New York Times Most Notable: 2002 – Present

Each year the New York Times publishes its 100 Most Notable Books of the year, gleaned from the that years’ reviews.

Books I’ve read are highlighted in Blue – follow the links to my reviews.

2011 Most Notable Books

Fiction

1. THE ANGEL ESMERALDA: Nine Stories, by Don DeLillo.
2. THE ART OF FIELDING, by Chad Harbach.
3. THE BARBARIAN NURSERIES, by Héctor Tobar.
4. BIG QUESTIONS. Or, Asomatognosia: Whose Hand Is It Anyway? Written and illustrated by Anders Brekhus Nilsen.
5. THE BUDDHA IN THE ATTIC, by Julie Otsuka.
6. CANTI, by Giacomo Leopardi. Translated by Jonathan Galassi.
7. THE CAT’S TABLE, by Michael Ondaatje.
8. CHANGÓ’S BEADS AND TWO-TONE SHOES, by William Kennedy.
9. COME ON ALL YOU GHOSTS, by Matthew Zapruder.
10. 11/22/63, by Stephen King.
11. THE FREE WORLD, by David Bezmozgis.
12. GHOST LIGHTS, by Lydia Millet.
13. THE GRIEF OF OTHERS, by Leah Hager Cohen.
14. GRYPHON: New and Selected Stories, by Charles Baxter.
15. HOUSE OF HOLES: A Book of Raunch, by Nicholson Baker.
16. THE LAST WEREWOLF, by Glen Duncan.
17. THE LEFTOVERS, by Tom Perrotta.
18. LIFE ON MARS, by Tracy K. Smith.
19. THE LONDON TRAIN, by Tessa Hadley (read my review)
20. LONG, LAST, HAPPY: New and Selected Stories, by Barry Hannah.
21. LOST MEMORY OF SKIN, by Russell Banks.
22. THE MARRIAGE PLOT, by Jeffrey Eugenides (read my review)
23. A MOMENT IN THE SUN, by John Sayles.
24. MR. FOX, by Helen Oyeyemi.
25. MY NEW AMERICAN LIFE, by Francine Prose.
26. 1Q84, by Haruki Murakami. Translated by Jay Rubin and Philip Gabriel.
27. OPEN CITY, by Teju Cole.
28. THE PALE KING: An Unfinished Novel, by David Foster Wallace.
29. PARALLEL STORIES, by Peter Nadas. Translated by Imre Goldstein.
30. SAY HER NAME, by Francisco Goldman.
31. SCENES FROM VILLAGE LIFE, by Amos Oz. Translated by Nicholas de Lange
32. THE SENSE OF AN ENDING, by Julian Barnes.
33. SEVEN YEARS, by Peter Stamm. Translated by Michael Hofmann.
34. SHARDS, by Ismet Prcic.
35. SPACE, IN CHAINS, by Laura Kasischke.
36. STONE ARABIA, by Dana Spiotta.
37. THE STRANGER’S CHILD, by Alan Hollinghurst.
38. THE SUBMISSION, by Amy Waldman.
39. SWAMPLANDIA!  by Karen Russell.
40. TEN THOUSAND SAINTS, by Eleanor Henderson.
41. THIS BEAUTIFUL LIFE, by Helen Schulman.
42. THE TIGER’S WIFE, by Téa Obreht (read my review)
43. THE TRAGEDY OF ARTHUR, by Arthur Phillips.
44. TRAIN DREAMS, by Denis Johnson.

Non-Fiction

1. AND SO IT GOES. Kurt Vonnegut: A Life, by Charles J. Shields.
2. ARGUABLY: Essays, by Christopher Hitchens.
3. THE ART OF CRUELTY: A Reckoning, by Maggie Nelson.
4. ASSASSINS OF THE TURQUOISE PALACE, by Roya Hakakian.
5. THE BEGINNING OF INFINITY: Explanations That Transform the World, by David Deutsch.
6. BELIEVING IS SEEING: Observations on the Mysteries of Photography, by Errol Morris.
7. THE BETTER ANGELS OF OUR NATURE: Why Violence Has Declined, by Steven Pinker.
8. BLOOD, BONES AND BUTTER: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef, by Gabrielle Hamilton.
9. BLUE NIGHTS, by Joan Didion.
10. THE BOY IN THE MOON: A Father’s Journey to Understand His Extraordinary Son, by Ian Brown (read my review)
11. CARAVAGGIO: A Life Sacred and Profane, by Andrew Graham-Dixon.
12. CATHERINE THE GREAT: Portrait of a Woman, by Robert K. Massie.
13. CLARENCE DARROW: Attorney for the Damned, by John A. Farrell.
14. COCKTAIL HOUR UNDER THE TREE OF FORGETFULNESS, by Alexandra Fuller.
15. DESTINY OF THE REPUBLIC: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President, by Candice Millard.
16. THE ECSTASY OF INFLUENCE: Nonfictions, Etc., by Jonathan Lethem.
17. 1861: The Civil War Awakening, by Adam Goodheart.
18. EXAMINED LIVES: From Socrates to Nietzsche, by James Miller.
19. 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created, by Charles C. Mann.
20. GEORGE F. KENNAN: An American Life, by John Lewis Gaddis.
21. GREAT SOUL: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India, by Joseph Lelyveld.
22. HARLEM IS NOWHERE: A Journey to the Mecca of Black America, by Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts.
23. HOLY WAR: How Vasco da Gama’s Epic Voyages Turned the Tide in a Centuries-Old Clash of Civilizations, by Nigel Cliff.
24. IN THE GARDEN OF BEASTS: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin, by Erik Larson.
25. INFERNO: The World at War, 1939-1945, by Max Hastings.
26. THE INFORMATION: A History. A Theory. A Flood, by James Gleick.
27. INSIDE SCIENTOLOGY: The Story of America’s Most Secretive Religion, by Janet Reitman.
28. IS THAT A FISH IN YOUR EAR? Translation and the Meaning of Everything, by David Bellos.
29. JERUSALEM: The Biography, by Simon Sebag Montefiore.
30. THE KEATS BROTHERS: The Life of John and George, by Denise Gigante.
31. KNOCKING ON HEAVEN’S DOOR: How Physics and Scientific Thinking Illuminate the Universe and the Modern World, byLisa Randall.
32. MALCOLM X: A Life of Reinvention, by Manning Marable.
33. THE MEMORY CHALET, by Tony Judt.
34. MIDNIGHT RISING: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War, by Tony Horwitz.
35. MOBY-DUCK: The True Story of 28,800 Bath Toys Lost at Sea and of the Beachcombers, Oceanographers, Environmentalists, and Fools, Including the Author, Who Went in Search of Them, by Donovan Hohn.
36. MY SONG: A Memoir, by Harry Belafonte with Michael Shnayerson.
37. THE NET DELUSION: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom, by Evgeny Morozov.
38. ONE DAY I WILL WRITE ABOUT THIS PLACE: A Memoir, by Binyavanga Wainaina.
39. THE ORIGINS OF POLITICAL ORDER: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution, by Francis Fukuyama.
40. PAULINE KAEL: A Life in the Dark, by Brian Kellow.
41. PULPHEAD, by John Jeremiah Sullivan.
42. THE QUEST: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World, by Daniel Yergin.
43. RIGHTS GONE WRONG: How Law Corrupts the Struggle for Equality, by Richard Thompson Ford.
44. RIN TIN TIN: The Life and the Legend, by Susan Orlean.
45. [SIC]: A Memoir, by Joshua Cody.
46. THE STORM OF WAR: A New History of the Second World War, by Andrew Roberts.
47. THE SWERVE: How the World Became Modern, by Stephen Greenblatt.
48. THINKING, FAST AND SLOW, by Daniel Kahneman.
49. TO A MOUNTAIN IN TIBET, by Colin Thubron.
50. TO END ALL WARS: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918, by Adam Hochschild.
51. A TRAIN IN WINTER: An Extraordinary Story of Women, Friendship, and Resistance in Occupied France, by Caroline Moorehead.
52. VAN GOGH: The Life, by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith.
53. WHO’S AFRAID OF POST-BLACKNESS? What It Means to Be Black Now, by Touré.
54. WHY THE WEST RULES — FOR NOW: The Patterns of History, and What They Reveal About the Future, by Ian Morris.
55. A WORLD ON FIRE: Britain’s Crucial Role in the American Civil War, by Amanda Foreman.

 

2010 Most Notable Books

Fiction

1. AMERICAN SUBVERSIVE,  by David Goodwillie
2. ANGELOLOGY,  by Danielle Trussoni
3. THE ASK, by Sam Lipsyte
4. BOUND, by Antonya Nelson
5. COMEDY IN A MINOR KEY, by Hans Keilson
6. DOUBLE HAPPINESS: Stories, by Mary-Beth Hughes
7. FOREIGN BODIES, by Cynthia Ozick
8. FREEDOM, by Jonathan Franzen (read my review)
9. FUN WITH PROBLEMS: Stories, by Robert Stone
10. GIRL BY THE ROAD AT NIGHT: A Novel of Vietnam, by David Rabe
11. THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET’S NEST, by Stieg Larsson
12. GREAT HOUSE, by Nicole Krauss
13. HOW TO LIVE SAFELY IN A SCIENCE FICTIONAL UNIVERSE, by Charles Yu
14. HOW TO READ THE AIR, by Dinaw Mengestu
15. I CURSE THE RIVER OF TIME, by Per Petterson. Translated by Charlotte Barslund with Per Petterson (read my review)
16. ILUSTRADO, by Miguel Syjuco
17. THE IMPERFECTIONISTS, by Tom Rachman
18. THE INVISIBLE BRIDGE, by Julie Orringer
19. LISA ROBERTSON’S MAGENTA SOUL WHIP, by Lisa Robertson
20. THE LONG SONG, by Andrea Levy (read my review)
21. THE LOST BOOKS OF THE ODYSSEY, by Zachary Mason
22. THE LOTUS EATERS, by Tatjana Soli (read my review)
23. MATTERHORN: A Novel of the Vietnam War, by Karl Marlantes
24. MEMORY WALL: Stories, by Anthony Doerr
25. MR. PEANUT, by Adam Ross
26. THE NEAREST EXIT, by Olen Steinhauer
27. THE NEW YORKER STORIES,by Ann Beattie
28. ONE DAY, by David Nicholls.
29. THE PRIVILEGES, by Jonathan Dee
30. ROOM, by Emma Donoghue (read my review)
31. THE SAME RIVER TWICE, by Ted Mooney
32. SELECTED STORIES, by William Trevor
33. SHADOW TAG, by Louise Erdrich (read my review)
34. SOLAR, by Ian McEwan
35. SOMETHING RED, by Jennifer Gilmore
36. SOURLAND: Stories, by Joyce Carol Oates
37. THE SPOT: Stories, by David Means.
38. SUPER SAD TRUE LOVE STORY, by Gary Shteyngart
39. THE SURRENDERED. by Chang-rae Lee.
40. THE THOUSAND AUTUMNS OF JACOB DE ZOET, by David Mitchell
41. THE THREE WEISSMANNS OF WESTPORT, by Cathleen Schine (read my review)
42. TO THE END OF THE LAND, by David Grossman. Translated by Jessica Cohen
43. VIDA, by Patricia Engel
44. A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD, by Jennifer Egan
45. WHAT BECOMES: Stories, by A. L. Kennedy
46. WILD CHILD: Stories, by T. Coraghessan Boyle

