{"id":1455,"date":"2008-06-28T01:10:33","date_gmt":"2008-06-28T01:10:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/?p=1455"},"modified":"2008-06-28T01:10:33","modified_gmt":"2008-06-28T01:10:33","slug":"top_100_of_the_last_25_part_2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/2008\/06\/28\/top_100_of_the_last_25_part_2\/","title":{"rendered":"Top 100 of the Last 25, Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

I realized the previous entry was getting to be ridiculously long, so I moved the book list over here. Read on…<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The Road<\/i>, Cormac McCarthy (2006)<\/li>\n
  2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire<\/b><\/i>, J.K. Rowling (2000)
    \nAgain, I agree with Jaquandor: Azkaban<\/i> is the better entry in the series than Goblet<\/i>. I feel the same way about the Potter movies, now that I think about it. I just really like Sirius Black and the way Azkaban<\/i> comes together. Also, the Dementers aren’t as scary again as they are here in their first appearance.<\/li>\n
  3. Beloved<\/i>, Toni Morrison (1987)<\/li>\n
  4. The Liars’ Club<\/i>, Mary Karr (1995)<\/li>\n
  5. American Pastoral<\/i>, Philip Roth (1997)<\/li>\n
  6. Mystic River<\/i>, Dennis Lehane (2001)<\/li>\n
  7. Maus<\/b><\/i>, Art Spiegelman (1986\/1991)
    \nIt’s such a goofy idea — a comic-book retelling of the Holocaust with cats standing in as Nazis and mice as Jews — but it works on you in subtle, unexpected ways, and the end result is far more effective than if Spiegelman had chosen to draw his story in a more realistic manner.<\/li>\n
  8. Selected Stories<\/i>, Alice Munro (1996)<\/li>\n
  9. Cold Mountain<\/i>, Charles Frazier (1997)<\/li>\n
  10. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle<\/i>, Haruki Murakami (1997)<\/li>\n
  11. Into Thin Air<\/b><\/i>, Jon Krakauer (1997)
    \nA devastating account of courage, hubris, and stupidity in the face of implacable, uncaring nature.<\/li>\n
  12. Blindness<\/i>, Jos\u00e9 Saramago (1998)<\/li>\n
  13. Watchmen<\/i>, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (1986-87)
    \nEveryone considers one of the big classics, if not The<\/i> Classic, of the comic-book\/graphic novel medium. I really need to check it out one of these days.<\/li>\n
  14. Black Water<\/i>, Joyce Carol Oates (1992)<\/li>\n
  15. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius<\/i>, Dave Eggers (2000)
    \nHaven’t read it, don’t even know what it’s about, but I will say this gets my vote for “most pretentious title on this list.”<\/li>\n
  16. The Handmaid’s Tale<\/i>, Margaret Atwood (1986)
    \nI’d like to read this…<\/li>\n
  17. Love in the Time of Cholera<\/i>, Gabriel Garc\u00eda M\u00e1rquez (1988)<\/li>\n
  18. Rabbit at Rest<\/i>, John Updike (1990)<\/li>\n
  19. On Beauty<\/i>, Zadie Smith (2005)<\/li>\n
  20. Bridget Jones’s Diary<\/i>, Helen Fielding (1998)<\/li>\n
  21. On Writing<\/b><\/i>, Stephen King (2000)
    \nThis probably should be more of a “half-bolding,” as I’ve only read bits and pieces of this, but from what I’ve seen, it’s a tremendous book, part memoir, part advice to those who would follow in King’s footsteps, and part love-letter to the process and joy of expressing oneself with words. King has given his loyal fans this sort of intimate monologue on a small scale throughout his career, in the form of his frequent forewords and author’s notes, but this book — again, based just on the bits I’ve read — seems to be everything the man is about in one volume. I need to read the entire book.<\/li>\n
  22. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao<\/i>, Junot D\u00edaz (2007)<\/li>\n
  23. The Ghost Road<\/i>, Pat Barker (1996)<\/li>\n
  24. Lonesome Dove<\/b><\/i>, Larry McMurtry (1985)
    \nMagnificent, a genre-transcending monster of a novel that is ultimately more about friendship and the importance — and costs — of sticking to your personal codes than it is about cows or six-guns.<\/li>\n
  25. The Joy Luck Club<\/i>, Amy Tan (1989)<\/li>\n
