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.
Top Ten Books Read in 2024
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2 comments:
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 ;).
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 ;)
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