I swear there have been more, but I'm drawing a blank. I wish the library kept a list of the books I'd had out.

Frank Schätzing - The Swarm
Daniel Kehlmann - Measuring the World

They were both massive hits in Germany, and the first is quite apocalyptic. "Measuring the World" has been a Potter-sized hit and a critical success. White and male, but not American.

"Black Summer", published by Avatar Press, first issue due out May/June.
It's a superhero GN, but it deals with a very 21st Century issue: if morality is defined not by universal absolutes, but rather by personal and societal perspective, then what are the logical limits to moral actions? How far is one allowed to break the rules in the name of justice?

Secondly, "Little Black Vein", published by William Morrow, due out August 2007. In his first novel, Ellis turns the detective genre on its head, by sending his protagonist on a cross-country search for the "real" U.S. Constitution, encountering a veritable menagerie of social freaks along the way. He claims nearly every behavioral abnormality in it is true; and that the story would have been impossible to construct, if not for the existence of the internet.

No doubt both of these are going to be decidedly age-unapprpriate, but if the students (and their parents) can handle the subject matter, I can't think of a better writer currently working in any media, who would have their thumb more firmly pressed down on the carotid of where literature might be going in the New Century.

I'd like to note that some of the characters in White Teeth - such as the spitting homeless woman known as "Mad Margaret" - are real. When I was growing up, there was a street to avoid, because that was where "Mad Margaret" lurked. She spat at my father once.

There was a lot of millenialist fiction written in the 1970s under the influence of Rachel Carlson, for example, that still haunts today with the threat of climate change and global pandemics.

And the goal of my friend's class is to look at what people are writing now to get a beat on what it says about the 21st Cent.

In short, it's not a class on lit about the 21st Century. It's a class on lit written in the 21st Century.

Our stab at prerequisites was just a way to get the list started.

As far as non-fiction, I'd suggest:

* Spanking the Donkey by Matt Taibbi
An excellent deconstruction of the vapid and disastrous 2004 election.

* 102 Minutes by Kevin Flynn and Jim Dwyer
A carefully researched, minute-by-minute stepping through the events of 9/11 at the WTC site.

* Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser
Another carefully researched view into industrial food production.

As far as fiction:

* Obliviously on he Sails by Calvin Trillin
Some wonderfully fun poetry about the Bush administration.

*Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

*Bruce Wagner's cell phone trilogy (I'm Losing You, I'll Let You Go, Still Holding)

I thought of suggesting it, but it is almost too good for a high school class. One would need to devote at least 12 hours of watching (or so) just to make it through one season. Further, the series is clearly based on the early to mid-90's Baltimore.

I'd suggest _The Corner_ or _Homicide__ -- the non-fiction basis for the Wire-- but both are creations of the 90's.

"The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay" (Michael Chabon)
"American Gods" (Neil Gaiman)
"At Swim, Two Boys" (Jamie O'Neill)
"The Crimson Petal and the White" (Michael Faber)
"Empire Falls" (Richard Russo)
"Insect Dreams" (Marc Estrin)
"The Known World" (Edward P. Jones)
"Love" (Toni Morrison)
"The Master" (Colm Toibin)
"Middlesex" (Jeffrey Eugenides)
"The Namesake" (Jhumpa Lahiri)
"The Royal Family" (William Vollmann)
"Snow" (Orhan Pamuk)
"Three Junes" (Julia Glass)

Assuming, that is, that one starts the 21st century in the year 2000. And, several of these are absolutely NOT "appropriate for upper-level high schoolers."