The Story of the List

This all started with a reading of Stephen King, and not a horror story either, his autobiographical treatise, On Writing. He encouraged that writers are only as good as their reading allows. At that point, I had already made the decision to pursue my writing and not only was I not reading good fiction, I had read nothing notable in at least a year. So, I started the list. I trudged through New York Times Most Notables, Bestseller lists, both The Modern Library and Radcliffe's 100 best novels. I started leafing through Bookmarks magazine and Pages and spending my free time walking through the aisles of book stores. The Beginning was April 2006. Now I'm starting on the reviews 63 books later. Wish me luck.

Saturday, October 14, 2006

Alphabetical by Author

  1. Acevedos, Mario - The Nymphos of Rocky Flats
  2. Acevedos, Mario - X-Rated Bloodsuckers
  3. Achebe, Chinua - Things Fall Apart
  4. Adams, Douglas - A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
  5. Adams, Richard - Watership Down
  6. Airth, Rennie - River of Darkness
  7. Ali, Monica - Alentejo Blue
  8. Ali, Monica - Brick Lane
  9. Allende, Isabel - The House of the Spirits
  10. Antrim, Donald - The Verificationist
  11. Arensberg, Ann - Incubus
  12. Armstrong, Kelley - Bitten
  13. Atkinson, Kate - Case Histories
  14. Atkinson, Kate - One Good Turn
  15. Atwood, Margaret - Alias Grace
  16. Atwood, Margaret - Oryx and Crake
  17. Austen, Jane - Pride and Prejudice
  18. Auster, Paul - Oracle Night
  19. Auster, Paul - The Book of Illusions
  20. Baker, Nicholson - A Box of Matches
  21. Bakis, Kirsten - Lives of the Monster Dogs
  22. Banks, Melissa - The Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing
  23. Banks, Russell - Cloudsplitter
  24. Barker, Pat - Border Crossing
  25. Barnes, Julian - Arthur & George
  26. Barnes, Julian - England, England
  27. Barnes, Julian - Love, etc.
  28. Barry, Max - Jennifer Government
  29. Bechdel, Allison - Fun Home
  30. Bellow, Saul - The Adventures of Augie March
  31. Bowles, Paul - The Sheltering Sky
  32. Bradbury, Ray - Fahrenheit 451
  33. Bram, Christopher - Lives of the Circus Animals
  34. Brockmeier, Kevin - The Brief History of the Dead
  35. Brooks, Geraldine - March
  36. Brooks, Max - World War Z
  37. Burdett, John - Bangkok 8
  38. Burgess, Anthony - A Clockwork Orange
  39. Burroughs, Augusten - Dry
  40. Burroughs, Augusten - Magical Thinking
  41. Burroughs, Augusten - Possible Side Effects
  42. Burroughs, Augusten - Running with Scissors
  43. Burroughs, William S. - Naked Lunch
  44. Butler, Octavia - Fledgling
  45. Capote, Truman - In Cold Blood
  46. Carson, Tom - Gilligan's Wake
  47. Cather, Willa - Death Comes for the Archbishop
  48. Cather, Willa - My Antonia
  49. Cather, Willa - O Pioneers!
  50. Chabon, Michael - The Amazing Adventures of Kavlier and Clay
  51. Chabon, Michael - Werewolves in Their Youth
  52. Chandra, Vikram - Sacred Games
  53. Childress, Mark - One Mississippi
  54. Christensen, Kate - The Epicure's Lament
  55. Clarke, Susanna - Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
  56. Clinch, Jon - Finn
  57. Coe, Jonathon - The House of Sleep
  58. Coelho, Paolo - The Alchemist
  59. Colfer, Eoin - Artemis Fowl
  60. Colfer, Eoin - Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident
  61. Colfer, Eoin - Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code
  62. Colfer, Eoin - Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony
  63. Colfer, Eoin - Artemis Fowl:The Opal Deception
  64. Collins, Michael - Death of a Writer
  65. Connelly, Michael - The Black Echo
  66. Connelly, Michael - The Lincoln Lawyer
  67. Connoly, John - The Book of Lost Things
  68. Conrad, Joseph - Heart of Darkness
  69. Coover, Robert - Briar Rose
  70. Cotterill, Colin - The Coroner's Lunch
