2007 Review of Books

I had a very happy reading year in 2007. My goal was to read 50 books and I fairly well nailed that down. I discovered some authors to love (Markus Zusak, MT Anderson, Jane Austen, Irene Nemirovsky), some who intruiged me (Alexandra Fuller, Lionel Shriver), and some I was revisting with mixed results (Ann Packer, Jodi Piccolt, Ursula Hegi, Tracey Chevalier). I spent quite a bit of time with the Young Adult genre. There is some good stuff there. I bolded only those YA titles that I would recommend to all adult readers whether they had an interest in YA or not, so if you do have an interest in YA, check out some of the books that are not bold; many of them of very good as well.

2007's classics person was Jane Austen for me. I'll finish her off next month with I read Persuasion with my book group. In 2008 it'll be Charles Dickens. I've decided that 6 titles is a good number for diving into a specific classics author, and since Dickens published more than 6, I'll have to decide which to read. Do you have any favorites?

I publish this list for a few reasons. I know my mom is interested, both in what I've read and in what recommendations I have for her. I like to keep a record of the books I read, because my memory is so terrible. I've really enjoyed looking back at this list. It is funny, I am surprised to see that I read Clown Girl, Feed and The History of Love this year. I thought they were all 2006. It seems like they were so long ago. So long as I am keeping a record, I might as well share it.

The number one reason I post this list though, is that I had stopped reading in my late 20's and it was the recommended book list of a friend of a friend that brought me back to books. When you don't know what to read or what to read next, it is hard to pick up a book. With my list I say thank you to that person that I did not know personally, and I hope to pass along the spark that ignites or reignites another person's love of books (I typoed that as "a love of nooks." Nooks are good. I love them also).

The four top standouts this year were:
5. Scribbling the Cat, Alexandra Fuller – This chick can write, and her tale is pretty darn interesting, too. As it is about travels with an African war veteran I was a bit worried that it might not be for the faint of heart, but Fuller handles those types of moments deftly and without sensationalism.

10. Book Thief, Markus Zusak – (YA) Oh this one is good. I asked Ed to tell me what makes a book YA, and he doesn’t know. I suspect this is categorized as such primarily because Zusak is a YA writer. In this book about a young adolescent in Nazi Germany, Zusak doesn’t flinch from heavy material, and his writing is excellent, the plotting complex and the narration thought provoking.

17. The History of Love, Nicole Krauss – Hey, this book is great! It is rich on so many levels. Frankly, I also had a few problems with it, but the strength of the writing and the depths of the themes make those issues easy to overcome.

58. Suite Francaise, Irene Nemirovsky – exquisite. I don’t know what it is like to live (and die) in an occupied country, but Nemirovsky is spot on with human emotions and frailties. Her characters are some absurd, some sympathetic, and some loathsome – she handles them all so well.

I have a bunch of others in bold that are also very good. Here are the books I read in 2007

1. Ben Franklin: an American Life, Walter Isaacson - This one took forever to get through, but I very much enjoyed digging back into history. Isaacson's book is okay. As for Ben, what an interesting guy!

2. Feed, MT Anderson – (YA) You know it is a good book when the main character manages to surprise you. The world Anderson creates is an interesting one. He captures the voice of his narrator and characters that are both young and ignorant without stooping to poor writing. A fine trick.

3. Clown Girl, Monica Drake- this is a first novel and it shows some promise of fine things to come from Drake. The story is captivating, the characters interesting, and the writing sparkles, but stakes are raised to the point of unbelievably and it is tough to have much sympathy for a main character that has little sympathy for others. Still, a recommendation.

4. Godless, Pete Hautman – (YA) An interesting story about a teenager who invents his own religion. I think it takes off quite originally, but winds down as a pretty standard story. I was intrigued by the boy’s discovery of the influence he has over his friends, but while the author points this out quite clearly, I don’t think he explored the idea very deeply.

6. Mindless Eating, Brian Wansink – a food psychologist talks about what factor influence us to eat more than we think we do. He talks quite a bit about the studies he and others have done. It is interesting, though he (or his editor) is trying to tap into the diet book marketplace by including tips about how to mindlessly eat less, and that wasn’t so much interesting.

7. I am the Messenger, Markus Zusak – (YA) Wow! This is great. Never mind that it is Young Adult. You should read this book. It is original, well crafted and thought provoking.

8. Midnight at the Dragon Café, Judy Fong Bates – Eh, good enough. The story is pretty interesting and different, but generally the novel lacks spark both in the storytelling and the writing. Recommend, but didn’t love.

