• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Nathan Bransford | Writing, Book Editing, Publishing

Helping authors achieve their dreams

  • Blog
  • Writing Advice
  • Publishing Advice
  • About
  • Take a Class
  • Get Editing

What Was Your Favorite Book Published in the Aughts?

December 16, 2009 by Nathan Bransford 170 Comments

Oh yes, it’s the end of 2009, which means it’s time for decade retrospectives and this blog is no exception.

Last week we named our favorite books published in 2009 – what about the decade? What was your favorite book published in the aughts?

Aside from books by my clients, I’m going to have to go with…. The Corrections. No, Atonement. No, Spin. No, The Book Thief. (I could go on for hours)

It was a pretty great decade for books. Can you pick your favorite?

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: book recommendations, Ian McEwan, Jonathan Franzen, You Tell Me

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Vegas Linda Lou says

    December 17, 2009 at 12:24 am

    Crystal Zevon's I'll Sleep When I'm Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon. LOVED IT!!!

    Reply
  2. scott g.f.bailey says

    December 17, 2009 at 12:36 am

    My Name is Red – Orhan Pamuk
    Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
    The Namesake – Jhumpa Lahiri

    Reply
  3. A Paperback Writer says

    December 17, 2009 at 12:38 am

    The last 4 volumes of the Harry Potter series, the entire Inkheart series, and The Historian.

    Reply
  4. Jaime says

    December 17, 2009 at 12:42 am

    I would have to say Twilight, because, like Stacy, it inspired me to write again, and I've just had the best year of my life doing so.

    But I also loved The Lovely Bones.

    Thanks for all the recommendations! Now I have Christmas present ideas for my husband! Totally selfless ones, of course . . . đŸ˜‰

    Reply
  5. Marilyn Peake says

    December 17, 2009 at 1:02 am

    More of my favorite books from the past decade, in addition to THE ROAD by Cormac McCarthy:

    GILEAD by Marilynne Robinson

    CLOUD ATLAS by David Mitchell

    A DICTIONARY OF MAQIAO by Han Shaogong, translated by Julia Lovell

    HOUSE OF LEAVES by Mark Z. Danielewski

    THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES by Sue Monk Kidd

    THE GRAVEYARD BOOK by Neil Gaiman

    BONESHAKER by Cherie Priest

    THE HISTORIAN by Elizabeth Kostova

    TIME TRAVELER: A SCIENTIST’S PERSONAL MISSION TO MAKE TIME TRAVEL A REALITY by Dr. Ronald L. Mallett (Nonfiction)

    Reply
  6. Anne Rainey says

    December 17, 2009 at 1:10 am

    One?? I'm to pick one book?? Not possible. I can say that discovering Nalini Singh was pure delight! What a terrific author!

    Reply
  7. Madeleine says

    December 17, 2009 at 1:22 am

    Here are a few books I loved that I know were published in this past decade. I don't have a very good list in my head because I'm hardly over a decade in age and have only been reading for seven years.

    Book Thief by Markus Zusak
    The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
    The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

    Goodness! I'm surprised I can't think of anymore. Although I could name nearly every book on my book shelf. I think I must be tired.

    Reply
  8. Pam says

    December 17, 2009 at 1:56 am

    "Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal" by Christopher Moore.

    Reply
  9. Kia says

    December 17, 2009 at 2:02 am

    What!? No The Kite Runner yet? It was one of the few books that I actually had to put down to catch my breath after an overwhelming scene.

    In addition, Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides which is so beautifully written, it makes me feel like a bit of a fraudster calling myself a writer.

    And, of course, The Time Traveler's Wife.

    PS. Yes, it's 2am in London and I'm sitting in my PJs, reading Nathan's blog. Grr.

    Reply
  10. David says

    December 17, 2009 at 2:11 am

    Mystic River

    Reply
  11. Aimee says

    December 17, 2009 at 2:28 am

    The Time Traveler's Wife was the best! And I love The Life of Pi by Yann Martel. That is definitely my favorite book of all time.

