Tolstoy and the Purple Chair

by Nina Sankovitch

  “We live in wonder, blaze in a cycle of passion and apprehension,” wrote the poet Carolyn Kizer, and I know that to be true. My hiatus is over, my soul and my body are healed, but I will never leave the purple chair for long. So many books waiting to be read, so much happiness to be found, so much wonder to be revealed.

  Complete List of Books Read

  from October 28, 2008,

  to October 28, 2009

  After so much had been taken,

  so much could still be received.

  TATJANA SOLI,

  The Lotus Eaters

  The Abbot’s Ghost, by Louisa May Alcott

  About Schmidt, by Louis Begley

  Act of the Damned, by António Lobo Antunes

  Address Unknown, by Kathrine Kressmann Taylor

  The African Queen, by C. S. Forester

  The Age of Dreaming, by Nina Revoyr

  Algren at Sea, by Nelson Algren

  Alice Fantastic, by Maggie Estep

  All My Friends Are Superheroes, by Andrew Kaufman

  All Souls, by Christine Schutt

  All That I Have, by Castle Freeman Jr.

  American Born Chinese, by Gene Luen Yang

  Amphibian, by Carla Gunn

  The Ancient Shore, by Shirley Hazzard and Francis Steegmuller

  Anna In-Between, by Elizabeth Nunez

  Annie John, by Jamaica Kincaid

  Are You Somebody? by Nuala O’Faolain

  The Art of Racing in the Rain, by Garth Stein

  The Assault, by Harry Mulisch

  Aunt Dimity Slays the Dragon, by Nancy Atherton

  Bangkok Haunts, by John Burdett

  Beauty Salon, by Mario Bellatin

  The Believers, by Zoë Heller

  Bellwether, by Connie Willis

  The Best Place to Be, by Lesley Dormen

  Better, by John O’Brien

  Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott

  Black Water, by Joyce Carol Oates

  Blank, by Noah Tall

  The Body Artist, by Don DeLillo

  Bombay Time, by Thrity Umrigar

  The Book of Chameleons, by José Eduardo Agualusa

  The Book of Murder, by Guillermo Martínez

  Boston Noir, edited by Dennis Lehane

  Breath, Eyes, Memory, by Edwidge Danticat

  The Bridge of San Luis Rey, by Thornton Wilder

  The Bridges at Toko-Ri, by James A. Michener

  Brief Encounters with Che Guevara, by Ben Fountain

  The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Díaz

  Brooklyn, by Colm Tóibín

  By Chance, by Martin Corrick

  Bye, Bye Soccer, by Edilberto Coutinho

  The Calling, by Mary Gray Hughes

  Call Me Ahab, by Anne Finger

  Camera, by Jean-Philippe Toussaint

  Captains Courageous, by Rudyard Kipling

  Castle Nowhere, by Constance Fenimore Woolson

  The Castle of Otranto, by Horace Walpole

  A Celibate Season, by Carol Shields and Blanche Howard

  Charles Dickens, by Melisa Klimaszewski and Melissa Gregory

  Cheese, by Willem Elsschot

  Christmas in Plains, by Jimmy Carter

  Climate of Fear, by Wole Soyinka

  Conjugal Love, by Alberto Moravia

  Consider the Lobster, by David Foster Wallace

  Cooking and Screaming, by Adrienne Kane

  The Council of the Cursed, by Peter Tremayne

  The Crofter and the Laird, by John McPhee

  Crow Planet, by Lyanda Lynn Haupt

  Crusader’s Cross, by James Lee Burke

  The Crying of Lot 49, by Thomas Pynchon

  The Curriculum Vitae of Aurora Ortiz, by Almudena Solana

  The Curse of Eve, by Liliana Blum

  A Curtain of Green, by Eudora Welty

  Dangerous Games, by Margaret MacMillan

  Dangerous Laughter, by Steven Millhauser

  The Darts of Cupid, by Edith Templeton

  Dead Giveaway, by Simon Brett

  Dead Horse, by Walter Satterthwait

  A Dead Man in Barcelona, by Michael Pearce

  Deaf Sentence, by David Lodge

  Death Etc., by Harold Pinter

  Death of a Witch, by M. C. Beaton

  Death Rites, by Alicia Giménez-Bartlett

  Death with Interruptions, by José Saramago

  The Deer Leap, by Martha Grimes

  DeKok and Murder by Installment, by A. C. Baantjer

  Delhi Noir, edited by Hirsh Sawhney

  Desperate Characters, by Paula Fox

  The Detective Wore Silk Drawers, by Peter Lovesey

  The Devil’s Tickets, by Gary M. Pomerantz

  The Diamond Girls, by Jacqueline Wilson

  The Diary of a Nobody, by George and Weedon Grossmith

  Disquiet, by Julia Leigh

  Divisadero, by Michael Ondaatje

  Dogs, Dreams, and Men, by Joan Kaufman

  The Door to Bitterness, by Martin Limón

  Double-Click for Trouble, by Chris Woodworth

  Dreamers, by Knut Hamsun

  Drink to Yesterday, by Manning Coles

  The Duppy, by Anthony C. Winkler

  The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery

  The Emigrants, by W. G. Sebald

  Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell in Love, by Lauren Tarshis