  71. Cox, Michael - The Meaning of Night
  72. Cunningham, Michael - The Hours
  73. Dahlquist, Gordon - The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters
  74. D'Ambrosio, Charles - The Dead Fish Museum
  75. Danielewski, Mark - House of Leaves
  76. Davis, Kathryn - The Walking Tour
  77. Davison, Maryjanice - Undead and Unwed
  78. Del Franco, Mark - Unshapely Things
  79. Delillo, Don - The Body Artist
  80. DeLillo, Don - White Noise
  81. Desai, Kiran - The Inheritance of Loss
  82. Dexter, Peter - Paris Trout
  83. Diamant, Anita - The Red Tent
  84. Didion, Joan - The Year of Magical Thinking
  85. Doctorow, E.L. - The March
  86. Dooling, Richard - Brain Storm
  87. Dreiser, Theodore - Sister Carrie
  88. du Maurier, Daphne - Rebecca
  89. Due, Tananarive - The Living Blood
  90. Dunn, Katherine - Geek Love
  91. Dunning, John - Booked To Die
  92. Dunning, John - The Bookman's Promise
  93. Dunning, John - The Bookman's Wake
  94. DuPrau, Jeanne - The City of Ember
  95. DuPrau, Jeanne - The People of Sparks
  96. DuPrau, Jeanne - The Prophet of Yonwood
  97. Edwards, Kim - The Memory Keeper's Daughter
  98. Egan, Jennifer - The Keep
  99. Ellis, Brett Easton - Glamorama
  100. Ellis, Brett Easton - Less than Zero
  101. Ellis, Brett Easton - Lunar Park
  102. Ellison, Ralph - Invisible Man
  103. Ellroy, James - The Cold Six Thousand
  104. Epstein, Leslie - Pandaemonium
  105. Erdrich, Louise - Four Souls
  106. Erdrich, Louise - The Master Butcher's Singing Club
  107. Erian, Alicia - Towelhead
  108. Eugenides, Jeffrey - Middlesex
  109. Eugenides, Jeffrey - The Virgin Suicides
  110. Evanovich, Janet - One for the Money
  111. Farris, John - All Heads Turn as the Hunt Goes By
  112. Fasman, John - The Geographer's Library
  113. Faulkner, William - Absalom, Absalom!
  114. Faulkner, William - The Sound and the Fury
  115. Feig, Paug - Kick Me
  116. Fforde, Jasper - Lost in a Good Book
  117. Fforde, Jasper - Something Rotten
  118. Fforde, Jasper - The Eyre Affair
  119. Fforde, Jasper - The Well of Lost Plots
  120. Fielding, Helen - Bridget Jones Diary
  121. Findley, Timothy - Pilgrim
  122. Fitzgerald, F. Scott - Tender is the Night
  123. Fitzgerald, F. Scott - The Great Gatsby
  124. Flynn, Gillian - Sharp Objects
  125. Foer, Jonathon Safran - Everything is Illuminated
  126. Foer, Jonathon Safran - Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
  127. Forster, E.M. - A Passage to India
  128. Forster, E.M. - A Room with a View
  129. Fowler, Karen Joy - The Jane Austen Book Club
  130. Fowles, John - The Magus
  131. Franklin, Ariana - Mistress of the Art of Death
  132. Franzen, Jonathon - The Corrections
  133. Frazier, Charles - Cold Mountain
  134. Freudenberger, Nell - The Dissident
  135. Frey, James - A Million Little Pieces
  136. Frey, James - My Friend Leonard
  137. Gaiman, Neil - American Gods
  138. Gaiman, Neil - Coraline
  139. Garland, Alex - The Tesseract
  140. Gilbert, David - Remote Feed
  141. Ginsberg, Debra - Blind Submission
  142. Gold, Glen David - Carter Beats the Devil
  143. Goldberg, Myla - Bee Season
  144. Golden, Arthur - Memoirs of a Geisha
  145. Golding, William - Lord of the Flies
  146. Gordon, Neil - The Company You Keep
  147. Grahame, Kenneth - The Wind in the Willows
  148. Grand, David - Louse
  149. Greene, Graham - The Heart of the Matter
  150. Grisham, John - The Broker
  151. Gruen, Sara - Water for Elephants
  152. Haddon, Mark - A Spot of Bother
  153. Haddon, Mark - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime
  154. Haig, Matt - The Dead Father's Club
  155. Hamilton, Laurel K. - Guilty Pleasures
  156. Hammett, Dashiell - The Maltese Falcon
  157. Harris, Charlaine - Club Dead
  158. Harris, Charlaine - Dead in Dallas
  159. Harris, Charlaine - Dead until Dark
  160. Harris, Thomas - Hannibal
