Books

Nate’s 9: Favorite Books

            I love ‘em.  Pretty much after my family and sports, books are next on the Nate’s love list.  Probably even more than music.  After much deliberation, here are the 9 that I have enjoyed the most.

Note:  I have yet to read “The Stand”, but for all intents and purposes, I know there will be room for it on this list, once I gather up the courage to take on that mild beast.

#9 – The Glory of their Times – by Lawrence Ritter. This book shocked me immensely, and also turned me toward a genre of book that I never thought that I would be interested in: Sports History.  I much prefer what is to come, instead of what’s already been played.  My mother got it for me in some silent auction book basket that she purchased for a relatively excessive amount of money.  I flipped through all of the books and thought I may as well take this one since she was willing to spend so much on the basket.  Cue to my finish of reading the book when I was absolutely overcome with melancholy when it was over.  It’s one of the most joyful, profound, thoughtful reading experiences that I have ever had.  Essentially it’s a story written by Ritter about visiting a number of major league baseball players back when the American and National Leagues started to gain popularity in the early 1900’s.  And listening to these now much older men share the intimate details of what went on during those times was as satisfying as admitting my misconception about the book just by viewing its cover.  It’s easily my favorite sports read of all-time, and a book I continue to go back to reading whether it be to look at the pictures again or get taken back to a long ago, forgotten place.

#8 – The Things They Carried – by Tim O’Brien.  Now I love historical novels, and it’s the reason that I decided to purchase a book that many others had to read when they were in high school.  And after about fifteen pages I thought, crap. Why did I spend my money on this?  It’s weird, and inexpressive.  I put it back on the shelf, and started something else.  A few years later, I came back to it.  I know that my dad dealt with issues concerning his experience with the Charlies while he was in Vietnam, and I thought that maybe it was a way that I could understand the type of person that he became because of the happenings of that generation.  What I stumbled upon was probably even more validating then my mistake in the book mentioned above.  How did I get things wrong, again?  TTTC was so poignant, so singular, it not only felt like a book different from anything else I’d ever read, but just an experience unlike anything else I’d ever done.  The truth to all the stories, the language of the book, the complexity of the characters... I now understand all my friends challenges and changes that come in connection with going to battle, but this book also made me understand my father a little better, and an era and the country that I came from. 

#7 – I Know This Much is True – by Wally Lamb.  This was almost the opposite of the first two books on my list.  I came in expecting a ton, because all I heard was Oprah ranting and raving about what a wonderful book it was.  And it opened with a bang. “On the afternoon of October 12, 1990, my twin brother Thomas entered the Three Rivers, Connecticut Public Library, retreated to one of the rear study carrels, and prayed to God the sacrifice he was about to commit would be deemed acceptable.”  And I bought the book instantly after.  I didn't even know what the sacrifice was. I love books that compel me to change my perceptions of life and life’s experiences and this book was able to do that.  A magnum opus of a novel. 

#6 – New York – by Edward Rutherfurd. Quite simply, it gave me the obsession and enthusiasm that I currently have for visiting the city of New York someday.  Hopefully soon.  What Rutherfurd does in his novels is great for readers that can move quickly and understand numerous character replacements.  In New York he started with a fur trader family in the middle of the 17^th century, and through marriage, experiences and a long procession of having baby boys, linked a family from then until the New York that we are all familiar with today, or at least as of 2009.  It’s their stories that were so interesting and very comparable to what happened for a lot of immigrants that decided to take a chance on coming over to this great country.  It made for great relatively light reading, but really pulled at the readers heart strings near the end as well. 

#5 – Goodnight Moon – by Margaret Wise Brown.  I’m kidding, but it still is one of my two favorite books that were read to me as a child, along with “Where the Wild Things Are”. 

