I'm early setting up this thread, but post when you are ready (we do have a whole month of reading left!).
Some of us have been posting to the quarterly threads with the idea that when the end-of-year thread came around we would be able to note which 'Year's Best' was read in which quarter (we had the thought that as readers we tend to list our more recently read books on Year's Best lists...so by posting quarterly we would not only see if this was true but also remind ourselves of the great books we read last February). If you have been participating in our quarterly experiment could you post the quarter the book was read like this (1), (2), (3) or (4) after the title and author? Thanks!
The number to list is not carved in stone, but we ask that you keep your post down to five or no more than 10 books total in your post.
This is ALWAYS a great thread to read!
PARTY THREAD!!!
It's *not* 2008 yet ...and it's the holiday season!
*Looks around for a blender*
P.S. Can we party here this month if we promise to sober up at the stroke of midnight 2008?
Message edited by its author, Dec 1, 2007, 9:41pm.
Eggnog with a little bit of rum anyone?
Oh, me!! I have not yet had eggnog this season and was just thinking about it.
By the way, save some of that rum for my sweet mulled apple cider. It's made with Spencerville Red apples from
Heyser Farm in Colesville, Maryland. I have the cider heating in the crockpot now. We'll just add a splash of rum and a cinnamon stick into the glass cups before we serve them.
What do we have for hors d'oevres?
P.S. Do you mind if I light the first Chanukah candle here at our party tomorrow night?
Message edited by its author, Dec 3, 2007, 12:02pm.
So, is mulled cider the same as wassail? Either way, I'll have some, please!
I think wassail has rum in it...
#7 kaelirenee: that's all I needed to hear ;)
For hors doevres, how about scallops wrapped in bacon, bread bowl w/ spinach dip, mini quiches, meatballs, shrimp cocktail, and hot taco dip.
Oh my, did someone say PARTY? =) Anyone bringing the music?
OMG, this thread has gone out of control already!! Poor avaland, trying to get some serious discourse going, and just look at you all. And what with the eggnog, you'll all be stumbling around before you know it.
I for one am still very seriously contemplating my top 5-10 ...
(and if you believe that, I have some swampland in Florida for sale!)
I have an image of avaland standing at the door with her arms crossed, tapping her foot, shaking her head....
We'll post our top 5. I promise!! Only it'll be after we sober up on January 1, 2008. In fact, I'm compiling my list now.
Give that woman at the door something to eat and drink. Hurry!!
What's wassail? Nothing like a good party to learn about something new to drink!
*runs off to check on the temperature of the hot mulled cider*
>5 Squeaky Chu
P.S. Do you mind if I light the first Chanukah candle here at our party tomorrow night?
By all means, do so! Chag samaech! (Happy holiday!)
I'll whip up some potatoe latkes (pancakes) with a little sour cream and some apple sauce alongside.
Pass the cider!
Chu-Wassail is mulled cider with rum. When I was growing up, it's how you made sure the kids actually slept on Christmas Eve.
As for my top 5 list-I have a tentative one, but I still plan to read at least another 10 books before the year is over, so I don't want to commit to anything quite yet.
Do pass me some latkes. I'll take the mine with applesauce. Thanks for making them!
*sings and lights the first candle*
Ooooh, I love latkes! I haven't had any homemade for years, since the last time I celebrated Passover with some friends. Can I have mine with both the sour cream and applesauce, please? Oh, and the hot mulled cider smells divine! All I have to share is a box of chocolates. *hangs head for not being better prepared*
ETA: Happy Chanukah, Everyone!
Message edited by its author, Dec 4, 2007, 10:38pm.
I'll have some chocolate. Just pass the box my way...
*still singing - I have a little dreidel...*
--> 15
What is the "chu" for in Chu-Wassail? Is it like the "chu" in SqueakyChu? :D And how do you pronounce wassail? What language is that?
Message edited by its author, Dec 4, 2007, 11:02pm.
--> 19
That was interesting! So who here volunteers to make the wassail? I volunteer to drink it. Someone with a better voice than mine needs to sing the wassail songs.
Message edited by its author, Dec 4, 2007, 11:14pm.
If everyone drinks enough wassail, it won't matter who is singing or how badly!
Oh goodness. I think I'm ready to post my list, but where do I start?
I don't think I read anything much that I didn't enjoy, because I rarely read a book I don't enjoy.
I'm currently reading my 75th book of the year, so it's going to be an incredibly hard decision.
In no particular order:
Twilight,
New Moon & Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
I think they deserve to go together, with another four on top, because it's basically the same story just broken up.
Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by
Douglas AdamsNineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
Haunted: A novel by Chuck Palahniuk
Plus there's the
Uglies trilogy by Scott Westerfeld which was very well written.
Ohhhhhh, so many to choose from.
Well, there's a small snippet of what I enjoyed this year, and I hope next year is just as enjoyable.
#22 trinah: For a moment I forgot which thread I was reading and thought I was in the Clunker thread, so I couldn't believe you hated these books! HA! So, anyway, it turns out that I agree with you about Dirk Gently and 1984 (sorry, too lazy to type out the number words, even though at this point, this aside have taken more time and effort. Sheesh.) - fantastic books, in my opinion!
