One Man’s Take on the Best Reads of the 2000s

So, you should probably know these things about me before you read this list: I am cantankerous, generally anti-social, and very unforgiving when it comes to highly touted books, music, movies, etc. I skew toward male writers, and more specifically white male writers writing about off-the-radar subjects: drugs, cults, and degenerates. That’s me (minus the cults). That’s what I tend to like.

With that disclaimer, here are my favorite books of the last 10 years (in no particular order):

11.  A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers

Alright. If you don’t know anything about this book, you’ve been living under a rock. I admit I’m generally not a fan of Mr. Eggers’ work, but this is one fantastic book. It launched a career and breathed new life (for better or worse) into what many felt was a dead genre. Books like this only come along once or twice in a generation, and though it be popular, AHWOSG most certainly lives up to the praise.

10.  Under the Banner of Heaven, Jon Krakauer

If you’re a WASP like me, then you probably grew up with an awareness of Mormonism. And because it shares a common tradition with Christianity, you probably thought you understood something about it. I know I did.

Then I read Krakauer’s book and realized I didn’t know anything about Mormons and, more specifically, Mormon fundamentalists. This book is a helluva read; though, to be fair, Krakauer is hardly impartial when it comes to Mormons (and/or religion in general).

9.  Nigger: The Curious History of a Troublesome Word, Randall Kennedy

Randall Kennedy is a Harvard law professor and author of numerous books on race and law in America. He is also, perhaps, one of the few people qualified to write a book about this word because he can be frighteningly impartial and intensely personal.

Nigger is incredible because it makes you understand just why the word is so offensive while also communicating an almost sublime amazement at the new life and racial crossover appeal it has found in today’s popular culture.

8.  Down by the River: Drugs, Money, Murder, and Family, Charles Bowden

Simply the best book on the drug war by one of the best writers. This book will help you read beyond the headlines and will provide a deeper understanding of U.S.–Mexico politics.

7.  Fun Home: a Family Tragicomic, Alison Bechdel

Sometimes a book comes along and throws down the gauntlet to all the other books/writers in that genre. Well, Bechdel doesn’t throw down the gauntlet in the world of graphic novels so much as break the chalice. Beautifully written, even more beautifully illustrated, this is one of the most perfect books I’ve come across in many, many years.

6.  The Collected Works of Isaac Babel, Isaac Babel

Babel was one of the transformative modern Russian writers, and this collection gathers all of his writing together for the first (and perhaps last?) time. Though I prefer other translations (especially of the seminal interconnected short stories in Red Calvary), no other collection will give you such a complete picture of this little-known, but highly influential writer.

5.  Total Fears: Letters to Dubenka, Bohumil Hrabal

Unless you’re a fan of Czech writing, you’re probably don’t know Bohumil Hrabal. You should. Hrabal is best known for his novels I Served the King of England, Closely Watched Trains, and Too Loud a Solitude, and though Total Fears is not a novel, it reads like one. This collection of letters Hrabal wrote to an American woman during the Velvet Revolution are gripping and reveal the painful secrets of a man both sustained and tortured by a suppressive government.

4.  Tree of Smoke, Denis Johnson

Just when you thought the Vietnam War and the 1960s had been thoroughly bled of all potential for artistic exploration, along comes Denis Johnson. Part Heart of Darkness, part Quiet American, Tree of Smoke somehow manages to crack new ground over what, in a lesser writer’s hands, would be thoroughly decimated territory. Read this for the dialogue if for no other reason.

3.  All the Living, C.E. Morgan

One of the best first novels I’ve read by one of the best young writers I’ve come across in a long, long while. Though some may disagree, there’s no pretension to this dazzling gem of a book, just a strong story and some beautiful writing.

2.  The Honeymooners, Chuck Kinder

Interested in Raymond Carver? Forget about him. This novel, a slightly fictionalized version of the truth, was written by one of Carver’s former colleagues and friends. Though it is sensational in that it tells the dirty secrets of the master of dirty realism, it’s also an extremely readable and impressively well-constructed novel. Interesting trivia tidbit: Kinder was the model for the Michael Douglas character from the movie/Michael Chabon novel Wonder Boys.

1. Notable American Women, Ben Marcus

Many people will read this novel and claim that it is pretentious drivel. I would argue that they’re the kind of people who are only interested in glory-hole fiction. You know, put it in, get it wet, get your rocks off and jam before finding out what, exactly, is on the other side of the hole.

But I say, give this book a chance. Though Marcus’ approach to language isn’t that of most writers’, he is doing something different, something funny, something that, if you give it a chance, will take root in your imagination, causing your mouth to sprout forth unheard of utterances.

But what about you? What are your top books of the past 10 years? If you feel it/can remember, post your list in the comments section and let’s compare notes.