WILL McGRATH
(The books I read each year, in reverse chronological order.)
2024
Autumn - Ali Smith
My Search for Warren Harding - Robert Plunket
If Today Were Tomorrow - Humberto Ak'abal (trans. Michael Bazzett)
The Heart in Winter - Kevin Barry
Erasure - Percival Everett
Brotherless Night - V.V. Ganeshananthan
Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage - Alice Munro
Dusklands - J.M. Coetzee
Driving Over Lemons - Chris Stewart
The Last Picture Show - Larry McMurtry
The Idiot - Elif Batuman
How to Be a Revolutionary - C.A. Davids
The Shadow of the Sun - Ryszard Kapuscinski (trans. Klara Glowczewska)
A Far Cry from Kensington - Muriel Spark
Big Swiss - Jen Beagin
The Friend - Sigrid Nunez
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida - Shehan Karunatilaka
Gringos - Charles Portis
All Souls - Javier Marias (trans. Margaret Jull Costa)
Wise Children - Angela Carter
Trust - Hernan Diaz
​
2023
Last Night at the Lobster - Stewart O'Nan
The Changeling - Joy Williams
Washington Black - Esi Edugyan
The Hard Crowd - Rachel Kushner
Meltwater - Claire Wahmanholm
Tell Me How It Ends - Valeria Luiselli (w/ some Lizzie Davis trans.)
Sundays in August - Patrick Modiano (trans. Damion Searls)
The Porpoise - Mark Haddon
Boundless Deep, and Other Stories - Gen Del Raye
The Cold Millions - Jess Walter
The Bushwhacked Piano - Thomas McGuane
The White Album - Joan Didion
Pictures from Brueghel - William Carlos Williams
The Rabbit Hutch - Tess Gunty
My Education - Susan Choi
Samuel Johnson's Eternal Return - Martin Riker
The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes
The Rings of Saturn - W.G. Sebald (trans. Michael Hulse)
Mitochondrial Night - Ed Bok Lee
Lucky Jim - Kingsley Amis
The Devil of the Provinces - Juan Cardenas (trans. Lizzie Davis)
Civilizations - Laurent Binet (trans. Sam Taylor)
Fair Play - Tove Jansson (trans. Thomas Teal)
The Netanyahus - Joshua Cohen
Sinkhole - Juliet Patterson
The Shakespeare Requirement - Julie Schumacher
The Only Problem - Muriel Spark
The Archive of Alternate Endings - Lindsey Drager
The Trees - Percival Everett
The Wallcreeper - Nell Zink
The Driver's Seat - Muriel Spark
Avalon - Nell Zink
Shuna's Journey - Hayao Miyazaki (trans. Alex Dudok de Wit)
Romantic Comedy - Curtis Sittenfeld
Invisible Cities - Italo Calvino (trans. William Weaver)
Intimacies - Katie Kitamura
​
​
2022
The Girls of Slender Means - Muriel Spark
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - Muriel Spark
Vox - Nicholson Baker
Bright Unbearable Reality - Anna Badkhen
Comemadre - Roque Larraquy (trans. Heather Cleary) (2nd time)
Saint Sebastian's Abyss - Mark Haber
Reinhardt's Garden - Mark Haber
Wilder - Claire Wahmanholm (2nd time)
Worldly Things - Michael Kleber-Diggs (2nd time)
No One Is Talking About This - Patricia Lockwood
People from My Neighborhood - Hiromi Kawakami (trans. Ted Goossen)
Image Control - Patrick Nathan
Fun Home - Alison Bechdel
Still Life - Jay Hopler
Severance - Ling Ma
The Promise - Damon Galgut
Dirtbag, Massachusetts - Isaac Fitzgerald
Sorrow and Bliss - Meg Mason
In the Distance - Hernan Diaz
Exhalation - Ted Chiang
The Magus - John Fowles
Last Friends - Jane Gardam
The Man in the Wooden Hat - Jane Gardam
The Secret to Superhuman Strength - Alison Bechdel
