 | The Road (Movie Tie-in Edition 2008 of the 2006 publication) by Cormac McCarthy
Buy new: $7.99 / Used from: $2.44 whatever edition one uses, it certainly won the Pulitzer for a reason and this author is going to be remembered as one of America's greats like Hemingway and Morrison!
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 | Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire by J. K. Rowling
Buy new: $28.52 / Used from: $15.00 this may be arguable but it did win some big fantasy/sci fi prizes and of course, who can deny the power of this auhor to make her mark on so many readers of so many ages and types!
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 | Beloved (Everyman's Library) by Toni Morrison
Buy new: $16.32 / Used from: $6.97 everyone seems to praise this book and it won a pulitzer, etc. she is even one of the few americans to win the Nobel in Lit, but I always found Sula and Bluest Eye to be her better novels.
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 | The Liars' Club: A Memoir by Mary Karr
Buy new: $10.20 / Used from: $6.49 I keep meaning to read this.
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 | American Pastoral by Philip Roth
Buy new: $10.20 / Used from: $1.85 a giant in the literary world but outside of that, i am not so sure anyone knows this name and that is a shame. same goes for Updike
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 | Mystic River by Dennis Lehane
Buy new: $11.16 / Used from: $0.01 funny how this is on the ist AFTER the movie but I find this writer to be talented and I love his mystery series which is better than this book (for me!). I am willing to bet in two or three books, this author will get the recognition from the literary world with a National Book Award now that he has switched from mysteries to 'serious' writing....
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 | Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History by Art Spiegelman
Buy new: $10.17 / Used from: $3.88 oh this is a comic book! oh no, how can this be? please! you read it and the sequel! it will stir you to tears and ou will make all your friends read tis prize winning book!
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 | Selected Stories by Alice Munro
Buy new: $11.53 / Used from: $3.86 This author is a master of the short story the way Katerine Ann Porter is a master of the short stories!
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 | Cold Mountain: A Novel by Charles Frazier
Buy used from: $1.19 I remember reading this book after it won the National Book award and before the movie ruined it for me! I can see why it took him 5 years to write it! But should it be so high on this list?
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 | The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: A Novel by Haruki Murakami
Buy new: $10.88 / Used from: $4.00 I loved this mystery, the apathetic nature of the character, and poetic eye of the author! Remind me of Catcher in the Rye....
He is an even better short story writer, even translated into English!
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 | Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer
Buy new: $10.20 / Used from: $1.27 I noticed this book on the Mental Floss Top 25 books that changed the world list (you can check out my list here at Amazon.com!) but have yet to read it....
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 | Blindness (Movie Tie-In) by Jose Saramago
Buy new: $10.20 / Used from: $0.47 an amazing author, even translated. I think he won the Nobel.
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 | Watchmen by Alan Moore
Buy new: $13.59 / Used from: $7.00 everyone is going to say yuck for this being on their list after watching that movie, which was not bad but not great. But trust me, if you like superheros, this will transform how you perceive them!
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 | Black Water (Contemporary Fiction, Plume) by Joyce Carol Oates
Buy new: $9.23 / Used from: $0.50 This auhtor is an amazing sort story writer but I am ashamed to say I have never read her novels. Go read her "Where Are You Going, Where have You Been"
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 | A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
Buy new: $10.20 / Used from: $2.19 I read this and found the Preface and the sarcasic voice there to be so great but then when I dove into the book, I found it annoying. recommend you read WHAT IS THE WHAT which is written as fiction but it is based on a real person....
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 | The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Buy used from: $8.24 this book should have been so muchhigher on the list! you must read this work! beautiful!
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 | Love in the Time of Cholera (Vintage International) by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Buy new: $10.17 / Used from: $0.98 the movie was just awful but this writer has a way with the poetry of words! Although this is not my favorite by Marquez, as I enjoy his short stories so much more.....
