Top 100 Books of 2007 (Kansas City Star) Part I

Explore the Top 100 Books of 2007 as ranked by the Kansas City Star—Part I. Discover must-read fiction, nonfiction, and bestsellers that captivated readers this year. Find your next favorite book now!

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Einstein Cover
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Einstein

by Walter Isaacson

The first full biography of Albert Einstein since all of his papers have become available shows how his scientific imagination sprang from the rebellious nature of his personality. Biographer Isaacson explores how an imaginative, impertinent patent clerk-
Schulz and Peanuts Cover
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Schulz and Peanuts

by David Michaelis

Charles Schulz, the most widely syndicated and beloved cartoonist of all time, is also one of the most misunderstood figures in American culture. Now, acclaimed biographer David Michaelis gives us the first full-length biography of Schulz: at once a creation story, a portrait of a hidden American genius, and a chronicle contrasting the private man with the central role he played in shaping the national imagination. The son of a barber, Schulz was born in Minnesota to modest, working class roots. In 1943, just three days after his mother′s tragic death from cancer, Schulz, a private in the army, shipped out for boot camp and the war in Europe. The sense of shock and separation never left him. And these early experiences would shape his entire life. With Peanuts, Schulz embedded adult ideas in a world of small children to remind the reader that character flaws and childhood wounds are with us always. It was the central truth of his own life, that as the adults we′ve become and as the children we always will be, we can free ourselves, if only we can see the humour in the predicaments of funny-looking kids. Schulz′s Peanuts profoundly influenced the country in the second half of the 20th century. But the strip was anchored in the collective experience and hardships of Schulz′s generation-the generation that survived the Great Depression and liberated Europe and the Pacific and came home to build the post-war world.
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ID: 1565124553
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ID: 0375424938
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The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Cover
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The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

by Sherman Alexie

Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.
Deadline Cover
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Deadline

 

No summary available.
Eclipse Cover
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Eclipse

 

No summary available.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Cover
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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

by J. K. Rowling

At a time when the forces of evil seem to be gaining the upper hand, Harry comes of age in the wizarding world, and must take on and defeat Voldemort--or be killed himself.
The Invention of Hugo Cabret Cover
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The Invention of Hugo Cabret

by Brian Selznick

When twelve-year-old Hugo, an orphan living and repairing clocks within the walls of a Paris train station in 1931, meets a mysterious toyseller and his goddaughter, his undercover life and his biggest secret are jeopardized.
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ID: 0399247068
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ID: 0520248899
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ID: 0374126062
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ID: 1400040817
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The Shotgun Rule Cover
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The Shotgun Rule

by Charlie Huston

Seeking revenge for the theft of a bicycle, four teenage friends discover that the missing item is in the hands of the Arroyo brothers, one of whom is just out of prison, and set out to retrieve it, stumbling upon a methamphetamine lab in the process.
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ID: 0446579556
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ID: 0385336152
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ID: 0553805347
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ID: 0446582409
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The Guild of Xenolinguists Cover
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The Guild of Xenolinguists

by Sheila Finch

The galaxy-wide Guild of Xenolinguists handles all cross-cultural communications by sending agents abroad to learn new languages and program translation computers. The travails of novice linguists animate these 11 stories as they face much more than simple translation work, taking on alien parasites and viruses, a mysterious and violent star-faring race, dolphin instructors, and large tyrant ants. As cultures and languages collide, first contact quickly becomes a matter of morality, galactic politics, death, and war.
The Accidental Time Machine Cover
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The Accidental Time Machine

by Joe W. Haldeman

Working as a lowly research assistant at MIT, Matt Fuller is working on a project to measure quantum forces related to time changes in gravity and electromagnetic force, when his calibrator is transformed into a time machine.
Rollback (Sci Fi Essential Books) Cover
Book

Rollback (Sci Fi Essential Books)

 

No summary available.
Halting State Cover
Book

Halting State

by Charles Stross

STROSS/HALTING STATE
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ID: 0765318539
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ID: 1596432063
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ID: 1560978333
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ID: 0393061728
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ID: 0805062890
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ID: 0826217699
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ID: 0700615016
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ID: 0805077057
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ID: 0826217095
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ID: 0813540623
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A Long Way Gone Cover
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A Long Way Gone

by Ishmael Beah

My new friends have begun to suspect I haven’t told them the full story of my life. “Why did you leave Sierra Leone?” “Because there is a war.” “You mean, you saw people running around with guns and shooting each other?” “Yes, all the time.” “Cool.” I smile a little. “You should tell us about it sometime.” “Yes, sometime.” This is how wars are fought now: by children, hopped-up on drugs and wielding AK-47s. Children have become soldiers of choice. In the more than fifty conflicts going on worldwide, it is estimated that there are some 300,000 child soldiers. Ishmael Beah used to be one of them. What is war like through the eyes of a child soldier? How does one become a killer? How does one stop? Child soldiers have been profiled by journalists, and novelists have struggled to imagine their lives. But until now, there has not been a first-person account from someone who came through this hell and survived. In A Long Way Gone, Beah, now twenty-five years old, tells a riveting story: how at the age of twelve, he fled attacking rebels and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. By thirteen, he’d been picked up by the government army, and Beah, at heart a gentle boy, found that he was capable of truly terrible acts. This is a rare and mesmerizing account, told with real literary force and heartbreaking honesty.
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ID: 1400041155
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ID: 1592402860
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ID: 0911015582
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ID: 0307264564
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ID: 1844671224
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ID: 0307264831
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