Best of 2014: Books

1. Solo Faces, James Salter
Written in a style that suggests Hemingway meets Kerouac, Solo Faces is filled with short, unadorned sentences that still manage to convey a wealth of emotion and express man's relationship to nature and the elements. I have never been all that interested in rock climbing/mountaineering, but this book totally captured my imagination and stirred my soul with its quiet pall of tragedy -- the result of striving for goals that can never be reached as the narrator realizes that the world we live in is one in which total control - of nature, of other people - can never be attained.

2. American Dream Machine, Matthew Specktor
Me and my non-committal love affair with LA: the sun and disaffected ennui are so attractive; the traffic is not. Which is why books about LA are perfect for me -- I can read them from the comfort of the subway, and then my sofa when I arrive home after a (usually) quick commute. Bret Easton Ellis had recommended this book on his twitter a while back, and I give his recommendations a little more weight than others, since several of them have played out nicely. Even if I hadn't found out about this book from Ellis, it would have reminded me of Less Than Zero. The writing is solid and evocative without being flashy or trying to come across as profound. All the action in the story seems to be bathed in the hazy golden glow of a sunset reflecting off the ocean and suffused with the quiet white noise hum of constant air conditioning. While I was reading American Dream Machine, I could picture all the action and all the characters so clearly. Even though I don't know LA geography very well, I made it up in my head as I went along, influenced by what I have seen in movies and on TV, read in other books, and experienced during my few fleeting visits. To me, driving around LA is one of the most romantic things that can be written about -- capturing the sprawl of the city and detachment the characters feel from it and one another. American Dream Machine is one of those books that connected with me so deeply, I have a hard time pinning down the specifics of what registers with me and why. The melancholy, the imperfection, the drive of one generation, the aimlessness of another. It's as if the Easy Riders, Raging Bulls era came together with the Less Than Zero era to form one seamless continuity that starts as soon as one begins to look backwards.  As I said, I don't know LA too well, so books like this one make it seem like a magical place, but also a city of lost souls, unable to find their places in the constant shuffle of reinvention.

3. Back to Blood, Tom Wolfe
I mainly wanted to read this book because the cover is fabulous. And because it skewers Miami high society and the art world. And because I've liked every other Tom Wolfe book I've read. The cover design did not let me down -- Back to Blood is pretty damn fabulous inside as well. I could feel all the sex, lust, and vice just oozing off the pages -- it was delicious. I could imagine the whole thing being read by the British novelist mother from Troop Beverly Hills. Wolfe paints the rich as both seductive and repellent. Oh the glamour! Oh the satire! The writing is perfectly balanced in tone, making for a delightful reading experience. Wolfe manages to make Miami's heat, humidity, and lurid landscapes rise palpably from the pages of the book and envelop the reader in this world of gold-plated grime. Even though this is a rather lengthy book, when it was over, I wanted more.

4. Last Train to Memphis & Careless Love, Peter Guralnick
As we stood watching an Elvis tribute act on Fremont Street in Vegas during my birthday trip, my friend and I discussed how we really didn't know too much about Elvis because neither of our mothers had been that into him. Since I am a huge fan of both Vegas and music history, I decided I needed to read up on the man who sits at the middle of the Venn diagram of those two categories. I was concerned about finding an objective biography of Elvis, but editorial reviews on Amazon assured me that Guralnick took an unbiased and objective approach to chronicling the life of the King. In fact, Guralnick is so objective and detailed, it took me a while to get into Last Train to Memphis, since a thorough account of Elvis's childhood is not the most exciting thing to read. However, by the end of that book, I was totally hooked. Elvis's rise is fascinating, and his personality, personal life, and relationships were not really what I had been expecting. I learned so many cool facts from this book, not only about Elvis, but also about Memphis, New York, Hollywood, and The South during the time of Elvis's ascent. As a super casual Elvis fan, I wasn't expecting to be drawn into this book as much as I was.

Meanwhile, my main take-away from Careless Love was: Elvis was a messed up dude, y'all. The amphetamines he started taking while in the Army were but a gateway drug to all sorts of uppers and downers. Couple that with insomnia/fear of the dark, nobody who can put him in his place, and a total unwillingness to take responsibility for anything, and you have a recipe for a guy who lives in a bubble and is headed for disaster. Elvis had so many drugs in his regimen and in his system when he died (the cause of death was polypharmacy), it's almost unbelievable that he made it as long as he did. Guralnick's book is so objective, I often found myself longing for commentary on Elvis's slow spiral out of control. But then it hit me that the explanation is right there between the lines. Looking back on it after the fact, it's easy to see the patterns and the bad decisions, but in the moment it probably wasn't as obvious. Not that plenty of people didn't try to protect Elvis from himself, it's just that in Elvis's mind he could do no wrong and didn't feel the need to listen to any admonishments or bad news. Not that it was all drugs and weird spiritualism, there was some good Vegas trivia too -- like Kirk Kerkorian building the International (which then became the Las Vegas Hilton) and then signing Elvis to a twice yearly residency (continued once ownership transferred to Hilton), a deal that included lavish suites for both Elvis and his manager Colonel Tom Parker. Of course, Elvis's fondness for Vegas (and Palm Springs) goes back to his time before the Army when he was working on movies in Hollywood. What better place for a group of young men to spend their weekends than a city that was gonna set their souls on fire? However, there is no denying the glaring differences between the eager young entertainer of those early days and the bloated striker of karate poses that could barely make it to the stage toward the end. It's no wonder that one of Elvis's oldest and closest friends wrote a book called Elvis: What Happened? I'm sure his whole entourage was asking themselves that very question for years both before and after his death.