*downs some frothy eggnog*
My best books of 2007 (not counting rereads):
• Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
•
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
•
Middlemarch by George Eliot
• The Children of Húrin by J. R. R. Tolkien
•
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (pending; I'm about halfway through)
So far mine are:
Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay (2)
Lord of Emperors by Guy Gavriel Kay (2)
Fool's Errand by
Robin Hobb (3)
and
The Lies of Locke Lamora by
Scott Lynch (4)
I'd like to make it a nice, round five, but I'll wait until the end of the year to pick a final title. Right now I think it'll be either
Swordspoint by
Ellen Kushner or
The Fall of the Kings by
Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman, but there's still almost a month left. Something might come along and blow me out of the water.
I'm kind of disappointed that my list isn't more diverse this year. Everything's fantasy. Last year I had a good spread; a variety of genres, some literary stuff and a graphic novel series.
Message edited by its author, Dec 6, 2007, 1:31pm.
well, things settled down, didn't they? I'm having a little trouble getting my list - at least my fiction list - down to five. I may have to close my eyes and pick. And there's still a few weeks left in December...
Q4 - A Thousand Splendid Suns; The World to Come; The Color of Water
Q3 - Touching the Void; The Yiddish Policemen's Union
Q2 - Lipstick Jungle
#34 teelgee - You have listed one of my favorite books all time - I re-read
Ex Libris at least once a year!
alcottacre - I love Fadiman. I have
At Large and at Small and have read just a couple essays, but it looks just as promising. Have you read
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down? It's an incredible book; very different from her essays.
Touchstones on strike tonight.
Message edited by its author, Dec 6, 2007, 11:22pm.
two jump out at me as head and shoulders (spine and pages?) above the rest:
The Road by McCarthy and
The Giver by Lowry... I'll have to get back with the next 3...
Also unlikely to change and I also am cheating! (pay no attention to that person in post#1!) I find I can't eliminate any of these (although I was able to eliminate some of my required reading).
Fiction, in no particular order.
Half of a Yellow Sun, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigeria) (1)
Zoli, Colum McCann (Ireland) (1)
The Logogryph, Thomas Wharton (Canada) (1)
By the Sea, Abdulrazak Gurnah (Zanzibar) (1)
The Gravedigger's Daughter, Joyce Carol Oates (USA) (2)
Burning Your Boats: the Collected Short Stories of Angela Carter (Great Britain) (2)
Out Stealing Horses, Per Petterson (Norway) (3)
Famished Road, Ben Okri (4)
The Joys of Motherhood, Buchi Emecheta (4)
Sleepwalking Land, Mia Couto (4)
Nonfiction (tie!)
Infidel, Ayaan Hirsi Ali (memoir, Somalia) (3)
Well-Behaved Women Rarely Make History, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich (history) (3)
Poetry (also a tie!):
Lizzie Borden in Love, Julianna Baggott (USA) (2)
The World's Wife, Carol Ann Duffy (Scotland) (1)
Young Adult
Red Spikes, Margo Lanagan (short fiction, Australia) (2)
runner up:
Siberia by Ann Halam aka Gwyneth Jones (UK) (3)
Message edited by its author, Dec 17, 2007, 10:15pm.
#36 teelgee - Yes I have read
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. I enjoy all of her works, but
Ex-Libris will always be my favorite. (I like books on books in general as a reading category). I did not realize she had a new book of essays out, so I am updating my want list with
At Large and At Small. Thanks for the heads up!
Message edited by its author, Dec 7, 2007, 4:57pm.
#45 - Squeaky
I'm not doing my list yet, but when I do
The Road is sure to be on it! That was one fantastic novel.
I really didn't want to post my list yet either...as one never knows what the next book will bring. However, this thread has a very serious crowd. Everyone here wants to talk about their top 5 for 2007 now (!) so I thought I'd join in the conversation. :-)
There are still 4 weeks left in 2007. The funny thing is that my husband read
The Road and hated it so much that he refused to finish it. Different strokes, I guess.
After that he read
Peony in Love by
Lisa See and loved it more than he did
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. I haven't read
Peony in Love yet.
Message edited by its author, Dec 7, 2007, 9:25pm.
Well, I'm going to post my top 5 in two categories (fiction and non-fiction) and then, if I read something amazingly wonderful in the next 3 weeks, will edit the list(s) accordingly:
Non-Fiction
Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Caesar, Life of a Colossus by Adrian Goldsworthy
Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
Civil Wars by Julius Caesar
Fiction
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Find Me by Carol O'Connell
The Lions of al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay
Judas Child by Carol O'Connell
Honorable Mentions in Fiction (which would have made the list if I wasn't forced to hold the number of favorites at 5)
Storm Front by Jim Butcher
Killing Critics by Carol O'Connell
The Book Thief by Markus Zukas
A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon
The Man Who Cast Two Shadows by Carol O'Connell
ETA: Fifteen favorites isn't really too many since I've read 102 books this year. So far. I'll probably read at least another 10 books before midnight on Dec. 31.
ETA to correct a mistake in the name of one of the books.
