Because what's more American than recklessly ranking shit? Truth be told, this list was a little too easy to put together -- I'm hoping to be overwhelmed by choices in the next six months. (Want something that has had time to age a bit? Check out my list of the best books I read last year.)
FICTION
Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, WATCHMEN -- Superheroes grapple with their powers in a world that doesn't need them any more in this landmark graphic novel, which was adapted into a movie this year. (Begun in 2008, technically, but the first book I really liked this year.)
Richard Price, LUSH LIFE -- The effects of a late-night murder ripple through the Lower East Side. Took a lot of complaining, but I'm glad I got around to it.
Arthur Phillips, THE SONG IS YOU -- A lonely advertising executive and an up-and-coming singer make an unorthodox connection in New York City (review here). Also, the book I read this year that I'm most likely to re-read first.
Glen David Gold, SUNNYSIDE -- The lives of three men unexpectedly converge during World War I, and only one of them is Charlie Chaplin (review here).
James Ellroy, LA CONFIDENTIAL -- Three L.A. cops in the 1950s get wrapped up in the investigation of what looks like a routine coffee-shop robbery but turns out to be anything but. Also suitable for airports.
Cormac McCarthy, BLOOD MERIDIAN -- "For even if you should have stood your ground, yet what ground was it?" This book is so fresh in my mind I can't bear to boil it down to a sentence, but if you've read it I have some thoughts here.
NONFICTION
Nick Hornby, SHAKESPEARE WROTE FOR MONEY -- The third and final collection of Hornby's reading columns for The Believer only underlined how much they will be missed by book lovers everywhere. Clearly if you're here they are up your alley, so start with THE POLYSYLLABIC SPREE.
Leslie T. Chang, FACTORY GIRLS -- The best reported book of the year as a former Wall Street Journal correspondent spent years with young Chinese women who leave home for economic opportunities unheard of in the previous generation.
Peter Carlson, K BLOWS TOP -- Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev's visit to the U.S. in the 1950s has to go down as one of the most surreal episodes in the Cold War (review here).
Joseph Berger, THE WORLD IN A CITY -- An immigrant looks at the new melting pot from the vantage point of New York neighborhoods succeeding and struggling with cultural change.
So what are your favorite books of the year so far?
4 days ago
4 comments:
Those are some good ones! My list would be Gilead, Lush Life, American Pastoral, White Teeth, Chronicles Vol. 1, Novel About My Wife, Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx is Burning, and the three Nick Hornby books.
Of them, Gilead is probably the 'greatest novel,' Lush Life is the one I tell the most other people about, Novel About My Wife is the semi-obscure book that should be more well-known, and Ladies and Gentlemen the Bronx is Burning probably spoke to me personally the most.
I don't know why the title "Lush Life" bothered me so much. I just couldn't reconcile the theme of the story with that title. I thought "Lost Life" would have been more appropriate, it is probably just me and a silly hang up.
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