/lit/ - Literature

Forty-six minute, no reply bump

I'm not nearly as well read in recent releases as I'd like to be, but I can give you some ideas. I guess?

Hmmm...

Chuck Palahniuk (the guy who wrote Fight Club):

All of them, really. They're all fantastic. And all not too long. 'Survivor' (though, it's also 1999), is about the last know survivor of a suicide cult that was comparable to the Amish or Mormons (in size and life style). He hijacks a plane and decides to tell his life story to the black box before he crashes into the ocean.

And, Rant. FUCK. Best book I've ever read.

I can give more ideas, but what sorts of books are you into?

>>1777369
Highschool child detected.

>>1777382

:'(

>>1777386
You should cry. Read real books.

Invisible by Paul Auster: 2009

The Final Testament of the Holy Bible by James Frey: came out a few weeks ago.

>>1777388

Heh. Alright, get me started. What are some real books I should read?

Also, OP, you here?

>>1777394
bible

I just read A Visit From the Goon Squad, which came out last year. Won the Pulitzer and lots of other shit. I thought it was excellent and very entertaining.

>>1777398

Oh my. I guess I stay a little kid, then.

>>1777404
A well read, respectable book full of morals and lively stories?

You're the child for sure.

I honestly can't think of any recent American novels that I have liked. How sad is that?

>>1777382
>>1777388


OP, to answer your question: I don't read a lot of recent fiction (unless you count comics), but I really liked The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.

>>1777390

I'll check those out. I assume the Frey piece isn't preachy christfag stuff?

>>1777394
Ugh, the Anon is right.


Non-high-school-core books the top of my head-
Richard Yates- Revolutionary Road, The Easter Parade, Young Hearts Crying
Cormac McCarthy- Blood Meridian (NOT the Road)
J.G. Ballard- Crash, The Atrocity Exhibition
Vladimir Nabokov- Lolita

Well, there's American Gods.

That's sort of American-y. Though it's written by a brit.

>>1777437
American Gods is really good. I should reread it.

Also, I've been reading Sandman and am enjoying it thoroughly. It's /co/ and not as recent as OP wants, but I'd still recommend it.

>>1777410
>A well read
People are well read, not books.
>respectable
lol
> book full of morals
The morals of middle-eastern farmers from two-millennia ago. Primitive.

>and lively stories?

You know, the bible is a must-read if you want to get shit in the western canon, but pretending it's interesting is just sad. If you're really going to read the bible then at least find a translation that isn't shit and hopefully annotated.

High school fag, why don't you read some russians? Nabokov, tolstoy, gogol, dostoevsky. They're real literature and pretty interesting in their own right.

>>1777398
>bible
wtf?

Lowboy by John Wray I thought was a great read.

A billion times better than anything mentioned so far and I didn't even read the thread.

chris moore is pretty good, apart from his last book.

>>1777510
>Ulililia
Back! Back to /v/ with you!

>>1777399
I just started this and I am finding it delightful. It's kind of funny how she ended up winning all those awards after Franzen got his Important Writer Looking Mopey Time cover and massive hype campaign.

>>1777422
U read Fortress of Solitude/Kavalier and Clay?

>>1777435
>Lolita
>2000

Are you a dumbass?

>>1777513
Eh, OP did ask for good or great. Christopher Moore is pretty damn funny and not a bad storyteller either, but I think he's kind of simplistic and static. I'd recommend him to somebody looking for light reading, but I wouldn't re-read any of his books.

jPod

>>1777540
The subject of that post was real books for the highschool fag to read.

Pay attention.

Why don't you browse the L.A. Times or N.Y. Times book review section until you find something that you might be interested in reading? Don't worry about whether or not it will be accepted as part of the "canon" in twenty years time. Just read it and make up your own mind.

http://www.nytimes.com/pages/books/index.html

http://www.latimes.com/features/books/

the reason /lit/ hates contemporary lit is because their only knowledge of it is shit computer programmers pick for their one yearly fiction read

For 2011

Netherland (2008) was a memorable book I read from the last decade. (Disclosure: I read it because it was getting monumental levels of hype and publicity; to its credit it won the '09 PEN/Faulkner [an award I currently give more consideration to than the Pulitzer (The Pulitzer regularly awards trash.).].) The writer was born Irish but I can attest that the book is _monumentally_ 'American' in intent. It also uses the World Trade Center attack (the successful one) without coming off as hackneyed: no small feat.