2009 Most Notable Books (The 2009 list, with book descriptions and links may be found here)

Fiction

1. Amateur Barbarians, by ROBERT COHEN
2. American Rust, By PHILIPP MEYER
3. The Anthologist, By NICHOLSON BAKER
4. The Art Student’s War, By BRAD LEITHAUSER
5. Asterios Polyp, Written and illustrated by DAVID MAZZUCCHELLI
6. Await Your Reply, By DAN CHAON
7. Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It, By MAILE MELOY
8. The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein, By PETER ACKROYD
9. Chronic City, By JONATHAN LETHEM
10. The Confessions of Edward Day, By VALERIE MARTIN
11. Dearest Creature, By AMY GERSTLER
12. Do Not Deny Me: Stories, By JEAN THOMPSON
13. Don’t Cry: Stories, By MARY GAITSKILL
14. Every Man Dies Alone, By HANS FALLADA; translated by MICHAEL HOFMANN
15. Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned, By WELLS TOWER
16. Family Album, By PENELOPE LIVELY
17. Follow Me, By JOANNA SCOTT (read my review)
18. A Gate at the Stairs, By LORRIE MOORE
19. Generosity: An Enhancement, By RICHARD POWERS
20. Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel, By JEANNETTE WALLS
21. How it Ended: New and Collected Stories, By JAY McINERNEY
22. In Other Rooms, Other Wonders, By DANIYAL MUEENUDDIN
23. Invisible, By PAUL AUSTER
24. Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi, By GEOFF DYER
25. The Lacuna, By BARBARA KINGSOLVER
26. Lark and Termite, By JAYNE ANNE PHILLIPS
27. Let the Great World Spin, By COLUM McCANN (read my review)
    
28. The Little Stranger, By SARAH WATERS (read my review)
    
29. Love and Obstacles: Stories, By ALEKSANDAR HEMON
30. Love and Summer, By WILLIAM TREVOR
31. The Museum of Innocence, By ORHAN PAMUK; translated by MAUREEN FREELY
32. My Father’s Tears: And Other Stories, By JOHN UPDIKE
33. Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall, By KAZUO ISHIGURO
34. Nothing Right: Short Stories, By ANTONYA NELSON
35. Once the Shore: Stories, By PAUL YOON
36. One D.O.A., One on the Way, By MARY ROBISON
37. Sag Harbor, By COLSON WHITEHEAD
38. A Short History of Women, By KATE WALBERT
39. The Sky Below, By STACEY D’ERASMO
40. The Song Is You, By ARTHUR PHILLIPS
41. Too Much Happiness, By ALICE MUNRO
42. Typhoon, By CHARLES CUMMING
43. A Village Life, By LOUISE GLÜCK
44. Wolf Hall, By HILARY MANTEL (read my review)
    
45. The Year of the Flood, By MARGARET ATWOOD (read my review)
    

Nonfiction

1. The Age of Entanglement: When Quantum Physics Was Reborn, By LOUISA GILDER
2. The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science, By RICHARD HOLMES
3. Ayn Rand and the World She Made, By ANNE C. HELLER
4. Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-Time Eater, By FRANK BRUNI
5. The Case for God, By KAREN ARMSTRONG
6. Cheever: A Life, By BLAKE BAILEY
7. City Boy: My Life in New York During the 1960s and ’70s, By EDMUND WHITE
8. Closing Time: A Memoir, By JOE QUEENAN
9. Cold: Adventures in the World’s Frozen Places, By BILL STREEVER
10. Columbine, By DAVE CULLEN
11. A Country of Vast Designs: James K. Polk, the Mexican War, and the Conquest of the American Continent, By ROBERT W. MERRY
12. Cowboys Full: The Story of Poker, By JAMES McMANUS
13. Dancing in the Dark: A Cultural History of the Great Depression, By MORRIS DICKSTEIN
14. Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits, By LINDA GORDON
15. Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815, By GORDON S. WOOD
16. The Evolution of God, By ROBERT WRIGHT
17. A Fiery Peace in a Cold War: Bernard Schriever and the Ultimate Weapon, By NEIL SHEEHAN
18. The Fires of Vesuvius: Pompeii Lost and Found, By MARY BEARD
19. The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt, By T. J. STILES
20. Flannery: A Life of Flannery O’Connor, By BRAD GOOCH
21. Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City, By GREG GRANDIN
22. The Good Soldiers, By DAVID FINKEL
23. The Ground Truth: The Untold Story of America Under Attack on 9/11, By JOHN FARMER
24. Hiding Man: A Biography of Donald Barthelme, By TRACY DAUGHERTY
25. Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story of a Band of U.S. Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan, By DOUG STANTON
26. In Fed We Trust: Ben Bernanke’s War on the Great Panic, By DAVID WESSEL
27. The Invention of Air: A Story of Science, Faith, Revolution, and the Birth of America, By STEVEN JOHNSON
28. The Last Empress: Madame Chiang Kai-shek and the Birth of Modern China, By HANNAH PAKULA
29. Lit: A Memoir, By MARY KARR
30. Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World, By LIAQUAT AHAMED
31. Losing Mum and Pup: A Memoir, By CHRISTOPHER BUCKLEY
32. The Lost Child: A Mother’s Story, By JULIE MYERSON
33. The Lost City Of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon, By DAVID GRANN
34. Lost in the Meritocracy: The Undereducation of an Overachiever, By WALTER KIRN
35. Louis D. Brandeis: A Life, By MELVIN I. UROFSKY
36. The Mercy Papers: A Memoir of Three Weeks, By ROBIN ROMM
37. Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town, By NICK REDING
38. My Paper Chase: True Stories of Vanished Times, By HAROLD EVANS
39. The Myth of the Rational Market: A History of Risk, Reward, and Delusion on Wall Street, By JUSTIN FOX
40. Open: An Autobiography, By ANDRE AGASSI
41. A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster, By REBECCA SOLNIT
42. Raymond Carver: A Writer’s Life, By CAROL SKLENICKA
43. Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend, By LARRY TYE
44. Securing the City: Inside America’s Best Counterterror Force — the NYPD, By CHRISTOPHER DICKEY
45. Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work, By MATTHEW B. CRAWFORD
46. The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom, By GRAHAM FARMELO
47. Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original, By ROBIN D. G. KELLEY
48. The Third Reich at War, By RICHARD J. EVANS
49. The Weight of a Mustard Seed: The Intimate Story of an Iraqi General and His Family During Thirty Years of Tyranny, By WENDELL STEAVENSON
50. When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women From 1960 to the Present, By GAIL COLLINS
51. Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector, By BENJAMIN MOSER
52. The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America, By DOUGLAS BRINKLEY
53. Worse Than War: Genocide, Eliminationism, and the Ongoing Assault on Humanity, By DANIEL JONAH GOLDHAGEN
54. Yours Ever: People and Their Letters, By THOMAS MALLON
55. Zeitoun, By DAVE EGGERS

