Times' 100 Best Books

A - B

The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow

All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren

American Pastoral by Philip Roth

An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser

Animal Farm by George Orwell

Appointment in Samarra by John O'Hara

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume

The Assistant by Bernard Malamud

At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O'Brien

Atonement by Ian McEwan

Beloved by Toni Morrison

The Berlin Stories by Christopher Isherwood

The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder

C - D

Call It Sleep by Henry Roth

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron

The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen

The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon

A Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell

The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West

Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather

A Death in the Family by James Agee

The Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen

Deliverance by James Dickey

Dog Soldiers by Robert Stone


F - G

Falconer by John Cheever

The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles

The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing

Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin

Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald


H - I

A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh

The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene

Herzog by Saul Bellow

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson

A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul

I, Claudius by Robert Graves

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

L - N

Light in August by William Faulkner

The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

Lolita byVladimir Nabokov

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

Loving by Henry Green

Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis

The Man Who Loved Children by Christina Stead

Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie

Money by Martin Amis

The Moviegoer by Walker Percy

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

Naked Lunch by William Burroughs

Native Son by Richard Wright

Neuromancer by William Gibson

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

1984 by George Orwell

O - R

On the Road by Jack Kerouac

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski

Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov

A Passage to India by E.M. Forster

Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion

Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth

Possession by A.S. Byatt

The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark

Rabbit, Run by John Updike

Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow

The Recognitions by William Gaddis

Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett

Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates

S - T

The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

The Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

The Sportswriter by Richard Ford

The Spy Who Came in From the Cold by John le Carre

The Sun Also Rises byErnest Hemingway

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller

U - W

Ubik by Philip K. Dick

Under the Net by Iris Murdoch

Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry

Watchmen by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons

White Noise by Don DeLillo

White Teeth by Zadie Smith

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

(Find the list here.)

Pulitzer Prize Winners

The Pulitzer Prize Challenge

2011-A Visit From The Goon Squard by Jennifer Egan

2010-Tinkers by Paul Harding

2009 - Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

2008 - The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

2007 - The Road (McCarthy)

2006 - March (Brooks)

2005 - Gilead (Robinson)

2004 - The Known World (Jones)

2003 - Middlesex (Eugenides)

2002 - Empire Falls (Russo)

2001 - The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (Chabon)

2000 - Interpreter of Maladies (Lahiri)

1999 - The Hours (Cunningham)

1998 - American Pastoral (Roth)

1997 - Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer (Millhauser)

1996 - Independence Day (Ford)

1995 - The Stone Diaries (Shields)

1994 - The Shipping News (Proulx)

1993 - A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain (Butler)

1992 - A Thousand Acres (Smiley)

1991 - Rabbit at Rest (Updike)

1990 - The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love (Hijuelos)

1989 - Breathing Lessons (Tyler)

1988 - Beloved (Morrison)

1987 - A Summons to Memphis (Taylor)

1986 - Lonesome Dove (McMurtry)

1985 - Foreign Affairs (Lurie)

1984 - Ironweed (Kennedy)

1983 - The Color Purple (Walker)

1982 - Rabbit is Rich (Updike)

1981 - A Confederacy of Dunces (Toole)

1980 - The Executioner’s Song (Mailer)

1979 - The Stories of John Cheever (Cheever)

1978 - Elbow Room (McPherson)

1977 - None given

1976 - Humboldt’s Gift (Bellow)

1975 - The Killer Angels (Shaara)

1974 - None given

1973 - The Optimist’s Daughter (Welty)

1972 - Angle of Repose (Stegner)

1971 - None given

1970 - Collected Stories by Jean Stafford (Stafford)

1969 - House Made of Dawn (Momaday)

1968 - The Confessions of Nat Turner (Styron)

1967 - The Fixer (Malamud)

1966 - Collected Stories by Katherine Anne Porter (Porter)

1965 - The Keepers Of the House (Grau)

1964 - None given

1963 - The Reivers (Faulkner)

1962 - The Edge of Sadness (Edwin O’Connor)

1961 - To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee)