Edited 1/5/07 to add Jane Eyre to the list of fiction favorites and remove The Man Who Cast Two Shadows to the list of honorable mentions.
Message edited by its author, Jan 5, 2008, 5:26am.
>48 -- Wow! 102+?!?!?! So what is the most books you have read in a year?
(what are the most books...?)
#49 ~ No clue, really, as this is the first year I've kept a record faithfully. Somewhere between 50 and 100, I suppose, depending on what else was going on in my life. When my daughter was born (many years ago), I think my reading dropped to about 10 books a year for the first 3 years, and those were mostly all baby and childcare books. lol It helps to have no life. ;)
ETA: If you're interested in
what I've read so far this year, go to the 50 Book Challenge group and look for my thread. Here's the link (I hope):
http://www.librarything.com/talktopic.ph...Message edited by its author, Dec 8, 2007, 2:48pm.
I've been keeping a reading list for the last 12 years and never have I read as many books as this year, exactly 102 to date. For the last 5 years I've been averaging between 85-92 books a year, but I've been spending less time on-line and my total just sort of crept up there this year.
This is hard...especially since this years I start reading mostly older classic fiction picked out from a list (Modern Library's 100 best of the 20th century) and I have enjoyed these tremdenously. So from about 30 fiction and 20 nonfiction...in order
1)
A Bend in the River - a near perfect novel
2)
Glory Enough for All (also published as the
The Discovery of Insulin) - history of science at its best
3)
Of Human Bondage - deservedly a classic
4)
The Angle of Repose - I was surprised by the extent to which I got caught up in the characters and plot of this truly American novel
5)
Portnoy's Complaint - sustained laughter
Message edited by its author, Dec 9, 2007, 12:32pm.
Okay. I think I can get it down to at least the neighborhood of 5ish.
The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
Peeps by Scott Westerfeld
Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold
Stardust by Neil Gaiman
The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay
Honorable Mentions:
Colors: A Natural History of the Palette by Victoria Finlay
Atonement by Ian McEwan
Looking for Alaska by John Green
There were plenty more that I really enjoyed, but it's a loooooong list this year (currently at 120 and counting), so it's hard to choose.
#59 I'm also in the middle of The Hours by Virginia Woolf, which I think is going to be on the top 5 list as well.
--------------
This makes me curious what book you're reading . . .
Virginia Woolf didn't write
The Hours, she wrote
Mrs. Dalloway, which had The Hours as her working title.
Michael Cunningham wrote
The Hours. They're very nice compliment reads, as they play off each other nicely (not sure if that's the right term, since Mrs. Dalloway was written so many years before Cunningham's book). Anyway, they're good to read together.
None of the touchstones are working here.
Message edited by its author, Dec 10, 2007, 10:34am.
#57 piefuchs: I read
Angle of Repose for the first time this year, too, and while I did not list it in my top 5, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I learned of the book while reading one of Dana Stabenow's Kate Shugak mysteries!
Sorry, I meant
The Waves - bit of a brain warp there! If only the touchstones had been working I could have saved myself the mistake...
Message edited by its author, Dec 10, 2007, 5:43pm.
Sorry, I meant The Waves - bit of a brain warp there! If only the touchstones had been working I could have saved myself the mistake...
--------------
Oh! Tell us how it goes. I just bought an annotated version of
The Waves. I hear it's her most experimental work. I have it scheduled to read after my next term at university is over, so late spring probably. I plan to read it very slowly and do lots of journaling about it. I'm really interested to hear your thoughts on it.
1. The Rest is Noise - Alex Wolf on the 20th C deconstruction of the classical tradition in music.
2. Thirte3n - Richard Morgan - sci-fi dystopia w/ characters rather than ciphers
3.
Kafka on the Shore - Murakami
4.
The Rabbi's Cat Joann Sfar
5.
The Patron Saint of Plagues Barth Anderson
Read most of the rest of Murakami this fall and very much enjoyed it all.
6.
The savage detectives - Bolano - tragicomic, picaresque novel about competing cliques of aspiring Latin American poets
well..i couldn't get the touchstone to link properly to the Morgan 13 i wanted...could on put in isbn # ?
Can't really put them in order.
The Dead Zone by Stephen King
The Catcher In the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Traveling Vampire Show by Richard Laymon
Mister B. Gone by Clive Barker
Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
my top five are:
The Road Cormac Mccarthy
After Dark Haruki Murakami
Darkmans Nicole Barker
The Thirteenth Tale Diane Setterfield
The Reluctant Fundamentalist Mohsin Hamid
mine are:
1. Regeneration - Pat Barker
2. Terms of Endearment - Larry Mcmurtry
3. On Chesil Beach - Ian McEwan
4. The Gift of Rain - Tan Twan Eng
5 Broken Verses - Kamila Shamsie
I'm not ready to post my top five but I have to agree about
Cloud Atlas -it is in my top reads for 2007.
Having just completed my Christmas-shopping list from this thread, I think it's only fair that I list my favorites of the year:
1.
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
2.
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
3.
His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
Honorable Mentions:
4.
The Spartan by Caroline Dale Snedeker -- This was Ms Snedeker's first book, and it does have some problems, but there's something about her style that has delighted me since I first read
Downright Dencey when I was 9 years old.
