Did you read a book in 2007 that compelled you to tell your family and friends about it? One that lingers in your mind and, maybe, affects the way you view the world? Or a book that took you far away from the stress of everyday to another fascinating world? Please share your 2007 treasures here on the Book Blog.
Some of the best from my 2007 reading:
Maytrees by Annie Dillard- a catalyst for thoughts on love & death and a sensual setting that lingers.
New England White by Stephen Carter- great atmosphere of “not-Yale” campus and informative about life as African-American elite.
Charm City: a Walk Through Baltimore by Madison Smartt Bell- Baltimore in all its quirky character with lots of history mixed in.
Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta- quick read that captures our suburban culture and some of the current religious disconnect.
At Large and At Small: Familiar Essays by Anne Fadiman – I love her writing. If you enjoy essays, read her Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader.
Do you keep a reading journal? Starting a journal may be a good and useful New Year’s resolution. (Reading journals are for sale in the Library store.) Let’s exchange some titles to get us started. I look forward to your comments.
May the New Year bring good health, happiness and peace!
And lots of interesting reading!
Comments (1)
The Maytrees also was one of my favorites of 2007. I knew almost nothing about it before I picked it up and I thought the writing was poetic. I hope Annie Dillard reconsiders her statement that this will be her last. Another, totally different, that captivated me was The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, about the Dominican Republic and the lives of Dominicans in the U.S. The passion of the writer comes flying off the page and grabs you by the throat! It makes me move up the list of must-reads the book, The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas LLosa, also about the D.R. Roaming the globe, another I found so interesting was the novel, Cafe Karnak by Nobel prize winner Naguib Mahfouz, about a group of people who meet at a cafe in old Cairo in the mid-1960s.I believe it was recently published in English though it was first published in the '70s in Arabic.The lessons of that novel are reflected in Lawrence Wright's book of non-fiction, The Looming Tower, another I found so educational on the formation of al Qaeda and other radical Islamic groups. Finally, I really enjoyed the amazing history about the end of the British raj, Indian Summer, the Secret History of the End of an Empire, by Alex von Tunzelman. The author does not write well but the book is jam-packed with almost unbelievable stories about the Mountbattens, Gandhi, Nehru and Jinna, the founder of Pakistan. This book is testimony to the adage that truth is stranger than fiction!
Posted by Maggie M | January 10, 2008 1:32 PM
Posted on January 10, 2008 13:32