This year has been a tough one for many reasons. It is hard to believe that there could be a “best of” list for anything related to 2016 and I really wasn’t going to bother making a book list. But Grant from 1st Reading twisted my arm a bit and I was reminded that if there is one thing that kept me moving forward in 2016 it was the plethora of fantastic books I came across this year.
The French philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy, in his most recent book entitled Coming, explores the French word jouissance (pleasure) and the similarities between sexual pleasure and artistic pleasure. Sexual jouissance and orgasm are irresistible desires for humans which we can never fully satisfy and thus we are constantly coming back and reaching for The Other. Nancy argues that even when an artist produces a jouissance in his or her viewers, there is always a constantly renewed dissatisfaction that keeps the artist working again and again. I would extend Nancy’s argument about renewed desire and satisfaction to include Bibliophiles such as myself who wallow in the aftermath of a great piece of literature. We, as avid readers, are always attempting to renew that high, that euphoria, that bliss which slowly creeps up on us when we close the last page of a great book. Some of us, after a good read, might even have the same expression on our faces as Caravaggio’s Ecstasy of Mary Magdalene which is depicted on the cover of Nancy’s book. So the list of books below were the ones that brought me jouissance this year; or if I may be so bold as to say they were the standout books that caused me to experience a literary orgasm.
Two Lines 25 is published by Two Lines Press and this 192-page volume contains fascinating literature translated from Bulgarian, Chinese, French, German, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Russian and Spanish. What excited me most about this collection is that it introduced me to the philosophy and writings of Jean-Luc Nancy.
The writing of Jean-Luc Nancy is one of my favorite literary and philosophical discoveries this year. I have read three of his books: Corpus, Listening and Coming. His philosophy explores what it means to be human and he deals with subjects of touching, listening, desiring and loving. My review of Coming will be out next month and I have so many thoughts about this slim volume that is only 168 pages.
Oblivion by Sergei Lebedev is a haunting reflection on what life was like for the author during the years of the Soviet Union. Lebedev’s prose is dense and poetic and so thoughtful that I found myself rereading entire sections of the book multiple times. I am very excited that Lebedev has another novel forthcoming from New Vessel Press entitled The Year of the Comet.
War Music by Christopher Logue is a book that I dismissed as soon as I saw it in the FS&G catalog because I don’t usually read any time of modern retellings of Ancient myths. But Anthony at Times Flow Stemmed had such great things to say about it that I decided to give it a try and I am so glad that I did. I have so many things to say just about the first 50 pages of this book that I am not sure how I am going to handle a review. I am thinking of doing several short pieces on each section of Logue’s poem. As far as retellings are concerned, I also discovered Christa Wolf based on his suggestion and I thoroughly enjoyed her Medea and Cassandra.
Seagull Books Catalog. It’s unusual to find a catalog on a best of list, but the one that Seagull publishes each year is very special. It includes writing from authors, translators and even bloggers from all over the world. This year I was invited to contribute to the catalog and some of my favorite literary bloggers also have pieces in the catalog. Selections from Roughghosts, Times Flow Stemmed, Tony’s Reading List and of shoes ‘n ships can all be found in this fabulous collection of art and literature.
The Brother by Rein Raud is a fast-paced, hard-hitting, short book that uses the plot structure of a western as an allegory for demonstrating the balance of good and evil in the world. It my favorite title from Open Letters this year whose books are fantastic.
The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes is a skillfully written and poetic novel which serves as a fictional biography of the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich. The ways in which he must navigate his life and his art around the Soviet regime are heartbreaking.
The Parable Book by Per Olov Enquist is a true literary book that reads like philosophy, meditation, autobiography and parable. Sometimes we are given a very specific story from the author’s life, other times we are given an unclear stream-of-consciousness narrative, and still at other times we encounter a list of questions that the author poses on an entire page of the book. Enquist gives us the totality of a life that includes pivotal childhood memories, a bout of alcoholism that nearly destroys him, and the reflection of his elderly days during which he is waiting by the river to be taken to the other side. For anyone who enjoys serious literary fiction this book is a must-read. So far the English translation has only been published in the U.K. I am hoping it will also be available here in the U.S. This is a book that I look forward to reading multiple times.
