books: 2004
(A star indicates a book I especially loved.)
December
- The Heart's Garden, the Garden's Heart by Kenneth Rexroth
- The Great Failure by Natalie Goldberg
- The Realm of Possibility by David Levithan
- The Little Black Book of Stories by A.S. Byatt
- A Dictionary of Maqiao by Han Shaogong, trans. Julia Lovell
- *The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
November
- Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson
- The Book of Proper Names by Amélie Nothomb, trans. Shaun Whiteside
- April Witch by Majgull Axelsson, trans. Linda Schenck
- *Video by Meera Nair
- The Food Lover's Guide to the Best Ethnic Eating in New York City by Robert Sietsema
- Wasteland by Francesca Lia Block
- The Secret of Platform 13 by Eva Ibbotson
- *Pulling Taffy by Matt Bernstein Sycamore
October
- My Alexandria by Mark Doty
- *Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan
- Laura: A Journey into the Crystal by George Sand
- The Mistressclass by Michèle Roberts
- Winter Hours by Mary Oliver
September
- Degas Must Have Loved a Dancer by Krista Madsen
- *Lofting by Alma Marceau
- The Tenants of Moonbloom by Edward Lewis Wallant
- Sender Unknown by Sallie Lowenstein
- Arcadia by Tom Stoppard
- *Bee Season by Myla Goldberg
- Whirligig by Paul Fleischman
- Sweet Machine by Mark Doty
- *Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
August
- Pictures in the Dark by Patricia McCord
- Fracas by Paul Violi
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
- Long Ago in France: The Years in Dijon by M.F.K. Fisher
- *A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver by E.L. Konigsburg
- Tape for the Turn of the Year by A.R. Ammons
- *Garbo Laughs by Elizabeth Hay
July
- *A Brief History of the Flood by Jean Harfenist
- The Third Factory by Victor Shklovsky
- Straits by Kenneth Koch
- Knowledge of Angels by Jill Paton Walsh
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
- *Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling (again)
- Splintering by Eireann Corrigan
- The Evening Sun by David Lehman
- *Kissing the Witch by Emma Donoghue
- The Voice at 3 A.M. by Charles Simic
- *Silent to the Bone by E.L. Konigsburg
- Undercurrents by Marie Darrieussecq
- Amalee by Dar Williams
- Kissing in Manhattan by David Schickler
- Better Than Running at Night by Hillary Frank
June
- *Sorcery and Cecilia: or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot by Caroline Stevermer and Patricia C. Wrede
- The Red Notebook: True Stories by Paul Auster
- Lyra's Oxford by Philip Pullman
- Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang by Joyce Carol Oates (again)
- The Woman who Gave Birth to Rabbits by Emma Donoghue
- *Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger
- Pobby and Dingan by Ben Rice
- *Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee
- The Cinnamon Peeler by Michael Ondaatje
- The Willowdale Handcar by Edward Gorey
- Undine by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué, trans. Edmund Gosse
- The Mirror Maker: Essays and Stories by Primo Levi
- *Bethlehem in Broad Daylight by Mark Doty
- Chicken, Shadow, Moon & More by Mark Strand
- *The Book of Salt by Monique Truong
- The Cricket in Times Square by George Selden (again)
May
- Clockwork by Philip Pullman
- Pages for You by Sylvia Brownrigg
- Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere by Jan Morris
- Hard Love by Ellen Wittlinger
- T-Backs, T-Shirts, COAT, and Suit by E.L. Konigsburg
- *Still Life with Oysters and Lemon by Mark Doty
- The Stones of Green Knowe by L.M. Boston
- An Enemy at Green Knowe by L.M. Boston
April
- Sir Gawain and the Green Knight ed. and trans. by James Winny
- By Motor to the Golden Gate by Emily Post
- *Atonement by Ian McEwan
- *The Bachelor in New Orleans by Robert Kinney, with block prints by Eugenia and Bob Riley
- Regeneration by Pat Barker
- One Thousand and One-Second Stories by Inagaki Taruho
- Sailing Alone Around the Room by Billy Collins
- The Mays of Ventadorn by W.S. Merwin
March
- San Francisco Poems by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
- Pure Sunshine by Brian James
- Bedknob and Broomstick by Mary Norton (again)
- Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
- Sidewalk Critic: Lewis Mumford's Writings on New York edited by Robert Wojtowicz
- Course in General Linguistics by Ferdinand de Saussure
- Walker in the City by Alfred Kazin
- Blizzard of One by Mark Strand
- *The Daily Mirror: A Journal in Poetry by David Lehman
February
- *The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
- Look Back in Anger by John Osborne
- A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul
- Arts of the Possible: Essays and Conversations by Adrienne Rich
- The Lais of Marie de France
- Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
- After Henry by Joan Didion
January
- *Catalyst by Laurie Halse Anderson
- The Quiet American by Graham Greene
- *Burger Wuss by M.T. Anderson
- Numbers in the Dark and Other Stories by Italo Calvino
- Annie on my Mind by Nancy Garden (again)
- *Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn
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