Chris' TBR Pile for June

Beverage: Guinness (2)
Music: Anathema - "We're Here Because We're Here"

As May 2010 winds its way down the puddle-strewn path we call the Past it's time to set aside pesky things like the six or seven books left forlornly in a small pile next to the bed, read but un-reviewed, and instead turn a fresh eye to the future: namely, the books sitting in a different (though no less forlorn) pile, quivering as only unread books can do in the perhaps vain hope they will be read, and - hope against hope! - reviewed.

JOE KUBERT - FAX FROM SARAJEVO

Joe Kubert is one of the colossal names in American comic book art, alongside such luminaries as Jack Kirby and Wil Eisner.  And at 83 years old he's producing some of the best work of his life.  Having cut his bones on a number of titles for DC Comics, most notably Sgt. Rock and Hawkman, Fax From Sarajevo is something completely different - a true story about the two years Ervin Rustemagić, a comics distributor and friend of Kubert, was trapped in a ruined building during the Seige of Sarajevo in the early 1990s.  The title comes from Rustemagić's only means of communication with the outside world - a series of faxes.  The book illustrates Rustemagić and his family's struggles alongside reproductions of the actual faxes.

STIEG LARSSON - THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO

Everyone and their mother is talking about this book right now, the first in a trilogy of mysteries written in a surge by Larsson, who tragically died before seeing them in print.  I've heard nothing but good things about the series, especially the characterization of the main protagonist, a computer hacker punk named Lisbeth Salander.  Normally when a book has this much hype I tend to stay away, but the price for the eBook was just right for a try, so we'll see what happens.

DAVID GRANN - THE LOST CITY OF Z

I have to admit - the beautiful cover and intriguing title had me before I even knew what the book was about. Turns out (sadly) it has nothing to do with zombies, but rather is a nonfiction novel in the style of John Krakauer's best work (Into Thin Air and Into the Wild being my favorites), about Col. Percy Harrison Fawcett, a British surveyor and adventurer in the same vein as an Indiana Jones or Allan Quatermain, who in the early 1900s was convinced of the existence of an ancient lost city in the Amazon.  The books details Fawcett's life and search for the fabled city (he went missing in 1925, never to be seen again) as Grann, a reporter for The New Yorker, attempts in 2005 to re-trace Fawcett's path, only to become just as obsessed by the allure of the vanished city.

TOM RACHMAN - THE IMPERFECTIONISTS

One more before we call it a night.  I recently experimented with newspaper subscriptions on my eReader, reading approximately 1.5 issues of my beloved NYT Sunday Book Review before realizing that as much as I love my nook, it can never replace the tangible joy to be had by flipping through an over-sized newspaper on a Sunday morning, your cup of coffee leaving faint rings on the sections already read.  However, in the 1.5 issues I did read, this debut novel by Tom Rachman, an experienced international journalist turned fiction author, stood out.  The Imperfectionists is the story of a bizarre group of people working for a - surprise - struggling international English language newspaper.  Give me a quirky cast of characters, humor derived from the everyday insanities of the workplace, and a wry look at the human condition through the lens of the absurd, and I'll roll over and let you scratch my belly.  Here's hoping Rachman's book delivers.

Right now a pretty small pile, one that I'm sure will change and grow as the first real month of Summer here burns away every ounce of ambition to get things done I have.  Which should mean plenty of good reading right around the corner.

So...what are YOU planning on reading this month?