High Fidelity ~ Nick Hornby
The book is better than the movie! If you’ve watched and enjoyed the movie, it’s time for you to read the book. Nick Hornby’s writing is so clever and funny that you’ll find yourself laughing out loud. There’s really not much more to say except READ THIS BOOK!

Scar Tissue ~ Anthony Kiedis
If you’re a fan of The Red Hot Chili Peppers you should read this book. Anthony Kiedis documents his childhood, rise to fame, drug addiction, relationships and everything in between with remarkable honesty and candour. It’s a wild ride and some of it seems too crazy to be true, but the way Kiedis shows us the bad (and sometimes really ugly) along with the good makes it hard to doubt the veracity of his stories. Even if you’re not a RHCP fan you will still enjoy this book for the entertaining read that it is.

The Cellist of Sarajevo ~ Steven Galloway
Steven Galloway has created a beautiful and heart-wrenching story of life in Sarajevo during the war of the 1990s. What do you do when the city you love has turned into a battlefield and you risk getting shot every time you step out the door? The characters in this novel struggle to survive and hold onto hope even when their futures seem dismal at best.

The Shadow of the Wind ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Once you start reading this amazing novel, you won’t be able to put it down. You’ll be drawn into the web of mysteries that our protagonist Daniel is faced with when he tries to learn the truth of the history of his favourite novel. Every time he uncovers a piece of information about the author it leads to more questions. Soon Daniel is deep in a tangle of secrets and lies that may threaten his life and the lives of his family and friends.

The Retreat ~ David Bergen
I was actually surprised by how much I enjoyed this novel. David Bergen’s writing is poetic and flows so smoothly that I was finished the book before I knew it. Taking place on in the early 1970s in Western Ontario, this novel tells the story of a young First Nations man and his relationship with the daughter of a family who come to spend time at “The Retreat”. It’s actually about every kind of relation – between husband and wife, between separated brothers, between the First Nations and the rest of the community (including the police), and so much more.

Life of Pi ~ Yann Martel
Yes, this book is a few years old, but if you haven’t read it yet, you should pick it up right now! I never could have imagined that I would find the story of an Indian boy trapped on a life-raft with a Bengal tiger after a shipwreck would hold my interest, but I was captivated. It is fantastical, funny, tragic and hopeful, all at the same time.

Bloodsucking Fiends ~ Christopher Moore
Irreverent is probably the best way to describe this book. Our heroine, Jody, has just been turned into a vampire and has to figure out how to deal with it, and quickly. The problems of her mortal life (dead-end job, idiotic boyfriend, overbearing mother) are nothing compared with not being able to go out during the day, craving blood, and possibly being stalked by the vampire who turned her. She manages remarkably well (despite still having to deal with her mother) with the help of her new minion, Tommy. This book is hilariously politically incorrect. I highly recommend it if you like books that make you cringe and smile at the same time.

Lullabies for Little Criminals ~ Heather O’Neill
This is a remarkable book for being a first novel. Thirteen year old Baby’s father is a heroin addict and she has no mother, so she’s left to fend for herself in their not-so-nice neighbourhood. Baby has a strong imagination and creates stories for herself to escape from the hell her life is becoming. Heartbreakingly beautiful, this novel captures the voice of a traumatized yet hopeful little girl so well that you can’t help but fall in love with her and keep turning the pages to see what happens next.

The Flying Troutmans ~ Miriam Toews
If you read and loved A Complicated Kindness and have been anxiously awaiting this new novel by Miriam Toews, you will not be disappointed. Hattie Troutman returns home to Winnipeg to take care of her niece and nephew when her seriously depressed sister has to be admitted to the hospital. Her relationship with the kids seems to be tenuous, but it is honest and full of love. As with Nomi Nickel in A Complicated Kindness, Toews writes Hattie Troutman so well that you’d swear she lived this life herself. This is a brilliant novel.

