Books of the decade ~ top ten

I found a Top Ten Books of the Decade (2000-2009) on LindyLouMac's Book Reviews.  She got it from LoveReading, which designated fifty to choose from.  How many of these have you read?  I've indicated those I've read.

Number 1
The Time Traveler's Wife
by Audrey Niffenegger, 2003

I've read this one, but haven't reviewed it.  Dewey, who chose it as one of her books for the Something About Me reading challenge, said:

"I just adore this book. In some ways, I identify with the main character, even though he's a guy. Although he time travels, his normal life takes place in Chicago, where I grew up, during about the same time. You know how it's just cool to have a character in a book doing the things you did and going to the places you go? Aside from that, he has a really deep connection with his wife, and in a lot of ways, it feels reminiscent of my relationship with my husband, except that he's not always time traveling out of my life. The book doesn't read like a sci-fi book, which is what you'd normally expect from a book about time traveling. It's more about relationships and trying to be yourself even when who you are doesn't always make sense to other people."

Number 2
The Kite Runner
by Khaled Hosseini, 2003

Don't you think this cover is perfect?  I read this one several years before I started blogging and reviewing books.  Read about it on my Banned Books blog.






Number 3
The Book Thief
by Markus Zusak, 2005

I like this cover, too, but haven't read the book ... yet!






Number 4
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
by John Boyne, 2006

This cover is for the movie version.  I read this one with my online Book Buddies, but I haven't written a review.






Number 5
Girl with a Pearl Earring
by Tracy Chevalier, 1999

I read this too long ago to attempt to write a review now.




Number 6
Chocolat
by Joanne Harris, 1999

My favorite of her books was Five Quarters of the Orange. Dewey reviewed Chocolat here.  It's so nice to find Dewey's reviews scattered about, since her blog was taken down after she died.





Number 7
The Lovely Bones
by Alice Sebold, 2002

I read this years before I started blogging and reviewing books.



Number 8
We Need to Talk about Kevin
by Lionel Shriver, 2003

I want to read this because Dewey put this at the top of her list for the Something About Me reading challenge, saying:

"I'm reading this book for the second time right now. The narrator is the mother of a boy who has committed a Columbine-like school shooting/mass murder. I teach high school. I was teaching high school the day the Columbine shooting happened, and we all stopped what we were doing in class and watched the news in horror. This book really freaked me out the first time I read it, because I'm also the mother of teenage boy -- a white, middle-class, suburban boy, which is what these school shooters tend to be. Although the narrator is really hard to like, I just feel for her anyway, because I can not even imagine what it must be like to be the parent of one of these boys. Yet I have to keep in mind at all times the possibility that something like this could out of the blue happen in my classroom at any time."

Number 9
The Shadow of the Wind
by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, 2001 (translation, 2004)

I bought this book, but haven't read it yet.  It's the very last book in my fiction section, which I shelve alphabetically by author.




Number 10
Small Island
by Andrea Levy, 2005

This book won the Orange Prize, so I really should read it.