#5 – The Godfather – by Mario Puzo.  This book is also a masterpiece, but that movie... I don’t think anything will come close to touching it, at least not in my lifetime...  I think it’s kind of sad in a way, because my favorite part of this novel is the story of Vito Corleone in his younger years and gives us a glimpse into how he became the person he did in the rest of the novel.  It’s such a great part of the story, it’s sad that Puzo wasn't able to expand on it and truly develop Vito’s character as one for all ages. (In his defense, he had more than enough script and Corleone’s story continues to live on, although by writers who don’t have quite the deft touch that Mr. Puzo did).  What Puzo did was so simple, but daring.  He pretty much wrote a non-fictional book about the five families of New York and its celebrities, but without using their names.  He does it with elegance and style and even has the reader sympathetic to the decisions and outcomes of the Corleone family.  At least he had mine.

#4 – The Chamber – by John Grisham.  Normally when I read a Grisham novel, it’s for the light, easy pace that his readers have become accustomed to getting.  It’s usually a story that sets up in the courtroom or thereabouts, and there’s conflict, and mystery, and the reader leaves the story feeling satisfied and happy.  I felt that way with pretty much every book of his that I read until I purchased “The Chamber”.  This book does not leave anyone happy and satisfied, well, I suppose maybe a certain person.  What it does do extremely well is challenge the reader on the death penalty issue and resolving conflict with members of your family.  Prior to reading this novel, I had a certain viewpoint on the penalty, and my mind had yet to be changed numerous times.  I had to learn a new moral compass, and that’s one of the most difficult things to do after thinking a certain way for so long.  I hate racism, and hate seeing it whenever I turn on the TV, read the paper, etc. but when you’re innocent, you’re innocent and that was the hardest part for me.

#3 – Hearts in Atlantis – by Stephen King.  Speaking of the unexpected... After reading, “The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon”, and not being entirely impressed, I thought that Hearts in Atlantis would be another bust by a writer that I thought at the time was a bit “overrated” (my words, I know).  I opened this book, and it was almost like I ordered it off of the menu.  The 1960’s, Vietnam, Randall Flagg, underdogs, foreshadowing, intricate stories, all things I love. And all of it in the same novel!  In all seriousness though, my perceptions of King’s talents changed invariably after this novel.  His diminutive modifications in each story that somehow always seem to be significant some hundred pages later.  His way of linking the beginning of the story with the middle and end and hardly leaving out any detail that won’t matter when the time comes.  This is almost the perfect novel, in that it deals with human relationships and not every situation is feel good, nor is every one destructive.  Life is, and King has a better grasp of that term that most.

#2 – California Gold – by John Jakes.  James Macklin Chance.  My favorite book character of all-time.  This story... it was almost like he was a character that was a part of my family.  I lived and breathed his life the exact same way that Jakes wrote it out.  When he failed, I felt miserable for him; when he succeeded, I was delighted.  On the backdrop of the history of California and how many Americans out there did not make it rich and realizing that the gold rush was somewhat of a big scam created by advertisers and other people looking to make a fast buck, Jakes allowed Chance the chance (you know it, I think that happens more often than we're led to believe – this naming of a character for a purpose) to really tell a great story and live a life that any American should and would feel proud of.  There are some people out there that do commit awful wrongs against others, and people that do wish failure for those that they feel have wronged them.  JMC collided with those individuals and through perseverance and determination, truly lived one of the great fictional stories that I have had the pleasure of reading. 

#1 – Storm of Swords – by George R.R. Martin.  There have been better novels, better characters, better writing for sure among all the great books that I've read.  This though, goes by the simple structure that every single chapter, hell almost every single sentence had some definitive necessity toward the story being told.  It is the only book that I have ever read in my life in which every chapter was a masterpiece in its own right.  There’s not one thing that I, as the reader, would have asked to be done differently.  For those that aren't familiar with this story, it’s the third novel in the series “Ice and Fire”, or the more familiar term, “Game of Thrones”.  It’s sensational.  Every character is important and has value pertinent to the climax of the story.  The predictability is naught; anything can happen to anyone at any time without thought for their significance prior to the results.  I can’t even describe it, only that any time I glance upon the book I am in this state of euphoria and I want to go back and visit the land of the Seven Kingdoms, the Wall, Pentos and all the rest.