In case you haven’t heard, books make great gifts. And it seems to be that gift-giving time of year again. So, maybe you’re looking for suggestions? What books to buy for the giftees on your list?
In no particular order, the best books I read this year (not necessarily published this year, of course):
Sabbath’s Theater by Philip Roth. This one became my new favorite book, knocking Midnight’s Children out of the top spot for the first time in…damn…has it been fourteen years already? Crap. I’m old. Anyway…moving on…
Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson. A perfect novel. Briefly blogged here.
Netherland by Joseph O’Neill. Absolutely fantastic book. Worthy of all the fuss, even if the fuss is sometimes (I think) for the wrong reasons. (Hint: You may enjoy it more if you aren’t wanting it to be a response to 9/11.)
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz. Also worthy of all the fuss. And the Pulitzer.
Glass House by Margaret Morton. Beautiful photos of and oral history about the (long-defunct. Way to go, Giuliani) Glass House squat. Of special interest to me, because my latest novel is set in the Lower East Side squats in the early nineties.
Libra by Don DeLillo. Briefly blogged here. The book that won me over to the DeLillo camp.
Kill All Your Darlings by Luc Sante. The best collection of essays and articles I’ve ever read. I’m not a huge reader of non-fiction, so it says something that this is on my list of favorites.
How about you? Any book recommendations for us, either for ourselves or as gifts? What books did you love this year?
I’ve had some renewals of vows with literature this year. I went to some old classics that have kept me warm through the years and a few oldies that I’ve not read, despite my English education. I’ve picked up ‘The Bell Jar’, Sylvia Plath. Lovely, but also has a psych twist on it so applies to my grad school also. Lulu Meets God and Denies him, can’t remember the author off the top of my head, but a good decent read. Turning in Circles Before Lying Down, Abigail ____ forget her last name… Little Earthquakes, Jennifer Weiner – purely beach reading, but loved it none the less. Running with Scissors – Augusten Burroughs: Another psych book/lit book. Enthralling but disturbing as well. Everything else this year has been historical knitting related I’m afraid. (grad thesis…) I have kept your list and will give them a whirl…
Hmmm….this year I loved A Fraction of the Whole, Dear American Airlines, The Size of the World, and The Delicacy and Strength of Lace. I also was engrossed with all five journals of L.M. Montgomery (author of Anne of Green Gables), which turned out to be much more harrowing and emotionally turbulent than I expected.
This year I wandered over to the Boyfriend’s shelf and rediscovered science fiction (something I read in my teens). I wouldn’t call this my best of list, but I enjoyed William Gibson’s “Pattern Recognition”, Neil Stephenson’s “Snowcrash”, and Ian M Banks’ “The Player of Games”. I found Emma Bull’s “War for the Oaks” and liked it. I didn’t read as much new Romance this year, going for the old comforts of Georgette Heyer’s “These Old Shades” and Loretta Chase’s “Lord of Scoundrels” but I did enjoy “The Portrait” by Megan Chance. I like the one YA book I read this year, “The Raging Quiet” by Sherryl Jordan.
I read so much this year but for some reason I can’t remember a lot of them right now. Those stand out right now anyway.
I’ve been catching up on my fiction this year. Books I loved (that weren’t published this year) included East of Eden and The Book Thief. I just finished Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and enjoyed that much more than I thought I would.
Everyone’s definitely getting books for the holidays this year, although that may be partially because I just started working in an independent bookstore…
Thanks for the recommendations!
I read “Waiting” by Ha Jin for the first time and credit it for helping me know when to leave a bad relationship. So be careful who you give it to, I guess, but I loved it as literature, too.
Dirt Music by Tim Winton, and also a compilation of his short stories (the name escapes me, it was a library book). His style in some of the short stories reminded me of one of the fragments that you posted here a while back. A lot of small town characters with pasts they’d rather forget. The shorts gradually intertwined to make something bigger – connecting peoples stories together. Good stuff.
Mengele Zoo by Gert Nygårdshaug (I think it is available in English). A friend borrowed it to me saying I had to read it and it is one of the most intense reading experiences I’ve had in years.
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield is also one I’d highly recommend and I think it would make perfect Christmas reading.
Love hearing about other’s favourites!
Thanks for the list! This year, my favorites were Nefertiti by Michelle Moran, The Painter from Shanghai by Jennifer Cody Epstein, Falling Under by Danielle Younge-Ullman. And that’s just a few. LOL
Housekeeping was wonderful. I also loved Amy Koppleman’s I SMILE BACK (dark and wonderful)