Body Drop - Brian Oliu
Old Filth - Jane Gardam
Worldly Things - Michael Kleber-Diggs
Uncommon Carriers - John McPhee
The Man Who Saw Everything - Deborah Levy
How High We Go in the Dark - Sequoia Nagamatsu
Song of Solomon - Toni Morrison
No. 91/92 - Lauren Elkin
Notes from No Man’s Land - Eula Biss
The Talented Mr. Ripley - Patricia Highsmith
Klara and the Sun - Kazuo Ishiguro
Tokyo Ueno Station - Yu Miri (trans. Morgan Giles)
Bring Me the Head of Quentin Tarantino - Julian Herbert (trans. Christina MacSweeney)
​
​
2021
Little Birds–Anais Nin
Fight Night–Miriam Toews
When We Cease to Understand the World–Benjamin Labatut (trans. A. Nathan West)
The Nickel Boys–Colson Whitehead
Unabandonment–John Colburn
The Book of Laughter & Forgetting–Milan Kundera
Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?–Raymond Carver
Post Office–Charles Bukowski
Alice Neel–Ann Temkin (ed.)
The End of Vandalism–Tom Drury
How to Change Your Mind–Michael Pollan
The Largesse of the Sea Maiden–Denis Johnson
Fat City–Leonard Gardner
Slouching Towards Bethlehem–Joan Didion
Beowulf–Maria Dahvana Headley (trans.)
The Left Hand of Darkness–Ursula K. Le Guin
Ivory Shoals–John Brandon
Women Talking–Miriam Toews
The Little Disturbances of Man–Grace Paley
Things to Do in Hell–Chris Martin
The Loser–Thomas Bernhard (trans. Jack Dawson)
City of Thieves–David Benioff
Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror–John Ashbery
Disappearing Earth–Julia Phillips
Night Boat to Tangier–Kevin Barry
Sound Like Trapped Thunder–Jessica Lind Peterson
Piranesi–Susanna Clarke
Interior Chinatown–Charles Yu
Normal People–Sally Rooney
Exit West–Mohsin Hamid
The Driftless Area–Tom Drury
Chronology–Zahra Patterson
​
2020
Nightwood–Djuna Barnes
The Little Virtues–Natalia Ginzburg (trans. Dick Davis)
Skippy Dies–Paul Murray
What It Is–Lynda Barry
Faces in the Crowd–Valeria Luiselli (trans. Christina MacSweeney)
The Color Inside a Melon–John Domini
The Interrogative Mood–Padgett Powell
The Temple–Michael Bazzett
The Curfew–Jesse Ball
Rodham–Curtis Sittenfeld
Esther Stories–Peter Orner
I Am, I Am, I Am–Maggie O’Farrell
Wintering–Peter Geye
What It Means When A Man Falls from the Sky–Lesley Nneka Arimah
The Magical Language of Others–E.J. Koh
Little Jewel–Patrick Modiano (trans. Penny Hueston)
The Book of Eels–Patrik Svensson (trans. Agnes Broome’)
A Tale for the Time Being–Ruth Ozeki
This Is How You Lose the Time War–Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone
The Mars Room–Rachel Kushner
Willful Creatures–Aimee Bender
True Grit–Charles Portis
The Shell Collector–Anthony Doerr
The Museum of Whales You Will Never See–A. Kendra Greene
Notes of A Native Son–James Baldwin
The Seventh Function of Language–Laurent Binet (trans. Sam Taylor)
So Much Blue–Percival Everett
Prep–Curtis Sittenfeld
Our Lands Are Not So Different–Michael Bazzett
Knockout–John Jodzio
French Exit–Patrick deWitt
Wilder–Claire Wahmanholm
Trust Exercise–Susan Choi
At Swim-Two-Birds–Flann O’Brien
Other Possible Lives–Chrissy Kolaya
Moonglow–Michael Chabon
This Brilliant Darkness–Jeff Sharlet
​
2019
The Heart of the Matter–Graham Greene
Ornamental–Juan Cardenas (trans. Lizzie Davis)
Ways of Seeing–John Berger
We the Animals–Justin Torres
The Mezzanine–Nicholson Baker
Circe–Madeline Miller
