Best or Favorite Books of the Past Decade?

16 years ago

As we approach the last days of the decade (the Aughts? the "double 0's"? the 2000's?) what do you think were some of the best books of the decade?

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Comments (32)

Kath
16 years ago
How about the noughties? It's what they are called here :-)

I would put Wolf Hall up there.
froniga
16 years ago

I can't remember back a whole decade but the book I've enjoyed most recently is The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. The characters are so charming although the background of the story is tragic.
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elliottb
Original Author
16 years ago
Marilynne Robinson's "Gilead" was also one of the decade's best for me.
sheriz6
16 years ago
I've kept a list of books read since 2002. Some of the books listed are quite old, but new to me. Here are my favorites for (most of) the decade:

2002
Lydia Casset Reading the Morning Paper by Harriet Scott Chessman
Life of Pi by Yann Martel

2003
Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman
Blue Latitudes by Tony Horwitz
Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (yes, I know, I know *G*)
The Flanders Panel Arturo Perez-Reverte

2004
The Cazelet Chronicles (The Light Years, Marking Time, Confusion and Casting Off) by Elizabeth Jane Howard
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke

2005
Middlesex by Jeffrey Euginides
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

2006
The Merry Hall Trilogy by Beverley Nichols
My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell

2007
Truck: A Love Story by Michael Perry
The Last Days of Summer by Steve Kluger
The Yellow Lighted Bookshop by Lewis Buzbee

2008
People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories by Susanna Clarke
Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O'Nan
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Annie Barrows

2009
Nella Last's War diary edited by Susie Fleming and Richard Broad
The House at Riverton by Kate Morton
The Southern Vampire Mysteries (aka The Sookie Stackhouse books / True Blood) by Charlaine Harris (this one's hardly literary, but it is a truly guilty pleasure!)
woodnymph2_gw
16 years ago
Here are my favorites,in no particular order:

Kristin Lavransdatter: Sigrid Undset
Angle of Repose: Wallace Stegner
Shadow of the Wind: Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Historian: Elizabeth Kostova
The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Society: A. Barrows
People of the Book: Geraldine Brooks
Thirst: Mary Oliver (poetry)
The Turn of the Screw: Henry James
The Age of Innocence: Edith Wharton
The Sheltering Sky: Paul Bowles
Brideshead Revisited: Evelyn Waugh
Giants in the Earth: O.E. Rolvaag (a re-read)
My Antonia: Willa Cather
beth105
16 years ago
My favorites:

The Accidental by Ali Smith
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer
junek-2009
16 years ago
Just two from this last year for me.

Music and Silence - Rose Tremain

Water For Elephants - Sara Gruen
stoneangel
16 years ago
The favourites I can remember :c)

A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen

A Very Long Engagement - Sebastien Japrisot

The Road - Cormac McCarthy

Mystic River - Dennis Lehane
Bumblebeez SC Zone 7
16 years ago
Published this past decade:
My Life in France- Julia Child
Time Traveler's Wife
The Historian
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (ok, all favorites)
Finding Eichmann
The Stolen Child
martin_z
16 years ago
Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro
A Long Long Way - Sebastian Barry
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell - absolutely my favourite book of the last ten years.
Life of Pi - Yan Martell
The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz-Zafon

I have to include the Harry Potter books too - I admit they are not great literature, but I have never had so much sheer FUN in anticipating and reading them as each one came out; and it was wonderful to share it with all the family too. (And the HP fans here too!)
ginny12
16 years ago
If I made a list, my computer would crash so I'll pick just one, read at the beginning of the decade:

The Unredeemed Captive by John Demos. It's a true story written by one of the leading scholars of early New England history, thoroughly researched and as dramatic and heart-stopping as any novel could ever hope to be.

A young girl is kidnapped by French and Indians from her frontier home in Massachusetts in a raid during the bitter winter of 1704. Her father is the minister and therefore the leader of the town. Despite his worldly power, and his love for his daughter, she refuses to return. She has bonded with her new culture and religion in Canada. But she loves her father and her family too. What will happen?

The description of the three cultures--Puritan, French Catholic, Native American--and how they clash and compromise is told thru the drama of real lives and real people. What a movie this would make. As it is, I didn't move for two days, til I finished it.
junek-2009
16 years ago
Three of Elizabeth Strout's books, wonderful reading.

