Books Read in 2007
A somewhat belated list...
THE BOOKS:
FICTION
The Wizard (Part 2) by Gene Wolfe
Our Town by Thornton Wilder
Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper
Middlemarch by George Eliot
The Grey King by Susan Cooper
The Secret Island by Enid Blyton
Greenwitch by Susan Cooper
The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper
Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis
Tam Lin by Pamela Dean
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
The Queen's Fool by Philippa Gregory
The Playboy Book of Science Fiction by Alice K. Turner
Edna St. Vincent Millay: Selected Poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay
The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
Eifelheim by Michael Flynn (only read half)
Atonement by Ian McEwan (the book is better than the movie, but the movie is still gorgeous and well-done)
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
Crisis on Conshelf 10 by Monica Hughes
The War With Mr. Wizzle by Gordon Korman
A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews
The Englishman's Boy by Guy Vanderhaeghe
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Old Songs for New Ears by Pygmalion Books
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman
The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman
Brain Wave by Poul Anderson
Green Grass, Running Water by Thomas King
Doomsday Book by Connie Willis (for which I wrote one of my most favorite entries)
Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut (I'm not a fan of his fiction but I am of his person)
I Never Liked You by Chester Brown
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
NON-FICTION
Ara Pacis Augustae by Erika Simon
The War for Children's Minds by Stephen Law
Woman of Letters: The Life of Virginia Woolf by Phyllis Rose
Gandhi: His Life and Message for the World by Louis Fischer
No Future Without Forgiveness by Desmond Tutu
Experiencing the World's Religions by Michael Molloy
An introduction to Philosophy of Education by Barrow & Woods
(There's a sad lack of much non-fiction. Actually, though, the list is kind of deceiving - I did read a lot of non-fiction in 2007 for my classes but what I read was mostly just parts of books along with a ton of journal articles.)
* * * * * * *
BEST
Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
The Wizard Knight by Gene Wolfe
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Middlemarch by George Eliot
Tam Lin by Pamela Dean
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
(I feel a bit weird putting The Time Traveler's Wife next to To the Lighthouse as TTL was possibly the greatest book I've ever read. But still, they were both really good in their own ways.)
WORST
Eifelheim by Michael Flynn (Its one of Elliot's favorites and it has a really interesting premise, but I found it really slow moving and dull. It some ways it seemed like a less well-written Doomsday Book.)
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters (Compared to The Night Watch - which is one of my favorites - or Affinity, this was not up to par.)
RE-READS
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman
The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman
The Englishman's Boy by Guy Vanderhaeghe
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis
Tam Lin by Pamela Dean
Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder
There are a fair number of "kids" books and re-reads on my list. When I'm stressed out with school work or when its dark winter, I think I tend to find familiar or really light-reads comforting.
Further annoying categorization for no one's pleasure but my own...
SCI-FI/FANTASY/SPECULATIVE
The Wizard Knight by Gene Wolfe
The Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper
Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis
Tam Lin by Pamela Dean
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
The Playboy Book of Science Fiction by Alice K. Turner
Eifelheim by Michael Flynn
Crisis on Conshelf 10 by Monica Hughes
Old Songs for New Ears by Pygmalion Books
His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman
Brain Wave by Paol Anderson
Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
GLBTT RELATED
Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters
Edna St. Vincent Millay: Selected Poems
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
Woman of Letters: The Life of Virginia Woolf by Phyllis Rose
Saturday, June 14, 2008
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4 comments:
wow. we only have one book in common. i think we need to do more book swapping! i want to read the book of laughter and forgetting. i have no idea what its about, but i like the title and i know you read it at some point - so pass it on sista.
What!? Not even the childrens' classics? Like the Narnia books? Or Harry Potter? [gasp]
I'm sorry but I cannot, in good conscience, lend you The Book of Laughter & Forgetting. However, I can send/post my "reading response" to it so you can see why I hate it so much. I had looked forward to reading it (and The Unbearable Lightness of Being) but it was such a disappointment!
Okay, okay, fine. I'll lend it to you just to see if you'll agree with me about it or not. Should be interesting...
And you need to lend me that book with Love in the title! :)
This list IS very late!
Your "best" picks seem very solid. To The Lighthouse often gets recommended as a classic, I've noticed. And just about everyone whose opinion I respect seems to like Middlemarch. Good to have some Gene Wolfe on there. And I'm glad you liked Doomsday Book.
Maybe I played Eifelheim up too much. I did really enjoy it. This may have had something to do with the History of Science course I had just taken, though, since a lot of the book is the educated priest and the aliens trying to communicate across two different scientific models. The author did a very good job researching the medieval period.
I didn't post all of the books I read, but I did post my favourites list, back in January: http://clawoftheconciliator.blogspot.com/2008/01/favourite-books-of-2007.html
[checks Elliot's list]
Oooh, yeah! Watership Down is a good number one! I still need to borrow that James Blish book from you! Or else A Case of Conscience... I think I also have one of his post-apocalypticy books on my WishList... If I remember correctly.
As for Eifelheim - sometimes I really wonder whether there are certain books that can be more easily appreciated by women and vice versa. I certainly notice that my all-time favorites list has a disproportionate number of female authors. Just a thought...
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