Jay McInerny, “Bright Lights, Big City”

Even more Bret Easton Ellis-y than Bret Easton Ellis.

THE LOWDOWN
Published: 1984, 208 pp.
Obtained via: Library
Date started: 8.18.08
Date finished: 8.21.08
What I liked: It’s like “Catcher in the Rye,” if Holden Caulfield worked at The New Yorker and did lots of coke. Good use of the second person, too.
What I didn’t like: There’s really not much of a narrative arc, but. hey, the book makes up for it with lots of zeitgeist.
What I learned: What the inside of a magazine fact-checking department looked like in the 1980s.

Hanna Rosin, “God’s Harvard”

This Washington Post writer’s in-depth study of Patrick Henry College is one of those books that I can’t stop talking about and recommend to all of my friends.

THE LOWDOWN
Published: 2007, 304 pp.
Obtained via: Library
Date started: 8.12.08
Date finished: 8.17.08
What I liked: Rosin spent a lot of time with the students of this Christian college, and she not only writes about their lives, but about the philosophies supporting the school (among them, to create the next generation of politicians for a Christian America) and the academic struggles behind the scenes.
What I didn’t like: No complaints!
What I learned: Quite a bit about baraminology.

David Sedaris, “Me Talk Pretty One Day”

Reread this—it appeared in my list from the first year I started keeping track.

THE LOWDOWN
Published: 2000, 272 pp.
Obtained via: My bookshelf
Date started: 7.26.08
Date finished: 8.1.08
What I liked: Pretty much everything! It’s also a lot funnier if you imagine him reading it in his nasally voice.
What I didn’t like: Pretty much nothing!
What I learned: Never yell “Good luck beating that rape charge!” to a friend when you get off the bus or train.

Jeanette Winterson, “Oranges are not the Only Fruit”

I’ve had this book on my bookshelf for nearly two years, and couldn’t remember for the life of me who gave it to me. I never read it, because I didn’t know what it was about. Finally, after hanging out with Jessica M. recently, she brought it up and asked if I’d read it yet. Mystery solved!

“Oranges are not the Only Fruit” is, like “Tipping the Velvet,” a bildungsroman about a young woman discovering her sexuality and learning about the world.

THE LOWDOWN
Published: 1987, 176 pp.
Obtained via: Jessica M.
Date started: 7.27.08
Date finished: 7.28.08
What I liked: The prose is absolutely beautiful, and Jeanette Winterson’s got a sense of humor that led me to refer to her as a lesbian Douglas Adams.
What I didn’t like: “Oranges” is a lot more ethereal and philosophical than “Tipping the Velvet” was. I don’t mind that, but I wish I’d learned more about the characters.
What I learned: People see what they want to see.

“Before the Mortgage,” edited by Christina Amini and Rachel Hutton

This collection of essays by people about post-college-pre-babies life struck an even stronger chord with me than the first time I read it back in 2006. (But I apparently didn’t note it in my master book list.)

THE LOWDOWN
Published: 2006, 228 pp.
Obtained via: My bookshelf
Date started: 7.18.08
Date finished: 7.26.08
What I liked: The essays by Meghan Daum and Christina Amini.
What I didn’t like: The essay by Pagan Kennedy; the badly formatted faux-sidebars of random quotes.
What I learned: I’m not alone, and this quarter-life crisis might last a few more years yet.