My 10 favorite books of 07-08
It’s cheating, but some of these titles came out in paperback this year so I didn’t read them until then. They’re asterisked to designate their shame.
HM | Home by Marilynne Robinson; Ministry of Special Cases by Nathan Englander (© 2007)
10 | The Shadow Catcher by Marianne Wiggins (© 2007)
~a genre-blending story about a father, Edward Curtis, and the American west
9 | People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
~a fragmented narrative whose main character is an ancient scroll and the cloud of witnesses who protect it
8 | A Peculiar Grace by Jeffrey Lent (© 2007)
~Hewitt Pearce, a hermetic Vermont ironworker, meets the enigmatic Jessica Kress in a tough Odd Couple-type story
7| Diary of a Bad Year by JM Coetzee
~experimental structure with varying points of view and styles gives great voice to today’s problems ranging from terror to torture and animal rights
6| The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich
~a story about story-telling in a Western setting that ends up hinging on philately
5 | The Yiddish Policeman’s Union by Michael Chabon (© 2007)
~a murder-mystery involving a red heifer, a potential Messiah, and a fictitious Jewish state in Alaska slated for a Coen brothers flick in 2010
4 | America, America by Ethan Canin
~a gentle re-telling of All the King’s Men examining the corruption of the political process and how it seeps into individual morality
3| The Blue Star by Tony Earley
~Jim Glass returns from Jim the Boy as an adolescent who falls for a friend’s girl while the friend is at war; the NYT correctly calls this a children’s book for adults
2 | An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes of New England by Brocke Clark (© 2007)
~funny and satirical book about books, writing, book clubs, reading, and family life
