Best Books Of The Year

My official "no friends included" list of the best books of the year will be running in Las Vegas City Life this week, but I wanted to also list the books that I'm ethically not allowed to list in reputable papers and such. So, here's my list of favorite books from people I don't know, people I do know and people who probably hate me and books by people who wrote books that didn't make my list in City Life. Also, I'm including books in this that didn't come out in 2010 but might have come out in late 2009, too. Because it's not like everything I read I read the moment it arrives on my doorstep...which is another thing: I don't think I bought more than five books in physical stores this year. Maybe 10, if I really thought about it, but no more than that. I buy most of my books online or get them for free (the upside of reviewing a lot of books in magazines and newspapers and such: I pretty much just get whatever book I want sent to me, which is nice). And since there are a grand total of two bookstores in the desert -- a BN and a Borders that is poorly stocked -- it's just a lot easier. Oh! I finally read an ebook on my iPhone the other day. Or part of one. I downloaded a collection of Fitzgerald's short stories and after watching (the abortion of a film that was) The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, I read the original short story. Just as shitty, but the e-reading experience was fine.

Anyway...here you go, in no particular order (and I have a bunch of books from this year still to read, so this list will probably change...but, you know, as of today, at least, so don't start sending me emails saying, "What about Skippy Dies?" I haven't read it. I'm sure it's good. I'll read it and Matterhorn and whatever other books you tell me to read, provided they aren't by Salman Rushdie, soon, I promise.):

Next by James Hynes

Come on All You Ghosts by Matthew Zapruder

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

Baked by Mark Haskell Smith

The Lost Art of Reading by David Ulin

Half a Life by Darin Strauss

Mentor by Tom Grimes

In The Heart of the Beat: The Poetry of Rap by Alexs Pate

The Day After the Day After by Steven Church

Take One Candle Light a Room by Susan Straight

Slut Lullabies by Gina Frangello

Working Backwards from the Worst Moment of My Life by Rob Roberge

About A Mountain by John D'Agata

Day for Night by Frederik Reiken

Decoded by Jay-Z

The Unnamed by Joshua Ferris

Drift by Victoria Patterson

The Favorites by Mary Yukari Waters

Confessions of a Teenage Jesus Jerk by Tony Dushane

C by Tom McCarthy

How They Were Found by Matt Bell

How We Fall Apart by Rick Marlatt

Packing for Mars by Mary Roach

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

The Fourth Assassin by Matt Beynon Rees

Imperial Life in The Emerald City by Rajiv Chandrasekaran (this came out in 2006...but a new version came out this year with Matt Damon on the cover, so it counts)

 

Comments

[Lee Goldberg]

I haven't read CROOKED LETTER CROOKED LETTER yet, but Tom Franklin's HELL AT THE BREECH was fantastic.

Lee

[zoe zolbrod]

I'm pretty sure I read NEXT because of a review of yours, and I loved it, so thanks.

[Sam Dunn]

So glad Darin's memoir Half a Life made your list. I thought it was genie-ass and not just because he's one of my all-time favorite people...

[Matt Beynon Rees]

Thanks for including my novel THE FOURTH ASSASSIN, Tod. I shall be checking out Confessions of a Teenage Jesus Jerk for the title alone! best, Matt

[tod goldberg]

I'm a huge fan, Matt, so you could probably just put out a shopping list containing nothing but underwear and cleaning products and title it something along the lines of "The Last Jew In Sumer" and I'd buy it, read it, and tell everyone else to do so, too. And Confessions is a great book -- funny, weird, sad, and down right compelling.

[Brenna]

Thanks for the list! I'm going to check some of these out. Right after I finish the highly un-literary collection of Stephen King short stories I'm reading now :)