​Jude
Joseph
Lovell
WRITER - FATHER - HUSBAND - BIBLIOPHILE 

10. THE RIDERS, Tin Winton. (1994) A change of scenery in this early novel from the renowned Australian master, who here spins a harrowing and literally haunting tale about a father of a young girl who takes her ahead with him on an ambitious move from Australia to an abandoned castle in the wilds of Ireland, only to have his whole world upended when for unknown reasons the girl’s mother, instead of following afterwards as planned, disappears. 

 

9. NO IMMEDIATE DANGER: Volume One of Carbon Ideologies, William T. Vollmann. (2018) Massive nonfiction assessment of mankind’s plundering of fossil fuels and all of the trouble this has caused and will cause, this lengthy tome (only the first of two) includes an account of an exhausting and treacherous investigation the author personally conducted of the nuclear meltdown in Fukushima, Japan, after the 2011 tsunami - a long, arduous, harrowing book that feels like a giant dose of raw truth serum. 

 

8. WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR IS IN THE LIBRARY, Michiko Aoyama. (2021) Spare, humble, but ultimately impressive novel from celebrated Japanese writer Aoyama, who deftly weaves together five separate characters and their unique stories by means of their visits to a tiny, inauspicious library in Tokyo and their individual encounters with a mysterious but memorable curator, who always seems to know exactly what books to recommend - to anybody. 

 

7. PARABLE OF THE TALENTS, Octavia E. Butler. (1998) My first reading of the late science fiction/fantasy legend Octavia Butler is a sequel (didn’t realize) to her acclaimed Parable of the Sower, but that did nothing to diminish my experience of this bracing, intelligent story told in journal form by the daughter of a visionary woman of color who founds a new religion called Earthseed around the idea that humans are destined to leave this planet and settle elsewhere - first published in 1998, this frightening novel features, astoundingly, a white, conservative politician who promises to “make America great again.” 

 

6. CLEMENTE, David Maraniss. (2007) As a resurgent baseball fan who also tries to read at least one biography a year, I was very excited to take on this one about a man everyone has heard of but who I knew almost nothing about - there is so much in Maraniss’ impressive book about this immensely talented ballplayer and proud man, from his extraordinary accomplishments on the diamond to his rich family life to his troubled homeland of Puerto Rico to his health issues to his heroic but intensely tragic demise in 1972. 

 

5. PROPHET SONG, Paul Lynch. (2023) A unique and nightmarish novel set in Ireland and born out of the fear and uncertainty of our young century, Prophet Song follows a wife and mother of four whose husband disappears during a protest against a Fascist-like regime that has risen up to take over the small nation; when she leaves home in search of him with those children in tow, one of whom is a baby, the nightmares only deepen and spread, leading them towards a sinister future that not long before would have seemed unimaginable. 

 

4. THE HEART, Maylis de Kerangal. (2014) A dazzling novel from an acclaimed French writer I had never heard of, this book accomplishes what to me is a staggering feat: it stitches together an account that is highly scientific and medical with a story that powerfully evokes grief, sorrow, meditation, and even spirituality in relating a tale over only a few days in which a teenage boy dies horrifically in a car crash and doctors struggle to preserve the titular organ so it can save another life, while the boy’s parents painfully navigate though all of these tragic but somehow miraculous events. 

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3. CITY OF BLOWS, Tim Blake Nelson. (2023) Nelson’s first novel, a blistering takedown of Hollywood and all the insane betrayals, manipulations, blackmailing, and shaming that goes into making movies today, this is also a rich meditation on artistic pursuits, populated by fully-realized, diverse, and believable characters - a dark, cynical, and complex book that feels like its author—who is Ivy League-educated and an accomplished stage and film actor and director—is one of a very small group who might have pulled the whole thing off. 

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2. CHILDREN OF DUNE, Frank Herbert. (1976) This third installment in Herbert’s acclaimed series that began eleven years earlier with the publication of the classic Dune for me is a spectacularly entertaining, challenging, and exciting expansion of what was already a deeply impressive feat of imagination; it follows the twin offspring of Paul Atreides, the hero of the original novel last seen wandering off into the desert to an unknown fate in Dune Messiah (1969), and their intertwining stories as they attempt to fulfill their destiny across a vast, intergalactic canvas. 

 

1. INDEPENDENT PEOPLE, Halldor Laxness. (1934-1935) It’s not common for a book I read previously over 20 years ago to come back and beat out all competition - but this powerful and beautifully written story, originally published in two volumes in the 1930s, relates the life and times of the unforgettably stubborn and resilient Icelandic farmer Bjartur of Summerhouses, and is all-world reading: transcending cultural and geographical boundaries to relate an epic human struggle for dignity, purpose, and the titular independence. You should not miss it. 

 

DOG OF THE YEAR!

NO ONE IS TALKING ABOUT THIS, Patricia Lockwood. (2021) I wish that was true, but this inexplicably acclaimed novel by Lockwood, a poet, found its way onto at least one list of “Great American Novels” last year, which convinced me to take it on - a choice I deeply wish I could have back, because while the “story,” such as it is, takes an undeniably devastating turn halfway through, the manner of its telling, mainly through descriptions of random stuff posted on social media that the unnamed young woman we’re following mindlessly scrolls through, is inane, bewildering, frequently distasteful, and profoundly depressing. Maybe that’s the point, but: WOOF.