Best Books of the Decade

* HSFALAP made the National Post's Best Books of '09 list , the longlist for the #CanadaAlsoReads list, and Xtra's Best Queer Books of 2009.

This morning I woke up at an ungodly hour w/ my girlfriend - she had a 7am shift, and the kitten required pre-dawn play time. The plan was to write for two hours before 9am. Ah, those vacation goals! Instead I spent the last half hour creating a list of my favourite books of the decade.

The list is based entirely on my post-read reaction: 1) the overwhelming desire to buy copies for everyone I knew 2)the urge to display prominently on favourite volumes shelf 3)desire to online-stalk author 4)the urge to utter the phrase Why Didn't I Think To Write Like This?

The results:

Lullabies for Little Criminals – Heather O’Neill
When I Was Young and In My Prime – Alayna Munce
Liar – Lynn Crosbie
Stunt – Claudia Dey
Cumberland – Michael V Smith
Orphan Love – Nadia Bozak
Some of the Parts – T Cooper
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close – Jonathan Safran Foer
Mean Boy by Lynn Coady
Special Topics in Calamity Physics – Marisha Pessl
The Lichtenberg Figures by Ben Lerner

Zoe Whittall on The Next Chapter

You can click here to listen to a podcast of my interview with Shelagh Rogers on CBC Radio's The Next Chapter. Or catch it on CBC Radio 99.1 FM at 4:00p.m. this Saturday.

There is a new reprint of Bottle Rocket Hearts available and it looks beautiful, complete with review quotes on the cover.

I'll be reading tomorrow at 8:00p.m. at the Toronto Women's Bookstore for their Naughty & Nice sale - come save money and support a fantastic feminist bookstore.

& because I love you, here is a photo of my new kitten, Biggie Smalls: