The Year in Books - 2007

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Donna over at Quiet Life has done her year in review. I don't think I have much of a year to review, and I CERTAINLY don't have the pictures she does to review with! Would that I had that much talent!

But I can put my year end "Books I've Read" here, now that I've tied up the final book of the year. So, drumroll please, here's my list:

1. Cheerfulness Breaks In by Angela Thirkell
2. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
3. Excellent Women by Barbara Pym
4. Possesssion by A. S. Byatt
5. Tender at the Bone by Ruth Reichl
6. A Miracle for St. Cecilia's by Katherine Valentine
7. Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz
8. Powder and Patch by Georgette Heyer
9. Northern Borders by Howard Frank Mosher
10. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
11. Forever Odd by Dean Koontz
12. Mornings on Horseback by David McCullough
13. Good People....From an Author's Life by Jon Hassler
14. Mom to Mom, Day to Day by Danielle Bean
15. The Cave by Jose Saramago
16. Venetia by Georgette Heyer
17. Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
18. Sprig Muslin by Georgette Heyer
19. Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian
20. Unbroken by Tracy Elliott
21. The Keys to the Kingdom by A. J. Cronin
22. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
23. The Little Prince by Atoine de Saint Exupery
24. Grand Opening by Jon Hassler
25. Standing in the Rainbow by Fannie Flagg
26. Scales of Justice by Ngaio Marsh
27. Death of a Fool by Ngaio Marsh
28. Love Among the Ruins by Angela Thirkell
29. Sights Unseen by Kaye Gibbons
30. Nemesis by Agatha Christie
31. What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw! by Agatha Christie
32. The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie
33. Thirteen at Dinner by Agatha Christie
34. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
35. Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi
36. The Golem by Isaac Bashevis Singer
37. The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie
38. Cards on the Table by Agatha Christie
39. Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie
40. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling
41. The Ponder Heart by Eudora Welty
42. Little Men by Louisa May Alcott
43. Captain from Castille by Samuel Shellabarger
44. Isn't It Romantic by Ron Hansen
45. The Night Is Far Spent by Thomas Howard
46. Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy by Rumer Godden
47. The Hunter's Tale by Margaret Frazer
48. The New Woman by Jon Hassler
49. Expressions of the Catholic Faith by Kevin Orlin Johnson
50. The Cloister Walk by Kathleen Norris
51. A Girl Named Zippy by Haven Kimmel
52. False Colours by Georgette Heyer
53. She Got Up Off the Couch by Haven Kimmel
54. The Pilot's Wife by Anita Shreve
55. The Nonesuch by Georgette Heyer
56. The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer
57. Teach Like Your Hair's On Fire by Rafe Esquith
58. There Are No Shortcuts by Rafe Esquith
59. The Light of Evening by Edna O'Brien
60. The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
61. Don Camillo Takes the Devil by the Tail by Giovannie Guareschi
62. The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
63. The Saintmakers' Christmas Eve by Paul Horgan
64. Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire

And now for the MamaT annual book awards:

Best Book of the Year: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. The second book I read during the year. I thought then that it would take a lot to beat it out for best book status. Some things came close. But nothing was better. Absolutely excellent.

Runner Up: Stones From the River by Ursula Hegi. Odd, and when I started reading I didn't think it would touch me the way it did. We ended up having a long discussion at book club about this one.

Best Nonfiction Book of the Year: The Night Is Far Spent by Thomas Howard. I am such an admirer, I would read his grocery list if it were available. This is a book of essays to re-read time and again.

Best Escape Book of the Year: (And I don't mean this in some denigrating way. I LOVE escape literature, and it is my stress reliever and sanity maker). TIE: The Captain From Castille by Samuel Shellabarger, which is every bit as good as The Prince of Foxes which I read last year. If you want to buckle your swash and all that, you can't beat Shellabarger. And The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer, which is the best Heyer novel I've read yet. If you "don't read romances", just like I didn't, it's only because you haven't read Heyer yet.

The Book on Everyone's List That I Just Don't Get Award: Possession by A. S. Byatt. I'm not sayin' it was a BAD book, just that I didn't like it as much as the entire rest of the WORLD did.

Most Depressing Book of the Year: TIE: Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson and Light of Evening by Edna O'Brien. I don't even want to go there to talk about 'em. Again, neither of them badly WRITTEN books, but both so utterly sad that they were hard to like.

Funniest Book: A Girl Named Zippy by Haven Kimmel. A gem of a memoir. The sequel, She Got Up Off the Couch is good, but not as good as the first.

1 Comments

Thanks for the sweet compliment.

And if I didn't spend so much time editing photos then perhaps I could read fabulous books like you!

I love your lists!!

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This page contains a single entry by MamaT published on December 31, 2007 4:39 PM.

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