    Reply
  12. Leslie Garrett says

    December 17, 2009 at 2:37 am

    Yes, yes. The Life of Pi by Yann Martel. Poetic and beautiful and impossible to put down.

    Reply
  13. mkcbunny says

    December 17, 2009 at 2:38 am

    FYI: Harry Potter (the character and all things HP) was voted by Entertainment Weekly as #1 on their list of the 100 most entertaining things of the decade—among movies, TV, books, music, and all of pop culture. JK Rowling was also voted among the top 15 entertainers of the decade.

    Reply
  14. Diane Moody says

    December 17, 2009 at 2:41 am

    DECEPTION by Randy Alcorn
    WHEN CHARACTER WAS KING by Peggy Noonan (on Ronald Reagan)
    THE GLASS HOUSE by Jeanette Walls
    TARA ROAD, SCARLET FEATHER, and QUENTINS by Maeve Binchy
    THE DEBT by Angie Hunt
    IN AN INSTANT by Bob & Dee Woodruff
    MY NAME IS RUSSELL FINK by Michael Snyder

    Reply
  15. Roban says

    December 17, 2009 at 2:41 am

    A Thousand Splendid Suns and The Book Thief were two of my absolute favorites. I love a good heart-wrencher….

    Water for Elephants (I'm guessing it was in the '00 decade.)

    Reply
  16. Roban says

    December 17, 2009 at 2:47 am

    … of course "Water…" was in the '00 decade. Harry Potter books were also favorites. What fun it was to stand in line at midnight to get my book as Dumbledores and Hagrids walked past in full HP regalia!

    Reply
  17. Alexa says

    December 17, 2009 at 3:33 am

    Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta and The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell and many hundreds more đŸ™‚

    Reply
  18. Lynne says

    December 17, 2009 at 3:44 am

    THE ROAD TO CANA.

    Reply
  19. Rebekkah says

    December 17, 2009 at 4:02 am

    I have to go with Tamar, by Mal Peet.

    Reply
  20. Lisa says

    December 17, 2009 at 4:31 am

    The Book Thief. No other book ever got to me like that.

    Reply
  21. Kathleen says

    December 17, 2009 at 4:44 am

    I liked Shutter Island, Hunger Games, and Atonement. I also felt pretty satisfied with the final HP book.

    I read Twilight several times, and like a few other posters here, it jumpstarted my own writing. So I'll have to include that as well.

    I'll definitely be checking out The Book Thief. Tried to read The Road twice, put it down. I'll try a third time.

    Reply
  22. Anita says

    December 17, 2009 at 5:06 am

    These BEST BOOKS lists are like an early Christmas present to me. I'm always looking for great books to read and recommend.

    Reply
  23. Ali Katz says

    December 17, 2009 at 5:31 am

    Oh, my God, it is NOT the end of the Aughts!!

    Anansi Boys, Neil Gaiman

    Reply
  24. Lyn Miller-Lachmann says

    December 17, 2009 at 5:57 am

    A shout out to Trée for being the first to choose a book originally published in a language besides English. And 2666 is near the top of my list, but I'd have to give my #1 spot to Roberto Bolaño's The Savage Detectives (which was first published in Spanish in 1998 but not translated into English until 2007). I also recommend the first of Bolaño's novels to be translated into English, By Night in Chile.

    Reply
  25. Anonymous says

    December 17, 2009 at 6:01 am

    Just one? No way.
    Top three:
    Tobias Wolff’s Old School
    Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
    Yann Martel’s Life of Pi

    Oh, and one more:
    Dave Eggers’ A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

    and
    Jeanette Walls’ The Glass Castle

    Reply
  26. Mira says

    December 17, 2009 at 6:04 am

    Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoninex, followed closely by Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

    For non-Harry Potter books, it may not be the best book of the aughts, but one I enjoyed the most was Terry Pratchett's Going Postal. His best so far, imho.

