top five best discovered books of 2009

I'm a book junkie. So these are the best of the best that I've read this summer:

1. Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer. This book was the beginner of a whole new sector of my literary existance.... I had/ have never read anything even remotely similar to this genius. I love the charming mix-ups of his Ukranian character's idioms, the cultural significance, the Holocaust themes, the Jewishness, the universal themes, the brashness, the language, the philosophy.... Good book. Read it.

2. The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera. After Jonathan Safran Foer's first entry into the literary world conditioned me in the philosophical eroticism of modern literature, I was a little less shocked at the explicitness of Kundera's work. Quite frankly, this is one of those books that I remember almost nothing about, partially from a heavy shock at the novelty of it, yet I left it feeling pleasantly hazy. Other good works of Kundera's that I discovered this summer are: Laughable Loves, Life Is Elsewhere, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, and Farewell Waltz. I'm not quite sure why I keep reading these books, because they are either completely beneath me or completely over my head, but I always leave in that pleasant dream-haze caused by partically incomprehensible literature.

3. The Beautiful And Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I read This Side of Paradise last summer and finished enchanted by the beautiful world that Fitzgerald presented, but also slightly muddled as to what happened within the book itself. This book afforded no such confusion. It's beautiful, charming and tragic--this one goes on to the list of my favorite books of all time.

4. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. Although this one could be umbrella'd under the other work by it's ostentatious author, it is briliant enough to have a category of its own. Following a similar style exhibited in his first book, Foer (quite successfully, I think) explores the mind of a child who has lost one of his idols. This is a book of childhood, of tragedy, and of forgiving. And it is my favorite novel of all time.

5. Fallen Skies by Phillippa Greggory. Greggory is a long-time favorite author, a queen of historical fiction. This is my first diversion in her books from the English courts into the (fabulous!) world of 1920's American aristocracy. Quite in line with my obsession with Henry VIII-style history, however, I received today in the mail my very own copy of The Other Queen, Greggory's newest novel, an exposee on Mary, Queen of Scots. Other notable books by Greggory include The Queen's Fool, The Virgin's Lover, The Other Boleyn Girl, The Boleyn Inheritance, and The Constant Princess.

Well, there you go. Now go sail through these marvelous seas on your own. :)