My (recent) past book lists

2002

Look at Me
Jennifer Egan

The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint
Brady Udall

Scoop
Evelyn Waugh

Perfect Recall
Ann Beattie

All We Know of Love
Katie Schneider

Means of Escape
Penelope Fitzgerald

The Bullfighter Checks her Makeup
Susan Orlean

Lessico Famigliare
Natalia Ginzburg

The Poisonwood Bible
Barbara Kingsolver

How to Travel with a Salmon (essays)
Umberto Eco

The Bridegroom and other stories
Ha Jin

Sap Rising
Christine Lincoln

The Mystic Masseur
V.S. Naipaul

Step-Ball-Change
Jeanne Ray

Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage
Alice Munro

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
Anne Fadiman

The Doctor
Patricia Duncker

Frankenstein
Mary Shelley

The Deadly Space Between
Patricia Duncker

How to be Good
Nick Hornby

Housewrights
Art Corriveau

Women of the Silk
Gail Tsukiyama

Whiteout
Ted Conover

Fall on Your Knees
Anne-Marie Mcdonald

Trans-sister Radio
Chris Bohalian

The Girl at the Lion dÕOr
Sebastian Faulks

The Mysteries of Pittsburgh
Michael Chabon

The Tartar Steppe
Dino Buzzati

Disobedience
Jane Hamilton

After Hannibal
Barry Unsworth

Romeo and Julia
Jeanne Ray

Lost in Place
Mark Salzman

The Solace of Open Spaces
Gretel Ehrlich

Newjack: Guarding Sing-sing
Ted Conover

Wonder Boys
Michael Chabon

Darkness
Dacia Maraini

The Piano Shop on the Left Bank
Thad Carhart

Casa Rossa
Francesca Marciano

The Crazed
Ha Jin

Chasing Che
Patrick Symmes

The Gate of Angels
Penelope Fitzgerald

The Huntsman
Whitney Terrell

On Writing
Stephen King

Medea and her Children
Ludmila Ulitskaya

The Hiding Place
Trezza Azzapardi

In the River Sweet
Patricia Henley

More Like Wrestling
Danyel Smith

The Little Friend
Donna Tartt

Thinks
David Lodge

Bel Canto
Ann Patchett

 