5.
Bootlegger's Daughter by Margaret Maron -- Light, entertaining and interesting; I've read the first 3 books in the series, and am looking forward to reading the rest.
6.
The Lost Madonna by Kelly Jones -- Not a great work of literature, but an interesting story, and the reality of being a young woman in the 1960s is presented more truly than almost anything else I've read.
teelgee, you've absolutely floored me with your choice of David James Duncan's
The Brothers K, one of my favorite books of the last 30 years and one that I've recommended time and time again, a true American masterpiece.
jhowell, I'm surprised at Charlotte Simmons. I couldn't even finish it, even though I enjoyed
Bonfire of the Vanities and
A Man in Full very much. Maybe I'll give it another try, if you tell us why you liked it so much. :-)
>79 Louis: I've been a Duncan fan for years but had never read Bros. K before. I was encouraged by someone on LT to read it and I'm so glad I did! It was truly wonderful. I hope he comes out with another novel soon, though I've really loved his nonfiction the last few years too.
78 & 79...
Brothers K was one of those rare books that instead of eyeing the next book on my list, I wished it wouldn't end and I could keep reading...
I'll post my top 2 non-fiction and my top 2 children's books now, then post 5 fiction titles later. I still have The Kite Runner to read and don't know if it'll figure in my top 5 fiction or not.
My top 2 non-fiction:
1.
Wild Swans Jung Chang
2.
The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad
My top 2 children's:
1.
The Giver by Lois Lowry
2.
Coraline by Neil Gaiman
#81 -- citygirl
I thought Charlotte Simmons was hysterical. I am usually not a big fan of satire, but for some reason that book just spoke to me -- Wolfe just nailed the transition of a country girl to an elitist college -- it was so good, it was painful to read. Maybe you have to have experienced something similar to apreciate it -- I was a fish out of water when I started college. I just recently bought a used copy of
The Bonfire of the Vanities, so I am going to give that a try.
Re: The Brothers K...
I'm fairly widely read in literature (just not Russian lit), and I only got through about a third of it and regretted every second I spent. If memory serves, it could be summed up as 'Dad's a jerk.' Now, I'm REALLY wondering what happens in the last 2/3 that makes it the book it is considered to be...
mikeepatrick - this is not the Russian novel
Brothers Karamazov -- this is a distinctly American book. I wasn't clear from your post if you were referring to the same book.
The Brothers K was written by David James Duncan.
92: I'm an idiot. I'm talking Dostoyevsky. Feel free to ignore me. Or to tell me why Mr. D, and this novel in particular, is considered so great. :)
No, you're not an idiot. It's a common mistake.
LOL!!!
Too funny!
Man, if I can stumble into a joke involving 19th century Russian literature, just think of what I should be able to do with more contemporary stuff! Scary...
I feel like Dennis Miller over here!
Message edited by its author, Dec 18, 2007, 2:20pm.
So far this year I have read 128 books. 21 more then last year. In no particular order my top 7 are:
Red River by Lalita Tademy
Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseni
The View From Mount Joy by Lorna Landvik
Lottery by Patricia Wood
The 13th Tale by Diane Setterfield
Suite Francaise by Irene Nemorovsky
Couldn't do just five...
I'm surprised that only a couple people have included the final Harry Potter book for a top five; it was on so so so many lists for the 3rd quarter favorites. (Not a complaint, just an observation.)
> So far this year I have read 128 books.
Die. :)
On a comparative note. While it's interesting to neat note how many books we have read and it is good sometimes to put that number to paper or post as a means of self-congratulations, no one should feel compelled to compare their quantity of reading to another's. I'd be bummed to think that some may be home beating themselves up because they only read a dozen books, or thirty, or only sixty...if you know what I mean. We are all different readers who read different kinds of books and who can and cannot read in various circumstances (i.e. 5 novels in a year for a young mother with triplets might be an amazing feat!).
*end of encouraging pep talk*
Oh, my, yes, avaland ~ I agree 100%. If a person reads one book a year, that's actually more than many people (at least in the U.S., according to some survey I saw) read.
I happen to read a lot of books now, it's true, but only because I live alone, don't watch TV, and don't have a life outside of work and books! And LT. lol
Wow, lots of variety on these lists
#104 avaland - thanks, I needed that.
#91 mikeepatrick - I also only made it about 1/3 through The Brother's Karamazov...I actually thought it was intense, but so slow that I needed to take a break. I'll try again sometime.
Ok, my list so far:
Fiction1.
Bel Canto - Ann Patchett (2001)
2.
Sophie's World - Jostein Gaarder (1994)
3.
To Ride Hell's Chasm - Janny Wurts (2002)
4.
The Golden Compass - Philip Pullman (1995)
5.
Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston (1937)
Non-Fiction1.
The Looming Tower: : Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 - Lawrence Wright (2006) -- finished dec 31 2006, but missed last year's list
2.
The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise - Michael Grunwald (2006)
3.
The Glass Castle: A Memoir - Jeannette Walls (2005)
Poetry - I was all set to read lots of poetry this year, and then I sort of stopped. But, these were really nice.
