroverts, just watch this animation. Because she goes into such detail about how quiet, reflective people contribute to communities, projects, and politics, I came away understanding my friends and family all the better. And I also felt vindicated: sometimes, y’all, it’s more than okay to stay home & curl up with a book!
4. NW by (the almighty) Zadie Smith
Zadie Smith’s new book is fantastic. Brian C. and I have been hunting around for years (picture safari hats, a jungle of weird prose) for something we call the “Big, Experimental, Contemporary Novel” by a female writer. Think about it. There are tons of examples from the male contingent: Pynchon, DeLillo, Gaddis, Wallace, plus about one million others. NW is the closest thing I’ve read written by a lady. It follows two old friends, Leah and Natalie, who share a neighborhood of origin in lower class Northwest London, but it seems like that’s about all they share. Each point of view gets a unique style and treatment—dialogue is elevated or made into tiny background font, text makes shapes on the page, chapters come in lists, conversation via Gchat—and in this way, characters come to life through narrative style. Smith’s voice is addictive and compulsively readable. She can describe the most complex, nuanced realities of human existence, those you’ve never bothered to explain before, in three perfect
words.
5. Cookbook tie! James Freeman’s The Blue Bottle Craft of Coffee & Tamar Adler’s An Everlasting Meal
I really enjoy food writing. That’
s not very normal, I know. But there’s something so soothing, so compelling about a writer who can make experiences as elemental as cooking and eating into, well, transcendence. These two books go about it in very different ways. James Freeman is the coffee guru behind San Francisco’s Blue Bottle Coffee. This book tells his story and describes exactly why it was worth it to him to create the best cup of coffee to order at his pour-over coffee house. Not only will it teach you how to make the best coffee you’ve ever had, the book also has some awesome and unusual food recipes. The arugula pesto has already become a staple in my house. For lovers of coffee & connoisseurs of all things delicious.
Loosely based on M.F.K. Fisher’s How to Cook a Wolf, Tamar Adler’s An Everlasting Meal is a reimagining of what it means to cook at home on a regular basis. Rather than see cooking as a necessary chore, which is how I generally think of it, she claims it can be simple and rejuvenating, even adventurous. Her approach is both admirable and applicable. She takes the fuss and excess out of the process, opening the way for a more meditative food philosophy. The first chapter is “How to Boil Water.” So helpful! My favorite chapter is “How to Snatch Victory from the Jaws of Defeat,” which tells you how to save recipes gone awry. Adler is also a chef and worked as an editor at Harper’s, and I think she’s a supergenius. This book would make a really lovely gift. Kind of a lifestyle gift. It says: “Here, have this, be better at living.”
*Make that 6!
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