My (Current) Top 10 Favorite Novels

These are my ten favorite novels, in roughly the order I would put them if I absolutely had to (which I don't, because it's my list). It is subject to change at whim, which it did for the first time in a long time in 2010.

1. A Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell (discussed here);

2. Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov;

3. Sophie’s Choice by William Styron (reviewed here);

4. The Road Home by Jim Harrison;

5. Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco;

6. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons (reviewed here);

7. All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren (reviewed here);

8. Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald;

9. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell; and

10. Amsterdam by Ian McEwan.


NOTE
Updated June 19, 2010 (Cold Comfort Farm displaced The Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All)

OTHER REVIEWS OF THE BOOKS ON THIS LIST
(If you would like to be listed here, please leave a comment with links to your reviews ans I will add them.)

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Review of the Day: Thérèse Raquin

Published in 1867, Thérèse Raquin is Emile Zola's first novel and a magnificent proto-noir thriller. All the necessary elements are here -- a hot-to-trot young wife, an invalid husband, a greedy lover – all simmered together in a Parisian stew of lust, murder, deception, debauchery, and guilt. With the macabre ghoulishness of Poe and the diabolical desperation of Cain, Thérèse Raquin should be on any noir-lover's bookshelf.

Review of the Day: Gifted

Appropriately enough for a book about math, Gifted by Nikita Lalwani is more than the sum of its parts. It is the story of a math prodigy, a coming-of-age novel, and a look at immigrant life. But it all comes together in a way that is so interesting, so satisfying, that it is a truly great novel of general appeal. The heroine, Rumi Vasi, is the “gifted” young daughter of Indian parents living in Wales. Driven by her parents to excel in mathematics, Rumi achieves their highest hope for her – acceptance at Oxford University when she is 15. Lalwani masterfully captures the awkwardness and inner turmoil of this out-of-place adolescent. Lawani’s writing is remarkably polished for a first novel. Her language does not get in the way of the story, either by being distractingly beautiful or stumblingly clunky. The words flow so naturally you do not notice them, allowing the story to unfold with natural grace, right up to the suitably dramatic ending with its hope of positive resolution.

Review: Real Cooking, by George!

Real Cooking, by George! by George Jacobs is a goofy old book I found on Dollar Day at the San Francisco Library's used book sale at Ft. Mason.

It is mostly commentary on food, cooking, foreign living, and entertaining, with a few recipes in the back -- sort of like an MFK Fisher book, but without the caché. I do not know anything about the author, George Jacobs, or why he wrote a book about cooking. He was not a chef. I gather that he was some kind of bon vivant, artist, occasional ex-pat who enjoys food.

His musings are mildly interesting, but nothing memorable. Maybe I could write a book?

The Orange Prize

The Orange Prize for Fiction 2008 longlist came out last week. The Orange Prize is awarded each year for the best novel in English written by a woman. It bugs me. I think that setting up a separate prize for women is saying that women cannot compete with men and need their own remedial competition. Plenty of people disagree -- and they are free to put the Orange Prize winners on their TBR list. But a book won't make my list just for winning the Orange Prize or for being written by a woman.