Staff Picks: New Years Resolution Reads

The Barnstorm staff on their New Years resolution reads. Barnstorm New Years resolution for 2013: get New Years resolutions together before mid-February. Caro Clark, EventsThe Stones of Summer, Dow MossmanBy the time The Stones of Summer hit bookshelves in 1972, Dow Mossman had landed himself in a psych ward and the publisher went bankrupt. Fast-forward thirty years, and Mark Moskowitz resurrected enough interest in the book through his documentary, Stone Reader, to warrant a reissue. The 600-page novel is hailed as a sort of psychotic, poetic masterpiece. It's my new years resolution to read it, and if I don't experience a literary epiphany or spend at least a few days strapped to a hospital bed, let's just say my disappointment will be more than mild.Kathleen Cobb, Poetry Editorpoems by Jean ValentineMy semester reading list is full of poets and books I've been itching to read for too long.  At the top of the list is Jean Valentine. Her spare, urgent poems open into vast space.  Read one.Ambre F. Earp, Nonfiction EditorIn Zanesville, Jo Ann Beard; Play It As It Lays, Joan DidionThis semester I am taking my first-ever fiction workshop.  Beginning in January, I started studying up on short stories, and I am looking for more. Suggestions, anyone?  I also decided to read fiction written by people I usually think of as nonfiction writers, like In Zanesville by Jo Ann Beard, Play It As It Lays, by Joan Didion, and maybe something by Anne Lamott as well. Remember, resolutions are made to be broken so just in case we see each other in December, I'll make you a deal: I won't ask you if you don't ask me.Jennifer Latson, Nonfiction EditorBlue Nights, Joan DidionI gave Nonfiction Co-Editor Ambre Earp a copy of Blue Nights for Christmas, and I also bought a copy for myself, because Didion is my all-time favorite author. Ambre read it first, though, and told me she had to put it down because the more she read, the more she became convinced that life was not worth living. So I'm steeling myself to read it by mustering all my psychological strength. Because if Didion doesn't think life is worth living, it will be hard to disagree. She's very persuasive.Dustin Martin, Editor in ChiefMy book-related resolution this year is to stop reading. Or, rather, to stop starting to read any new books. I confess I'm a bit of a first-chapter junkie, among other things. This year I'd like to revisit and finish some titles I've previously lacked the time, gumption or self-loathing to see through the end. Some of the books I'm embarrassed to admit rank among the forlorn include The World According to Garp, Salinger's Nine Stories, Carver's Where I'm Calling From, collections of stories by Kafka and Borges, Joyce's Dubliners, anything by Nietzsche, the Bible, Plato's Republic, and, like, the last 50 pages of The Shining. What is wrong with me? Seriously?Kayleigh Merritt, Public RelationsThe Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. TolkienOkay, look: in sixth grade, I started The Fellowship of the Ring and slogged through the first 100 pages. Then, right when I got to the good stuff, my teacher decided I was taking too long and made me stop reading it. I was emotionally scarred, Tolkien and I had a fight, and I never quite picked up the pieces. But I think now, fourteen years later, the time has come to have another go.Marc Paltrineri, Poetry EditorWhat is Amazing, Heather Christle; The Collected Poems of Kenneth PatchenBecause last year I promised to read Infinite Jest and most definitely didn't, for this new year I made no attempts at any big book resolutions. I got an email today notifying me that Heather Christle's new book, What is Amazing, has shipped and is heading towards me. I will most certainly read that. And also today I checked out an old hard-bound copy of The Collected Poems of Kenneth Patchen, which I will most certainly read some of, if not a lot of, but most likely not all of and, well, that seems good enough to me.Erin Somers, Blog EditorMason & Dixon, Thomas PynchonPynchon is a punisher, but I try to read one of the really brutal ones per year. I read Against the Day last year and I wouldn't be able to tell you very much about it: there's a World's Fair and some sort of flying machine? an appearance by Nikola Tesla and a ragtag group of adventurers called the Chums of Chance? Okay I'm going to start Mason & Dixon today and not leave the house until I finish. It's 773 pages long. See you guys in one million days.Michael Thompson, Fiction EditorWild Child, T.C. BoyleI don't remember ordering this book but it arrived today and I am going to read it.  I am going to read it because I have never read an entire T.C. Boyle book and I don't know why. I think I like him. I remember a story about a cloned dog in Best American a few years ago. That was a good story. I hope I like this collection of stories at least as much as I liked that story.