    Reply
  27. Yamile says

    December 17, 2009 at 6:57 am

    Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince,
    HP and the Deathly Hallows,
    HP and the Order of the Phoenix.
    The Road
    The Book Thief
    The Kite Runner (it's still with me, two years after I read it. Can't reread it but think about it all the time)
    Twilight
    The Hunger Games

    Reply
  28. Vacuum Queen says

    December 17, 2009 at 7:47 am

    OK, you will think I'm a weirdo, but hey…there's a market for me. I LOVED Kitchen Confidential by Tony Bourdain enough to think of it first. And gosh, after that, I ate up (get it? ha ha) A Cook's Tour. His writing is fantastic. It was early in the aughts, but still there. Also, Comfort Me with apples by Ruth Reichl was faboo. Before her, I never knew it was o.k. to tell stories as if you're gathered around a table. I never wanted her stories to end.

    Reply
  29. Pure fiction says

    December 17, 2009 at 10:29 am

    What about The Road Home by Rose Tremain? A year-and-a-half after reading it, and dozens of books on, and it's still resonating away in my head.

    Reply
  30. Ellen B says

    December 17, 2009 at 10:36 am

    Pastoralia, by George Saunders (creeping under the wire, published in 2000)

    Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

    The Third Angel, by Alice Hoffman.

    An odd mixture, but then I'm an odd reader đŸ™‚

    Reply
  31. Kia says

    December 17, 2009 at 10:38 am

    > Aimee, Leslie Garrett

    Yes! I totally forgot The Life of Pi. What a brilliant and unique book. I remember that it started off quite slow so I was a bit dubious about it but it swiftly becamse unputdownable.

    Reply
  32. Trish says

    December 17, 2009 at 11:12 am

    Matthew Flinders' Cat by Bryce Courtney. (A prominent barrister is now on the streets where he sleeps on a bench outside the state library. Above him on the window sill rests a bronze statue of Matthew Flinders' cat.)

    Reply
  33. Shannon says

    December 17, 2009 at 11:48 am

    I really enjoyed the Book Thief too, but nothing in the decade has blown me away like Margot Lanagan's Tender Morsels. I really loved that. It gets my vote.

    Reply
  34. Simon says

    December 17, 2009 at 12:10 pm

    Leaving aside the fact the decade still has a year to run, I'd say my favourites have included:

    Lunar Park – Bret Easton Ellis
    The Savage Detectives – Roberto Bolano
    The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao – Junot Diaz

    Reply
  35. Ben Dutton says

    December 17, 2009 at 12:25 pm

    Can't pick one, so I'll pick six, with the least obvious first:

    David Vann, Legend of a Suicide (Sukkwan Island may have the most shocking moment of any fiction published in the noughties)

    Gwendoline Riley, Cold Water (For describing a milieu not seen in fiction and yet a life recognised by many)

    Roberto Bolano, 2666 (The shockwaves of this novel will not be felt until well into the next decade)

    Cormac McCarthy, The Road (May well be voted the book of the decade if you collate all the votes cast for it across print and online media)

    Ian McEwan, Atonement (McEwan dominated British fiction in the 2000s, and of his novels, it is this one that will be remembered)

    Philip Roth, Everyman. Or Exit Ghost. Or The Plot Against America. Or The Human Stain. Or Indignation. I'm a diehard Rothian, but one of them certainly.

    Reply
  36. G. Jackson says

    December 17, 2009 at 12:49 pm

    The Life of Pi, Yann Martel

    and everything written by Bill Bryson

    and I have to say, because it was an OBSESSION of so many women, Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

    Reply
  37. Mardi Link says

    December 17, 2009 at 1:16 pm

    Mr. McCarthy's "The Road". I am still both devastated and inspired by that book.

    Reply
  38. Robin Miura says

    December 17, 2009 at 1:20 pm

    Another vote for The Lovely Bones.

    But I also really liked Serena by Ron Rash.

    Reply
  39. Shelby says

    December 17, 2009 at 1:32 pm

    Fiction – The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

    Non-Fiction – Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer.

