The turn of the millenium (Y2K) was of concern to all; global mayhem was predicted to ensue as computers switched dates from 99 to 00. Happily it came and went with very little fanfare! But whilst researching books for this blog it was challenging to find twenty-five bestsellers from that year to include – perhaps authors and their publishers were exercising a little caution ...
Below are twenty-five fiction and nonfiction favourites we thought deserved a 25th anniversary celebration.
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
By turns lyrical, outrageous, formidable, compelling and funny, this is a novel filled with deep humour and dark drama.
Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain
After twenty-five years of 'sex, drugs, bad behaviour and haute cuisine', chef and novelist Anthony Bourdain decided to tell all – and he meant all.
Angels and Demons by Dan Brown
When a world-renowned scientist is found brutally murdered with a mysterious symbol seared onto his chest, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is called in to help. He must decipher a labyrinthine trail of ancient symbols if he is to defeat those responsible – the Illuminati, a secret brotherhood presumed extinct for nearly four hundred years, who plan to destroy Vatican City.
Down Under by Bill Bryson
Bill Bryson's travels in a sunburnt country: Australia will never look the same again.
True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey
Peter Carey's stunning, Booker Prize-winning novel about Australia's most famous outlaw.
Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
Winner of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, Michael Chabon’s exceptional novel is a heart-wrenching story of escape, love and comic-book heroes – a thrilling tightrope walk between high comedy and bitter tragedy.
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
Discover the nightmarish tale of a house that is bigger on the inside than the outside that still inspires devotion among an army of fans … Experimental in terms of design, typography, structure and content, this is a fully immersive and novel reading experience you won't be able to forget.
The Consolations of Philosophy by Alain de Botton
Alain de Botton's The Consolations of Philosophy takes the discipline of logic and the mind back to its roots. Drawing inspiration from six of the finest minds in history – Socrates, Epicurus, Seneca, Montaigne, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche – he addresses lack of money, the pain of love, inadequacy, anxiety and conformity.
The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt
Originally published in 2000 to international acclaim, The Last Samurai is a paean to the power of language and learning – dazzling, delighting and inspiring a legion of readers.
Under the Skin by Michel Faber
An utterly unpredictable and macabre mystery, Under the Skin is a genre-defying masterpiece.
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
In this brilliant and original book, Malcolm Gladwell explains and analyses the 'tipping point', that magic moment when ideas, trends and social behaviour cross a threshold, tip and spread like wildfire.
The Dressmaker by Rosalie Ham
Tilly Dunnage has come home to care for her mad old mother. She left the small Victorian town of Dungatar years before, and became an accomplished couturier in Paris. Now she earns her living making exquisite frocks for the people who drove her away when she was ten. Through the long Dungatar nights, she sits at her sewing machine, planning revenge.
When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro
A novel of memory and loss, set between London of the 1930s and Shanghai between the wars.
Winter's Heart (The Wheel of Time, Book 9) by Robert Jordan
The ninth novel in the Wheel of Time series – one of the most influential and popular fantasy epics ever published.
On Writing by Stephen King
Part memoir, part master class by one of the bestselling authors of all time, this superb volume is a revealing and practical view of the writer's craft, comprising the basic tools of the trade every writer must have.
Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
Prodigal Summer weaves together three stories of human love within a larger tapestry of lives inhabiting the forested mountains and struggling small farms of southern Appalachia.
Perdido Street Station by China Mieville
The metropolis of New Crobuzon sprawls at the centre of its own bewildering world. Humans and mutants and arcane races throng the gloom beneath its chimneys, ruled over by the parliament and its brutal militia. Now a stranger has come, with a pocketful of gold and an impossible demand, and inadvertently something unthinkable is released.
Dark Palace by Frank Moorhouse
Moving, wise and utterly engrossing, this is a profound and enriching novel. Grand Days and Dark Palace confirm Frank Moorhouse as one of our greatest writers – a master of tone and timing, an elegant and exuberant stylist, and an unerring chronicler of the human spirit.
After You'd Gone by Maggie O'Farrell
After You'd Gone follows a young woman's mental journey through her own past, after a traffic accident has left her in a coma. A love story that is also a story of absence, and of how our choices can reverberate through the generations, it slowly draws us closer to a dark secret at a family's heart.
The Duke and I by Julia Quinn
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Julia Quinn comes the story of Daphne Bridgerton, in the first of her beloved Regency-set novels featuring the charming, powerful Bridgerton family.
Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds
A huge, magnificent space opera that ranges acrioss the known and unknown universe ... towards the most terrifying of destinations.
The Human Stain by Philip Roth
Philip Roth's brilliant conclusion to his eloquent trilogy of post-war America – a magnificent successor to American Pastoral and I Married a Communist.
Pastoralia by George Saunders
In Pastoralia, George Saunder's second full-length short story collection, elements of contemporary life are twisted, merged and amplified into a slightly skewed version of modern America.
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
This collection from David Sedaris is cause for celebration. These hilarious pieces were inspired by his move from New York to Paris and include 'Me Talk Pretty One Day', about his attempts to learn French from a sadistic teacher who declares that 'every day spent with you is like having a caesarean section'.
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
White Teeth is a funny, generous, big-hearted novel, adored by critics and readers alike. Dealing – among many other things – with friendship, love, war, three cultures and three families over three generations, one brown mouse, and the tricky way the past has of coming back and biting you on the ankle, it is a life-affirming, riotous must-read of a book.
