My 2013 booklist:

Bring Up the Bodies*****
Hilary Mantel

The Orphan Master’s Son*****
Adam Johnson

Leaving the Atocha Station*****
Ben Lerner

The Twelve Tribes of Hattie****
Ayana Mathis

Beautiful Ruins****1/2
Jess Walter

The Financial Lives of Poets****
Jess Walter

Ancient Light****
John Banville

I Love You More Than You Know*
Jonathan Ames

The Language of Flowers****
Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Enduring Love*****
Ian Mcewan

The Innocent****1/2
Ian Mcewan

My Old Sweetheart****1/2
Susanna Moore

The Whiteness of Bones****
Susanna Moore

The Folded Cliffs*****
M.S. Merwin

The Round House****1/2
Louise Erdrich

Season of the Witch****1/2
David Talbot

Days of Abandonment****
Elsa Ferrante

After Hannibal***1/2
Barry Unsworth

My Brilliant Friend*****
Elsa Ferrante

 

 

My 2012 booklist:

This year, I am not rating friends’ books except with an ƒ. I am blessed with friends who are wonderful writers, but I don’t want to go giving them stars. They’re all stars…

The Cat’s Table****
Michael Ondaatje

The Slippery Year (ƒ)
Melanie Gideon

Perfume***
Patrick Suskind

Growgirl (ƒ)
Heather Donahue

Fighting Fire (ƒ)
Caroline Paul

Catherine the Great*****
Robert Massie

Zeitoun*****
Dave Eggers

The Situation and the Story****
Vivian Gornick

In One Person****
John Irving

Best American Nonrequired Reading*****
Dave Eggers, ed.

Maya Roads: One Woman’s Journey Among the People of the Rainforest****
Mary Jo McConahay

The  Art of Fielding****
Chad Harbach

The Marriage Plot*****
Jeffrey Eugenides

The Girl Who Played with Fire***
Stieg Larsson

Hologram for a King*****
Dave Eggers

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest****
Stieg Larsson

 In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin****
Erik Larson

The Solitude of Prime Numbers****
Paolo Giordano

When the Emperor Was Divine****
Julie Otsuka

In Patagonia****
Bruce Chatwin

Home  Cooking*****
Laurie Colwin

Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal?*****
Jeanette Winterson

The Sense of an Ending****
Julian Barnes

Dead Man Walking****
Sister Helen Prejean

Modern American Memoirs****
Edited by Annie Dillard and Cort Conley

Wolf Hall****
Hilary Mantel

Menage***
Alix Kates Shulman

Rules of Civility****
Amor Towles

Krik? Krak!****
Edwidge Danticot

Say Her Name***1/2
Francisco Goldman

Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk*****
Ben Fountain

Canada*****
Richard Ford

Maine****
J.  Courteney Sullivan

The Summer Guest*****
Justin Cronin

The Long Night of White Chickens****
Francisco Goldman

A Big Storm Knocked it Down***1/2
Laura Colwin

The Newlyweds****
Nell Freudenberger

Wild***
Cheryl Strayed

Where’d You Go, Bernadette?****
Marie Semple

Train Dreams****
Denis Johnson

Behind the Beautiful Forevers*****
Katherine Boo

The Last of Her Kind***1/2
Sigrid Nunez

This is How You Lose Her****1/2
Junot Diaz

Telegraph Avenue****
Michael Chabon
Overstuffed.

NW****
Zadie Smith

Sweet Tooth*****
Ian McEwan

Sutton****
J.R. Moehringer

Lightning Rods****
Helen Dewitt

Dear Life*****
Alice Munro

 

My 2011 booklist:

I’m starting a five-star rating system this  year (before the books on the list were either starred or not)

Man in the Dark****
Paul Auster

The Cookbook Collector***
Allegra Goodman***

Celeste Ascending***
Kaylie Jones

La Bella Lingua***
Dianne Hales

Boys of My Youth*****
Jo Ann Beard

Cakewalk****
Kate Moses

The Flaming Corsage***
William Kennedy

Cleopatra****
Stacy Schiff

The Widower’s Tale****
Julia Glass

How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents****
Julia Alvarez

By Nightfall****
Michael Cunningham

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks***
Rebecca Skloot

The Toughest Indian in the World*****
Sherman Alexie

Orange is the New Black*****
Piper Kerman

Don’t Cry***
Mary Gaitskill

Sunset Park****
Paul Auster

Empty Family****
Colm Toibin

Persuasion*****
Jane Austen

The Privileges****
Jonathan Dee

The Believers****
Zoe Heller

The White Tiger****
Aravind Adiga

Northanger Abbey****
Jane Austen

Half Broke Horses****
Jeannette Walls

Bite Me***
Fabio Parasecoli

The Year of Wonders****
Geraldine Brooks

The Tiger’s Wife****
Tea Obreht

Pride and Prejudice*****
Jane Austen

Before Night Falls***
Reinaldo Arenas

Emma****
Jane Austen

Priceless: How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World’s Stolen Treasures**
Robert K. Wittman with John Shiffman

The Weird Sisters*****
Eleanor Brown

Lola, California****
Edie Meidev

Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-Time Eater***
Frank Bruni

The Ask***
Sam Lipsyte

Amor en los Tiempos del Colera*****
Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The Nowhere City****
Alison Lurie

Blood, Bones, and Butter***
Gabrielle Hamilton

Something from the Oven: Reinventing Dinner in 1950s America***
Laura Shapiro

The War of Don Emmanuel’s Nether Parts***
Louis de Bernieres

Great House****
Nicole Krauss

Food is Culture***
Massimo Montanari

Lost Memory of Skin*****
Russell Banks

A Short History of Women****
Kate Walbert

Indignation****
Philip Roth

March****
Geraldine Brooks

Caleb’s Crossing****
Geraldine Brooks

Love and Shame and Love****
Peter Orner

The Voyage of the Rose City****
John Moynihan (dear departed friend)

A Thousand Lives: The Untold Story of Hope, Deception, and Survival at Jonestown****
Julia Scheeres

Stone Arabia****
Dana Spiotta

The Custom of the Country****
Edith Wharton

Bossypants***
Tina Fey

1Q84****
Haruki Murakami