52 books in 52 weeks

21. The Echo Maker by Richard Powers

It's rare to find a book so heavy with science as well as abstract poetics. A little less of both and I think I might have enjoyed this exploration of a region and a family even more.

22. The Big Girls by Susanna Moore

There was something kind of...trashy about this look inside a woman's prison, but I read it with delight.


23. The Interloper by Antoine Wilson

I can't remember the last time I read a novel in one sitting, but I could not put Wilson's novel down. It was suspenseful and funny and troubling and sensational. I loved it.


24. So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell

I couldn't find a place to belong or relate inside this rural boy's tale, but the story's most striking effect was the realization that our American existence and identity has changed drastically in the past 50 years.