The OF Blog: 2009 in Review: 50 pre-2009 releases read in 2009

Thursday, December 31, 2009

2009 in Review: 50 pre-2009 releases read in 2009

Although these 2009 in Review posts are meant to focus on 2009 releases, there were hundreds of great books that I read for the first time this year that would have made most any Best of _____ lists of mine if I had read them in that publication year.  So for the first time, I thought that I would list 50 worthy reads, in no particular order other than a rough chronological reading order:

1.  Italo Calvino, Cosmicomics

2.  Milorad Pavić, Second Body/Drugo Telo

3.  George R.R. Martin, Fevre Dream

4.  Erich Maria Remarque, The Night in Lisbon

5.  Daniel Wallace, Big Fish

6.  Joanna Russ, The Female Man

7.  Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis

8.  Milorad Pavić, Last Love in Constantinople

9.  Robert Holdstock, Mythago Wood

10. Ken Grimwood, Replay

11. Naguib Mahfouz, Palace Walk

12. Paul Auster, New York Trilogy (omnibus)

13. Vladimir Nabokov, Ada, or Ardor

14. Don DeLillo, Underworld

15. Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House

16. Shirely Jackson, Come With Me

17.  Erich Maria Remarque, The Road Back

18.  Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse

19.  Clive Barker, The Books of Blood

20.  Sergio Toppi, Sharaz-De:  Vols. 1-2

21.  David Toscana, El último lector (released in English translation in 2009 as The Last Reader)

22.  Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian

23.  Angela Carter, The Magic Toyshop

24.  Angela Carter, The Infernal Desire Machines of Dr. Hoffmann

25.  Salman Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories

26.  Walter Moers, The City of Dreaming Books

27.  Steve Erickson, Zeroville

28.  Lewis Grizzard, It Wasn't Always Easy, But I Sure Had Fun

29.  Daniel Abraham, An Autumn War

30.  Goran Petrović, Atlas descrito por el cielo

31.  Angela Carter, Saints and Strangers

32.  Charles Finney, The Circus of Dr. Lao

33.  Adolfo Bioy Casares, Diario de la guerra del cerdo

34.  John Gardner, Grendel

35.  David Lindsay, A Voyage to Arcturus

36.  Michael Swanwick, The Iron Dragon's Daughter

37.  Poul Anderson, The Broken Sword

38.  Brian Evenson, Altmann's Tongue

39.  Bradford Morrow (ed.), Conjunctions 51:  The Death Issue

40.  Stewart O'Nan, Last Night at the Lobster

41.  Thomas Ligotti, My Work is Not Yet Done

42.  Nicola Griffith, Slow River

43.  Dino Buzzati, Poema a fumetti

44.  Ismail Kadere, The Palace of Dreams

45.  Thomas Glavinic, Night Work

46.  Guillermo Arriaga, El búfalo de la noche

47.  Dino Buzzati, Il deserto dei Tartari

48.  Peter Beagle, A Fine & Private Place/The Last Unicorn (omnibus)

49.  A.S. Byatt, Possession

50.  Neal Stephenson, Anathem


And for a true anti-classic:

Jim Theis, Eye of Argon


Perhaps some of these will catch your fancy?  Shortly (or at halftime of the UT-VT game), I'll post my 25 Favorite Fictions of 2009.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

One of the ommission's I've noticed from that list that stands out is Maureen McHugh - I don't think you've reviewed any of her books on the blog (or the search function of blogger doesn't reveal any, anyway). From what I can gather of our overlapping areas of tastes, I really think you'd enjoy her stuff, particularly China Mountain Zhang and Mission Child. Its really just wonderfully written, subtle, humane SF. If you're making a list of pre-2010 releases from next year, I highly recommend you add those to it ;).

Larry Nolen said...

She's one of those authors I mean to read, but somehow forget every time I'm in a bookstore or ordering via Amazon. Have read a short or two by her; those were excellent.

So yeah, I imagine I'll get to her in 2010...as long as I'm reminded once in a while ;)

 
Add to Technorati Favorites