I was here last month asking for suggestions for books published in the mid- / late-nineties for my personal reading challenge to read one book published every year since I was born. I got some great suggestions from everyone, so thanks to anyone who commented last time!
Anyway, once again I’ve hit a year that I’m struggling to pick a book for, so I’m back for more suggestions. I’m currently looking for recommendations for books originally published in 2001.
Life of Pi would be the obvious choice here, but I’ve already read it and not in the mood for a reread 🥴
Would prefer standalone books to ones that are part of a series, with exceptions if they can totally stand on their own. Also open to non-fiction.
Translations welcome, counting them by publication year in their original language.
Especially hoping to find some books I might not naturally pick up on my own.
(If anyone remembers and commented on my last post and is interested to know what I picked: I read The Beach for 1996 and The God of Small Things for 1997.)
by moon-octopus
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The Other Boleyn Girl was fun.
Atonement if you’re in the mood for something more literary and culturally relevant.
*Final Freedom: The Civil War, the Abolition of Slavery, and the Thirteenth Amendment* (CambridgeHistorical Studies in American Law and Society) by Michael Vorenberg.
All Families Are Psychotic by Douglas Coupland
The first Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants came out on 9/11/01. Don’t ask me why I know that.
The Secret Life of Bees
Sue Monk Kidd
Set in South Carolina in 1964, The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily’s fierce-hearted black “stand-in mother,” Rosaleen, insults three of the deepest racists in town, Lily decides to spring them both free. They escape to Tiburon, South Carolina–a town that holds the secret to her mother’s past. Taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters, Lily is introduced to their mesmerizing world of bees and honey, and the Black Madonna. This is a remarkable novel about divine female power, a story women will share and pass on to their daughters for years to come.
Passage by Connie Willis is a standalone. It explores near death experiences.
The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold. All her books are wonderful. This is one of the best. This is part of a series but easily stands alone.
I have a great one for you. Not super well known, but not totally obscure. A 5-star read for me…
[The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint by Brady Udall](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8717213-the-miracle-life-of-edgar-mint)
It has one of the greatest opening lines of all times…
“If I could tell you only one thing about my life it would be this: when I was seven years old the mailman ran over my head.”
It’s a coming of age story of a half-Apache boy from the time his head is run over into adulthood. It’s harrowing *and* uplifting. Sad *and* funny. It very much reminds me of a John Irving novel. Heads up – it occasionally switches between 1st and 3rd person. If you put effort into it, you might be able to understand why, or you can do what I did and just gloss over it 😉
‘Artemis Fowl’ and ‘Noughts and Crosses’ are both brilliant books. Artemis Fowl is a kids book about a teenage genius who kidnap a fairy (but the fairies have James Bond-esque technologies). Noughts and Crosses is a YA book basically about racism, in an alternative reality where Africa colonised Europe and white people are controlled by black people.
Songs from Nowhere Near the Heart by Jon Baird.
Oh I did this challenge 3 years ago! It was so fun, though I was defeated in the end by a badly chosen book for 2005… I recommend against trying to read Pynchon on a schedule. Or at all.
For 2001 I read Sushi for Beginners by Marian Keyes. It was a very quick book I read in a long weekend while staying at an AirBnb with my family about a woman who works at a magazine company in Ireland. It was cute and a good palette cleanser.
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
Some famous options include Atonement by Ian McEwan, Empire Falls by Richard Russo, The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Luis Zafron, Choke by Chuck Palahniuk, The Constant Gardener by John le Carré, Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks, The Birthday of the World, and Other Stories by Ursula K. LeGuin, and The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen.
But I also agree with the person who suggested The Curse of Chalion.
*Mystic River* by Dennis Lehane
THE CORRECTIONS by Jonathan Franzen seems like the obvious choice to me.
I enjoyed both *The Secret Life of Bees* and *Passage*, which have been recommended already.
I also enjoyed the nonfiction book *Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America* by Barbara Ehrenreich.
Pretty much everything else I liked from that year is part of a series. In fact, several of my favorite series started that year! Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse books, Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next books, and Kelley Armstrong’s Otherworld books to name a few.