The Stories of Breece D’J Pancake–Breece D’J Pancake
Norwood–Charles Portis
Reasons to Live–Amy Hempel
The History of the Future–Edward McPherson
Taking Care–Joy Williams
The Songlines–Bruce Chatwin
The Woman in the Dunes–Kobo Abe (trans. E. Dale Saunders)
The Feral Detective–Jonathan Lethem
All My Puny Sorrows–Miriam Toews
Sorry to Disrupt the Peace–Patty Yumi Cottrell
Priestdaddy–Patricia Lockwood
Fever Dream–Samanta Schweblin (trans. Megan McDowell)
Black Aperture–Matt Rasmussen
Stephen Florida–Gabe Habash
The Transmigration of Bodies–Yuri Herrera (trans. Lisa Dillman)
The Low Passions–Anders Carlson-Wee
Dept. of Speculation–Jenny Offill
The Dog of the South–Charles Portis
The Body–Jenny Boully
The Bloody Chamber–Angela Carter
Dear Corpse–John Colburn
My Year of Rest and Relaxation–Ottessa Moshfegh
The Good Lord Bird–James McBride
Map of an Onion–Kenji C. Liu
Hardly War–Don Mee Choi
Ghost Of–Diana Khoi Nguyen
Hey, Kiddo–Jarrett J. Krosoczka
The Devil’s Snake Curve–Josh Ostergaard
Asymmetry–Lisa Halliday
There There–Tommy Orange
Unbearable Splendor–Sun Yung Shin
​
2018
Comemadre–Roque Larraquy (trans. Heather Cleary)
Don’t Call Us Dead–Danez Smith
The Flamethrowers–Rachel Kushner
Bird by Bird–Anne Lamott
Good Bones–Maggie Smith
Some Hell–Patrick Nathan
Lost Empress–Sergio De La Pava
In the Language of My Captor–Shane McCrae
Signs Preceding the End of the World–Yuri Herrera (trans. Lisa Dillman)
Flights–Olga Tokarczuk (trans. Jennifer Croft)
Beatlebone–Kevin Barry
Animals Eat Each Other–Elle Nash
Undermajordomo Minor–Patrick deWitt
Among the Living and the Dead–Inara Verzemnieks
The Dud Avocado–Elaine Dundy
Dragonfish–Vu Tran
Nicotine–Nell Zink
Restless Souls–Dan Sheehan
Things That Are–Amy Leach
Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned–Wells Tower
Imagine–Jonah Lehrer
The Face–Chris Abani
The Devil’s Highway–Luis Alberto Urrea
Breaking and Entering–Joy Williams
Limber–Angela Pelster
The Falling Down Dance–Chris Martin
Fun Home–Alison Bechdel
Whorled–Ed Bok Lee
Homage to Catalonia–George Orwell
When We Were Orphans–Kazuo Ishiguro
Lincoln in the Bardo–George Saunders
​
2017
The Childhood of Jesus–J.M. Coetzee
To Rise Again at a Decent Hour–Joshua Ferris
Reality Hunger–David Shields
The Alphabet Not Unlike the World–Katrina Vandenberg
The Argonauts–Maggie Nelson
Bluets–Maggie Nelson
Between the World and Me–Ta-Nehisi Coates
Don’t Come Back–Lina Maria Ferreira Cabeza-Vanegas
Vietnamerica–GB Tran
May Day–Gretchen Marquette
Citizen: An American Lyric–Claudia Rankine
Why Did I Ever–Mary Robison
Man Alive–Thomas Page McBee
Buck–MK Asante
Life on Mars–Tracy K. Smith
Safekeeping–Abigail Thomas
Paris Nocturne–Patrick Modiano (trans. Phoebe Weston-Evans)
Safe Area Gorazde–Joe Sacco
Chocky–John Wyndham
Eileen–Ottessa Moshfegh
Foundation–Isaac Asimov
The Living End–Stanley Elkin
The Sympathizer–Viet Thanh Nguyen
Outline–Rachel Cusk
Blackass–A. Igoni Barrett
The Moon and the Bonfires–Cesare Pavese (trans. R.W. Flint)
Geography III–Elizabeth Bishop
Mislaid–Nell Zink
The Underground Railroad–Colson Whitehead
X-Men comic books (various)
The Fire Next Time–James Baldwin
North & South–Elizabeth Bishop
The Vegetarian–Han Kang (trans. Deborah Smith)
King for a Decade: Jean-Michel Basquiat–Taka Kawachi (ed.)
