11 of the Best Books of 2011
Ed. Note—We’ve been naming the best of everything this month, but we only put a tiny dent in the world of new books this year. Instead Paste books editor Charles McNair lists his favorite books of the year.
Leonardo da Vinci got it right 500 years ago—“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” Here’s a simple sampler from an idiosyncratic editor of the books that most intrigued me this past year. I won’t claim these are the best books or books-you-have-to-read-before-you-die. I will confide that my year burned brighter with these publications. Enjoy.
11. Burial for a King
by Rebecca Poynter Burns
Scribner’s
The former editor of Atlanta magazine dug through history to recreate, almost hour by hour, the most important funeral week in our nation since JFK’s. Riots broke out in cities all over the country after Martin Luther King’s assassination. Not Atlanta. The story of the heroes who helped the city dodge the bullets and who buried the hero deserves broader attention. There’s still time.
10. Great Soul
by Joseph Lelyveld
Knopf
A wee little man in a diaper may have been the greatest figure of the 20th century. An ex-editor of the New York Times writes smartly on Mahatma Gandhi’s accomplishments and his failures, with a focus on social reform efforts. It’s easy to consider Gandhi now as something from mythology. Not here. Lelyveld lets us know a Gandhi of human proportions.
9. Skull Orchard Revisited
by Jon Langford
Verse Chorus Press
Jon Langford, a Paste favorite, co-founded the Mekons and Waco Brothers. This year, he reworked his first solo album, Skull Orchard, and gussied up the CD presentation with a book. It includes Jon’s paintings, based on the songs, a short story on the sad passing of Moby-Dick, and family contributions – his brother David’s South Wales Alphabet and photographs by their father, Denis. Langford reminds me of Elvis Costello in his ceaseless search for new forms. Langford even goes a step further, with arresting words and images between book covers.
8. The Revisionists
Thomas Mullen
Mulholland Books
Come and listen to my story ‘bout a man named Zed … Mullen’s third book is Blade Runner meets John LeCarre. A time traveler, Zed, returns from the future to do a dirty job. He has to make sure that all the terrible events of history – the Holocaust, Hiroshima, Verdun, New Jersey Shore – take place exactly as they happened. Past imperfect preserves a future perfect (we are led to believe) free of problems. Zed must hunt down other time travelers who want to change the past … so the future changes. The sci-fi premise, once you take the bait, leads to a thoughtful, suspenseful novel of intrigue.