2008 Most Notable Books (The 2008 list, with book descriptions and links may be found here)

Fiction

1. American Wife, by Curtis Sittenfeld
2. Atmospheric Disturbances, by Rivka Galchen
3. Bass Cathedral, by Nathaniel Mackey
4. Beautiful Children, by Charles Bock
5. Beijing Coma, by Ma Jian
6. A Better Angel: Stories, by Chris Adrian
7. Black Files, by Shannon Burke
8. The Blue Star, by Tony Earley
9. The Boat, by Nam Le
10. Breath, by Tim Winton
11. Dangerous Laughter: Thirteen Stories, by Steven Millhauser
12. Dear American Airlines, by Jonathan Miles
13. Diary of a Bad Year, by J. M. Coetzee
14. Dictation: A Quartet, by Cynthia Ozick
15. The English Major, by Jim Harrison
16. Fanon, by John Edgar Wideman
17. The Finder, by Colin Harrison
18. Fine Just the Way It Is: Wyoming Stories 3, by Annie Proulx
19. The Good Thief, by Hannah Tinti (read my review)
20. His Illegal Self, by Peter Carey
21. Home, by Marilynne Robinson
22. Indignation, by Philip Roth
23. The Lazurus Project, by Aleksandar Hemon
24. Legend of a Suicide, by David Vann
25. Life Class, by Pat Barker
26. Lush Life, by Richard Price
27. A Mercy, by Toni Morrison
28. A Most Wanted Man, by John le Carre
29. My Revolutions, by Hari Kunzru
30. Netherland, by Jospeh O’Neill (read my review)
    
31. The Other, by David Guterson
32. Our Story Begins: New and Selected Stories, by Tobias Wolff
33. The Road Home, by Rose Tremain (read my review)
    
34. The Sacred Book of the Werewolf, by Victor Pelevin
35. The School on Heart’s Content Road, by Carolyn Chute
36. Sir Galwain And The Green Knight: A New Verse Translation, by Simon Armitage
37. Telex From Cuba, by Rachel Kusner
38. 2666, by Roberto Bolano (Translated by Natasha Wimmer)
39. Unaccustomed Earth, by Jhumpa Lahiri (read my review)
40. The Unfortunates, by B. S. Johnson
41. When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson
42. The Widows of Eastwick, by John Updike
43. Yesterday’s Weather, by Anne Enright

Nonfiction

1. American Lion: Andrew Jackson n the White House, by Jon Meacham
2. Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency, by Barton Gellman
3. Bacardi and the Long Fight For Cuba: The Biography of a Cause, by Tom Gjelten
4. The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America is Tearing Us Apart, by Bill Bishop
5. Blood Matters: From Inherited Illness to Designer Babies, How the World and I found Ourselves in the Future of the Gene, by Masha Gessen
6. Capitol Men: The Epic Story of Reconstruction Through The Lives of the First Black Congressmen, by Philip Dray
7. The Challenge: Hamdan v. Rumsfeld and the Fight Over Presidential Power, by Jonathan Mahler
8. Champlain’s Dream, by David Hackett Fischer
9. Chasing the Flame: Sergio Vieira de Mello and The Fight to Save the World, by Samantha Power
10. Condoleezza Rice: An American Life: A Biography, by Elisabeth Bumiller
11. The Darkside: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals, by Jane Mayer
12. Deta Blues: The Life and Times of the Mississippi Masters Who Revolutionized American Music, by Ted Gioia
13. Descarte’s Bones: A Skeletal history of the Conflict Between Faith and Reason, by Russell Shorto
14. Dreams and Shadows: The Future of the Middle East, by Robin Wright
15. The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives, by Leonard Mlodinow
16. An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination: A Memoir, by Elizabeth McCracken (read my review)
17. Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China, by Leslie T. Chang
18. The Forever War, by Dexter Filkins
19. Freedom’s Battle: The Origins of Humanitarian Intervention, by Gary J. Bass
20. A Great Idea at the Time: The Rise, Fall, and Curious Afterlife of the Great Books, by Alex Beam
21. Hallelujah Junction: Composing an American Life, by John Adams
22. The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family, by Annette Gordon-Reed
23. Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need A Green Revolution – and How It Can Renew America, by Homas L. Friedman
24. The House at Sugar Beach: In Search of a Lost African Childhood, by Helene Cooper
25. How Fiction Works, by James Wood
26. Moral Clarity: A Guide for Grown-Up Idealists, by Susan Neiman
27. The Night of the Gun: A Reporter Investigates the Darkest Story of His Life, His Own, by David Carr
28. Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America, by Rick Perlstein
29. Nothing to Be Frightened Of, by Julian Barnes
30. Nureyev: The Life, by Julie Kavanagh
31. Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood, by Mark Harris
32. The Post-American World, by Fareed Zakaria
33. Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions, by Dan Ariely
34. The Race Card: How Bluffing About Bias Makes Race Relations Worse, by Richard Thompson
35. Retribution: The Battle for Japan, 1944-45, by Max Hastings
36. A Secular Age, by Charles Taylor
37. Shakespeare’s Wife, by Germaine Greer
38. The Superorganism: The Beauty, Elegance, and Strangeness of Insect Societies, by Bert Holldobler and Edward O. Wilson
39. Tell Me How This Ends: General David Petraeus and The Serach for a Way Out of Iraq, by Linda Robinson
40. The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How it Changed America, by David Hajdu
41. They Knew They Were Right: The Rise of the Neocons, by Jacob Heilbrunn
42. This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War, by Drew Gilpin Faust
43. The Three of Us: A Family Story, by Julia Blackburn
44. Thrumpton Hall: A Memoir of Life in My Father’s House, by Miranda Seymour
45. Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (And What It Says About Us), by Tom Vanderbilt
46. The Trillion Dollar Meltdown: Easy Money, High Rollers, and the Great Creidt Crash, by Charles R. Morris
47. A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World, by Tony Horwitz
48. Waking Giant: America in the Age of Jackson, by David S. Reynolds
49. While They Slept: An Inquiry Into the Murder of a Family, by Kathryn Harrison
50. White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson, by Brenda Wineapple
51. The Wild Places, by Robert Macfarlane
52. The World Is What It Is: The Authorized Biography of V.S. Naipaul, by Patrick French

