2007

Re-reads are in italics; the most stand-out reads are in bold.

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim – David Sedaris

Amongst Women – John McGahern (read it, read it, read it)

Becoming Abigail – Chris Abani (ditto)

The Flower Beneath the Foot – Ronald Firbank

My Name is Red – Orhan Pamuk (Not sure what to think of it yet but everyone should read a book like this)

House Rules – Heather Lewis (read it, read it, read it)

Rules of Seduction – Madeline Hunter (Mmmmm…eh)

Prince of Ice – Emma Holly (Back in form for this one, thank goodness)

The Translation of Dr. Apelles: A Love Story – David Treuer (My best read of the year. I know it’s only January but at the moment I cannot imagine its equal.)

The World of Christopher Robin – A. A. Milne (When We Were Very Young is leagues above Now We Are Six.)

The Italian – Ann Radcliffe (Mmhhhhmm!)

Black Lightning – Roger Mais

Artemisia – Anna Banti, translated by Shirley D’Ardia Caracciolo

Dark Lover – J.R. Ward (Yuck.)

Sugar Daddy – Lisa Kleypas

The Open Curtain – Brian Evenson (Wtf (in a good way).)

Ysabel – Guy Gavriel Kay (eh.)

Jane Eyre – Charlotte Brontë (It’s the best book in the world!)

Half of a Yellow Sun – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (one of the best)

A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature – Wilfred L. Guerin et. al (not bad!)

Moravagine – Blaise Cendrars, translated by Alan Brown (Amaaaazing)

Winter Rose – Patricia McKillip (I found a new favourite winter read)

The Swimming-Pool Library – Alan Hollinghurst

The Wedding Jester – Steve Stern (Graywolf Press is out-of-control: it’s given me my second best book of the year.)

Lady Fortune – Anne Stuart (First half great, second half terrible)

The Good Solider: A Tale of Passion – Ford Madox Ford

Mrs Dalloway – Virginia Woolf (Ambrosia!)

The Land of Spices – Kate O’Brien (Read it!)

Kokoro – Natsume Soseki, translated by Edwin McClellen (Whoa)

The House at Pooh Corner – A. A. Milne (The real Eeyore is so much better than Disney’s.)

The Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye – A. S. Byatt (Fairly excellent collection of “fairy stories”. The titled story is the best one.)

Born in Death – J.D. Robb (meh)

Listen, the Wind and Other Stories – Roger Mais (Uneven collection but fascinating for Roger Mais fans)

Sleepless Nights – Elizabeth Hardwick (Endlessly fascinating)

Alphabet of Thorns – Patricia A. McKillip (Never before have I read a book where the ending it so heroically.)

Blankets – Craig Thompson (My first “graphic novel”.)

The Well of Loneliness – Radclyffe Hall

Goldberg: Variations – Gabriel Josipovici (This one was quite the adventure. Read it.)

Mercy Among the Children – David Adams Richards

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic – Alison Bechdel

The Haunted Hillbilly – Derek McCormack

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – J.K. Rowling (Not bad. Not bad at all.)

Children of Húrin – J.R.R. Tolkien (Favourite story from the First Age)

Edge of Midnight – Shannon Mckenna (Predictable but her over-the-top style managed to make it entertaining.)

Eight Days of Luke – Diana Wynne Jones (Her books are always a lot of fun.)

Flight Volume Four – Various artists (If you want to be convinced of the “legitimacy” of the graphic format, bypass all those NYT reviewed tomes and pick this baby up.)

The Amulet of Samarkand – Jonathan Stroud (August appears to fulfil the requirements of “summer reading”, yes?)

Golem’s Eye – Jonathan Stroud

Ptolemy’s Gate – Jonathan Stroud (Final verdict? Waaaaaaaaay better than Harry Potter.)

Flight Volume Two – Various artists

Jacques the Fatalist and His Master – Denis Diderot translated by Michael Henry (So much bawdy, clever, thoughtful fun.)

Saint Joan – George Bernard Shaw

So Long Been Dreaming: Postcolonial Science Fiction and Fantasy – Various authors

Averno – Louise Glück (Excellent poetry collection. Everyone should read it, even if you think you don’t like poetry. It’s such a slim book too.)

The Good Fairies of New York – Martin Millar (It was all right. Pretty funny.)

Breton Folktales (Unusual entertainment)

Fairyville – Emma Holly

A Quality of Violence – Andrew Salkey

Flight, Volume One – Various Artists (Not quite as good, overall, as the vol. 2 & 4, but still contains a few stunning gems.)

Emma – Jane Austen (The book that’s confirmed my opinion that Austen, at least morally and on issues of gender, was firmly a woman of her time, no matter what the movies say.)

The Ides of March – Thornton Wilder (Quite a surprise, this one: I actually enjoyed it.)

Flight, Volume Four – Various (Fantabulous, as usual!)

Od Magic – Patricia A. McKillip (Almost good! Almost, almost…it wasn’t bad but it’s no Winter Rose.)

Lessons of Desire – Madeline Hunter (I can’t help but think there’s a more distant air in her most recent romances.)

Mine Till Midnight – Lisa Kleypas (Aaaaaaah. So nice.)

The Lord of the Rings – J.R.R. Tolkien (This has put me into a Tolkien mood now. I shall have to reread The Silmarillion.)

The People of Paper – Salvador Plascencia (You should probably read it just to find out how you’ll react.)

Beowulf – Anonymous, translated by Michael Alexander (Totally awesome, although I admit it was “The Wanderer” that fully converted me to the merits of Old English poetry.)

The Pornographer – John McGahern

The Owl Service – Alan Garner (Wtf? In a good way. Sort of. It’s not bad. It’s pretty ambitious in some ways.)

My Christina and Other Stories – Mercé Rodoreda, translated by David Rosenthal ( So good, so fresh, so modern, you’d never guess it was written in the 1960s. Another Graywolf prize!)

Mulligan Stew – Gilbert Sorrentino

Maus I & II – Art Spiegelman (It was all right. Pretty darn good. Pulitzer, though?)

Trading in Memories – Barbara Hodgson (Really enjoyed it.)

Red Shift – Alan Garner (See comment on previous Garner novel.)

Banana Bottom – Claude McKay

Breakfast With the Ones You Love – Eliot Fintushel

The Virgin of Flames – Chris Abani (Eeeeehh. Kinda. At times.)

The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner – James Hogg (Eeeeeexcellent.)

Mélusine – Sarah Monette (Ugh! Ugh, ugh, ugh, ugh, ugh. After years of careful selection I fell into one of those damn cheesy sword & sorcery nonsense. Just…uuuuugh.)

Grab Bag: Two Stories – Derek McCormack (Hilarious, disturbing, poignant, absurd, stylish — definitely one of my favourite 2007 discoveries.)