9. Don’t Let’s Go to Dogs Tonight, Alexandra Fuller – Interesting and good, but not nearly as well crafted as Scribbling the Cat.

11. An Abundance of Katherines, John Green – (YA) eh. Despite a fantastic title and interesting appendix (it is fiction, but includes some higher level math that the author does some rudimentary explaining of), this just isn’t very good. The main character is a bit of a sniveler, which is pleasant neither in real life nor in fiction.

12. Getting the Girl, Markus Zusak – (YA) Another good one by Zusak. There is definitely a progression in his books where he just gets better and better. It is hard to write about sad characters. This works.

13. Once Upon a Day, Lisa Tucker – Um. Dumb and clichéd. Doesn’t mean it was so bad I thought about putting it down, but it doesn’t get a recommendation unless you’re looking for total fluff you’ve pretty much read before.

14. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen – Excellent.

15. Fighting Ruben Wolfe, Markus Zusak- (YA) Well, that’s the last of Zusak for me until he writes another. Even though it was his first and each book he wrote was definitely richer than the one before, this book was still very good. He is writing about the same family as in Getting the Girl and I think they are all great, interesting characters. I wonder if he’ll ever revisit them.

16. Twilight, Stephanie Meyers – (YA) The writing is solid at least, but it’s still just a romance. She does a decent job of creating a reality (vampires-um I don’t usually go for vampire fiction) without too many loose ends or anomalies.

18. Emma, Jane Austen – There is a thin thin line when you write about how trite, petty and shallow a society is before your own writing crosses that line. I did not care for Emma, Knightley or any of the characters in this one, and Miss Bates’s ramblings sent me over edge (just as I am sure they were meant to). On a side note: the movie version of Emma is much much better than the one of Pride and Prejudice.

19. The Higher Power of Lucky, Susan Patron – (J) This is a Newberry Award winner and my response just eh. It’s pretty good; the writing is solid. The end of the book wraps up very quickly; it felt as though the publisher said it couldn’t be more than 135 pages and so they trimmed away at the last few chapters until that requirement was met.

20. The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I- The Pox Party, MT Anderson – (YA, but could be adult) Interesting, disturbing and very well written, but I’m not sure I liked it. I thought the beginning was dreadfully slow, and the characters were difficult to know very well. I think, though that it is important piece of work and I do admire the depth and breath of writing the author demonstrates. This is my second book by him and it is nothing like the first.

21. New Moon, Stephanie Meyer – (YA) Despite not loving the first book in this series, I had to find out what happens next. This book is entertaining and not poorly written. It is also not a let down as sometimes happens with sequels trying to duplicate a previous success. I enjoyed it, and it was difficult to put down.

22. Rickshaw Girl, Mitali Perkins –(J) I read two of Perkins’ previous books and I waited and waited for this one to come to me from the library, but I was disappointed to find that it is for a young set. It was still good, but not particularly rich or deep.

23. Never Let Me Go, Kazud Ishiguro – Very interesting. A thoughtful examination of a possible future.

24. Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen – Very good, very satisfying, and oh so romantic.

25. Life As We Knew It, Susan Beth Pfeffer – (YA) All story, but a compelling and entertaining enough one.

26. Being Dead, Jim Crace – This one is very interesting, though not for the squeamish.

27. Stumbling on Happiness, Daniel Gilbert – This is a mildly interesting book on what goes on inside the brain and memory regarding happiness. Gilbert’s style is highly engaging, but I ended up with this one as I seem to often do with non-fiction – feeling like I would have preferred to read the article.

28. Mathematics of Love, Emma Darwin – Wow, this is the first book in a long time that I really didn’t like. Generally I just don’t enjoy a book well enough to recommend, but this one really could have used a stronger editor to pull the narratives together, iron out some purple language and help keep the stories from becoming implausible towards the end. It took a while to get into this book, but once I did, I really wanted to enjoy the stories and the characters, but in the last 50 pages or so, they just didn’t behave (or think thoughts) I thought were consistent. Also, I think Darwin has two stand alone novels here. The primary connection was loose, not particularly interesting, and not really explored. Other connections seemed super imposed. I think all these problems could have been smoothed with the experienced hand of an excellent editor.

29. Boy Proof, Cecil Castellucci – (YA) Witty. Decent story. Seems to capture the voice of everyteen (how do I really know anymore?) well.

30. Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson – (YA) does an even better job of getting into the head of a teenaged character. I really enjoyed the progression of emotions toward an ending that was satisfying, but believable. I’ll agree that it deserved its Printz Honor award.