The Gargoyle ~ Andrew Davidson
The Gargoyle starts with the story of our unnamed narrator as he lies in a burn ward recovering from terrible injuries and is visited by a woman from the psychiatric ward. She tells him elaborate stories that she claims happened to them in their previous lives. The narrator is as dubious about this as I was, but little by little I was won over by the beautiful imagery of these historical love stories. This book claims that it will have you believing in the impossible. I’m not convinced about that, but it is a strangely compelling novel.

Snuff ~ Chuck Palahniuk
True to form, Chuck Palahniuk delivers a disturbing, disgusting and utterly brilliant story in this his latest novel. Who else can write a book about a porn queen attempting to break the world record of serial fornication on camera, told from the point of view of three of the men waiting their turn, and still make the characters endearing? It’s definitely not for everyone, but if you’ve liked Chuck in the past, you won’t be disappointed by this one.

Divisadero ~ Michael Ondaatje
I haven’t been thrilled by Michael Ondaatje’s last couple of novels, so I approached this one somewhat cautiously. But within a few pages I was completely absorbed and couldn’t put this book down. Ondaatje has created a beautiful story of a family torn apart and their subsequent separate lives as they form new relationships, learn to love again and eventually come to terms with the past. The story goes back in time, crosses the world and switches narrators, but I found each new part of the book to be even more engrossing than the last.

The History of Love ~ Nicole Krauss
This is without a doubt the best book I have read in the past year. Just before the Second World War a young man in Poland writes a book for the young woman he loves. After they are separated by the war they both end up in the US, but their lives have changed too much to be together. He doesn’t know that his book has survived and is touching the lives of the people who read it. Meanwhile, fourteen year old Alma Singer’s mother is translating the book for a mysterious client and Alma decides that this client may be the answer to her mother’s loneliness. As she embarks on unravelling the mystery of the client, she starts finding out about the author of the book and the journey the book has taken over the past fifty years. If you loved The Lovely Bones you will love this book.

Rebel Without a Crew ~ Robert Rodriguez
This is the story of the making of El Mariachi, Robert Rodriguez’s first feature film. It is gritty, funny, smart and probably the most entertaining book you’ll read in a while. Rodriguez had one camera, no crew, friends as actors, and spent months in medical testing to raise the money to make this film. If you’ve seen and appreciated El Mariachi (or any Robert Rodriguez films for that matter) read this book, you will love it.

Perfume ~ Patrick Süskind
This novel is mesmerizing – a beautifully written and haunting story that will captivate you. Set in 18th Century Paris, Perfume is the story of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, whose amazingly heightened sense of smell drives him to create the “perfect perfume.” The journey he embarks on to undertake this is strange and disturbing, culminating in a series of events so shocking you won’t be able to put this book down.

The Bean Trees ~ Barbara Kingsolver
It’s possible that Barbara Kingsolver can do no wrong. After reading almost all of her books, I am amazed that I love each one of them. The Bean Trees is no exception to this. We follow independent Taylor Greer as she leaves her poor childhood in Kentucky behind and heads west to a better future. Along the way she unexpectedly picks up a damaged little girl and essentially becomes her mother. The characters are endearing, the journey is remarkable and the story is touching – this is an amazing book.

Pigs in Heaven ~ Barbara Kingsolver
This novel picks up a few years after The Bean Trees ends. Taylor Greer and her daughter Turtle are forging a life together when an almost tragic event thrusts them into a media spotlight. The circumstances under which Taylor adopted Turtle are questioned and they risk being separated. This is a beautiful story of what it means to belong, both to a place and with a person.

Slow Emergencies ~ Nancy Huston
This novel is the story of Lin: her career as a dancer, her marriage, her pregnancies, her children, and then her struggle as she chooses between her family and her dancing. Slow Emergencies is more like poetry than prose, the words seem to flow like the motions of a dancer, so you can almost feel Lin’s euphoria and her despair.

