2007 Book List

1. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Wow, I finished this awhile ago and don’t really know what to say. I picked this book up many times while browsing my books for something to read and always put it back down. Even though it was recommended by the esteemed M. Pendleton, it didn’t seem like something that I would like. But? I loved it. I got into it on a flight home from FL and was immediately sucked into the interwoven stories. This novel is different, ambitious, strange, funny, smart and yet totally readable, which was unexpected. I liked some of the stories better than others, but one of the better novels I’ve read in a long time.

2. Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld
Especially juxtaposed with the above novel, this one just falls flat. This book tracks a “regular girl” who enrolls in a fancy East coast boarding school. Should be great? Or at least made-for-tv? But instead it is tedious and boring. It certainly could use some lighter moments and a good editor. This book got a lot of good press, but I was ready for it to be over 1/2 way through.

3. A Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
I read this for a book group at my local branch this week that was canceled due to the ice storm, but glad that I reread this book. The same book group read Remains of the Day last time and we discussed the whether or not people found it funny or not. I found parts of RotD very funny indeed. The back cover of this book also mentions that this book is funny at times. I would have been interested to see what the book group ladies thought of that, because I didn’t find this very funny at all. It is sad. Very sad and yet not all that far away. I’m sure I read this in high school and found the whole premise completely alien, something that would never happen and now rereading it as an adult, I am not so sure that this is something that couldn’t happen in my lifetime. I have read some other more recent Atwood, but find this character one of my favorites of hers.

4. A Year of Pleasures by Elizabeth Berg
This is my second Berg book, and probably my last. I know that many people don’t give her credit for being very literary but I have also heard a lot of good things about her and now I’ve tried two (last year I disliked Open House). The characters are all so loveable-quirky in a not very real way. Everything ends up. So. Perfect. Perfect in a 1.5 hour movie kind of way, or a paper doll way. Her writing reminds me of Anne Tyler (some of which I love), but she seems to do quirky characters just one notch better. This is a quick mindless read, if that is what you are looking for, but it left me feeling flat.

5. Sula by Toni Morrison
Confusing, challenging, funny and sad. I love this book. Sula doesn’t have much of a plot (my favorite books usually don’t) but follows the relationship between Sula and Nel. It is also about relationships, self, community, loss, love and pain. Some very shocking things happen and people suffer and survive. And maybe are the better for it. Maybe they aren’t. The story is simple, but elegantly told; not a word is wasted and though it isn’t very long, feels deep in its meaning and emotions. These are quirky characters that don’t feel like caricatures. If you’ve never read any Toni Morrison, this is a great one to start with.

6. Thunderstruck by Erik Larson
Larson took the same premise that made Devil in the White City such a hit and applied it to another situation. This time he recounts a murder in London at the same time following Marconi’s struggles to successfully transmit messages via wireless over the Atlantic. The Marconi story was interesting, if possibly too detailed. Many parts seemed repetitave, a few times I was actually wondering if I was reading the same part. And while the wireless invention was pretty impressive (especially since they didn’t seem to know what they were doing), it isn’t anything compared to the unknown amazingness of creating the White City in the previous book. I am still interested in reading Isaac’s Storm (one of Larson’s earlier books) but was disappointed in this one.

7. The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards
I try to stay pretty up on the press about up and coming general contemporary literature, and this book seemed to be getting tons of press. I didn’t know anybody personally who ready it, but it fit the bill of something that I would love. I feel let down. I enjoyed this book, but didn’t love it like I expected. Maybe that is the problem, it could never live up to the hype, but I felt the characters fall flat and the author’s over description blanch the story. The author insisted (beyond all reason) to bring the story full circle and is completely unnecessary and even tedious. I would have been happier with a hanging ending much earlier. I would recommend this book to some big readers, but is by no means a must read. I think that if you like Jodi Picoult, you would like this book.

8. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
Recommended to me by some women in my reading group, I plowed though this book. It wasn’t all that special, but it was a quick and fun read. Not entirely stimulating, it was a book I didn’t want to put down at night. This is the second book I’ve read recently about a secret Chinese language for women, and the book centers around women friends which is something I am intersted in and think is often a subject ignored over romantic love. The book would make a good book discussion book as it brings up a lot of women’s issues concerning loyalty, friendship, status, worth and love.

9. When Madeline Was Young by Jane Hamilton
I am still moved and intrigued by Hamilton’s Book of Ruth, but several of her other books have been pretty forgettable to me (and I think I’ve read them all). This book tracks the story of a family who takes care of the dad’s first wife who becomes brain damaged after a bicycle fall. The family relations are interesting, but I didn’t really ever get completely engaged. I enjoyed this read, but it will gloss over in the coming months and eventually become forgettable.

