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According to a recent New York Times article, the following are the 10 Best Books of 2007. How many have you read?
MAN GONE DOWN By Michael Thomas. Black Cat/Grove/Atlantic, paper, $14. This first novel explores the fragmented personal histories behind four desperate days in a black writer’s life. OUT STEALING HORSES By Per Petterson. Translated by Anne Born. Graywolf Press, $22. In this short yet spacious Norwegian novel, an Oslo professional hopes to cure his loneliness with a plunge into solitude. THE SAVAGE DETECTIVES By Roberto Bolaño. Translated by Natasha Wimmer. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $27. A craftily autobiographical novel about a band of literary guerrillas. THEN WE CAME TO THE END By Joshua Ferris. Little, Brown & Company, $23.99. Layoff notices fly in Ferris’s acidly funny first novel, set in a white-collar office in the wake of the dot-com debacle. TREE OF SMOKE By Denis Johnson. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $27. The author of “Jesus’ Son” offers a soulful novel about the travails of a large cast of characters during the Vietnam War. Nonfiction IMPERIAL LIFE IN THE EMERALD CITY: Inside Iraq's Green Zone. By Rajiv Chandrasekaran. Alfred A. Knopf, $25.95; Vintage, paper, $14.95. The author, a Washington Post journalist, catalogs the arrogance and ineptitude that marked America’s governance of Iraq. LITTLE HEATHENS: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression. By Mildred Armstrong Kalish. Bantam Books, $22. Kalish’s soaring love for her childhood memories saturates this memoir, which coaxes the reader into joy, wonder and even envy. THE NINE: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court. By Jeffrey Toobin. Doubleday, $27.95. An erudite outsider’s account of the cloistered court’s inner workings. THE ORDEAL OF ELIZABETH MARSH: A Woman in World History. By Linda Colley. Pantheon Books, $27.50. Colley tracks the “compulsively itinerant” Marsh across the 18th century and several continents. THE REST IS NOISE: Listening to the Twentieth Century. By Alex Ross. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $30. In his own feat of orchestration, The New Yorker’s music critic presents a history of the last century as refracted through its classical music.
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Well, I'm apparently not that well read as I've read not a one of those books. Wouldn't mind reading "The Nine" though. Wonder if the local library has it. |
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Haven't read even one of them. Am not sure any of them are to my taste. |
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I haven't read any of the fiction, not much of a fiction reader unless it's mysteries, but I have read all of the non-fiction except the one about Elizabeth Marsh. Little Heathens, of course, stole my heart and brought back all kinds of memories; the author might as well have been one of the kids down the lane from us. The Nine was an interesting exploration of the Supreme Court of the US prior to the recent changes - I'd like to fact-check some things before I pass judgment on it. Imperial Life in the Emerald City was just plain fascinating, surprisingly even-handed, and caused me to feel much the way I felt when I read The Ugly American almost 50 years ago. I didn't care much for The Rest is Noise, but I'm not a huge classical music fan; DW is, and she enjoyed it. Now I have to track down the one about Elizabeth Marsh. Thanks! Les |
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Wow, I've only even heard of one of those! That one is Then We Came to the End, which my husband is reading right now and really likes! ETA: Okay, yes I've heard of The Nine, heh. But that's it! Last Edited on: 12/24/07 10:30 PM ET - Total times edited: 1 |
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Way to go, Lester, for getting out there and reading some good stuff this year! While I've read some pretty good books this year, I haven't read any of these top ten. Ah, well. |
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I haven't read any of them either, in fact I've never heard of them before. |
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I haven't read any of these either. Most of them don't really sound like my type of books! |
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I've heard of "The Nine" but am sure that none of the other titles sound good to me. Even with the descriptions.... |
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I haven't heard of any of these books, Little Heathens is the only one that even sounds good to me............... |
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I haven't heard of any of these.
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No, I don't recognize any of the titles either, but "Little Heathens" and "The Nine" sound interesting to me. Thanks for the listing. Pat |
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And here are the top from the Washington Post and the Boston Globe - not identical, but many of the same.... and, no I haven't read any of them, but intend to get my hands on The Savage Detectives and Cheating at Canasta:
Last Edited on: 12/28/07 9:13 PM ET - Total times edited: 1 |
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