EW's New Classics

[Alison]

For those that think Entertainment Weekly is the bible of entertainment news (like I do), this is their list of "new classics" published in June:

1. The Road , Cormac McCarthy
2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling
3. Beloved, Toni Morrison
4. The Liars' Club, Mary Karr
5. American Pastoral, Philip Roth
6. Mystic River, Dennis Lehane
7. Maus, Art Spiegelman
8. Selected Stories, Alice Munro
9. Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier
10. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami
11. Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer
12. Blindness, José Saramago
13. Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
14. Black Water, Joyce Carol Oates
15. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers
16. The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood
17. Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
18. Rabbit at Rest, John Updike
19. On Beauty, Zadie Smith
20. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
21. On Writing, Stephen King
22. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Díaz
23. The Ghost Road, Pat Barker
24. Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry
25. The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan
26. Neuromancer, William Gibson
27. Possession, A.S. Byatt
28. Naked, David Sedaris
29. Bel Canto, Anne Patchett
30. Case Histories, Kate Atkinson
31. The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien
32. Parting the Waters, Taylor Branch
33. The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion
34. The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold
35. The Line of Beauty, Alan Hollinghurst
36. Angela's Ashes, Frank McCourt
37. Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi
38. Birds of America, Lorrie Moore
39. Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri
40. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
41. The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros
42. LaBrava, Elmore Leonard
43. Borrowed Time, Paul Monette
44. Praying for Sheetrock, Melissa Fay Greene
45. Eva Luna, Isabel Allende
46. Sandman, Neil Gaiman
47. World's Fair, E.L. Doctorow
48. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
49. Clockers, Richard Price
50. The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen
51. The Journalist and the Murderer, Janet Malcom
52. Waiting to Exhale, Terry McMillan
53. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon
54. Jimmy Corrigan, Chris Ware
55. The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls
56. The Night Manager, John le Carré
57. The Bonfire of the Vanities, Tom Wolfe
58. Drop City, TC Boyle
59. Krik? Krak! Edwidge Danticat
60. Nickel & Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich
61. Money, Martin Amis
62. Last Train To Memphis, Peter Guralnick
63. Pastoralia, George Saunders
64. Underworld, Don DeLillo
65. The Giver, Lois Lowry
66. A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again, David Foster Wallace
67. The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
68. Fun Home, Alison Bechdel
69. Secret History, Donna Tartt
70. Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell
71. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Ann Fadiman
72. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon
73. A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving
74. Friday Night Lights, H.G. Bissinger
75. Cathedral, Raymond Carver
76. A Sight for Sore Eyes, Ruth Rendell
77. The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro
78. Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert
79. The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell
80. Bright Lights, Big City, Jay McInerney
81. Backlash, Susan Faludi
82. Atonement, Ian McEwan
83. The Stone Diaries, Carol Shields
84. Holes, Louis Sachar
85. Gilead, Marilynne Robinson
86. And the Band Played On, Randy Shilts
87. The Ruins, Scott Smith
88. High Fidelity, Nick Hornby
89. Close Range, Annie Proulx
90. Comfort Me With Apples, Ruth Reichl
91. Random Family, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc
92. Presumed Innocent, Scott Turow
93. A Thousand Acres, Jane Smiley
94. Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser
95. Kaaterskill Falls, Allegra Goodman
96. The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown
97. Jesus’ Son, Denis Johnson
98. The Predators' Ball, Connie Bruck
99. Practical Magic, Alice Hoffman
100. America (the Book), Jon Stewart/Daily Show

How many have you read? How many do you want to read? Any on the list you disagree with?

[Stephanie]

This is actually the list our book club is currently reading from. See, you secretly wanted to be a BEE all along! We have some discussions going on a few of these titles.

[Leah]

I have read 11 on the List. I was not a fan of all them...Didn't enjoy The Road, The Ruins, Atonement...How were these books picked?!!! Such a random assortment!

Just finished A Thousand Acres. Didn't like it at first, but she does a great job with character development, which I think is rare in a lot of today's fiction!

Ummmm....Check out BBB comments on The Ruins. Lots of interesting commentary.

[Johanne]

I've read 12 of the books on the list. I'm guessing they were picked based on book sales, looking at the titles. There are about 20 more on there that are on my "want to read" list.

[Stephanie]

I have read 23 on the list. I highly recommend Random Family as a nonfiction read. A real eye-opener that will stay with you, and reminds me of my days teaching in inner-city Cleveland.

I could not get into and put away The Corrections. I hate Beloved. I didn't like Waiting to Exhale.

I loved Curious Incident, Fun Home (very different!), Handmaid's Tale, Case Histories, and The Things They Carried.

[Leah]

I'm currently teaching a non-fiction unit to my 10th graders...and I don't really like non-fiction. However, I'm going to start reading some. But nothing that is too depressing.

[Greyweather]

"I'm guessing they were picked based on book sales, looking at the titles."

I agree. That's the only reason I can come up with for The Da Vinci Code being on that list instead of Foucault's Pendulum.

I've read 7 from the list, and there are 7 more I know I want to read at some point.

"America (the Book), Jon Stewart/Daily Show"

I like The Daily Show as much as the next guy, but a "new classic"? I don't think so.

[Alison]

I've read The Road (loved it), Harry Potter (I think others in the series are better than Goblet), Mystic River, Bridget Jones, Lovely Bones, The Corrections, Secret History, Atonement, The Ruins (a fun summer read but nothing more), High Fidelity, Presumed Innocent (an old favorite), The DaVinci Code, Practical Magic (the only Alice Hoffman that's proven memorable and re-readable) and America (because who doesn't love Jon Stewart?).

[Stef]

I read two books of the list., two more are on my TBR list.

Most authors on that list are unknown to me but that has probably to do with the fact that I live in Germany. What I find surprising is that no matter where you live people call Harry Potter a classic/new classic.

[KrisT]

I read 37 but have to say not all of them were worthy of being on the list (imo).


Alison are you still working on this list?

[Suzie]

I've only read 1 on the list. However, there is about 6 or so I've been wanting to read.

[John]

I've read the following from the list and think very highly of all of them.

Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire
Maus
Cold Mountain
The Things they Carried
Kite Runner
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Presumed Innocent
and the Da Vinci Code.

I have "Holes" on my To-Read List. Some of the others sound interesting enough to borrow from the library some day. Are any of them "must reads?"

[Greyweather]

John wrote: "Are any of them "must reads?"

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami
Possession, A.S. Byatt
Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi
His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro
High Fidelity, Nick Hornby

[Kathy]

I've read 15 of them, but I find it hard to believe that this list is the best of what would or should be considered "new classics." There are so many more that weren't included that should have been, especially in view of some of the ones that were included. I mean, come on, Bridget Jones's Diary and The Da Vinci Code (and, yes, I have read them) ?

[Heather]

I've read 19 of these...but umm I have to agree with Kathy. Bridget Jones? the Da Vinci code?? puleeze

Besides - I take absolute great umbridge with the idea that Eat, Pray, Love was even on this list. It was HORRIBLE.