Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell -- How many people think it is strange that someone would laugh out loud at nearly every paragraph in a book about Puritans? If you say yes, you need to read Sarah Vowell.
State by State by Matt Weiland and Sean Wilsey --- following the WPA guides that were written during the Great Depression, Weiland and Wilsey asked 50 authors to write about a state. Some of the authors had never lived in the state they wrote about, and others were very enthusiastic, life-long residents. Writers include Carrie Brownstein, Anthony Bourdain, Joshua Ferris, Susan Orlean, Ha Jin, and Alison Bechdel. Terrific compilation.
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - wow and wow. It tells the story of the Nigerian-Biafra war during the late 60s.
A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore -- this is another book that made me laugh out loud. I bothered Mary a lot when I read this book because I loved how Moore described people and situations. My only disappointment with this book is how they handled the storyline of the main character's boyfriend. I've heard others were offended by Moore's treatment of Wisconsin residents. To me, it felt like I was reading about home and any liberal college town in the Midwest.
Last Campaign by Thurston Clarke - I almost chose another fiction work for my top 5 but this work really affected me. I read this account of Robert Kennedy's campaign for president shortly before Ted Kennedy died. Thanks Bon for this gift!
Other top books this year:
Fiction
The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears by Dinaw Menegestu
The Outlander by Gil Adamson
Crow Road by Iain Banks
The Complete Persepolis by Mirjane Satrapi
American Pastoral by Philip Roth
A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick
Non-Fiction
Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 - Lawrence Wright
The Worst Hard Time - Timothy Egan
Islamophobia - Peter Gottschalk
Worst Books:
My Father Frank Lloyd Wright - John Lloyd Wright
Now about the reading list:
Last year, I decided I was tired of not reading enough of my unread books. I felt I needed to create some order but also force myself to read things that have been sitting on my shelves for years. During 2009, I used two different methods of organizing my reading list. First, I have several areas of unread books --- I use LibraryThing for all of my books so I can easily sort by unread books. I use a WorldCat List for all of the books that I don't own but want to read (I have a list to add to the list). I started off with an alphabetical ordering by author's last name and title and then reversing it. The only exception to the alphabetical ordering was adding in titles from Powell's Indiespensable Book Club (best damn thing ever created).
Starting in late 2009, I decided to mix things up some more. I still make exceptions for Powell's books, but I pick a book from shelves or from pages of the WorldCat reading list. Think I am crazy yet? This will convince you.
Start with a Powell's book
Book from one shelf of a bookcase that is fiction
Book from one shelf of a bookcase that is non-fiction
Book from one page of the WorldCat list
Book from one shelf of a bookcase that is in my bedroom (these are usually new books I purchase and really don't want to wait too long to read)
Start over
OCD.
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