For those who want to guess which titles will make the final 20/25, here are the ones currently under consideration (in no order but a rough chronological read order, with a few added latter due to oversight):
1. Karen Russell, Swamplandia!
2. Téa Obreht, The Tiger's Wife
3. R. Scott Bakker, The White-Luck Warrior
4. David Albahari, Leeches
5. Michael Cisco, The Great Lover
6. Blake Butler, There is No Year
7. David Anthony Durham, The Sacred Band
8. Ben Loory, Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day
9. Nnedi Okorafor, Akata Witch
10. Peter Beagle, Sleight of Hand
11. Umberto Eco, Confessions of a Young Novelist
12. Jesse Ball, The Curfew
13. Lev Grossman, The Magician King
14. Carol Birch, Jamrach's Menagerie
15. Glen Duncan, The Last Werewolf
16. Donald Ray Pollock, The Devil All the Time
17. Patrick Dewitt, The Sisters Brothers
18. Kevin Wilson, The Family Fang
19. Lászlo Krasznahorkai and Max Neumann, Animalinside
20. Mary Horlock, The Book of Lies
21. Anders Nilsen, Big Questions
22. Stuart Nadler, The Book of Life
23. Tom Perrotta, The Leftovers
24. Justin Torres, We the Animals
25. Gonçalo M. Tavares, Learning to Pray in the Age of Technique
26. Chad Harbach, The Art of Fielding
27. Denis Johnson, Train Dreams
28. Amy Waldman, The Submission
29. Javier Marías, Los enamoramientos
30. Mercé Rodoreda, The Selected Stories of Mercé Rodoreda
31. Kate Beaton, Hark! A Vagrant
32. Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus
33. Helen Oyeyemi, Mr. Fox
34. Moacyr Scliar, Kafka's Leopards
35. Julie Otsuka, The Buddha in the Attic
36. Jesmyn Ward, Salvage the Bones
37. Andrew Krivak, The Sojourn
38. Colson Whitehead, Zone One
39. Thanhha Lai, Inside Out and Back Again
40. Gary D. Schmidt, Okay for Now
41. Stephen Greenblatt, The Swerve: How the World Became Modern
42. Umberto Eco and Jean-Claudde Carrière, This is Not the End of the Book
43. David Abulafia, The Great Sea
44. Debby Dahl Edwardson, My Name is Not Easy
45. Manning Marable, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention
46. Carlos Ruiz Zafón, El Prisionero del Cielo
47. Russell Banks, Lost Memory of Skin
48. Lavie Tidhar, Osama
49. Haruki Murakami, 1Q84
50. Thomas Frick, The Iron Boys
In addition, there are three novels that may be finished by the 29th (my cutoff date for the overall list) that could crack this list, if complete by then:
Nick Mamatas, Sensation
Catherynne M. Valente, The Folded World
Péter Nádas, Parallel Stories
How many of these books have you read? Which ones do you want to know more about? Which one/s do you think will atop my list?
