This is honestly a book that I deem "take it or leave it." Although parts of it are really, really good, there are plenty of parts that you just have to slog through that really made this book a somewhat difficult read.
The best parts of the book revolve around the story of a Lithuanian family, and its leader Jurgis, that comes to the U.S. in the early 1900s looking to get a better life in America. What they find is the dismal working and living conditions presented to immigrants in the Chicago meat packing factories. I thought this book would be totally about the processes of meat packing that got so much criticism as a result of this book, leading to the Food and Drug Act, but there's a largely ignored element of this story: the exceedingly harsh treatment of workers in the plants who had no choice due to language limitations, economic hardship, and families needing support. Personally, I found the study of the human toll the so-called Meat Trust enacted on the Chicago working class was the most horrific element of the novel; yet, it's rarely discussed when putting the book in it historical context (which is where most of my knowledge about this book came from before reading it) because it's place in muckraking literature and the prompting of the Food and Drug Act are its lasting legacies in the popular discussions of the present.
Yet, Sinclair falls into the trap that many authors do when they try to insert their politics into their novels. Even though the story itself presents obvious support for change in the political and economic leadership of the U.S. at the time, Sinclair still feels the need to use the end of his book to blatantly set out the Socialist Party's agenda, using long speeches of fictional party leaders. It became boring rather fast; it's actually very similar to the John Galt speech in Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, which I skipped when I read that novel. I just tend to respect authors who wrap their political statements into the story without setting aside pages and pages to act as simply a manifesto of their political ideas. It made the book slog along a bit towards the end.
Ultimately, this novel contains a very good story that could have been used alone as an impetus for social and political change in the U.S. (especially considering its popularity at the time). It's downfall was Sinclair's need to delineate his political ideas in a party document fashion. Still, there is much more to the story than just a wholesale criticism of the meat packing industry, and the family members' struggles to deal with a life that they had never expected.
My rating: 7.5/10
Other reviews:
Debi at nothing of importance
Next up: The Autumn of the Patriarch by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Monday, March 30, 2009
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
A Child in Time by Ian McEwan
A bit of time has passed since I finish this book, so this post is likely to be more general and significantly less detailed than I hope for my other posts to be. I would imagine that this post will be updated at a later time after I reread (which I can almost guarantee will happen).
Let me begin with a bit of a disclaimer: I adore everything that I've ever read that Ian McEwan has written. I loved Atonement, which, I must admit, made me hate the movie. When I am in love with a "real" literature kind of a book, I can't stand that some movie producer/screenplay writer (including the author him/herself...I know, I'm weird) would think to take out that part of the book when they turned it into a movie, which is probably why I got so angry at the Twilight movie. I adored Amsterdam, for reasons that I'm not really sure of. And I adored A Child in Time.
McEwan's descriptions and language slay me every time. I love that he goes deep into his characters minds, particularly when talking about emotions. It makes him masterful at the love story...and was this a love story. The basic element of the novel was the story of a couple whose child gets stolen from a grocery store when Stephen, the father, takes her shopping one day. It recounts how the relationship is fundamentally changed as a result of their loss. The pulling and pushing that their shared, albeit different, experiences have on each of them and the effects that this has on their marriage. Early in the book, they decide to separate, but the love is still there, pulling them together and pushing them apart at the same time because they are constantly worried about the other's needs and wants in the situation. The ending is just plain beautiful and full of so much hope despite everything that the two had been through. The book could have easily fallen flat with another author, but McEwan takes so much time on the supposedly "mundane" elements of life (Stephen's involvement in meetings about children's education in Britain come to mind here) and makes the reader realize that there is always more there than meets the eye. On the surface Stephen seemed to be coping with his daughter's disappearance well, but since the reader can see and feel Stephen's real emotions, he/she knows better.
McEwan also uses the story to play with other things too, namely time. One of the most climactic points in the book is when Stephen's face appears to his youthful mother in a restaurant as she decides whether or not to abort a baby...him. His mother sees the grown man's face in the window, even though he has not yet been born. McEwan also describes Stephen's seeming emotional breakdown when he sees his own parents in the restaurant on his way to visit his wife in the countryside, prompting him to elicit the story from his mother when he visits. In addition to this vignette, McEwan also uses Stephen's friends to play with theories of time; his friends, a couple, consist of a physicist who studies theories of time and her husband who, during the span of the novel, begins to revert to his childlike persona, eventually ending in his suicide when his attempts to return to childhood fail. As usual, McEwan mixes the more theoretical elements of his novel with a fantastically moving story that most readers can appreciate.
