Fiction
• Tree of Smoke, by Denis Johnson (Winner!)
• Fieldwork, by Mischa Berlinski
• Varieties of Disturbance: Stories, by Lydia Davis
• Then We Came To The End, by Josua Ferris
• Like You’d Understand Anway, by Jim Shepard

Nonfiction
• Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA,, by Tim Weiner (Winner!)
• Brother, I’m Dying, by Edwidge Danticat
• God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everyting, by Christopher Hitchens
• Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution, by Woody Holton
• Ralph Ellison: A Biography, by Arnold Rampersad

Poetry
• Time and Materials: Poems 1997-2005, by Robert Haas (Winner!)
• Magnetic North, by Linda Gregerson
• The House On Boulevard St., by David Kirby
• Old Heart: Poems, by Stanley Plumly
• Messenger: New and Selected Poems 1976-2006, by Ellen Bryant Voigt

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The 10 Best Books of 2007 - New York Times.

100 Notable Books of 2007 - New York Times.

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Fiction
• The Echo Maker, by Richard Powers (Winner!)
• Only Revolutions: A Novel, by Mark Z. Danielewski
• A Disorder Peculiar to the Country, by Ken Kalfus
• Eat The Document: A Novel, by Dana Spiotta
• The Zero, by Jess Walter

Nonfiction
• The Worst Hard Time, by Timothy Egan (Winner!)
• At Canaan’s Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68, by Taylor Branch
• Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq’s Green Zone, by Rajiv Chandrasekaran
• Oracle Bones: A Journey Between China’s Past and Present, by Peter Hessler
• The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, by Lawrence Wright

Poetry
• Splay Anthem, by Nathaniel Mackey (Winner!)
• Averno, by Louise Gluck
• Chromatic, by H.L. Hix
• Angle of Yaw, by Ben Lerner
• Capacity, by James McMichael

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I’ll get these up on the Readers’ Page, together with the National Book Award finalists and winners at the earliest opportunity.

The 10 Best Books of 2006 - New York Times

100 Notable Books of the Year - New York Times

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2005 BEST BOOKS - NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

Fiction

• Kafka On The Shore, by Haruki Murakami
• On Beauty, by Zadie Smith
• Prep: A Novel, by Curtis Sittenfeld
• Saturday, by Ian McEwan
• Veronica, by Mary Gaitskill

Nonfiction

• The Assassin’s Gate: America In Iraq, by George Packer
• De Kooning: An American Master, by Mark Stevens & Annalyn Swan
• The Lost Painting, by Jonathan Harr
• Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945, by Tony Judt
• The Year Of Magical Thinking, by Joan Didion

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2005 NATIONAL BOOK AWARDS

Fiction

• Europe Central, by William T. Vollman (Winner!)
• The March, by E.L. Doctorow
• Veronica, by Mary Gaitskill
• Trance, by Chrisopher Sorrentino
• Holy Skirts, by Rene Steinke

Nonfiction

• The Year Of Magical Thinking, by Joan Didion (Winner!)
• Out of Eden: An Odyssey of Ecological Invasion, by Alan Burdick
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Restless Genius, by Leo Damrosch
• 102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers, by Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn
• Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire’s Slaves, by Adam Hochschild

Poetry

• Migration: New & Selected Poems, by W.S. Merwin (Winner!)
• Where Shall I Wander, by John Ashbery
• Star Dust: Poems, by Frank Bidart
• Habitat: New and Selected Poems, by Brendan Galvin
• The Moment’s Equation, by Vern Rutsala

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2005 PULITZER PRIZES

• Fiction: Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson
• History: Washington’s Crossing, by David Hackett Fischer
• Biography: De Kooning: An American Master, by Mark Stevens & Annalyn Swan
• Poetry: Delights & Shadows, by Ted Kooser
• Non-Fiction: Ghost Wars, by Steve Coll

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An incomplete answer to the question: What do you read?

