Top 10 Books of the Year

I thought that in the spirit of the New Year, I'd list my top 10 books (or readings in any case) of the year. More or less in order they are:

1. John McPhee, Annals of the Former World. Really 4 books in 1 volume. All are a discussion of America's geology as McPhee travels different sections of I-80 with geologists. Great writing about science, nature, and people, it also chronicles the evolution of geology as a science including the battles over plate tectonics as the leading theory of continental formation. Great stuff.

2. Michael Pollan, The Botany of Desire. Actually I didn't like this as much as his previous book, Second Nature, but that this is #2 says more about the previous book than this one. Great discussion of people's historical interactions with plants and the ways that humans have modified plants to suit various desires.

3. Graham Swift, Waterland and Last Orders. Cheating a little here since I listed 2 of his novels that I read this year, but I didn't want to choose. British writer and probably my most happy discovery of the year. Waterland is a weird story about the fens of England that also muses on how we use history. Last Orders is about the death of a working-class man and how it affects his wife and drinking buddies. Best fiction I read this year.

4. The New Yorker, Issue of Sept. 6. An entire issue dedicated to food. I didn't know how much I enjoyed really good writing about food until I read this issue. The best article was Bill Buford's article on pasta, but the articles on ketchup, lettuce, and snoek were also extremely good.

5. Peter Hessler, River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze. I reviewed this on the blog when I read it. Let's just say that it is superb travel writing and is probably the best book I've ever read on the difficulties and joy of being a westerner in Asia.

6. Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake. Lahiri is an American writer of Indian descent and she writes wonderfully in one of my favorite subgenres of literature, immigration and the cultural misunderstandings that happen when immigrants and natives live together. Also highly recommended is her short story collection, Interpreter of Maladies.

7. Alice Munro, The Beggar's Maid. Her first book, but the others aren't that different. Real simple stuff--woman from Ontario has rough childhood, moves to British Columbia as an adult, has some children, martial difficulties ensue. But the way she writes about these people is just wonderfully. Criminally underappreciated author outside of Canada.

8. Paul Theroux, Dark Star Safari. A story of Theroux's trip through eastern Africa a few years ago. He lived there in the 60s as a Peace Corps volunteer and he had not been back in many years. Great writing but extremely depressing. Outside of Egypt, Ethiopia seemed to be the least screwed up place that he visited and that's really saying something. First travel book I ever read that made me want to visit the place less.

9. H.G. Bissinger, Friday Night Lights. Read this before I knew the movie was coming out. Somewhat dated now I guess but a great discussion of football in one of America's greatest shitholes, Odessa, TX. Also where W made his political start which doesn't make the region any less unpalatable. A useful read for the mentality of W's home as much as it is for the craziness of high school football in Texas.

10. Mike Tidwell, Bayou Farewell. A sad story of the disappearance of Louisiana's bayou country. Because the Mississippi River is controlled throughout Louisiana and therefore dumps all of its deposits in the Gulf of Mexico, the ocean is slowly taking away the bayous. The home of America's greatest shellfish fishery and one of America's unique cultures, this book will hopefully spur action to save the bayous. Eat your shrimp now because in another 20 years it's going to become damned expensive if the bayous aren't saved.