My rating: 9.5/10
Let me begin with a bit of a disclaimer: I adore everything that I've ever read that Ian McEwan has written. I loved Atonement, which, I must admit, made me hate the movie. When I am in love with a "real" literature kind of a book, I can't stand that some movie producer/screenplay writer (including the author him/herself...I know, I'm weird) would think to take out that part of the book when they turned it into a movie, which is probably why I got so angry at the Twilight movie. I adored Amsterdam, for reasons that I'm not really sure of. And I adored A Child in Time.
McEwan's descriptions and language slay me every time. I love that he goes deep into his characters minds, particularly when talking about emotions. It makes him masterful at the love story...and was this a love story. The basic element of the novel was the story of a couple whose child gets stolen from a grocery store when Stephen, the father, takes her shopping one day. It recounts how the relationship is fundamentally changed as a result of their loss. The pulling and pushing that their shared, albeit different, experiences have on each of them and the effects that this has on their marriage. Early in the book, they decide to separate, but the love is still there, pulling them together and pushing them apart at the same time because they are constantly worried about the other's needs and wants in the situation. The ending is just plain beautiful and full of so much hope despite everything that the two had been through. The book could have easily fallen flat with another author, but McEwan takes so much time on the supposedly "mundane" elements of life (Stephen's involvement in meetings about children's education in Britain come to mind here) and makes the reader realize that there is always more there than meets the eye. On the surface Stephen seemed to be coping with his daughter's disappearance well, but since the reader can see and feel Stephen's real emotions, he/she knows better.
McEwan also uses the story to play with other things too, namely time. One of the most climactic points in the book is when Stephen's face appears to his youthful mother in a restaurant as she decides whether or not to abort a baby...him. His mother sees the grown man's face in the window, even though he has not yet been born. McEwan also describes Stephen's seeming emotional breakdown when he sees his own parents in the restaurant on his way to visit his wife in the countryside, prompting him to elicit the story from his mother when he visits. In addition to this vignette, McEwan also uses Stephen's friends to play with theories of time; his friends, a couple, consist of a physicist who studies theories of time and her husband who, during the span of the novel, begins to revert to his childlike persona, eventually ending in his suicide when his attempts to return to childhood fail. As usual, McEwan mixes the more theoretical elements of his novel with a fantastically moving story that most readers can appreciate.
My rating: 9.5/10
Thursday, March 19, 2009
God's Bits of Wood by Sembene Ousmane
I know this isn't on the list of 1,001 Books, but I had to read it for my Gender in 20th C. Africa class. It's totally worth writing about, even though it's not on the list (and, in my opinion, rightfully so). Still, I liked the book a lot.
The basic premise of the book is the description of the various people and groups involved in a railway strike in colonial Senegal. Written by an extremely politically active man, it puts faces to the history read in more "historically-geared" books. Like most historical fiction, he takes liberties with the history involved to help push his own political agenda, particularly in dealing with the Women's March to the city. He does, however, embellish for a reason; there is a strong undercurrent of support for women's equality within the nascent independent Senegal. (Ousmane wrote the novel on the cusp of Senegalese independence.)
I really believe that this book is worthwhile for one major reason: it puts individuals within the history. Often historians discuss "the strikers" or "the Africans" when discussing African history, especially in regards to protests, strikes, etc., but this book, even though the characters in the novel are either entirely fictional or based loosely on major historical leaders, really highlights the idea that this strike, and others, was led by people, and people were involved in every element of this strike. Each dealt with it in their own way, depending on their personal level of agreement with the strikers, their gender, their economic standing, their relationship/position in the company and in greater Sengalese culture and society, and so on. The strikers and their supporters were not a homogenous group of faceless Africans; each person individually helped shape the strike itself and the aftermath according to their needs and expectations.
Yet, I thought, personally, that there was something missing from this book; Ousmane is, in my opinion, not Achebe or Ngugi. He writes well, but there are some elements to the story that are unclear, and his use of some characters tends to be artificial; for example, I think the inclusion of the character Sounkare didn't advance the story much. He acted more as a symbol that didn't necessarily advance the story and had much more to do with Ousmane's push for worker solidarity (after all, he was a member of the Communist Party in France). In general, though, the book was a good supplement to my class (the role of women in the strike was similar to the roles of women in other strikes and protests in other African colonies during this time period) and provided a more individualized view of African-led protests against white colonizers.
