The 10 Best Books I Read in 2009

Runner-Up) Under the Dome by Stephen King

In what could be King’s most epic tale next to the Gunslinger Roland and The Stand, he returns to his small town Maine roots to concoct a story that is frightening in its simplicity and even more frightening in its scope. Here the BIG BAD isn’t some supernatural or other-worldly baddy, but plain and simple human greed and powerlust. The results are astoundingly political and frighteningly close to home.

Runner-Up) God is Dead by Ron Currie, Jr.

Ron Currie’s deliciously dark collection of post-God tales is uneven but there are a few stories here that put this book into near perfection. Don’t let the pseudo-religious (or anti-religious) overtones turn you off from this fascinating book. The author isn’t trying to take any sort of stance on God one way or the other. His is more a philosophical question: How can a society built on the belief, trust and faith in God continue on as normal when it knows for a fact that God has ceased to exist? The results are frightening, touching, funny and at a couple of points I literally had to catch my breath and hold back the tears. A powerful imagination at work.

10) The Boy Detective Fails by Joe Meno

The Boy Detective Fails is deceptively simple. It is merely a story about a boy detective (much like an Encyclopedia Brown) who grows up to find he lives in a world in which he doesn’t fit in and which he fails to understand. Just the act of taking such an archetypal character and placing it in the context of the real world is genius enough. To make it work on all levels at once makes it extraordinary. Meno makes us all rethink what our childhood mystery solving geniuses might be like if they worked in the cubicle next to ours. And what REALLY puts this over the top for me is the amount of fun the author and publisher has included for the reader in terms of interactive games and activities. The casual reader is really only cheating him/herself if they don’t play along and cut out the decoder ring that is included on the back cover flap. You get to decipher clues right along with the Boy Detective himself! And at the end of the book Meno and Co. supply a maze and a recipe for pound cake. Now that’s fun reading!

9) If on a winter’s night a traveler…by Italo Calvino

Calvino pulls off a jewel-heist of a novel here by substituting what should be a novel with ten different “starts” to ten different novels, connected by a wrap-around story about a reader (maybe even yourself) who starts a book called “If on a winter’s night a traveler…” only to find that it stops abruptly just as its getting good. He goes off in search of an ending and instead finds a conspiracy of book anarchists and book publishers more interested in finding a computer program that can write books in the style of popular authors than in actual works of art. The trick is that instead of being annoying or aggravating, Calvino pulls it off.

8) Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris

Ferris’ debut novel is a satiric gem. At face value, a comedy about working in an office, it delivers on multiple levels: funny, adroit, tense and emotional; this is a juggernaut of a read that takes on a mind of its own. The characters are well-drawn and the writing is as honest and loving as it comes. A warm hug of a read, this one promises us that we are all in this together.

7) A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers

Eggers’ self-aggrandizing title was almost enough to turn me off of this autobiography. But unfortunately the guy got it just about right. This semi-autobiographical tale about losing his mother to cancer and his having to raise his 12 year old brother in his twenties is just what it advertises. It is heartbreaking. If you have ever lost someone close to you, particularly a parent, and especially if it was a long and grueling sickness will want desperately to check out of this all-too-harrowing account of cancer’s effects, but will find it impossible to put down. Once you’re past the death, however, is when Eggers flips the switch and pulls off one of the most difficult and wildly irrational autobiographies ever written, making the term “genius” not so out of place. Included are conversations with himself as author of his own story, but told via the voice of his little brother, accusing him(self) of trying to steal focus by writing about himself as a martyr. The genius: it may be true. But then again, who knows…maybe he was simply trying to tell a story. You can debate where truth and honesty begin and end in this amazing debut for years to come.

6) Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Tower Wells

This is a collection of short stories about real people living simple (yet complicated) lives. They are vignettes from a dozen different lives. Nothing special, nothing outrageous, just daily slights and revenges. Think Raymond Carver but with a North Carolina twang. Tower Wells’ debut collection is the announcement of a major voice on the literary scene. His writing is effortless and rings true 100% of the time. His lyrical prose is pleasant to read and makes an afternoon in a comfortable chair feel absolutely timeless.

5) The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

This book intended for the 12-14 year old set boggled my mind. It is so brilliantly plotted and the characters and themes are so very advanced that I found it hard to imagine myself as a 12-year-old grasping the complexities of this story. Would I have enjoyed it? Without a doubt. As an adult I get to enjoy it and get it. Honestly the best book about a child raised by the denizens of a graveyard that you’ll read this year. Okay, ever.

4) The Millenium Series by Steig Larsson

Okay so this is three books, not one, but they read like one very big book. Steig Larsson would have been HUGE if he had lived. As it is, he died prematurely, before even the first book of the trilogy was published in the States. Imagine for a moment, an author so profoundly talented that he has a complete trilogy of novels delivered to his publisher, fast-tracked to production before the first of the three is even published. And then he dies. And then the first book is a phenomenon.
It lives up to the hype! The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is hands down one of the best books I’ve ever read. And each book continuing in the series picks up immediately where the last left off. Not a day passes from the end of one to the beginning of the next. So far The Girl Who Played with Fire is only available in the States in hardback. I think The Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest is due out in hardback in the States in May. I loved this series so much I went ahead and ordered the third book in the series from Amazon.uk. It cost a little more, but it was totally worth it. This is the best mystery/thriller series of the decade!


3) City of Thieves by David Benioff

This is the easiest recommendation I can make this year. Period. It started off as homework, and ended up being one of the most fun books I’ve ever read. This is golden writing. Screenwriter Benioff is an amazingly visual author and the characters fill a very real space inside your head. This is a fun beach read disguised as intellectual fodder. An amazing coming-of-age tale that combines drama, humor, and heart-thumping adventure, this book is easily the most universally pleasing of anything I read this year. This book will leave you smiling. ‘Nuff said.

2) The Terror by Dan Simmons

I have never been as lost in a written world as I was within Dan Simmons’ 18th century frozen wasteland that is the Antarctic. This is seriously the best historical fiction I have ever read. It is also one of the most suspenseful and terrifying novels I have ever read. Simmons is a true master. I can’t even begin to describe how fully he envelopes the reader into the world of an ice-bound ship and it’s terrified and starving crew. The terrors that follow in this masterpiece are both real and imaginary, and are all too often the work of human hands. When he masterfully brings his harrowing tale to an end, you will be both sad and relieved. An amazing story teller.

1) Zeitoun by Dave Eggers

This is a profoundly personal story about a great and proud man who finds himself in the position to be a hero and then finds himself the victim of incredible injustice.
Zeitoun is a biography that will leave you yearning for more. The writing here is so clear, so warm, so focused on the details that this comes across as a step-by-step account of how to be heroic. Until, that is, things go terribly, horribly wrong. And then when the facts come clear, the reader is filled with such absolute disgust and loathing that it is hard to continue reading. But faith pushes us on, because we’ve all been taught that good deeds get rewarded. The story of Zeitoun will make you WANT to be a better person. And that’s more important than anything else this can hope to accomplish. But the amazing thing about this tale is that it feels good to read it. Sure you may snarl from time to time, but this is some uplifting real-life shit, right here.