January 3, 2008

Best Books I Read in 2007

I didn't read as much as I'd hoped this year but I guess teaching three Honors classes and taking two grad classes a term will do that to you. Here are my favorite books from 2007 followed by a list of all the books I read - for posterity's sake.

Top 5

#5 - The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip : George Saunders
A nice, little modern fable about sharing work and being generous and whatnot. You will find a new appreciation for nice neighbors and perhaps a love of fences. The illustrations are by Lane Smith who has also done Squids will be Squids and The Stinky Cheese Man.

#4 - Icelander : Dustin Long
A crime novel where the author chronicles the murder of a detective whose life is also the subject of a fictional collection of crime stories whose author is also a character in the book so there are really fours layers of narrative to keep track of including the footnotes by the 'editor' of the Icelander but you end up forgetting about trying to figure out the murder because it's not really about that at all. The book is really a terrific romp and never seems "Barth-ian" and in its postmodern gimmicks.

#3 - The Worst Hard Time : Timothy Egan
A nonfiction account with a narrative flow of life during the Dust Bowl. There was a lot of talk about global warming this year, but if you want to see what happens when the Earth gets really pissed off, this is a book to check out and marvel at the statistics and what humans are willing to put up with in the pursuit of the land, and money, and worth.

#2 - What is the What : Dave Eggers
The autobiography of Deng, a Sudanese refugee, told by Dave Eggers is told through flashbacks when Deng attempts to make connections to Americans by telling them of the things that he's been through and how he ended up in America. Symbolically no one ever hears the tales Deng tells, much as how the plight of millions of refugees around the world are never heard.

#1 - One Hundred Years of Solitude : Gabriel Garcia-Marquez
I fell in love with Magical Realism this year. I've always liked South American culture but this is an entirely different way of writing and looking at the world than I'm used to reading. The book is brilliant and while keeping track of all the characters will the same names can get a little confusing, every page is filled with imagery and sentences that are truly fascinating and vulgar and sexy.

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