My Year of Meats ~ Ruth Ozeki
I cannot believe how much I enjoyed this book! I have always thought that the title is awful, the cover is unappealing and the back cover blurb is uninspiring. But, I decided to read it after it was selected as the One Book One Vancouver book last year, and I am very happy that I did. It has nothing to do with Vancouver, but it does have to do with everything else: racial tension, belonging, independence, abuse, love, family, health, freedom and happiness. If you love Barbara Kingsolver, you will also love Ruth Ozeki.

The Poisonwood Bible ~ Barbara Kingsolver
Barbara Kingsolver is one the best writers writing today, in my opinion. This is her most popular book (yes, it was an Oprah pick, but don’t let that dissuade you) and one of her best. Told from the point of view of the wife and four daughters of a Baptist missionary as they carry out their mission in the Belgian Congo, this book is full of beauty and love as well as heartache and sorrow. Kingsolver gives such different voices to each of her narrators and keeps them unique throughout the whole novel. This book will make you cry.

Love in the Time of Cholera ~ Gabriel Garcia Marquez
If you loved One Hundred Years of Solitude you will also love this book. Almost as epic in its scope, this novel is the story of a lifetime of unrequited love. Florentino Ariza doesn’t let the fact that his childhood love married another man ruin his love for her – he waits most of his life to be with her again. When her husband dies, Florentino finally has the chance to declare his love for Fermina Daza again. This is a beautifully written story about a timeless love.

The Average American Male ~ Chad Kultgen
And now for something completely different… There really aren’t any words to describe this book, at least not ones that I can post here in a review. The narrator of this book is without a doubt the most politically incorrect, obnoxious, misogynistic character I’ve ever read. He’s also one of the funniest. I felt kind of wrong to be enjoying this book so much, but I really did. If you’re easily offended don’t read this book.

Rant ~ Chuck Palahniuk
You can’t help but wonder what kind of life Chuck Palahniuk lives when you read his novels… what does he do throughout the day that makes him come up with the ideas he writes about? Rant is his new novel and it lives up to every expectation you have after reading his previous novels. You are drawn in to the crazy world of Buster Casey as he leaves his small hometown to embark on a wild life of Party Crashing cars and spreading rabies. Of course, as with all Chuck’s novels, not everything is as it seems and the ending of this book is mind-bendingly strange.

No one belongs here more than you ~ Miranda July
If you’re already a fan of Miranda July you will love this book. These stories are short and seem uncomplicated, but don’t let that fool you – her writing is clever and engaging and you will be struck by the beautiful simplicity of her language. This book is accessible to everyone; it’s true that no one belongs here more than you.

Diary ~ Chuck Palahniuk
As with his other books, Chuck spends the first three quarters of Diary weaving a freakish, disturbing, surreal story that makes the reader wonder how he's going to resolve it all. In the end, he hits you with a superb finale that makes all the disgusting imagery well worth it. If this sounds vague, it's because it doesn't do Chuck justice to try to describe his novels on a recipe card. Just read it.

The Raw Shark Texts ~ Steven Hall
Eric Sanderson wakes up on the floor of his bedroom with no memory of who he is. As he begins to piece his life back together from the fragments around him he begins to realize that nothing is as it seems and no one can be trusted, perhaps not even himself. This book is a surreal wild ride fraught with danger as Eric flees from a conceptual shark. Yes, a conceptual shark. I'm still not entirely sure what happened in this novel, but I know I loved it. Fans of Bret Easton Ellis and Chuck Palahniuk will love this book.

Eleanor Rigby ~ Doug Coupland
As far as I'm concerned, lately Doug Coupland can do no wrong. And this book is no exception. Coupland’s characters are not idealized and they grapple with deep issues, in this case the crucial importance of human attachments.

