59. Cole Swensen "Ours"

58. Dashiell Hammett "The Thin Man"

57. Matthew Dickman "All-American Poem"

56. Thomas Pynchon "Inherent Vice"

55. Aravind Adiga "The White Tiger"

54. Walter Mosley "Devil in a Blue Dress"

53. Joseph O'Neill "Netherland"

52. John Irving "A Widow For One Year"

51. Sarah Ruhl "The Clean House"

50. Lorraine Hansberry "A Raisin in the Sun"

5 Books (of poetry) for Kate Wolf

1. Barbara Guest "Fair Realism"
2. Rae Armantrout "Next Life"
3. George Oppen "Collected Poems"
4. Myung Mi Kim "Dura"
5. Fanny Howe "Selected Poems"

49. Jean Donnelly "Anthem"

48. Zoe Heller "The Believers"

Via Bookslut (of all places [no disrespect]): a link to a great new(ish) site called The Second Pass (as opposed to, you know, an attack on Philip Roth). On the main page (of The Second Pass, not Bookslut) right now--a list of ten books that ought to be removed from the canon.

47. D.A. Powell "Chronic"

46. Carl Phillips "Speak Low"

45. John Ashbery "The Tennis Court Oath"

44. J.D. Salinger "The Catcher in the Rye"

43. Tennessee Williams "A Streetcar Named Desire"

42. Ann Lauterbach "Or To Begin Again"

So, you know that best-song-of-the-summer problem you've been having? Solved.

41. Mary Ruefle "The Most of It"

40. Christine Schutt "All Souls"

39. Elizabeth Strout "Olive Kitteridge"

38. Rae Armantrout "Versed"

37. Josh Bazell "Beat The Reaper"

36. Denis Johnson "Nobody Move"

35. Junot Diaz "Drown"

34. W.S. Merwin "The Shadow of Sirius"

5 Books for Claire Michie

1. Wells Tower "Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned"
2. Allegra Goodman "Intuition"
3. John Cheever "The Wapshot Chronicle"
4. Rebecca Curtis "Twenty Grand and Other Tales of Love and Money"
5. Carl Wilson "Let's Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste"

33. Wendy Wasserstein "The Heidi Chronicles"

32. Akilah Oliver "A Toast in the House of Friends"

31. Deborah Digges "Rough Music"

30. Monica de la Torre "Talk Shows"

I was totally going to post Cam'Ron's "I Hate My Job" because I sort of hate my job. But then I saw this and felt better.

29. Carl Wilson "Let's Talk About Love"

28. Sloane Crosley "I Was Told There'd Be Cake"

Sloane Crosley's book to become HBO show

27. Chelsey Minnis "Poemland"

26. John Wray "Lowboy"

25. Wells Tower "Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned"

Wells Tower's "Wild America" read by a relay operator

24. Patricia Smith "Blood Dazzler"

23. Leni Zumas "Farewell Navigator"

22. Katie Degentesh "The Anger Scale"

21. Alice Sebold "The Lovely Bones"

20. Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons "Watchmen"

19. Katy Lederer "The Heaven-Sent Leaf"

18. Shanna Compton "For Girls (& Others)"

17. Alice Notley "The Descent of Alette"

16. Francine Prose "Blue Angel"

15. Margaret Edson "Wit"

14. Marjorie Welish "Isle of Signatories"

13. Gertrude Stein "Mexico: A Play"