The AV Club's Best Books of the '00s

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Anyone looking for trends in our selection of the best books of the ’00s might have a hard time finding them amid the wizards, 19th-century serial killers, dysfunctional families and such. Narrowing down our decisions was pretty tough, and the process required a number of back-and-forths about what was significant as well as beautifully executed, which book from a given author represented his or her best of the decade, and so on. So consider these alphabetically listed selections 30 of the many, many memorable books published this decade, and as always, let us know what we missed.

Note: First 10 are non-fiction, second 20 are fiction.

  1. 2.
    Fargo Rock City : A Heavy Metal Odyssey in Rural North Dakota
    by Chuck Klosterman

  2. 4.
    Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America
    by Barbara Ehrenreich

  3. 5.

  4. 7.
    Them: A Memoir of Parents
    by Francine du Plessix Gray

  5. 8.
    The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
    by Malcolm Gladwell

  6. 9.
    The Wisdom of Crowds
    by James Surowiecki

  7. 10.
    The World Without Us
    by Alan Weisman

  8. 11.
    The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
    by Michael Chabon

  9. 12.
    Atonement
    by Ian McEwan

  10. 13.
    Bel Canto
    by Ann Patchett

  11. 14.
    The Blind Assassin: A Novel
    by Margaret Atwood

  12. 15.
    The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
    by Junot Diaz

  13. 16.
    Carter Beats the Devil
    by Glen David Gold

  14. 17.
    The Corrections: A Novel
    by Jonathan Franzen

  15. 18.
    The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
    by Mark Haddon

  16. 19.
    Empire Falls
    by Richard Russo

  17. 20.
    The Fortress of Solitude
    by Jonathan Lethem

  18. 21.
    Gilead: A Novel
    by Marilynne Robinson

  19. 22.

  20. 23.
    Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell: A Novel
    by Susanna Clarke

  21. 24.
    Middlesex: A Novel (Oprah's Book Club)
    by Jeffrey Eugenides

  22. 25.
    Never Let Me Go
    by Kazuo Ishiguro

  23. 26.
    The Road
    by Cormac McCarthy

  24. 27.
    The Story of Edgar Sawtelle: A Novel (P.S.)
    by David Wroblewski

  25. 28.
    The Terror
    by Dan Simmons

  26. 29.
    The Time Traveller's Wife
    by Audrey Niffenegger

  27. 30.
    White Teeth: A Novel
    by Zadie Smith

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Created by cfrydj on Nov 25, 2009.
 

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