Staff Picks – Our Favorite Books of the Decade


	Odd Thomas Koontz, Dean R. (Dean Ray), 1945-

	Snow flower and the secret fan : a novel See, Lisa.

	Twilight Meyer, Stephenie, 1973- When seventeen-year-old Bella leaves Phoenix to live with her father in Forks, Washington, she meets an exquisitely handsome boy at school for whom she feels an overwhelming attraction and who she comes to realize is not wholly human.

	The hunger games Collins, Suzanne. In a future North America, where the rulers of Panem maintain control through an annual televised survival competition pitting young people from each of the twelve districts against one another, sixteen-year-old Katniss's skills are put to the test when she voluntarily takes her younger sister's place.

	Out stealing horses Petterson, Per, 1952- An early morning adventure out stealing horses leads to the tragic death of one boy and a resulting lifetime of guilt and isolation for his friend, in this moving tale about the painful loss of innocence and of traditional ways of life that are gone forever.

	Saturday McEwan, Ian.

	The dark horse Johnson, Craig, 1961-

	When a man loves a weapon Causey, Toni McGee.

	Last breath : a Sherry Moore novel Shuman, George D., 1952-

	The blind side : evolution of a game Lewis, Michael (Michael M.)

	Ten big ones Evanovich, Janet.

	The time traveler's wife : a novel Niffenegger, Audrey.

	The art of racing in the rain : a novel Stein, Garth. Nearing the end of his life, Enzo, a dog with a philosopher's soul, tries to bring together the family, pulled apart by a three year custody battle between daughter Zoe's maternal grandparents and her father Denny, a race car driver.

	Winter study: [an Anna Pigeon mystery] Barr, Nevada. Visiting an isolated Lake Superior isle to study wolf behavior, ranger Anna Pigeon joins a scientific group that subsequently discovers unusual DNA evidence suggesting that a giant and dangerous wolf hybrid has been introduced by an unknown source.

	Sight hound : a novel Houston, Pam. From the best-selling author of Cowboys are my Weakness comes a story of a woman, Rea, and her dog, Dante, who teaches her that love is stronger than fear. A catalyst for change in other characters as well, Dante effects the lives of Rae's house-tender, her therapist, two veterinarians, and an anxiety-ridden actor. In addition to Dante, there is also Rose, another dog, and Stanley the Cat, all of whom have something to add. With her characteristic wit and candor, Pam shows us how dogs and humans are both creatures in search of connection.

	Daddy's little girl Clark, Mary Higgins.

	Olive Kitteridge Strout, Elizabeth. At the edge of the continent, in the small town of Crosby, Maine, lives Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher who deplores the changes in her town and in the world at large but doesn't always recognize the changes in those around her.

	The shack : a novel Young, William P. Mackenzie Allen Phillips' youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later in the midst of his Great Sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend. Where is God in a world so filled with unspeakable pain?

	The way the crow flies : a novel MacDonald, Ann-Marie, 1958-

	So brave, young, and handsome Enger, Leif. The story of an aging train robber on a quest to reconcile the claims of love and judgment on his life, and the failed writer who goes with him.

	The plague of doves Erdrich, Louise. The unsolved murder of a farm family haunts the small, white, off-reservation town of Pluto, North Dakota. The vengeance exacted for this crime and the subsequent distortions of truth transform the lives of Ojibwe living on the nearby reservation and shape the passions of both communities for the next generation.

	The janissary tree : a novel Goodwin, Jason, 1964-

	American Bloomsbury : Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau : their lives, their loves, their work Cheever, Susan.

	The road McCarthy, Cormac, 1933- America is a barren landscape of smoldering ashes, devoid of life except for those people still struggling to scratch out some type of existence. Amidst the destruction, a father and his young son walk, always toward the coast, but with no real understanding that circumstances will improve once they arrive. Still they persevere, and their relationship comes to represent goodness in a world that is utterly devastated.

Deschutes Public Library