My rating: 9.5/10
The basic premise of the book is the description of the various people and groups involved in a railway strike in colonial Senegal. Written by an extremely politically active man, it puts faces to the history read in more "historically-geared" books. Like most historical fiction, he takes liberties with the history involved to help push his own political agenda, particularly in dealing with the Women's March to the city. He does, however, embellish for a reason; there is a strong undercurrent of support for women's equality within the nascent independent Senegal. (Ousmane wrote the novel on the cusp of Senegalese independence.)
I really believe that this book is worthwhile for one major reason: it puts individuals within the history. Often historians discuss "the strikers" or "the Africans" when discussing African history, especially in regards to protests, strikes, etc., but this book, even though the characters in the novel are either entirely fictional or based loosely on major historical leaders, really highlights the idea that this strike, and others, was led by people, and people were involved in every element of this strike. Each dealt with it in their own way, depending on their personal level of agreement with the strikers, their gender, their economic standing, their relationship/position in the company and in greater Sengalese culture and society, and so on. The strikers and their supporters were not a homogenous group of faceless Africans; each person individually helped shape the strike itself and the aftermath according to their needs and expectations.
Yet, I thought, personally, that there was something missing from this book; Ousmane is, in my opinion, not Achebe or Ngugi. He writes well, but there are some elements to the story that are unclear, and his use of some characters tends to be artificial; for example, I think the inclusion of the character Sounkare didn't advance the story much. He acted more as a symbol that didn't necessarily advance the story and had much more to do with Ousmane's push for worker solidarity (after all, he was a member of the Communist Party in France). In general, though, the book was a good supplement to my class (the role of women in the strike was similar to the roles of women in other strikes and protests in other African colonies during this time period) and provided a more individualized view of African-led protests against white colonizers.
My rating: 9.5/10
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Welcome
I'm not going to lie; this blog is mostly for me to keep track of my reading so I can look back on past books as a go through and see if I get anything new out of re-reading a few favorites from before.
Right now, most of my reading is mostly revolving around the 1,001 Books that You Must Read Before You Die book by Peter Boxall, but I'm more than willing to read other stuff. As a history undergrad, I also have to read tons of books for school and will likely comment on those here as well. If I end up in grad school, I'm sure school-related books will increase in number, and 1,001 Books may be forced to take a bit of a break.
I would imagine that first up will be a discussion of God's Bits of Wood by Sembene Ousmane, which I read for my Gender in 20th C. Africa class. It was good stuff. A better summary/review to come soon. Right now, I'm chugging through The Jungle by Upton Sinclair from the 1,001 Books. I'm not all that into it right now, so we'll see if I finish it this try through.
Right now, most of my reading is mostly revolving around the 1,001 Books that You Must Read Before You Die book by Peter Boxall, but I'm more than willing to read other stuff. As a history undergrad, I also have to read tons of books for school and will likely comment on those here as well. If I end up in grad school, I'm sure school-related books will increase in number, and 1,001 Books may be forced to take a bit of a break.
I would imagine that first up will be a discussion of God's Bits of Wood by Sembene Ousmane, which I read for my Gender in 20th C. Africa class. It was good stuff. A better summary/review to come soon. Right now, I'm chugging through The Jungle by Upton Sinclair from the 1,001 Books. I'm not all that into it right now, so we'll see if I finish it this try through.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
1,001 Books I've Read
*Note: I am using the 2005 Edition of the 1,001 Books You Must Read Before You Die to prevent myself from going crazy each time a new edition gets printed and deletes 75% of the books I've already read.*
2000s
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Marc Haddon
The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Atonement by Ian McEwan
The Devil and Miss Prym by Paulo Coelho
1900s
Amsterdam by Ian McEwan
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
Jazz by Toni Morrison
The History of the Siege of Lisbon by Jose Saramago
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
The Child in Time by Ian McEwan
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Cider House Rules by John Irving
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
The World According to Garp by John Irving
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Labyrinths by Jose Luis Borges
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
The Quiet American by Graham Greene
Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin
Casino Royale by Ian Fleming
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
1984 by George Orwell
The Plague by Albert Camus
U.S.A. Trilogy by John Dos Passos
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Billy Budd, Foretopman by Herman Melville
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
1800s
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Silas Marner by George Eliot
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allen Poe
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
1700s
Candide by Voltaire
A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift
2000s
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Marc Haddon
The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Atonement by Ian McEwan
The Devil and Miss Prym by Paulo Coelho
1900s
Amsterdam by Ian McEwan
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
Jazz by Toni Morrison
The History of the Siege of Lisbon by Jose Saramago
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
The Child in Time by Ian McEwan
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Cider House Rules by John Irving
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
The World According to Garp by John Irving
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Labyrinths by Jose Luis Borges
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
The Quiet American by Graham Greene
Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin
Casino Royale by Ian Fleming
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
1984 by George Orwell
The Plague by Albert Camus
U.S.A. Trilogy by John Dos Passos
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Billy Budd, Foretopman by Herman Melville
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
1800s
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Silas Marner by George Eliot
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allen Poe
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
1700s
Candide by Voltaire
A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift
Pulitzer Prize Winners Reading List
Here's the list of Pulitzer Prize of Fiction winning novels. Ones I've read will be in bold. And yes, I'm crazy enough to add to my reading list.
