carolyn kellogg

The LA Times list of favorite books of 2009 is now online, a total of 50 books in two parts, fiction/poetry and nonfiction. It’s a master list that is compiled by the editors; some of my suggestions made it. But not all.

I’m not including all the books that I loved in 2009, but right at this moment, here are 10 of my favorites, in alpha order by author, including a few I haven’t even read.

Invisible by Paul Auster (haven’t read it, but I really really want to read it)

Ablutions by Patrick deWitt (from bad to worse, told with raw precision, in a sleazy Hollywood bar)

I Am Not Sidney Poitier by Percival Everett (haven’t read this either, but sometimes favorites are those books that are all potential)

Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer (if you can eat chicken after reading this book, you’re not well)

Chronic City by Jonathan Lethem (like Ms. Kakutani said, except the opposite)

Generosity by Richard Powers (I loved The Echo Maker so much that I don’t believe his follow up could possibly let me down)

Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon (Sixties, smart, silly, streamlined Pynchon that’s about the end of mystery while masquerading as a detective fiction).

A Bright and Guilty Place by Richard Rayner (the true story of two Angelenos whose intersecting lives capture two aspects of the city in a critical defining era)

When Skateboards Will Be Free by Said Sayrafiezadeh (memoir of growing up red & poor in the 70s & 80s)

Far North by Marcel Theroux (when civilization crumbles, head to Siberia and follow Makepeace’s lead)