Queen of Booklandia

Better late than never, here are the best books I read last year:

The Ten Best Books (in the order I read them):

1. East of Eden, John Steinbeck – This book was a revelation, pure and simple. It just blew me away. The scope, the sweep, Cal, Sam Hamilton, Lee, evil Kathy, naïve Aron. This was the kind of book that I fell in love with – I swallowed it up and fell in love with it in a way that I read and loved books when I was young. Needless to say, East of Eden also takes the prize of was also the best book club book of the year, as well.

2. Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone?, Mark Zwonitzer with Charles Hirshberg - I picked this up to satisfy my curiosity about Johnny Cash, and ended up learning about the fascinating story of the Carter family and their influence on American music. Well written and informative, detailed but not dry, this was a great book.

3.The Patron Saint of Liars, Anne Patchett – This is the kind of book I wish I could write. A real, human story about real people with real human emotions. This book turned me on to Patchett, and even now I find myself wondering where Rose went after she left St. Elizabeth's, and how Sissy carried on without her mother.

4. The Curate’s Wife, E.H. Young – It was hard for me to chose between this and the other books I read by E.H. Young (Jenny Wren and William), but in the end this was the one that stayed with me the longest. Unlike some of the other Virago Classics, which have only historical interest, her work strikes me as a true lost classic. Her people are real, and their struggles real too. She writes of the difficult of marriage in way that speaks to modern readers, despite the changes in society since the time she wrote.

5. Was, Geoffrey Ryman - This book caught me off guard. I bought it on a total whim and fell in love with it - so much that I keep pressing it on everyone that I can - Ryman ought to give me a cut of the action! It was just moving and clever and sad, and uses the concept of Oz to talk about home and love and life. You should read it.

6. Fifth Business, Robertson Davies - This was a tough call, but I had to chose my first Davies as the my favorite. I loved The Manticore and World of Wonder, but Fifth Business was the one that drew me in and captured my heart. And even if I think that Robertson Davies the person is someone who I might not love, I adore him as a writer. The way he captures a life and lays it out is just so exhilarating, and of the ones I read this year, Dunston Ramsey is the one that caught my heart. Historian, World War One veteran, Fifth Business in Boy Staunton’s life, it all makes for a hell of a story. Also wins the Commuting Book of the year!

7. Becoming Justice Blackmun, Linda Greenhouse – I think I learned more about Blackmun here than I did in all of law school. It was so interesting to see how his opinions changed over time, and how he became the champion of Roe.

8. All The King’s Men, Robert Penn Warren – Another classic that snuck up on me and ended up being awesome. I picked it up begrudgingly, and loved it so, so much. Jack Burden is my newest literary boyfriend, struggling with right versus and wrong and who he wants to be, and how to be a man. This just might be the great American novel.

9. The Memory Keeper’s Daughter, Kim Edwards – Another book I wish I could write – just a lovely heartfelt real story of ordinary people who have to deal with one man’s extraordinary choice. Not a great classic of literature (in fact, a NYT bestseller!), but the kind of book I like best.

10.The Known World, Edward P. Jones - Jones’ prose just knocked my socks off, and he really made clear how the terrible institution of slavery poisoned every single person who came into contact with it, in a way I hadn’t before. An excellent, excellent read

And here is the list of ALL the books I read this year!

