Favorite Book Read in 2007
These year end judgments always seem so glib, but I love the discussions they start. One theme was interesting: most of my favorites this year were set in the midwest: two Willa Cather novels, Patricia Hampl's The Florist's Daughter, Joshua Ferris's Then We Came To The End, and my favorite book read this year, Richard Powers' The Echo Maker–for its incisively beautiful and intelligent prose about such things as the science of consciousness and Nebraska and dudes who drive pick ups and play video games. I have not gotten to Denis Johnson's Tree of Smoke.
What was your favorite book this year (read, not published) ?
Fiction:
The Sea, The Sea - Iris Murdoch
Sister Noon - Karen Joy Fowler
An honorable "first book" mention for Fireworks by Elizabeth Hartley Winthrop, former colleague of Ferris and a nicer person ;)
Nonfiction:
Lipstick Jihad - Azadeh Moaveni
Dreams From My Father - Barack Obama
Posted by: Mandy | January 12, 2008 at 01:51 AM
Territory by Emma Bull.
(And, Mandy, I love Karen Joy Fowler, but haven't read Sister Noon yet.)
Posted by: Kootch | January 13, 2008 at 04:57 PM
Fiction:
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Clothes They Stood Up In by Alan Bennett
Nonfiction:
The Florist's Daughter by Patricia Hampl
Brother, I'm Dying by Edwidge Danticat
The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
Posted by: Sari | January 13, 2008 at 05:53 PM
Kathryn Davis's The Girl Who Trod on a Loaf! I loved it with an ungodly passion.
I'm glad you liked Then We Came to the End. I really did too.
Posted by: amy | January 14, 2008 at 08:00 AM