Sunday, January 3, 2010

a new year, a new list

BOOK LIST 2009
The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Varieties of Scientific Experience by Carl Sagan
Double Duce by Aaron Cometbus
Ice Storm by Rick Moody
Please Kill Me by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain
Notes From a Dirty Old Man by Charles Bukowski
Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski
Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palanuik
Lullaby by Chuck Palanuik
Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren
The Stranger by Albert Camus
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Dear Diary by Lesley Arfin
Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger
Choke by Chuck Palanuik
Back to the Land by Aaron Cometbus
Up and Down with the Rolling Stones by Tony Sanchez
In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Seperate Flights by Andre Debus Sr.
Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
The Winter of our Discontent by John Steinbeck
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
The Reader by Bernhard Schlink

here is every book i read in 2009.  as always, a lot of these are re-reads.  my favorite first time readings were east of eden, lolita, and up and down with the rolling stones.  but i really enjoyed all of them and now i can start my new list for 2010, reccomendations?

BOOK LIST 2011
Gone with the Wind by Margeret Mitchell
Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski
Pulp by Charles Bukowski
Winter by Rick Bass
Franny and Zooey by JD Salinger
Dear Diary by Lesley Arfin

49 comments:

Lo said...

I can think of so many! here are a couple of recent memorable reads for me:

the unbearable lightness of being by kundera

the wind up bird chronicle by murakimi

Ashley Wilkins said...

the pact by jodi picoult

pretty monsters by kelly link

paint it black by janet finch (best 5$ ever spent)

Milla said...

anything by annie proulx, melanie rae thon, and julie orringer's "how to breathe underwater"
oh and anything by carson mccullers.
Happy happy new year!

Dani said...

Some of my all-time favorites are your list. Enjoy! Also, I agree with the mention above of the book Paint It Black. It cost me about $5 at some random store, yet it was completely relevant to my life.

Kennedy said...

Lo! those two books are on my top ten all time favorite books! esp the unbearable lightness of being, i think we like the same books! <3

_ said...

seriously impressive list.
i'm reading "the origin of species" by Nino Ricci (not to be confused with the darwin original).
s.

ps. i LOVED revolutionary road! i couldn't get through the movie, but the novel was so moving.

wix said...

cloud atlas (david mitchell)--i have no idea if you'll like it, but hope you do.

happy reading :)

April said...

Anything by Miranda July. :)

Kennedy said...

i love miranda july! did you see her short short story in the latest issue of vice? it was pretty awesome.

Anonymous said...

Yay, book list! These are some great books. My heart was slaughtered by Revolutionary Road and I would recommend Easter Parade by Richard Yates if you liked Revolutionary Road. And maybe Black Swan Green by David Mitchell, the same dude who wrote Cloud Atlas, Pnin by Nabokov (even though some people think it's silly, I think it's really clever and funny) and I agree with everyone else who recommended female authors (Julie Orringer was my teacher in college and Kelly Link is the best!) Maybe I'd add Birds of America by Lorrie Moore to the list & I'm very curious about her new novel, and Here They Come by Yannick Murphy for more potty-mouthed books with sassy female narrators. And Geraldine Kim's Povel.

Sorry this became a monster list but I was so excited by your list!

xo Jenny

Lisa said...

middlesex by jeffrey eugenides, if you haven't read it yet! that was my favorite read of 2009.

Pauline said...

oh it's already been a year since your last impressive list! I noticed Palanuik, perhaps 'Non-fiction'? It's a collection of short stories.

I love John Steinbeck. Have you read 'The Pearl' by him? It's very short compared to his other works, but excellent nonetheless. I remember last year you had Miranda July. I got alot more into her because of you! :)

Minka said...

I can read Dark Tower by Stephen King all over again. I will try something from your list too

Caroline said...

Oh, I love East of Eden! This is quite the list, lady! My goal is to read at least 2 books a month for 2010.

Claire Marie said...

Oh, lovely list!

