best 25 books of 2005

[maribou]

Killing the Buddha, by Jeff Sharlet and Peter Manseau
Brilliant. Funny and heart-breaking and frequently very very angry. One of the best collections of religious writings I've read, and that is saying something. I had a lot of trouble putting this book down.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Volume 1, by Alan Moore et al
This was lovely. The movie was dumb, if occasionally fun in a B-movie kind of way. The comic is dark and intricate and charming. Fanfic in a refined key.

The Secret Lives of Lobsters, by Trevor Corson
This was just exactly my sort of book. I'd already read a shorter essay version in The Best Science and Nature Writing 2003, so I knew more or less what to expect, but this one was, of course, much more fleshed-out, so lots more lobster science and lots more lobstermen biography and lots more science/gov't/fishermen politics and such. And all told in a very engaging way. Yum. [I have an uncle who is a lobster fisherman, see, so I may be a bit biased.]

Sick of Nature, by David Gessner
Favorite essay collection this year. Raw and funny and crude, elegiac and delicate and righteous. Recommended for lovers of the personal essay.

If Chins Could Kill, Bruce Campbell
Funny, fast-moving, and impeccably laid-out. Campbell is a natural storyteller rather than a gifted prose-smith, but his stories really worked for me. A lot of fascinating stuff about the behind-the-scenes aspects of moviemaking on a shoestring.

The Hounds of the Morrigan, by Pat O'Shea
This is the best kids' fantasy novel I've read in years and years. That puts it ahead of a lot of excellent books, too. I can't believe I didn't read this as a kid - it was first published in 1985. The protagonists are winning, the writing can be both hilarious and mythical, and a perfect balance is struck between the ennobled and the thoroughly creepy. Also it's enormously long, but I never wished for a more demanding editor. Highly recommended. So Much Fun.

Out of the Silent Planet, by C. S. Lewis
Well, I thought this was nifty, but I'm so awfully (if somewhat ambiguously) fond of C. S. Lewis that that was only to be expected. The debt to Wells is obvious and acknowledged; the writing makes me hum; the story can be a bit clunky; the theological assumptions sometimes make me wrinkle my nose; at heart, the book is strong and sure and Good. I'm looking forward to Perelandra.

Stiff, by Mary Roach
So eeyorerin basically made me read this book. I mean she didn't tie me down, prop open my eyeballs with toothpicks, and start turning the pages, but she made it very clear, when I was perusing her shelves on the first night of our visit, that I very much wanted to read this one first. And she was right. She's clever like that. It's awfully interesting, and I really like the rawness and thoughtfulness and gallows humor of the book. Could not put it down except at the end of a chapter. Wish she would write more. Norton has lately made my "Publishers/Imprints to Which I Am Emotionally Attached" list.

The Stone Angel, by Margaret Laurence
Still in love with Margaret Laurence. Really liked this book. Impressed by the skill with which she makes a fundamentally unsympathetic first-person narrator both plausible and beloved.

It's a Bird ..., by Steven Seagle
Meta-Superman comic about a guy who really doesn't want to write Superman, containing many mini-comics about (kinda) Superman. I read the advance proof, so I'm not sure how exactly the art matches up with the final version, but anyway I was touched and charmed by it, and felt the impulse to press it on some of my friends immediately (randomdreams, I think you would like this).

Welcome to Lizard Motel, by Barbara Feinberg
Hm. In theory (and according to the introduction), this is a book about how depressing award-winning kid's lit has become. I'm not sure how statistically accurate that is, but it doesn't matter, because really it's more a book about the importance of cherishing the positive uses of imagination, and about the necessity of imaginative freedom, particularly in children. As such, I loved it. As a personal story, also loved it.

Swinging on the Garden Gate, by Elizabeth Andrew
I was entranced by this book. I want to be friends with the author, in the vague and nonstalkerish way that I sometimes have that impulse. I think her writing is glorious, and I must find more of it in the next few months. It made my brain burst with little fireworks of related thoughts, sometimes entire reveries of them.

Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
Truly sparkling. I can see why chick lit and Jane Austen often go hand in hand in people's preferences; absolutely undemanding and hard to put down. Very nuanced and intelligent, also. Not much to say about Austen that people haven't previously written volumes covering, but I shall be reading more of her.

Evening's Empire, by David Herter
This was a lovely, quiet book, charming and good at the slow increase of creepy ominosity. The blurb compared it to Gene Wolfe and Charles de Lint, but that really doesn't resonate with me. It felt like M. R. James, aesthetically, though it's a flavour similarity rather than a direct likeness. Very smart and never put a noticeable foot wrong, as far as I was concerned.

