Lists: the Best Books I read in 2011

I have read a lot this year - 60 books total! Next Year, I hope to start and finish books before jumping to the next one, there were way too many books left unfinished.   Oh well! The top five books on the list were chosen by how well I recalled the book during my non-reading hours.
All in all a great year of reading, here is my top 5 books for 2011:

1.   Spring Heeled Jack by Mark Hodder:

   This book was a lot of fun as I plunged into Hodder's Steam Punk - Time Travel Adventure.

2. Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon

   Gravity's rainbow was the hardest book to read for this year.  But it was so worth it!

3. Catch 22 by Joseph Heller

   The laughter was exhausting.

4. I, Claudius by Robert Graves

   Proving Rome was full of debauchery.

5. Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner

   The characters remained with me for a long time after completing the novel.

6. (not finished yet) Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas.

   Bonhoeffer grabs a hold of you and won't let go, you might know the ending of the story, but what this does is show the man and where his theology and core beliefs were developed

I am looking forward to 2012!  Happy New Year!

Review of Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon

Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Thomas Pynchon is a writer who compels the reader to work hard through his books to find a gem at the end of his rainbow.   If you want something easy Mr. Pynchon probably is not your cup of tea.  But if you are willing to be submerged in a new experience Pynchon is your guide.

Here Pynchon, our rough guide, takes us to the Los Angeles neighborhood that surrounds LAX. The time is 1969, and the mood is hazy. Our government has us involved in a never ending war with a place called Vietnam.   The economy is good not great.  The beginning of the internet is here but it will not be released to the public till 1991.   Charlie Manson has gotten every suburbanite scared of long haired freaks.  There seems to be a quite buzz about. Los Angeles  feels like it could blow up into a Technicolor Riot at any moment. Pynchon does an incredible job of lifting up what subterranean currants made Los Angeles glow dim in the 1980’s. This is where we find Doc, a private gum shoe, investigating the disappearance of his girlfriend.

 I really enjoyed this book and think that anyone who likes Elmore Leonard or Raymond Chandler would find this book a blast.  It also could be the book for all of you interested in social history; with a need to find out what caused something to turn from a dream into now a nightmare.

All people who love Shelley Winters will love this book.  

Inherent Vice is scheduled to become a movie released in 2014.

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