A Lady and Her Husband by Amber Reeves from Persephone Books is a charming and entertaining look into the life of a middle-aged British couple that has been married for twenty-seven years. This book was written in 1914 so it brings up many political and social issues that were relevant at the turn of the last century and which continue to be discussed into the 21st Century. Debates that have taken place during the recent elections in the U.S. have reminded us that women are still paid less than their male counterparts, the minimum wage for workers continues to be too low, and millions of Americans still do not have access to proper healthcare.
Berlin-Hamlet: Poems by Szilárd Borbély is my favorite collection of poetry this year published by NYRB Poetry. The layers of imagery, references and allusions to great figures like Kafka, Walter Benjamin, Attila József and Erno Szép are stunning. I find it so sad and tragic that the author succumbed to his deep sense of sadness and took his own life.
American Philosophy: A Love Story by John Kaag is another work of non-fiction that was one of my favorites this year. Kaag’s journey from Hell to Redemption in his own personal life via the 10,000 books in Ernest Hocking’s personal library gave me an entirely new appreciation for American philosophers. Kaag also reminds us of the amazing resiliency of the human spirit and that no matter what we might suffer we must keep moving forward.
Trysting is one of those rare books that defy description it in any sort of a review. At its core, Pagano’s book presents us with a series of writings in various lengths that deal with the human experience of love. Her musings in this book range from short, one line epigrams to longer two page narratives that read like flash fiction. Pagano attempts to capture all of the stages that being in love and having a lover encompass—meeting someone special for the first time, spending time together, learning the habits of another person, breaking up, getting over a lover. She intersperses within these events things that lovers leave behind like feathers, rubber bands, a bicycle. Some of the vignettes are shocking, some are tender and sweet. But at their core, they all try to delineate the mysterious and illusive sensation of love. Senses—touch, site, smell, sound, taste are all described within the context of love.
Emmanuelle Pagano has published over a dozen works of fiction, which have been translated into German, Hungarian, Italian and Spanish. She has won the EU Prize for Literature among other prizes and lives in the Ardèche region with her family.
New Vessel Press: A subscription of New Vessel books includes all six of their books for the publication year. Subscribers also get to choose one book from their backlist. The cost is $80 which amounts to about 25% off of the cover prices. I haven’t read a book from New Vessel yet that I haven’t enjoyed. This year’s titles include If Venice Dies and A Very Russian Christmas so this subscription is definitely worth it. 
includes twelve of their titles is $170. A full-year of ebooks is $70 and a half year subscription for six books is also $70. They provide a lot of choices depending on one’s budget. Subscribers who are really passionate about their books and want to spend some money up front can also purchase two or three year subscriptions. 
The New York Review of Books: This press also specializes in reissuing lost classics from different countries around the world. They call their product a “book club” but it is essentially a subscription service. For $140 members receive a book every month for 12 months and the membership automatically renews. For a limited time NYRB is also offering a four issue subscription to The Paris Review when readers purchase a membership. I can’t get enough of the books from NYRB classics and I might have to buy a storage unit to house all of my books from their catalog. I will pretty much read anything they publish and $140 is a pretty good bargain for a year’s worth of their books. 
Pushkin online bookshop, and a free copy of Stefan Zweig’s novella Confusion. The Pushkin Collection is a series of paperbacks typeset in Monotype Baskerville, based on the transitional English serif typeface designed in the mid-eighteenth century by John Baskerville. It was litho-printed on Munken Premium White Paper and notch-bound by the independently owned printer TJ International in Padstow, Cornwall. The cover, with French flaps, was printed on Colorplan Pristine White paper. 
A few times a year I find a book that I rant and rave about and recommend to everyone I know. I become rather obnoxious with my comments that gush with praise. I am giving you fair warning that Two Lines 25 is one of those books. Literature translated from Bulgarian, Chinese, French, German, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Russian and Spanish are all contained within the pages of this 192-page volume. I am in awe of the fact that the editors crammed so many fantastic pieces into one slim paperback (there I go gushing again.) This is the type of book that everyone needs to experience for him or herself; but I will attempt to give an overview of some of my favorite pieces.
CJ Evans is the author of A Penance (New Issues Press, 2012), which was a finalist for the Northern California Book Award and The Category of Outcast, selected by Terrance Hayes for the Poetry Society of America’s New American Poets chapbook series. He edited, with Brenda Shaughnessy, 
The Book Binder's Daughter 