2009 Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
2009 Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
100 Best Beach Books Ever
1. The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
2. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
3. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
4. Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding
5. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
6. Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells
7. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
8. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
9. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg
10. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
11. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
12. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
13. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
14. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
15. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
16. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
17. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
18. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
19. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
20. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
21. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
22. The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
23. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
24. The World According to Garp by John Irving
25. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
26. The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy
27. Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
28. The Princess Bride by William Goldman
29. The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler
30. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
31. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
32. East of Eden by John Steinbeck
33. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
34. Beach Music by Pat Conroy
35. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
36. Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
37. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
38. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
39. The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough
40. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
41. Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
42. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
43. Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice
44. Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
45. Empire Falls by Richard Russo
46. Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes
47. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
48. Even Cowgirls Get the Blues by Tom Robbins
49. I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb
50. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
51. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
52. The Stand by Stephen King
53. She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb
54. Dune by Frank Herbert
55. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
56. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
57. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
58. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
59. The Godfather by Mario Puzo
60. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
61. Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver
62. Jaws by Peter Benchley
63. Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner
64. Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
65. Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
66. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
67. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
68. Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut
69. Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
70. The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
71. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
72. The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy
73. Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns
74. The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
74. Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe [tie]
76. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
77. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
78. The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher
79. Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
80. Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett
82. Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
82. The Pilot's Wife by Anita Shreve [tie]
83. All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
84. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
85. The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery
86. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
87. One for the Money by Janet Evanovich
88. Shogun by James Clavell
89. Dracula by Bram Stoker
90. The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
91. Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow
92. Franny and Zooey, by J.D. Salinger
93. The Secret History by Donna Tartt
94. Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
95. Summer Sisters by Judy Blume
96. The Shining by Stephen King
97. How Stella Got Her Groove Back, by Terry McMillan
98. Lamb by Christopher Moore
99. Sick Puppy by Carl Hiaasen
100. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
2. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
3. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
4. Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding
5. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
6. Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells
7. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
8. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
9. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg
10. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
11. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
12. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
13. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
14. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
15. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
16. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
17. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
18. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
19. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
20. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
21. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
22. The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
23. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
24. The World According to Garp by John Irving
25. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
26. The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy
27. Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
28. The Princess Bride by William Goldman
29. The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler
30. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
31. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
32. East of Eden by John Steinbeck
33. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
34. Beach Music by Pat Conroy
35. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
36. Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
37. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
38. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
39. The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough
40. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
41. Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
42. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
43. Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice
44. Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
45. Empire Falls by Richard Russo
46. Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes
47. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
48. Even Cowgirls Get the Blues by Tom Robbins
