Wants and Needs (Bookmarks November/December)

I'm back again, with the latest installment of Bookmarks, which for me is like the arrival of that toy catalog right around Christmas-time when I was a kid.  I pore through each entry, make notations and scribbles, and try to figure out how in the heck I'm going to get them all read.

One thing I'd like to point out here.  Most of the books I am listing below I already knew about - many of them have been reviewed and scooped by my friends.  Bookmarks is just a reminder for me to get in the game and read them.  Or at the very least, just talk about them so I don't feel so bad about getting to them in a year or two.

So here are my NEEDS:




11/22/63 - Stephen King:  Uncle Stevie imagines what life would have been like had JFK not been assassinated.  In this little tale of alternate reality, a high school teacher travels back in time to try to alter historical events.  And without even looking I know this thing is probably a thousand pages, so I am going to try to get to it on audio. 

Steve Jobs - Walter Isaacson:  Predictable selection, I know, but why not?  I love biographies, and when one presents itself that claims to be an uninhibited exploration of everything that made this man tick?  I must know these things.  Again, I'm just guessing this is a chunkster (how could it not be?) so I'm targeting it for audio.

The Leopard - Jo Nesbo:  Our beloved and tormented Harry Hole finds himself in Hong Kong, having fallen to the lure of opium and gambling.  He is called back home, though, despite his past transgressions, to once again save the day.  And this is a little bit of a cheat, because I already do have this book on my nightstand.  I just can't help waving it around and letting everyone know that they need to get on this bandwagon quickly, because this is already the sixth translated installment. 

Wonderstruck - Brian Selznick: And we thought that "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" was the greatest thing since sliced bread?  Apparently this one rivals its mastery, because Bookmarks has given it 4.5 stars, which almost never happens.  We have a story of a deaf boy, a young girl from 50 years in the past, magically come together at the American Museum of Natural History.  Told in words and drawings, like Hugo, I must have this now.  Scholastic was kind enough to keep the damn thing taped up on the display at SIBA, so I couldn't even touch it.  I'm still a little sore about that.    

Here are some of my WANTS: 

The Art of Fielding - Chad Harbach:  Although I like baseball well enough, I'm told that this book is good even if you don't know what a seven inning stretch is.  Described as a novel that mixes Moby Dick with baseball, this book is more a study of three-dimensional characters that you won't forget in the near future.

Birds of Paradise - Diana Abu-Jaber:  This one is also another cheat, because I have this book.  I not only received it, signed, from SIBA, but I met the author at a luncheon where the authors took turns coming to your table to talk about their books.  Diana came with her own bottle of wine and shared (a girl after my own heart) and was funny and easy-going and made her novel, about a family left in ruins after their 13-year-old ran away, a must-read.  Bookmarks just reminded me that I need to delegate this one to the nightstand.

The Cider House Rules - John Irving:  Don't judge me.  I've only read one John Irving novel (Last Night in Twisted River) and I was underwhelmed.  I know that he has some amazing books though, and this one was featured in an article that highlights books about careers.  I'm thinking I need to make a project of Irving some day, starting with this book, and continuing with "The World According to Garp" and "A Prayer for Owen Meany".  

The Most Dangerous Thing - Laura Lippman:  I have resisted reading Lippman's Tess Monaghan series because there are so many books and I like to start at the beginning and read them all.  Intimidating.  But a stand alone?  I can do that.  This one has something to do with secrets, relationships from childhood to adulthood, destroyed innocence and such.  I know that I'm in good hands with whatever she writes. 


Any opinions on any of these?  I always need help with prioritization!