1.Revenge, Stephen Fry
2.A Crack in the Edge of the World, Simon Winchester
3.Roller Skates, Ruth Sawyer
4.Chasing Vermeer, Blue Balliett
5.The Secret Life of the Lonely Doll: The Search for Dare Wright, Jean Nathan
6.A Hat Full of Sky, Terry Pratchett
7.Return to Gone-Away, Elizabeth Enright
8.The Areas of My Expertise, John Hodgeman
9.Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain
10. The Unexpurgated Beaton, Cecil Beaton
11. Runaway, Alice Munro
12. The Odd Women, George Gissing
13. The Maltese Falcon, Dashiell Hammett
14.The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery, V.1, L.M. Montgomery
15. Noisy Outlaws... ed. Ted Thompson
16. Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone? The Carter Family & Their Legacy in American Music, Mark Zwonitzer with Charles Hirshberg
17. The Constant Gardener, John Le Carre
18. The Unofficial Rose, Iris Murdoch
19. Thud, Terry Pratchett
20. Small Gods, Terry Pratchett
21. Wyrd Sisters, Terry Pratchett
22. Men at Arms, Terry Pratchett
23. The Curse of the Blue Figurine, John Bellairs
24. The Spell of the Sorceror’s Skull, John Bellairs
25. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, David Sedaris
26. The Lamp from the Warlock’s Tomb, John Bellairs
27. Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? Agatha Christie
28. Theater Shoes, Noel Streatfield
29. Love Medicine, Louise Erdrich
30. The Four-Story Mistake, Elizabeth Enright
31. Betsy-Tacy and Tib, Maud Lovelace
32. The Golden Ball and Other Stories, Agatha Christie
33. My Son’s Story, Nadine Gordimer
34. Jenny Wren, E.H. Young
35. The Vinter’s Luck, Elizabeth Knox
36. Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, L Frank Baum
37. East of Eden, John Steinbeck
38. The Canning Season, Polly Hovath
39. A Dirty Job, Christopher Moore
40. Winner of the National Book Award, Jincy Willett
41. The Curate’s Wife, E.H. Young
42. The Patron Saint of Liars, Ann Patchett
43. Triangle: The Fire That Changed America, David Von Drehle
44. Coraline, Neil Gaiman
45. The Color of Magic, Terry Pratchett
46. The Little Company, Eleanor Dark
47. The Way of All Flesh, Samuel Butler
48. Was, Geoff Ryman
49. The Winter Queen, Boris Akunin
50. The Accidental, Ali Smith
51. The Happy Foreigner, Enid Bagnold
52. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, Patrick Suskind
53. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
54.Gilda Joyce: Psychic Investigator, Jennifer Allen
55. 13 Steps Down, Ruth Rendell
56. Fifth Business, Robinson Davies
57. March, Geraldine Brooks
58. Witches Abroad, Terry Pratchett
59. Princesses: The Six Daughters of George III, Flora Fraser
60. An Episode of Sparrows, Rumer Godden
61. The Golden Arrow, Mary Webb
62. In the Company of Cheerful Ladies, Alexander McCall Smith
63. Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro
64. The Magician's Assistant, Ann Patchett
65. The Jane Austen Book Club, Karen Joy Fowler
66. The Mating Season, P. G. Wodehouse
67. Blue Shoes and Happiness, Alexander McCall Smith
68. The Drowning Tree, Carol Goodman
69. February House, Sherill Tippen
70. The Phoenix and the Carpet, E. Nesbit
71. The Magnificent Ambersons, Booth Tarkington
72. The Gentlewomen, Laura Talbot
73. Becoming Justice Blackmun, Linda Greenhouse
74. Stamboul Train, Graham Greene
75. No Signpost in the Sea, Vita Sackville-West
76. The Story of The Treasure Seekers, E. Nesbit
77. Unless, Carol Sheilds
78. The Manticore, Robertson Davies
79. Emily of Deep Valley, Maud Hart Lovelace
80. Ella of All-of-a-Kind Family, Sidney Taylor
81. Borrowed Finery, Paula Fox
82. Jingo, Terry Pratchett
83. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, Betty MacDonald
84. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera
85. A Girl Called Al, Constance C. Greene
86. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers
87. World of Wonders, Robertson Davies
88.Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women who Created Her, Melanie Rehak
89. Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, Mario Vargas Llosa
90. Liberators: Latin America's Struggle for Independence, Robert Harvey
91.The Moviegoer, Walker Percy
92. All The King's Men, Robert Penn Warren
93. The Road to Wellville, T. Coraghessan Boyle
94. Veronica, Mary Gaitskill
95. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
96. The Memory Keeper’s Daughter, Kim Edwards
97. The Known World, Edward P. Jones
98. I Hated, Hated, Hated This Movie, Roger Ebert
99. The Blue Castle, L.M. Montgomery
100. Trooper to the Southern Cross, Angela Thirkell
101. The Tender Bar, J.R. Moehringer
102. Emotionally Weird, Kate Atkinson
103. The Glass Castle, Jeanette Walls
104.What’s Bred in the Bone, Robertson Davies
105. Mary Lavelle, Kate O’Brien
106. The Beatrice Letters,Lemony Snicket
107.The End, Lemony Snicket
108. On Beauty, Zadie Smith
109. The Enchanted April, Elizabeth von Arnim
110. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
111. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
112.The Hound of the Baskervilles, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
113. The Enthusiasms of Robertston Davies, Robertson Davies
114.The Years, Virginia Woolf
115. Myra Breckinridge, Gore Vidal
116. The Prestige, Christopher Priest
117. A Gathering of Ghost Stories, Robertson Davies
118. See You Around, Sam!, Lois Lowry
119. Feet of Clay, Terry Pratchett
120. The Boy Detective Fails, Joe Meno
121. The Sound and The Fury, William Faulkner
122. As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner
123. Full House, M.J. Farrell/Molly Keane*
124. Myron, Gore Vidal
125. Oryx and Crake, Margaret Atwood
126. William, E.H. Young
127. The Girl With the Silver Eyes, Willo Davis Roberts
128. The Roosevelts: An American Saga, Peter Collier with David Horowitz
129. Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, Roddy Doyle
130.The Woman in White, Wilkie Collins
131.Babbitt, Sinclair Lewis
132. Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe
133.Wintersmith, Terry Pratchett
134. Dr. No, Ian Fleming
135. The Wouldbegoods, E. Nesbit
136. Spook, Mary Roach
137. The Archivist, Martha Cooley
138. Ursula, Under, Ingrid Hill

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Best Books of 2006