verbminx ([personal profile] verbminx) wrote2005-11-30 12:31 am
  • Add Memory
  • Share This Entry
Entry tags:

Best Books of 2005

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.
Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[identity profile] audesapere.livejournal.com 2005-11-30 12:07 pm (UTC)(link)
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.

[identity profile] brocade-city.livejournal.com 2005-11-30 03:54 pm (UTC)(link)
I've heard good things about Mitch Cullin's "Slight Trick of the Mind" (on the subject of holmes fiction).
(deleted comment)

[identity profile] audesapere.livejournal.com 2005-11-30 09:54 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, I'd like to read more Ishiguro...although what I have read of him just didn't do much for me. Eh.

[identity profile] verbminx.livejournal.com 2005-11-30 09:57 pm (UTC)(link)
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.)

[identity profile] verbminx.livejournal.com 2005-11-30 09:53 pm (UTC)(link)
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.
Flat | Top-Level Comments Only