2001

Waiting
Ha Jin

Blood Washes Blood
Frank Viviano

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Dave Eggers

Lili: A Novel of Tianneman
Annie Wang

The Dark Room
Rachel Seiffert

Face-Time
Erik Tarkoff

The Mistress
Phillippe Tapon

The Russia House
John Le Carre

The Last Life
Claire Messud

Sister Crazy
Emma Richler

A Sky So Close
Betool Khedairi

The Map of Love
Adhaf Soueif

Amy and Isabelle
Elizabeth Strouit

Indian Killer
Sherman Alexie

Flesh and Blood
Michael Cunningham

Martin Dressler
Stephen Millhouse

The Palace of Tears
Alev Lytle Croutier

At FreddieÕs
Penelope Fitzgerald

Offshore
Penelope Fitzgerald

Tender at the Bone
Ruth Reichl

Such a Long Journey
Rohinton Mistry

Comfort Me With Apples
Ruth Reichl

The Toughest Indian in the World
Sherman Alexie

Kitchen Confidential
Anthony Bourdain

Angels in America
Tony Kushner

The Pleasing Hour
Lily King

NobodyÕs Fool
Richard Russo

Motherless Brooklyn
Jonathan Lethem

The BearÕs Embrace
Patricia Van Tighem

Girl with a Pearl Earring
Tracy Chevalier

The Salt Dancers
Ursula Hegi

The Red Tent
Anita Diamant

White Teeth
Zadie Smith

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
Michael Chabon

Seta
Alessandro Barrico

Norweigian Wood
Haruki Murakami

About a Boy
Nick Hornby

A Room with a View
E.M. Forster

BridesheadRevisited
Evelyn Waugh

The Botany of Desire
Michael Pollan

EveÕs Apple
Jonathan Rosen

The Corrections
Jonathan Franzen

Empire Falls
Richard Russo

Astronauts and Other Stories
Mathew Iribarne

2000

Dreams of My Russian Summer
Andre Makine

The Love of a Good Woman
Alice Munro

Midnight in Sicily
Peter Robb

The Delicate Prey
Paul Bowles

The Lover
Marguerite Duras

Run River
Joan Didion

A Street in Marrakesh
Elizabeth Fernea

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles
Haruki Murakami

The Girl at the Lion dÕOr
Sebastian Faulks

A Fine Balance
Rohinton Mistry

George Eliot: The Last Victorian
Kathryn Hughes

Sostiene Pereira
Antonio Tabucchi

The Call of Stories
Robert Coles

Swimming Lessons
Rohinton Mistry

Trainspotting
Irvine Welsh

Tomcat in Love
Tim OÕBrien

The End of the Affair
Graham Greene

Flux
Peggy Orenstein

The Blue Flower
Penelope Fitzgerald

South of the Border, West of the Sun
Haruki Murakami

Driving Over Lemons: An Optimist in Andalucia
Chris Stewart

Leviathan
Paul Auster

A Suitable Boy
Vikram Seth

Moon Palace
Paul Auster

Blindness
Jose Saragado

At HeavenÕs Gate
Robert Penn Warren

Candide
Voltaire

The Hours
Michael Cunningham

Mrs. Dalloway
Virginia Woolf

The Fifth Child
Doris Lessing

The Puttermesser Papers
Cynthia Ozick

Back in the World
Tobias Wolff

A Room with a View
E.M. Forster

King, Queen, Knave
Nabokov

Cherry
Mary Karr

The Mark of the Angel
Nancy Huston

1999

Lolita
Vladimir Nabokov

Pnin
Nabokov

New York Trilogy
Paul Auster

Personal History
Katherine Graham

The NawalEl Saadawi Reader
Nawal El Saadawai

Ancient Evenings
Norman Mailer

Great Irish Writers
John McCarthy, ed.

Memoirs of a Geisha
Arthur Golden

The Life and Loves of a She-Devil
Fay Weldon

Central Square
George Packer

Cold Mountain
Charles Frazier

About a Boy
Nick Hornby

Il Conformista
Alberto Moravia

Kalimantaan
C.S. Godshalk

A Widow for One Year
John Irving

Cavedweller
Dorothy Allison

Herzog
Saul Bellow

Turn of the Century
Kurt Anderson

Marcovaldo
Italo Calvino

A GirlsÕ Guide to Hunting and Fishing
Melissa Bank

Interpreter of Maladies
Jhumpa Lahiri

The Fall of the Sparrow
Robert Hellenga

Cairo: The City Victorious
Max Rodenbeck

Crossing the Channel
Julian Barnes

Babel Tower
A.S. Byatt

Are You Somebody
Nuala OÕFaolain

Hand to Mouth
Paul Auster

Cristo � Fermata a Eboli
Carlo Levi

American Pastoral
Philip Roth

Under the Tuscan Sun
Frances Mayes

The Man Who Ate Everything
Jeffrey Steingarten

Among the Thugs
Bill Buford

Spring Snow
Yukio Mishima

The Master and Margarita
Mikhail Bulgakov

1998

The Recognitions
William Gaddis

Public Knowledge: The Social Dimension of Science
John Ziman

The Shipping News
Annie Proulx

Paradise
Toni Morrison

CorelliÕs Mandolin
Louis de Bernieres

The Odyssey
Homer (Robert Fagles trans)

Because They Wanted To
Mary Gaitskill

True North
Jill Ker Conway

The Manuscript Found in Saragossa
Jan Potocki

The Angel of Darkness
Caleb Carr

The Decameron
Giovanni Boccaccio

Women with Men
Richard Ford

Born to Rebel: Birth Order, Family Dynamics etc
Frank Sulloway

Bridget JonesÕ Diary
Helen Fielding

The Anatomy of Love
Helen Fisher

How Proust Can Change Your Life
Alain de Botton

Susie BrightÕs Sexual State of the Union
Susie Bright

Lives of the Monster Dogs
Kirsten Bakis

Birdsong
Sebastian Faulks

Harafish
Naguib Mahfouz

Getting In
James Finny Boylan

The Woodcutters
Thomas Bernhart

Speak, Memory
Vladimir Nabokov

The God of Small Things
Arundhati Roy

For Kings and Planets
Ethan Canin

La Lunga Vita di Marianna Ucria
Dacia Maraini

Medieval in L.A.
Jim Paul

Catapult: Harry and I Build a Siege Weapon
Jim Paul

WhatÕs Called Love
Jim Paul (ugh)

