Notable Books

2010

The Dresden Files books by Jim Butcher
This is totally cheating, because it’s a series and I didn’t read the entire thing in 2010. But the DF books I read this year were among my very favorite. Characters are very important to me as a reader, and Harry Dresden wins my ultimate mark of approval: I feel like he’s not only a real person, but a friend of mine. Each time I finish one of these books I feel bereft as if a good friend had left town. That’s my excuse for not being caught up on the series; I’m stalling the inevitable day when I run out of books and Butcher stops writing them.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Collins creates a post-apocalyptic dystopia where children are chosen by lottery to enter the Hunger Games, a survival ordeal in which the last child alive wins honor – and more importantly, food – for her district. The protagonist’s quest to survive would have been notable in itself, but this book skillfully weaves the adventure story together with politics, social commentary, and questions of love – both romantic and filial.It will sweep you away and have you reading it so enthusiastically that the sheer momentum will likely carry you right through the rest of the trilogy without noticing that they pale in comparison.

Columbine by Dave Cullen
Cullen takes us back to Columbine High School and untangles the truth and the lies and the mysteries, painting the actual events in heartbreaking clarity and identifying the causes and errors that contributed. I’ve already said this book was heartbreaking; it was also terrifying, chilling, and at times heartwarming.

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
Little Brother – another YA dystopia, which is an excellent emerging subgenre – is definitely one of my best books of 2010. Doctorow takes the basic ideas of 1984 – totalitarian government, loss of privacy, groupthink, loss of rights and individualism, etc. – and throws in an adolescent hero who isn’t going to just sit there and take it. So much fun, and really well done.

Is It A Choice? and/or What If Someone I Know is Gay? by Eric Marcus
Marcus takes all of the questions that people are reluctant to ask – from the obvious to the obscure – and answers them in an understandable, non-condescending, demystifying way that painlessly wears away the reader’s confusion, misconceptions, and prejudice. He uses both scientific fact and anecdotal evidence to support his answers, lending the authority both of technical experts and real experts – those whose real lives have been affected – to his work. These are such outstanding books that I wish they were required reading for every person in the nation – and definitely for every educator.

The Wild Trees by Richard Preston
This book almost needs to be classified as memoir – the memoir of monster trees and the near-crazy people who study, love, climb, and obsess over them. A must-read for anyone who has ever been fascinated by the redwoods, or who wants to learn about the relatively-unexplored regions of our planet, or who enjoys reading about people who live on the edge and who aren’t afraid to fall.

 

2009

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
A beautifully written and not at all sensationalistic bildungsroman about an intersexed (hermaphrodite) Greek-American man, raised as a girl, in mid-20th century America. Well deserving of the Pulitzer it won in 2003.

Paper Towns and/or An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
Any book Green writes is bound to hit my notable book list. I couldn’t pick between these two YA misfit-teen coming-of-age road trip adventures, so you’ll just have to read both.

Acheron by Sherrilyn Kenyon
This book isn’t for everyone, but I loved it. It’s actually one of the latest in a massive (and relatively lightweight) paranormal romance series, but Acheron is less romance and more epic. It creates an alternate evolution of vampires and humans, dwells for much of the book in Ancient Greece and Atlantis, and then shifts drastically to a modern-day love story/adventure. Lots of fun, but definitely R-rated.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy
A spare, haunting post-apocalyptic journey. The Stand boiled down to its most primal and heart-stabbing essence: the inability to preserve family when all else falls apart. Gorgeous and horrible.

Hero by Perry Moore
This is a book about a teenage superhero. It’s a book about romance and family relationships. Oh, and it’s also about coming to grips with the fact that you’re gay. Excellent debut novel.

River God by Wilbur Smith
This is the first in a rather excellent historical fiction series about ancient Egypt and a man who shaped what it would be known as to the future. I found this book in a discarded "free books" box and count it one of my luckiest discoveries of 2009.

 

2008

The Trouble with Poetry by Billy Collins
Billy Collins opened my eyes and made me fall in love with poetry for the first time. You should give him a try yourself.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman
I have a huge intellectual crush on Neil Gaiman. This quest novel takes an unlikely hero, mixes in liberal doses of just about every sort of mythology, and sets him on the American highways in the midst of a classic good v. evil showdown. A great romp.

Looking for Alaska by John Green
Green’s debut novel will indubitably make you laugh, cry, wish you were a teen again, and be so very happy that you are not.

Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris
The author of Chocolat crafts a clever boarding school puzzle novel that will twist and tease you until the very end.

 

2007

Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood
What if the Odyssey had been told from Penelope’s point of view instead? Leave it to Margaret Atwood to consider the implications and do that very thing. A quick read, but fascinating.

Yellow-Lighted Bookshop by Lewis Buzbee
A love song for the independent bookstore. If you’re a bookaholic like me, you’ll read this and immediately want to throw away your life to go open a yellow-lighted bookshop of your own. This was a vacation "souvenir," and a very good choice at that.

Book of Lost Things by John Connolly
Fairy tales aren’t just for children. This dark twist of nursery stories, set in WWII England and in a parallel fairy land, pushes a child past the endurance point in his encounters with an array of fantastical characters.

Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Sure, it’s low-hanging fruit, but this novel made me think and it made me bawl my eyes out. That’s pretty darned notable for me.

Boilerplate Rhino: Nature in the Eye of the Beholder by David Quammen
Not all of us get to be world-travelers, but with great books like this one, we can see the world vicariously. A collection of nature/travel essays by a personable author.