7. Nightwoods - Charles Frazier

Every fiction writer tells stories, but Charles Frazier is a storyteller. Frazier places the reader directly in the middle of the story, utilizing all of the senses to develop his characters and settings. My only gripes would be 1) the scene in which a bear tears through Bud's camp but he miraculously survives (this added nothing to the story) and 2) Frazier overcooks the sunset descriptions a little too often.

I won't show it here but the final sentence of Nightwoods could be the best closing line in any book I've ever read.

13. Blazing Saddles by Matt Rendell

 

http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781934030257

12. The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea by Yukio Mishima

11. Point Omega by Don DeLillo

10. War by Sebastian Junger

09. Tomato Red by Daniel Woodrell

Everyone has their list of favorite characters in the books they've read. I have a new favorite near the top of my list in Sammy Barlach (not a nickname: "My ma named me Sammy. It's what's on my birth certificate"). As with most of Woodrell's books, this is a story of the other side of the tracks, and Sammy isn't bitter about his station in life, nor does he harbor any false notions of becoming anything better. As he is welcomed in by Jamalee and her brother, Sammy is their partner in petty crime. What I like about his character is that he is always ready to defend these people he hardly knows, even to the death of him or others, because they have accepted him for what he is: a lovable loser. No more, no less.

08. The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem