2006 Books 86 - 90

86.Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee - A college professor's midlife crisis puts him into his adult daughter's life and he discovers he's not the center of the universe. The book is dialog heavy, and in Coetzee's hands, that's a very good thing.

87.The Gun Seller by Hugh Laurie - Long on humour and a little short on cognitive plot, this is what a Naked Gun movie would be like if the writers were more literate...and British.

88. Bitter Fruit by Achmat Dangor - A family in contemporary South Africa discovers that thier emotional wounds go much deeper than Apartheid. It's a very sad story, almost hopeless, but so well written I couldn't put it down.

89. Death Comes For The Archbiship by Willa Cather - Elegant in its simple, antecdotal style, this is a very fast, pleasant read. I'm not quite sure why this book shows up on so many "Best American Fiction" and even "Best English Language Fiction" lists, though. Is it because there aren't a lot of stories about the place and time Cather is writing about? I liked the book, but I’m not seeing it as outstanding in its genre.

90. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison - Set in the story of how a man can become what people expect him to be, and how it becomes easier to disappear rather than fight the expectations. This is a story of race (set in the early days of the Civil Rights movement, right after WWI), but it's still a very current theme - how people are judged and feared because they look different or act different, and the distances they will go to be accepted, even to the point of becoming someone they never were.