Books I Read in 2007 - good and bad
Explore my 2007 book list—discover the best reads and disappointing picks from my year of reading. Find recommendations and honest reviews!
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Specimen Days
by Michael Cunningham
The same group of characters--a young boy, an older man, and a young woman--are present in each historical period of this genre-bending, haunting, and transformative ode to life in New York.
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The Sparrow
by Mary Doria Russell
A visionary work that combines speculative fiction with deep philosophical inquiry, The Sparrow tells the story of a charismatic Jesuit priest and linguist, Emilio Sandoz, who leads a scientific mission entrusted with a profound task: to make first contact with intelligent extraterrestrial life. The mission begins in faith, hope, and beauty, but a series of small misunderstandings brings it to a catastrophic end. Praise for The Sparrow “A startling, engrossing, and moral work of fiction.”—The New York Times Book Review “Important novels leave deep cracks in our beliefs, our prejudices, and our blinders. The Sparrow is one of them.”—Entertainment Weekly “Powerful . . . The Sparrow tackles a difficult subject with grace and intelligence.”—San Francisco Chronicle “Provocative, challenging . . . recalls both Arthur C. Clarke and H. G. Wells, with a dash of Ray Bradbury for good measure.”—The Dallas Morning News “[Mary Doria] Russell shows herself to be a skillful storyteller who subtly and expertly builds suspense.”—USA Today
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The Egyptologist
by Arthur Phillips
From the bestselling author of Prague comes a witty, inventive, brilliantly constructed novel about an Egyptologist obsessed with finding the tomb of an apocryphal king. This darkly comic labyrinth of a story opens on the desert plains of Egypt in 1922, then winds its way from the slums of Australia to the ballrooms of Boston by way of Oxford, the battlefields of the First World War, and a royal court in turmoil. Just as Howard Carter unveils the tomb of Tutankhamun, making the most dazzling find in the history of archaeology, Oxford-educated Egyptologist Ralph Trilipush is digging himself into trouble, having staked his professional reputation and his fiancée’s fortune on a scrap of hieroglyphic pornography. Meanwhile, a relentless Australian detective sets off on the case of his career, spanning the globe in search of a murderer. And another murderer. And possibly another murderer. The confluence of these seemingly separate stories results in an explosive ending, at once inevitable and utterly unpredictable. Arthur Phillips leads this expedition to its unforgettable climax with all the wit and narrative bravado that made Prague one of the most critically acclaimed novels of 2002. Exploring issues of class, greed, ambition, and the very human hunger for eternal life, this staggering second novel gives us a glimpse of Phillips’s range and maturity–and is sure to earn him further acclaim as one of the most exciting authors of his generation.
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The Time Traveler's Wife
by Audrey Niffenegger
A Magical love story that is as sad as it is joyous.
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The Broken Bike Boy and the Queen of 33rd Street
by Sharon Flake
/DIVI am a queen. I live in a castle, right across the street from the John Howard Housing Projects. Every day right after school I run to my bedroom window and open it wide--even in the middle of winter when the wind blows wet snow up my nose. I watch for my knight in shining armor. He's ten years old, like me, and rides a bike--a two-wheeler with rusty spokes and torn-up seat. So begins Sharon Flake's highly-anticipated new novel--a moving story of an unlikely friendship. DIV Queen is a royal pain in the neck! Her Highness treats everyone like her loyal subjects: her classmates, her teacher, even her parents! That's why all the kids hate her and it's hard for her to make friends. To make matters worse, Queen known she is bright. Her teacher thinks she's a spoiled know-it-all, and that keeps her in hot water as well. When a new kid comes to Queen's school riding a broken bike and wearing run-over shoes, he immediately becomes the butt of everyone's jokes. Her parents insist she be nice to Leroy, since history has never been kind to queens who forget how to be humble. But Leroy isn't just smelly, Queen thinks that he tells fibs—whoppers in fact—and when he says he's an African prince from Senegal, sparks fly between him and Queen. There's only room for one blue-blooded family on 33rd Street, and Queen is determined to prove Leroy is an impostor. What Queen ultimately discovers about Leroy makes her wonder what "happily ever after" really means. If a broken-bike boy is truly Queen’s knight in shining armor, can he save her from herself, by teaching her how to be a good friend?
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Which Brings Me to You
by Steve Almond
A two-sided look at modern love-- and lust-- by two bestselling writers at the top of their form. Two rambunctious, romantic flameouts. One boring wedding. One heated embrace in a quiet coatroom. This is not exactly the recipe for true love. John and Jane's lusty encounter at a friend's wedding isn't really the beginning of anything with any weight to it; even they know that. When they manage to pull back, it occurs to them that they might start this whole thing over properly. They might try getting to know one another first, through letters. What follows is a series of traded confessions-- of their messy histories, their past errors, their big loves, their flaws, and their passions. Each love affair, confessed as honestly as possible, reveals the ways in which Jane and John have grown and changed-- or not changed-- over the years; the people they've hurt, the ones still bruised. The ones who bruised them.Where all of this soul-baring will take them is the burning question behind every letter-- a question that can only be answered when they meet again, finally, in the flesh.
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American Born Chinese
by Gene Luen Yang
"Alternates three interrelated stories about the problems of young Chinese Americans trying to participate in the popular culture. Presented in comic book format." -- Title page verso
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The Higher Power of Lucky
by Susan Patron
Fearing that her legal guardian plans to abandon her to return to France, ten-year-old aspiring scientist Lucky Trimble determines to run away while also continuing to seek the Higher Power that will bring stability to her life.
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The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
by John Boyne
Two young boys encounter the best and worst of humanity during the Holocaust in this powerful read that USA Today called "as memorable an introduction to the subject as The Diary of Anne Frank.” Berlin, 1942: When Bruno returns home from school one day, he discovers that his belongings are being packed in crates. His father has received a promotion and the family must move to a new house far, far away, where there is no one to play with and nothing to do. A tall fence stretches as far as the eye can see and cuts him off from the strange people in the distance. But Bruno longs to be an explorer and decides that there must be more to this desolate new place than meets the eye. While exploring his new environment, he meets another boy whose life and circumstances are very different from his own, and their meeting results in a friendship that has devastating consequences.
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The Namesake
by Jhumpa Lahiri
A young man born of Indian parents in America struggles with issues of identity from his teens to his thirties.
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The Girls
by Lori Lansens
Rarely has the experience of being a sister been so poignantly and memorably captured as in Lori Lansens's triumphant novel. The Girls celebrates life's fundamental joys and trials as it presents Rose and Ruby, sisters destined to live inseparably but blessed with distinct sensibilities that enrich and complicate their shared experiences-of growing up, of finding their way in the world, of saying good-bye.Readers who encounter the girls will find it hard to resist falling under their spell.
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