Best Books of 2001

1. A Place of Greater Safety, Hilary Mantel: saga about the French revolution—great historical read about Paris
2. The Red Tent, Anita Diamant: wonderful midrash retelling of the biblical story of Dinah and women’s friendship
3. Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser: indictment of the fast food industry—no more hamburgers or fast food for us!
4. The Ladies Auxiliary, Torva Mirvis: life in a small Jewish community in Tennessee disrupted by a newcomer
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K Rowling: I’m hooked!
6. The Real Life Adventures of Lidie Newton, Jane Smiley: gritty, independent woman marries an abolitionist and ends up in pre-Civil War Kansas during the conflict with Missouri
7. Ice Bound, Dr. Jerri Nielsen: doctor goes to Antarctica, discovers she has breast cancer, and treats herself
8. One Year Off, David Elliot Cohen: great adventure about a family of five who travel around the world
9. As Nature Made Him, John Colapinto: chilling story about a boy raised as a girl because of a botched circumcision
10. Prodigal Summer, Barbara Kingsolver: a wildlife biologist observing coyotes and humans in the Appalachians
11. The Bonesetter’s Daughter, Amy Tan: another great story about strong Chinese women through the years
12. Picture Bride, Yoshiko Uchida: about a Japanese picture bride who ends up in an internment camp during WWII
13. Crazy Ladies, Michael Lee West: wild southern women
14. The Flower Master, Sujata Massey: spunky Japanese-American detective exposing crime in the flower industry
15. Funny Boy, Shyam Selvadurai: touching coming of age story about a young gay man in Sri Lanka
16. Daughter of Fortune, Isabel Allende: a Chilean woman who disguises herself as a man in Gold Rush California
17. Paris to the Moon, Adam Gopnik: gives a real flavor of Paris life, but I thought the guy was a bit of a snob…
18. Paula, Isabel Allende: Allende’s amazing life story, told to her daughter lying in a coma
19. At the Still Point, Mary Benson: South Africa in 1965 at the beginning of apartheid
20. Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood, Fatima Marnissi: memoirs of growing up in a Moroccan harem
21. While I Was Gone, Sue Miller: woman faces a dark secret in her past from her radical student days
22. Chocolat, Joanne Harris: yum!
23. Sister India, Peggy Payne: eccentric American runs a boarding house for travelers in India during civil unrest
24. The Book of Ruth, Jane Hamilton: dark story about a woman with troubled childhood and marriage—very sad…
25. Stuck Up a Tree, Jenny McLeod: young Jamaican woman faces her past when her mother dies
26. Light (beach) reading: Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, Helen Fielding; Lucy Sullivan Is Getting Married, Marian Keyes; The Old Girls’ Network, Catherine Alliott