Additionally 2011:
>ctrl-f Pale King
>0 Results

At least worth looking into to be a part of the dialog that tends to dominate around here. There's several moments in this novel where Wallace directly talks about the American value system and where it might be heading.

>>1778783
>monumental
>_monumentally_

>mfw redundancies

>>1778783
it took me a second to realize this wasn't wikipedia code

>Read Sandman
>Read American Gods
Fanservice!
Fuck I love that book. Anyway, I like Cherie Priest's books. Even mentioning steampunk on /lit/ leads to shitstorms however.

John Dies at the End was pretty good. House of Leaves, Raw Shark Texts, Under the Dome... There's a metric fuckton of good books post-2000

Between the Bridge and the River by Craig Ferguson
Don't write this off because of the author. It wont change your life but it is a good read.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Between_the_Bridge_and_the_River

>>1777624
but that's scary!

Bump.

Anything from McSweeney's duh

Does anyone know if Blake Butler is worth reading?

>>1779716
>google blake butler
>first result
>mfw

> great American novels of the 2000's

>>1779813
Yeah post some of them

>>1779779
Yeah that's a pretty wacky name for a website

>>1779779
>A portal for free anal vegina boy erection blood destructor via doors

>>1779825
What kind of people is he trying to lead to his website???

>>1779834
4chan posters!

>>1779835
And people suffering from anal bleeding

http://twitter.com/#!/blakebutler

Oh my.
He does have problems.

>>1779841
Oh that's nothing......... have you ever been to FY- *gets shot*

>>1779716
I'd like to know this as well. I'm going to read one of his books at some point.

>>1779841
There are some pretty good tweets in there I have to say

Bump

>>1779841
this guy is pretty try hard and not funny imho.

Deb Olin Unferth's new book that I haven't read was released this year, but it's a memoir, not a novel

>>1780359
>a dog with testicles that are each another dog

>>1780371
hes trying to do a style of humor he doesnt understand thats just my opinion

>>1780374
What? What's he trying to do? Inform me.

>>1780392
wacky satire that isn't very clever

>>1780374
Agreed. He's trying way too hard to be Tao Lin.

>>1780418
So you're saying he doesn't understand satire? OK then.

>>1780392
Well, if it's being a faggot that attempts to be deep and edgy but fails, he's certianly doing it right!

This is a brilliant question yet remains unanswered in full

>ctrl f vollman
>ctrl f europe central
>nothing
>mfw i have no face pics atm

isn't there a post-'00 recs image floating around somewhere?

>>1781242

I'm sure those guys will get right on it.

They're called binder clips.

Just thought I'd let the largely unemployed world of /lit/ know.

>>1781242
It will no doubt be terrible

>>1781242
>>1781284
>>1781263
Sunhawk made one

It was a horror show

There were literally like four Orson Scott Card novels on it

>>1781287
>It was a horror show

So you're saying it was good?? xD

WWW series. starts with www:wake, from robert sawyer. I read the first one and thought it was pretty interesting, to be honest.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wake_%28Robert_J._Sawyer_novel%29

>>1781312
robert j sawyer is a bitch ass, let's be honest here

I enjoyed What is the What very much. Although, it addresses events from the 20th century, so it might not be what you're looking for, but it is still a wonderful book.

Usually when I go to a book store I automatically find myself intrigued by plenty of books. Try just browsing through a book store, even if you don't buy anything. Likely, you'll find a book that interests you. And plenty of bookstores have a new arrivals section which could benefit you.

>>1780872
Correct me if I'm wrong here, but I could have sworn Europe Central was about Russia?

"The Corrections" by Jonathan Franzen. Glorious.

>>1781578
I was going to say this but it seemed too obvious.

>>1778812

Read Anansi Boys if you haven't already. You will enjoy it.

Nicholas Sparks/thread

>>1781570
There are plenty of Russians in it, yeah

http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-best-books-of-the-00s,35774/

found this by googling "best american novels of 2000s"

I agree with it. Really solid list, although I haven't read all of them. Kavalier and Klay is amazing. Read it.

Why do they have to be american? :S

>>1781916
>Haddon
>Gladwell
>Freakonomics
>Eugenides
>Lethem
>The Road

>>1781919
OP is probably American but I move to extend the thread to great novels from the '00s of all nations

City of Thieves.

