2007 Best of list

Anyone want to share their favorite books from 2007?

I didn't read anything this year that really knocked the proverbial socks off, but the three I found most interesting were:

The Double by Jose Saramago*
The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells
Ghost World by Daniel Clowes

*touchtones not working for this title

nothing really strikes out that was *new* for 07 that I read. I usually try to read other stuff than new pop fic/nonfic.
Brutal was new, I believe....not too gret though

#2 - The works themselves would not have to be published in 2007. I only meant what people considered the best books read in the calendar year.

I had a great year for reading, both in terms of quality and quantity - I know it sounds laughable, but 2007 was sort of the year that I discovered contemporary fiction, thanks to LT and reading the NYT book reviews.

Passage to Dusk - Rachid al-Daif

The Stone of Laughter - Hoda Barakat

The Kin Who Count: Family and Society in Ottoman Aleppo, 1770-1840 - Margaret Meriwether - a school book, but wonderful!

The Cairo Trilogy - Naguib Mahfouz

The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood

The Whore's Child and Other Stories - Richard Russo

Angelica - Arthur Phillips

Blindness - Jose Saramago

After Dark - Haruki Murakami

The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro

The Thirteenth Tale - Diane Setterfield

My Lobotomy - Howard Dully

The Book of Lost Things - John Connolly

The Stolen Child - Keith Donohue

and... The Latke Who Wouldn't Stop Screaming - Lemony Snicket - a hilarious little thing to end the year with

Big list - apologies - a good year for books! A lot of disappointments too and a lot of things that were just three stars....but let's not dwell on them!

Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals.

I'm really bad at "best of" lists because if I commit to a top 5 or 10 favorite anythings I usually change my mind the next week or realize that I've forgotten something.

2007 was the year I found Evelyn Waugh. I've been a Wodehouse fan for years but I've never read Waugh - until 2007. So I'd add that to my list along with:

Writing Home by Alan Bennett
Roadkill on the ThreeChord Highway by Colin Escott - even though sometimes it was a bit confusing. I enjoyed it for the information more than for the writing. The touchstone on this is wonky. I hope it works.
Heat by Bill Buford
Oh, and yes, the last Harry Potter book. Was that this year? I mean, last year? Good grief.

I'm sure there must be others and I'm just forgetting them right now.

I had a really great year for excellent reading in 2007:

10/10
Ronia, The Robber's Daughter - Astrid Lindgren (re-read)
The Plucker: An Illustrated Novel - Brom
Stuck in Neutral - Terry Trueman
The Stand - Stephen King (re-read)

9/10
The Prestige - Christopher Priest
The Tea Rose - Jennifer Donnelly
Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell
No Humans Involved - Kelley Armstrong
Broken Skin - Stuart MacBride
The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
The Talented Mr. Ripley - Patricia Highsmith

There were a whole host of 8/10's too, but I thought I'd leave it at the 9- and 10/10's here.

Read some excellent things in 2007-- Orhan Pamuk was probably my favorite find (Snow and The Black Book) are now two of my favorites.

Jose Saramago's The Stone Raft was also brilliant.

There are probably a few I'm forgetting...

My best were

Fear and Trembling by Amelie Nothomb

How I Became Stupid by Martin Page

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke

Cyteen was my star find. I've been a Cherryh fan for a while, but this really is one of her best works.

Innocent mage and Awakened mage where also star reads. From a new author definetly worth keeping an eye on.

Here's my 2007 top ten list

Thirteenth Tale, The - Setterfield, Diane
Rebel Angels - Bray, Libba
And She Was - Dyson, Emily
Love Walked In -de los Santos, Marisa
Heiress of Water, The -Barron, Sandra Rodriguez
Bookends-Green, Jane*
There's a (Slight) Chance I Might be Going to Hell-Notaro, Laurie**
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows-Rowling, J.K.
Love, Stargirl-Spinelli, Jerry
No Plot, No Problem-Baty, Chris*

*annual reread
**favorite new-to-me author - hilarious! I've since read four of her other books. I think there's only one more out that I'm missing. I laughed so hard that I cried...

Unfortunately, I didn't keep close track of what I read in 2007, but my 5 English-language stand-outs - at least from what I remember - were (in no particular order):

River of Gods by Ian McDonald
Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon
both Ghostwritten and Black Swan Green by David Mitchell
Wizard of the Crow by Ngugi wa Thiong'o

*****The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho ******
This by far was the best book I read in 2007.
The Road by Cormac McCarthy was also excellent. But everyone in my family got a copy of The Alchemist for Christmas!