1Q84–Haruki Murakami (trans. Jay Rubin & Philip Gabriel)
Play It As It Lays–Joan Didion
The Door–Magda Szabo’ (trans. Len Rix)
​
2016
The Meursault Investigation–Kamel Daoud (trans. John Cullen)
The Dog Stars–Peter Heller
The Buried Giant–Kazuo Ishiguro
Life After Life–Kate Atkinson
In Love–Alfred Hayes
Oryx and Crake–Margaret Atwood
The Jokers–Albert Cossery (trans. Anna Moschovakis)
In Caddis Wood–Mary Francois Rockcastle
The Sellout–Paul Beatty
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter–Carson McCullers
Dear Committee Members–Julie Schumacher
A Brief History of Seven Killings–Marlon James
Where You’ll Find Me–Ann Beattie
The Big Sleep–Raymond Chandler
The Lifespan of a Fact–John D’Agata & Jim Fingal
Candide–Voltaire
The Moor’s Account–Laila Lalami
In the Cafe’ of Lost Youth–Patrick Modiano (trans. Chris Clarke)
Everything and More: A Compact History of [infinity symbol]–David Foster Wallace
Young Once–Patrick Modiano (trans. Damion Searls)
Dead Man’s Float–Jim Harrison
Manservant and Maidservant–Ivy Compton-Burnett
The Summer Book–Tove Jansson (trans. Thomas Teal)
Letter to a Future Lover–Ander Monson
White Teeth–Zadie Smith
Vintage Hughes–Langston Hughes
House Made of Dawn–N. Scott Momaday
The Last Samurai–Helen DeWitt
Arkansas–John Brandon
Station Eleven–Emily St. John Mandel
​
2015
Fifteen Dogs–Andre’ Alexis
N.P.–Banana Yoshimoto
Housekeeping–Marilynne Robinson
Dark Lies the Island–Kevin Barry
Geek Love–Katherine Dunn
Tales of the Quintana Roo–James Tiptree, Jr (aka Alice Sheldon)
The Narrow Road to the Deep North–Richard Flanagan
The Story of My Teeth–Valeria Luiselli
Packing for Mars–Mary Roach
The Mad & The Bad–Jean-Patrick Manchette
Doc–Mary Doria Russell
The Bone Clocks–David Mitchell
Forty Stories–Anton Chekhov
My Brilliant Friend–Elena Ferrante
The Hours–Michael Cunningham
That Awful Mess on the Via Merulana–Carlo Emilio Gadda
The Carnival at Bray–Jessie Ann Foley
Mrs. Dalloway–Virginia Woolf
Annihilation–Jeff VanderMeer
East of Eden–John Steinbeck
Bleeding Edge–Thomas Pynchon
Salvage the Bones–Jesmyn Ward
The Imperfectionists–Tom Rachman
The Quiet American–Graham Greene
The Color Purple–Alice Walker
The Quarry–Damon Galgut
Tropic of Cancer–Henry Miller
Beautiful Ruins–Jess Walter
Ghostwritten–David Mitchell
The Braindead Megaphone–George Saunders
Old Filth–Jane Gardam
Respected Sir–Naguib Mahfouz
Case Histories–Kate Atkinson
Letter to Those Who Write Love Letters–Joshua Benn Warner
Gods Without Men–Hari Kunzru
​
2014
Between Heaven and Here–Susan Straight
Billy Budd, Sailor–Herman Melville
Infinite Jest–David Foster Wallace
City of Bohane–Kevin Barry
