A tale of two sisters, Lisa See’s “Shanghai Girls” weaves an intimate, eventful plot into the fabric of China’s recent history.
Archive | Books 100 > Novels
The Books 100 list was written in 2009 and 2010. It is not currently being updated.
69“This Is Where I Leave You”
Jonathan Tropper’s fifth novel reinvents the dysfunctional family with cutting one-liners and laugh-out-loud humor that, despite everything, brings out the best in his characters.
70“A Friend of the Family”
Pete Dizinhoff’s righteous contentment with the life of suburban comfort he has built falters in “A Friend of the Family.”
73“Eight White Nights”
Guy and girl meet. Guy and girl fall in love. It’s a familiar story, made unique by the Proustian prose of Andre Aciman’s novel “Eight White Nights.”
75“Some Things Meant the World to Me”
Struggles, past and present, are equally viable in Joshua Mohr’s blunt, fearless first novel “Some Things Meant the World to Me.”
77“Generosity”
Richard Powers creates an all-too-real dystopia of rearranged chromosomes, chemical imbalances, and a pharmaceutical industry bent on manufacturing happiness.
78“Heroic Measures”
Jill Ciment’s whirlwind novel involves disease, terrorist attacks, and an unforgettable elderly couple from New York.
79“Unfinished Desires”
Sharply written and laced with the complexities of female power, “Unfinished Desires” transports the reader through a hundred years at a Catholic school in North Carolina.
86“The Year of the Flood”
The horrific yet plausible future depicted in Margaret Atwood’s “The Year of the Flood” compels the reader to reexamine the present.
88“Drift”
“Drift” forces us headfirst into the minds of various people whose lives are as stable as the waves crashing into the California coast.