26. This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz (and an update)

Happy New Year kids. Obviously, this got derailed in the fall semester. Basically, after number 25 I started reading Game of Thrones, and then things became pretty crazy and my resolution was pushed to the wayside.

But now I'm going to try again. With the book I'll talk about in a second, which I read over Thanksgiving, I read 26 books — exactly half my goal — in 2012. So, I think I can hit 52 in 2013. At the very least, we'll see. I'll probably (finally) finish "Game of Thrones" by tomorrow, so that'll be the first book of the new year. But here are some thoughts on the last book I read, not for school, in 2012:

Before I picked up this book, I read this awesome interview Junot Diaz did to promote it (you may remember my love affair with Junot from last January, when I read his first short-story collection, Drowned). Anyway, if you read that interview, you'll understand why I think he's the bees knees. Par example:

"I have so many young writers who're like, 'Well I was inspired. This was my story.' And I'm like, 'OK. Sir, your inspiration for your stories is like every other male's inspiration for their stories: that the female is only in there to provide sexual service.'"

Famous male writer talking about male privilege? Sign me up.

Anyway, this book was super short (and it was a short story collection), so it was easy to get through, but it was also incredibly well-written and generally amazing. Most of the stories focus on Yunior (who was a character in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao), who's a womanizing jerk, despite his generally good heart. 

I don't actually have anything else to say, awkwardly, except that it's really well-written and heart-breaking and wondrous, just like Junot's work always is. What a good writer. I only wish it was longer.

So that's it amigos. Hit me up with your book suggestions.