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By Aaron Block, on December 6th, 2010 
[This is the last entry in our 2010 Best Books Series. Find all the other entries here. We've also compiled all our best books in one easy-to-browse page; find it by clicking the stamp, at left or anywhere else you see it on the site.]
The Second Annual Aaron Block Awards, Celebrating Excellence In the Comics I Read This Year, Presented By Aaron Block
“Most Awkward Purchase” Award – Black Kiss, written and illustrated by Howard Chaykin
 My local comic book store, Comicopia in Boston, displays the “adult” themed books on the top shelf of the new releases rack, usually with plastic bags and carefully placed stickers to hide the naughty bits from sensitive eyes. I didn’t even think to look there when the newest hardcover collection of Howard Chaykin’s poison-pen letter to Regan’s America, Black Kiss, though I was eager to pick it up. I’d heard it was controversial, but didn’t think it would be stocked alongside more overtly pornographic comics. When I finally did find it, I realized that it wasn’t the explicit sex that kept it on the adult shelf, but the pitch-black worldview Chaykin presents.
For all the horrible things that happen within its pages, Black Kiss is remarkably frothy. You can almost hear writer/artist Chaykin laughing to himself as he detailed each panel, knowing the furor and outrage it would engender. That anarchic spirit seethes in every element of the book, from the knotted, hard-boiled plot to the cast of morally bankrupt Los Angeles archetypes, and even Chaykin’s rough, sketchy but heavily detailed style. The book is so dense with death and perversion in the first issue alone that any titillation or lurid appeal is quickly numbed, replaced with a morbid fascination with how deep in the gutter Chaykin is willing to tread.
Reading Black Kiss is fun, even though it shouldn’t be. Chaykin is rumored to be working on a sequel, but I wonder if an update could be as powerful as the original, given how much of this book shock-matter seems to be front and center in mainstream culture? …
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By Marc Velasquez, on November 29th, 2010
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Without further ado, my favorite books of 2010:
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is the bizarre story of a tobacco farmer whose cancer cells have been used in scientific research for decades after her death. The book features a rare combination of great writing, fantastic storytelling, and deep social significance. Skloot admirably weaves several storylines—Lacks’s life and death, the growth of HeLa cells, the many scientific advances those cells have made possible, the lives of Lacks’s decedents—into a cohesive and gripping book. But Immortal Life sits on top of my list because of its social importance. The story of Henrietta Lacks was a generation or two from being completely forgotten. It would have been a shame to lose this piece of our history, not just because of the scientific significance of HeLa, but also because of the perspective Lacks’s life and death adds to the Civil Rights struggle. Thankfully, with this book, Rebecca Skloot has made Henrietta Lacks truly immortal. …
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By David Duhr, on November 22nd, 2010
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I read about fifteen novels for every nonfiction title, but out of the 2010 books I read, it was two nonfiction titles that stole the show. So in slow-tease style, I’m starting with the novels.
Next, by James Hynes
I read Next just before moving to Austin, and not only did it paint for me an accurate depiction of my new city, it’s also a hell of a good novel. And funny, to boot. Kevin Quinn is a mid-level editor in Ann Arbor who flies down to Austin for a job interview without telling his maybe-pregnant girlfriend. Planted firmly in mid-life crisis mode and full of an impending sense of doom, Kevin follows an attractive young Asian girl (whom he dubs “Joy Luck”) around the city. While doing so, he reflects on his life in Michigan. This book contains two striking passages—what is probably the best sex scene I’ve ever read, and an ending so stunning and unsettling that to even hint at its contents would be sinful. Let’s just say, this writer has some heavy balls. …
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By Sean Clark, on November 22nd, 2010
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These best of the year posts are always a bit tricky for me. I read via a pile strategy–that is I buy books faster than even I can read them, which results in multiple stacks of books, then when I finish one I grab the next and shelve the one I read–so much of what I read has usually been sitting for about a year before I get around to reading it. Therefore, I’m left to select books from a fairly shallow pool of 2010 pubs.
Nonetheless, I read a number of very good books this year. In fact, I had a pretty tough time picking which one was tops. After a lentghy deliberation, here’s my pick for Best Book of 2010:
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Freedom, by Jonathan Franzen
Yeah, I know, everyone is picking this book. I actually really wanted to give #1 to Amelia Gray’s excellent collection of stories, but I just can’t. Freedom is a great book, and it will stick in my head for a long time to come. Franzen’s novel is about a fairly typical American family, but it also manages to be an astute look at America itself. This isn’t the Great American Novel that you might think it would be, judging by hype it got. But it is a Great Read that’s accessible, thought-provoking, and at times quite tender. Freedom simply deserves to be called the best book of 2010. …
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By Eric Markowsky, on November 15th, 2010
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If you’re looking for the Best Poetry of 2010, you might check out this year’s National Book Award nominees, or you might see who won this year’s William Carlos Williams Award or Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize. If you’re a reader like me, then you know there’re piles of good poetry collections published every year, more than we could hope to read before the next batch starts appearing.
But, if you’re still looking for more good poetry, here are three of my personal favorites from 2010 and one to get excited about in early 2011.
Charles Simic is one of my all time favorite poets. His often short lyrics are frank and funny in a way that never seems forced or merely ironic. One of his most memorable poems (maybe especially for a male reader) is called “Breasts,” and its power lies in the sincerity of its declarations:
I insist that a girl
Stripped to the waist
Is the first and last miracle,
That the old janitor on his deathbed
Who demands to see the breasts of his wife
For the one last time
Is the greatest poet who ever lived.
Master of Disguises offers familiar sincerity and humor in its imagery. In the title poem, on the lookout for the Master of Disguises, the speaker says, “I wouldn’t even rule out the black cat crossing the street.” It’s a funny line because it’s not a joke. Because in this poem and others like it, “Scribbled in the Dark” and “The Elusive Something,” poems about confrontations with mystery, no potential clue can be ruled out, not “The face of a girl carrying a white dress” or “the sight of a building blackened by fire / where I once went looking for work.” …
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By Nico Vreeland, on November 15th, 2010
[Follow this series here. We're also compiling all our best books in one easy-to-browse page; find it by clicking the stamp, at left or anywhere else you see it on the site. That page will get updated as each new post comes out.]
Our yearly list of best books works a little differently than most. We don’t assemble every book we read this year into one massive, ranked list. We’re not trying to include every book out there, and we’re not driven to sell you sell you anything (which is the only reason I can think of that Faithful Place came in ahead of Freedom on Amazon’s top 10 list).
In our Best Books feature, each of our contributors simply picks their favorite books of the year, and tells you why they loved them. Great books with no filler. Let’s get started.
The Imperfectionists isn’t a novel, as its cover claims. It’s a collection of short stories, loosely linked, and centered around the employees of an English-language international newspaper based in Rome. And it’s quite simply the best short story collection I’ve read in years. Rachman’s characters are complex but still light, layered but unmuddied. Rachman excels at chronicling the interior lives and private problems of each of his varied characters, and it’s that variety and interiority (along with, of course, excellent writing) that makes this collection so strong. See my full review for an example of Rachman’s whorling, perfectly balanced character work. And read the book, for sure. …
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