Top Books of 2004

Hi everyone,

As many of you know, I keep track of each book I read and at the end of the year I pick my favorites. I decided to send the list out this year, so here it is!

Please feel free to forward this to any other bibliophiles you know. All I ask in return is that you send me the names of anything you've read this year that you liked. :)

Have a Wonderful 2005, and keep reading. Love, Sheryl
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***Best Books from 2004***

I read 60 books this year. Yes, I do work full time, and yes I did start grad school, and no it did not slow down my reading. ;)

Where I remembered, I noted who had recommended a particular book to me. I am trying harder to keep track of that for 2005!

Of my two *favorite* books from 2004, one was fiction and the other non-fiction.

*Fiction Favorite: The Time-Traveler's Wife (Audrey Niffenegger) This was a book about a man with an epilepsy-like disorder who, instead of having seizures, time-traveled through his own life. As you can imagine, this made for quite an interesting love life for him and his wife. This is one of the best love stories I have ever read; don't be scared off by the sci-fi angle. (Recommended to me by
Jenne)

*Non-fiction Favorite: Appetites (Caroline Knapp)
This is a great book that purports to be about eating disorders but is really a greater discussion of women and the external encouragement they do and don't get to determine and obtain what they want in life. Nearly every woman I know was in this book one way or another. Every woman, and everybody who knows a woman, should read this book.

*********************Top Books: Fiction

Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
Wonderful book. This book follows the story of an Afghani boy and his best friend, who is his father's servant's son. Lots of depiction (show, don't tell) of class differences. Events that happen to them as children follow them through life. Good imagery about Afghanistan. Great interaction between the characters. (Recommended by Christie)

Easter Island (Jennifer Vanderbes)
This follows the stories of two separate women, one in 1912, one in 1973. The former is visiting Easter Island with her husband, who is researching the Moai (statues). The latter is researching pollen fossils as a scientist. Both stories were compelling, as is there inevitable collision. (Recommended by Jenne).

Handmaiden's Tale (Margaret Atwood)
Very unusual story of a world in the future where women exist to either hold social positions or have children--few do both. The main character is immediately sympathetic, and the plot is compelling. Hard to put down.

Empire Falls (Richard Russo)
Very good characters and plot about a small town in Maine. A man owns the town grille, and the story follows him and his daughter and ex-wife. I would call this book close to perfect in terms of composition, language, characters, and plot.

Bel Canto (Ann Patchett)
This was a great read. An opera singer and some priests and goverment officials and aristocrats get taken hostage in a mansion in South America. The ensuing interactions during their captivity are depicted gracefully and in great detail.

The Other Boleyn Girl (Philipa Gregory)
Follows the story of Mary Boleyn, who has an affair with King Henry many years prior to Anne's marriage to him. I read this for my book club a bit reluctantly but ended up really loving the storyline and characters. Maybe this is what my history teacher meant in junior high about history coming alive?

Middlesex (Jeffrey Eugenides)
Follows the life (from ancestry) of someone who changes genders as an adult. Very appealing protagonist, although a bit hard to relate to. I suppose we tend to align ourselves in gender as readers. Good read over all. Saga-like in scope.

Bone People (Keri Hulme)
Story of a broken family of Maori people in New Zealand, an outsider who meets them, and the role of love and violence within the family. More poetry and dialect than I usually like, but somehow I liked it anyway. (Seen on Jenne's bookshelf)

Crescent (Diana Abu-Jabar)
American Iranian and her job at a small diner. She lives a very isolated, shielded life, and falls in love. Great characters, nice use of food as metaphor throughout the book (the character even
references Like Water for Chocolate at one point). Read this book, then join me in hoping for a sequel.

Three Junes (Julia Glass)
Family saga set in Scotland covering three summers over a long span of years. Lots of different (good) voices, and a compelling plot line.

Swimming (Joanna Herschorn)
Young child witnesses a violent act that shades her life and the life of those involved for years after. Very eerie story...great characters and a distinct aftertaste even once the book is over.
(Recommended by Allyson Pilcher)

Dive from Clausen's Pier (Ann Packer)
Girl in a long-term high school relationship decides to break up with her boyfriend before college, but he is in an accident and subsequently a coma before she can tell him. Good story and characters, although she is a bit too mature for her age at times (or at least more mature than I was in high school).

*********************Top Books: Non-Fiction

Millenium Problems (Keith Devlin)
Might not be what you expect from a reader, but I am also a mathematician at heart. This book got too hard even for me at the end, but it was cool to read about the fact that there are some major unsolved math problems, and to understand at least the first few (he puts them in order of difficulty).

Riding the Bus with My Sister (Rachel Simon)
This is about a journalist whose sister is mentally challenged, and she spends a year visiting her weekly and riding the public bus system with her. (That is what the sister does all day). At times sweet, and at times sad. Ultimately a triumphant but purposefully confusing moral.

*********************Other Notable Books

***Fiction

Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (Recommended by Everyone!)
Angels & Demons by Dan Brown (Recommended by some guy in the airport)
Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks (Recommended by Christie)
Charming Billy by Alice McDermot
Heaven Lake by John Dalton (Recommended by Christie)
No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
Little Children by Tom Perrotta (Recommended by Jenne)

***Non-fiction

My Traitor's Heart by Rian Malan
(White South African struggles with inherent racism)

Loud and Clear by Anna Quindlen
(Collection of essays)

Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy
(Cancer survivor struggles more with with body image than with disease)