Hola,
So, just thought that I'd start off with a thread of the most recent books you've currently read, as well as what's on your particular docket (or queue if your British-like). Also, feel free to comment on your books, and the books of others, all that I recommend is that you be somewhat positive, so, like, no sniping at Melville. Everybody hates Melville.

Books I've recently finished:
Omnivore's Dilemma - Michael Pollan - Don't really know where I stand with this book. I found the insight into the industrial-agricultural complex, well, insightful, because it is shocking how little I know about the source of most of my food. Furthermore, the book gives me more fodder for disliking monocrop, gigantic farm systems that are ruining both the land and nutrition of our country, but depressing prices of crops worldwide. The book slips into a bit too much authorial self-involvement during the final part, but I understand the necessity of its inclusion because of the structure of the book. My biggest critique is that, though the book does a good job making you disgusted about various thing, it doesn't really provide many solutions on how you can live your life after the realizations it provides. Furthermore, it is somewhat a book for elitist rich white people who both have the time, and luxury to shop selectively, and sort of leaves out the majority of society that eats cheap, crappy calories.

The Joe Pitt Casebooks - Charlie Huston - I can't tell which I am more ashamed of: 1) that I read three vampire noir detective novels, or 2) that I really fricking enjoyed three vampire noir detective novels. I'm leaning towards the latter. Anywho, Charlie Huston crafts an excellent, somewhat realistic world around his eponymous hero: the typical terse, obstinant, witty, take-no-shit vampire detective. Set in modern day Manhattan, the books are really damn engaging and thrilling, both in the larger sense that Huston has created a parallel (yes vampire)universe that he transposes on modern day New York and all the problems that creates (fear of persecution, gaining blood without chomping on random people's necks, gang wars), as well as the immediate funny sense. No pun intended, but they really suck you in. If you are more into the somewhat realistic crime thrillers, I'd direct you to his Henry Thompson trilogy, but I found this series much better.

As She Climbed Across the Table - Jonathan Lethem - Interesting story about a man's jealosy of his physicist wife who has falled in love with a physics experiment. Though I would rate this fairly low on my list of Lethem novels (Motherless Brooklyn about a detective with Tourettes, and Fortress of Solitude are on the top of said list), it's probably because I have a natural aversion to books using academia as their setting. It's a strong early effort by the author, laying the groundwork both thematically (betrayal, isolation, love-lorn protagonists, twists of the absurd, and odd characters in general) and stylistically for his future novels. I'd recommend it if you dig Physics, just like I'd recommend You Don't Love Me Yet if you love indie rock, but stick to the previously mentioned two novels if you want more transcendently good novels.

On the docket:
Lost City Radio - Alarcon - I'm a fan of his short stories (in War by Candlelight and a recent Granata), and thus far I'm digging this book about how three people are coping with the aftermath of revolution in South America. His writing is very beautiful, and I like the perspective based, non-linear flow of the novel (mostly because it's kinda simple and does little tricks that impress me without confusing me).

King Leopold's Ghost - ??? - A history of Belgian colonialism in the Congo. A real uplifting read!! Though very good thus far.

Suite Francaise - Nemirovsky - A book about common French people dealing with Nazi occupation. The book is part of an unfinished epic because she was deported to Auschwitz in 1943. Haven't started yet.

How We are Hungry - Dave Eggers - Love the man's books, and, now, what I've read of his short stories.

Absurdistan - Shetyngart - Supposed to be funny and good. We'll see.

As far as desert island books go, I think one of my top picks would definitely be The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt (No affiliation with the movie of the same name featuring Tom Cruise.). It's a great read, great in terms of stories, and it's also got some elegant structural innovations going on.

Right now I'm reading The Book of Other People, an anthology of short stories edited by Zadie Smith that benefits 826 NYC. The contributors were asked just to make someone up and the anthology is, basically, about character. All the stories are entertaining and there are a few that really rock my socks off--ZZ Packer's "Gideon," Hari Kunzru's "Magda Mandela," and one or two others.

I'm also sort of reading The Invention of Hugo Cabret. Very cool combination of drawings and writing with a filmic quality now and then. A whimsical mystery type thing.

I think I'll pick up ZZ Packer's Drinking Coffee Elsewhere. Coincidentally, she is teaching this semester at San Jose State.

Ok, here're a couple:

The Economy of Cities/ The Nature of Economies: Both of these are by Jane Jacobs who, it turns out, knocks my socks off. She's a college dropout who changed the Urban Planning field. I tried her real urban planning book--Death and Life of Great American Cities--and couldn't get into it, but these two books are more political/sociological/economics focussed. She writes in conversational tone (actually, that second one is in the form of a socratic dialogue, so, um, very conversational) and brings in supporting observations from every frickin' nook and cranny of life. It might be pseudo social science, but I like it.

