Best of 2007

1. What fiction book (or books) would you nominate to be the best new book published in 2007? (Older books that you read for the first time in 2007 don’t count.)


2. What non-fiction book (or books) would you nominate to be the best new book published in 2007? (Older books that you read for the first time in 2007 don’t count.)


3. And do “best of” lists influence your reading?

Of the more than seventy books I've read in 2007 (so far), these are the twenty that were published in 2007 (with links to my reviews):

• Plum Lovin' by Janet Evanovich


• Forever in Blue: The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood
  by Ann Brashares


• Bad Blood by Linda Fairstein


• Step on a Crack by James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge


• The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian


• The Fifth Vial by Michael Palmer


• Dry Ice by Stephen White


• Shopaholic & Baby by Sophie Kinsella


• Hide by Lisa Gardner


• The Last Summer (of You and Me) by Ann Brashares


• Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult


• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling


• Lean Mean Thirteen by Janet Evanovich


• The Overlook by Michael Connelly


• Eclipse by Stephanie Myer


• Obsession by Jonathan Kellerman


• The Spanish Bow by Andromeda Romano-Lax


• If a Tree Falls at Lunch Period by Gennifer Choldenko


• Way Down Deep by Ruth White


• The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

As I look over this list, I note that many of these were new releases in series that I read or by favorite authors. (In two cases - Jodi Picoult and Stephanie Myer - I hadn't read anything by the author until this year but now count her among my favorites - and the 2007 novels were part of reading a number of her books this year.) There is not a single work of non-fiction on the list, so I'm not able to weigh in there. As far as best fiction of 2007 - well, I think I'm going to have to go with the two that I think will stick with me the longest: If a Tree Falls at Lunch Period and The Last Summer (of You and Me).

I love to read "best of" lists! I won't necessarily use such lists to direct my reading, but it's fun to compare notes and to add books to my to-read list.