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GHM Staff Top Book Picks For 2000
Cth’s Top Books of 2000
1. New Frontier:
Requiem/Renaissance/Restoration (trilogy) – Peter David
2. Cryptonomicon
– Neal Stephenson
3. Titus Crow
– Brian Lumley
4. Illuminati
Trilogy – Robert A. Wilson
5. On Writing – Stephen King
The Year in Books
-by Erich
Schoeneweiss
Now
this is scary…never ever thought I’d be writing a Best Books of the Year
Column. I was the guy in high
school and college who read Cliff’s Notes for everything. Than one day I wound up working for a publishing company and
now make a living getting the best sellers put together. So, free books meant maybe I should puck one of them up every
once in a while.
NOTE:
This is more of a Best of what I actually read this year, some of these may not
have been actually originally published this year.
5
and 4) I read two Elmore Leonard novels this year.
This guy just cracks me up. He
always writes about characters I’d like to sit and watch while drinking a
whiskey or two in the back of a bar. Be
Cool is the sequel to Get Shorty and chronicles Chili Palmer’s emergence as a
music producer. The usual mixture
of gangsters and Hollywood heavy weights. While
not as good as Shorty it was still a fun read.
Leonard’s new novel, Pagan Babies was quite fun. It’s a story of
revenge with priests (or are they?), missionaries, gangsters of all types, and a
comedian. Another fun read.
His books are very cinematic (maybe why so many of them have popped up on
the silver screen in the past few years).
3)
The Lion, the Witch, and The Wardrobe / C.S. Lewis
I
was jonesing hardcore for that fourth Potter novel. Totally pulling a Pookey, “The shit was calling me man!”.
So I decided to grab the Lewis book off my shelf.
I had read the whole Narnia series when I was a kid and these are the
only books I actually held on to. My
intention was to reread all of them. I only read the first and than drank myself
silly for a couple of weeks. But
man was it a great read. All the
adventure and excitement I remember as a kid was still there and it didn’t
read like a kid’s book. Come next
summer when I’m hungry for Potter 5 I may just fulfill my intention and reread
the rest of them.
2)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire / J.K. Rowling
We
waited in anticipation for months and months.
Rumors flowed like wine about what the title would be and that someone
was going to die. My God, was she
going to kill off Ron or Hermione? We
had many a drunken debate over who might die and what the consequences might be
is such an action occurred. Than
the book hit, and with a huge thud as the thing was gianormous!
We all hide away with our copies. Tearing
through page after page with excitement. The
Quidditch match was incredible and just whet my appetite to see this on
screen. The tournament was great. Intrigue,
mystery, scandal, romance, betrayal, heroism…this book has it all!
What a great read. And she set it up for who knows what. A huge battle between good and evil? Dumbledore marshalling all the forces of good to take on He
Who Shall Not Be Named. Godd
God….three more books to go and I can’t stand the wait.
1)
Never Mind Nirvana / Mark Lindquist
This book was a blast and a half to
read. The adventures of a
mid-thirties prosecutor in Seattle who can’t quit let go of his days in a
local rock band during the whole “Seattle sound” period. Sex, booze, drugs, a rock-n-roll history lesson, and a lot of
angst made this my favorite book of the year.
I can’t recommend this book enough.
Author
of the Year: Greg Rucka
If I had counted this guy’s books they would have taken up 4 of the 5 slots (and I read all four of the books in about a month’s time). This guy is writing the most balls to the wall action series of books out there right now. I identify with his characters and care about them. I can’t say enough about how much I’ve enjoyed reading Greg Rucka’s series of Atticus Kodiak novels. Keeper, Finder, Smoker, and Shooting At Midnight are exciting, painful, funny, touching, and adventurous. You finish one and can’t wait to pick the next one up. He’s bringing the international assassin Drama back in his fifth Atticus novel Critical Space (which happens to be the book I am most anticipating in 2001).
LWK’s Top Books of
2000
You mean REAL books?!? I don’t think I’ve read a real book this year that
wasn’t a computer manual or was a Star Wars or Trek book. I don’t like this subject.
How about a category like...
BEER
1 - Sierra
Nevada Celebration Ale
2 - Sierra
Nevada Pale Ale
3 - Guinness
Stout
4 - Arrogant
Bastard Ale
5 - Sierra Nevada Wheat Beer
Mike’s
Can’t Read Books Without Pictures:
-by Mike Yaremko
Again, nothing that came out last year. I’ve still got
a list of books I was supposed to read in high school and college that I’m
planning to (someday) get to. . . . Joseph
Heller’s “Catch-22” is really good, you should all read it; Pearl Buck’s
“The Good Earth” is pretty good; I like “Light in August” by Faulkner;
“Slaughter-House Five,” too.
Mike’s Editorial Note: Oh, God. I spend all my time reading comic books and watching T.V., and if I dare to venture out of very fashionable hovel, it’s just to go see a movie. So, what do I look forward to in the new year? Getting a life, I guess. Any kind would be fine.
Webmistress / Carrie Michael's Top Books of 2000
Here's a list of great books I have either read or am in the process of reading (no particular order). These books are not all "new" for 2000, only new to me.
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'Tis: A Memoir - Frank McCourt (This is the continuation of Angela's Ashes)
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The Te Of Piglet - Benjamin Hoff
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River, Cross My Heart - Breena Clarke
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The Screwtape Letters - C.S. Lewis
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This Far By Faith - Linnie Frank and Andria Hall
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