My 10 Favorite Albums of 2009

I've finally decided on my 10 favorite albums of last year. It's so difficult to really put these things in order since there are good and mediocre or bad songs on any album, so I did my best. However, I'm not going to claim that one album is necessarily better than another, except of course for the latest from Camera Obscura. Not only is My Maudlin Career my favorite album of the year by far, but also my favorite album of theirs. Some songs are poppy, some are sad, and some are both, but they all took over my brain for a better part of the year. Sometimes I would go for days only listening to this album just because it made me feel better about life while commuting in and out of Manhattan and in and out of the unavoidable humdrum days that linger in between vacations, hanging out, and fun. I just love it and have not gotten sick of it yet. So without further ado, I present you with my list of the albums I found the most listenable and most enjoyable last year. 

1.      Camera Obscura – My Maudlin Career
2.      Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
3.      The Sounds – Crossing the Rubicon
4.      Ben Kweller – Dark Horse
5.      The Arctic Monkeys – Humbug
6.      Franz Ferdinand – Tonight
7.      Julian Plenti – Julien Plenti is…Skyscraper
8.      The Decemberists – The Hazards of Love
9.      Doves – Kingdom of Rust
10.     Pains of Being Pure at Heart – Higher Than the Stars

My favorite books that I read last year

10. The Dart League King by Keith Lee Morris (2008)

9.  My Booky Wook by Russell Brand (2009)

8. All Shall Be Well; All Shall Be Well; And All Manner of Things Shall Be Well by Tod Wodicka (2008)

7. The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner (2008)

6. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (1873-1877)

5. ...And the Hippos Were Boiled in their Tanks by Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs (2008)

4. Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby (2009)

3. The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (2007)

2. 2666 by Roberto Bolano (2008)

1. The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney (2007)

And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks

And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks by Jack Kerouac

My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is an enjoyable read and slice New York City in the early '40's. Kerouac and Burroughs alternate chapters as two members of a group of friends, hanging out near Washington Square Park. As you may know, this is their interpretation of the murder that started the Beat Generation. One of their friends murdered another one and the manuscript was only sent to production, after the murderer's death. Because I was aware of this, I was waiting for the murder to happen the whole time. It doesn't until the end. I think if you know that, you won't be disappointed. It's full of fun lingo, late nights, morning beers, and philosophical conversation. View all my reviews >>

The Dart League King

The Dart League King: A Novel by Keith Lee Morris

My rating: 3 of 5 stars I believe I gave this one a C at book club. I liked it. You get to see one night from the point of view of five different characters. It's a fun and fast read, and I enjoyed analyzing the different people involved. There was a good thriller, but only in certain chapters. It sort of kept me going. There were some very interesting and likable characters and others that were just overdone. Some members of book club, disagreed though. Also, there was one main woman character, and she of course felt like her only way out of her dead end life was to latch onto some guy. Typical.

European Vacation, Stop 3: London

I can't believe it's taken me this long to update about London. It's been about a month and a half now since we've been home. I've been to London twice before, but I never enjoyed the way I did this time having Emma and Tim and tour guides. Bill and I did touristy things on Friday while they were working, including the London Eye, which we have tons of pictures from. The best parts of the trip, however, were spent walking around seeing the special things that are so close to Emma and Tim's apartment. 

Juliet, Naked

Juliet, Naked: A Novel by Nick Hornby

My rating: 4 of 5 stars I liked this book a lot. It was a fun, fast read and I would definitely recommend it. It's an intercontinental story about music, relationships, and reassessing your life as you suddenly realize that you're getting older and you just never stopped living like you did in your twenties.  

I think it's been a few weeks so let's see what I can remember. It was great that the main character was a woman. She had this great dry sense of humor and a tough exterior but underneath she was realizing that her life had passed by her since she'd spent the last fifteen years with someone whom she wasn't in love with and who wasn't in love with her. They were more like best friends who just stayed together but she wanted to get married and have a baby and she was already around forty-years-old. Duncan, her boyfriend, was more obsessed with a rock star who'd disappeared years earlier than he was interested in Annie. Through this obsession, the reader gets to learn about all that's lacking in their relationship and also about the old rock star. The rock star, Tucker, has his own chapters so you also get to see the difference in his legend and his actual life, which is pretty sad. Duncan also realizes that his life has passed him by but it feels like a failure for him because he's living in the past and hasn't done anything of significance to justify it. For Annie, whose life has also passed her by, it seems like a blessing because she's not living in the past and there's nothing there for her to hold onto. She can do whatever she wants in the future.  

The pros were that Annie was a great lead character who wants to stop wasting her life. Her sessions wth her hilariously uptight therapist were great. During their talks, he tried to talk some sense into her since even though she was taking more control over her life, she wasn't very sensible and I agree with him that what she tried to do in the end could have been very bad for her and brought her to a new, uncontrollable situation in which she would have been stuck. The character of Annie's boss who seemed to be an aging character from Quadrophenia was very funny and helped to express the fact that things change and it's hard for people to give up on their heyday and the excitement of their youth. I also really liked Tucker and the relationship he had with his six-year-old son Jackson. It helped to describe how Tucker had finally grown up in his late fifties and how all of the mistakes he'd made and people he'd hurt didn't matter so much because they were in the past. He was incapable of making up for failed fatherhood with his other kids because he wasn't a part of their lives. All he could do was take care of Jackson and secure his future. And being of that age, it's all he really had the time to do if he was going to do it right. Everyone wanted something from him, including Annie, but all he cared about was Jackson and he always put him first.  

The cons were that I felt that the thoughts and dialogue of the Americans didn't seem authentically American. Also, the female POV wasn't always totally believable. Also, the sex scene seemed very strange and unrealistic. I also didn't like the fact that Annie thought that she always needed a man to define her life. If she wasn't going to waste her time with Duncan anymore, then maybe Tucker could bring her a better life. I would've been happier if she had been a stronger person who defined herself by her job and her hobbies, rather than being willing to move to another country and just live whatever life a man whom she barely knows is living. View all my reviews >>

Happy Thanksgiving from Lucy the Cat!