Lit, A Memoir by Mary Karr (27)

Lit is the third of poet Mary Karr's not-so-poetic memoirs. I was immediately repulsed by the phrase "knobby head" in the foreword dedicating the memoir to her son. I took a few days' break and returned to the book. I'm glad I let it (and myself, really) mellow.

The foreword may be filled with sentimental landmines of motherly love and devotion, but the memoir is honest, funny, self-deprecating and fair to all those involved. I loved that Karr often included caveats about remembering mean things her husband said because they were uncharacteristic, or that she was selfish in her addiction or irrational when pregnant. She didn't use her story to absolve or explain herself. She just told it. And for a reader with a practically anti-addictive personality, it gave me a true picture of an alcoholic's life.


It looks a lot more like my life than I would have guessed.

Liar's Poker by Michael Lewis (23)

I used to think that growing up would be awesome. I would have money, freedom and responsibility for determining my future. Unfortunately for my childhood dreams, growing up has been a series of disillusioning realizations.

Lately, books haven't helped muster optimism. The Imperfectionists was about work making life miserable. And Liar's Poker told the story flawed and unjust system that exists in the real world. A conservative- free market-capitalist-libertarian, has a certain faith in the market to balance the sale and purchase of goods and services according to what they are worth to the people selling and receiving them. Liar's Poker reinforced the lesson that this just isn't always the case.

Liar's Poker is hilarious and easy to understand. Michael Lewis wrote down his experiences working for a Wall Street company in the '80s as a bond trader. He sort of stumbled upon the job and admits to having no idea what he was doing at the time, so the descriptions of bonds aren't too technical or confusing. Don't get scared away knowing it's about trading mortgage bonds, the book is really more of a narrative featuring the ridiculous people who traded bonds than about the actual trading.

The stories of traders and Wall Street can really upset any belief in the fairness of the market as it is. Lucky for the reader, Lewis can accurately caricature his former bosses, so Liar's Poker doesn't gets too depressing.

Well, thanks, world, for being disillusioning.