Books of 2007: Better Late Than Never!

No, that's not a typo on the year up there in the title.  I fully intended to publish this in January 2008 at some point during 2008, but, uh... time flies!  Or something! 

Here's a list of books I read in the year 2007.   Happy freaking new year, internet! 

1.  Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier. I read Cold Mountain; loved it. Saw the movie; loved it. I was really excited about Thirteen Moons, and boy, was I ever disappointed. I wanted to punch the narrator/protagonist in the face. I came very close to not finishing the last 20 pages just because I did not give a shit what happened.  Thank goodness I finished it in less than 30 days and was thus able to return the (hardcover!) book to Barnes and Noble (shhhh). 

2.  The Historianby Elizabeth Kostova.  So, this is a Big Boy book. Like, 1000+ pages. I couldn't put it down, so I was carrying around an encyclopedia-sized book for a few weeks, which prompted many people to ask what That Book I Was Reading was about. Then I got to reply, "It's a book about Dracula." THAT WAS FUN. But, I will still admit: loved it. I loved Buffy, I love Moonlight, and I loved The Historian. Even if it a book about vampires.

[Ed note:  I wrote the first few of these nearly a year ago, before I'd heard of a little book called Twilight]

 3.  1776 by David McCullough.  Made me want to sing the Star Spangled Banner, and also made me feel smart. Bonus! The downside is now Joel keeps bugging me to read the copy of The Great Bridge (also by David McCullough, for those not lucky enough to have this tome on their bookshelf) that he has left over from some engineering class he took in college, and I keep putting it off because I just don't care about the Brooklyn Bridge that much. For the record, Joel never read it ether, and he was supposed to FOR CLASS, so there.

4.  The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards. Meh. Could have been great, but it wasn't.

5.  Love in the Time of Choleraby Gabriel Garcia Marquez.  I think this book is like 100 Years of Solitude -- at least, I hope so. The first time I read 100 Years I hated it.  I'd loved Marquez's other (shorter) books and I really wanted to love 100 Years of Solitude, too... but instead I slogged through it, feeling equally confused and bored throughout.   But then, a few year later, I had to read it again for class and I LOVED it.  It took a second reading for me to fully appreciate it, and I am hoping that's also the case with Love in the Time of Cholera because all I could think while reading it was PLEASE GOD LET SOMETHING, ANYTHING, HAPPEN. I am kind of amazed that they made a movie (which I have not yet seen) out of this book. Has anyone seen it? What the hell happens, besides a dude waiting around for fifty years for his true love's husband to die?

6.  Cold Sassy Treeby Olive Ann Burns.  Usually so much colloquialism in a book drives me crazy, but this was so well done that I actually enjoyed it.  LOVED the book.

7.  The Nanny Diariesby Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus.  Absolutely painful.  The movie looked cute, but I couldn't bring myself to see it after hating the book so much. 

8.  Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris.  I think I liked it, but I really can't remember at the moment so it must not have made too big of an impression...

9.  Saving Fish from Drowning by Amy Tan.  This was the first Amy Tan novel I've read, and I was less than impressed. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great. It was interesting, but a little fruity (even for me). None of the characters were likable. I also tried to read The Bonesetter's Daughter, but I gave up after a month of trying my very best to get into it. I haven't given up on Amy Tan yet; I do plan to give The Kitchen God's Wife and/or The Joy Luck Club a try.

10.  Digging to America by Ann Tyler.  I was thinking of taking a class on "Ann Tyler's Baltimore", but having learned a thing or two about taking classes without actually reading the syllabus, I decided to read one of her books before sending in my tuition remission waiver forms.  The book was OK.  I didn't take the class. 

11.  Love Walked Inby Marisa de los Santos.  My friend Beth sent me this book.  She'd bought and read it solely because the cover reminded her of The Time Traveler's Wife, our favorite book of all-time.  I enjoyed the book and thought it was OK, but the cover is definitely my favorite part.

