Favorite Books from the Past 20 Years?

The Story of Edgar Sautelle by Wroblewski (I think his name is). I love dogs.

On Chesil Beach (Ian McEwan) was pretty good.

'Fairytales for Lost Children' by Diryie Osman. I swear you'll love it.

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood. It's the second book in a trilogy, but it stands on it's own. But you could always read Oryx & Crake, first, then TYOTF, then MaddAddam.

Franzen's latest PURITY hit bookstores yesterday and is already being hailed as his masterpiece. Might be time to catch up with him, OP.

I like him but much prefer Kate Atkinson, especially her Jackson Brodie mysteries, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, Human Croquet, Life After Life and A God in Ruins. But she's for smart people, not the easiest read.

Love Margaret Atwood's The Robber Bride.

Istanbul - Orhan Pamuk

Sharp Objects - Gillian Flynn

The Cairo Trilogy (Palace Walk, Palace of Desire Street, Sugar Street) - Naguib Mahfouz

The Wanting Seed - Anthony Burgess

The Secret Pilgrim - John Le Carre

The Way to Paradise - Mario Vargas Llosa

He Died With a Felafel in His Hand - John Birmingham

Atonement by Ian McEwan

Two wildly different, but excellent, books from the past 5 years or so:

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward -- really shows what it's like for a certain segment of our own country

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan -- one of my top 10 favorite books, ever

And just for fun, A Tiny Bit Marvellous by the wonderful Dawn French.

Early from the Dance - David Payne

As Meat Loves Salt by Maria McCann, about two soldiers in the British Civil War who fall in love and try to build a new world and a new life together.

P.M.B.T.

At Swim, Two Boys by Jamie O'Neill

The Vintner's Luck by Elizabeth Knox

Asmara et les causes perdues by Jean-Christophe Rufin

THE SAVAGE DETECTIVES by Roberto Bolano

Thanks, all! Appreciate all the recommendations. Interesting to see Margaret Atwood mentioned a few times . I loved The Handmaid's Tale. Definitely time I read another of her books.

R16, have a look at The Blind Assassin. It's my favourite by Margaret Atwood, together with The Handmaid's Tale. Love her collection of short stories Moral Disorder. Tout un programme!

Blind Assassin is GREAT. If you're going to read Franzen, read The Corrections or Twenty-seventh City. I found Freedom good, but it's probably not a good first round with Franzen. Just finished The Goldfinch, and it's a solid page-turner, but I found the narrative tone condescending to the reader.

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry

[quote]If you're going to read Franzen, read The Corrections or Twenty-seventh City. I found Freedom good, but it's probably not a good first round with Franzen.

OTOH, I was only able to finish The Corrections, which I had started twice, *after* reading Freedom.

"Book of Illusions" by Paul Auster is the best novel in the past 20 years.

"Until I Find You" by John Irving is a close second.

Great thread. A few of my favorites of the past 20 years, not yet mentioned:

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

The Son by Philipp Meyer

Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Underworld by Don DeLillo

The Interestings is one of the best books I've read in the past decade -- and everyone I've recommended it to has loved it

R23, I loved that one too.

'The Human Stain' by Philip Roth. I won a 'Mary!' here on DL when gushing about its verve and range, but my enthusiasm remains. 'American Pastoral' was mighty enough, but 'Stain' is better. Absorption and gritty pleasure assured.

Jeffrey Eugenides' MIDDLESEX was my favorite book of the last 20 years. Though it certainly got a lot of acclaim in its time, there was never enough. IMHO.

The only book of John Irving's I've truly loved was A Son of the Circus, which is one of his least popular titles.

Has anyone else read it? What did you think?

I also loved Cider House Rules but really none of his others, not even Garp.

R27 -- I liked A Son of the Circus, too; it's the only Irving book I've read. His fans say it's the only one they didn't much like.

For recent novels I liked well enough to recommend here ...