2007 Most Notable Books (The 2007 list, along with links to previous years may be found here.)

Fiction

1. Half of a Yellow Sun, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (read my review)
2. The Translator, by Leila Aboulela (read my review)
3. Alentejo Blue, by Monica Ali (read my review)
4. One Good Turn, by Kate Atkinson
5. Arthur and George, by Julian Barnes (read my review)
6. Brookland, by Emily Barton
7. Last Evenings on Earth, by Roberto Bolano
8. Only Revolutions, by Mark Z. Danielewski (DNF – did not review)
9. The Inheritance of Loss, by Kiran Desai (read my review)
10. The Dead Fish Museum, by Charles D’Ambrosio
11. The Keep, by Jennifer Eagan
12. Twilight of the Superheroes, by Deborah Eisenberg
13. The Lay of the Land, by Richard Ford
14. The Dissident, by Nell Freudenberger
15. Skinner’s Drift, by Lisa Fugard
16. Old Filth, by Jane Gardam (read my review)
17. Golden Country, by Jennifer Gilmore
18. Intuition, by Allegra Goodman
19. The Stories of Mary Gordon, by Mary Gordon
20. The Dream Life of Sukhanov, by Olga Grushin
21. The Possibility of an Island, by Michel Houellebecq
22. Beasts of No Nation, by Uzodinma Iweala (read my review)
23. All Aunt Hagar’s Children, by Edward P. Jones
24. The Uses of Enchantment, by Heidi Julavits
25. Forgetfulness, by Ward Just
26. Gate of the Sun, by Elias Khoury
27. Lisey’s Story, by Stephen King
28. The Inhabited World, by David Long
29. The Road, by Cormac McCarthy (read my review)
30. After This, by Alice McDermott
31. Gallatin Canyon: Stories, by Thomas McGuane
32. The Emperor’s Children, by Claire Messud (read my review)
33. Black Swan Green, by David Mitchell (read my review)
34. Suite Francaise, by Irene Nemirovsky (read my review)
35. High Lonesome: New and Selected Stories, by Joyce Carol Oates
36. Special Topics in Calamity Physics, by Marisha Pessl
37. The Echo Maker, by Richard Powers (read my review)
38. Against the Day, by Thomas Pynchon
39. Everyman, by Phillip Roth
40. Absurditan, by Gary Shteyngart
41. Eat the Document, by Dana Spiotta (read my review)
42. Digging to America, by Anne Tyler
43. Terrorist, by John Updike
44. Apex Hides the Hurt, by Colson Whitehead
45. A Woman in Jerusalem, by A.B. Yehoshua

2005 Most Notable Books

Fiction

1. Beyond Black, by Hilary Mantel
2. A Changed Man, by Francine Prose
3. Empire Rising, by Thomas Kelly
4. Envy, by Kathryn Harrison
5. Europe Central, by William T. Vollmann
6. Follies: New Stories, by Ann Beattie
7. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, by J.K. Rowling
8. Home Land, by Sam Lipsyte
9. The Hot Kid, by Elmore Leonard
10. How We Are Hungry: Stories, by Dave Eggers
11. In Case We Are Separated: Connected Stories, by Alice Mattison
12. Indecision, by Benjamin Kunkel
13. Kafka on the Shore, by Haruki Murakami
14. Lunar Park, by Bret Easton Ellis
15. Maps for Lost Lovers, by Nadeem Aslam
16. The March, by E.L. Doctorow
17. Memories of My Melancholy Whores, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
18. Missing Mom, by Joyce Carol Oates
19. Mission to America, by Walter Kirn
20. Mother’s Milk, by Edward St. Aubyn
21. Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro
22. No Country for Old Men, by Cormac McCarthy (read my review)
23. On Beauty, by Zadie Smith
24. The Painted Drum, by Louise Erdrich
25. Please Don’t Come Back From the Moon, by Dean Bakopoulos
26. Prep, by Curtis Sittenfeld
27. Saturday, by Ian McEwan
28. The Sea, by John Banville
29. Seven Types of Ambiguity, by Elliot Perlman
30. Shalimar the Clown, by Salman Rushdie
31. Slow Man, by J.M. Coetzee (read my review)
32. The Successor, by Ismail Kadare
33. Towelhead, by Alicia Erian
34. Veronica, by Mary Gaitskill