With the Light of Apricots : Poems - Larry D. Thomas
At the Bonehouse - Jack Bedell
Message edited by its author, Dec 18, 2007, 10:45pm.
>107 I really got back into poetry this year also. I somehow felt freer to do so after leaving the bookstore. I have reacquainted myself with the joy of pulling up a chair before the poetry section and leisurely browsing the collections and anthologies. I also picked up a few new poets from seeing their poetry on either poets.org or poetry daily.
Going over the lists so far, I see some repeat recommendations:
The Thirteenth Tale, Diane Setterfield
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and
Peony in Love by Lisa See
Nineteen Minutes, by Jodi Picoult
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (won the Booksense BOTY award, 2007)
Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson (won the Impac/Dublin Prize, 2007)
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (won the Orange Prize, 2007)
The Lizard Cage by Karen Connelly (won the Orange Prize for 1st novel, 2007)
The Road by Cormac McCarthy (won the Pulitzer Prize, 2007)
Twilight by Stephanie Meyers
Book Thief, by Markus Zusak (many awards, including a Commonwealth Prize)
Middlemarch, George Eliot
Of course, the month isn't over yet...
And looking back on the 2006 list, which is
here, some of these titles appeared there also. Particularly; Twilight, Snow Flower & Thirteenth Tale.
I also noticed rebeccanyc's posting there of
Half of a Yellow Sun which was very new in hardcover at the time. Her recommendation created a ripple effect through LT which got started in the Reading Globally group and is still going (I think it's out in paperback now or about to be).
It's so hard to limit the list to 5 - so many good books this year.
Top 5 Fiction
1.
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
2.
Restless by William Boyd
3.
Black Swan Green by David Mitchell
4.
The Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle
5.
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
I've loved looking through these lists and getting recommendations. Not that I should buy any more books - my NY Resolution is to reduce my tbr piles of 131 books.
Edited for touchstone.
Message edited by its author, Dec 21, 2007, 10:17am.
#116 - I'd be interested to see what others think of The Tortilla Curtain. Boyle obviously has the reputation he does for a reason (I assume), but Curtain was my first by him, and, to be honest, I thought it was a miserably cliched piece of filth. Seriously.
Then again, I live around plenty of illegals (and my wife is a school nurse, so...) so, yeah, I already know their lives are rough beyond our comprehension and ours are ridiculously priviledged...
#112, avaland, Yes
Half of a Yellow Sun is now out in paperback, and you are kind to say that my recommendation created a ripple effect since others have suggested that I touted it at every opportunity, and possibly ad nauseum!
mikeepatrick, classifying Boyle's novel as a 'miserably cliched piece of filth' seems a rather heavy indictment, and I'm wondering what you found in Boyle's book that would prompt your use of the word 'filth' specifically.
#117 -- I didn't like
The Tortilla Curtain at all. It has been awhile but I do know I never read anything else by him after that; and I think I did find it cliche as well.
Message edited by its author, Dec 19, 2007, 3:34pm.
#119 - I like my words descriptive. :) But seriously, Boyle is considered to be one of the bigger guns of American lit., and I simply could NOT believe how bad the book was; I finished it out of morbid curiosity. It seems soooo myopic and unaccomplished - it's not subtle (not that serious topics need to be handled that way) or clever or emotionally challenging, or...
If you told me some pro-immigration group paid Boyle to write it ('And don't use any of that fancy-pants writing of yours - just keep it to uncaring yuppies living up on the hill and immigrants living in a ditch - nothing more.') so they could give away free copies to Congress, I'd believe it.
#102 now now.. being a librarian helps.. used to be over 140 so I am slowing down.
Boy, at least as far as long-dead writers go, Trollope has been doing quite well for himself lately here on LT. Warm fuzzies, anyone?
>113 I enjoyed
The Last Witchfinder also, but read it last year as an arc. I thought it a romp and wonderfully clever (but then again, I enjoyed several of Morrow's previous novels).
--> 117
Mikeepatrick,
The Tortilla Curtain was the first book I ever read by T.C. Boyle and I *hated* it. I also found the stereotypes in that book disgusting. I thought the ending to that book was absolutely ridiculous.
Subsequently, I've given T.C. Boyle a few more chances, and I'm glad I did. I found
Drop City as well as
Riven Rock interesting. However, where T.C. Boyle absolutely shines is in his short stories. I have a 600 plus page book called
T.C. Boyle Stories with an incredible assortment of his short stories. I'm not sure I'd send you off to read such a thick book, but this book is actually several books combined into one. Try at least one book of his short stories before you read anything else of his. You might just change you mind about his writing.
P.S. I'm married to a former "illegal". :-)
Message edited by its author, Dec 19, 2007, 10:00pm.
Gosh, I didn’t realize I was touching such a nerve with my nomination of
The Tortilla Curtain. I’m a big T.C.Boyle fan and I will admit I was dithering between that and
Riven Rock but I stand by my choice. I didn’t find it ‘filth’ or full of ‘disgusting stereotypes’ but that may be because I’m British rather than American and also not married to a former illegal. We all read books with our own prejudices firmly in place, which affects whether we love or hate a book. That’s one of the reasons threads like this are so interesting – I’m sure everyone saw books on the Top 5 lists that they hated (mine was
The Brothers K, one of the few books I’ve ever given up on). I’m obviously not the only person on LT who liked
The Tortilla Curtain – it averages a 3.5 star rating and most of the reviews are positive. So put up your Top 5, mikeepatrick and let us slag off (British for criticize) your choices.
