I collected approximately eight “Best Books of 2003” lists and combined them into one meta-list. Here are the results. The numbers in bold indicate the number of lists the book was on. If I’ve read the book, I’ve included the rating I gave it on Goodreads (1-5 stars).
6
THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME. By Mark Haddon. (3)
THEY MARCHED INTO SUNLIGHT: War and Peace, Vietnam and America, October 1967. By David Maraniss. (5)
5
DROP CITY. By T.C. Boyle. (4)
THE KNOWN WORLD. By Edward P. Jones. (5)
THE FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE. By Jonathan Lethem. (4)
4
BRICK LANE. By Monica Ali. (4)
GULAG: A History. By Anne Applebaum. (4)
ANY HUMAN HEART. By William Boyd. (4)
LIVING TO TELL THE TALE. By Gabriel García Márquez.
THE NAMESAKE. By Jhumpa Lahiri.
RANDOM FAMILY: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx. By Adrian Nicole LeBlanc.
STIFF: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers. By Mary Roach. (4)
HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX. By J.K. Rowling.
3
THE BOUNTY: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty. By Caroline Alexander. (4)
A SHORT HISTORY OF NEARLY EVERYTHING. By Bill Bryson. (5)
THE GREAT FIRE. By Shirley Hazzard.
THE KITE RUNNER. By Khaled Hosseini.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN: An American Life. By Walter Isaacson.
THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY: Murder, Madness and Magic at the Fair That Changed America. By Erik Larson.
MONEYBALL: The Art of Winning An Unfair Game. By Michael Lewis.
MONSTER OF GOD: The Man-Eating Predator in the Jungles of History and the Mind. By David Quammen.
WAXWINGS. By Jonathan Raban.
JARHEAD: A Marine’s Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles. By Anthony Swofford.
KRAKATOA: The Day the World Exploded – August 27, 1883. By Simon Winchester. (4)
2
SAUL AND PATSY. By Charles Baxter.
AMERICAN WOMAN. By Susan Choi.
ELIZABETH COSTELLO. By J.M. Coetzee.
WAITING FOR SNOW IN HAVANA: Confessions of a Cuban Boy. By Carlos Eire.
THE LIFE YOU SAVE MAY BE YOUR OWN: An American Pilgrimage. By Paul Elie.
A MILLION LITTLE PIECES. By James Frey.
PATTERN RECOGNITION. By William Gibson.
I SHOULD BE EXTREMELY HAPPY IN YOUR COMPANY. By Brian Hall.
IN BLACK AND WHITE: The Life of Sammy Davis Jr. By Wil Haygood.
WHAT WAS SHE THINKING? Notes on a Scandal. By Zoe Heller.
SONS OF MISSISSIPPI: A Story of Race and Its Legacy. By Paul Hendrickson.
MOUNTAINS BEYOND MOUNTAINS: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World. By Tracy Kidder.
ABSOLUTELY AMERICAN: Four Years at West Point. By David Lipsky.
POSITIVELY FIFTH STREET: Murderers, Cheetahs and Binion’s World Series of Poker. By James McManus.
READING LOLITA IN TEHRAN: A Memoir in Books. By Azar Nafisi.
SOUL CIRCUS. By George Pelecanos.
SAMARITAN. By Richard Price.
TRUE NOTEBOOKS: A Writer’s Year at Juvenile Hall. By Mark Salzman.
RIVER OF SHADOWS: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West. By Rebecca Solnit.
QUICKSILVER. By Neal Stephenson.
KHRUSCHEV. By William Taubman.
TRIANGLE: The Fire That Changed America. By David Von Drehle.
OLD SCHOOL. By Tobias Wolff.