Minnesota Reads

My list is not that original, you may find many of these books on other best of lists for 2009, but hopefully that’s because they are good books. I’m behind the times with two of these titles – The Road and Push – but they both left lasting impressions on me this year. Here you [...]

1. Ray of the Star by Laird Hunt: Loved everything about this book! The writing is dynamic, the setting is exotic, and the plotline is filled with beauty and tragedy. [review] 2. The Invisible Mountain by Carolina De Robertis: This book is currently making the rounds with the ladies of my family. It is a [...]

1. State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America by Matt Weiland and Sean Wilsey: I love stories that create a sense of place, so this anthology of 50 essays by 50 authors, each about his or her own state, was a jackpot. Every three or four pages, you get a completely different tone and [...]

This year I read twenty books that earned my coveted 5-star rating. Here, in no particular order, are�the ten I feel were the best of those twenty. 1. In the Land of Invented Languages: Esperanto Rock Stars, Klingon Poets, Loglan Lovers, and The Mad Dreamers Who Tried to Build A Perfect Language: Arika Okrent [review] [...]

In no specific order: In the Miso Soup by Ryu Murakami: Kenji is a young guide who takes tourists through Tokyo’s seedy underground. It’s an illegal job that brings him into contact with the seemingly plastic-faced and socially awkward Frank, whom Kenji suspects is a murderer. This book is absolutely chilling. In my favorite scene, [...]

I feel bad making this list on December 27th when I’m in the midst of two books that are really quite good (A Friend of the Family by Lauren Grodstein and What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us by Laura van den Berg) what if they turn out to be [...]

I’ve noticed lately a slew of Best of 2009 (so far) music lists (all of which I found on Largeheartedboy). I thought, you know maybe people want to know what the best books (that I’ve read) of 2009 thus far. Ominvoracious has a list of the best book so far, but I haven’t read any [...]