  161. Harrison, Jim - Returning to Earth
  162. Harrison, Kathryn - Envy
  163. Harvey, Kenneth - The Town that Forgot How to Breathe
  164. Harwood, John - The Ghost Writer
  165. Hautman, Pete - Rash
  166. Heller, Joseph - Catch-22
  167. Hemingway, Ernest - A Farewell to Arms
  168. Hemingway, Ernest - For Whom the Bell Tolls
  169. Hemingway, Ernest - The Sun Also Rises
  170. Hempel, Amy - The Collected Stories of
  171. Herbert, Frank - Dune
  172. Hiaasen, Carl - Sick Puppy
  173. Hill, Joe - Heart-Shaped Box
  174. Hollinghurst, Allan - The Line of Beauty
  175. Homes, A.M. - Music for Torching
  176. Horn, Dara - The World to Come
  177. Hosseini, Khaled - The Kite Runner
  178. Hughes, Richard - A High Wind in Jamaica
  179. Hurston, Zora Neale - Their Eyes are Watching God
  180. Huxley, Aldous - Brave New World
  181. Hynes, James - The Lecturer's Tale
  182. Irving, John - The World According to Garp
  183. Ishiguro, Kazuo - Never Let Me Go
  184. Ishiguro, Kazuo - When We Were Orphans
  185. Jackson, Shirley - The Haunting of Hill House
  186. James, Henry - The Turn of the Screw
  187. Johnson, Dennis - Already Dead
  188. Jones, Edward P. - All Aunt Hagar's Children
  189. Jones, Edward P. - The Known World
  190. Joyce, James - Finnegan's Wake
  191. Joyce, James - Ulysses
  192. Julavits, Heidi - The Effect of Living Backwards
  193. Julavits, Heidi - The Uses of Enchantment
  194. Just, Ward - Forgetfulness
  195. Kellerman, Jonathan - Therapy
  196. Keneally, Thomas - Office of Innocence
  197. Keneally, Thomas - Schindler's List
  198. Kenner, Julie - Carpe Demon
  199. Kerouac, Jack - On the Road
  200. Kesey, Ken - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
  201. Kidd, Sue Monk - The Secret Life of Bees
  202. Kiernan, Caitlin - Threshold
  203. King, Stephen - Black House
  204. King, Stephen - Lisey's Story
  205. King, Stephen - On Writing
  206. King, Stephen - The Stand
  207. Kingsolver, Barbara - The Bean Trees
  208. Kingsolver, Barbara - The Poisonwood Bible
  209. Kipling, Rudyard - Kim
  210. Kirn, Walter - Thumbsucker
  211. Knowles, John - A Separate Peace
  212. Knox, Tyler - Kockroach
  213. Koontz, Dean - Odd Thomas
  214. Koontz, Dean - The Face
  215. Kostova, Elizabeth - The Historian
  216. Krauss, Nicole - The History of Love
  217. Krist, Gary - Bad Chemistry
  218. Kunkel, Benjamin - Indecision
  219. Lahiri, Jhumpa - The Interpreter of Maladies
  220. Lahiri, Jhumpa - The Namesake
  221. Lamb, Wally - I Know This Much is True
  222. Lancaster, Jen - Bitter is the New Black
  223. Lansdale, Joe - Captains Outrageous
  224. Larson, Erik - The Devil in the White City
  225. Lawrence, D.H. - Sons and Lovers
  226. Lee, Harper - To Kill and Mockingbird
  227. Lehane, Dennis - Mystic River
  228. Lehane, Dennis - Shutter Island
  229. Lethem, Jonathon - Fortress of Solitude
  230. Lethem, Jonathon - Motherless Brooklyn
  231. Lewis, Sinclair - Main Street
  232. Lewis, Sinclair - The Jungle
  233. L'Heureux, John - Having Everything
  234. London, Jack - The Call of the Wild
  235. Lovecraft, H.P. - At the Mountains of Madness
  236. Lutz, Lisa - The Spellman Files
  237. Lynch, Jim - The Highest Tide
  238. Maguire, Gregory - Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister
  239. Maguire, Gregory - Lost
  240. Maguire, Gregory - Wicked
  241. Mailer, Norman - The Naked and the Dead
  242. Mantel, Hilary - Beyond Black
  243. Mantel, Hilary - Fludd
  244. Marquez, Gabriel Garcia - Memories of My Melancholy Whores
  245. Martel Yann - Life of Pi
  246. Martinez, A. Lee - Gil's All Fright Diner
  247. Matheson, John - I Am Legend
  248. Maugham, W. Somerset - Of Human Bondage
  249. Maupin, Armistead - The Night Listener
  250. McCabe, Peter - Breakfast on Pluto
  251. McCarthy, Cormac - The Road
  252. McCullers, Carson - The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