Fair enough, janeekelly, fair enough.
I read quite a bit of fantasy this year, none of which I'll list, because I'm big enough to admit that none of it really holds up to the 'literary' work I also read. Mine is a mix of fiction and nonfiction (which should be obvious):
The Time Traveler's Wife by
Audrey Niffenegger - If you don't like this, you're dead inside. :)
Then We Came To the End by
Joshua Ferris - The best novel about work EVER.
Big Bang by
Simon Singh - Deniers of the whole 'universe' thing need not apply. Really stunning clarity - complex science for the layman WRITTEN by a 'layman'.
Fallingwater Rising by
Franklin Toker - Frank Lloyd Wright's most famous work. AND a history of an America when the department store ruled all.
Treason's Harbor by
Patrick O'Brian - Kind of a copout on my part, given that it's the middle-ish of a 22 book series, but as manly stories by the late 20th century's best writer goes, it was a good one. :)
Sorry, no Boyle. But I SWEAR I'll read another in '08. Swear.
ok, so do we have a top book in the fantasy category?:-)
#130 - OUCH. :)
Okay, lots of stuff that I enjoyed despite DEEP flaws. Of those, the one that crushed my skull was
Vellum by
Hal Duncan. Fair warning: Duncan is unapologetically gay (not that there's anything wrong with that - it just features heavily in the writing), Irish, and an open Joyce worshipper. Plus, the book is like twelve parallel alternate realities weaving around one another. Yeah, so NOT an easy read. I just grabbed on and went for the ride. People either love it, or HATE it.
Message edited by its author, Dec 20, 2007, 8:46pm.
>129 Thanks Mike - I can't criticize your choices after all as I haven't read any of them though 1 and 2 are on my list and 4 is now added as it sounds interesting. Another book about work which is very funny (which I've seen Joshua Ferris's compared to) is
E by
Matt Beaumont.
Edited for touchstone
Message edited by its author, Dec 21, 2007, 10:18am.
There. That wasn't so bad, was it? No need to apologize (or almost apologize) for the books you read, there are many of us here that read all kinds of books for all kinds of reasons. Last I knew this was not an exclusive "literary fiction' thread (or group). I do find it difficult to make these lists, sometimes it's like comparing apples and oranges. I like hearing about all kinds of reads, I'm sure that's true of most LTers. Thanks.
Gee, I hope it's not exclusively a "literary fiction" group, or I'll have to drop out! Though I do read some literary fiction and classic fiction, I also love mysteries, thrillers, romance, historical fiction, fantasy, sci-fi, and non-fiction. As my own list of favorites (#48) attests.
I didn't mean that this group was limited to 'literary fiction'. It's just that my reading is all over the map, and while I can enjoy different styles and genres, when it comes down to deciding the 'best' of what I've read, I'm hard-pressed to pick genre fiction. It's a matter of preference, I guess. Now, there IS exceptional genre fiction, no question. I just didn't read much of it in '07.
I am very glad that the group is not limited to 'literary fiction', although it has certainly expanded my horizons in that regard since I had never read all a lot of literary fiction prior to joining the group. My reading is very eclectic and not at all limited to one genre although I prefer nonfiction, mysteries, and yes, even the occasional romance. I sometimes get strange looks from librarians at the variety of my reading. If you look at my top 5 for the year you will see what I mean.
Adventures of a Biographer is an older book, published in 1959, but An Unequal Music and
The Savage Garden are both relatively new. All of them, however, were new to me, and thus made my list for this year.
I agree 100% because this site has opened my eyes to a lot of books I probably never would have touched before. I have a diverse range of reading in my library and I like that. I do love mysteries and true crime mostly, but I've opened my eyes to so much more thanks to LT!!!
>136 I know what you mean. One of the booksellers at the bookstore I frequent (and the one I used to work at) told me she is fascinated to see the variety of books I order and buy (I often order things not on the shelves). I think it was one of the best compliments I have received! (although I can't take credit for all of it, there are my husband's book and assorted gifts...).
I'm 1/3 of the way through my Early Reviewers copy of The Story of Forgetting by Stefan Merrill Block and, unless it ends with a clunk, which I doubt, I'm going to be adding this to my favorites. Incredible writing, story weaving, and this guy is only 24!!!!
My list wasn't that hard, I read a lot of mystery cozies that although fun and good don't belong on a top 5 list.
My list -
the Red Tent by Antia Diamant
What is the What by Dave Eggers
Into thin Air by Jon Krakauer - I also just picked up from the library -
Into the Wild which I'm hoping is just as good.
What the dead know by Laura Lippman, a mystery but a new author to me this year and I really enjoyed it.
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
It's official, I'm adding The Story of Forgetting to my favorites.
My review is here.
I just read "Lovely Poems for Keeps". Nice book and easy to read and finish.
Highly Recommended.
