An endless fascination with the number three compels me to share multiple titles. After all, doesn't every story have a beginning, middle and end?
From the past, an all-time favorite I revisited this year: Lolita, Nabokov's infamous anthem to his beloved but mishandled nymphet. From its opening lines, the language in this book never fails to move me — despite, or perhaps because of, its disturbing prurient leanings. The cross-country ramblings of little Lo and Humbert Humbert recall the mid-century United States through a vastly dark lens. A wash of wrongness deepens the poignant loops of Nabokov's poetic prose, layered with more literary references than I generally have the energy to ferret out among the footnotes, intellectually stimulating though they might be. The un-annotated version makes for a more lyrical experience. It's a journey I recommend. But strap in carefully.
More recently, I devoured a volume published in 2010 (just discovered for the first time this summer): My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me, a compendium of 40 new fairy tales by authors such as Aimee Bender, Neil Gaiman and Joyce Carol Oates. In this modern book with a moth-eaten soul, fairy tales are re-imagined as never before — a must for grown-up fantasy lovers. Memorable standouts include the haunting title story and Gaiman's odd story "Orange," about an annoying little sister who transforms into a new breed of 21st-century deity.
Looking ahead, I've placed Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides on my nightstand. I've heard wonderful things about this sweeping epic novel, which I'm told follows a trail of guilty family secrets toward some rather unusual revelations. Eugenides penned The Virgin Suicides, another of my shamelessly nostalgic favorites. I can't wait to dig in as 2011 comes to a close.
Mitzi Gordon is a local artist and writer, museum professional and founder of the mobile literary-arts project Bluebird Books.
This article appears in Dec 15-21, 2011.