25 Books to Remember from 2004
Annotation:A second chance at life is given to a man who does not deserve it in this comedic novel of loneliness, despair and redemption.
Annotation:This elegant collection examines a wide range of American experience, from music and ballroom dancing to jury duty.
Annotation:An edgy and inventive memoir about the poet's early life without his estranged father and their unlikely reunion at a Boston homeless shelter.
Annotation:Out of the chaos of the world's most unlikely tourist destination emerges a bleak and beautiful travelogue.
Annotation:Richly developed stories set in Ireland and England, whose characters grapple with various forms of love and regret.
Annotation:Tales redolent of legend, land and sea trace the dwellers of a Cape Cod farmhouse from colonial through contemporary times.
Annotation:A powerful examination of southern race relations, based on Tyson's investigation of a 1970's lynching in his hometown of Oxford, N.C.
Annotation:A moving story of language and class set against the Japanese invasion of Singapore during WWII.
Annotation:Art meets revolution in this engaging account of Guillermoprieto's political awakening while teaching dance in post revolution cuba.
Annotation:The luminous and all-encompassing first biography of the prolific artist.
Annotation:Bodies were piled in the streets in 1918. A comprehensive exploration of the medical, social and political aspects of this tragic epidemic.
Annotation:From newly translated records comes a rich and colorful chronicle of the multi-faceted Dutch colony from which New York City, the first global village, was forged.
Annotation:A historic battle unfolds between England's most competent and well-educated gentleman magicians.
Annotation:A foreign correspondent and his wife navigate a byzantine society plagued by ethnic conflict and the AIDS epidemic to adopt an abandoned baby girl from Zimbabwe.
Annotation:Offbeat, sympathetic and humorous stories portray a Russian Jewish family's adjustment to life in Toronto, Canada.
Annotation:Tennant takes us on an exhilarating and edifying quest to track the transcontinental journey of the peregrine falcon.
Annotation:"History is a very sudden thing," writes Roth. The varied responses of ordinary people are portrayed in this fictional account of fascism in America.
Annotation:An eye-opening account of the complex and unappreciated world of our rodent rivals.
Annotation:Sinister twins and a father's struggle to fulfill his dreams pervade this haunting story of a Ghanaian family's arrival in a new town.
Annotation:Mistakenly envisioning a tropical paradise, Troost moves to the Pacific Island of Kiribati and ultimately produces this hilarious tale of life along the equator.
Annotation:A young booklover in Barcelona finds murder, metaphysics and madness among the secrets of a forgotten novel in this engrossing epic from Spain.
Annotation:Landscape meditations on the American Southwest; these poems begin with walking tours at dawn and explore earth, fire, water and air.
Annotation:The ingenious portrayal of a utopian African-American city, brimming with pop-culture and social satire.
Annotation:An inspiring chronicle of the swimmer's perilous crossings and her extraordinary relationship with the water.
Annotation:Offered a position by Great Uncle as the official poet and scribe of their Middle Eastern country, Alan Sheriff is given an impossible task.
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Books to Remember is an annual list of 25 titles chosen for their ability to provide an informative or transformative reading experience for adults. Selection criteria include literary excellence, uniqueness of concept and command of subject matter. These books were selected by the following committee from the staff of The New York Public Library: Susan Chute, Julia Clark, Frannie Crook (Chair), Malynda Dalton, Francie Einenkel, Glenn Mills, Forest Turner. Selected titles appearing on this booklist may be available in recorded, braille or large print versions.
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