1960 - Advise and Consent (Drury)

1959 - The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters (Taylor)

1958 - A Death in the Family (Agee)

1957 - None

1956 - Andersonville (Kantor)

1955 - A Fable (Faulkner)

1954 - None

1953 - The Old Man and the Sea (Hemingway)

1952 - The Caine Mutiny (Wouk)

1951 - The Town (Richter)

1950 - The Way West (Guthrie)

1949 - Guard of Honor (Cozzens)

1948 - Tales of the South Pacific (Michener)

1947 - All the King’s Men (Warren)1946 - None

1945 - Bell for Adano (Hersey)1944 - Journey in the Dark (Flavin)

1943 - Dragon’s Teeth I (Sinclair)

1942 - In This Our Life (Glasgow)

1941 - None

1940 - The Grapes of Wrath (Steinbeck)1939 - The Yearling (Rawlings)

1938 - The Late George Apley (Marquand)

1937 - Gone with the Wind (Mitchell)1936 - Honey in the Horn (Davis)

1935 - Now in November (Johnson)

1934 - Lamb in His Bosom (Miller)

1933 - The Store (Stribling)

1932 - The Good Earth (Buck)1931 - Years of Grace (Barnes)

1930 - Laughing Boy (Lafarge)

1929 - Scarlet Sister Mary (Peterkin)

1928 - The Bridge of San Luis Rey (Wilder)

1927 - Early Autumn (Bromfield)

1926 - Arrowsmith (Lewis)

1925 - So Big (Ferber)

1924 - The Able McLauglins (Wilson)

1923 - One of Ours (Cather)

1922 - Alice Adams (Tarkington)

1921 - The Age of Innocence (Wharton)

1920 - None

1919 - The Magnificent Ambersons (Tarkington)

1918 - His Family (Poole)

Henry Green Week

Stu at Winstonsdad's blog is hosting a Henry Green Week from January 23 through January 29. Since this is the first time I'll be reading anything by Henry Green, I've chosen his book Loving * Living * Party Going.

"This volume brings together three of Henry Green's intensely original novels. Green explored class distinctions through the medium of love, incidentally revealing, says John Updike in his reverent introduction, "what English prose fiction can do in this century." Loving brilliantly contrasts the lives of servants and masters in an Irish castle during World War II, Living those of workers and owners in a Birmingham iron foundry. Party Going presents a party of wealthy travelers stranded by fog in a London railway hotel while throngs of workers await trains in the station below. Each novel amply illustrates why Green was one of the most admired writers of his time." (back cover of the Penguin edition)

 

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin

When one of my book clubs chose Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin for our next read, I was only mildly thrilled. Until I read it.

This novel tells the story of Larry and Silas, two boys who grew up together but apart. Setting the distance between them is race, privilege, and the fact that Cindy Walker is dead. Larry is blamed for her death, as he is the one who was last seen with her; he had taken her on a date which he hoped would finally bring him acceptance by his peers. When she forces him to drop her off so that she can meet her real boyfriend, she never appears at 11:00 that night where they'd agreed he'd pick her up. Her disappearance causes Larry, and consequently his family, to be even more ostracized than before.

Across The River and Into The Trees by Hemingway

The Gran Maestro was gone and the Colonel looked at the girl and then at the Grand Canal outside the window, and he saw the magic spots and changes of light that were even here, in the end of the bar, which had now by skillful handling been made into a dining room, and he said, "Did I tell you, Daughter, that I love you?"

"You haven't told me for quite a long time. But I love you."

"What happens to people that love each other?"

"I suppose they have whatever they have, and they are more fortunate than others. Then one of them gets the emptiness forever."

Across The River and Into The Trees is a painfully beautiful book. If you think, as I once did, that Hemingway is only about guns and war, shooting and bullfighting, drinking and women, think again.

This novel is about Colonel Richard Cantwell, aged 50, with a heart which has been given to more than his 19 year old Italian lover, Renata. His heart has been wounded by an earlier marriage, by lost battalions in WWII, and by coronary disease which causes him to swallow two tablets with gin more frequently than can possibly be good for him. But it is comforted and stirred by his love for Renata.

