2007: The Year in Books

December 27, 2007

This has been a marvelous year of reading. So many memorable books (most of them memorable in a good sort of way)! So many pleasant evenings spent in the company of a cast of characters from Afghanistan to Alaska, the past and the future, from the circus to the coal mine. I am reluctant to move on to next year because I fear disappointment. Truly, this year was filled with some of the best books I've ever read.

The Top 10

* The Glass Castle (Jeannette Walls)
* The Time Traveler's Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)
* Water for Elephants (by Sara Gruen)
* The Thirteenth Tale (Diana Setterfield)
* Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (Lisa See)
* The Kite Runner (by Khaled Hosseini)
* A Thousand Splendid Suns (Khaled Hosseini)
* Mrs. Mike (Freedman)
* The Book Thief (Markus Zusak)
* Crow Lake (by Mary Lawson)
* Night (Elie Wiesel)

And the absolute best books this year: The Glass Castle and The Kite Runner. Both of them are absolutely phenomenally amazing. These books shook me to my core and made me step outside of myself, jaw dropped, to read the amazing resilience that exists in people--the sheer ability to survive.

Not in the Top Ten, but Enjoyable and I'm Glad I Read Them

* Girl with the Pearl Earring (Tracy Chevalier)
* The Endless Steppe (Esther Hautzig)
* Talk to the Hand (Lynn Truss)
* The Nazi Officer's Wife (Edith Hahn Beer)
* The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio (by Terry Ryan)
* The Hinterlands (by Robert Morgan)
* Into Thin Air (Jon Krakauer)
* When Crickets Cry (Charles Martin)
* The Myth of You and Me (Leah Stewart)
* My Sister's Keeper (by Jodi Picoult)
* The Widow of the South (Robert Hicks)
* Ellen Foster (Kaye Gibbons)
* This Rock (by Robert Morgan)
* The Innocent Man (John Grisham)
* Into the Wild (Jon Krakauer)
* Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
* I Capture the Castle (Dodie Smith)
* Veil of Roses (Laura Fitzgerald)
* A River Runs Through It (Norman Mcclean)
* Saving Fish from Drowning (Amy Tan)
* We're Just Like You, Only Prettier (Celia Rivenbark)

Classics Re-Read (I don't include these in rankings because they are classics, for Pete's sake)

* The Pearl (John Steinbeck)
* My Antonia (Willa Cather)
* A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
* Ethan Frome (by Edith Wharton)
* The Red Pony (John Steinbeck)
* A Separate Peace (John Knowles)
* The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain)

Biggest Disappointments
(i.e., Books That Came Highly Recommended that made me want to shake someone)

* The Eyre Affair (by Jasper Fforde)
* Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
* Crossing Over: One Woman's Escape from Amish Life (Irene Garrett)
* The Way They Learn (Cynthia Tobias)

And the Entire List Itself* **

(*Books that aren't on any lists above are neither fabulous nor hideous but lie somewhere in the land of mediocrity. In my opinion, of course.)
(**This list does not include the dozens of novels read aloud to the children. Perhaps in the coming year I can be diligent enough to review those, as well. Perhaps. )

1. The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio (by Terry Ryan)
2. In My Mother's House (by Elizabeth Winthrop)
3. The Hinterlands (by Robert Morgan)
4. Into Thin Air (Jon Krakauer)
5. Talk to the Hand (Lynn Truss)
6. The Pact (Jodi Picoult)
7. The Time Traveler's Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)
8. Bathsheba (by Roberta Kells Dorr
9. The Garden at the Edge of Beyond (by Michael Phillips)
10. Crow Lake (by Mary Lawson)
11. Water for Elephants (by Sara Gruen)
12. Arctic Son (by Jean Aspen)
13. Solomon's Song (by Roberta Kells Dorr)
14. The Queen of Sheba (Roberta K. Dorr)
15. New Stories from the South, 2006
16. The Children's Blizzard (by David Laskin)
17. When Crickets Cry (Charles Martin)
18. The Myth of You and Me (Leah Stewart)
19. The Eyre Affair (by Jasper Fforde)
20. My Sister's Keeper (by Jodi Picoult)
21. Jerusalem Vigil (Brock and Bodie Thoene)
22. Crossing Over: One Woman's Escape from Amish Life (Irene Garrett)
23. The Pearl (John Steinbeck)
24. My Antonia (Willa Cather)
25. The Endless Steppe (Esther Hautzig)
26. The Thirteenth Tale (Diana Setterfield)
27. One Thousand White Women (Jim Fergus)
28. This Rock (by Robert Morgan)
29. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
30. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (Lisa See)
31. The Innocent Man (John Grisham)
32. The Kite Runner (by Khaled Hosseini)
33. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
34. Ethan Frome (by Edith Wharton)
35. The Way to Rainy Mountain (by N. Scott Momaday)
36. The Red Pony (John Steinbeck)
37. A Separate Peace (John Knowles)
38. Wrapped in Rain (Charles Martin)
39. The Nazi Officer's Wife (Edith Hahn Beer)
40. A Thousand Splendid Suns (Khaled Hosseini)
41. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
42. The Other Side of the River (Alex Kotlowitz)
43. Alice's Tulips (by Sandra Dallas)
44. The Dead Don't Dance (Charles Martin)
45. Mrs. Mike (Freedman)
46. The Scarlet Letter (Nathaniel Hawthorne)
47. Man and Boy (Tony Parsons)
48. I Capture the Castle (Dodie Smith)
49. The Book Thief (Markus Zusak)
50. Between, Georgia (Joshilyn Jackson)
51. Peace Child (Don Richardson)
52. Night (Elie Wiesel)
53. The Diary of Mattie Spenser (Sandra Dallas)
54. Winter Birds (Jamie Langston Turner)
55. The Lighthouse (P.D. James)
56. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain)
57. Girl with the Pearl Earring (Tracy Chevalier)
58. The Way They Learn (Cynthia Tobias)
59. The Widow of the South (Robert Hicks)
60. New Mercies (Sandra Dallas)
61. Into the Wild (Jon Krakauer)
62. Ellen Foster (Kaye Gibbons)
63. How Strong Women Pray (Bonnie St. John)
64. The Glass Castle (Jeannette Walls)
65. Veil of Roses (Laura Fitzgerald)
66. A River Runs Through It (Norman Mcclean)
67. The Lady and the Unicorn (Tracy Chevalier)
68. * Saving Fish from Drowning (Amy Tan)
69. *We're Just Like You, Only Prettier (Celia Rivenbark)

Reviews in Past Years:

Pathetic Review of Books Read in 2005

Much Better Review of Books Read in 2006