83. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke, 2004
I like novels set in alternate histories, they are just pure, speculative fun. It’s fantasy, it’s funny, plus, Neil Gaiman wrote the introduction for the paperback edition so you know, seal of quality in my opinion.
84. The Puppet & The Dwarf: The Perverse Core of Christianity by Slavoj Žižek, 2003
Ah, Žižek. I had to read passages of this for an Adolescent Lit class and I ended up being drawn in by Žižek’s incredible rambling style. It’s an interesting look at the Left in relation to Christinanity today. “The gap here is irreducible: either one drops the religious form, or one maintains the form but loses the essence,” he claims, and he is right. Spirituality in a postsecular age? Possibly. Challenging but enlightening read.
85. Life of Pi by Yann Martel, 2001
I read this book during a hurricane my senior year of high school. I’d picked it up the day before the storm hit, right before filling my car up with gas and going home to help put hurricane shutters up. The next day the storm hit, I can’t even remember the name of that one, maybe Fred, and I began tearing through all the books I had. I read Tess of the D’Urbervilles and found myself very unhappy by its conclusion, a feeling that most of Hardy’s books give me by their ends. Then I began Life of Pi and read it in a full day, curled up on the couch, where I got light through a space in the shutters in the daytime and used candlelight to read at night since the power had gone out. It was beautiful. I read it overnight, falling asleep now and then but waking up to finish it early the next morning. I finished it and felt full of such a hope, such a good feeling. The storm had passed a few hours later and I ventured outside to walk my dog. My neighborhood was full of fallen trees and roofs torn apart but everyone around me was safe. I felt new, wise, and exhausted all at once. I felt the earth beneath me sigh as it realized that all was well.
86. Rose of No Man’s Land by Michelle Tea, 2006
Coming from a memoir and a graphic novel, Michelle Tea hits her stride with her first novel, a coming of age tale about breaking from the mold and making all the mistakes to figure yourself out at 14. Trisha, the main character is a loner, a weirdo, who figures out her burgeoning sexuality and identity as she begins to imagine life outside of the small town she grew up in. Awkward and sexy, it’s everything a novel about growing up should be.
87. Blonde: A Novel by Joyce Carol Oates, 2000
I really like Marilyn Monroe, I think she was a very interesting, complicated woman and it’s a tragedy that the world lost her when it did. I saw this book in a bargain bin of a bookstore when I was 16 or so, and I knew by the cover what it was about, even though it was a novel and even though the names had all been changed. Blonde is essentially a novel about the inner life and workings of Marilyn Monroe, actually, the woman behind the image that was Marilyn Monroe. It is heartwrenching and real, a painful but cathartic read. Whenever I watch one of her films now, I just want to reach out into the screen and hold her hand and talk to her. Oates created a beautiful piece of fiction about her life but it emotionally fills up the gaps that lie between the viewer and the beautiful woman on the flickering screen.
88. Marie Antoinette: The Journey by Antonia Fraser, 2001
This has been called the definitive biography of Marie Antoinette and as someone who has read a good amount about Marie Antoinette, I’d agree. It is the basis of Sofia Coppola’s 2006 film, Marie Antoinette, but that film doesn’t do the book justice. It is filled with detailed information about Marie Antoinette’s life and journey to become the Queen of France and is highly readable, which is odd for books of such a topic. Find out more about one of the most famous queens of France.
89. All Families Are Psychotic by Douglas Coupland, 2001
A family goes to see their baby sister’s rocket launch in Florida and insanity ensues. This is the basic gist of this book but it’s so much more. It’s Florida and Disney World and Princess Diana and murder and old people with HIV, it’s amazing, it’s hilarious.
90. Inés of My Soul by Isabel Allende, 2007
If you want romantic (not in a Danielle Steel way), supernatural, historical fiction, Allende is usually a sure bet. Spanish conquistadors in 16th century South America? The building of the New World? The exploitation of native people? Sex? Then this is a rich, layered book for you. If you can read Spanish, I recommend you read this in the original Spanish like I did the first time around, it’s even better than the fantastic translation.
91. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood, 2003
Oryx and Crake is a dystopian novel which feels almost like a take on Brave New World as well as a sequel in theme to her most famous book, The Handmaid’s Tale. Genetic engineering, wolvogs, pigoons, and more form a kind of society that seems far off but not too foreign to us today. Great read.
92. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, 2003
I am instantly suspicious when everyone is all about some new book. My first thoughts are The DaVinci Code or Twilight and I become wary. The Kite Runner was like this for me. Everyone I knew had read it, including my mom, which made me worry but I borrowed it from a friend and read it over a long weekend. This book is heartbreaking and engaging, it’s about redemption and the path to get to that point. I will admit here that I cried. You will, too.
93. The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl, 2003
I am a nerd. I enjoy reading about literary figures for pleasure. I know. So when Matthew Pearl’s debut turned out to be about 19th century writers such as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. translating Dante’s The Divine Comedy and solving a string of murders, I was sold. Not just for literary nerds such as myself but a solid mystery for anyone with a curious mind and a lazy afternoon free.
94. Zeitoun by Dave Eggers, 2009
I like Dave Eggers. I don’t really like when Dave Eggers is being overly precious but I think that sometimes he just hits it on the head. Zeitoun is less a book about tragedy, which Hurricane Katrina most definitely was, and more about survival and recovery. Abdulrahman Zeitoun helped his neighbors ride out the storm, bringing supplies to them by canoe so the could survive the aftermath only to find himself arrested and detained for several days. It is a detailed and haunting story of one man’s incredible journey.
95. The Bonesetter’s Daughter by Amy Tan, 2001
Books about mother-daughter relationships usually make me shy away; I think it hits too many sore spots personally and so many books about this topic are so Lifetime it hurts. This book is so beautiful and speaks to so much about the immigrant experience in general. I loved it because we sometimes don’t know so many things about our parents and their pasts and as a result, it gives us an incomplete portrait of who they are. When we know learn about who our parents were before they were parents, it makes us see them as a whole person.
96. Mystic River by Dennis Lehane, 2001
I’ll admit, I saw the movie before I read the book but I always have this compulsion where I have to read the book if I see the movie it’s based on. I was not disappointed. If you loved the movie, you’ll love the book which is filled with more rich detail and sort of allows your mind to wander as it begins to fill in the pieces and faces.
97. Cecil & Jordan in New York by Gabrielle Bell, 2008
The first of a few graphic novels to make an appearance on this list, Cecil & Jordan is a collection of graphic short stories. The stories in this collection are lovely and surreal, with one character turning into a chair at one point. Bell understands not only the awkwardness of being twentysomething and dating but also the most cruel parts of growing up. Michel Gondry actually adapted the title story of this collection into a short film called Interior Design which is a part of the film Tôkyô!. Beautiful and subtle, it’s enjoyable even for those who are not fans of graphic novels.