Sorry, I am a relatively new follower so I have no idea if you've read any of these before. But may I recommend:

The White Queen - Philippa Gregory;
Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks;
The Luminous Life of Lilly Aphrodite - Beatrice Colin;
Year of the Flood - Margaret Atwood;
The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold;
Kommandant's Girl - Pam Jenoff;
The Great Lover - Jill Dawson;
The 19th Wife - David Ebershoff;
The Book Thief - Marcus Zusak;
The History of Love - Nicole Krauss;
Dissolution - C. J. Samson;
and I've heard that Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel is particularly good too.

Those are my favourites from 2009, anyway!

Claire Marie x
http://tea-breaks.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

great reads...you have inspired some for me too.
I would recommend On the Road by Kerouac & the biography about Janis Joplin called Pearl...amazing.

bec said...

lolita is one of my favourite books - so beautiful but forbidden, full of conflicting emotions for a reader.

i also love on the road by kerouac, fear and loathing in las vegas is truly a fabulous, fun and wild ride, the great gatsby, anything by haruki murakami, the blind assassin by margaret atwood... where to stop!?

Suzy said...

Oh yes I remember your list from last year- how do you make such a long to-read list and then manage to stick to it?

I could be thinking of someone else, but aren't you a lit major? Or were at one point? I started my studies in that area (to disasterous results) last year and have full intentions to finish it out. Starting this fall. So I've got time.

Suzy said...

Oh! I forgot recommendations! I don't believe enough people induldge in F Scott Fitzgeralds short stories (unless, of course, brad pitt is starring in the film adaptation), and so I would say read all of them. Some are insanely funny, like The Baby Party, others over-the-top romantic, but my favorite collection has always been The Josephine Perry Stories, and I can totally mail-loan you my copy if your library doesn't carry it.

also i would be remiss not to tell you to read "A Rose For Emily" by Faulkner, another short piece that has been a long-time fave.

It's just a Monday said...

Ah I could reel loads of books off to you but here are a couple you may like -

Joanne Harris - five quarters of the orange

Patrick Gale - Notes from an exhibition

The are not brand spanking new but great reads.

Anonymous said...

THANK YOU FOR THIS. i've been needing a good book to read lately! i've just read a piece of cake by cupcake brown and was a little disappointed. it's about a young girl's life as a drug addict, a gangbanger, prostitute, etc. pretty depressing but interesting. i also read in cold blood by truman capote and loved that. i actually read that a couple of times this year. i definitely recommend that. less than zero was interesting. took place in the 80s, about kids doing drugs & having sex & partying & just doing whatever. it was okay. i guess you have to like his style of writing to really enjoy the book and i didn't love it. i read chuck palanuik's haunted which i've had lying around in my room for a while. i actually reaaaally enjoyed that one, so i reccommend that one too! ummm... i read a couple of biographies & memoirs (i'm really into memoirs) and that's pretty much it. this is a really long comment. thank you for this post! i'll be taking a trip to the library today...
love, dayna

Q's Daydream said...

Have you read Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier? its one of my favs ever!

j. said...

Amazing list! Last year marked the beginning of my love affair with Chuck Palahnuik's works. Ive only managed to read Invisible Monsters so far. Definitely looking forward to more. Iam not very good with recommendations but how about Anne Rice. I love her writing. White Oleander and The Hours are also intriguing. :-)

Mandi Johnson said...

I always wanted to read East of Eden, as I love the movie, but I heard it was really only based on the last part of the book. So that's on my 2010 list. And, I've also decided that I'm going to start reading more classic literature. Like Jane Eyre or even bust out some Dickens. We'll see how that goes... I heard he got paid per word. ha

Alejandro Reyes said...

I hope like it! =)
The Sartorialist by Scott Schuman

wiley said...

"blindness" by jose saramago is honestly one of the most intriguing novels i have ever read. i highly recommend it.
and "marching powder," by thomas mcfadden and rusty young was one of the most incredible books i've read. i got it at a book exchange in buenos aires and have passed it along to so many people who also loved it. (its usually in the latin american history section of borders or barnes & noble.
and not to gab on, but i'm currently reading "zelda," the biography of zelda fitzgerald and it is really fascinating.

Hello Lindello said...

Kafka was the rage.

quick and good read.

Rachelle said...

my recommendations: The Art of Travel [Alain de Boton] & Young Hearts Crying [Richard Yates]. I totally second the other recommendations of Rebecca & The Unbearable Lightness of Being...those are definitely 2 of my favorite books of all time!

by the way, I've just discovered this blog & I love it!

