The Year in Books 2007

[bluegargantua]

Hey,

So what did I read this year?


From the most recently read to the oldest:

• The Glorious Ones by Francine Prose


• Why choose This Book?: How We Make Decisions by Read Montague


• Redemption Ark by Alastair Reynolds


• Stand and Deliver! A History of Highway Robbery by David Brandon


• The Solitudes by John Crowley


• the Book Nobody read: Chasing the Revelations of Nicolaus Copernicus by Owen Gingerich


• Crooked Little Vein by Warren Ellis


• The First Law Book Two: Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie


• The Princes of the Golden Cage by Nathalie Merchant


• A New Universal History of Infamy by Rhys Hughes


• The Algebraist by Iain M. Banks


• Queen of Candesce: Book Two of Virga by Karl Schroeder


• The First Law Book One: The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie


• Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch


• Chasm City by Alastair Reynolds


• Areas of My Expertise by John Hodgman


• Gods in Darkness by Karl Edward Wagner


• Poisoned Wells: The Dirty Politics of African Oil by Nicholas Shaxson


• Little, Big by John Crowley


• Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds


• The Course of the Heart by M. John Harrison


• Soon I Will Be Invincible! by Austin Grossman


• Remainder by Tom McCarthy


• Mainspring by Jay Lake


• Untapped: The Scramble for Africa's Oil by John Ghazvinian


• Recursion by Tony Ballantyne


• Deep Economy: The Wealth of communities and the Durable Future by Bill McKibben


• The Last Legion by Chris Bunch


• Saturn Returns by Sean Williams


• Operation Typhoon Shore by Joshua Mowll


• Swallowdale by Arthur Ransome


• Hiding the Elephant by Jim Steinmeyer


• Seeing Red: A Study in Consciousness by Nicholas Humphrey


• Godless by Pete Hautman


• Permanence by Karl Schroeder


• The Dogs of War by Frederick Forsyth


• Tomoe Gozen by Jessica A. Salmonson


• The Golden Naginata by Jessica A. Salmonson


• Thousand Shrine Warrior by Jessica A. Salmonson


• A Million Open Doors by John Barnes


• Sun of Suns by Karl Schroeder


• The Big Chunk of Ice: the Last Known Adventure of the Mad Scientists Club by Bertrand R. Brinley


• Lupin III (Vol. 1, 3, and 4) by Monkey Punch


• Planets (Vol. 1-3) by Makoto Yukimura


• Daughter of Hounds by Caitlin R. Kiernan

Crap. I read a lot more than I thought. It's a respectable 45 books for the year covering manga, children's lit, a sprinkling of non-fiction. Lots of good stuff.


So, let's get to the heart of it. What was my "Best of" for 2007?

I'd say my Top Three Fiction Picks are:

1. Sun of Suns by Karl Schroeder -- a planet-sized "balloon" holds a zero-gee universe inside of it. People have rocket-propelled swashbuckling adventures. Great fun.
2. Queen of Candesce by Karl Schroeder -- more fun in zero-gee (this time, on a large cylinder habitat where tiny countries jostle for prominence).
3. Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch -- the rousing, pirate-infested sequel to last year's Lies of Locke Lamora.

Honorable mentions go to Permanence by Karl Schroeder, Saturn Returns by Sean Williams and the Revelation Space books (Revelation Space, Chasm City, and Redemption Ark) by Alastair Reynolds.

Non-Fiction was less impressive this year so there's only two:

1. Untapped by John Ghazvinian - How Africa's oil wealth is bringing nothing but ruin and despair to the people who live there.
2. Seeing Red: A Study in Consciousness -- How is it that we're doing what we're doing right now?

So those are my picks for 2007 -- give 'em a shot.

What did you enjoy reading this year?

later
Tom