2004 Most Notable Books

Fiction

1. Aloft, by Chang-rae Lee
2. The Amateur Marriage, by Anne Tyler
3. Bandbox, by Thomas Mallon
4. A Bit on the Side, by William Trevor
5. Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell (read my review)
6. The Curse of the Appropriate Man, by Lynn Freed
7. The Darling, by Russell Banks
8. The Falls, by Joyce Carol Oates
9. The First Desire, by Nancy Reisman
10. Four Souls, by Louise Erdrich
11. Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson (no review)
    
12. The Hamilton Case, by Michelle de Kretser
13. Harbor, by Lorraine Adams
14. Heir to the Glimmering World, by Cynthia Ozick
15. I Am Charlotte Simmons, by Tom Wolfe
16. The Inner Circle, by T.C. Boyle
17. The Jane Austen Book Club, by Karen Joy Fowler
18. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, by Susanna Clarke
19. The Lemon Table: Stories, by Julian Barnes
20. The Line of Beauty, by Alan Hollinghurst
21. Little Children, by Tom Perrotta
22. Magic Seeds, by V.S. Naipaul
23. The Master, by Colm Toibin
24. Men and Cartoons: Stories, by Jonathan Lethem
25. Natasha: And Other Stories, by David Bezmozgis
26. Oblivion: Stories, by David Foster Wallace
27. Our Kind, by Kate Walbert
28. The Persistence of Memory, by Tony Eprile
29. The Plot Against America, by Philip Roth
30. The Prodigal, by Derek Walcott
31. Runaway, by Alice Monro
32. Snow, by Orhan Pamuk
33. The Stone That The Builder Refused, by Madison Smartt Bell
34. Sweet Land Stories, by E.L. Doctorow
35. Transmission, by Hari Kunzru
36. The Tyrant’s Novel, by Thomas Keneally
37. An Unfinished Season, by Ward Just
38. Villages, by John Updike
39. Wake Up Sir! by Jonathan Ames
40. War Trash, by Ha Jin

2003 Most Notable Books

Fiction

1. Abandon: A Romance, by Pico Iyer
2. All Over Creation, by Ruth Ozeki
3. American Woman, by Susan Choi
4. And Now You Can Go, by Vendela Vida
5. Anja The Liar, by Thomas Moran
6. Any Human Heart, by William Boyd
7. Bangkok 8, by John Burdett
8. Bay of Souls, by Robert Stone
9. Best Friends, by Thomas Berger
10. Bliss, by Ronit Matalon
11. The Book Against God, by James Wood
12. The Book of Salt, by Monique Truong
13. A Box of Matches, by Nicholson Baker
14. The Bug, by Ellen Ullman
15. Charlie Johnson in the Flames, by Michael Ignatieff
16. Clara, by Janice Galloway
17. The Coffee Trader, by Divid Liss
18. The Commissariat of Enlightenment, by Ken Kalfus
19. The Company You Keep, by Neil Gordon
20. Cosmopolis, by Don DeLillo
21. Crabwalk, by Gunter Grass
22. Crackpots, by Sara Pritchard
23. Creation, by Katherine Govier
24. The Crossley Baby, by Jacqueline Carey
25. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon
26. The Cutting Room, by Louise Welsh
27. The Deep and Other Stories, by Mary Swan
28. A Distant Shore, by Caryl Phillips
29. The Dogs of Babel, by Carolyn Parkhurst
30. Domino, by Ross King
31. Dream Jungle, by Jessica Hagedorn
32. Drinking Coffee Elsewhere, by Z.Z. Packer
33. The Early Stories: 1953-1975, by John Updike
34. The Effect of Living Backwards, by Heidi Julavits
35. Elizabeth Costello, by J.M. Coetzee
36. Elroy Nights, by Frederick Barthelme
37. Evidence of Things Unseen, by Marianne Wiggins
38. The Fall, by Simon Mawer
39. Featherstone, by Kirsty Gunn
40. A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies: Stories, by John Murray
41. Four Spirits, by Sena Jeter Naslund
42. The Fox’s Walk, by Annabel Davis-Goff
43. The Furies, by Fernanda Eerstadt
44. The Gangster We Are All Looking For, by Le Thi Diem Thuy
45. Genesis, by Jim Crace
46. Getting Mother’s Body, by Suzan-Lori Parks
47. Gilgamesh, by Joan London
48. Gilligan’s Wake, by Tom Carson
49. Good Faith, by Jane Smiley
50. The Great Fire, by Shirley Hazzard (read my review)
51. Great Neck, by Jay Cantor
52. The Guru of Love, by Samrat Upadhyay
53. The Hazards of Good Breeding, by Jessica Shattuck
54. Heavenly Days, by James Wilcox
55. Heaven’s Edge, by Romesh Gunesekera
56. The Hills at Home, by Nancy Clark
57. A Hole in the Heart, by Christopher Marquis
58. How to Breathe Underwater: Stories, by Julie Orringer
59. Hungry Ghost, by Keith Kachtick
60. Indelible Acts: Stories, by A.L. Kennedy
61. The Inquisitors’ Manual, by Antonio Lobo Antunes
62. I Sailed With Magellan, by Stuart Dybek
63. Jamesland, by Michelle Huneven
64. Jennifer Government, by Max Barry
65. Kill Two Birds and Get Stones, by Kinky Friedman
66. The King In The Tree: Three Novellas, by Steven Millhauser
67. The King is Dead, by Jim Lewis
68. L’Affaire, by Diane Johnson
69. Liars and Saints, by Maile Meloy
70. The Light of Day, by Graham Swift
71. Little Infamies: Stories, by Panos Karnezis
72. The Little Women, by Katharine Weber
73. Lives of the Circus Animals, by Christopher Bram
74. Long For this World, by Michael Byers
75. Loot: And Other Stories, by Nadine Gordimer
76. Lost in a Good Book, by Jasper Fforde
77. Love, by Toni Morrison
78. Love Me, by Garrison Keillor
79. Lucky Girls: Stories, by Nell Freudenberger
80. Making Things Better, by Anita Brookner
81. The Marriage of the Sea, by Jane Alison
82. The Master Butchers Singing Club, by Louise Erdrich
83. A Memory of War, by Frederick Busch
84. Middle Earth, by Henri Cole
85. The Minotaur takes A Cigarette Break, by Steven Sherrill
86. Mr. Timothy, by Louis Bayard
87. Monkey Hunting, by Cristina Garcia
88. The Monsters of St. Helena, by brooks Hansen
89. Mortals, by Norman Rush
90. My Life as a Fake, by Peter Carey
91. The Namesake, by Jhumpa Lahiri
92. Office of Innocence, by Thomas Keneally
93. Old School, by Tobias Wolff
94. One Last Look, by Susanna Moore
95. One Pill Makes You Smaller, by Lisa Dierbeck
96. Oracle Night, by Paul Auster
97. Oryx and Crake, by Margaret Atwood (no review)
    