>>1781923
you catch more flies with honey pal

>>1780359
>When I close my eyes to sleep i see two parallel mirrors infinitely reflecting an image of me beating the shit out of myself

I see what you mean.

dealw/it

>>1782560
I don't think he's even trying to be funny. I think he's trying to be deeeep and eeeedgy.

>>1780374
You know, I think you're right, actually. I think I liked the one about the dog testicles a bit too much.

>>1781916
It's nice they put Russo on there. There was a thread about him the other day here, too.
He's not my cup of tea, but he's a good fiction writer that deserves recognition.

Has anyone read Freedom by Johnathan Franzen? I've heard endless amounts of praise for it but I haven't actually gotten around to reading it.

>>1782848
What book got you on the Russo train? He's relatively good. I read a funny book and a horrible book- He can tell a story successfully. He writes memorable characters. I need to read some more of his work, but he puts out too much to be able to discern where to go.

>>1782890
I have. It's a less-successful novel than his last book, but still an entertaining read. Something for fans; new readers are encouraged to start elsewhere.

It's about birds.

Arthur Phillips.

Against the Day / Inherent Vice by Pynchon
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
Lowboy by John Wray
A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore
Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem
Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

That's probably what I'd teach if I had to teach a fiction course about stuff published since 2000, using novels. But both Lorrie Moore and Junot Diaz are better short-story-writers than novelists, plus a lot of really good writing since 2000---George Saunders, ZZ Packer---is in short stories.

Richard Yates by Tao Lin
(writing isn't great and book is really flat but it captures the boredom of modern life)
Lighthousekeeping by Jeanette Winterson
Another Bullshit Night in Suck City by Nick Flynn (technically a memoir, but fuck it, read it anyway.)

Here's the picture I made a couple of months ago (probably March), although A. it's not all American, and B. I do regret some of it. I might make a new version soon, I dunno. lulz.

<_>

The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao

>>1784550
>>1784550
>lots of Margaret Atwood
i can tell you got the general consensus of the /lit/ population for that image

>>1784568

It was books I personally liked a lot or thought had some special quality, not /lit/'s idea of great 21st century books. Hence the title. Anyway, like I said, I'd change some of it now. I mean, Moscow 2042 was writing in the 80s! -_-

>>1784568
/lit/ loes Margarent Atwood

>>1784568
i don't even know what to say to someone who has a bigger gripe with All Dat Atwood than they do All Dat Card

>>1784877
I'm pretty sure he was being sarcastic and saying that /lit/ doesn't like author Margaret Atwood but /lit/ loves her

>>1784885

/lit/ doesn't love her. A lot of threads about her float up to the top, but they've only read 2 or 3 books by her, if that. I think there's just a vocal few, e.g. me.

I actually just bought 2 new books by her, but haven't read them yet, Good Bones and Bluebeard's Egg.

Saving from page 15.

If we're talking American, and not just the US and A, then I think 2666 has to be a candidate for one of the major works of the century so far.

Falling Man, by Don DeLillo would have its supporters as well.

>>1779779
http://www.gillesdeleuzecommittedsuicideandsowilldrphil.com/

Best domain name ever?

My Loose Thread by Dennis Cooper. It's like Catcher in the Rye (in that it reads from a first person stream of consciousness of a confused teenager, creating an unreliable narrator). The protagonist is psychotic and gets paid to kill a kid. He also constantly remembers how he "punched his best friend in the head so hard he killed him" in random places in the book.

It's a masterpiece, its like looking into the mind of a psycho. After reading some other stuff by Dennis Cooper, I sometimes wonder if he murders and rapes teenage boys in his free time (he writes gay fiction, but My Loose Thread contains the least gay elements since the protagonist is bisexual).

Don't dismiss this just because it was written by a gay guy or you'll be missing out on an incredibly disturbing piece of fiction. I suggest you read the first few pages on amazon (note: I tried buying it from amazon since I got it from a library but its out of stock there, order it from B&N if you wanna buy it)

Preview:
http://www.amazon.com/My-Loose-Thread-Cooper-Dennis/dp/1841954128/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&amp
;qid=1305894335&sr=8-1#reader_1841954128

The film memento sucked donkey balls.

Zomg Im gonna make a film and play the scenes backwards. Im so genius where my oscah?

Bump.