31. The Lady and the Unicorn, Tracy Chevalier - From the writer of Girl with a Pearl Earring, another fictional tale about how a work of art came to be. This is told by 6 or so narrators and it works very well.

32. Mansfield Park, Jane Austen – So far the most scathing criticism of her society, but it also has the most the filler. I was disappointed to have ended up skimming and dozing so much during this one, because I found the storyline of Mansfield Park to be far more interesting and sophisticated than some of the others.

33. Water Witches, Chris Bohjalian – Why do I keep picking up books by this guy? While his stories are compelling, his writing is formulaic and incredibly focused on Vermont this, Vermont that. If you haven’t read much Bohalian, no reason not to read this one, but it ain’t great.

34. Eggs, Jerry Spinelli – (YA) I generally don’t like books where the protagonists befriends someone who is mean and annoying. I usually find that mean and annoying central characters make for unpleasant books. I don’t want to be around those folks in my life, why would I want to read about them? In this book, though, the mean and annoying friend really fit, and I was surprised that she was never redeemed and had a sudden transformation from being mean and annoying; I had expected that and then it would have been just sappy.

35. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, JK Rowling – I’m gearing up for the July release.

36. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, JK Rowling

37. Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen – Excellent read. Nothing particularly literary about it, but it is well written, and an excellent story. The characters are compelling and, for the most part, realistically motivated. The narrative frame of a 93 year old man looking back 70 years to his depression era circus days works wonderfully and does a nice job of providing a window into aging.

38. Cures for Heartbreak, Margo Raab – (YA) Easier to put down than it should have been, but excellent anyway. Obviously written from experience, Raab tackles the sadness of a 15 year old who loses her mother in 12 days to cancer. She seems to be right on and comes to some thoughtful conclusions on death and living.

39. Pomegranate Soup, Marsha Mehran – an Iranian in Ireland Like Water for Chocolate, though not as well done. The magical parts aren’t done with much conviction, so are less charming than in Esquivel’s book. This one also has recipes and most of them seem quite yummy. I am looking forward to trying one or two. The story is enjoyable, but wraps up awfully neatly. The characters are excellent.

40. Surrender, Sonya Hartnett – (YA) Ugh. I did not like this one at all. I thought it overwritten and predictable. I didn’t like and didn’t care for any of the characters one lick.. ‘nuf said.

41. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, JK Rowling – After reading books 1 and 2 back to back I decided that it was very possible to overdose on good ole Harry so I jumped directly to book 6.

42. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, JK Rowling – A satisfying enough end to the series. I think I am going to stick with the Goblet of Fire being very favorite of them all.

43. The Flavor of Failure, Ed Kline – (YA) Okay, so this was the first draft, and it’s not ready to send to the agent, but it was an excellent read - witty, compelling and smart. Keep your fingers crossed; one day I’ll be able to put up a Powell’s link for this one.

44. Burning Bright, Tracy Chevalier – Okay. I don’t think the historical connection to William Blake works much in this one. I think Tracy’s formula may be losing its appeal for me. It seemed contrived and the ending was far too neat and didn’t seemly likely.

45. A Post Birthday World, Lionel Shriver – This recommendation came from NPR and I was disappointed by it. The premise is that a single decision can change the course of one’s life. In this novel the decision to kiss or not kiss. The book tells both stories of what happens when a woman decides to kiss a man not her boyfriend of nine years. It didn’t buy the stories. One hinges on a decision another person makes at about the same time (which seems like cheating), and the characters in each story are different enough that it felt like the kiss or not kiss was the pivotal point in the this woman’s life, but earlier, so that one type of her would kiss and the other would not. Anyway, it wasn’t a bad read, and Shriver can certainly write well and interestingly, I just didn’t think this work all that well.

46. Thirsty, MT Anderson – (YA) I like MT Anderson, and this one gave me much to think about, but I don’t think this was a particularly polished piece of work. It is, however and interesting and fresh point of view. The existence of vampires is commonplace, annoying and dangerous in a modern day world, and our main character thinks he is becoming one, and he doesn’t want to be.

47. Sacred Time, Ursula Hegi – This was an excellent story. Four characters tell the story of a family touched by tragedy over several decades. Sounds pretty standard, but it is excellent and Hegi’s characters are all interesting and sympathetic.

48. We Need to Talk About Kevin, Lionel Shriver - Awful title aside, think I liked this book quite a bit. It is hard to say, since the characters are all unlikable, and the topic is unpleasant. It was a long, heavy read. I do not recommend for pregnant women. Framed in letters to her absent husband, a mother reviews her culpability in her son’s high school shooting. I like Shriver’s writing, but I do not like her characters, and I suspect I would not like her.