10. Night Watch by Sarah Waters
This story told by Waters tracks several interlocking characters after and during World War II in London. The story starts at the end, and moves backward to unravel how each character came to be in the place he or she ended up at the beginning. Confusing? A little. The story was well done and the characters were excellent, that I couldn’t help feeling like the backward telling was a little too much, more of a gimmick. I found that some parts that were supposed to be highly meaningful (like the ring) got lost in the time continum. The historical aspects of this novel were well done and interesting, despite my dislike for historical fiction. While I enjoyed this book, and it was well written I’m not sure that I would jump into another Waters book again in the near future.

11. The Nasty Bits by Anthony Bourdain
On the whole I love me some Tony Bourdain. This book is a collections of previously published pieces he has written about restaurants, travel and food. Some of the pieces were fantastic, some others, not so much. I totally skipped the fiction part at the end after a few boring pages. I also thought it was interesting that at the end he has disclaimers for each essay, saying where it was published and under what circumstances. Often in these disclaimers, he sort of takes back the snark. He all of a sudden becomes very self depreciating and almost apologizes for the venom of some of the essays which I found disconcerting. I love Tony for being a little shit sometimes and here he was feeling bad for it? I wonder if he is feeling some of the pressure to clean up his act for tv, as he makes fun of some other celebrity chefs for doing.

12. Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
I am trying to pick books for my book group that might appeal to a large group of people and that are fairly easy reads. This probably isn’t a book that I would have read on my own, but thought the group might like it. I was wrong. Wrong. Wrong. The book was flat, dull and uninspired. I thought the best part was the weaving in of the food…the recipes and food metaphors were fun and different. But the love story was lame and the mystical realism seemed distracting. More background on the Mexican Revolution couldn’t have hurt either. The movie follows the book pretty much to the letter, so I would just watch that instead as I think the movie is even a little bit better!

13. The Gates of the Alamo Stephen Harrigan
I would have never read this book if it weren’t for the One Book One San Antonio initiative. Am I glad I read it? Not really. Did I hate it? Not really. There were many parts of this book that I enjoyed much more than I thought I would. Clocking in at over 700 pages, it did slow down my reading time table and it will never make a best of list, but I maybe learned a little bit. I could have done without the parts where people’s faces were blown straight out the back of their heads, and I wouldn’t recommend to anyone who isn’t a historical fiction buff or someone exceptionally interested in Texas history, but really it wasn’t as horrible as I though. Well written and interesting details kept me going, but I am glad I am done!

14. What is the What by Dave Eggers
Wow. I loved this book. It has been a long time since I’ve read a novel that grabbed me, held me and made me wanting more. This book is written as an autobiography in the voice of a Sudanese Lost Boy, a young man now living in Atlanta. His story goes back and forth between the present day and his journey across southern Sudan to his years at living in refugee camps for almost 15 years. While fictionalized, it is based on a real person and the narration is clear and true. I was really touched by this book without feeling manipulated or beaten over the head. I am amazed at the human spirit, kindness and evil. This book was a gutsy move by Eggers, and it pays off in spades. While there are some very difficult parts of this book, it is not without hope. Highly recommended.

15. Whole World Over by Julia Glass
Phew. I picked up this book because I read The Three Junes last year and loved it. While Fenno makes an apperance in this book, we are introduced to many new characters, none of whom are as interesting as Fenno and his family. Greenie is married to a jerk, takes a job for the governer of NM, and developes a friendship with Walter. The jerk husband meets a partially amnesiatic woman named Saga, who is also friends with Fenno. The story is too long, and really not that interesting. I am interested to see what else Julia Glass puts out, but this wasn’t one of my favorite. Also? The reader (I listened to it on CD) was ridiculous. She read the whole book with her voice almost breaking into? an upward? tilting? laugh? at all? times?.

16. The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan
A truly fascinating non-fiction book about the Dust Bowl during the mid 1930s in the American Plains. This book won several awards, but what really motivated me to read it was hearing Egan on NPR, he was so personable and interesting. This book is a pretty quick read, and truly amazing. What concerns me is that it seems like most everyone has concluded that the Dust Bowl was created by man. But there seems to be a lot of though in Washington that man doesn’t have much impact on the environment and ecology. We seem headed for a greater disaster than this, directly influenced by our activities and no one seems to be able to draw any parallels. The plains are still being planted with crops that need an endless supply of irrigation. I wish Egan had clearly stated a little more at the end that there needs to be a long range environmental and ecological plan for this country or else we may also be eating dirt at some point in the future.