12.  Lonesome Doveby Larry McMurty.  Not into John Wayne's wild, wild west?   Not into books about cowboys, whores and Indians?  Yeah, neither was I... until Isabel made me read Lonesome Dove.  It was probably my favorite book of 2007. One of the reviews on the back cover says something like "Never have I been so irritated with an author as I was with Larry McMurty for ending this novel after only 864 pages."  I could not agree more. 

13.  Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See.  I read this for book club.  Everyone else loved it, I thought Memoirs of a Geisha was better.

14.  The Kite Runnerby Khaled Hosseini.   Love, love, loved it.

15.  The Alchemistby  Paulo Coelho.   Read this for book club.  I hated it, everyone else loved it. 

16.  Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier.  I picked this up at a garage sale and thought it was a quick, enjoyable read.  

17.  The Hours by Michael Cunningham. ZZZZzzzZZzzZZZZWTF?!ZZzzz. 

18.  The Roadby Cormac McCarthy.   This was my book club pick.  I loved it, everyone else hated it.  (And that is when I dropped out of my book club.)  It's dark and at some parts it's downright terrifying, but I thought it was awesome.

19.  Water for Elephantsby Sarah Gruen.  Really, really liked it. 

20.  A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini.   I think I liked this even more than The Kite Runner.  Although I knew Kite Runner was a novel, not an autobiography, there were a lot of similarities between the author's life and the characters' and I was duly impressed that A Thousand Splendid Suns was just as compelling without those similarities. 

21.  Ines of My Soul by Isabel Allende.  It pains me to saying anything back about Isabel Allende, but I pretty much hated this book.  It took me months to slog through and I was bored the whole time.  I was very surprised to find myself falling asleep every night without even turning a single page because 1) I usually go mad for historical fiction 2) I'm semi-obsessed with the native people of South America, and 3) I adore Isabel Allende.  But my god, this book was boring.

THE END.   2008 list coming shortly!

Comments

[OM]

I read "Love in times..." in high school, and it fit just right with my romantic teenage self. But I don't remember any of it and I'm afraid to read it again. And I heard the movie was bad.

I finally read "100 years..." last year and hated it. Maybe I should have read that as a teenager as well.

[Courtney]

I haven't read a lot of those and i'd like to. I have Love In The Time Of Cholera, but haven't gotten around to reading it. LOVED Water For Elephants. I have The Historian and The Secret Life of Bees and yeah, haven't read them either...

[Jackie]

I just got A Thousand Spendid Suns for Christmas. I have heard great things about this author and am glad I am finally getting around to reading it!

[RA]

I know we've talked about this before, but I definitely recommend "The Joy Luck Club" far far FAR over "Saving Fish from Drowning." "The Joy Luck Club" is more about short vignettes that are related, but I also loved "The Kitchen God's Wife" and "The Bonesetter's Daughter," if you want a more traditionally-structured novel. I'm still sad that your first Amy Tan experience was so blah.

And, I HATED "Love in the Time of Cholera" the first time I tried to read it, but the second time, something snapped together and I loved it. I refuse to see the movie; how could they do it justice?

[ccr in MA]

I'm glad you left that book club! It sounds like it wasn't the right one for you.

Always glad to read about books!

[nancypearlwannabe]

How on earth did people hate The Road? It was totally amazing.

[Liz]

I really enjoyed Water for Elephants too. I also read Love in the Time of Cholera because it was featured in the movie Serendipity and I loved that movie, but the book was not quite the love story I had envisioned. The movie wasn't very good either. I'm about 60 pages from finishing The Historian but honestly, I'm just ready for it to end. I'm used to so much more happening in books with THAT many pages. Twilight was way better. :)

[Isabel]

I can't remember if you read the prequels to Lonesome Dove or not. You should. They are fun. (The sequel sucks.)

And if you liked Lonesome Dove then let me recommend another book to you....it's called "Twilight" and it's written by this cool Mormon lady. I think you might like it.