My 2005 Literary Oscars
Now that 2005 is officially over, I offer my second annual list of the best stuff I read during the year. I need a better name for these awards than Oscars, but until I think of something better, Oscars it is. Links lead back to my primary post about each book.
Books marked with an "R" are rereads and therefore not eligible for an award.
In chronological order:
1. October Light by John Gardner
2. The Final Solution by Michael Chabon
3. The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers by John Gardner
4. Reflections in a Golden Eye by Carson McCullers
5. Double Vision by Pat Barker
6. The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
7. The Ground Beneath Her Feet by Salman Rushdie
8. Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle (R)
9. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
10. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
11. The Wave in the Mind : Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader, and the Imagination by Ursula K. LeGuin
12. The Master by Colm Toibin
13. Yo! by Julia Alvarez
14. The Bone People by Keri Hulme
15. Plastic Angel by Nerissa Nields
16. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin (R)
17. The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. LeGuin (R)
18. The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. LeGuin (R)
19. Tehanu by Ursula K. LeGuin (R)
20. The Ballad of the Sad Cafe by Carson McCullers
21. You Remind Me of Me by Dan Chaon
22. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
23. True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey
24. The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
25. The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
26. The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
27. Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi (partial)
28. Amalee by Dar Williams
29. Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson
Best short story collection: Somewhat slim pickings in this category this year. Also somewhat ambiguous pickings. Does Winesburg, Ohio count, for instance? If it does, I think it wins, but if it's considered a novel rather than a story collection, the award would go to The Things They Carried.
Best short story: Very hard to choose just one. So I won't. The two best stories I read were "Brokeback Mountain" by Annie Proulx and "The Circle in the Fire" by Flannery O'Connor. I also reread Junot Diaz's "Drown" this year, and can't possibly let this category go by without mentioning it. Absolutely one of the best stories I've ever read.
Best nonfiction: As usual, this is hardly a contest. Still, the winner is Ursula K. LeGuin's A Wave In the Mind.
Best young adult novel: Plastic Angel by Nerissa Nields. I think I need to read some better YA stuff next year.
Best title: Reflections in a Golden Eye by Carson McCullers. The book itself was strange and slight, but I love the title so much I just had to mention it.
Worst novel: This is a more difficult category than last year, which I suppose is a good thing. No dreck, nothing I absolutely hated... I think I will interpret the category as most disappointing novel, rather than simply worst. In that case, the winner is Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. I really loved Everything Is Illuminated, and this book completely failed to live up to it. Also something of a disappointment was Pat Barker's Double Vision--not a bad book, just not nearly as good as I know Pat Barker can be.
Best novel: Always so hard to choose! This year it pretty much comes down to two books: The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen, and The Ground Beneath Her Feet by Salman Rushdie. I loved them both in quite different ways, but I think I simply must give it to The Ground Beneath Her Feet. (I would also like to give an honorable mention to Keri Hulme's The Bone People, which was perhaps the most powerful book I read this year and the one that stayed with me the longest, despite its flaws.
Books marked with an "R" are rereads and therefore not eligible for an award.
In chronological order:
1. October Light by John Gardner
2. The Final Solution by Michael Chabon
3. The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers by John Gardner
4. Reflections in a Golden Eye by Carson McCullers
5. Double Vision by Pat Barker
6. The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
7. The Ground Beneath Her Feet by Salman Rushdie
8. Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle (R)
9. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
10. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
11. The Wave in the Mind : Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader, and the Imagination by Ursula K. LeGuin
12. The Master by Colm Toibin
13. Yo! by Julia Alvarez
14. The Bone People by Keri Hulme
15. Plastic Angel by Nerissa Nields
16. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin (R)
17. The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. LeGuin (R)
18. The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. LeGuin (R)
19. Tehanu by Ursula K. LeGuin (R)
20. The Ballad of the Sad Cafe by Carson McCullers
21. You Remind Me of Me by Dan Chaon
22. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
23. True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey
24. The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
25. The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
26. The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
27. Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi (partial)
28. Amalee by Dar Williams
29. Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson
Best short story collection: Somewhat slim pickings in this category this year. Also somewhat ambiguous pickings. Does Winesburg, Ohio count, for instance? If it does, I think it wins, but if it's considered a novel rather than a story collection, the award would go to The Things They Carried.
Best short story: Very hard to choose just one. So I won't. The two best stories I read were "Brokeback Mountain" by Annie Proulx and "The Circle in the Fire" by Flannery O'Connor. I also reread Junot Diaz's "Drown" this year, and can't possibly let this category go by without mentioning it. Absolutely one of the best stories I've ever read.
Best nonfiction: As usual, this is hardly a contest. Still, the winner is Ursula K. LeGuin's A Wave In the Mind.
Best young adult novel: Plastic Angel by Nerissa Nields. I think I need to read some better YA stuff next year.
Best title: Reflections in a Golden Eye by Carson McCullers. The book itself was strange and slight, but I love the title so much I just had to mention it.
Worst novel: This is a more difficult category than last year, which I suppose is a good thing. No dreck, nothing I absolutely hated... I think I will interpret the category as most disappointing novel, rather than simply worst. In that case, the winner is Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. I really loved Everything Is Illuminated, and this book completely failed to live up to it. Also something of a disappointment was Pat Barker's Double Vision--not a bad book, just not nearly as good as I know Pat Barker can be.
Best novel: Always so hard to choose! This year it pretty much comes down to two books: The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen, and The Ground Beneath Her Feet by Salman Rushdie. I loved them both in quite different ways, but I think I simply must give it to The Ground Beneath Her Feet. (I would also like to give an honorable mention to Keri Hulme's The Bone People, which was perhaps the most powerful book I read this year and the one that stayed with me the longest, despite its flaws.