The Ask–Sam Lipsyte
Duplex–Kathryn Davis
The People in the Trees–Hanya Yanagihara
The Secret History–Donna Tartt
Decline and Fall–Evelyn Waugh
A Handful of Dust–Evelyn Waugh
HHhH–Laurent Binet
House of Holes–Nicholson Baker
The Little Stranger–Sarah Waters
Long Division–Kiese Laymon
Pitch Dark–Renata Adler
A Fan’s Notes–Frederick Exley
Lightning Rods–Helen DeWitt
CivilWarLand in Bad Decline–George Saunders
Six Portraits–Julie Danho
A Better Way to Fall–David O’Connell
Jazz–Toni Morrison
Water, Ice, & Stone–Bill Green
Goodbye, Columbus–Philip Roth
Foreign Bodies–Cynthia Ozick
Caravaggio: A Life Sacred & Profane–Andrew Graham-Dixon
Rabbit, Run–John Updike
U and I–Nicholson Baker
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian–Sherman Alexie
Number9Dream–David Mitchell
Life & Times of Michael K–J.M. Coetzee
Who Will Run the Frog Hospital–Lorrie Moore
Lord of Misrule–Jaimy Gordon
NW–Zadie Smith
Play It as It Lays–Joan Didion
​
2013
A Million Heavens–John Brandon
The Gay Talese Reader: Portraits & Encounters–Gay Talese
Falconer–John Cheever
State of Wonder–Anne Patchett
In Patagonia–Bruce Chatwin
All Souls’–Rhea Tregebov
Something in My Eye–Michael Jeffrey Lee
Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer–Steven Millhauser
Poems Out of Order–Joshua Benn Warner
Breakfast of Champions–Kurt Vonnegut
Night Train–Martin Amis
A Long and Happy Life–Reynolds Price
The Handmaid’s Tale–Margaret Atwood
Trout Fishing in America–Richard Brautigan
Cannery Row–John Steinbeck
Influences: Art, Optics, and Astrology in the Italian Renaissance–Mary Quinlan-McGrath
Speedboat–Renata Adler
Phantom–Jo Nesbo
Invitation to a Beheading–Vladimir Nabokov
House of Leaves–Mark Z. Danielewski
My Antonia–Willa Cather
Labyrinths–Jorge Luis Borges
Lust & Other Stories–Susan Minot
Paris to the Moon–Adam Gopnik
John Henry Days–Colson Whitehead
Death in Venice & Other Tales–Thomas Mann
This Is How You Lose Her–Junot Diaz
A Hologram for the King–Dave Eggers
Citrus County–John Brandon
Of Mice and Men–John Steinbeck
The Pearl–John Steinbeck
Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction–Jonathan Culler
Tenth of December–George Saunders
The Flame Alphabet–Ben Marcus
We Have Always Lived in the Castle–Shirley Jackson
​
2012
Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk–Ben Fountain
The Day of the Locust–Nathanael West
Miss Lonelyhearts–Nathanael West
On Chesil Beach–Ian McEwan
Sweet Tooth–Ian McEwan
Train Dreams–Denis Johnson
Black Swan Green–David Mitchell
Time’s Arrow–Martin Amis
Money–Martin Amis
The Bridge of San Luis Rey–Thornton Wilder
Pastoralia–George Saunders
A High Wind in Jamaica–Richard Hughes
