The 10 Best Books of 2004

From The New York Times:

The books we’ve chosen as the year’s 10 best — five novels, a short-story collection, a memoir, two biographies and a historical study — present a broad range of voices and subjects. What do they have in common? Each is a triumph of storytelling, and each explores the past, whether through research, recollection, invention or some combination of the three.

Gilead by By Marilynne Robinson

The Master by Colm Toibin

The Plot Against America by Philip Roth

Runaway by Alice Munro

Snow by Orhan Pamuk

War Trash by Ha Jin

Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow

Chronicles: Volume One by Bob Dylan

Washington’s Crossing by David Hackett Fischer

Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare by Stephen Greenblatt