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 | Rabbit At Rest
Buy used from: $1.63 I love his first book, which also won the Pulitzer prize as did this book (number 4) in the series! And "A&P" is a story in every anthology I have ever picked up in a college classroom. Great author!
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 | On Beauty by Zadie Smith
Buy new: $10.20 / Used from: $0.01 I can't beleive this is on the list and not White Teeth?
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 | Bridget Jones's Diary (movie tie-in) by Helen Fielding
Buy used from: $1.90 while cute and funny, I cannot believe this is on the list or at least not as high as number 20??!!!
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 | On Writing by Stephen King
Buy new: $7.99 / Used from: $3.41 this book was also listed on Mental Floss Top 25 books that changed the world (see my other Amazon.com list)
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 | The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
Buy new: $10.08 / Used from: $4.20 National Book Award winner and author of "Drown" a great New Classic Short Story (see my other list of short stories on Amazon.com)
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 | The Ghost Road (William Abrahams) by Pat Barker
Buy new: $10.20 / Used from: $0.34 |
 | Lonesome Dove: A Novel by Larry McMurtry
Buy new: $23.04 / Used from: $15.99 it won a pulitzer. who am i to argue it is a western anymore than Gone with the Wind is a romance book, which also won the big prize?
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 | The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
Buy new: $9.75 / Used from: $2.40 it should have won a prize in 1989 but that was the year they gave it to Anne Tyler's Breathing Lessons instead of Raymond Carver-- big mistake! I know, it was nominated for a National Book Award but lost to Spartina by Jon Casey, probably because Tan was going against Oscar Hijuelos Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love so nobody good won!!! Okay, I have serious issues here!
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 | Neuromancer by William Gibson
Buy new: $15.75 / Used from: $13.25 Mona Lisa Overdrive is a book of imagination and pure poetry, but this is the one on the list, which is an intiguing book i found too predictable....
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 | Possession (Vintage Classics) by A.S. Byatt
Buy used from: $6.82 this won a Booker, the British version of the pulitzer, and it is definitely a great, poetic book-- go read it!
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 | Naked by David Sedaris
Buy new: $9.74 / Used from: $0.63 I have heard so much about him lately but I am ashamed to say I have yet to read this or his stories (Holidays on Ice) or Me Talk Pretty One Day which I think he is more known for.
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 | Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
Buy new: $10.04 / Used from: $0.01 I just started reading this. Enjoyable.
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 | Case Histories: A Novel by Kate Atkinson
Buy new: $7.99 / Used from: $2.03 another one of those books I wish I knew anything about.
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 | The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
Buy new: $10.17 / Used from: $0.74 I remember reading this in college about the Vietnam war and how realistic it was, how powerful, and I can't believe this is not in the Top 20!?
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 | Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-63 by Taylor Branch
Buy new: $28.40 / Used from: $22.59 |
 | The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
Buy new: $10.17 / Used from: $0.46 |
 | The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
Buy new: $10.19 / Used from: $0.01 the hype was so so much that it put me off of this book and now the movie is going to push this harder than Da Vinci Code but I can say this author writes well from the little I have read of her work...
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 | The Line of Beauty: A Novel by Alan Hollinghurst
Buy new: $10.85 / Used from: $0.01 |
 | Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi
Buy new: $9.32 / Used from: $3.96 |
 | Birds of America: Stories by Lorrie Moore
Buy new: $10.08 / Used from: $2.48 great short story writer and I think will be much more appreciated in the future. If you like her, check out Amy Hempl. Have you noticed this list is flooded with short fiction?
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 | Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
Buy new: $15.60 / Used from: $11.50 I love these stories and found them eye opening into a new world but also felt connected to it as if I knew/could relate to these stories. Her second collection, Unaccustomed Earth) is a very weak collection comparably.
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 | His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
Buy new: $17.95 / Used from: $9.50 everyone recommended this book on the heels of Harry Potter but I found the main character a little too self-centered and bitchy. Maybe it is just me?
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Listmania!