  253. McEwan, Ian - Atonement
  254. McEwan, Ian - Saturday
  255. McFarland, Dennis - A Face at the Window
  256. McGrath, Patrick - Asylum
  257. Mead, Richelle - Succubus Blues
  258. Messud, Claire - The Emperor's Children
  259. Miller, Andrew - Oxygen
  260. Miller, Henry - Tropic of Cancer
  261. Min, Anchee - Empress Orchid
  262. Mina, Denise - Deception
  263. Minot, Susan - Rapture
  264. Mishima, Yukio - The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea
  265. Mistry, Rohinton - A Fine Balance
  266. Mitchell, David - Black Swan Green
  267. Mitchell, David - Cloud Atlas
  268. Mitchell, David - Ghostwritten
  269. Moody, Rick - Demonology: Stories
  270. Moore, Christopher - A Dirty Job
  271. Moore, Christopher - Bloodsucking Fiends
  272. Moore, Christopher - Coyote Blue
  273. Moore, Christopher - Fluke, or I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings
  274. Moore, Christopher - Island of the Sequined Love Nun
  275. Moore, Christopher - Practical Demonkeeping
  276. Moore, Christopher - The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove
  277. Moore, Christopher - The Stupidest Angel
  278. Moore, Christopher - You Suck: A Love Story
  279. Morrison, Toni - Beloved
  280. Morrison, Toni - Sula
  281. Munro, Alice - Runaway
  282. Murakami, Haruki - Kafka on the Shore
  283. Murray, Les - Fredy Neptune
  284. Nabokov, Vladimir - Lolita
  285. Nafisi, Azar - Reading Lolita in Tehran
  286. Ngozie Adichie, Chimamanda - Half of a Yellow Sun
  287. Nicholson, Geoff - Bedlam Burning
  288. Niffenegger, Audrey - The Time Traveller's Wife
  289. Nix, Garth - Mister Monday
  290. Noel, Katharine - Halfway House
  291. Notaro, Laurie - We Thought You Would Be Prettier
  292. Oates, Joyce Carol - The Falls
  293. O'Connor, Flannery - A Good Man is Hard to Find
  294. O'Connor, Flannery - Wise Blood
  295. Orringer, Julie - How to Breathe Underwater
  296. Orwell, George - 1984
  297. Orwell, George - Animal Farm
  298. Ozich, Cynthia - Heir to the Glimmering World
  299. Palahniuk, Chuck - Choke
  300. Palahniuk, Chuck - Haunted
  301. Palliser, Charles - The Unburied
  302. Parkhurst, Carolyn - Lost and Found
  303. Parkhurst, Carolyn - The Dogs of Babel
  304. Patchett, Ann - Bel Canto
  305. Perez-Reverte, Arturo - The Club Dumas
  306. Perlman, Elliot - Seven Types of Ambiguity
  307. Perrotta, Tom - Election
  308. Perrotta, Tom - Joe College
  309. Perrotta, Tom - Little Children
  310. Perrotta, Tom - The Wishbones
  311. Pessl, Marisha - Special Topics in Calamity Physics
  312. Petterson, Vicki - The Scent of Shadows
  313. Pierce, DBC - Vernon God Little
  314. Pirsig, Robert - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
  315. Poirier, Mark Jude - Goats
  316. Pratchett, Terry - The Color of Magic
  317. Price, Richard - Freedomland
  318. Priest, Cherie - Four and Twenty Blackbirds
  319. Pritchard, Sara - Crackpots
  320. Prose, Francine - Reading Like a Writer
  321. Proulx, Annie - The Shipping News
  322. Quindlen, Anna - Rise and Shine
  323. Rand, Ayn - Atlas Shrugged
  324. Rand, Ayn - The Fountainhead
  325. Roach, Mary - Spook
  326. Roach, Mary - Stiff
  327. Roberts, Gregory David - Shantaram
  328. Robinson, Marilynne - Gilead
  329. Robinson, Marilynne - Housekeeping
  330. Rock, Peter - The Unsettling
  331. Roth, Phillip - American Pastoral
  332. Roth, Phillip - The Human Stain
  333. Roth, Phillip - The Plot Against America
  334. Rowling, J.K. - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
  335. Rowling, J.K. - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
  336. Rowling, J.K. - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
  337. Rowling, J.K. - Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix
  338. Rowling, J.K. - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