98. Our Lady of the Forest, by David Guterson (no review)
    
99. A Palestine Affair, by Jonathan Wilson
100. Pattern Recognition, by William Gibson
101. Personalit, by Andrew O’Hagan
102. The Photograph, by Penelope Lively
103. The Pieces from Berlin, by Michael Pye
104. The Point of Return, by Siddhartha Deb
105. Postcards from Berlin, by Margaret Leroy
106. Property, by Valerie Martin
107. The Quality of LIfe Report, by Meghan Daum
108. Quicksilver: Volume One of the Baroque Cycle, by Neal Stephenson
109. Reunion, by Alan Lightman
110. The Romantic, by Barbara Gowdy
111. Rumpole Rests His Case, by John Mortimer
112. Samaritan, by Richard Price
113. San Remo Drive: A Novel From Memory, by Leslie Epstein
114. Saul and Patsy, by Charles Baxter
115. Secret Father, James Carroll
116. Set This House in Order: A Romance of Souls, by Matt Ruff
117. The Shadow King, by Jane Stevenson
118. She is Me, by Cathleen Schine
119. A Ship Made of Paper, by Scott Spencer
120. Shipwreck, by Louis Begley
121. Shroud, by John Banville
122. The Songs of the Kings, by Barry Unsworth
123. Star of the Sea, by Joseph O’Connor
124. Still Holding, by Bruce Wagner
125. Stillness: And Other Stories, by Bourtney Angela Brkic
126. Stone Garden, by Molly Moynahan
127. A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali, by Gil Courtemanche
128. Sweetwater, by Roxana Robinson
129. That Old Ace in the Hold, by Annie Proulx (no review)
     
130. Tiger in a Trance, by Max Ludington
131. The Time of Our Singing, by Richard Powers
132. Train, by Pete Dexter
133. The Unprofessionals, by Julie Hecht
134. Vernon God Little, by DBC Pierre
135. A Walking Guide, by Alan S. Cowell
136. Waxwings, by Jonathan Raban
137. The Way to Paradise, by Mario Vargas Llosa
138. We Pierce, by Andrew Huebner
139. What I Loved, by Siri Hustvedt
140. What Was She Thinking? Notes on a Scandal, by Zoe Heller
141. When the Women Come out to Dance: Stories, by Elmore Leonard
142. A Whistling Woman, by A. S. Byatt
143. The Winter Queen, by Boris Akunin
144. Yellow Dog, by Marin Amis

2002 Most Notable

Fiction

1. Accidents in the Home, by Tessa Hadley
2. The Adventures of Miles and Isabel, by Tom Gilling
3. After Nature, by W.G. Sebald
4. After the Quake: Stories, by Haruki Marakumi
5. Agape Agape, by William Gaddis
6. At Swim, Two Boys, by Jamie O’Neill
7. The Autograph Man, by Zadie Smith
8. Baudolino, by Umberto Eco
9. Bedlam Burning, by Geoff Nicholson
10. Be My Knife, by David Grossman
11. Bet Your Life, by Richard Dooling
12. Big If, by Mark Costello
13. Blessings, by Anna Quindlen (no review)
    
14. The Book of Illusions, by Paul Auster
15. By the Lake, by John McGahern
16. The Cadence of Grass, by Thomas McGuane
17. Camouflage: Stories, by Murray Bail
18. Caramelo, by Sandra Cisneros
19. The Cave, by Jose Saramago
20. Century’s Son, by Robert Boswell
21. Child of my Heart, by Alice McDermott
22. A Child’s Book of True Crime, by Chloe Hooper
23. The Collected Stories, by Clare Boylan
24. The Complete Works of Isaac Babel, edited by Nathalie Babel
25. The Crazed, by Ha Jin
26. The Crimson Petal and the White, by Michel Faber
27. Crow Lake, by Mary Lawson
28. Darlington’s Fall: A Novel in Verse, by Brad Leithauser
29. The Darts of Cupid: And Other Stories, by Edith Templeton
30. The Dead Circus, by John Kaye
31. December 6, by Martin Cruz Smith
32. Desirable Daughters, by Bharati Mukherjee
33. The Dive from Clausen’s Pier, by Ann Packer (no review)
    
