Staff Top 5s of 2011

There were several books I liked this year that I expected to like (such as Murakami's 1Q84), but this book came out of nowhere and absolutely floored me. Zazen is a brutally honest story about the heartbreak that follows the failure of idealism. However, don't be put off by that description, as there is an astringent wit at play here and gallows humor on nearly every page, making Zazen the perfect manifesto for these Occupy (insert location) times.

Kate Beaton's comics have been making me excruciatingly happy since the first time I read them. Deftly rendered characters with wryly twisted lips and infinitely expressive eyebrows parade through the pages of Hark! A Vagrant. Literary and historical characters abound, from Beaton's batty Nancy Drew to the culturally clueless Robinson Crusoe. Also present? Sacagawea, Dracula, Shakespeare, Wonder Woman, Raskolnikov, and Ben Franklin. What can I say? With Hark! A Vagrant, you learn, you laugh — and then you cut out strips and tape them up everywhere.

Vanessa Veselka's lyrical debut novel is a brilliant meditation on our current cultural state: the constant anxiety of societal threat, the blind consumerism and environmental destruction, the hollow gestures of activism, and the emergence of a new lost generation. Her prose is smoldering and urgent, laced with enough dark humor and philosophical poignancy to keep readers rapt long after they've turned the last page.

Wonderstruck is billed as a middle reader, but it isn't, really. Readers won't find enchanted trinkets, supernatural powers, or extraordinary worlds (unless the magical world of a museum counts). Mr. Selznick tells the parallel tales of two characters who live 50 years apart. Though he tells one narrative in words and the other through illustrations, by the end he has seamlessly united the two. Gentle, heartwarming, and soulful, this is just the kind of story we need in today's (and tomorrow's) increasingly fast-paced reality.

Set in the year 2044, Ready Player One tells the story of a Steve Jobs-like character, his death, and the game that's played in a virtual world he created. The winner gains control of his company, and players range from big corporations with money, loner kids, and teams from across the world. It's a fun book filled with characters you love to cheer for and lots of '80s trivia.

I had never read a book about an alligator-wrestling theme park before, but, boy, did I ever love this one! Thirteen-year-old Ava is faced with the task of not only wrestling gators, but also of saving the theme park, her home, and her family. By turns hilarious, pensive, chilling, and redemptive, Swamplandia! starts out as a sort of swampy coming-of-age story, but, after wandering very far afield, ends up so much more. Truly wonderful.

One of the last books I read in 2011 turned out to be my favorite! Shadowcry is the first volume in the Wintercraft series by British author Jenna Burtenshaw. In this dystopian world, a town's people live with the constant threat of war. When war does come, young Kate Winter gets pulled into the fray, only to learn that she is one of those known as the "skilled," all of whom possess the power of life over death. I was so taken with this story I had to order a second copy from the U.K. since it had yet to be released in the U.S.!

Wonderstruck is a treasure of a book. A master artist and storyteller, Selznick beautifully weaves together the lives of Ben and Rose. Set 50 years apart, their stories, one told in pictures and one in words, each take them on journeys that lead to the Natural History Museum in New York. It is an emotionally moving story that was a joy to read.

State of Wonder is Ann Patchett's best book yet (yes, even better than Bel Canto). Brimming with mystery, philosophy, intrigue, ethical questions, the flora and fauna of the Amazon jungle, and absolutely beautiful prose, Patchett's new novel should be at the top of your reading list.

Gripping, gritty, and hilarious, Junkyard Dogs is the sixth in the Walt Longmire series, but you can dive in and thoroughly enjoy it without reading the previous books. Though once you've read one Craig Johnson novel, you'll feel the need to read all of them. A fellow Johnson addict pointed out that his writing is similar in flavor to Richard Russo's, another master of character. I have to agree that if Walt Longmire ever met Hank Devereaux from Russo's Straight Man, they'd probably be the best of friends.

Laini Taylor writes more poetically than anyone I've read since Ursula K. Le Guin, without ever losing the momentum of her story — and what a fresh, evocative, and engrossing story. Taylor's characters live in a very believable world and struggle with decisions that have serious consequences. She doesn't offer much assurance that anyone will live happily ever after. But there is hope.

I had a hard time choosing a number one pick, but this book won out because it was fun and nostalgic and possibly the most joyfully entertaining book I read all year. A quest story set mostly in a virtual world, it's a geeky celebration of all things '80s — a decade when video arcades and John Hughes movies reigned supreme. Is it the best book I read? Probably not. Is it the book that made me happiest while I was reading it and that I most want to force on friends and strangers alike? Absolutely.

Jennifer Egan captures the complexity of the modern human experience and startles readers with the depth and emotion she finds in even the most banal aspects of the 21st century. Bennie Salazar has devoted his life to his record label only to discover that, as the music industry is crumbling around him, his efforts were in vain. Soon, his personal life follows suit. In Bennie, and among his clients, friends, and family, the pressures of modernity and the drives of the individual clash in a mélange of marriage and divorce, triumph and failure. Time and place are both central and irrelevant, as Egan switches between each character's setting and consciousness in a seamless style reminiscent of Mrs. Dalloway. A Visit from the Goon Squad is truly a literary triumph worthy of its Pulitzer Prize.

Mentioning that I've read this book many times might be a little misleading, and not just because I was looking for typos. See, the Benjamin recommending this book is also the Benjamin who co-wrote it. (Hi!) In 2008, I joined my friend Jeff on a cross-country road trip to correct typos in signs. I like to think we managed to blend our self-effacing humor, the breezy fun of the travelogue, and a serious examination of all things grammatical. If you speak and/or write in English, then this is the book for you!

This is a book of photos from the 1950s and '60s of Swiss juvenile delinquents sporting their interpretation of American culture. The large, handmade belt buckles featuring Elvis and Brando, the chain and rope-stitched fly denim jeans, fur vests, and DIY jewelry all transcend fashion and expose a style that's still being ripped-off today. Proof that fashion is for people with no style of their own who appropriate it from the so-called lower class. Criminal.

A breathtaking suite of sentence-driven stories that are as refreshingly funny as they are emotionally eviscerating. Linked by themes of broken relationships and mistrustful lovers, Lutz's newest stories are full of descriptions and observations so bitter and dark that they're hilariously charred.

If I told you this book consists of 500+ pages detailing the inner workings of the massive bureaucracy that is the Internal Revenue Service as well as the interior lives of the people who work there, you'd probably tell me it sounds like a great way to cure insomnia. But Wallace successfully invests his characters and their surroundings with an almost mystical air, suggesting that what lies on the other side of utter dullness is brilliant transcendence — a point that is driven home when you reach the end of the book and realize you don't want to stop reading.

This entertaining and heartbreaking story is told by a fabulous narrator, Eli Sisters. Eli and his brother Charlie are hired killers in late 19th-century Oregon and California, and this is the tale of their final job.

The postwar chaos in the Balkans provides the backdrop for Obreht's superbly crafted debut. A young physician seeks to unravel the mystery that surrounds both her grandfather's death and the mystifying Deathless Man he encountered throughout his adult life. Mesmerizing and wholly original, The Tiger's Wife is a profoundly rewarding read.

The Murder Room is an absolutely riveting story about the history of the Vidocq Society, a group of forensic scientists, cops, FBI agents, etc., that come together to solve unsolvable crimes. I'm not usually a fan of true crime, but The Murder Room is more than that. There are real heroes on these pages, and, once you open it, I dare you to put it down.