My favorites of the year.

What?  C'mon.  Everybody else is doing it...  (I'll leave all of the high-falutin' books to the NYT and the Guardian and the other grown-ups.  These are the books that I liked.)

In no particular order:

My favorite (new-to-me) authors:

Kazuo Ishiguro - Never Let Me Go and When We Were Orphans made me want to read all of his books.  And I will.

William Gibson - Pattern Recognition and Neuromancer rocked.  Keanu Reeves will never be as cool as Case.  And Trinity looks just plain lame in comparison to Molly.

Short Stories:

Kelly Link's Magic for Beginners was awesome.  Lovely, strange, surreal short stories.  And ZOMBIES!

Steve Almond's The Evil B.B. Chow & Other Stories - Love Steve Almond.  Love his stories.  If nothing else, go to the bookstore, stand there and read the title story.  Not to be missed.

My favorite (new-to-me) series:

Reginald Hill's Dalziel & Pascoe mysteries - Police Procedural Perfection

Andrew Vachss' Burke books - Revenge is Right

Carol O'Connell's Kathy Mallory books - Sociopathic Police Officer by Day, Sociopathic Computer Genius by Night

Perfect YA Voice:

Meg Rosoff's How I Live Now - If you only read one book on this list, read this one.

Chris Lynch's Inexcusable - Okay, read this one, too.  Chris Lynch is a genius.

Christopher Krovatin's Heavy Metal and You - I'm now in love with Sam Markus.

Favorite Anti-Consumerism Prank/Best Outline of the Consumer Pyramid:

Scott Westerfeld's So Yesterday - His breakdown of the different types of consumers has weaseled its way into my daily vocabulary.  And the prank!  Genius.

The Holy-Crap-If-You-Loved-Douglas-Adams-and-Actually-Even-if-You-Didn't-Read-This-Book-Anyway-Because-it-Rules Award:

Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys.  For real.  Even if you don't usually like fantasy, you'll probably dig this book.  Because it's perfect and wonderful and I loved it.

Tearjerkers:

Ian McEwan's Atonement - I really thought I was going to die.  That's how much I cried.  But so, so good.

Deborah Wiles' Each Little Bird that Sings - Yeah.  This one made me cry even more.  Also so, so good.

Biography:

Jean Nathan's Secret Life of the Lonely Doll: The Search for Dare Wright - This is a must read for anyone interested in children's literature.  If you don't give a hoot about children's lit, it's also an amazing biography.

Mystery Stand-Alone:

Reginald Hill's The Stranger House - He just can't be beat.  Layers upon layers upon layers.  A town covering up a decades-old tragedy, two young people searching for their past.  Goosebumpy.

Favorite Classic:

Carson McCullers' Heart is a Lonely Hunter - Months later, I'm still shocked that a 22-year-old wrote this book.  She should probably also be in my Favorite (New-to-me) Authors category, but I'm trying not to double up.

Ernest Hemingway's In Our Time - Yes.  I still find it shocking that I loved a book by Mr. Bullfight Man.  But I did.  And now I might even read some of the bullfighting stuff.

Messed-up Memoirs:

Augusten Burrough's Running with Scissors - Everyone and their mom has already read this, but I'm still listing it.

Lisa Crystal Carver's Drugs are Nice: A Post-Punk Memoir - For those of us that were too young to experience the Suckdog shows in real life, this is a must.  For those of you that experienced the Suckdog shows in real life, it's also a must.  But you probably already knew that.

Fave Guilty Pleasures:

Stephanie Meyer's Twilight - I admit it.  Despite the sometimes not-so-hot prose, I read this book in one day.  I couldn't put it down. 

Libba Bray's Rebel Angels - I've become addicted to this series, regardless of my issues with the bizarro not-very-Victorian language that the girls use.

Fun Non-Fiction:

Sarah Vowell's Assassination Vacation - What could be better than a book about assassinations?  A FUNNY book about assassinations.

Favorite Books for Book-Lovers:

Kathryn Lasky's Memoirs of a Bookbat - Daughter of born-agains learns everything her parents won't teach her from Judy Blume. 

Tobias Wolff's Old School - The scene with Ayn Rand is priceless.

I admit that this list is excessive at best, but I still feel like I'm leaving some out.

(I want lists from you all, too.  Because we all know that what I really, really need is a longer list of books to read.)

Comments

[Kelly]

Okay, if you loved Ishiguro, then you really must read his others. My two favorites are "A Pale View of the Hills" and "Artist of the Floating World." You are so lucky you still haven't read them!

I agree with your tearjerkers wholeheartedly. McEwan is my favorite living writer (I even liked "Saturday," though not as well as "Atonement," "Enduring Love," and "The Child of Time") and "Atonement" is amazing. I sobbed my way through the Wiles as well.

[iliana]

Oh yes, you must read more Kazuo Ishiguro. He's amazing. I love your list of favorites. I'm taking notes :)

[leila]

Looks like I'll be starting off the new year with (gasp!) some grown-up books!

[jess]

Atonement - I need to start making everyone I know read it. LOVED it & thank you for recommending it. Tears, no sobbing, but gut wrenching.

Assassination Vacation made me cry. I think at the end of the Lincoln section? I had to make fun of myself for that one.

[leila]

Assassination Vacation made me tear up, but it was because I was laughing so hard at her ode to Peter Gallagher's eyebrows.

I was a disaster for two days after I read Atonement. Ian McEwan got me good.

[ali]

ack! i am so glad that you recommended the meg rosoff! it was my favorite book of last year and i forced it on everyone who came in contact with me. and this year she came out with a hilarious picture book that you should also read. its called "meet wild boars".

[kimbofo]

Oh this is a fantastic list. You have made me think about the books I've read this year. Maybe I will post a similar thing on my blog... we'll see.

PS> Can't wait to read Never Let Me Go now. It's been in my pile of books to read for a month or so...

[Danielle]

Great list! Ishiguro is one of my favorite authors. I will buy his books in cloth without a second thought!! I saw the book on the Lonely Doll--it looked interesting--a little different. I may have to take another look since you gave it a good review. Also loved the McCullers book-I am very glad I finally read it!