New Year Review

What I Read in 2009

Last year I made a facebook note listing the books I read in 2008 so I figured with about twelve hours to the new year this was a good time for me to reflect on what I read in the last year. I did not read nearly as many books as I did last year or the year before, but it was still a rewarding year for literature.

What follows is a list, in chronological order, of books I finished reading during 2009. There are many titles that are left in progress or were abandoned or half-read. For the sake concision, I have only included McSweeney's (lengthy) quarterly concern and not other literary journals (such as Zoetrope) that I read during the year.

My six favorite books I read this past year are in bold and include a brief description of the book. Other notable titles have asterisks and there are some brief notes about genre for some of the entries.

01. It's a Good Life, If You Don't Weaken by Seth (a really beautiful graphic novel)*
02. Maps and Legends by Michael Chabon (non-fiction Christmas present)*
03. Shakespeare Wrote for Money by Nick Hornby (columns about what Hornby reads each month compiled from The Believer)*
04. The Bus Driver Who Wanted to be God and Other Stories by Etgar Keret (trippy short stories)
05. The Best American Short Stories 2008 by Salman Rushdie
06. Skellig by David Almond (YA novel Hronby wrote about in his book [it's about an angel])*
07. Nothing Right by Antonya Nelson (short stories)
08. The Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon (great novel)*
09. Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

NfU is a thrilling tale of anger with society. The narrator is a disturbed, but charming, man who despises the pretensions of the upper class around him and lashes out at the world in what is written as his ranting document.

10. McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, Issue 30 (the only McSweeney's I finished cover to cover this year)
11. Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link

MfB is a collection of beautifully crafted stories pondering the funnier and eerier possibilities of the human experience through science fiction and horror genre-writing. Written in gentle, lovel prose about dark, twisted subjects, the collection is a compelling argument for the ability of genre writing to probe the mysteries of existence in the same way as...

12. City of Glass by Paul Auster

CoG is a haunting exploration of the inner mechanics of the human mind and also a eflection on the purpose of literature. It has been described as a "metaphysical detective novel" but this descriptor by no means adequately explains what a trenchant, harrowing experience it is to read, especially with the other two entries in this so-called "New York Trilogy"

13. Ghosts by Paul Auster (part two of a trilogy, weakest entry)
14. The Locked Room by Paul Auster (part three, brilliant)*
15. The Lazarus Project by Aleksandar Hemon (novel)*
16. Uglies by Scott Westerfeld (YA novel, taught in my reading class)*
17. Pretties by Scott Westerfeld (its first sequel)
18. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout (won the Pultizer, beautiful short stories)*
19. The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich (lovely novel)*
20. Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Wells Tower (short stories)
21. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

Another example of strong genre-writing this year. HoHH is a disturbing story fraught with tension. The reader cannot help but become psychologically disturbed as the narrator does so. Jackson's real strength here is the emotional complexity of this character, which creates a stronger sense of empathy as the heroine goes slowly mad.

22. Specials by Scott Westerfeld (second sequel)
23. How It Ended by Jay McInerney (collected short stories)
24. Nobody Move by Denis Johnson (super cool McCarthyesque novel)*
25. Love and Obstacles: Stories by Aleksandar Hemon (short stories)
26. Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut (novel)
27. The Convalescent by Jessica Anthony (wonderfully weird novel)*
28. Read Hard: Five Years of Great Writing from The Believer (excellent essays)*
29. The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon (excellent detective novel)*
30. Caricature by Daniel Clowes (graphic novel)
31. The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet by Reif Larson (really cool YA novel)*
32. Run by Ann Patchett (novel)
33. True Grit by Charles Portis

TG is the story of a young woman in the American frontier hell-bent on avenging her father's wrongful murder. What follows is a hysterically funny and yet gripping story of a woman wise perhaps beyond her means who is underestimated by everyone she meets.

34. The Way through Doors by Jesse Ball (metaphysically twisted novel)
35. Oracle Night by Paul Auster (novel)*
36. Couch by Benjamin Parzybok (novel)
37. Castle by J. Robert Lennon (super creepy suspense)*
38. Men and Cartoons by Jonathan Lethem (stories)*
39. Wrong: Stories by Dennis Cooper (twisted gay stories)
40. Fever Chart by Bill Cotter (novel)
41. Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon

AYR is a chilling meditation of the significance of the creature comforts of identity we use to feel secure in our lives. It is also an incredibly compelling, well-plotted, seemingly conventional contemporary thriller in the best sense of all of those terms.

42. In the Valley of Kings by Terrence Holt (excellent stories)*
43. Animal Soul by Bob Hicok (poems)
44. Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon (pyschedelic detective novel)*
45. Chronic City by Jonathan Lethem (novel)*
46. Erased by Jim Krusoe (weird little novel)*
47. Altman: The Oral Biography by Mitchell Zuckoff (biography)*
48. Invisible by Paul Auster (novel)*
49. Heroes by Robert Cormier (YA novel)
50. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (novel)*
51. A Poetry Handbook by Mary Oliver (nonfiction)

Happy New Year, and Happy Reading!