1. Karen Russell, Swamplandia!
2. Téa Obreht, The Tiger's Wife
3. R. Scott Bakker, The White-Luck Warrior
4. David Albahari, Leeches
5. Michael Cisco, The Great Lover
6. Blake Butler, There is No Year
7. David Anthony Durham, The Sacred Band
8. Ben Loory, Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day
9. Nnedi Okorafor, Akata Witch
10. Peter Beagle, Sleight of Hand
11. Umberto Eco, Confessions of a Young Novelist
12. Jesse Ball, The Curfew
13. Lev Grossman, The Magician King
14. Carol Birch, Jamrach's Menagerie
15. Glen Duncan, The Last Werewolf
16. Donald Ray Pollock, The Devil All the Time
17. Patrick Dewitt, The Sisters Brothers
18. Kevin Wilson, The Family Fang
19. Lászlo Krasznahorkai and Max Neumann, Animalinside
20. Mary Horlock, The Book of Lies
21. Anders Nilsen, Big Questions
22. Stuart Nadler, The Book of Life
23. Tom Perrotta, The Leftovers
24. Justin Torres, We the Animals
25. Gonçalo M. Tavares, Learning to Pray in the Age of Technique
26. Chad Harbach, The Art of Fielding
27. Denis Johnson, Train Dreams
28. Amy Waldman, The Submission
29. Javier Marías, Los enamoramientos
30. Mercé Rodoreda, The Selected Stories of Mercé Rodoreda
31. Kate Beaton, Hark! A Vagrant
32. Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus
33. Helen Oyeyemi, Mr. Fox
34. Moacyr Scliar, Kafka's Leopards
35. Julie Otsuka, The Buddha in the Attic
36. Jesmyn Ward, Salvage the Bones
37. Andrew Krivak, The Sojourn
38. Colson Whitehead, Zone One
39. Thanhha Lai, Inside Out and Back Again
40. Gary D. Schmidt, Okay for Now
41. Stephen Greenblatt, The Swerve: How the World Became Modern
42. Umberto Eco and Jean-Claudde Carrière, This is Not the End of the Book
43. David Abulafia, The Great Sea
44. Debby Dahl Edwardson, My Name is Not Easy
45. Manning Marable, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention
46. Carlos Ruiz Zafón, El Prisionero del Cielo
47. Russell Banks, Lost Memory of Skin
48. Lavie Tidhar, Osama
49. Haruki Murakami, 1Q84
50. Thomas Frick, The Iron Boys
In addition, there are three novels that may be finished by the 29th (my cutoff date for the overall list) that could crack this list, if complete by then:
Nick Mamatas, Sensation
Catherynne M. Valente, The Folded World
Péter Nádas, Parallel Stories
How many of these books have you read? Which ones do you want to know more about? Which one/s do you think will atop my list?
Posts
8 comments:
I've read none of these books at this point. I've heard positive comments on the Okorafor, and it seems like something for your top 20.
Your views on Osama could be interesting, but none of the titles or authors really jump out.
It may be that less than a quarter of the books I read this year that were 2011 releases were marketed as SF/F.
Tidhar's book is an alt-history/mystery (among other things), but it is worth reading (it just came out in the UK through PS Publishing and I'm not sure if there's an American publisher lined up yet).
Several of the books listed were finalists or winners for the National Book Award (US) or Booker Prize (UK/Commonwealth) awards.
2. Téa Obreht, The Tiger's Wife
9. Nnedi Okorafor, Akata Witch
11. Umberto Eco, Confessions of a Young Novelist
31. Kate Beaton, Hark! A Vagrant
42. Umberto Eco and Jean-Claudde Carrière, This is Not the End of the Book
49. Haruki Murakami, 1Q84
Those are the books from this list that I've read, in addition to the English translation of the new Eco novel. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the new Murakami. It's among my favourite Murakami novels, and I don't recall you covering it much, if at all, on this blog or in passing on some forum.
I only finished reading 1Q84 yesterday, so my plans are to review it in early January, most likely on the Gogol's Overcoat blog (and later a mirror post here perhaps). It's the second Murakami I've finished reading (the other being Kafka on the Shore, which I read around five years ago).
Kate Beaton absolutely must make the top 10.
I've read two: the Birch and the Harbach. The Harbach was OK, the Birch was awful.
Looking forward for your top!
I read 70 books this year, but we intersect only at:
13. Lev Grossman, The Magician King
32. Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus
33. Helen Oyeyemi, Mr. Fox
49. Haruki Murakami, 1Q84
Though many of those you listed (Swamplandia!, The Tiger's Wife, The White-Luck Warrior, There is No Year, The Sacred Band, Akata Witch, Sleight of Hand, The Submission, The Folded World, Parallel Stories, and Osama) are at the top of my to-read list, and I'm currently reading Zone One and Sensation.
Nice to see The White Luck Warrior make the list! I'm obsessed with that series so it's hard for me not to be biased! Honestly I'm not sure why there aren't more fans of his work! Very powerful stuff...
Post a Comment