Olive Kitteridge
Amy and Isabelle
Abide with me.

Olive Kitteridge was my very very favourite, a must read for any woman.
sheriz6
16 years ago
How could I have forgotten Harry Potter?! The entire series should be added to my list. :)

junek, I just finished Olive Kitterage and loved it. I will have to look for the other books you mentioned.
junek-2009
16 years ago
sheriz6, At last I have found someone else who has read Olive, oh what a lady!! remember the part where she is having rest in the master bedroom after the wedding!!
The things that she got up to!!!

Junek
dynomutt
16 years ago
I'll take Shadow of the Wind and The Historian. I guess I might also include the Harry Potter series since I've read it a few times. (I couldn't help it -- I had to re-read them every time a new book came out! Of course, I didn't start until they were 4 books into the series.)
rambo
16 years ago
So some on my list have been mentioned already... I want to check out everyone's favourites.

Here's my list:
Life of Pi
Shadow of the Wind
The Historian
The Kite Runner
Memoirs of a Geisha
De Niro's Game
Oryx and Crake
Chris_in_the_Valley
16 years ago
Harry Potter
Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
Life of Pi - Yan Martell
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
Birds Without Wings by Louis de BerniÃ¨res
The Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke - the tale that grew out of Burke's experience of Katrina
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
The Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson
and lots more that I'll remember as soon as I post this.
lydia_katznflowers
16 years ago
ginny12, The Unredeemed Captive sounds so interesting! I have added it to my new year's wishlist.

I think all of these were published in the 2000's:

Afterimage - Helen Humphreys
Galway Bay - Mary Pat Kelly
Girl with a Pearl Earring - Chevalier
No Great Mischief - Alistair MacLeod
Q&A - Vikas Swarup
The Time Traveler's Wife - Niffenegger

Since joining RP I have participated in discussions that have made these books even more memorable:

The Little Stranger - Waters
The Sheltering Sky - Bowles (not from 2000's but my first time to read it)
Wolf Hall - Mantel

And of course the Harry Potter books!
ccrdmrbks
16 years ago
My list from memory: these are books I read for the first time in the decade, but not all were published after 2000.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
Middlesex
The Stolen Child
Bel Canto
The series by Louise Penny:
Still Life
A Rule Against Murder
The Cruellest Month
A Fatal Grace
The Potters, all of them. Joy to fall into a book as a child does-wholeheartedly and consumed
Shadow Divers
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
The Ruth Reichl books:
Tender at the Bone
Garlic and Sapphires
Comfort Me With Apples
Margaret George's Autobiography of Henry VIII
The Razor's Edge
A Thousand Splendid Suns
All of Sharon Kay Penman
The minute I hit submit I'll remember another, I just know it!
vickitg
16 years ago
Not in any order:
House of Sand and Fog Â Andre Dubus III
Life of Pi - by Yann Martel
Motherless Brooklyn Â Jonathan Lethem
Peace Like a River - by Leif Enger
Blue Diary - Alice Hoffman
The Girls - Lori Lansens
Montana 1948 - Larry Watson
The Tortilla Curtain - T.C. Boyle
All the Potter books - but especially the last one.
The Golden Compass books - Philip Pullman
Smilla's Sense of Snow - Peter Hoeg
Nation - Terry Pratchett
American Gods and Ananzi Boys
Island of the Sequined Love Nun; The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove and other Christopher Moore books.
ginny12
16 years ago
I hope you enjoy The Unredeemed Captive as much as I did, Lydia. It was so good that I visited Deerfield MA where the family lived. It was a bitter cold winter's day and as dusk settled I could just imagine how they all felt--all the personalities involved in the true-life drama.
Bumblebeez SC Zone 7
16 years ago
I'm glad to see Garlic and Sapphires listed as that's one I almost added. These lists have been quite interesting and I'm saving the thread for reference. I've read about half the books listed, almost all the popular ones, but didn't like them! Hated the popular Potato Peel book :(
balrog1954
16 years ago
My big discovery of the decade was China Mieville; Perdido Street Station and The Scar are two of the best fantasies ever.

Also Hall Duncan's duo "The Book of all Hours" (Vellum and Ink), possibly the best mix of mythology and fantasy since Julian May.

