We'll tackle song/album lists later, okay?
It's apparently the week of publications putting out best books of 2007 lists. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (which I put on my amazon wish list earlier this week, before I read all this) is on all three of those lists linked above (Salon, Time, LA Times), And Then We Came To An End (which I read this summer) is on two out of three and No One Belongs Here More Than You (which I just finished) is on Time's (I point this out so you will all know I am Hip and With It, obviously).
Anyway, what are your top reads of 2007? I'm going to try and stick with books I read this year that also actually came out this year (as opposed to, say, the best book I read this year, which was published in 1922), but you don't have to follow my rules.
My List (I can't even come up with five ... I guess I don't read a lot of timely stuff)
And Then We Came to an End, Joshua Ferris
The Political Brain, Drew Westin
No One Belongs Here More Than You, Miranda July
The Long Tail, Chris Anderson (okay, it came out in 2006, but close enough, right?)
I actually just looked at a list I've been keeping of all the books I've read in 2007, and I feel it looks pretty wimpy ... I'm going to chock that up to the fact that it's not counting the approximately 800,057 million chapters of (but not complete) books I read while working on my thesis or for various classes, or the 2.7 million academic articles .... Anyway, here's my whole list, if anyone's interested (why the hell would you be? I don't know. Shut up).
Are men Necessary?, Maureen Dowd (which probably takes the title of WORST book I read this year ... )
The Father of Spin, Larry Tye (great book if you're a PR dork)
Don't Get Too Comfortable, David Rakoff (disappointing)
Blink, Malcolm Gladwell (disappointing in comparison to The Tipping Point)
The Long Tail, Chris Anderson (a hated-having-to-put-it-down book)
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, David Sedaris
Am I A Woman?: A Skeptic's Guide to Gender, Cynthia Eller (down with ev-psych! yay!)
The Sociology of News, Michael Hudson (again, great book if you're a media geek)
Elements of Style, Wendy Wasserstein (I loved this book so much that, upon finishing, I promptly ordered a copy for Missy, because I thought she'd love it too ... she called me a while later to ask if I'd even read the book, because I seriously couldn't have liked it? ... so, take that for what you will; this book clearly inspires mixed feelings)
And Then We Came to the End, Joshua Ferris (the easiest way to describe it -- which I did, when giving it to my sister, and which all those book-list reviews of it do now -- is "The Office," in book form)
It's a Wonderul Lie, Alexander Robbins (ed.) (a collection of short-stories about life in your 20s which was only good for the fact that it made me think, man, if these girls can actually get published, I certainly can ... of course, I'm sure these girls actually write things more than once every two months, so that is the difference ... ahh, bad vs. prolific, the eternal struggle ...)
Full Frontal Feminism, Jessica Valenti (written more for teens/college-ladies than people my age, but I bought it to support Ms. Valenti, whom I adore -- and it's still an informative, quick, funny, entertaining read, and if you have any youngish girls on your gift list any time, I would recommend it for them)
Tiny Ladies in Shiny Pants, Jill Soloway (disappointing in the same way as the Rakoff book
The Political Brain, Drew Westin (if I am ever running for political office, I will campaign solely on the tenets in this book ... amazing amazing amazing ... seriously, read this book)
Marriage, a History, Stephanie Coontz (I am the kind of dork who looooves reading about the history/sociology of gender relations, so this was also a hate-to-put-this-down-book for me; very very interesting, and not written all academically -- it flows, it's funny and easy to read)
The Beautiful and the Damned, F. Scott Fitzgerald (I am Gloria Gilbert)
The Faraday Girls, Monica Mcierney (next time I want to pick up a book to read in Target, remind me not to ... okay, okay, that's not entirely fair ... it was a cute book, for the kind of book marketed to middle-age middle-class ladies in target .... I passed the book on to my school-teacher aunt)
The Feminine Mistake, Leslie Bennetts (again, a book for the gender-soch geeks)
The Devil in the White City, Erik Larson (too much architecture, not enough serial killers, but I know tons of random facts about the Chicago World's Fair now!)
No One Belongs Here More Than You, Miranda July (Lovely. ... and p.s., Ms. Bowman, I know this is your book, and you lent it to Justin, and then he lent it to me, and I just lent it to Jables ... so it is making the rounds ... but I promise it will get back to you someday -- and trust it now that it's my responsibility then when it was Justin's, because he stealls books and loses them forever, ahem, Mrs. Dalloway ...)
