The Path of Minor Planets
Andrew Sean Greer

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Motherless Brooklyn
Jonathan Lethem

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Drop City
T.C. Boyle

Page-turning! This is life with a bunch of acid-sipping hippies on a California commune. When times get tough, they relocate to the wilds of Alaska. Yikes. Great, great stuff. Boyle is a master.  

Run Catch Kiss
Amy Sohn

Eh. Unremarkable. 

The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters
Elisabeth Robison

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The Broom of the System
David Foster Wallace

Amazing potential in the first half -- you can actually see Wallace's genius "Infinite Jest" simmering behind the scenes. Then it went completely screwy. For no good reason at all. But I did enjoy the talking parrot.  

Fingersmith
Sarah Waters

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Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth
Chris Ware

A graphic novel, yes, but quite depressing. Exquisite, detailed illustrations. Complex emotional journey. Definitely reccommended.

Random Family *
Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx
Adrian Nicole LeBlanc

Blew me away. I had no idea what life is like for families in the ghetto, but now I do. And it's heart-wrenching. These women are fighting so hard to break the cycle of poverty! The reporter follows two families for 10 years, and it reads like a sad, sick soap-opera. Truly eye-opening.  

Porno
Irvine Welsh

"Trainspotting" is one of my all-time favorites books. Imagine all the same wankers, 10 years down the road. Renton. Sick boy. Spud. Begby. And they're trying to make a movie. The new lead character -- a smart, hott sex worker -- is a worthy addition. 

A Million Little Pieces
James Frey

Grueling addiction memoir. Incredibly powerful writing. Frey tells it straight. I learned a lot. 

The Time-Traveler's Wife
Audrey Niffenburger

Straight-up love story. True love can travel through time. Feed your inner romantic. You won't be disappointed.

Twelve
Nick McDonell

This novel owes everything to Bret Easton Ellis' "Less Than Zero." And it won't stand the test of time. But it's an interesting portrait of rich New York teenagers. They like drugs. And guns. The author? Yup, he was 17.

The Wind-up Bird Chronicle *
by Haruki Murakami

Stunning. Nightmarish. Heart-pounding tension, which often occurs in dreams or at the bottom of a deep well. The story revolves around a young man and his missing wife. 

Dry
Augusten Burroughs

An alcoholic in the advertising business. Same funny, matter-of-fact humor that made us love Augusten's FIRST memoir.

Atonement
by Ian McEwan

Pretty much fabulous. Heady, old-fashioned writing with sinfully rich character development.

Complications
A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science
by Atul Gawande

Find out what can, and does, go wrong in the operating room. As someone who's undergone a few surgeries, it was a truly enlightening read.

Wonder When You'll Miss Me
by Amanda Davis

A troubled girl commits a horrible crime and runs away to the circus. She's haunted by her alter ego/former self, known only as the Fat Girl. Very unique writing voice. I really enjoyed this. Unfortunately, Amanda Davis died soon after its publication.

In the Cut
by Susanna Moore

Dark, creepy, and hot hot hot. I read it in one sitting.

Good Poems
selected by Garrison Keillor

Most (if not all) of these poems are a pure and simple pleasure to read and to share. Perfect.

The Eyre Affair
by Jasper Fforde

Set in an alternate universe where literature is more valuable than celebrity, it sends book detectives (?) on "A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe"-style quest. I didn't like it much, and I love books.

Whatever
by Michael Houellebecq

A French "Catcher in the Rye." Yes, the French hate their jobs as much as they hate you.

The Safety of Objects
by A.M. Holmes

Brilliant short story collection. Highly original!

Straight Man
by Richard Russo

Lots of academic humor.

White Teeth
by Zadie Smith

Outstanding! Left me breathless. Oh my god. Such characters. Such life.

Rule of the Bone
by Russell Banks

First-person story of a young delinquent. Not that much happens. Everything happens. Pretty depressing. Hard to believe this is by the author of "The Sweet Hereafter," but that just proves Banks' amazing talent.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time *
by Mark Haddon

So so so so so good! A young autistic, your narrator, tries to find out who killed his neighbor's poodle. And it's not an easy answer.

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* Read this now, or die trying.