Well, if we all don't mind, I'll just add ten books as a post as well! It was very easy to go right on down the lists!
Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer
Talk about a book that stays with you long after you read it. The moon is hit by an asteriod, altering it's path and creating havoc with weather and waves here on earth. It's the story of a teen and her family and how they endure what becomes an increasingly frightening long winter. I hear she's written/is writing another story about the same incident, but on the East Coast.
The $64 Tomato by William Alexander
It's a memoir of a man's multi-year battle with his garden, the surrounding wildlife, weather and insects. I really enjoyed it.
Water for Elephants by Sarah Gruen
I know, we've probably all read it by now, but it is one I find myself recommending to folks who haven't. I'm just sorry I had waited so long to read it myself. I enjoyed all of Jacob's life.
Thursday Next: First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde
If you haven't entered the bookworld, you may be better off with one of the earlier ones for the set-up, but moving into Thursday's future life and family was great, even with the possible ending of the Chronoguard.
Tallgrass by Sandra Dallas
The story of a Japanese-American internment camp in Colorado during WWII. Very much a coming of age story for Rennie Stroud, a la To Kill a Mockingbird.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
Because who would have thought I would have waited with such excitement for the last book in a series as an adult. Kudos to J.K. for bringing that feeling of anticipation back to reading.
No, I Don't Want to Join a Bookclub by Virginia Ironside
As Marie hits her 60th year, she prefers to go about her next life stage under her rules, not everyone elses. It proves that life doesn't end at retirement and old flames and new babies are sometimes the best part of life.
The Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt
Completely worthy of the Newberry Honor book award it received this year. Holling is a great young voice for YA lit. His Wednesday afternoons at first feel like a punishment, staying in the classroom reading Shakespeare with Mrs. Baker. But as the school year moves on, we find ourselves wishing that maybe, we could be reading and learning something from Shakespeare every Wednesday as well.
The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz
Izzy Spellman is in the family business, a chaotic world of private investigation.
Austenland by Shannon Hale
In a year with many choices about novels tied into Austen and P&P, I found Jane Hayes's trip to a resort in England to be very engaging. The trip is made possible after the death of her aunt and Pembrook Park allows her to live as an Austen character. She has spent her dating life comparing men to Mr. Darcy--will she find a real one at last?
8 comments:
I have several of these on my "to-read" list, and clearly I need to get cracking!
I would've had Thursday Next on my list, but I didn't read her until January, so she's up for consideration on the 2008 list :-)
I made a note of some of these titles as well (and of course cheered on the books I had read.) I actually read Water for Elephants in 2007 but before I started goodreads (and in principle, I only backtracked a month . . . I don't think it's fair to put books on that you read years ago . . . just me). Sara Gruen lives right by CLC so I keep hoping they'll get her to come read.
Anyway, I love that I know have such great suggestions coming in from you all. I think I've been reading more because of it (though sometimes I'm tempted to read instead of work . . . hmmm).
A lot of the books I read in 2007 were released in 2007, but a number weren't. I worried a bit about the sanctity of an end-of-year list needing to reflect that year (too much "High Fidelity"?), but finally decided that that wasn't going to happen, and I should just get on with it.
I felt vindicated by our local public radio station, when they did "the top 885 albums of all time." I didn't want to send mine in because who am I to know such things? But they said it could be a *personal* list, so I chose my favorites, whether or not they were the most historically innovative or whatever, and tried to find an equilibrium between favoritism and range (e.g., I only let myself choose 2 Beatles albums). Now, that's a topic for another post...
I was thinking of the list as being "books YOU read that year" rather than books that were published in 2007. That way the list automatically becomes more personal.
I have a tough time with rankings that really force me to make definitive choices (I'm an English person, after all. We love us some ambiguity.) It's like the question, "What's your favorite book?" This question immediately clears all books from my mind and makes me go, "Uhhh . . ." I'm not sure why.
I took it as what I had read in 2007, not nec. published in 2007. And there were probably a few others that may have seemed to have more "literary merit", but these ten were books I thought about a lot or told people about quite a bit.
I definitely have some your titles on my to read list....still waiting to start the Twilight trilogy and curious about a few others as well!
Yeah, those are my criteria, too. I mean, Twilight is clearly not great art, but the characters and their dilemmas really got me involved, so I'm a lot more likely to recommend it (with a caveat about the prose) than some other books that surely have more "literary merit."
I never can come with a title of a favorite book - too much pressure! - so the best I can do is redirect with, "Well, I really enjoyed x recently." I have a stock answer for favorite movie, though - "Singin' in the Rain." I can't think of a single movie I'd rather re-watch.
And what a perfect movie to be your favorite! (I've always like it, too.)I may have been able to guess that, except there were a lot of Astaire musicals as well....
"Top Hat" is my favorite Fred and Ginger movie, but it's the huge variety of different numbers in "Singin' in the Rain" that makes it so perfect. I've probably seen it 40 or 50 times, and I still laugh when Donald O'Connor flies through the wall at the end of "Make 'Em Laugh" and I still get teary-eyed when Gene Kelly sings "You Are My Lucky Star" at the end.
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