5. Go Like Hell, A. J. Baime
There is something so romantic, glamorous, and sexy about motor racing in the 60s. Baime brings Le Mans, the rest of the F1 circuit, and the battle for domination between Ford and Ferrari to life in a thoroughly engaging way. I was worried that I wouldn't like this book since I was bored to death by the film Le Mans (despite the presence of ever-stylish Steve McQueen), and it is that very same race on which much of Go Like Hell sets its sights. However, Baime makes the race completely understandable and hits only the most important highlights that move the story along.

6. Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand
Unbroken is an amazing WW II story, an astounding story of the South Pacific, and an astonishing survival story. I am in awe of, and have so much respect for, all the men who were able to survive the Japanese POW camps. The triumph of the human spirit never fails to awe to me. On the other hand, the capacity for one group of humans to be awful and cruel to other humans is a truth that is hard to process. It's fantastic that Laura Hillenbrand recognized how powerful Louie Zamperini's story is and has been able to bring it to such a wide audience.

7. Rodin's Debutante, Ward Just
I am so lucky to have worked at the premier independent bookstore on Martha's Vineyard, because I'm not sure I would have ever picked up a Ward Just book otherwise. I am further blessed that Just an an extremely popular author on the island, and I can always find a book or two of his at one of the annual town library book sales. This summer's find was Rodin's Debutante, which proved the perfect book to carry in my purse while I read a huge WFB book (below) at home. Just, like James Salter (see All That Is on last year's best list), is able to capture the sensibilities of the 40s and 50s so well that it's hard to believe this book was written just three years ago. Just's prose is gorgeous and evocative with a lyrical and dream-like quality, and the pace of his writing fits the era about which he writes. The story meanders a bit, but the world Just creates is so beautiful that I always wanted to keep reading so I could be in it more. Looking back on the mid 20th century, there is a romanticism to the era (thanks, Mad Men) - the sense that things are changing so quickly that something is always slipping away or being lost, no matter how hard one tries to resist - and Just captures that ethos perfectly. Rodin's Debutante is perhaps more simplified than true life at the time, but that fairy-tale quality is what gives the story a bit of a magic halo.

8. Miles Gone By, William F. Buckley, Jr.
If you've never sad any WFB before, this book would be the perfect introduction to his highly intelligent, unfailingly witty writing. Miles Gone By, subtitled A Literary Autobiography, is a large collection of short pieces that span Buckley's life and career. The writings are divided by topic, and of course my favorite section was "Sailing (and Skiing, and one Fly-by)." I really love all of Buckley's books about sailing, and it was a delight to revisit some of his boats and journeys. However, my favorite piece in this entire book is "Six Freshmen and an Ercoupe," a rollicking airplane-centered misadventure filled with droll wit. Buckley also offers fascinating anecdotes about the first time he encountered a number of his famous friends (Roger Moore, Princess Grace, Ronald Reagan, David Niven, and Alistair Cooke among them), insight into his more political endeavors, and tales of adventure - all told in his distinct and charming style.

9. Capital, John Lanchester
Capital was not at all the type of book I was expecting it to be. I had prepped myself for something on the dry side that was extremely focused on the 2008 financial crisis and was trying to make some lofty point about the whole thing. Instead, I found a very English novel with a large cast of characters that were all developed just enough to make you care about them, but didn't really go too much below the surface. Yes, the crisis is somewhat of a backdrop, but (true to life) it doesn't really effect the majority of the characters in a profound way. There's a bit of a mystery running through the whole story, which keeps things interesting. But mainly, I found this book a joy to read just because of its gentle humor and the deftly interwoven story lines. This was one of those books that I couldn't wait to take out of my purse on the subway and then curl up with on my sofa when I got home, and that is a rare find indeed.

10. The Longest Ride, Nicholas Sparks
This book made me roll my eyes less than Nicholas Sparks books usually do. It also made me cry a couple of times, just in case you were wondering if Sparks is still a master of cheaply manipulating emotions. Of course The Longest Ride is a total grown-up fairy tail of a book, but I'm definitely one of those girls who wouldn't mind being romanced by a cowboy every now and then (especially a cowboy who is going to be played by Scott Eastwood in the film version). On a more serious note, one of the two main couples in the book is Jewish. This couple had to cope with WWII from the States, and Sparks does a nice job of capturing a Jewish-American perspective on that war and the Holocaust. I am all for anything that reminds people of the horrific toll the Holocaust took; I think it's important that it's not forgotten or trivialized, and Sparks brings emotion and heft to the topic, even while integrating it into a romance novel. It helps that Sparks refrains from indulging in his usual penchant for melodrama, and that both couples in the book have relationships that are easy to believe (or at least buy into, in the case of the younger couple) and take as seriously as the characters themselves do.