Baby Got Books

Russ weighs in…

Russ’s Top 3 Novels of 2009, In An Order That Is Completely Arbitrary But Also Alphabetical:

A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick (my review)

reliablewife

Goolrick did it and did it well with this novel: a period piece, a love story and a mystery with fantastic writing and a plot that twists and rolls and plays with strings tied to both the heart and the brain.

Last Night In Montreal by Emily Mandel (my review)

It took me nearly the whole damn year to finally read this book, but oh god I’m glad I did. This is a wrecker, a heart-stopper, a book that aches long after you turn the last page. It’s as much about how to leave as it is how to love, and Mandel’s second novel, 2010′s The Singer’s Gun picks up the loving and leaving.

Swimming Inside The Sun by David Zweig

What a first novel this is-it’s Dave Eggers and Chuck Klosterman writing about each other, really. Zweig conjures a musician struggling with his art and with himself, and in the process has crafted a psychological treatise on depersonalization (we’re all over-exposed to media and are losing ourselves), as well as a tale of an everyman in New York falling in love on every corner.

Books | Russ Marshalek | December 8, 2009 8:52 am