25 Books to Remember from 2004
|
| |
|
|
 |
American Desert
Everett, Percival
| Hyperion, © 2004 | Fic E
A second chance at life is given to a man who does not deserve it in this comedic novel of loneliness, despair and redemption.
Reserve This Title
|
 |
American Smooth: Poems
Dove, Rita
| W.W. Norton, © 2004 | 811 Dove
This elegant collection examines a wide range of American experience, from music and ballroom dancing to jury duty.
Reserve This Title
|
 |
Another Bullshit Night in Suck City: A Memoir
Flynne, Nick
| W.W. Norton, © 2004 | B Flynn
An edgy and inventive memoir about the poet's early life without his estranged father and their unlikely reunion at a Boston homeless shelter.
Reserve This Title
|
 |
At the Tomb of the Inflatable Pig: Travels Through Paraguay
Gimlette, John
| Knopf, © 2004 | 989.2 G
Out of the chaos of the world's most unlikely tourist destination emerges a bleak and beautiful travelogue.
Reserve This Title
|
 |
A Bit on the Side: Stories
Trevor, William
| Viking, © 2004 | Fic T
Richly developed stories set in Ireland and England, whose characters grapple with various forms of love and regret.
Reserve This Title
|
 |
Blackbird House
Hoffman, Alice
| Doubleday, © 2004 | Fic H
Tales redolent of legend, land and sea trace the dwellers of a Cape Cod farmhouse from colonial through contemporary times.
Reserve This Title
|
 |
Blood Done Sign My Name: A True Story
Tyson, Timothy
| Crown, © 2004 | 975.6535 T
A powerful examination of southern race relations, based on Tyson's investigation of a 1970's lynching in his hometown of Oxford, N.C.
Reserve This Title
|
 |
Breaking the Tongue
Loh, Vyvyane
| W.W. Norton, © 2004 | Fic L
A moving story of language and class set against the Japanese invasion of Singapore during WWII.
Reserve This Title
|
 |
Dancing with Cuba: A Memoir of the Revolution
Guillermoprieto, Alma
| Pantheon, © 2004 | 972.9106 G
Art meets revolution in this engaging account of Guillermoprieto's political awakening while teaching dance in post revolution cuba.
Reserve This Title
|
 |
de Kooning: An American Master
Stevens, Mark, Swan, Annalyn
| Knopf, © 2004 | B de Kooning S
The luminous and all-encompassing first biography of the prolific artist.
Reserve This Title
|
 |
The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History
Barry, John
| Viking, © 2004 | 614.518 B
Bodies were piled in the streets in 1918. A comprehensive exploration of the medical, social and political aspects of this tragic epidemic.
Reserve This Title
|
 |
The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony that Shaped America
Shorto, Russell
| Doubleday, © 2004 | 974.7102 S
From newly translated records comes a rich and colorful chronicle of the multi-faceted Dutch colony from which New York City, the first global village, was forged.
Reserve This Title
|
 |
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
Clarke, Susanna
| Bloomsbury, © 2004 | Fic C
A historic battle unfolds between England's most competent and well-educated gentleman magicians.
Reserve This Title
|
 |
Love in the Driest Season: A Family Memoir
Tucker, Neely
| Crown, © 2004 | 362.734 T
A foreign correspondent and his wife navigate a byzantine society plagued by ethnic conflict and the AIDS epidemic to adopt an abandoned baby girl from Zimbabwe.
Reserve This Title
|
 |
Natasha and Other Stories
Bezmozgis, David
| Farrar, Straus & Giroux, © 2004 | Fic B
Offbeat, sympathetic and humorous stories portray a Russian Jewish family's adjustment to life in Toronto, Canada.
Reserve This Title
|
 |
On the Wing: To the Edge of the Earth with the Peregrine Falcon
Tennant, Alan
| Knopf, © 2004 | 598.96 T
Tennant takes us on an exhilarating and edifying quest to track the transcontinental journey of the peregrine falcon.
Reserve This Title
|
 |
The Plot Against America
Roth, Philip
| Houghton Mifflin, © 2004 | Fic R
"History is a very sudden thing," writes Roth. The varied responses of ordinary people are portrayed in this fictional account of fascism in America.
Reserve This Title
|
 |
Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants
Sullivan, Robert
| Bloomsbury, © 2004 | 599.3521 S
An eye-opening account of the complex and unappreciated world of our rodent rivals.
Reserve This Title
|
 |
The Second Life of Samuel Tyne
Edugyan, Esi
| Amistad, © 2004 | Fic E
Sinister twins and a father's struggle to fulfill his dreams pervade this haunting story of a Ghanaian family's arrival in a new town.
Reserve This Title
|
 |
The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific
Troost, J. Maarten
| Broadway Books, © 2004 | 306.0996 T
Mistakenly envisioning a tropical paradise, Troost moves to the Pacific Island of Kiribati and ultimately produces this hilarious tale of life along the equator.
Reserve This Title
|
 |
The Shadow of the Wind
Ruiz Zafon, Carlos; translated by Lucia Graves
| Penguin, © 2004 | Fic R
A young booklover in Barcelona finds murder, metaphysics and madness among the secrets of a forgotten novel in this engrossing epic from Spain.
Reserve This Title
|
 |
So Quietly the Earth
Lee, David
| Copper Canyon Press, © 2004 | 811 Lee
Landscape meditations on the American Southwest; these poems begin with walking tours at dawn and explore earth, fire, water and air.
Reserve This Title
|
 |
Soul City
Toure
| Little, Brown & Co., © 2004 | Fic T
The ingenious portrayal of a utopian African-American city, brimming with pop-culture and social satire.
Reserve This Title
|
 |
Swimming to Antarctica: Tales of a Long Distance Swimmer
Cox, Lynne
| Knopf, © 2004 | B Cox
An inspiring chronicle of the swimmer's perilous crossings and her extraordinary relationship with the water.
Reserve This Title
|
 |
The Tyrant's Novel
Keneally, Thomas
| Doubleday, © 2004 | Fic K
Offered a position by Great Uncle as the official poet and scribe of their Middle Eastern country, Alan Sheriff is given an impossible task.
Reserve This Title
|
|
Back to the Branch Libraries
home page
Books to Remember is an annual list of 25 titles chosen for their ability to provide an informative or transformative reading experience for adults. Selection criteria include literary excellence, uniqueness of concept and command of subject matter.
These books were selected by the following committee from the staff of The New York Public Library: Susan Chute, Julia Clark, Frannie Crook (Chair), Malynda Dalton, Francie Einenkel, Glenn Mills, Forest Turner.
Selected titles appearing on this booklist may be available in recorded, braille or large print versions. For more information, please contact the Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library, 40 West 20th Street, New York NY 10011-4211, (212) 206-5400, (212) 206-5458 (TTY).
The New York Public Library
Office of Adult Services
455 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10016-0122
|