34. The Doctor’s House, by Ann Beattie
35. The Emperor of Ocean Park, by Sephen L. Carter
36. Enemy Women, by Paulette Jiles
37. Eva’s Cousin, by Sibylle Knauss
38. Everything is Illuminated, by Jonathan Safran Foer
39. Fair Warning, by Robert Olen Butler
40. Family Matters, by Rohinton Mistry
41. Female Trouble: A Collection of Short Stories, by Antonya Nelson
42. Fingersmith, by Sarah Waters (read my review)
    
43. Fragrant Harbor, by John Lanchester
44. The Good Remains, by Nani Power
45. Gould’s Book of Fish: A Novel in Twelve Fish, by Richard Flanagan
46. Great Dream of Heaven: Stories, by Sam Shepard
47. Half in Love: Stories, Maile Meloy
48. The Heart of Redness, by Zakes Mda
49. The Horned Man, by James Lasdun
50. The House of Blue Mangoes, by David Davidar
51. House of Women, by Lynn Freed
52. The Idea of Perfection, by Kate Grenville
53. I Don’t Know How She Does It: The Life of Kate Reddy, Working Mother, by Allison Pearson
54. Ignorance, by Milan Kundera
55. I’ll Take You There, by Joyce Carol Oates
56. Interesting Women: Stories, by Andrea Lee
57. In The Forest, by Edna O’Brien
58. In The Hand of Dante, by Nick Tosches
59. July July, by Tim O’Brien
60. Just Like Beauty, by Lisa Lerner
61. The Keepers of the Truth, by Michael Collins
62. The Laying on of Hands: Stories, by Alan Bennett
63. Life of Pi, by Yann Martel (read my review)
64. Limbo, and Other Places I Have Lived: Stories, by Lily Tuck
65. The Little Friend, by Donna Tartt
66. The Lost Garden, by Helen Humphreys
67. The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold
68. Malaise, by Nancy Lemann
69. Mary George of Allnorthover, by Lavinia Greenlaw
70. The Metal Shredders, by Nancy Zafris
71. Me Times Three, by Alex Wichell
72. Mind Catcher, by John Darnton
73. The Miracle, by John L’Heureux
74. The Monk Downstairs, by Tim Farrington
75. Moral Hazard, by Kate Jennings
76. A Multitude of Sins: Stories, by Richard Ford
77. The Navigator of New York, by Wayne Johnston
78. The Nerve, by Glyn Maxwell
79. Noble Norfleet, by Reynolds Price
80. No Saints or Angels, by Ivan Klima
81. Nothing that Meets the Eye: The Uncollected Stories of Patricia Highsmith, by Patricia Highsmith
82. No Way to Treat a First Lady, by Christopher Buckley
83. Oxygen, by Andre Miller
84. Palladio, by Jonathan Dee
85. Paradise Alley, by Kevin Baker
86. The Piano Tuner, by Daniel Mason
87. The Pickup, by Nadine Gordimer
88. Polar, by T.R. Pearson
89. Prague, by Arthur Phillips
90. Rapture, by Susan Minot
91. The Real McCoy, by Darin Strauss
92. The Return of the Caravels, by Antonio Lobo Antunes
93. Reversible Errors, by Scott Turow
94. The Rotter’s Club, by Jonathan Coe
95. The Russian Debutante’s Handbook, by Gary Shteyngart
96. The Seal Wife, by Kathryn Harrison
97. Searching for Intruders: A Novel in Stories, by Stephen Raleigh Byler
98. The Season of Lillian Dawes, by Katherine Mosby
99. The Secret, by Eva Hoffman
100. Seek My Face, by John Updike
101. Servants of the Map: Stories, by Andrea Barrett
102. The Seven Sisters, by Margaret Drabble
103. The Shell Collector: Stories, by Anthony Doerr
104. The Siege, by Helen Dunmore
105. A Simple Habana Melody: (From When the World Was Good), by Oscar Hijuelos
106. Sin Killer: The Berrybender Narratives, Book 1, by Larry McMurtry
107. Spies, by Michael Frayn
108. Spring Flowers Spring Frost, by Ismail Kadare
109. The Stories of Alice Adams, by Alice Adams
110. The Story of Lucy Gault, by William Trevor
111. The Strength of the Sun, by Catherine Chidgey
112. Summer in Baden-Baden, by Leonid Tsypkin
113. The Sweetest Dream, by Doris Lessing
114. Tell Me: 30 Stories, by Mary Robison
115. 10th Grade, by Joseph Weisberg
116. Tepper Isn’t Going Out, by Calvin Trillin
117. Things You Shouldn’t Know: A Collection of Stories, by A.M. Homes
118. This Cold Country, by Annabel Davis-Goff
119. Three Junes, by Julia Glass
120. Tishomingo Blues, by Elmore Leonard
121. Tourmaline, by Joanna Scott
122. The Translator, by John Crowley
123. Twelve, by Nick McDonell
124. 2182 KHZ, by David Masiel
125. Unless, by Carol Shields
126. Unsung Heroes of American Industry: Stories, by Mark Jude Poirier
127. The Varieties of Romantic Experience: Stories, by Robert Cohen
128. Versailles, by Kathryn Davis
129. Walk Through Darkness, by David Anthony Durham
130. Wavemaker II, by Mary-Beth Hughes
131. The Weather in Berlin, by Ward Just
132. When the Emperor Was Devine, by Julie Otsuka
133. The Whore’s Child: And Other Stories, by Richard Russo
134. Wide Blue Yonder, by Jean Thompson
135. The Winter Zoo, by John Beckman
136. Wish You Were Here, by Stewart O’Nan
137. You Are Not A Stranger Here, by Adam Haslett
138. You Shall Know Our Velocity, by Dave Eggers