  339. Rowling, J.K. - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
  340. Roy, Arundhati - The God of Small Things
  341. Rubenfeld, Jed - The Interpretation of Murder
  342. Ruff, Matt - Set This House in Order
  343. Rushdie, Salman - The Satanic Verses
  344. Russo, Richard - Empire Falls
  345. Sakey, Marcus - The Blade Itself
  346. Salinger, J.D. - The Catcher in the Rye
  347. Sansom, Ian - The Case of the Missing Books
  348. Satrapi, Marjane - Persepolis
  349. Schreiber, Joe - Chasing the Dead
  350. Sebold, Alice - The Lovely Bones
  351. Sedaris, David - Barrel Fever
  352. Sedaris, David - Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim
  353. Sedaris, David - Me Talk Pretty One Day
  354. Sedaris, David - Naked
  355. See, Lisa - Flower Net
  356. Seierstad, Asne - The Bookseller of Kabul
  357. Setterfield, Diane - The Thirteenth Tale
  358. Sheffield, Rob - Love is a Mix Tape
  359. Sherril, Steven - The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break
  360. Shields, Jody - The Fig Eater
  361. Shreve, Porte - The Obituary Writer
  362. Shteyngart, Gary - Absurdistan
  363. Simmons, Dan - The Terror
  364. Sittenfeld, Curtis - Prep
  365. Smith, Alexander McCall - At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances
  366. Smith, Alexander McCall - Friends and Chocolate
  367. Smith, Alexander McCall - In the Company of Cheerful Ladies
  368. Smith, Alexander McCall - Morality for Beautiful Girls
  369. Smith, Alexander McCall - Portuguese Irregular Verbs
  370. Smith, Alexander McCall - Tears of the Giraffe
  371. Smith, Alexander McCall - The Blue Shoes of Happiness
  372. Smith, Alexander McCall - The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs
  373. Smith, Alexander McCall - The Full Cupboard of Life
  374. Smith, Alexander McCall - The Kalahari Typing School for Men
  375. Smith, Alexander McCall - The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency
  376. Smith, Alexander McCall - The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency
  377. Smith, Alexander McCall - The Right Attitude to Rain
  378. Smith, Alexander McCall - The Sunday Philosophy Club
  379. Smith, Betty - A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
  380. Smith, Scott - The Ruins
  381. Smith, Zadie - On Beauty
  382. Smith, Zadie - White Teeth
  383. Steinbeck, John - Of Mice and Men
  384. Steinbeck, John - The Grapes of Wrath
  385. Stone, Robert - Bay of Souls
  386. Styron, William - Sophie's Choice
  387. Swan, Mary - The Deep
  388. Tan, Amy - Saving Fish from Drowning
  389. Tan, Amy - The Bonesetter's Daughter
  390. Tarloff, Erik - The Man Who Wrote the Book
  391. Tartt, Donna - The Little Friend
  392. Tartt, Donna - The Secret History
  393. Tolkien, J.R.R. - The Lord of the Rings
  394. Tuck, Lily - The News from Paraguay
  395. Ullman, Ellen - The Bug
  396. Updike, John - Rabbit, Run
  397. Updike, John - Villages
  398. Vonnegut, Kurt - Slaughterhouse Five
  399. Wagner, Bruce - Still Holding
  400. Wallace, David Foster - Oblivion
  401. Walsh, Jeanette - The Glass Castle
  402. Walter, Jess - The Zero
  403. Warren, Robert Penn - All the King's Men
  404. Waters, Sarah - Fingersmith
  405. Waters, Sarah - The Night Watch
  406. Waugh, Evelyn - A Handful of Dust
  407. Wellington, David - Monster Island
  408. Wells, H.G. - War of the Worlds
  409. Welsh, Louise - The Cutting Room
  410. Wharton, Edith - The Age of Innocence
  411. White, E.B. - Charlotte's Web
  412. Wiesel, Elie - Night
  413. Wiggins, Marianne - Evidence of Things Unseen
  414. Wolfe, Tom - Bonfire of the Vanities
  415. Woolf, Virginia - Orlando
  416. Woolf, Virginia - To the Lighthouse
  417. Woolfe, Virginia - Mrs. Dalloway
  418. Wright, Richard - Native Son
  419. Zafon, Carlos Ruiz - The Shadow of the Wind
  420. Zusak, Markus - The Book Thief