I actually want to slide one more in for my top 5. I just finished reading my ER copy Olive Kitteridge by
Elizabeth Strout and was amazed! I think this moved strongly up into the top of my list for this year.
Message edited by its author, Dec 26, 2007, 7:42pm.
alphaorder, I sort of discovered John Williams this year too, absolutely loved
Stoner and also his spectacular
Butcher's Crossing. I also mightily enjoyed Williams' National Book Award-winning epistolary novel
Augustus, which I thought was easily in the same class as Robert Graves'
I, Claudius, all just great stuff.
>150 keren7, I loved Life of Insects by Pelevin (I think it is my favorite Pelevin, although my husband's favorite in HomoZapiens). I still have wonderful pictures in my head of the two mosquitoes discussing their favorite 'landscapes' and the woman termite (?) landing in heels, sawing off her own wings, and then immediately looking for a place to stay. And the moths... Of course, one wonders what parts of Russian society he is poking fun at...
>149: alphaorder
So glad to know of an upcoming release by Lahiri!!
>150: keren7
The Life of Insects sounds interesting, your review was helpful!
I was blown over by The Interpreter of Maladies when I first read it at publication. If memory serves me correctly, I think Unaccustomed Earth is every bit as good!
Avaland
spoiler
My favourite part, if not heartbreaking, is the part where the termites child leaves her to find the world and instead gets trapped in the spiders web. It just shows how unfair life is and how there is no rhyme or reason to what happens to us.
>157. Ah yes, I remember. Makes me want to read it again. Thanks.
dihiba, I've been waiting to hear what someone had to say about the new Badami novel. It's the first to NOT be published in the US (a bummer!). Wondering if it's worth paying the extra and ordering from Canada or hope that a US publisher picks it up in paperback.
It's only a couple of hours 'til the New Year here in the Philippines, so I can safely post my top five reads of the 2007:
1.
Fragile Things, by
Neil Gaiman (1)
2. Stardust: Being a Romance Within the Realms of Faerie, by
Neil Gaiman and
Charles Vess (2)
3.
M Is for Magic, by
Neil Gaiman (3)
4.
InterWorld, by
Neil Gaiman and
Michael Reaves (3)
5.
The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Eighteenth Annual Collection, edited by
Ellen Datlow and Kelly Link &
Gavin J. Grant (3)
Because I'm biased, and Gaiman's books just HAVE to be at the top of my list, I'll name some runners-up:
Dance Dance Dance, by Haruki Murakami (2)
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, by Haruki Murakami (1)
Beasts, by Joyce Carol Oates (1)
The Secret Books of Venus I and II, by Tanith Lee (4)
A Bed Of Earth (The Gravedigger's Tale), by Tanith Lee (4)
avaland - I think she is a wonderful writer - that said,
The Hero's Walk remains my favourite but they're all great. Can You Hear the Nightbird Sing? is out in trade paperback now.
I don't have any of my own copies of her books - one of my goals for '08 is to find them secondhand - not an easy feat.
This has been a year of ecclectic reading - a little bit of everything....but my favorites are:
The Brief History of the Dead by
Brockmeier - a clever sci fi story of the afterlife that questions what is out there, deals with memory, loss and the effect each person can have on another
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Hosseini - powerful
World Without End by
Follett - middle ages, historical fiction at its best
World War Z by
Max Brooks - apocalypse, plague, zombies, yet oh so real
Other Boleyn Girl by
Gregory - excellent
And one YA books that I highly recommend -
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by
Brian Selznick - mystery, suspence, history, filmaking - should be up for the Newbery award
Message edited by its author, Dec 31, 2007, 10:48am.
>izzybee, I'm so glad someone else has read
Zoli, it was such a great book. Surely it isn't getting the attention it deserves!
#174 Oh, ktleyed ~ Wasn't
The Sunne in Splendour wonderful! Have you read any of her other stuff? I think Penman is one of the finest writers of historical fiction around today.
#181
Zoli is one of those books that I keep picking up in the bookshop but end up putting down before I leave. Part of that is undoubtedly due to my having read
Dancer by the same author. But I'll give it a chance next time.
Message edited by its author, Jan 1, 2008, 12:52pm.
#192
Dancer is a fictionalized bio of Nureyev. It starts out interesting but then descends into a lot of kinky, sadomasochistic gay encounters. While this may have been somewhat based on fact, if so, it was a lot more than I wanted to know--especially the violence and cruelty.
>193 There is definitely violence in
Zoli but none I thought particularly gratuitous or otherwise over-the-top. I believe amandameale read it also and enjoyed it (not that I'm trying to be a book pusher or anything:-).
#192 and 194. I will definitely check out
Zoli. As I said, the synopsis on the cover intrigued me enough that I almost bought it several times. Thanks for your input!
A Thousand Splendid Suns
Bel Canto
Therese Raquin - Zola
New Yorker Book of War Pieces (World War II)
Remains of the Day
Madame Bovary (2nd time)
Scarlet Letter (2nd time)
I propose we put a stop date on posting favorites to this thread and then compile the results. Suggestions? Shall we give it another week? or to the end of the month? Is anyone a whiz at doing the count?
I was pondering doing a count. I can be bribed.