And thanks to this group, Sharon Kay Penman's Welsh trilogy.

Kavalier and Clay
Cloud Atlas
Time Traveller's Wife
Garth Nix' "Old Kingdom" trilogy (Sabriel; Lirael; Abhorsen)
All of Neil Stephenson
Bruce Sterling's Zeitgeist

I believe that tumultuous times produce good art; if so, this last decade is certainly an example.
rambo
16 years ago
So I came across 2 articles that might be of interest if you are into Canlit. They each list their to 10 of the decade. This first one is from Macleans Magazine (a prominent Canadian magazine).

Here is a link that might be useful: Top 10 Canadian Books of the Decade
rambo
16 years ago
This list is from Now Magazine.

Happy New Year!

Here is a link that might be useful: Top 10 Canadian Books
Kath
16 years ago
If we are talking books we read in the last decade, mine would include the following:

Harry Potter
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
In the Company of the Courtesan and The Birth of Venus by Sara Dunant
Too Many Men by Lily Brett
Small Island by Andrea Levy
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khalid Hosseini
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
His Dark Materials Trilogy by Phillip Pullman
The People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
The Guernsey Literary and PPP Society by Mary Shaffer
If This Is A Man by Primo Levi
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
The Victorian House, non fiction by Judith Flanders
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
Fallen Angel and The American Boy by Andrew Taylor
The Regeneration Trilogy by Pat Barker
Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides
Q & A by Vikas Swarup

I also enjoyed C J Sansom's Tudor mysteries, Louise Penny's Canadian mysteries, J A Konrath's very funny crime books, Diana Norman's Makepiece Bourke books, and her Middle Ages forensic/crime books under the alias of Ariana Franklin, and Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse books, much to my surprise.
J C
16 years ago
American Gods by Neil Gaiman is probably the most extraordinary book I've read in the past few years, as well as Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell.

I would also like to give a nod to the Harry Potter books which I enjoyed more than I would have ever imagined, and read all of them more than once.
rosaearth
16 years ago
Hi everyone-I get alot of my book ideas for the library from this forum. I read way more than I post! Question to bumblebeez is the book "Finding Eichmann" called "Hunting Eichmann"? I can not locate "Finding Eichmann" it and it sounds interesting.
Thanks!
kkay_md
16 years ago
"The Known World" by Edward P. Jones--fabulous.
veer
16 years ago
At Last I have got around to checking out some of my favourite books more-or-less from the last decade.
In no particular order:

A House in Flanders - Michael Jenkins
King of the Barbareens - Janet Hickman
A Circle of Sisters - Judith Flanders
Old Filth - Jane Gardam
Come Tell Me How You Live - Agatha Christie
Brensham Trilogy - John Moore
Music and Silence - Rose Tremain
Empire of the Sun - J G Ballard
Girl in the Blue Dress - Gaynor Arnold
The Great Weston Beach - Emma Smith

Like Kath I always enjoy the book by Diana Norman/Adriana Franklin and the C J Sansom Tudor whodunnits and anything by Laurie Graham (remember the ones about Mrs Simpson and the Kennedy's?)
grelobe
16 years ago
A Few Short Notes On Tropical Butterflies (Stories) - John Murray

Libra - Don DeLillo

Orley Farm - Antony Trollope

Burning Secret - Stefan Zweig

The Book Thief - Marcus Zusak

Death in Summer - William Trevor

The Queen's Gambit - Walter Tevis

Angela's Ashes - Frank McCourt

Apartment in Athen - Glenway Wescott

Barney's Version - Mordecai Richler

Reunion - Fred Uhlman

The Siege of Krishnapur - J.G. Farrell

Small Island - Andrea Levy

Timbuktu - Paul Auster

The Elephanta Suite (Stories) - Paul Theroux

Stones for Ibarra - Harriet Doerr

Don Segundo Sombra - Ricardo Guiraldes

I'm Not Scared - Nicolo Ammaniti

Mountains Beyond Mountains - Tracy Kidder

Scribbling the Cat : Travel's with an African Soldier - Alexandra Fuller

Arabian Sands - Wilfred Thesiger

After Long Silence - Helen Fremont

grelobe
pollopicu
16 years ago
The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz.

Best or Favorite Books of the Past Decade?

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Best or Favorite Books of the Past Decade?

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