Softhearted or Snark?

In the course of my blogging travels, I occasionally come upon a blog which is written with a quick wit. It is funny, and piercing, and pointedly critical. As I read further down, I see that each post is actually filled with snide remarks. For me, a little of this goes a long way.

Mailbox Monday

I have had three lovely books arrive recently, sent by their authors for the upcoming Venice in February Challenge. Each looks fabulous, each will be given away as a prize after I review it in February.

The first is The Four Seasons by Laurel Corona. It is a novel of Vivaldi's Venice. "In glittering 18th-century Venice, music and love are prized above all else--and for two sisters coming of age, the city's passions blend in intoxicating ways. (back cover)

The next is Crossing The Bridge of Sighs by Susan Ashley Michael. "When Claire finds her husband in the arms of a handsome Parisian, her life has reached a turning point. She believed that, along with her profession as an established travel writer, she would have a perfect marriage and a beautiful baby. With her world newly shattered, she travels to Venice where she seeks the comfort of her quirky friend, Josie. Unprepared for love's unpredictable itinerary, Claire finds herself wooed by two men...for Claire, love remains as precarious as life in this watery city." (back cover)

The third is The Venice Experiment by Barry Frangipane with Ben Robbins. "Lured by Venice's colorful history, Barry Frangipane was determined to experience its labyrinth of walkways, canals, and bridges, as more than just a tourist. With this in mind, he convinced his wife Debbie to join him in this grand experiment, a year long cultural immersion in the most legendary city on earth. Through their initiation into Venetian society, Barry and Debbie discovered the close-knit family of inhabitants and innumerable cultural oddities of living in Venice, the improbably city built upon millions of tree trunks driven into the mud sixteen centuries ago. From the exasperating bureaucracy to high tides endangering their ground-floor apartment, these expatriates get far more than they bargained for." (back cover)

Merry Christmas!

After all the waiting, all the anticipation, all the hope, Christmas is finally upon us. Yesterday, my mother came over, and we baked all day while we laughed, and talked, and drank pots of tea. We made dinner rolls, potatoes au gratin, gingersnaps, and a traditional cookie for my family called Ribbon cookies (which are layers of poppy seed, chocolate with pecans, and cherries in the dough). So delicious.

The doorbell rang unexpectedly at noon, bringing my father with a bag full of steaming pastrami and corned beef sandwiches from Schmaltz's deli. "Oh, good!" I said, "you brought us some bagels for the Christmas tree!" We love to joke, my dad and I, and we don't mean to be disrespectful to anyone in the process. The three of us sat around the table with coffee, and joyfully shared the sandwiches in the middle of a gray Friday afternoon.

Going Forward

2011. My fifth year of blogging, and what is there to show for it? 100 template changes. 80 books read. The 5th Japanese Literature Challenge hosted. And so few comments left on fellow bibliophiles' blogs I'm almost embarrassed.

I don't aspire to be a powerhouse of a blogger, with a page rank of 6 or more and a row of ads in my sidebar which support me in the manner to which I've become accustomed.

I just want to read the books which call out to me and share the most spectacular. I want to indulge in the classics, the international, the unusual and often obscure books. I want to share challenges together; 2012 will bring the Japanese Literature Challenge 6, as well as the first Venice in February challenge. They both promise to reveal exciting works which I can't wait to discuss.

End of Year Book Survey...Questions Quite Stolen

Stolen from The Literary Stew, who stole it from The Perpetual Page-Turner, here is an end of 2011 survey to reflect on this year's best and worst reads:

1. Best Book(s) You Read In 2011?

• Little Boy Lost by Marhanita Laski
• The Virginian by Owen Wister
• A Movable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
• Strangers by Taichi Yamada
• The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright
• The Days of Abandonment by Elena Ferrante

2. Most Disappointing Book?

• I'd so looked forward to 1Q84. It was good. But, not what I'd hoped.

3. Most surprising (in a good way!) book of 2011?

• Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick. I enjoyed The Adventures of Hugo Cabret, and I'm looking forward to the film. But, Wonderstruck is far superior in my opinion. It's the first book I've ever read aloud to my class in which the children broke into spontaneous applause when the last page was turned.