-Rachelle

Gina said...

I Love this List!!!!!
Oh wow, you read tons of my favorites this year!
I would also third the Julie Orringer selection...and if you love short stories, I would go on to recommend Adam Haslett's You Are Not A Stranger Here, Chimamanda Adichie Ngoze's The Thing Around Your Neck and ZZ Packer's Drinking Coffee Elsewhere...Great Big Novel-wise, sink your teeth into Anna Karenina...Victorian idyll-wise, read The Annotated Secret Garden with me and the lovely Jenny of Fashion for Writers!! Come on!
xoxo,
Gina

Rebecca, A Clothes Horse said...

Ooh great list and inspiration. I need to make a book list...I want to read more classics.

Belen Vazquez Amaro said...

thanks a lot! i´m following you too

Liz said...

so many of these books are on my list too. i recently reread the great gatsby because it was one of my fav books in high school.

Hillary said...

Love your blog. And grrreat list.

I'm from Portland-home of Chuck Palanuik :)- and a local popular author and amazing musician, Willy Vlautin, wrote two books that I really, really enjoyed this year:

The Motel Life & Northline

pretty easy reads but good travel/struggle tales of the west.

Jen Hsieh said...

i adore this book list. the reader is on my list for 2010. :)

Jess said...

SUCH great picks here. i loved lolita and ham on rye and anything palanuik

jennifer said...

I was late to the Dave Eggers party in the last couple years but completely fell in love. If you haven't read What Is The What or A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, I suggest you do. I would also very highly recommend The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill (I think in the US it's called Someone Knows My Name or something close to that)

Feisjanter said...

Try something different: One hundred years of solitude (Gabriel García Márquez) to me, the best novel of the XX century. It's a trip!

sarah said...

i love all the steinbeck!
east of eden is my favorite book. PERIOD. but a few recommends i can sling your way are 'never let me go' kazuo ishiguro, which apparently is being made into a film; secondly i suggest 'still life with woodpecker,' by tom robbins. he's one of my favorites. happy reading!!

Sophia said...

these are all fantastic reads. it appears that 2009 was a literary success :)

did you enjoy camus? i'd like to recommend sartre's "no exit" and beckett's "waiting for godot." both are short reads but are greatly rewarding.

Margaret said...

recommendations! Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer, and Self by Yann Martel. I've read each a dozen times. and I plan on reading a few books from your list!

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ANDWHATELSEISTHERE said...

david foster wallace's "this is water" - my all-time favorite,

happy 2010 kennedy.

ANDWHATELSEISTHERE

SHOP

Chelsea said...

I'm a book lover myself and I'm tempted to add a few of these to my 2010 to read list :)

June said...

How was the stranger?? I'm reading the plague right now and its wild, a real thinker. I will read the stranger next.
michelle
http://alamodagm.blogspot.com/

Rebecca (Dog-Eared) said...

great list :) i'm reading "the golden notebook" by doris lessing right now.. so good.

Lesa said...

Anything by Gabriel Garcia Marquez or Isabelle Allende. The lesser known Steinbecks are still very worthy and even though more popular fiction I loved "I Know This Much Is True" by Wally Lamb.

Anonymous said...

read some more books written by girls! ellen gilchrist, joan didion, lucy knisley, alice walker, barbara kingsolver, toni morrison, sylvia plath, isabel allende, ellen douglas, flannery o connor, eudora welty and elaine dundy all come to mind!

Gem Wilder said...

I also read (and loved) East of Eden & Lolita in 2009. Your list is impressive. Makes me think my 2010 resolution of at least a book a month is aiming low.

My recommendations:

~ The Vintner's Luck by Elizabeth Knox
~ The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett
~ The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer

Anonymous said...

i'm sure you've read these (because they're classics), but next on my list are: the postman always rings twice and a clockwork orange.

one of my favorite books of all time is the phantom tollboth by norton juster. i read it for the first time when i was in 5th grade and fell.in.love. in fact, i bought it for my son and he just finished reading it for a book report (he's in 4th grade.

so, eventhough it's essentially a children's book...i have a feeling you'll really dig it.

happy reading, my dear!