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Don't beat yourself up because you haven't read Karen Russell's "Swamplandia" or Walter Isaacson's "Steve Jobs." I haven't either.
Chances are I probably won't get to either in the coming year because those books have already been displaced by even more pressing "must reads."
When you get to a certain age, you learn to embrace an obvious truth: It is impossible to read everything. So rather than give in to despair, read what feels right at the time and leave the regrets to others. If you pick what is genuinely interesting to you, at least a few worthy tomes will be read to completion.
In the spirit of this Sisyphean ideal, my desk is already piled with books I've committed to finishing in 2012. They're not in stores yet. Look for fleshed-out reviews in future columns, or on the Post-Gazette's Sunday books page, on the following:
"Pity the Billionaire: The Hard-Times Swindle and the Unlikely Comeback of the Right," by Thomas Frank. The author of the indispensable "What's the Matter with Kansas?" serves up a sobering account of how the architects of the economic downturn convinced a plurality of Americans that austerity, draconian budget cuts, zero regulation, refusing to tax the rich and the withering away of the state is the answer to hard times (in stores in January).
"Taft 2012," by Jason Heller. This is a very funny novel about the return of William Howard Taft, a one-term Republican president from the Progressive era who appears at the Obama White House weeks before the Iowa caucus. Though "dead" for a century, Taft outpolls the entire Republican field, setting up an eventual battle between the Progressive Republican and the "Progressive" Democrat who sometimes governs like a Republican (January).
"The Orphan Master's Son," by Adam Johnson. The death of Kim Jong Il couldn't have come at a better time for novelist Adam Johnson. "The Orphan Master's Son" is a richly textured political thriller about the hidden world of North Korea with all of its misery, violence and defiant acts of love under impossible circumstances. Stunning and evocative imagery abounds on every page (January).
"Colored Cosmopolitanism: The Shared Struggle for Freedom in the United States and India," by Nico Slate. An assistant professor of history at Carnegie Mellon University, Mr. Slate exhaustively charts the liberation movements of the world's two largest democracies from the 19th century to the 1960s. There's more to this connection than the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s debt to Mahatma Gandhi, and Mr. Slate tells this fascinating tale better than anyone ever has (January).
"How to Be Black," by Baratunde Thurston. The funniest black guy on the Internet has written the definitive manual on how to make it in post-racial America as a member of a despised minority group. "How to be Black" is guaranteed to infuriate all those poor, deluded souls, both black and white, who shuffle through life without ever managing to "see color" (February).
"A Slave in the White House: Paul Jennings and the Madisons," by Elizabeth Dowling Taylor. President James Madison's "slave," Paul Jennings, took all of that Founding Father's lectures about freedom seriously. That's why he mounted escapes from slavery for himself and his family. He set up communities alongside ex-slaves of Washington, Jefferson and Madison. The author has all the documents right here (January).
"Thinking the Twentieth Century," by Tony Judt with Timothy Snyder. For my money, the late Tony Judt was a far better critic and writer than the late Christopher Hitchens. He also had the virtue of being on the right side of history when it came to issues of war and peace. This is his last work (February).
"The Poems of Jesus Christ," translated by Willis Barnstone. I loved "The Covenant: Commonly Called the New Testament," Mr. Barnstone's starkly beautiful translation of the gospels that came out in 2009. Here, the author isolates the words of Yeshua, revealing the poetry familiarity prevents us from seeing clearly (April).
"Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America," by Gilbert King. When four black citrus workers were falsely accused of raping a white girl in 1949, only one lawyer was brave enough to represent them in the South. Mr. King proves that Thurgood Marshall, brilliant and eccentric, was a real-life superhero long before he was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court (March).
"The Cause: The Fight for American Liberalism from Franklin Roosevelt to Barack Obama," by Eric Alterman with Kevin Mattson. The title is obviously self-explanatory. The fight itself is long overdue (April).
First Published December 30, 2011 12:00 am
