LITTLE BEE is #2 (#1 on the NYTimes list). As the Washington Post states:
"Little Bee leaves little doubt that Cleave deserves the praise. He has carved two indelible characters whose choices in even the most straitened circumstances permit them dignity -- if they are willing to sacrifice for it. Little Bee is the best kind of political novel: You're almost entirely unaware of its politics because the book doesn't deal in abstractions but in human beings."
BROOKLYN is #12, in which a girl immigrates to Brooklyn from Ireland in 1951. The SF Gate says:
"Every once in a while a book appears to remind us why we love fiction. Colm Tóibín's Brooklyn is about a young Irishwoman who immigrates to Brooklyn, N.Y., shortly after World War II because there are no jobs in small-town Enniscorthy, even for someone with her bookkeeping abilities. It is an enormously absorbing, nuanced read that steeps us in its character's world - and gradually surprises us with its moral resonance."
"Let the Great World Spin" (#5) is another of my personal favorites - a fantastic look at 1970s NY - superb writing - and a twisting, intertwining, and elegantly connected character driven plot.
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