4. Book(s) you recommended to people most in 2011?

• Strangers by Taichi Yamada
• Inspector Iminishi Investigates by Seicho Matsumoto
• Villain by Suichi Yoshida 

5. Best series you discovered in 2011?

• Eh, I don't read series.

6. Favorite new authors you discovered in 2011?

• Anne Enright
• Ernest Hemingway (whose writing was completely lost to me in high school)

7. Most thrilling, unputdownable book in 2011?

• Before I Go To Sleep by S. J. Watson 

Persephone Secret Santa Revealed

The person to whom I sent a Persephone book is Rose of Rose's Year. The person from whom I am pleased to be the recepient of a Persephone book is Jeannie of Sam Still Reading.

As so often happens at Christmas time, I feel a bit of "The Gift of The Magi" at work. In November, I sent Jeannie the book Dewey's Nine Lives for the Literary Blog Hop Give-away; in December she turns it around and gifts me for the Persephone Secret Santa.

The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright

Fiachra, for example, 'always knew'. He knew it before I did. 'I am in love with him,' I said, sitting in the back room of Ron Blacks after too many gin and tonics. And Fiachra waited a tiny, unforgivable moment, before he said:

'I am sure you are'.

But it was the first time I had said the words out loud, and it might have been true all along but it became properly true then. True like something you have discovered. I loved him. Through all the shouting that followed, the silences, the gossip (an unbelievable amount of gossip) there was one thing I held on to, the idea, the fact, that I loved Sean Vallely and I held my head high, even as I glowed with shame. Glowed with it.

I love him.

Saying that this novel is about an affair is like saying a home is about bricks and glass. That's true enough, in a way, but it's not getting any where near the substance within. I have never read writing like that of Anne Enright's. It is powerful, and funny, and thought provoking all at the same time. I read ever so slowly to capture every phrase, and reread sentences or whole paragraphs over again, to contemplate their meaning which resonated deeply within me. She'll write something profound in a long paragraph, and then bam! follow it with a single sentence as reinforcement.

Origami Directions for A Five Pointed Star

Advent Tour: Day 9


What is your favorite Christmas symbol? Is it the tree? A creche? A branch of holly or a stocking hanging by the fire?  One of my favorite symbols is the star because of its resemblance to the Star of Bethlehem. (Matthew 2:1-2)

Every year I like to fold a new origami ornament for our tree. I've folded cranes, which are an international symbol of peace, and more traditional prisms. This year, I'm folding stars for my loved ones. I doubt I'll have many to hang on our tree as I like to give them away, but when I think of them adorning others' homes at Christmas time, it gives me more joy than if I saw them in our own.

Paprika by Yasutaka Tsutsui

There was something so compelling about the cover of Paprika that I had to read this book. It is horrifying and alluring at the same time, this picture of a woman who seems to have indulged in her desires, yet the juice of the berries resembles blood to me more than anything else. The text inside is every bit as haunting as the cover.

Atsuko Chiba and Kosaku Tokita are shortlisted for the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine. Their work is in the field of dreams, wherein Atsuko acts as a "dream detective" who can intrude into people's dreams in order to help them make sense of their psychoses. She is able to do this in part with Tokita's invention of DC Minis. Conical devices, no larger than a centimeter, they are attached to the dreamer's head in order to "collect" the dreams. As with any invention, however, something designed for good can also be turned toward evil.