Less Than Zero–Bret Easton Ellis
Zone One–Colson Whitehead
Galapagos–Kurt Vonnegut
Tinkers–Paul Harding
The Principles of Uncertainty–Maira Kalman
Ten Days in the Hills–Jane Smiley
Breakfast at Tiffany’s–Truman Capote
Nobody’s Angel–Thomas McGuane
Pulphead–John Jeremiah Sullivan
Yoga for People Who Can’t Be Bothered to Do It–Geoff Dyer
The Grapes of Wrath–John Steinbeck
Going After Cacciato–Tim O’Brien
Once Upon a River–Bonnie Jo Campbell
The Sisters Brothers–Patrick deWitt
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet–David Mitchell
​
2011
The Stories of John Cheever–John Cheever
Hack–Dmitry Samarov
Candy–Terry Southern
Inherent Vice–Thomas Pynchon
Sputnik Sweetheart–Haruki Murakami
The Intuitionist–Colson Whitehead
The Scarlet Letter–Nathaniel Hawthorne
A Raisin in the Sun–Lorraine Hansberry
Swamplandia!–Karen Russell
Half Broke Horses–Jeannette Walls
Freedom–Jonathan Franzen
Interpreter of Maladies–Jhumpa Lahiri
Logicomix–Doxiadis, Papadimitriou, Papadatos, & Di Donna
In a Sunburned Country–Bill Bryson
Confessions of an English Opium Eater–Thomas DeQuincey
Cloud Atlas–David Mitchell
after the quake–Haruki Murakami
A Visit from the Goon Squad–Jennifer Egan
The Turn of the Screw–Henry James
Aya of Yop City–Marguerite Abouet & Clement Oubrerie
The House on Mango Street–Sandra Cisneros
Bossypants–Tina Fey
Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder–Lawrence Weschler
Neverwhere–Neil Gaiman
Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs–Chuck Klosterman
The Old Man and the Sea–Ernest Hemingway
Chronic City–Jonathan Lethem
Airships–Barry Hannah
The Great Gatsby–F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet–William Shakespeare
The Boy Detective Fails–Joe Meno
The New Kings of Nonfiction–Ira Glass (ed.)
Decoded–Jay-Z
In a Strange Room–Damon Galgut
​
2010
Pale Fire–Vladimir Nabokov
The Remains of the Day–Kazuo Ishiguro
After Dark–Haruki Murakami
Night–Elie Wiesel
Ordinary People–Judith Guest
Take the Cannoli–Sarah Vowell
The Partly Cloudy Patriot–Sarah Vowell
Let the Great World Spin–Colum McCann
A Raisin in the Sun–Lorraine Hansberry
The Postman Always Rings Twice–James M. Cain
Beatrice and Virgil–Yann Martel
A Pale View of the Hills–Kazuo Ishiguro
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love–Raymond Carver
A Canticle for Leibowitz–Walter M. Miller, Jr.
Cathedral–Raymond Carver
A Short History of a Small Place–T.R. Pearson
A Farewell to Arms–Ernest Hemingway
The Crucible–Arthur Miller
I Sailed With Magellan–Stuart Dybek
I’m a Stranger Here Myself–Bill Bryson
The Paris Review Interviews, Vol. 1–Philip Gourevitch (ed.)
