Sunday, December 17, 2006

My Best Books of the Year

Hello, friends,
I'm back from "sick leave" and thinking about my own personal best books list.

Fiction --
"Everyman" by Philip Roth
"Saturday" by Ian McEwan
both already blogged about
"Gilead" by Marianne Robinson -- Excellent novel! A dying clergyman's notes to his young son. No, really I highly recommend it.
"Never Let Me Go" by the author who wrote "Remains of the Day" -- a real book, well imagined. A metaphor for life, really.
"The Uses of Enchantment" by Heidi Julavits (sp?) -- a twisty unreliable narrator makes you feel entertained and intelligent.

Memoir --
"Possible Side Effects" by Augusten Burroughs -- he's just such a good writer I can't stand it
"Discomfort Zone" by Jonathan Franzen -- impressive detail, esp. in the chapters on birds.

Lastly, I valued re-reading two books on writing. "Bird by Bird" by Anne Lamotte
and "Writer's Block" by Victoria (? ). My next writing book, that I've ordered from the library, is "Reading Like a Writer," by Francine Prose.

Send me your own best-books list. Let me know you're there!