Books Read in 2011

~January~


The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim

The Night Bookmobile by Audrey Niffenegger

The Metropolis Case by Matthew Gallaway

A Rule Against Murder by Louise Penny

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

The Russian Winter Daphne Kalotay

The Cats of Roxville Station by Jean Craighead-George

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson



~February~

the devil's star by Jo Nesbø

Villette by Charlotte Bronte

Lucy by Ellen Feldman

The Matchmaker of Kenmare by Frank Delaney

Little Boy Lost by Marghanita Laski



~March~

Fidelity by Susan Glaspell

The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes

Numbers from the Old Testament

Deuteronomy from the Old Testament

It's a Book by Lane Smith

Joshua from the Old Testament

Judges from the Old Testament

Ruth from the Old Testament

1 Samuel from the Old Testament

2 Samuel from the Old Testament

1 Kings from the Old Testament

2 Kings from the Old Testament

1 Chronicles from the Old Testament

2 Chronicles from the Old Testament

Ezra from the Old Testament

Nehemiah from the Old Testament



~April~

Esther from the Old Testament

Job from the Old Testament

Psalms from the Old Testament

Proverbs from the Old Testament

Song of Solomon from the Old Testament

Ecclesiastes from the Old Testament

Matthew from the New Testament

Mark from the New Testament

Luke from the New Testament

John from the New Testament



~May~

Ordinary Thunderstorms by William Boyd

The Violets of March by Sarah Jio

The Paper Garden by Molly Peacock

The Virginian by Owen Wister

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood



~June~

Mercy by Jussi Adler-Olsen

Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake

The Art of Forgetting by Camille Noe Pagan

Flappers and Philosophers by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Miss Timmins' School For Girls by Nayana Currimbhov

A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway

Thoughts Without Cigarettes by Oscar Hijuelos

Before I Go To Sleep by S. J. Watson



~July~

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

Ellis Island by Kate Kerrigan

The Girl In The Garden by Kamala Nair

Astrid and Veronika by Linda Olsson

The Confession by John Grisham

An Object of Beauty by Steve Martin

Night Flight by Antoine de St. Exupery

The Paris Wife by Paula McLain

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

A Summer Affair by Elin Hilderbrand

The Quiet Gentleman by Georgette Heyer



~August~

Villian by Shuichi Yoshida

Tout Sweet by Karen Wheeler

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

The Postmistress by Sarah Blake (DNF)

Sixkill by Robert B. Parker

Mathilda by Mary Shelley

Inspector Iminishi Investigates by Seicho Matsumoto

Thousand Cranes by Kawabata

Strangers by Taichi Yamada

The Lantern by Deborah Lawrenson



~September~

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

Under The Dome by Stephen King

Don't Look Now by Daphne du Maurier

Ivan and Misha by Michael Alenyikov

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

The House on The Strand by Daphne du Maurier



~October~

Painted Ladies by Robert B. Parker

Fatal Judgment by Irene Hannon (DNF)

Wherever You Go by Joan Leegant

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

The Days of Abandonment by Elena Ferrante

City of Thieves by David Benioff

because of mr. terupt by Rob Buyea

The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie



~November~

IQ84 by Haruki Murakami

These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder

People Tell Me Things by David Finkle

The Doll by Daphne du Maurier

The Girl On The Cliff by Lucinda Riley

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John Le Carre



~December~

Paprika by Yasutaka Tsutsui

The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright

Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson

Across The River and Into The Trees by Ernest Hemingway

Believing The Lie by Elizabeth George

Challenges in 2011

RIP VI: September 1 until October 31, 2011: finished

Strangers by Taichi Yamada
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by R. L. Stevenson
Under The Dome by Stephen King
Don't Look Now by Daphne du Maurier
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

The House on the Strand by Daphne du Maurier

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

Hosted by Frances and Melville House Publishers: August, 2011: finished

Mathilde by Mary Shelley

Paris In July, 2011 hosted by Tamara and Karen: finished

Night Flight by Antoine de St. Exupery

A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway

The Paris Wife by Paula McLlain



Haruki Murakami Challenge hosted by Tanabata: finished 

1Q84 by Haruki Murakamio

Read A Myth Challenge hosted by Bina and JoV: finished

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood

Once Upon a Time Challenge 5 hosted by Carl V.: finished

The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake

New Testament in A Week hosted by Becky: finished

Hop-along, Git-along, Read-along Challenge hosted by C. B. James: finished
The Virginian by Owen Wister

Discovering Daphne hosted by Simon and Novel Insights: finished

The House on the Strand: October 16, 2011
Don’t Look Now & Other Stories: October 23, 2011 
Rebecca: October 30, 2011