#199 Good idea, teelgee. I was wondering if someone was going to make a list of the most popular books on this thread.
Tough to come up with just five. My top four for 2007 had to have been
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
Blindness by Jose Saramago
Winds of War by
Herman WoukInvitation to a Beheading by
Vladimir NabokovThere's about a 13-way tie for fifth place, though, and I've given up trying to settle the issue, so I'll leave it there. Each of the four I listed, at least, really blew me away in one way or another.
>199, 200. I think you should feel free to do a count at any time if either of you are up to it. The post of your results will mark where you counted from. I don't think there is a need to close a thread to do so.
Warning: such an endeavor could test one's sanity. It's certainly worth noting the books mentioned repeatedly (which I did somewhere way back in the thread, can't find it now. . .) I'm going to predict
The Book Thief,
A Thousand Splendid Suns and
Half of a Yellow Sun end up in the top five (just from skimming the posts).
I'll start a compiliation on Monday unless someone else raises their hand.
Go for it Morphidae-
I am eager to see the results, but not eager to tabulate...
alphaorder
You go right ahead, Morphidae!!!
I would actually volunteer to do it, but I'll be going out of town this weekend, so I'll allow Morphidae to proceed with the tally!
Ah, you people and your Excel sheets are amazing!!!
Morphidae, it sounds delightfully organized. I did the first by skimming, jotting down titles on first repeat and ticking off mentions thereafter (I wasn't aiming for accuracy).
This message has been deleted by its author.
Thanks, Morphy! Now I know exactly what to check out for the coming year.
Morphidae, I missed your post earlier! Thanks for doing that; it's a interesting list (#220)
#220 Yes, thanks Morphi! I see I've managed to read 3 out of the top 10 in '07. Not too bad, though that leaves 7 for my TBR list. :)
My favorite 5:
Tess of the D'ubervilles
Mill on the Floss
Half of a Yellow Sun
Everything is Illuminated
Sit Down and Shut Up!
Did not quite finish it, but
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace was very important to me in 2007.
my top 5 for 2007
the fortress of solitude by jonathen lethen
the poisonwood bible by barbara kingsolver
birdsong by sebastian faulks
rebecca by daphne du maur
and my favourite book was..... middlesex by jeffrey eugenides
>230 My husband would've chosen
Fortress of Solitude as a favorite in the year he read it. He really loved it. I very much enjoyed
Middlesex also.
Message edited by its author, Jan 18, 2008, 8:07am.
This message has been deleted by its author.
my top five fiction:
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
The Way the Crow Flies by Ann-Marie MacDonald
The Other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson
Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
We Need to Talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver
#229 Darrol: Warms my heart, it does. My favorite book, ever. Trying to get up the gumption to give it a re-read. My TBR pile doesn't exactly get any smaller when I ignore it...
sferrando, I read Upton Sinclair's
The Jungle last year too and enjoyed it a whole lot more than I thought I might. This past month I read Sinclair's 1927 novel
Oil!, the 'inspiration' for the new film
There Will Be Blood, and while there was too much proselytizing on socialism, I still thought it a very valid representation of the greed and corruption that dominated in the early days of the California oil fields.
LouisBranning, thanks for telling me about
Oil!. I'll keep my eye out for that if I see it at a used book sale. I enjoyed
The Jungle, as well, however, I felt that it ended kind of abruptly. It seemed like Upton Sinclair could have gone on with the story for another couple hundred pages, or so.
Hi, alaskabookworm ~
The Sparrow? Oh, yes! One of my favorite books ever! I think it may be time for a reread. :)
Storeetllr, I have wondered how
The Sparrow might fare in a reread. While it's themes are timeless it is still very much a book of the 90s. I suppose I will not find out, there are just too many books on my TBR pile and, well, they keep publishing new ones!
I know what you mean, avaland. Actually, my TBRR pile is almost as tall as my TBR pile 'cause there's just not enough time to read everything I want to read!!! :(
My top 5 for 2007 -
1.
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, which led to...
2.
Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
3.
Ines of my Soul by Isabel Allende
4.
Villette by Charlotte Bronte
5.
The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar
Not a typical year for me - I read a lot of novels by Indian authors (spurred by the two excellent Lahiri books, I can't wait for her Spring '08 release!), and didn't read as much non-fiction as I normally do. The Bronte was a real treat.
rebeccanyc it's so cool that you loved it! I can find so few that have actually heard of it.
#249-251 The Wizard of the Crow has been sitting on my shelf for a while (seems I hardly have time for long books these days). Now I'm really looking forward to it!
Be warned with
Wizard of the Crow that it can take a little while to get into it as the author takes the first section to introduce all the characters. By the way, RcCarol, I bought it partly because it was on display in my favorite bookstore and I loved the cover!
>249-253.
Wizard of the Crow sits patiently on my shelf waiting for me to read it. I read a great amount of African fiction last fall into January for a class and, unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), I've needed a break since. I'll get to eventually and its encouraging that the two of you like it:-)
Rebeccanyc - the cover is really cool. Avaland and Medellia12, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Like rebeccanyc says, give it time. Once it gets into the story, it becomes a blast.
(back to top)