Exit A ~ Anthony Swofford
You may have read the apologetically negative review of this novel by William T. Vollman in The New York Times. Vollman expressed his disappointment in Swofford as a writer, even though he acknowledged that his positive regard of Swofford’s first book, the war memoir Jarhead, had nothing to do with the writing. It makes me wonder what Vollman was expecting here. I appreciated Jarhead for what it was and I appreciate Exit A for what it is: the overly-dramatic, somewhat gritty fantasies and desires of the author put on paper. Maybe my lower expectations allowed me to enjoy this book, which is fine by me; it’s perfect escapist reading.

Chuck Klosterman IV ~ Chuck Klosterman
Chuck Klosterman is funny, clever, irreverent, insightful, poignant and completely honest, all at the same time. His books have gotten progressively better and this most recent one is my favourite. Chuck seems interested in absolutely everything, so whether he’s interviewing Britney Spears, having coffee with Steve Nash, or discussing the phenomena of Goth kids at Disneyland, you know that he’s totally into his subject. And he intersperses just the right amount of personal anecdotes to make you really connect with him.

What is the What ~ Dave Eggers
This is not your typical Dave Eggers book. If you’ve read and enjoyed his previous three books (one memoir, one novel and one book of stories), prepare yourself for something completely different and amazing here. Eggers tells the true story of Valentino Achak Deng, one of the Lost Boys of Sudan, from his childhood in Sudan to his trek to Ethiopia and Kenya for refuge to his immigration to America and his hope for a better life. His story is shocking and incredible and you will cry. The proceeds of this book go to the Valentino Achak Deng Foundation.

Prodigal Summer ~ Barbara Kingsolver
Kingsolver is best known for The Poisonwood Bible but I think that Prodigal Summer is a far superior book. We follow the stories of three people living very different lives in the Appalachias: Deanna is a forest ranger who is more comfortable with nature than people, Lusa is a farmer’s wife who just moved from the city, and Garnett is an older man living alone on his farm. As we get further into their stories we start to learn how they are all connected. Kingsolver writes as if she herself has lived each of these lives, with such detail and evocative imagery that the reader feels drawn right into the book.

JPod ~ Douglas Coupland
If you remember Microserfs fondly, you will love JPod. Set in a fictional video game development company in Burnaby, this new novel focuses on the six co-workers whose names begin with J and the pod in which they work. It’s not as emotionally gripping as Hey Nostradamus or as sentimental as Eleanor Rigby, but it is the most fun book you will read this year. You will never think of Ronald McDonald, Jeff Probst or Doug Coupland in the same way again.

Black Swan Green ~ David Mitchell
Have you read Mitchell’s previous book, The Cloud Atlas? If not, go buy it now and read it – it is one of the best books you will ever read. If you have read it, now you must read Black Swan Green. Mitchell writes from the point of view of a twelve year old boy living in a small city in England and the voice is so genuine that you would swear the book was written by a twelve year old boy living in a small city in England. It is funny, tragic, moving, distressing, heartbreaking and wonderful, all at the same time.

When I Was Young and in my Prime ~ Alayna Munce
A young woman watches the gradual physical and mental decline of her grandparents while dealing with the possible breakdown of her young marriage in this beautifully arranged and written first novel by Alayna Munce. Her writing is poetic and a pleasure to read.

The Sweet Edge ~ Alison Pick
This is Alison Pick’s first novel and it showcases her as a Canadian novelist to watch. We follow a young man and woman as they spend their summer apart after deciding to end their relationship, he on a solo canoe trip into the Arctic and she in Toronto. Pick sensitively writes about love, infidelity, unconditional friendship and so much more.

A Long Way Down ~ Nick Hornby
There's something incredibly comfortable and familiar about reading Nick Hornby's novels - you feel like he knows you and you know him and his characters. It doesn't matter that you've likely never climbed to the roof of Toppers' House in London with the intention of jumping and then formed a relationship with the other people you met up there. What matters is that Hornby's writing makes his characters so real and so interesting that you're drawn right into their lives. 

English Passengers ~ Matthew Kneale
This double-strand narrative parallels the stories of an odd group of strangers who come together to search for the Garden of Eden and the tribes of Aborigines in Australia whose land and lives are being taken over by white settlers. Often a story told from so many different perspectives can become confusing and disjointed, but each character in this novel does his unique part, and they all come together in the end.

