While I thought that getting any reading done during my first year of parenthood would be close to impossible, I have actually been able to take advantage of my commute to and from work and my son’s nap time on weekends to get quite a decent amount of reading done.
So in the end, 2011 has been a pretty good year for reading after all, more so considering that some of my favorite contemporary authors published new books this year. Here is what I have read in 2011:
- Jonathan Franzen: Freedom
- Ryu Murakami: 69
- Colm Toibin: Brooklyn
- Tolstoy: War and Peace
- Rafael Yglesias: A Happy Marriage
- Wafa Faith Hallam: The Road from Morocco
- Isabel Wilkerson: The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration
- Thomas Ashbridge: The Crusades: The War for the Holy Land
- Mat Johnson: Pym: A novel
- Amitav Ghosh: Smoke River
- Haurki Murakami: 1Q84, Parts 1, 2 and 3.
- Jeffrey Eugenides: A Marriage Plot
- Nuruddin Farah: Crossbones (to be started end of week, inchallah)
Of course with the trial and tribulations of parenthood (and a day job as an attorney), I do not have the time to write a review of each of these, though I do wish I could. Nevertheless, let it be said that I would recommend all of them.
Grave Error 
You’ve read War and Peace in 2011! Really? I read it when i was a teenager, i don’t think i’ll be able to do it today.
I recommend The Shallows and The Steve Jobs bio, I find it increasingly hard to read fiction as i age, not sure why.
Happy 2012 to you and your family Eric, will probably cross over the pond, let me know if you plan to hop by NY at some point.
Cheers,
Borja.
Yep, War and Peace, but I must admit that I didn’t love it. I much preferred Anna Karenina.
I still love fiction, especially good fiction. I recommend “Freedom” now that you’re living in the U.S. It’s a nice critique of American society.
I am also reading more and more non-fiction.
Call me if you come to Madrid this Christmas.