17. How To Make an American Quilt by Whitney Otto
I look at a lot of book lists to prepare for my book discussion at my library and this one often comes up as a good book to discuss. Which sort of makes me wonder. This is a strange little book with many short sentences. Maybe. To think. There were endless interchangeable characters and I never felt connected. Some of the book is written in second person which instead of making me feel drawn into the story, left me feeling a little bit more disconnected. Watch the movie instead.

18. The Kitchen God’s Wife by Amy Tan
I read this for a book club that in the end I couldn’t make. I’m sure that I’ve read this book before, but kept getting it confused with another Tan book. Maybe Joy Luck Club. I kept waiting for the part where she leaves the twin girls at the side of the road, but then realized much later into the book that wasn’t going to happen. Really though I think that these stories are pretty interchangeable. I enjoyed reading it, but one Tan read would be enough.

19. The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
When you come across a phrase like ‘the muscle of the river’, and you think that is exactly what it feels like you know you are on to something. Desai has written a beautiful book with unlikely phrasing that works beautifully. This is like eating up words and letting them dribble down your chin for the sheer pleasure they give you. The setting is equally amazing, but the characters are a tad flat and the ending not quite up to the first 7/8 of the book. I still heartily recommend and will be intrigued with what she puts out next.

20. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
I chose this for the Carver book club that I ended up cancelling, but finished the book anyway. This is a well written memoir, and an interesting look at certain parts of America at a certain point. Angelou spends considerable time in her early childhood, and then not as much when she was a teenager which I found more interesting. Her time in San Francisco was filled with small insights to her characer, the time, the setting that I found very interesting and could have read more of. I guess I am glad that I read this, but didn’t find it impressive.

21. Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
Fascinating! I read the revised and expanded version and found it very interesting and thought provoking while being a good fun read at the same time. Having the facts and figures presented by not the economist, but by a journalist is a stroke of genius as this reads like you are sitting around with them over happy hour. I must claim that I am one of those people who has never really been interested in economics, but the idea of the hidden cost of everything is interesting to me from a historical or sociological standpoint. And as a librarian the idea of being able to look at information in different ways to answer questions is really cool, as shown in the cheating teacher/cheating sumo wrestler chapter. Not very long, and highly recommended.

22. If I Die in a Combat Zone by Tim O’Brien
This book is considered O’Brien’s true account of his time spent as a foot soldier in Vietnam. I have read two of his novels of his also dealing with Vietnam and found them much better. Not just that the stories were richer, but I thought the writing better. I am glad that I read this, as I really enjoyed The Things They Carried, and Going After Cacciato and knowing that O’Brien is obsessed with a true war story. With that in mind, it is a little hard to take this true account, well, truthfully. I do think that the lead up to his departure is very interesting as he tries (sometimes not very successfully) to explain why he went and how he felt about it. Read one of the above mentioned novels instead to really see the wonderful writing and obsess, at least for a little bit, about a true war story.

23. Oracle Bones by Peter Hessler
I feel like I read this forever. I liked it, but it did seem a little all over the place at times. I enjoyed the parts about the follow up of his students from River Town (which I loved), and I enjoyed the parts about the ancient writing and Chinese Linguistics in general but while connected may have been a little more powerful in separate books. I will continue to be interested in what Hessler puts out as I feel that he is one of the most self-aware writers out there who happens to also be really good. Recommended for people who are interested in recent Chinese history.

24. The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl by Barry Lyga
I am not working with a teen reading group at work and felt that I should pick up a YA book…so went against my librarian grain to actually do any research on this topic and just went to the shelf and grabbed one. Not bad, but not great either. I kept wondering if I would love this when I was 14, but I’m not sure. Should it matter? It seemed a little far fetched and overly dramatic. But maybe that is the point. The side characters (including Goth Girl really) are a little one dimensional, but I really enjoyed the main character. I would probably recommend this to teens.

25. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
I read this in about two days at my sublet. While often darkly depressing, I can see why this book was so popular. I didn’t however love it, but liked it. The characters are a little bit black and white (so good! so bad! so cowardly!) that it often rings a little untrue. But the setting was very interesting and it covers some interesting moral ground. At what point can we let go of childhood mistakes? How can we rectify some of those misdeeds? And what if we try to rectify and that doesn’t work out? Or at least not the way we planned. I don’t know. Enjoyable airplane read, but not a life changer for me.