1997

Le Divorce
Diane Johnson

The Human Factor
Graham Greene

The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun
Sebastien Japrisot

Eat Fat
Richard Klein

In Cold Blood
Truman Capote

Seven Japanese Tales
Junichiro Tanazaki

Ransom
Jay McInerney

AngelaÕs Ashes
FrankMcCourt

Regeneration
Pat Barker

The Eye in the Door
Pat Barker

The Ghost Road
Pat Barker

Crooked Little Heart
Annie Lamott

Love Invents Us
Amy Bloom

The Moviegoer
Walker Percy

Geek Love
Katherine Dunn

Come to Me
Amy Bloom

The Palace Thief
Ethan Canin

SheÕs Come Undone
Wally Lamb

Behind the Scenes at the Museum
Kate Atkinson

SmillaÕs Sense of Snow
Peter Hoeg

Emperor of the Air
Ethan Canin

Human Croquet
Kate Atkinson

Incidents in the Rue Laugier
Anita Brookner

Women in Love
DH Lawrence

More Die of Heartbreak
Saul Bellow

All the KingÕs Men
Robert Penn Warren

The Italians
Luigi Barzini

The Loser
Thomas Bernhard

Into Thin Air
Jon Krakauer

HumboldtÕs Gift
Saul Bellow

Fireflies
Shiva Naipaul

1996

The One Hundred Secret Senses
Amy Tan

The Republican War Against Women
Tanya Melich

The Makiota Sisters
Junichiro Tanizaki

The House on the Lagoon
Rosario Ferre

Staring at the Sun
Julian Barnes

Some Prefer Nettles
Junichiro Tanizaki

The Invisible Circus
Jennifer Egan

The Age of Consent
Geoffrey Wolff

The Sportswriter
Richard Ford

Lucky Jim
Kingsley Amis

McTeague
Frank Norris

Remains of the Day
Kazuo Ishiguro

Heart Songs
E. Annie Proulx

Midair
Frank Conroy

Mr. IveÕs Christmas
Oscar Hijuelos

Master and Margarita
Mikhail Bulgakov

Amazing Grace
Jonathan Kozol

Paula
Isabel Allende

Primary Colors
Anonymous

Snow Falling on Cedars
David Guterson

Stones from the River
Ursula Hegi

Quicksand
Junikiro Tanazaki

Ladders of the Years
Anne Tyler

Floating in My MotherÕs Palm
Ursula Hegi

Romola
George Eliot

The Edible Woman
Margaret Atwood

Best of Young American Writers
Granta, Ian Jack, ed.

The Pelican Brief
John Grisham

Rock Springs
Richard Ford

In the Eye of the Storm
Ahdat Soueif

The LiarÕs Club
Mary Karr

The Paperboy
Pete Dexter

Paris Trout
Pete Dexter

The Key
Junichiro Tanazaki

Italian Stories/Novelle Italian
Robert Hall, ed.