A Gradual Ruin ~ Robert Hilles
Alternating between the stories of two sisters who leave their small town home to move to Winnipeg and the subsequent difficult life of one of their daughters, and the experience of a young Canadian soldier in World War II, this book grasps the reader’s attention and holds on until the end. Hilles writes his characters, and their emotions and experiences, so well that he doesn’t have to rely on gruesome detail to show the horrors of WWII or tearjerker exclamations to express the devastation on a family of the drowning death of a young boy.

The Pornographer’s Poem ~ Michael Turner
This is one of the best books I have ever read. Michael Turner’s writing is edgy, hard and exciting, but also compassionate and moving. This book challenges the reader to think – about pornography, love, death, personal boundaries and the way we connect with each other.

You Shall Know Our Velocity ~ Dave Eggers
In his memoir, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Eggers freely mixed fact with fiction to come up with an amazing book. Here, he successfully makes the transition to fiction, producing a novel resplendent with humour, intelligence and emotion. Eggers presents the readers with fantastic situations, but his characters are so real that you’re drawn into their lives with genuine interest.

A Star Called Henry ~ Roddy Doyle
You can’t help but fall in love with Henry Smart as he fights his way out of squalor on the streets to become a soldier in the Irish Citizen’s Army. This book has all the excitement and intrigue that Doyle’s previous books are lacking.

A Rhinestone Button ~ Gail Anderson-Dargatz
Gail Anderson-Dargatz's writing draws you right into the book. Even if you’ve never been to a small town in Alberta, have no interest in farming, know nothing about religion and don't understand synathesia, this book is still incredibly engrossing. She creates such vivid imagery that you feel as if you're there with the characters.

Hey Nostradamus ~ Douglas Coupland
I think this is Doug Coupland's best book. Progressing from a high school massacre to a revelation of faith, the four narrators of this book lead the reader through situations of surrealism, brutal honesty, grief, desperation and love. The final section is superb.

Still ~ bp Nichol
This brilliant little novel by one of Canada's best poets is a must-read for any fan of contemporary Canadian poetry and fiction. Nichol's sparse prose is more evocative than many writers' excessive description.

Hard Core Logo ~ Michael Turner
This isn't your typical novel. Made up of song lyrics, interviews, photos, phone messages and letters, Hard Core Logo defies categorization. I thought it would be difficult to read but it flowed together much more smoothly than I expected. Once you get into it, this book is immensely entertaining.

The House of Spirits ~ Isabel Allende
This is a wonderful book! Allende’s storytelling is magical and beautiful and draws the reader right into the lives of the Trueba family. If you loved Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, you’ll also love this.

A Complicated Kindness ~ Miriam Toews
Nomi Nickel is a dissatisfied teenager living in a small Mennonite community in Manitoba. Her mother and sister have both left the family in the past couple of years, leaving Nomi and her father to deal with the absence. She struggles with her growing resistance to the community’s ideas of faith and dreams of leaving her small town for the excitement of Manhattan. Toews give a unique and unforgettable voice to Nomi, endearing her to the reader.

Haunted ~ Chuck Palahniuk
From the Pacific Northwest’s resident writer of some of the most mind-bending, revolting and hilarious fiction comes this new novel about a group of individuals who sign up for a three month writer’s retreat which turns out to be nothing like they were expecting. What will they do when they realize they are barricaded in an old theatre and their food, heat and power start running out? This book contains a few of the most disgusting stories I’ve ever read. But if you’re a fan of Palahniuk, you’ll love it!

Ex Libris ~ Ross King
If you like books, you’ll love this story of a missing manuscript and the man hired to find it. Nothing is what it seems here, and you’ll get caught up in the drama and intrigue as you follow London bookseller Isaac Inchbold around England in the 1660s. You don’t have to like mysteries to enjoy this fascinating tale.