California Rising: I picked this up because I didn't know much about california political history, and I like biographies. I was hoping for a california version of Caro's LBJ bios, but this doesn't really do it. Caro (and McCoulough to some extent...) does this cool thing where he uses the main character as focal point for discussing the entire time/place/culture/etc. Maybe 87% of Rarick's paragraphs start out, "Brown did/said/was...." Also, Brown seems like just a political idiot who happened to be in the right place at the right time and not make too much of a mess too often. No LBJ, no Caro. Meh.

The Survivor: I didn't get through My Life. This is a pretty objective take on the Clinton prez by a Post reporter who covered him for years. It's fair. It shows the clinton with best intentions and the clinton in battle mode. Good early quote from Clinton facing the budget balancing act: "We're eisenhower republicans and we're fighting reagan republicans." Some stuff that might be immediately relevant now: the fight between the "combat" (Hillary-esque) and consensus (Obama-esque) wings of the Dem Party (including Hillary's quote about the Repubs: "Those people are our enemies!" )

Kite Runner: Yeah, so I read some fiction. Easy read, entertaining, and it didn't do anything for me. Maybe it was just that one character, the psychopath, who ruined it. I'm not interested in psychopaths. At least, I'm not interested in psychopaths who are non-human naturally evil two dimensional characters. It's too disney world. A little boy says something to effect of "But father says even mean people have good in them...." to which our quasi-hero replies "no, some people are just evil," or something like that. Bleh.

I'll leave it at that.

Oh, I'm reading Truman right now--another one by McCoulough. (The HBO miniseries version of this is actually pretty good too, not sure about the Adams one). I like the idea that Truman was essentially a 19th century guy. He starts out painting him as real simple guy, but it picture gets more complex it goes I was sucked into the story until after the Marshall Plan, now I kinda want something new. But hey, since it was pulitzer you can probably pick up a cheap copy at any used book store.

Last thing: I second the eggers praise. Loved both Heartbreaking Work and What is the What. Yeah, i'll check out the short stories.

QUOTE:
Right now I'm reading The Book of Other People, an anthology of short stories edited by Zadie Smith

Odd, that book is waiting on hold for me at the library. I say nice selection, you truly have superior choice! Can you give me a thumbs up or a thumbs down for whether it is worth the time? I really didn't dig White Teeth, but then again I can't really name another modern female novelist that has compared to her in recent years. (Hint, suggestions board.)

I'll add Last Samurai to the queue, thanks for the rec. I am glad that is nothing to do with the film, but I will be thinking that every character (male/female) is being acted by Ken Wantanabe. That man is Chow Yun Fat-esque sexy.

Ezra:
Kite Runner
Oh Ez, you are so sensitive.

I am extremely sensitive. but I still didn't like it.

Can you really know whether a book is worth someone's time without knowing the person very well? Or can you ever know? Or all books (like people) worth knowing in some form?

Here is what I might say almost credibly: I very much enjoyed a few of the short stories in the anthology. I believe Kurt Vonnegut said in Bagombo Snuff Box that short stories are like buddhist catnaps. The rest of the stories, the ones I didn't find WILDLY exciting, were like pleasant buddhist catnaps that sometimes, or could have, made me think. With the exception of the last story in the anthology, which kind of bored me.

As far as Zadie Smith goes, I think she's pretty brilliant. I mean, she might not do much in the way of formal innovation of the novel. But, perhaps despite the name, novels don't have to be formally innovative to be good. I think she's a virtuoso who also actually uses her brain and she's really FANTASTIC at picking up the way people talk.

Helen DeWitt, I think, is one of the best contemporary writers I've read (Not that I've read all that many). Elegant formal innovation, amazing ideas, fantastic stories.

In terms of contemporary female authors, I wouldn't discount Isabel Allende either. Sure, a lot of her plots are very similar and there are elements of the laughable in much of her work. But Eva Luna and The House of the Spirits are pretty powerful. You should check out her TED lecture on the TED website. She's a really funny lady.

And then there's Alice Munro. Pretty solid.

Nicole Krauss, though she sometimes veers into the uncomfortably sentimental (Keats, I should note, I've heard made people uncomfortable, too, though for somewhat different reasons I think, more preciousness and female reproductive imagery). Still, she's got some chops.

And what about poets? Harryette Mullen, Alice Notley (Not sure she's still working?), and Evie Shockley rock my world. Not to mention Dodie Bellamy's pornographic poetic short stories. And if I remember correctly, Heather McHugh does some pretty nifty stuff.

I'll get off my Woolfish soap box now.

You realize that with a name like Visconti you are lined up for a spot as a villain in an 18th/19th century Gothic novel?