100 Selected Poems–e.e. cummings
Nobody Move–Denis Johnson
The Great Gatsby–F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Golden Apples of the Sun–Ray Bradbury
Await Your Reply–Dan Chaon
The Penguin Complete Ghost Stories of M.R. James–M.R. James
The Body Artist–Don Delillo
Hella Nation–Evan Wright
The Jew of New York–Ben Katchor
Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer–Ben Katchor
South of the Border, West of the Sun–Haruki Murakami
Maps & Legends–Michael Chabon
Ethan Frome–Edith Wharton
​
2009
The Great Perhaps–Joe Meno
Eating the Dinosaur–Chuck Klosterman
An Underground Education–Richard Zacks
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn–Mark Twain
The Pump House Gang–Tom Wolfe
Bagombo Snuff Box–Kurt Vonnegut
Everything That Rises: A Book of Convergences–Lawrence Weschler
In the Woods–Tana French
The First 49 Short Stories–Ernest Hemingway
Chicago–Alaa al Aswany
Special Topics in Calamity Physics–Marisha Pessl
The Wapshot Scandal–John Cheever
The Wapshot Chronicle–John Cheever
The Sun Also Rises–Ernest Hemingway
Consider the Lobster–David Foster Wallace
Written Lives–Javier Marias
Rock and Roll Cage Match–Sean Manning (ed.)
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies–Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
Spoon River Anthology–Edgar Lee Masters
Cosmopolis–Don Delillo
Watchmen–Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
The Lazarus Project–Aleksandar Hemon
Brighton Rock–Graham Greene
Grendel–John Gardner
The Best American Nonrequired Reading–Dave Eggers (ed.)
Psychology (8th Ed.)–David G. Myers
Then We Came to the End–Joshua Ferris
Jesus’ Son–Denis Johnson
The Final Solution–Michael Chabon
A Man Without A Country–Kurt Vonnegut
Hocus Pocus–Kurt Vonnegut
Pudd’nhead Wilson–Mark Twain
The Master and Margarita–Mikhail Bulgakov
​
2008
Demons in the Spring–Joe Meno
Balzac and The Little Chinese Seamstress–Dai Sijie
The Diary of a Young Girl–Anne Frank
The Yiddish Policemen’s Union–Michael Chabon
Four Essays–Michel de Montaigne
The Unconsoled–Kazuo Ishiguro
Barrel Fever–David Sedaris
Absurdistan–Gary Shteyngart
Tree of Smoke–Denis Johnson
Netherland–Joseph O’Neill
Mother Night–Kurt Vonnegut
Blood on the Moon–James Ellroy
The Road–Cormac McCarthy
Bright Lights, Big City–Jay McInerney
City of Glass–Paul Auster
Ghosts–Paul Auster
The Locked Room–Paul Auster
Beautiful Children–Charles Bock
The Brooklyn Follies–Paul Auster
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao–Junot Diaz
Slaughterhouse Five–Kurt Vonnegut
Fifth Business–Robertson Davies
The Manticore–Robertson Davies
World of Wonders–Roberston Davies
A Spot of Bother–Mark Haddon
Kafka on the Shore–Haruki Murakami
​
Notable Books pre-2008 (in no particular order)
The Cunning Man–Robertson Davies
The Metamorphosis–Franz Kafka
Lolita–Vladimir Nabokov
Pnin–Vladimir Nabokov
Under the Volcano–Malcolm Lowry
Cats Cradle–Kurt Vonnegut
Breakfast of Champions–Kurt Vonnegut
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle–Haruki Murakami
A Wild Sheep Chase–Haruki Murakami
Norwegian Wood–Haruki Murakami
A Hard Boiled Wonderland & The End of the World–Haruki Murakami
White Noise–Don Delillo
Solaris–Stanislaw Lem
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance–Robert Pirsig
The Things They Carried–Tim O’Brien
In the Lake of the Woods–Tim O’Brien
Everything is Illuminated–Jonathan Safran Foer
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close–Jonathan Safran Foer