  26. Neuromancer<\/b><\/i>, William Gibson (1984)
    \nI read this in college and didn’t get it. I need to revisit it now that I actually have some inkling of what cyberspace is supposed to be…<\/li>\n
  27. Possession<\/i>, A.S. Byatt (1990)<\/li>\n
  28. Naked<\/i>, David Sedaris (1997)<\/li>\n
  29. Bel Canto<\/i>, Anne Patchett (2001)<\/li>\n
  30. Case Histories<\/i>, Kate Atkinson (2004)<\/li>\n
  31. The Things They Carried<\/i>, Tim O’Brien (1990)<\/li>\n
  32. Parting the Waters<\/i>, Taylor Branch (1988)<\/li>\n
  33. The Year of Magical Thinking<\/i>, Joan Didion (2005)<\/li>\n
  34. The Lovely Bones<\/i>, Alice Sebold (2002)<\/li>\n
  35. The Line of Beauty<\/i>, Alan Hollinghurst (2004)<\/li>\n
  36. Angela’s Ashes<\/i>, Frank McCourt (1996)<\/li>\n
  37. Persepolis<\/i>, Marjane Satrapi (2003)<\/li>\n
  38. Birds of America<\/i>, Lorrie Moore (1998)<\/li>\n
  39. Interpreter of Maladies<\/i>, Jhumpa Lahiri (2000)<\/li>\n
  40. His Dark Materials<\/i>, Philip Pullman (1995-2000)<\/li>\n
  41. The House on Mango Street<\/i>, Sandra Cisneros (1984)<\/li>\n
  42. LaBrava<\/i>, Elmore Leonard (1983)<\/li>\n
  43. Borrowed Time<\/i>, Paul Monette (1988)<\/li>\n
  44. Praying for Sheetrock<\/i>, Melissa Fay Greene (1991)<\/li>\n
  45. Eva Luna<\/i>, Isabel Allende (1988)<\/li>\n
  46. Sandman<\/b><\/i>, Neil Gaiman (1988-1996)
    \nI once recommended the Sandman<\/i> series to someone as “comic books for people who don’t know anything about comics and don’t really want to,” and I still stand by that. The series begins rather shakily, as a contrived effort to revive and reinterpret a long-dormant (and mostly forgotten) character from the medium’s Golden Age, but as soon as Gaiman was given the go-ahead to run with his own ideas, it quickly hit its stride and became something truly remarkable, nothing less than a meditation on the notion of storytelling and imagination itself. It’s brilliant… and Gaiman’s conception of Death<\/a> is a cutie, too, much nicer than Ingmar Bergman’s…<\/li>\n
  47. World’s Fair<\/b><\/i>, E.L. Doctorow (1985)
    \nI’m not sure why the 1939 World’s Fair holds sway over the popular imagination, unless it’s because it was the last gasp of naively optimistic futurism, but it was a fascinating moment in history, a good backdrop for a novel, and I remember liking this book very much. Can’t remember why<\/i> I liked it so much, but I did…<\/li>\n
  48. The Poisonwood Bible<\/i>, Barbara Kingsolver (1998)<\/li>\n
  49. Clockers<\/i>, Richard Price (1992)<\/li>\n
  50. The Corrections<\/i>, Jonathan Franzen (2001)<\/li>\n
  51. The Journalist and the Murderer<\/i>, Janet Malcom (1990)<\/li>\n
  52. Waiting to Exhale<\/i>, Terry McMillan (1992)<\/li>\n
  53. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay<\/b><\/i>, Michael Chabon (2000)
    \nA rich, engrossing novel that combines the history of comic-books — including some real-life people — with high literary quality. I highly recommend it.<\/li>\n
  54. Jimmy Corrigan<\/i>, Chris Ware (2000)<\/li>\n
  55. The Glass Castle<\/i>, Jeannette Walls (2006)<\/li>\n
  56. The Night Manager<\/i>, John le Carr\u00e9 (1993)<\/li>\n
  57. The Bonfire of the Vanities<\/i>, Tom Wolfe (1987)<\/li>\n
  58. Drop City<\/i>, TC Boyle (2003)<\/li>\n
  59. Krik? Krak!<\/i> Edwidge Danticat (1995)<\/li>\n
  60. Nickel & Dimed<\/i>, Barbara Ehrenreich (2001)
    \nI’m interested in this book, but suspect it would (a) tell me nothing I didn’t already know, and (b) piss me off about the injustice of our supposedly just society.<\/li>\n
  61. Money<\/i>, Martin Amis (1985)<\/li>\n
  62. Last Train To Memphis<\/i>, Peter Guralnick (1994)
    \nMy mother is the Elvis fan in this family — I respect<\/i> Elvis’ contributions to pop music, but I don’t really love<\/i> them, if that makes sense — but I’d still like to borrow this from her one of these days…<\/li>\n
  63. Pastoralia<\/i>, George Saunders (2000)<\/li>\n
  64. Underworld<\/i>, Don DeLillo (1997)<\/li>\n
  65. The Giver<\/i>, Lois Lowry (1993)<\/li>\n
  66. A Supposedly Fun Thing I\u2019ll Never Do Again<\/i>, David Foster Wallace (1997)<\/li>\n