Fiction

• Lucky Jim, by Kingsley Amis
• Lives of the Monster Dogs, by Kirstin Bakis.
• The Sot-Weed Factor, John Barth.
• The Postman Always Rings Twice, by James M. Cain.
• Double Indemnity, by James M. Cain.
• Don Quixote by Cervantes (new translation from Edith Grossman)
• Falconer, by John Cheever.
• The Andromeda Strain, by Michael Crichton.
• Bleak House, by Charles Dickens.
• Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky.
• Notes From The Underground, by Fyodor Dostoevsky.
• The Dick Gibson Show, by Stanley Elkin.
• The Living End, by Stanley Elkin.
• As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner.
• The Corrections, by Jonathan Franzen.
• The Thought Gang, by Tibor Fischer.
• Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert.
• Dead Souls, Nikolai Gogol.
• Lord Of The Flies, William Golding.
• Mariette In Ecstasy, by Ron Hansen.
• Red Harvest, Dashiell Hammett.
• Jesus’s Son, by Denis Johnson.
• The Pugilist At Rest, by Thom Jones.
• Dreamcatcher, by Stephen King.
• The Long Walk, by Stephen King.
• Misery, by Stephen King.
• The Stand, by Stephen King.
• Bad Chemistry, by Gary Krist.
• Chaos Theory, by Gary Krist.
• The Unbearable Lightness Of Being, by Milan Kundera.
• Shutter Island, by Dennis Lehane
• Get Shorty, by Elmore Leonard.
• Doctor Faustus, by Thomas Mann.
• I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson.
• The Moon and Sixpence, by W. Somerset Maugham.
• The Razor’s Edge, by W. Somerset Maugham.
• Charming Billy, Alice McDermott
• The Treatment, by Daniel Menaker.
• Moby Dick, Herman Melville.
• The Tropic Of Cancer, Henry Miller.
• Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov.
• Pale Fire, by Vladimir Nabokov.
• The Complete Stories Of Flannery O’Connor, by Flannery O’Connor.
• The Most Of S.J. Perelman, by S.J. Perelman.
• Galatea 2.2, by Richard Powers.
• Gravity’s Rainbow, by Thomas Pynchon.
• The Face Of A Naked Lady: An Omaha Family Mystery, by Michael Rips.
• The Catcher In The Rye, J.D. Salinger.
• Franny and Zooey, by J.D. Salinger.
• CivilWarLand In Bad Decline, by George Saunders.
• Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson.
• The Confessions Of Nat Turner, by William Styron.
• Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy.
• Presumed Innocent, by Scott Turow.
• Pleading Guilty, by Scott Turow.
• Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain.
• Breakfast Of Champions, Kurt Vonnegut.
• Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut.
• The Bonfire of the Vanities, by Tom Wolfe.
• A Man In Full, by Tom Wolfe.

Non-Fiction

• The Savage God, by A. Alvarez.
• The Mother Tongue, by Bill Bryson.
• The Songlines, by Bruce Chatwin.
• Descartes Error, by Antonio Damasio.
• Consciousness Explained, by Daniel Dennett.
• The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, by Charles Darwin.
• The Serpent and the Rainbow: A Harvard Scientist’s Astonishing Journey into the Secret Societies of Haitian Voodoo, Zombis, and Magic, by Wade Davis.
• Climbing Mount Improbable, by Richard Dawkins.
• Guns, Germs and Steel, by Jared Diamond.
• Seeing in the Dark, by Timothy Ferris.
• The Golden Bough, James Frazer.
• The Coming Plague, by Laurie Garrett.
• On Being Blue, William Gass.
• When Things Start To Think, by Neil Gershenfeld.
• No Ordinary Time, by Doris Kearns Goodwin.
• Life Work, by Donald Hall.
• Swearing: A Social History of Foul Language, Oaths and Profanity, by Geoffrey Hughes.
• Hate Crimes: Criminal Law & Identity Politics, by Jacobs & Potter.
• The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, by Julian Jaynes.
• Savages, by Joe Kane.
• Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist, by Walter Kaufmann
• The Face Of Battle, by John Keegan.
• The Florence King Reader, by Florence King.
• With Charity Toward None: A Fond Look At Misanthropy, by Florence King.
• On Writing, by Stephen King.
• The Age Of Spiritual Machines, by Ray Kurzweil.
• Are We Spiritual Machines? Kurzweil vs. The Critics of Strong A.I., by Kurzweil et al.
• Bird By Bird: Some Instructions On Writing And Life, by Anne Lamott
• Sade: A Biography, by Maurice Lever.
• Wild People: Travels With Borneo’s Headhunters, by Andro Linklater.
• Big Chief Elizabeth, by Giles Milton.
• The American Way Of Death, by Jessica Mitford.
• Robot: Mere Machine To Transcendent Mind, by Hans P. Moravec.
• A Beautiful Mind: A Biography of John Forbes Nash, by Sylvia Nasar.
• The Scramble For Africa, by Thomas Packenham.
• In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, by Nathaniel Philbrick
• How The Mind Works, by Steven Pinker.
• The Language Instinct, by Steven Pinker.
• Brainscapes: An Introduction to Neuroscience, by Richard Restak.
• The Red Queen: Sex and Evolution, by Matt Ridley.
• The Face Of A Naked Woman: An Omaha Family Mystery, by Michael Rips.
• Seeing Voices, Oliver Sacks.
• The Genius of the System: Hollywood Filmmaking in the Studio Era, by Thomas Schatz.
• Illness As Metaphor, Susan Sontag.
• The Elements Of Style, Strunk and White.
• Darkness Visible, by William Styron.
• A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century, by Barbara Tuchman
• Dreams Of A Final Theory, by Steven Weinberg.
• The Naturalist, by E.O. Wilson.
• The Ants, by E.O. Wilson.
• Consilience, by E.O. Wilson.
• The Moral Animal, by Robert Wright.

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