    Runner up – The Pat Conroy Cookbook. Seriously. It's the stories about the food. Unbelievably inspiring…and it's not realy about the food (at least for me). It's about life.

    Reply
  40. Claude Forthomme says

    December 17, 2009 at 2:10 pm

    I'd vote for A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini…

    And what about Stieg Larsson's trilogy?

    And what about Ormesson's My last Dream was for You? (yeah, that's in French actually – don't know whether it was ever translated and if so, under what title…I don't know why they can't keep to the original title when they translate something…it would really help!)

    Reply
  41. Nita Lou Bryant says

    December 17, 2009 at 2:20 pm

    IN THE WOODS by Tana French.

    Reply
  42. Heather says

    December 17, 2009 at 3:19 pm

    So tough, but what pops into mind is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, thought about that one for a long time after.

    great question!

    Reply
  43. Anita Saxena says

    December 17, 2009 at 3:58 pm

    Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

    Reply
  44. Claude Lambert says

    December 17, 2009 at 4:07 pm

    It is comforting to see that that there are good books that I have not read yet: I am delighted with the post!The surprise of the decade for me has been Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie, a Chinese author writing in French: the story is about surviving communist China's re-education by reading books. Beautiful. (it made a great movie too)

    A very enjoyable book for other bookworms:
    The Book Nobody Read: Chasing the Revolutions of Nicolaus Copernicus by Owen Gingerich

    @Matilda: no you are not alone, I did like the abject turtle story by Verlyn Kilnenborg and The curious incident of the dog by Mark Haddon

    Reply
  45. Trace says

    December 17, 2009 at 4:10 pm

    Mystic River. Dennis Lehane. I'm loving The Given Day also.

    Reply
  46. jmartinlibrarian says

    December 17, 2009 at 4:24 pm

    I know this seems like the easy, cop out, but mine was The Road.

    For me, the father's love eclipsed a dying world.

    Reply
  47. Anonymous says

    December 17, 2009 at 4:32 pm

    "Shantaram"

    Reply
  48. Book of Matches Media says

    December 17, 2009 at 5:09 pm

    The Graveyard Book by Gaiman

    Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

    The Name of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

    Reply
  49. Nancy Beck says

    December 17, 2009 at 5:12 pm

    In His Majesty's Service, aka Temeraire, by Naomi Novik…and all the subsequent Temeraire books.

    I'll admit the first few pages in the first book were a bit slow for me, but after that, I could hardly wait to read them! Worth all the gushing (and I hope Peter Jackson gets the film version going sometime soon!).

    Reply
  50. Nancy Beck says

    December 17, 2009 at 5:14 pm

    Whoops, just thought of another one: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. A lovely ending to the story.

    And thanks to other posters for their faves; boy, have I missed out on a lot of good books!

    Reply
« Older Comments
Newer Comments »

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

About Nathan

Hi, I’m Nathan. I’m the author of How to Write a Novel and the Jacob Wonderbar series, which was published by Penguin. I used to be a literary agent at Curtis Brown Ltd. and I’m dedicated to helping authors achieve their dreams. Let me help you with your book!

My blog has everything you need to know to write, edit, and publish a book. Can’t find what you need or want personalized help? Reach out.

Learn more about me

Need Editing?

I'm available for consultations, edits, query critiques, brainstorming, and more.
Learn more!

My Books

How to Write A Novel
Cover of How to Publish a Book by Nathan Bransford
Jacob Wonderbar and the Cosmic Space Kapo
Jacob Wonderbar for President of the Universe
Jacob Wonderbar and the Interstellar Time Warp

Subscribe!

Subscribe to the newsletter and get a FREE writing, publishing, or marketing course.

Forums

Need help with your query? Want to talk books? Check out the Nathan Bransford Forums
Footer Logo
Nathan Bransford

Helping authors achieve their dreams

  • Editing Services
  • My Books
  • About Me
  • Blog Directory
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
Twitter Logo Facebook Logo Instagram Logo
As an Amazon and Bookshop Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Amazon and Bookshop links are usually affiliate links.