And so we come to the end. If 2009 were the last chapter of a book, I would probably toss it away in frustration. So this is how it ends! Unfortunately, the real world doesn’t have plots that wrap up neatly by December 31.
What a decade this has been. It has been ten years filled with a lot of violence, tragedy and uncertainty. And I’m a little worried about the upcoming “teen” years of the 21st century, considering that these same years in the 20th and 19th centuries were shaken by world wars that changed the previously accepted order of things. When you look at the forces arrayed against the relative peace and common sense brought about by the American Century, the future looks a bit bleak. I loved how one acquaintance put it “If you didn’t like American power, just see how you like Chinese power!”
I’ve been blessed to have so many good things in my life these past ten years. Family and friends, of course. But how much poorer we would all be in spirit if it hadn’t been a decade for some really good books. With all things digital getting all the attention, I think reading is the unsung hero of the decade. Books have kept us sane, offered an escape, and made us think.
Here are a few of the books that for me, at least, have been well worth the effort.
Early on in the 00s, I was on a Bernard Cornwell kick. He is such a great action writer who can slip from one historical setting to another the way some of us put on our shoes. I thought one of his most recent novels, AGINCOURT, was especially good.
It was also a decade to revisit some old favorites. The wonderful writer William O. Steele, for one. He wrote adventure stories for children, set on the frontier that was Kentucky and Tennessee. I bought some for my own son, including the first chapter book I ever read WINTER DANGER. It was just as good as I remembered it. Fortunately, his great books are still in print, a small miracle we can all be thankful for.
The Lord of the Rings trilogy, of course, had to be revisited before the movies came out.
But my favorite has to be Roger Zelazny’s CHRONICLES OF AMBER. I first read Zelazny as a teen-ager back in the 80s and I read these books for the third time in the 00s, which was wonderful escapism. Prince Corwin is just the sort of cynical anti-hero who never does what you might expect. He reminds me of a lot of Americans who, like Corwin, might resist the fact that deep down they are more noble and selfless than they would care to admit and their actions reflect that.
You’ve got to love a good mystery! I have become a closet fan of cozy mysteries, which are very comforting when the world seems to have gone mad. Cozies have relatively bloodless murders and are often set in small towns. Some of my favorites have been David Handler’s series set in a small-town of coastal Connecticut, Alexander McCall Smith’s SUNDAY PHILOSOPHY CLUB series, and Chris Grabenstein’s John Ceepak series set in resort town New Jersey. Got to love those small town heroes.
I was lucky enough to attend the Stonecoast MFA program in the middle of the decade. It’s something I wouldn’t have done if the economy had already imploded, which would have made me that much poorer as a writer and reader. My fellow students were accomplished writers and I’m grateful that they shared their work with me. Al l of the faculty were great writers and poets, but some of their books stand out for me. Kelly Link, who really burst my comfortable bubble as a reader. And James Patrick Kelly’s science fiction novel BURN has been a book that stayed with me. Michael White’s SOUL CATCHER was about as different as you could get from an interplanetary setting, set during the Civil War era, but it was another book that lingers on one’s mind because of the main character.
For pure inspiration, I would recommend Steven Pressfield’s THE WAR OF ART, which was passed along by Stonecoast faculty member David Anthony Durham.
And so we come to the end again. Drum roll please. Here are my picks for best books of the decade. This is such a subjective choice ... but you would never be disappointed picking up these books.
ISSAC’S STORM A MAN, A TIME, AND THE DEADLIEST HURRICANE IN HISTORY by Erik Larson. This is a real historical page turner. What a story. These long-ago people and their everyday lives spring off the pages as you read about the 1900 Galveston hurricane. It’s everything that any non-fiction book hopes to be informative, fascinating and human.
A SONG OF FIRE AND ICE series by George R.R. Martin. Having read several of his books, including FEVRE DREAM, I’d have to say he is the best working writer today. His books such as A STORM OF SWORDS are absolutely inventive and captivating. Sadly, it doesn’t look like he’ll ever finish the series, which may turn out to be the literary disappointment of the century!