  67. The Kite Runner<\/i>, Khaled Hosseini (2003)<\/li>\n
  68. Fun Home<\/i>, Alison Bechdel (2006)<\/li>\n
  69. Secret History<\/i>, Donna Tartt (1992)<\/li>\n
  70. Cloud Atlas<\/i>, David Mitchell (2004)<\/li>\n
  71. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down<\/i>, Ann Fadiman (1997)<\/li>\n
  72. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time<\/i>, Mark Haddon (2003)<\/li>\n
  73. A Prayer for Owen Meany<\/i>, John Irving (1989)<\/li>\n
  74. Friday Night Lights<\/i>, H.G. Bissinger (1990)<\/li>\n
  75. Cathedral<\/i>, Raymond Carver (1983)<\/li>\n
  76. A Sight for Sore Eyes<\/i>, Ruth Rendell (1998)<\/li>\n
  77. The Remains of the Day<\/i>, Kazuo Ishiguro (1989)<\/li>\n
  78. Eat, Pray, Love<\/i>, Elizabeth Gilbert (2006)<\/li>\n
  79. The Tipping Point<\/i>, Malcolm Gladwell (2000)<\/li>\n
  80. Bright Lights, Big City<\/b><\/i>, Jay McInerney (1984)
    \nI read this years ago, but all I really remember are the annoying and pretentious gimmick of a second-person-present-tense narration (“you do this, you do that” — gack), and an overall ’80s-urban vibe. I suspect I would find it badly dated now.<\/li>\n
  81. Backlash<\/i>, Susan Faludi (1991)<\/li>\n
  82. Atonement<\/i>, Ian McEwan (2002)<\/li>\n
  83. The Stone Diaries<\/i>, Carol Shields (1994)<\/li>\n
  84. Holes<\/i>, Louis Sachar (1998)<\/li>\n
  85. Gilead<\/i>, Marilynne Robinson (2004)<\/li>\n
  86. And the Band Played On<\/i>, Randy Shilts (1987)<\/li>\n
  87. The Ruins<\/i>, Scott Smith (2006)<\/li>\n
  88. High Fidelity<\/i>, Nick Hornby (1995)
    \nLiked the movie. Probably ought to read it one of these days.<\/li>\n
  89. Close Range<\/i>, Annie Proulx (1999)<\/li>\n
  90. Comfort Me With Apples<\/i>, Ruth Reichl (2001)<\/li>\n
  91. Random Family<\/i>, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc (2003)<\/li>\n
  92. Presumed Innocent<\/i>, Scott Turow (1987)<\/li>\n
  93. A Thousand Acres<\/i>, Jane Smiley (1991)<\/li>\n
  94. Fast Food Nation<\/i>, Eric Schlosser (2001)
    \nLike the Ehrenreich book above, I’m interested but suspect it would just raise my blood pressure. Or gross me out. You see, I eat a lot of fast food, and I know it’s bad in a million different ways, but I kinda don’t what to know the details…<\/li>\n
  95. Kaaterskill Falls<\/i>, Allegra Goodman (1998)<\/li>\n
  96. The Da Vinci Code<\/i>, Dan Brown (2003)
    \nI’ve got no interest in this book, despite apparently being the last person on the planet who hasn’t read it…<\/li>\n
  97. Jesus\u2019 Son<\/i>, Denis Johnson (1992)<\/li>\n
  98. The Predators’ Ball<\/i>, Connie Bruck (1988)<\/li>\n
  99. Practical Magic<\/i>, Alice Hoffman (1995)<\/li>\n
  100. America (the Book)<\/i>, Jon Stewart\/Daily Show (2004)
    \nMeh. I really don’t get the fuss over Jon Stewart. I may be on the same political side as him, but he strikes me as so self-satisfied…<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Book lists always depress me a little, because they demonstrate rather forcibly that I’m not nearly as literary as I’ve always believed. I’m ashamed to admit how few of these supposedly important works I’ve ever even heard of, let alone read. I have nothing to add to the list, either, except perhaps Stephen King’s Dark Tower series, a monumental epic fantasy that is both informed by and informs King’s entire body of work (although that probably wouldn’t count because the first volume appeared more than 25 years ago), or possibly Anne Rice’s The Vampire Lestat<\/i>, which completely upended our conception of vampires and is still producing imitators today. But perhaps those choices only show how pedestrian my reading tastes really are…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I realized the previous entry was getting to be ridiculously long, so I moved the book list over here. Read on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-memes-and-quizzes","category-the-bookshelf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1455\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}