Henry IV, Part II
by William Shakespeare
A parody of sorts of Henry IV, Part I, Henry IV is barely in it at all, he is sick and dying. Beshrew Hal's heart for rejecting Falstaff. I doubt he has one, that devil.

Islam Today by Akbar S. Ahmed
A clearly written introductory text on Islam, with a focus on the Turks, Central Asians, South Asians, and Persians. Worth reading, but stay critical.

The Kingdom and the King
by Nicoletta Theresa Kaviani
A play set in 14th century Spain with a strong, engaging plot.

Manon Lescaut
Abbé Prévost
translated by Leonard Tancock
Manon is a horrid, awful woman, and yet so compelling! This novel gave me a much stronger appreciation for how full of holes the plots of operas are, as it is beautifully proportioned, especially in comparison to the libretti of the Puccini and Massenet operas.

Much Ado About Nothing
by William Shakespeare
An amusing comedy without a completely ridiculous plot. The verbal fencing between Beatrice and Benedick is particularly funny and clever.

Fast Food Nation
by Eric Schlosser
This book made me never want to eat again, but thankfully only for about 10 hours. It wasn't quite a book for me, since I long ago decided that I hated the aesthetics of fast food advertising, and thus already eschew such restaurants. Nonetheless, it is interesting to see precisely how evil fast food is. This book appears to be well-researched, though not terribly well-written.

Ethan Frome
by Edith Wharton
This may be the most depressing novel in the English language. An odd little story, it isn't much like the rest of her work, and was based on an accident that occurred in Lenox, Massachusetts.

Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair
by Pablo Neruda
There are points at which Neruda approaches sublime, but he's mostly just young and sensual. I like the Song of Despair best, but I'm just like that.

The NPR Curious Listener's Guide to Opera
by William Berger
This book is very silly. It made me laugh, though sometimes Berger sounds like a used car salesman or something. Good if you are as daft as I am when it comes to opera.

Magnificent Corpses
by Anneli Rufus
A very unromantic account of a non-Christian American traveling across Europe to look at Catholic relics. Rufus makes some gratuitously deflationary comparisons including likening St. Stephan's fist to broiled chicken, the depiction of a saint's downcast eyes to Stevie Nicks', and haloes to Ritz crackers. If nothing else, it seemed honest, though some of the writing left something to be desired.

The Greek Myths
by Robert Graves
A marvelous retelling of the Greek myths. Graves coherently recounts myths in their different permutations, and also gives commentary on the origins and history of these stories, tying them back to the pre-Hellenic ages.

Black Looks: Race and Representation
by bell hooks
Twelve compelling essays on black representation in the American mainstream media. I appreciate her comments about how black experience is not a monolith, and I especially liked the essays "Eating the Other" and "Representations of Whiteness." At times I found her essay on black American Indians somewhat trite, particularly remarks about how the African and Native American peoples were "closer to the Earth" or something to that effect.

A Massive Swelling: Celebrity Reexamined as a Grotesque, Crippling Disease
by Cintra Wilson
I probably didn't need to read this, since I find the cult of celebrity garish and unappealing. I don't know that Wilson would convince fame-hungry people of the futility of their desire. She sure is funny though, especially her treatment of Celine Dion.

The Sorrows of Young Werther and Selected Writings
by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
translated by Catherine Hutter
This edition includes excerpts from Goethe's memoirs about Werther, and two fairytales, namely The New Melusina and The Fairytale. Werther was more melodramatic than I remembered (I first read the story when I was 19), and I can see why Goethe tired of it being his best-known work.

The Diary of A Young Girl
by Anne Frank
translated by Susan Massotty
The definitive edition edited by Otto H. Frank and Mirjam Pressler, which includes previously unpublished material. This edition is an amalgam of the two versions of her diary, the original diary and the partial revision that she made at the age of fifteen, as was the version of the diary that Otto H. Frank originally had published.

The Power of Babel
by John McWhorter
My roommate has something of a McWhorter obsession, and keeps buying his books. This one captures his charming neuroticism rather well, and was more entertaining than Word on The Street.

Peer Gynt
by Henrik Ibsen
Ibsen's anti-hero is never dull.

The Medea
by Euripides
translated by Rex Warner
Classic revenge drama.

The Queen's Throat: Opera, Homosexuality, and the Mystery of Desire
by Wayne Koestenbaum
A humorous exploration of the connection between male queerness and opera. I appreciated Koestenbaum's unpretentiousness.

Infinite Jest
by David Foster Wallace
Alas, poor Yorick, I don't think I understood this.

Henry V
by William Shakespeare
King Harry is such a different creature than Prince Hal in the previous two plays, or at the very least, the worse parts of him show themselves more clearly here. O for a muse of fire.

Troilus and Cressida
by William Shakespeare
Some have too much pride, and some have too little. The same with honor. All the argument is a cuckold and a whore? Fools all, indeed.

The Manipulated Man
by Esther Vilar
Vilar is a rather amusing misanthrope. Her analysis of the relationships between males and females in the U.S. is not entirely incorrect, though she certainly writes as if things were very clear cut, black and white.

The Rules: Time-tested Secrets for Capturing the Heart of Mr. Right
by Ellen Fein and Sherrie Schneider
This book nearly burst my spleen, I laughed so much. Apparently I've been going about it all wrong, and have no hope of ever attracting the prescribed male counterpart. Heterosexual women have desires that are utterly foreign to me, I'm afraid. I suspect these rules are some sort of cult, though they do give some good practical advice, albeit with an excess of exclamation points.

Opera in History: From Monteverdi to Cage
by Herbert Lindenberger
Enjoyable writings dealing with Monteverdi, Haendel, Rossini, and others. I especially liked the chapter on Orientalism and opera. My opinion of John Cage has not improved by reading about Europeras 1 & 2.

After the Quake
by Haruki Murakami
Six short stories about the Kobe earthquake aftermath in some fashion or other.

The Merchant of Venice
by William Shakespeare
This masterpiece of love and hate plots intertwined is incredible. Poor Shylock! I have a weakness for implacable rage.

Romeo and Juliet
by William Shakespeare
So much familiar and beautiful poetry.

The Winter's Tale
by William Shakespeare
Very disjointed are the two parts of this play, it is more like two plays, one tragedy followed by a comedy. I was not charmed by Hermione or Perdita, they both seemed too nice, and somewhat boring. However, the shrewish Paulina had a sort of strength the former two lacked.

Roman Fever
by Edith Wharton
Eight short stories on society, morality, and concealment by this American author: Roman Fever, Xingu, The Other Two, Souls Belated, The Angel at the Grave, The Last Asset, After Holbein, and Autres Tempes.

Julius Caesar
by William Shakespeare
A most unhumorous play, but how beautiful. So taken, I read it twice through.

Hamlet
by William Shakespeare
I could read this play over and over for days on end.

Cleopatra: The Life and Death of a Pharaoh
by Edith Flamarion
translated by Alexandra Bonfante-Warren
A brief introduction to Cleopatra VII. There are many illustrations included, some of them are rather gratuitously decorative and interrupt the flow of the text.

Skeletons from the Opera Closet
by David L. Groover and C.C. Conner
An extremely fast-paced romp about opera. One feels that the authors are on stimulants or else just full of frenetic energy. The ordering of various chapters seemed random and incoherent, but overall, very amusing and never a dull moment.

El Favor de los Santos: The Retablo Collection of New Mexico State University
The catalogue for the exhibit of the same name, includes several essays on Mexican retablos, covering iconography, history, and conservation. The reproductions are adequate, most are in color.