26. Aspirin: The Remarkable Story of a Wonder Drug by Diarmuid Jeffreys
I sometimes wonder why I read books like this. I slogged through the first part of this book very slowly, and often forgot names and dates. The book did get more interesting while talking about Bayer’s connections with IG Farben and the Nazis. Without the lucrative asprin sales that spiked after WWI, IG Farben wouldn’t have had the huge sums of money to donate to the Nazi party and things may have turned out differently. An IG Farben lead “scientist” was also convicted of war crimes for some pretty despicable things during the holocaust, and upon his release from jail went on to become the head of Bayer. It is an interesting look at the pharmaticutical world, branding, generics, and marketing. You may not look at the rows and rows of OTC drugs in the same way again. I know I won’t.

27. You Suck: A Love Story by Christopher Moore
This may be the first vampire book I’ve ever read. Really. I picked this up because I know that Christopher Moore is very popular and considered pretty funny. There were parts of this book that I liked, but mostly was ready to be done with it. I couldn’t keep all the characters straight (like The Animals) and really in the end didn’t care what happened to whom. I did sort of like Abby and wouldn’t mind reading a spin off on her character. Really this just isn’t the type of book that I enjoy.

28. The Book of Salt by Monique Truong
Confusing and sometimes heavy handed, I highly enjoyed this beautifully written book. It is meant to pull you along a winding path, not always sure of where it is going or how it is going to there there. This book isn’t about the Vietnamese cook for Tolklas and Stein in Paris, it is about memory, longing, and home. There isn’t really a plot, but an interesting character whose befuddling memory, lapses, and beliefs are confusing but seem more realistic than straighforward recollections you find in most novels. I would be interested in what else this author puts out. Beautiful and well written? I really recommend this book.

29. Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
I absolutely loved this book. I asked each of my teen book group members to assign me a book to read that they had liked. The only boy in the group recommended this YA novel and it was wonderful. The characters were interesting, fun, flawed, strange and loveable. The story was paced just right and brought me along for the ride. I knew what was going to be revealed at the end, but how it was revealed was genius. This is a book about loss, but also about family, friendship and how to heal. A very beautiful book that I would recommend to anyone.

30. Scurvy: How a Surgeon, a Mariner, and a Gentlemen Solved the Greatest Medical Mystery of the Age of Sail by Stephen Bown
Short and interesting for those of you interested in medical and or sailing history. Unfortunately not very much to do with pirates, but an interesting (and often gross) account of what happens to your body upon developing scurvy and why it was so slippery to figure out. Many sailors and physicians had written about lemons helping, but the information got vague over the years, and then often lost. Without any real understanding of nutrition, it is easy to see that it is more convienent to blame scurvy on just about anything else other than a bad diet. Also disturbing is that the first full push for curing the disease came when armys were losing ships, not sailors. Dead sailors don’t cost the British Navy any money. However scurvy may have saved Britian twice, once from the Spanish Armada and then again as Napoleon set his sights on the little island.

31. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
I did it! After a major 2 day final push, I finished this book and you know what? I really enjoyed it. John Irving (whom we all know I adore) always mentions Charles Dickens as one of his favorite authors, so I have tried to read Great Expectations before but could never get into it. But now I get it. One of the reasons I love Irving so much is for his great characters, and great characters abound in David Copperfield. The main character is wonderful, funny, thoughtful and shows his development in a very real way. But I think my favorite character (though hard to pick over Mr. Dick and Miss Trotwood) is Traddles. Partly because you don’t expect him to do much when you first meet him, but he proves himself over and over again to be a true friend, loyally, but not unreasonably so. I hated Dora, but maybe done so you just like Agnes all the much more. I discussed this book with my teen book group (all girls) and we all found that there were some strong female characters which pleased me all the more. This book probably deserves two readings, but clocking in at over 850 pages, I’m not sure that will hapeen anytime soon. Recommended!

32. Redemption Song: The Definitive Biography of Joe Strummer by Chris Salewicz
Reading this book, especially at the end, sad. I missed my chance to ever see Joe. He toured quite a bit near the end with the Mescaleros and often played a heavy rotation of Clash songs and I never saw him. It was particularly interesting to read about the later parts of his life, as I have read other Clash bios before. But to get an idea of the man he became was quite interesting. I am of the opinion that Joe was much more articulate, funny and interesting in his lyrics than he often was in real life. This book did drag a little bit though and slowed me down!

33. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
Tim read this a year or so ago and loved it. I have picked it up a few times, but probably wouldn’t have read it if it weren’t picked by my teen book group at work. The book is about magic, or specifically the return of magic to early 19th century England. As I was finishing this book, I thought to myself that while there are a lot of characters and they are interesting, this isn’t a character driven book that I usually enjoy. It is much more story based, and even with the magic element, I enjoyed it. Despite the fun and unusual twists and turns, the best part of this book was the writing. Clarke took a chance with a really different style in which to write and completely committed to that style for almost 800 pages. In the end, it didn’t get old or feel contrived. The writing style was fresh, challenging and in the end really worked. While I can’t say that I loved this book, I love reading novels that push the boundaries of the idea of a novel in different directions like Time Traveler’s Wife or Cloud Atlas. This book might also appeal to more sci-fi fans and mature young adults (even though all the characters are older).

34. Sound Bites by Alex Kapranos
This book is a compilation of articles that Kapranos wrote while on tour as the lead singer for Franz Ferdinand. The articles were published in real time in the Guardian, and I heard about the book on NPR, where Kapranos was interviewed and it peaked my interest. As someone who has cooked in a real kitchen, I feel a kinship with others who have gone through the highs and lows. And that experience will forever color how I think about food, and how I eat out, as it has also done for Kapranos. Some of his articles here are really short, and might be more interesting if they were longer, more indepth. The writing is unusual and often inspired and often reads zen like (almost like a good hiku), but a few times was a little too cutsey as well. Nice quick read for anyone interested in eating around the world.

35. Black Swan Green by David Mitchell
Hmm. This has been well reviewed from some pretty reliable sources, and I loved Cloud Atlas, so I had high hopes. Maybe too high. Maybe if I had never heard of this book or David Mitchell, I would have loved it. But probably not. Don’t get me wrong, there are parts of this book that are genius. There are lines in this book that describe a feeling, thought, motion that is completely off the wall, completely unique, strange and unusual. But dead on. And those parts are wonderful. I also loved the Crommelynk character reappearing from Cloud Atlas, the parts with her was my favorite of the book. But despite the sometimes amazing prose, this book left me feeling flat.

36. Yes Man by Danny Wallace
What is it like to say yes to every question pointed in your general direction? This was recommended to me from a coworker, who promised funny. Sometimes when people recommend funny, you never know (unless that someone is Andrew, who gets funny). But this book had me laughing out loud many times. Though I think this dragged a little long about 3/4 of the way through, this was a great read. At times it reminded me of Round Ireland With a Fridge, and was surprisingly touching at the end. Near the end, the author is ruminating on whether or not people regret saying no or yes. “Take the stupidest thing you’ve ever done. At least it’s done. It’s over. It’s gone. We can all learn from our mistakes and heal and move on. But it’s harder to learn or heal or move on from something that hasn’t happened; something we don’t know and is therefore indefinable; something which could very easily have been the best thing in our lives, if only we’d taken the plunge, if only we’d held our breath and stood up and done it, if only we’d said yes.”

37. Redwall by Brian Jacques
Ok, so there is this abbey full of peace loving mice. Well, except for Mattias who is sure that he is destined for greatness, warrior style. Good for him that the evil rat, Cluny prepares to attack the abbey and ruin the idyll lifestyle of the mice, and assorted woodland creatures that live within or nearby. I read this for my teen book group, and they loved it. I am glad that I read it from a reader’s advisory perspective, but am not really interested in picking up any of the other books in this series (and there are like, thousands). I think this would be a good recommendation for a young boy. Oh, and I also recommended it to Tim after his finals.

38. Articles of War by Nick Arvin
This short novel is selected as the One Denver, One Book title, and was given to me earlier this year from my mom. This book tells the story of a single man during World War II. We don’t get much more insight into other soldiers, the war, or any grande scheme. But after reading it, you may have more insight as to what one soldier may have gone through, and not knowing the big picture helps that. And learning one solider’s story may give you more insight into many. I’m not sure that this would be the recommendation for everyone, but it is short and an interesting read for anyone who has read and enjoyed other war fiction.

39. The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf by Mohja Kahf
This book is about growing up Muslim in Indiana in the 1970s.  I think that there was a lot that I didn’t get from the first reading, lacking the cultural references, but overall I found this book enjoyable.  Really the main character as she develops into a woman is searching her spiritual, cultural, feminist, intellectual and religious identity.  And while all her cues were different than  mine, I felt that it was still identifiable.  Her parents are fundamentalist Islam, but I liked them.  And Kahdja self awareness moments were soft and seemed real.  I will have to read this book again, but look forward to taking my time with it the second time around, as I think there is a lot to uncover.  Or cover.  Depending.

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