49. I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb
50. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
51. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
52. The Stand by Stephen King
53. She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb
54. Dune by Frank Herbert
55. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
56. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
57. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
58. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
59. The Godfather by Mario Puzo
60. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
61. Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver
62. Jaws by Peter Benchley
63. Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner
64. Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
65. Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
66. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
67. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
68. Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut
69. Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
70. The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
71. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
72. The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy
73. Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns
74. The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
74. Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe [tie]
76. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
77. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
78. The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher
79. Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
80. Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett
82. Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
82. The Pilot's Wife by Anita Shreve [tie]
83. All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
84. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
85. The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery
86. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
87. One for the Money by Janet Evanovich
88. Shogun by James Clavell
89. Dracula by Bram Stoker
90. The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
91. Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow
92. Franny and Zooey, by J.D. Salinger
93. The Secret History by Donna Tartt
94. Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
95. Summer Sisters by Judy Blume
96. The Shining by Stephen King
97. How Stella Got Her Groove Back, by Terry McMillan
98. Lamb by Christopher Moore
99. Sick Puppy by Carl Hiaasen
100. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
100 New Classics
1. The Road by Cormac McCarthy (2006)
2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling (2000)
3. Beloved by Toni Morrison (1987)
4. The Liars' Club by Mary Karr (1995)
5. American Pastoral by Philip Roth (1997)
6. Mystic River by Dennis Lehane (2001)
7. Maus by Art Spiegelman (1986/1991)
8. Selected Stories by Alice Munro (1996)
9. Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier (1997)
10. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami (1997)
11. Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer (1997)
12. Blindness by José Saramago (1998)
13. Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (1986-87)
14. Black Water by Joyce Carol Oates (1992)
15. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers (2000)
16. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (1986)
17. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez (1988)
18. Rabbit at Rest by John Updike (1990)
19. On Beauty by Zadie Smith (2005)
20. Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding (1998)
21. On Writing by Stephen King (2000)
22. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz (2007)
23. The Ghost Road by Pat Barker (1996)
24. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (1985)
25. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan (1989)
26. Neuromancer by William Gibson (1984)
27. Possession by A.S. Byatt (1990)
28. Naked by David Sedaris (1997)
29. Bel Canto by Anne Patchett (2001)
30. Case Histories by Kate Atkinson (2004)
31. The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien (1990)
32. Parting the Waters by Taylor Branch (1988)
33. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion (2005)
34. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (2002)
35. The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst (2004)
36. Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt (1996)
37. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (2003)
38. Birds of America by Lorrie Moore (1998)
39. Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri (2000)
40. His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman (1995-2000)
41. The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros (1984)
42. LaBrava by Elmore Leonard (1983)
43. Borrowed Time by Paul Monette (1988)
44. Praying for Sheetrock by Melissa Fay Greene (1991)
45. Eva Luna by Isabel Allende (1988)
46. Sandman by Neil Gaiman (1988-1996)
47. World's Fair by E.L. Doctorow (1985)
48. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (1998)
49. Clockers by Richard Price (1992)
50. The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen (2001)
51. The Journalist and the Murderer by Janet Malcom (1990)
52. Waiting to Exhale by Terry McMillan (1992)
53. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon (2000)
54. Jimmy Corrigan by Chris Ware (2000)
55. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls (2006)
56. The Night Manager by John le Carré (1993)
57. The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe (1987)
58. Drop City by TC Boyle (2003)
59. Krik? Krak! by Edwidge Danticat (1995)
60. Nickel & Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich (2001)
61. Money by Martin Amis (1985)
62. Last Train To Memphis by Peter Guralnick (1994)
63. Pastoralia by George Saunders (2000)
64. Underworld by Don DeLillo (1997)
65. The Giver by Lois Lowry (1993)
66. A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace (1997)
67. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (2003)
68. Fun Home by Alison Bechdel (2006)
69. Secret History by Donna Tartt (1992)
70. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell (2004)
71. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Ann Fadiman (1997)
72. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (2003)
73. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving (1989)
74. Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger (1990)
75. Cathedral by Raymond Carver (1983)
76. A Sight for Sore Eyes by Ruth Rendell (1998)
77. The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro (1989)
78. Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (2006)
79. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell (2000)
80. Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney (1984)
81. Backlash by Susan Faludi (1991)
82. Atonement by Ian McEwan (2002)
83. The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields (1994)
84. Holes by Louis Sachar (1998)
85. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (2004)
86. And the Band Played On by Randy Shilts (1987)
87. The Ruins by Scott Smith (2006)
88. High Fidelity by Nick Hornby (1995)
89. Close Range by Annie Proulx (1999)
90. Comfort Me With Apples by Ruth Reichl (2001)
91. Random Family by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc (2003)
92. Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow (1987)
93. A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley (1991)
94. Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser (2001)
95. Kaaterskill Falls by Allegra Goodman (1998)
96. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (2003)
97. Jesus’ Son by Denis Johnson (1992)
98. The Predators' Ball by Connie Bruck (1988)
99. Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman (1995)
100. America (the Book) by Jon Stewart/Daily Show (2004)
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