Best Books of 2005
Nov. 30th, 2005 12:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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.
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.
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Date: 2005-11-30 12:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-30 03:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-30 09:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-30 09:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-30 09:53 pm (UTC)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.
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Date: 2005-11-30 12:17 pm (UTC)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."
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Date: 2005-11-30 09:48 pm (UTC)Exactly.
I liked Fight Club, but... I don't think the Imperator is working with a full wardrobe, here.
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Date: 2005-12-01 01:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-30 03:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-30 09:54 pm (UTC)One of these days.................
(Also keep meaning to read Ali Smith's Hotel World.)
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Date: 2005-11-30 04:06 pm (UTC)Do you have any personal recommendations?
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Date: 2005-11-30 09:33 pm (UTC)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 -
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.
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