Wanderers and Islanders, by Steve Cockayne
An odd book. Strange structure, strange setting, strange tones (part Gogol, part English schoolboy novel, two things I wouldn't have thought of putting together, and lots of other parts too), heavy Jungian influences. I absolutely loved it, after a short adjustment period, and hope to read the next one soon.

God of Small Things, by Arundhati Roy
I loved the writing so much that I couldn't begin to make reasonable judgements about the book as a whole or such elements as plot, theme, etc. They might, in fact, be equally wonderful, but I just keep thinking, "Sooooooooooooooo pretty." Quite sad, but soooooooooooooooooooooo pretty. Shouldn't have let people tell me it was difficult reading as I put it off for years and then read it in about a day and a half with no discernable toil whatsoever.

The Golem's Eye, by Jonathan Stroud (unabridged audiobook)
Simon Jones is a wonderful reader and this book is just as delicious as The Amulet of Samarkand, with the added bonus that it fills in the story with a good deal of history and larger context.

Stranger Things Happen, by Kelly Link
This is a very strange, surreal book. I felt all the time like everything was this close to not making sense anymore, like I was reading someone's dream journal. Except that I am generally unable to focus on people's stories of their dreams and these stories were completely compelling and very well-crafted. But the experience of reading them had a lot in common with the experience of dreaming, somehow. That feeling of 'oh, my dreams are like this'.

Fifth Chinese Daughter, by Jade Snow Wong
The matter-of-fact and engaging autobiography of a woman who grew up during the Great Depression in San Francisco. Clean and fresh. Modest and old-fashioned while still being blunt and relevant to modern sensibilities. I was delighted by how much I liked this book.

At the Tomb of the Inflatable Pig, by John Gimlette
This is a brilliant book; it interleaves wry travel memoir with insightful historical narrative. I love the authorial voice and was alternately fascinated and horrified by the content.

Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town, by Cory Doctorow
This is a story about someone named Alan (more or less). Alan's father is a mountain; Alan's mother is a washing machine; Alan is a retired retail maven living in Toronto who embarks on a mad scheme to provide free wifi to his entire city. And those are the least weird things about this book. I really felt like I ought to think this is ridiculous experimentalism for the sake of experimentalism, but by a third of the way in (there are no chapters in this book, incidentally), I was completely hooked. Admittedly, I could've done with a little less preachy infodumping here and there, but that's just because I firmly believe one is NEVER in need of preachy infodumping, not because there was much of it. And the actual story was magic. Pure magic. So impressed.

Les aurores Montreales, by Monique Proulx
When I was last in Montreal a few years ago, I went on an orgiastic French-book-buying spree. And then promptly didn't read anything I'd bought, because my French reading speed is so much slower than my English reading speed (and yes, it does not escape me that this is principly due to a lack of practice). I am dumb. And this book is extremely good. Several of the stories in it will haunt me. (And the combination of reading in French and the place-specifity of the book has made me homesick for Montreal. Dammit.)

Blueheart, by Alison Sinclair
I liked this book so much! It was slow and deliberate and information-packed, but with a fascinating setting, great characters who really made you believe in them and interesting interpersonal conflicts. And a good plot. Reminded me of KSR's Mars trilogy, for those reasons. Yum yum yum yum. My sister rocks for sending me this and another Alison Sinclair book for my birthday (on my request because I liked Cavalcade so much).

Altered Carbon, by Richard Morgan
Best SF book I've read this year. Like William Gibson in some ways, only with a touch of Joan-Slonczewski-like biology stuff and more emotional depth. Like, this book made me honestly sad where Gibson never takes me past bleak and hollow. Glad he's written more.

Teacher: The One Who Made the Difference, by Mark Edmundson
I went into this book expecting something Inspiring But Manly, well-suited to gifting to my brother-in-law-in-law. But instead I got something complex and difficult and honest and demanding and uncompromising and I liked it about an order of magnitude more than I thought I would. Raw and existentialist. Still inspiring but manly, though, so I hope my brother-in-law-in-law still likes it. I spent all day absorbed in it and I think I really really want to argue with Mark Edmundson. What a good book.

Comments

[apotropaic.livejournal.com]

So have you read "Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife" by Mary Roach yet?

I loved "Stiff." Amusing little sidenote--I lent the book to Johm and Nikki. Nikki thought it was John's book, so when she went to see Mary Roach at the Tattered Cover, she had the book signed to herself. Whoops! =)

And I'm excited that you posted this list, since I have book giftcards, and I'm not afraid to spend 'em! I'll definitely have to check some of these books out.

[maribou]

Not yet! I am #3 in the queue at the library, which I first got into (at a far bigger number) before the book came out.
YES! GO BUY BOOKS! WOO! I just spent 340 dollars of trade credit in one wonderful afternoon...