"Old Filth" by Jane Gardam

"The Good House" by Ann Leary

"Rules of Civility" by Amor Towles

"The Crooked Maid" by Dan Vyleta

"The Transcriptionist" by Amy Rowland

"Emily, Alone" by Stewart O'Nan

Finally ... I loved "The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry" by Gabrielle Zevin, but I know folks who didn't.

ALL THE LIGHT YOU CANNOT SEE

Breathtaking.

Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, by Ben Fountain, is my favorite from the past 5 years.

You guys are awesome. Keep 'em coming! I've just started Zadie Smith's 'The Autograph Man' - the only novel of hers I haven't yet read, but I'll definitely be giving your suggestions a shot in the weeks ahead.

[quote] A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry R19, so interesting that you mention this one. I'm actually of Parsi descent as well and everyone in my family raves about this book - hard to tell if they're doing so just because Mistry's a Parsi who's made good or if they genuinely enjoyed the book. As for English-language authors from the sub cont', I loved Salman Rushdie's 'Midnight's Children', VS Naipaul's 'A House for Mr Biswas' and Aravind Adiga's 'The White Tiger'.

OOPS. sorry, dumb OP here. I messed up the formatting in my post at R31. Let's try again...

You guys are awesome. Keep 'em coming! I've just started Zadie Smith's 'The Autograph Man' - the only novel of hers I haven't yet read, but I'll definitely be giving your suggestions a shot in the weeks ahead.

[quote] A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry

[R19], so interesting that you mention this^ one. I'm actually of Parsi descent as well and everyone in my family raves about this book - hard to tell if they're doing so just because Mistry's a Parsi who's made good or if they genuinely enjoyed the book. As for English-language authors from the sub cont', I loved Salman Rushdie's 'Midnight's Children', VS Naipaul's 'A House for Mr Biswas' and Aravind Adiga's 'The White Tiger'.

I'd rather gouge my fucking eyes out than read Franzen.

Recently finished Jenny Erpenbeck's 'The End of Days'. A beautiful, delicate and lyrical book; my favourite new novel of the past couple of years.

Naipaul's "Mr Stone and the Knights Companion" is a wonderful book. It's probably his least known novel, but it brought me to tears it was so moving.

Right now I'm loving Nicholas Nickleby. I'm not sure that anything in the last 20 years can top Charles Dickens at his finest.

DeLillo - Underworld.

The Age Of Miracles

I can't handle fiction unfortunately. I get in a muddle with the names because I can't see them. It's a drag.

Even in real life. I can never remember people's names..on DL, if I want to refer to an actor etc...I have to google to find their names.

Oh dear, R39. Have you told your doctor about this?

[quote]Oh dear, [R39]. Have you told your doctor about this?

I don't think he'd know what to recommend.

Luckily I excel in other areas.

[r39] Have you thought about writing notes in the margins to remember characters? Maybe keep a fetching little Moleskin handy to keep notes if using an e-reader?

Yeah, good point, R42. I'm in my early 30s and don't (yet) have any memory problems, but I've done that very thing for complex novels with dozens of different characters.

R36: NN is the last Dickens work that interests me that I haven't read yet; I bought it a long time ago as an audiobook, but am saving it for a long trip.

One can make notes in ebooks these as well. Perhaps creating one's own character list as a document to refer to if necessary. Audiobooks might help a bit as the narrator (good ones anyway) create distinctive voices for each person.

OP: My ex was from Mumbai, and on one visit his dad took me out for a dahnsak lunch at the Bombay Cricket Club. You might consider the novel "India Cracked" by Bapsi Sidhwa - partition from a Parsi point-of-view.

r28 Stuart O'Nan wrote a harrowing but fascinating non-fiction book call The Circus Fire about the 1944 Hartford incident.

It is a great read about crowd psychology and how people react in a crisis, and it's well written. I don't know his fiction, but that was a great book.

Donna Tartt's The Secret History and The Goldfinch

Michael Chabon's The Amazing History of Kavalier and Clay

David Abram's Fobbit

Horse Heaven by Jane Smiley

What Pet Should I Get? by Dr Seuss

Bump