Entertainment Weekly's 100 Best Books [1983-2008]

Historical Literary

/// Specially prepared for Entertainment Weekly's 999-1000 issue (June 27, 2008) /// *** 1. The Road, Cormac McCarthy (2006) *** 2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling (2000) *** 3. Beloved, Toni Morrison (1987) *** 4. The Liars' Club, Mary Karr (1995) *** 5. American Pastoral, Philip Roth (1997) *** 6. Mystic River, Dennis Lehane (2001) *** 7. Maus, Art Spiegelman (1986/1991) *** 8. Selected Stories, Alice Munro (1996) *** 9. Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier (1997) *** 10. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami (1997) *** 11. Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer (1997) *** 12. Blindness, José Saramago (1998) *** 13. Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (1986-87) *** 14. Black Water, Joyce Carol Oates (1992) *** 15. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers (2000) *** 16. The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood (1986) *** 17. Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez (1988) *** 18. Rabbit at Rest, John Updike (1990) *** 19. On Beauty, Zadie Smith (2005) *** 20. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding (1998) *** 21. On Writing, Stephen King (2000) *** 22. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Díaz (2007) *** 23. The Ghost Road, Pat Barker (1996) *** 24. Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry (1985) *** 25. The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan (1989) *** 26. Neuromancer, William Gibson (1984) *** 27. Possession, A.S. Byatt (1990) *** 28. Naked, David Sedaris (1997) *** 29. Bel Canto, Anne Patchett (2001) *** 30. Case Histories, Kate Atkinson (2004) *** 31. The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien (1990) *** 32. Parting the Waters, Taylor Branch (1988) *** 33. The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion (2005) *** 34. The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold (2002) *** 35. The Line of Beauty, Alan Hollinghurst (2004) *** 36. Angela's Ashes, Frank McCourt (1996) *** 37. Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi (2003) *** 38. Birds of America, Lorrie Moore (1998) *** 39. Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri (2000) *** 40. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman (1995-2000) *** 41. The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros (1984) *** 42. LaBrava, Elmore Leonard (1983) *** 43. Borrowed Time, Paul Monette (1988) *** 44. Praying for Sheetrock, Melissa Fay Greene (1991) *** 45. Eva Luna, Isabel Allende (1988) *** 46. Sandman, Neil Gaiman (1988-1996) *** 47. World's Fair, E.L. Doctorow (1985) *** 48. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver (1998) *** 49. Clockers, Richard Price (1992) *** 50. The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen (2001) *** 51. The Journalist and the Murderer, Janet Malcom (1990) *** 52. Waiting to Exhale, Terry McMillan (1992) *** 53. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon (2000) *** 54. Jimmy Corrigan, Chris Ware (2000) *** 55. The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls (2006) *** 56. The Night Manager, John le Carré (1993) *** 57. The Bonfire of the Vanities, Tom Wolfe (1987) *** 58. Drop City, TC Boyle (2003) *** 59. Krik? Krak!, Edwidge Danticat (1995) *** 60. Nickel & Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich (2001) *** 61. Money, Martin Amis (1985) *** 62. Last Train To Memphis, Peter Guralnick (1994) *** 63. Pastoralia, George Saunders (2000) *** 64. Underworld, Don DeLillo (1997) *** 65. The Giver, Lois Lowry (1993) *** 66. A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, David Foster Wallace (1997) *** 67. The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini (2003) *** 68. Fun Home, Alison Bechdel (2006) *** 69. Secret History, Donna Tartt (1992) *** 70. Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell (2004) *** 71. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Ann Fadiman (1997) *** 72. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon (2003) *** 73. A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving (1989) *** 74. Friday Night Lights, H.G. Bissinger (1990) *** 75. Cathedral, Raymond Carver (1983) *** 76. A Sight for Sore Eyes, Ruth Rendell (1998) *** 77. The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro (1989) *** 78. Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert (2006) *** 79. The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell (2000) *** 80. Bright Lights, Big City, Jay McInerney (1984) *** 81. Backlash, Susan Faludi (1991) *** 82. Atonement, Ian McEwan (2002) *** 83. The Stone Diaries, Carol Shields (1994) *** 84. Holes, Louis Sachar (1998) *** 85. Gilead, Marilynne Robinson (2004) *** 86. And the Band Played On, Randy Shilts (1987) *** 87. The Ruins, Scott Smith (2006) *** 88. High Fidelity, Nick Hornby (1995) *** 89. Close Range, Annie Proulx (1999) *** 90. Comfort Me With Apples, Ruth Reichl (2001) *** 91. Random Family, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc (2003) *** 92. Presumed Innocent, Scott Turow (1987) *** 93. A Thousand Acres, Jane Smiley (1991) *** 94. Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser (2001) *** 95. Kaaterskill Falls, Allegra Goodman (1998) *** 96. The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown (2003) *** 97. Jesus' Son, Denis Johnson (1992) *** 98. The Predators' Ball, Connie Bruck (1988) *** 99. Practical Magic, Alice Hoffman (1995) *** 100. America (the Book), Jon Stewart/Daily Show (2004) -------- Missing: -------- * Tim O'Brien (31) * Taylor Branch (32) * Alan Hollinghurst (35) * Lorrie Moore (38) * Jhumpa Lahiri (39) * Paul Monette (43) * Melissa Fay Greene (44) * Richard Price (49) * Chris Ware (54) * Jeannette Walls (55) * Edwidge Danticat (59) * Peter Guralnick (62) * George Saunders (63) * David Mitchell (70) * Ann Fadiman (71) * Mark Haddon (72) * H.G. Bissinger (74) * Scott Smith (87) * Ruth Reichl (90) * Adrian Nicole LeBlanc (91) * Eric Schlosser (94) * Allegra Goodman (95) * Denis Johnson (97) * Connie Bruck (98)

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