49. Just In Case, Meg Rosoff – (YA) This is a smart, surreal story about a 15 year-old trying to escape his fate which he is convinced is doomed. I did not so much care for Rosoff’s Printz winning How I Live Now, but Just In Case has unique storytelling and most of the events are entirely unpredictable.

50. Farthing, Jo Walton – How disappointing for number 50. Interesting concept pair with not interesting, entirely predictable plot. It is a murder mystery (not a genre I usually read, anyway) that takes place in late 40’s England where a political group had ousted Churchill and made peace with Hitler earlier in the century. One of the narrators has a ditziness that seems out of character, and the murder mystery story is neither interesting nor suspenseful.

51. Kindred, Octavia Butler – This is very intense. I haven’t decided if I liked it. Perhaps if only that it prompted me to do some thoughtful thinking, it deserves a recommendation. However, it had some flaws/weaknesses/frustrations. I suppose I don’t have to agree with all the author’s choices to decide that I like a book very much. I will say it is an excellent book, but I will not give it a, “wow, this is great.”

52. English Passengers, Matthew Kneale – I kept going on this one and I wish I had given it up. I didn’t think the voices were authentic, and the characters were one dimensional. I thought at times the author uses his characters to talk about racism and the sad demise of aboriginal peoples without any finesse at all. I do not recommend.

53. Burger Wuss, MT Anderson (YA) – I hate the title to this one. It is the last (and I think his first novel) of MT Anderson’s that I had to read, and I kept putting it off because of the stupid title. The book, however, is very good. I really like that Anderson is willing to end his books without a nice neat package all tied up in a bow.

54. The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton – Excellent, thought provoking, and generally unexpected. It takes a while to sink into these classics, but they are entirely worth it.

55. Game Control, Lionel Shriver – I don’t know why I am compelled to keep getting Shriver’s books, considering I don’t love them. I think it must be that her writing craft is very good, but her other two books lacked soul. This book is thoughtful and rich, but the technical craft isn’t as great. I give it a thumbs up anyhow.

56. Story of a Girl, Sara Zarr – (YA) Excellent. The characters and themes are complex, and the story so engaging that young adult readers aren’t going to be put off by the complexity. I’d like to see what this author puts out in future; I think her writing only become richer and more sophisticated.

57. Nineteen Minutes, Jodi Picoult – A big bowl of sugar cereal – tastes yummy, but not very nutritious or satisfying.

58½ Songs Without Words, Ann Packer – I loved Packer’s Dive from Clausen’s Pier. This is Packer’s second novel, and I gave up after about 75 pages. I didn’t find the characters interesting, there were too many narrators and I wasn’t attached to any of them. It was predicable, but drawn out, and my final insult is that it felt formulaic. Oh, and it lacked any spark. I do like the cover, though. Just goes to show….

59. Twisted, Laurie Halse Anderson – (YA) Excellent -funny, believable, unpredictable.

60. Lady Jane Grey, Alison Plowson – those Tudor folks sure are fascinating. Poor poor Jane Grey.

61. Fire in the Blood, Irene Nemirovsky – again, excellent, excellent, excellent. The story is fascinating, the narrator complex and the writing so rich.

62. Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, Rachel Cohn & David Levithan – (YA) a pair of YA writers team up to write a book from the points of view of two narrators. The experiment works just fine, the story is compelling, but the pacing gets muddled in the middle. It’s good, but not great.

63. Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen – I wonder if I liked this one or Pride and Prejudice better. This one is more overtly scathing of the English society. The main character is less perfect and the love interest is also a bit more realistic.

64. Thirteen Reasons Why, Jay Asher – (YA) the premise for this novel is riveting. A boy receives a box full of tapes in the mail and they turn out to be the 13 reasons why (or because of whom) she had committed suicide. The tapes are being sent in succession to each of the people featured on the tapes. Our guy doesn’t think he’d done any harm but he has to listen to each of the tapes and the stories on them to understand his role and to know her story. Asher does an excellent job of forcing the reader to be frustrated that none of the reasons why have an opportunity to tell the girl their side of the story.

64 ½ Scandal of the Season, Sophie Gee- This one made we wish I’d keep track of where I get recommendations. I stuck with it for about 130 pages before I realized that not only did I not really want to be reading it, but I also didn’t want to lug it to Texas and back, so I returned it to the library instead.