Discover Your Inner Economist, Tyler Cowen (in the vein of Freakanomics, Malcolm Gladwell books, etc. .... a quick, pop-econ kind of thing ... moments of greatness but a bit disappointing on the whole ... Cowen is a weird writer .... )
The End.
Anyway, what are your top reads of 2007? I'm going to try and stick with books I read this year that also actually came out this year (as opposed to, say, the best book I read this year, which was published in 1922), but you don't have to follow my rules.
My List (I can't even come up with five ... I guess I don't read a lot of timely stuff)
And Then We Came to an End, Joshua Ferris
The Political Brain, Drew Westin
No One Belongs Here More Than You, Miranda July
The Long Tail, Chris Anderson (okay, it came out in 2006, but close enough, right?)
I actually just looked at a list I've been keeping of all the books I've read in 2007, and I feel it looks pretty wimpy ... I'm going to chock that up to the fact that it's not counting the approximately 800,057 million chapters of (but not complete) books I read while working on my thesis or for various classes, or the 2.7 million academic articles .... Anyway, here's my whole list, if anyone's interested (why the hell would you be? I don't know. Shut up).
Are men Necessary?, Maureen Dowd (which probably takes the title of WORST book I read this year ... )
The Father of Spin, Larry Tye (great book if you're a PR dork)
Don't Get Too Comfortable, David Rakoff (disappointing)
Blink, Malcolm Gladwell (disappointing in comparison to The Tipping Point)
The Long Tail, Chris Anderson (a hated-having-to-put-it-down book)
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, David Sedaris
Am I A Woman?: A Skeptic's Guide to Gender, Cynthia Eller (down with ev-psych! yay!)
The Sociology of News, Michael Hudson (again, great book if you're a media geek)
Elements of Style, Wendy Wasserstein (I loved this book so much that, upon finishing, I promptly ordered a copy for Missy, because I thought she'd love it too ... she called me a while later to ask if I'd even read the book, because I seriously couldn't have liked it? ... so, take that for what you will; this book clearly inspires mixed feelings)
And Then We Came to the End, Joshua Ferris (the easiest way to describe it -- which I did, when giving it to my sister, and which all those book-list reviews of it do now -- is "The Office," in book form)
It's a Wonderul Lie, Alexander Robbins (ed.) (a collection of short-stories about life in your 20s which was only good for the fact that it made me think, man, if these girls can actually get published, I certainly can ... of course, I'm sure these girls actually write things more than once every two months, so that is the difference ... ahh, bad vs. prolific, the eternal struggle ...)
Full Frontal Feminism, Jessica Valenti (written more for teens/college-ladies than people my age, but I bought it to support Ms. Valenti, whom I adore -- and it's still an informative, quick, funny, entertaining read, and if you have any youngish girls on your gift list any time, I would recommend it for them)
Tiny Ladies in Shiny Pants, Jill Soloway (disappointing in the same way as the Rakoff book
The Political Brain, Drew Westin (if I am ever running for political office, I will campaign solely on the tenets in this book ... amazing amazing amazing ... seriously, read this book)
Marriage, a History, Stephanie Coontz (I am the kind of dork who looooves reading about the history/sociology of gender relations, so this was also a hate-to-put-this-down-book for me; very very interesting, and not written all academically -- it flows, it's funny and easy to read)
The Beautiful and the Damned, F. Scott Fitzgerald (I am Gloria Gilbert)
The Faraday Girls, Monica Mcierney (next time I want to pick up a book to read in Target, remind me not to ... okay, okay, that's not entirely fair ... it was a cute book, for the kind of book marketed to middle-age middle-class ladies in target .... I passed the book on to my school-teacher aunt)
The Feminine Mistake, Leslie Bennetts (again, a book for the gender-soch geeks)
The Devil in the White City, Erik Larson (too much architecture, not enough serial killers, but I know tons of random facts about the Chicago World's Fair now!)
No One Belongs Here More Than You, Miranda July (Lovely. ... and p.s., Ms. Bowman, I know this is your book, and you lent it to Justin, and then he lent it to me, and I just lent it to Jables ... so it is making the rounds ... but I promise it will get back to you someday -- and trust it now that it's my responsibility then when it was Justin's, because he stealls books and loses them forever, ahem, Mrs. Dalloway ...)
Discover Your Inner Economist, Tyler Cowen (in the vein of Freakanomics, Malcolm Gladwell books, etc. .... a quick, pop-econ kind of thing ... moments of greatness but a bit disappointing on the whole ... Cowen is a weird writer .... )
The End.