The Mating Season
PG Wodehouse

Murthur and Walking Spirits
Robertson Davies

Brotherly Love
Pete Dexter

Tasting Food, Tasting Freedom
Sidney Mintz

Chicken Little, Tomato Sauce and Agriculture
Joan Gussow

Leave it to Psmith
PG Wodehouse

The Magic Toyshop
Angela Carter

Saints and Strangers
Angela Carter

Wise Children
Angela Carter

This BoyÕs Life
Tobias Wolff

In PharoahÕs Army
Tobias Wolff

The English Patient
Michael Ondaatje

High Fidelity
Nick Hornby

The Rainbow
DH Lawrence

Arranged Marriage
Chitra Banarjee Divkaruni

Barry Lyndon
Thackerey

The Duke of Deception
Geoffrey Wolff

Back in the World
Tobias Wolff

Accordian Crimes
Annie Proulx

Blue Sky Dream
David Beers

The Night in Question
Tobias Wolff

Autobiography of My Mother
Jamaica Kincaid

The Final Club
Geoffrey Wolff

1995

Bird by Bird
Anne Lamott

In the Lake of the Woods
Tim OÕBrien

Stranger in Two Worlds
Jean Harris

Dead Babies
Martin Amis

The Lyre of Orpheus
Robertson Davies

The Alienist
Caleb Carr

Time and Again
Jack Finney

The Eva Luna Stories
Isabel Allende

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
John Berendt

A Map of the World
Jane Hamilton

Body and Soul
Frank Conroy

A Curtain of Green
Eudora Welty

This Side of Paradise
F. Scott Fitzgerald

Small World
David Lodge

Running Dog
Don Delillo

Stones for Ibarra
Harriett Doer

An Anthropologist on Mars
Oliver Sacks

Ethan Frome
Edith Wharton

The Custom of the Country
Edith Wharton

The Cunning Man
Robertson Davies

Moo
Jane Smiley

The Age of Innocence
Edith Wharton

The Glimpses of the Moon
Edith Wharton

The Waterworks
E.L. Doctorow

Changing Places
David Lodge

The Bostonians
Henry James

The Palace Thief
Ethan Canin

Nice Work
David Lodge

Monopolies of Loss
Adam Mars-Jones

Things Fall Apart
Chinua Achebe

The Book of Ruth
Jane Hamilton

Black Boy
Richard Wright

No Longer at Ease
Chinua Achebe

The Stone Diaries
Carol Shield

Miss Lonelyhearts and Day of the Locust
Nathanael West

Independence Day
Richard Ford

Therapy
David Lodge

Travels with My Aunt
Graham Greene

Strip Tease
Carl Hiassen

Black Betty
Walter Mosely

For Whom the Bell Tolls
Hemingway

Tourist Season
Carl Hiassen

The 158-pound Marriage
John Irving

Stormy Weather
Carl Hiassen

Daniel Deronda
George Eliot

Call It Sleep
Henry Roth

Mystery Ride
Robert Boswel

l The Sixteen Pleasures
Richard Hellenga

McGarr and the Sienes Conspiracy
Bartholomew Gill

Barn Blind
Jane Smiley

One True Thing
Anna Quindlen

Resurrection
Tolstoy

Under the Frog
Tibor Fisher

1994

Race Matters
Cornel West

Dreaming in Cuban
Cristina Garera

Consuming Passions
Brown and Jasper, ed

BaileyÕs Cafe
Gloria Naylor

Closing Time
Lacey Fosburgh

Possessing the Secret of Joy
Alice Walker

Paradox of Plenty
Harvey Levenstein

Enemies, A Love Story
I.B. Singer

Bastard Out of Carolina
Dorothy Allison

Never Satisfied
Hillel Schwartz

Never Too Thin
Roberta Seid

Very Old Bones
William Kennedy

Bad Behavior
Mary Gaitskill

The Robber Bride
Margaret Atwood

Seraph on the Suwanee
Zora Neale Hurston

The Infinite Plan
Isabel Allende

The Overweight Society
Peter Wyden

Diet and Die
Carl Malmberg

Too Loud a Solitude
Bohumil Hrabal

Sister Carrie
Theodore Dreiser

Jennie Gerhardt
Theodore Dreiser

Mama Day
Gloria Naylor

Sugar and Other Stories
A.S. Byatt

The Good Terrorist
Doris Lessing

Emma
Jane Austen

Dance of the Happy Shades
Alice Munro

All the Pretty Horses
Cormac McCarthy

The Leopard
Giuseppe di Lampedusa

The Shipping News
E. Annie Proulx

Sanctuary
William Faulkner

Trash
Dorothy Allison

The Cider House Rules
John Irving

Postcards
Annie Proulx

A Big Storm Knocked It Over
Laurie Colwin

The Crossing
Cormac McCarthy

Tidewater Morning
William Styron

The American Way of Death
Jessica Mitford

Blood Meridian
Cormac McCarthy

Poison Penmanship
Jessica Mitford

Shot in the Heart
Mikal Gilmore

The Road to Wellville
T. Coraghassen Boyle

Money
Martin Amis

The Fermata
Nicholson Baker

Vox
Nicholson Baker

The Obsession
Kim Chernin

The Damned and the Beuatiful
Paula Fass

Womanhood in America
Mary Ryan

Tempest Tost
Robertson Davies

Leaven of Malice
Robertson Davies

A Mixture of Frailties
Roberton Davies

The Plastic Age, 1917-1930
Robert Sklar, ed.

All Consuming Images
Stewart Ewen

Son of the Circus
John Irving

Consumed
Michele Stacey

Muscle
Samuel Fussman

Rebel Angels
Robertson Davies

In a Country of Mothers
A.M. Holmes

The Mezzanine
Nicholas Baker

Tender is the Night
F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Damned and the Beautiful
F. Scott Fitzgerald

A River Sutra
Gita Mehta

Invisible Man
Ralph Ellison

Open Secrets
Alice Munro

Moronic Inferno
Martin Amis

Love in a Dry Season
Shelby Foote

Serve it Forth
MFK Fisher

The Gastronomical Me
MFK Fisher

Illness as Metaphor and AIDS and its Metaphors
Susan Sontag

How to Cook a Wolfe
MFK Fisher

An Alphabet for Gourmets
MFK Fisher

Talk Dirty to Me
Sallie Tisdale

WhatÕs Bred in the Bone
Robertson Davies

Operating Instructions
Anne Lamott

Skin Tight
Carl Hiassen

Who Will Run the Frog Hospital
Lorrie Moore

White People
Alan Garganus