Dead Souls–Nikolai Gogol
Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates–Tom Robbins
Even Cowgirls Get the Blues–Tom Robbins
Never Let Me Go–Kazuo Ishiguro
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime–Mark Haddon
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay–Michael Chabon
The Sportswriter–Richard Ford
A Piece of My Heart–Richard Ford
If This Is A Man–Primo Levi
The Truce–Primo Levi
The Periodic Table–Primo Levi
The Corrections–Jonathan Franzen
The 27th City–Jonathan Franzen
The Power and the Glory–Graham Greene
The End of the Affair–Graham Greene
Siddhartha–Hermann Hesse
The Coast of Chicago–Stuart Dybek
The Moviegoer–Walker Percy
The Crying of Lot 49–Thomas Pynchon
V.–Thomas Pynchon
Vineland–Thomas Pynchon
Slow Learner–Thomas Pynchon
A Man in Full–Tom Wolfe
The Bonfire of the Vanities–Tom Wolfe
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test–Tom Wolfe
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest–Ken Kesey
On the Road–Jack Kerouac
If On A Winter’s Night A Traveler–Italo Calvino
The Elegant Universe–Brian Greene
Drown–Junot Diaz
All the King’s Men–Robert Penn Warren
The Catcher in the Rye–J.D. Salinger
Franny & Zooey–J.D. Salinger
Nine Stories–J.D. Salinger
Raise High the Roofbeams, Carpenters & Seymour: An Introduction–J.D. Salinger
The Hobbit–J.R.R. Tolkein
Getting Mother’s Body–Suzan-Lori Parks
Ironweed–William Kennedy
All I Did Was Ask–Terry Gross
Anil’s Ghost–Michael Ondaatje
The Professor and the Madman–Simon Winchester
The Art of the Interview–Lawrence Grobel
The Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God–Etgar Keret
A Hearbreaking Work of Staggering Genius–Dave Eggers
You Shall Know Our Velocity–Dave Eggers
How We Are Hungry–Dave Eggers
The Better of McSweeney’s (Vol. 1)–Dave Eggers (ed.)
Naked–David Sedaris
Me Talk Pretty One Day–David Sedaris
When You Are Engulfed in Flames–David Sedaris
I, Claudius–Robert Graves
Claudius The God–Robert Graves
Waiting for the Barbarians–J.M. Coetzee
Disgrace–J.M. Coetzee
The Illiad–Homer
The Odyssey–Homer
Sula–Toni Morrison
Beloved–Toni Morrison
The Bluest Eye–Toni Morrison
The Third Chimpanzee–Jared Diamond
1984–George Orwell
Animal Farm–George Orwell
Down and Out in Paris and London–George Orwell
Life of Pi–Yann Martel
A Confederacy of Dunces–John Kennedy Toole
Neon Bible–John Kennedy Toole
The Virgin Suicides–Jeffery Eugenides
Middlesex–Jeffery Eugenides
Choke–Chuck Palahniuk
Lullaby–Chuck Palahniuk
Winesburg, Ohio–Sherwood Anderson
Catch-22–Joseph Heller
The Great American Novel–Philip Roth
Portnoy’s Complaint–Philip Roth
The Ghost Writer–Philip Roth
Zuckerman Unbound–Philip Roth
The Anatomy Lesson–Philip Roth
The Prague Orgy–Philip Roth
Revenge of the Lawn–Richard Brautigan
This Boy’s Life–Tobias Wolff
The Night in Question–Tobias Wolff
Moo–Jane Smiley
Bel Canto–Ann Patchett
Filth–Irvine Welsh
Dear Mr. President–Gabe Hudson
The Ha Ha–Dave King
The Know-It-All–A.J. Jacobs
The Devil in the White City–Erik Larson
Love in a Dead Language–Lee Siegel
Girl with Curious Hair–David Foster Wallace
Short Drive, Sweet Chariot–William Saroyan
The Heron–Giorgio Bassani
The Garden of the Finzi-Contini–Giorgio Bassani
Kitchen Confidential–Anthony Bourdain
Savage Inequalities–Jonathan Kozol
There Are No Children Here–Alex Kotlowitz
The Stranger–Albert Camus
The Awakening–Kate Chopin
Black Like Me–John Howard Griffin
Ender’s Game–Orson Scott Card
Native Son–Richard Wright
Bartleby, the Scrivener–Herman Melville