  The Emperor’s Tomb, by Joseph Roth

  Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card

  The English Major, by Jim Harrison

  Escape Under the Forever Sky, by Eve Yohalem

  Esther’s Inheritance, by Sándor Márai

  Even Cat Sitters Get the Blues, by Blaize Clement

  Ex Libris, by Anne Fadiman

  Explorers of the New Century, by Magnus Mills

  Facing the Bridge, by Yoko Tawada

  The Fairacre Festival, by Miss Read

  The Faithful Lover, by Massimo Bontempelli

  The Fall, by Albert Camus

  Falling Angels, by Tracy Chevalier

  Family Happiness, by Laurie Colwin

  The Famous Flower of Serving Men, by Deborah Grabien

  Female Trouble, by Antonya Nelson

  The Ferguson Affair, by Ross Macdonald

  Fiendish Deeds, by P. J. Bracegirdle

  The Fifth Child, by Doris Lessing

  Fight Scenes, by Greg Bottoms

  Fine Just the Way It Is, by Annie Proulx

  The First Person, by Ali Smith

  A Fisherman of the Inland Sea, by Ursula K. Le Guin

  The Forged Coupon, by Leo Tolstoy

  For Grace Received, by Valeria Parrella

  Forty Stories, by Donald Barthelme

  Frida’s Bed, by Slavenka Drakulić

  The Garden Party, by Katherine Mansfield

  Gerard Keegan’s Famine Diary, by James J. Mangan

  The German Mujahid, by Boualem Sansal

  Girl Boy Girl, by Savannah Knoop

  The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls

  Godlike, by Richard Hell

  Gold, by Dan Rhodes

  Good Behaviour, by Molly Keane

  The Good Life According to Hemingway, by A. E. Hotchner

  The Good Soldier, by Ford Madox Ford

  The Good Thief, by Hannah Tinti

  The Granny, by Brendan O’Carroll

  A Great Day for a Ballgame, by Fielding Dawson

  Grief, by Andrew Holleran

  The Grotesque, by Patrick McGrath

  The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

  The Gutter and the Grave, by Ed McBain

  Hairstyles of the Damned, by Joe Meno

  Half in Love, by Maile Meloy

  Hannah Coulter, by Wendell Berry

  Happens Every Day, by Isabel Gillies

  A Happy Marriage, by Rafael Yglesias

  The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain, by Charles Dickens

  Her Deadly Mischief, by Beverle Graves Myers

&
nbsp; The History of Love, by Nicole Krauss

  The Hollow-Eyed Angel, by Janwillem van de Wetering

  A Hope in the Unseen, by Ron Suskind

  The House Beautiful, by Allison Burnett

  The Housekeeper and the Professor, by Yoko Ogawa

  Housekeeping vs. the Dirt, by Nick Hornby

  The House on Eccles Road, by Judith Kitchen

  How I Became a Nun, by César Aira

  The Howling Miller, by Arto Paasilinna

  How to Paint a Dead Man, by Sarah Hall

  The Hunt for Sonya Dufrette, by R. T. Raichev

  I Feel Bad About My Neck, by Nora Ephron

  I Love Dollars, by Zhu Wen

  Indignation, by Philip Roth

  In Her Absence, by Antonio Muñoz Molina

  Inkheart, by Cornelia Funke

  The Inner Game of Tennis, by W. Timothy Gallwey

  In the Meantime, by Robin Lippincott

  In the Pond, by Ha Jin

  In the Woods, by Tana French

  In Time of Peace, by Thomas Boyd

  Iron Balloons, edited by Colin Channer

  I Was Dora Suarez, by Derek Raymond

  Jacob’s Hands, by Aldous Huxley and Christopher Isherwood

  Jerusalem, by Selma Lagerlöf

  John Crow’s Devil, by Marlon James

  The Joys of Motherhood, by Buchi Emecheta

  Kindred, by Octavia E. Butler

  The King and the Cowboy, by David Fromkin

  Kitchen, by Banana Yoshimoto

  Krapp’s Last Cassette, by Anne Argula

  Lark and Termite, by Jayne Anne Phillips

  The Last Essays of Elia, by Charles Lamb

  Last Night at the Lobster, by Stewart O’Nan

  The Laughter of Dead Kings, by Elizabeth Peters

  Laura Rider’s Masterpiece, by Jane Hamilton

  The Law of Similars, by Chris Bohjalian

  The Laws of Evening, by Mary Yukari Waters

  A Lesson Before Dying, by Ernest J. Gaines

  Letter to a Christian Nation, by Sam Harris

  Life on the Refrigerator Door, by Alice Kuipers

  Little Bee, by Chris Cleave

  The Little Disturbances of Man, by Grace Paley

  The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner, by Alan Sillitoe

  The Lost Art of Gratitude, by Alexander McCall Smith

  The Lost Prophecies, by C. J. Sansom, Bernard Knight, Ian Morson, Michael Jecks, Susanna Gregory, and Philip Gooden

  Love and Death, by Forrest Church

  The Loved One, by Evelyn Waugh

  The Love of the Last Tycoon, by F. Scott Fitzgerald

  The Love Song of Monkey, by Michael Graziano

  Love Walked In, by Marisa de los Santos

  Madame de Staël, by Francine du Plessix Gray

  Make No Bones, by Aaron Elkins

  Man in the Dark, by Paul Auster

  The Man in the Picture, by Susan Hill

  The Man of My Life, by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán

  The Man Who Was Thursday, by G. K. Chesterton

  Marley and Me, by John Grogan

  The Master of Petersburg, by J. M. Coetzee

  Masterpiece, by Elise Broach

  Meat Eaters and Plant Eaters, by Jessica Treat

  A Mercy, by Toni Morrison

  The Mercy Papers, by Robin Romm

  Miss Lonelyhearts, by Nathanael West

  Miss Misery, by Andy Greenwald

  Mister Pip, by Lloyd Jones

  The Moon Opera, by Bi Feiyu

  Moon Tiger, by Penelope Lively

  Murder in the Calais Coach, by Agatha Christie

  Murder Is My Racquet, edited by Otto Penzler

  The Musical Illusionist, by Alex Rose