Best Books of 2005

[verbminx]

It being nigh-on December, the Best Books of 2005 lists are starting to come out. They're posting them at Bookslut as they find them, and I'm going to compile 'em right here.

Book that seems to pop up often or most (but that wasn't one of the Booker nominees) is Hilary Mantel's Beyond Black... it's on my "to read" list but quite a lot is ahead of it. Maybe I should bump it higher on the list. Also want to read Barnes's Arthur and George.

The New York Times Notables

London Times

The Guardian *

Christian Science Monitor


* note annoying pretentiousness of Chuck Palahniuk contribution. I Am Jack's Complete Lack of Surprise.

Comments

[audesapere.livejournal.com]

I thought Arthur & George was only okay, if my opinion counts any - killed an afternoon adn made me vaguely interested in Sherlock Holmes but it was a bit heavy-handed and glib.

[brocade-city.livejournal.com]

I've heard good things about Mitch Cullin's "Slight Trick of the Mind" (on the subject of holmes fiction).

[audesapere.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'd like to read more Ishiguro...although what I have read of him just didn't do much for me. Eh.

[verbminx.livejournal.com]

Which did you read? I really can't get through some of his books, and I'm less the kind of person to like them than I used to be. (Ex: "Remains of the Day" was like my fave book in 12th grade. I am a good deal more lively now, kind of an art-damaged prig then.)

[verbminx.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I had to delete my last version of this reply... read over the first paragraph and you'll see why! I am trying to type and watch TV at the same time. =/

It didn't win the Booker! (I think it was on the shortlist but I'm not sure. For a while it was the favorite.)

Then again, a lot of people really hate the book that did - The Sea by John Banville, IIRC. Whereas Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go is already considered an instant classic, even though it didn't win.

I think Never Let Me Go is more compelling if you don't know the central conceit beforehand, though... to DISCOVER what's going on must be a great deal creepier than knowing beforehand and watching it unfold.

Most of the other noms from this year look pretty good too.

[monkeyman.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you can just hear the subtext, "And that is where all my books would reside." Pretentiousness with a huge dollop of ego.

It's like the moment in Dante's Inferno, where the occupants (mostly great philosophers and artists, as I recall) of the comfiest circle of 'hell' say to him, "You'll be here with us some day."

[verbminx.livejournal.com]

*sigh*

Exactly.

I liked Fight Club, but... I don't think the Imperator is working with a full wardrobe, here.

[monkeyman.livejournal.com]

I've never really bothered to read it. Someone lent me a book of his short stories once, and I was annoyed halfway through the first page. I made it through a story or two, but I wasn't enjoying myself at all. And I'm finally at the point where I'm too old to finish a book that isn't entertaining or informing me. ;)

[brocade-city.livejournal.com]

Hilary Mantel's memoir, "Ghost of a Chance," (that sounds like the right title but maybe it's not) that came out a couple years ago seemed pretty good, but I never bought it. I keep turning down opportunities to buy Flud, too. She always strikes me as interesting if overrated.

[verbminx.livejournal.com]

I keep hearing great things about Mantel but haven't gotten around to reading her yet, which I could say about many writers.

One of these days.................

(Also keep meaning to read Ali Smith's Hotel World.)

[bizetsy.livejournal.com]

Wow, on the NYT list, I'm currently reading Garbage Land, but that's the only one I've touched. So much to read, so little time!!

Do you have any personal recommendations?

[verbminx.livejournal.com]

From the lists? I'm not sure. I read a few books I liked a lot this year, though. I accidentally posted last year's NYT list, at first (fixed it before anyone saw it), and realized that I'd read a bit of it this year. Try reading anything by David Mitchell - Cloud Atlas was his popular book last year and early this year, but I also liked number9dream when I read it earlier this year (it's a few years old, and a sort of tribute to Haruki Murakami).

I also liked Girl in a Swing by Richard Adams, which is about 25 yrs old, and chilling.
Home Land by Sam Lipsyte - made a lot of this year's lists, deservedly.
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova - got a lot of press when it came out, and the first half is really compelling. But since it's about academics RACING AGAINST TIME TO GET INFORMATION FROM ARCHIVES!, the excitement only goes so far. I don't think it's been on a lot of lists.
Madeleine is Sleeping by Sarah Shun-lien Bynum - Last year's, was an ABA nominee, good and dreamlike, will probably be enjoyed by people who like Winterson, though Bynum's linguistic skills aren't as effusive.
Foreign Babes in Beijing by Rachel DeWoskin - I haven't noticed this on any lists, though it may have landed there anyway. It's hard to describe, progressive nonfiction about a woman who lived in Beijing for 5 years after college and wound up stumbling into a starring role on a Chinese soap about, well, Foreign Babes in Beijing (also the soap's title).
The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil by George Saunders - a brief, funny, scary political satire. The most cheerful book about genocide that you'll ever read.
Valiant by Holly Black - blackholly, this is quite good young adult fantasy. (I couldn't get into Michael Chabon's YA Sherlock Holmes book, which is on many of the lists, most probably more because it is by Chabon than because it is specifically great.)
Don't Get Too Comfortable by David Rakoff - funny! I liked it better than Fraud, his previous book.
Rat Scabies and the Holy Grail by Christopher Dawes - collision of punk rock and esoteric obsessions! Dawes is really a friend of Rat Scabies, the former drummer for The Damned, and they really did go on a sort-of-quest for the Holy Grail over the last few years. Mostly this involved sitting around Rennes-le-Chateau in southern France, getting stoned. Not really about the Holy Grail per se, it's more about the Rennes mystery discussed in Holy Blood, Holy Grail. They get a copy of The DaVinci Code and, while they never read it, they do tear up its cover to make holders for their joints. So funny.

I also sort of skimmed, and will read more closely in the near future, the first three books in the long-ass fantasy series by George R.R. Martin, starting with A Game of Thrones. For the most part, these are more about political machinations in a medievalish kingdom than they are specifically about wizards and gnomes. Very little of what goes on is actually magical; even the dragons that eventually show up are acknowledged as rare, but not really more miraculous or magical than elephants or giraffes would be to us. I think they could be enjoyed even by people who aren't normally into fantasy... I'm going to get the books-on-cd for my mom from the library so she can try them out in the car.

Pop by minxbot, that's where I post all my book stuff! Thinking of integrating it back here, though... between friends groups and tagging there's no compelling reason to keep it as a separate journal anymore.