fiction and readable nonfiction
PW's Best Books
Fiction
Call Me by Your Name
André Aciman (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
Fieldwork
Mischa Berlinski (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
The Savage Detectives
Roberto Bolaño (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
The Tin Roof Blowdown
James Lee Burke (Simon & Schuster)
Falling Man
Don DeLillo (Scribner)
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Junot Díaz (Riverhead).
The Reluctant Fundamentalist
Mohsin Hamid (Harcourt)
Returning to Earth
Jim Harrison (Grove)
The Chicago Way
Michael Harvey (Knopf)
Heart-Shaped Box
Joe Hill (Morrow)
The Archivist's Story
Travis Holland (Dial)
Body of Lies
David Ignatius (Norton)
Tree of Smoke
Denis Johnson (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
.
Bowl of Cherries
Maynard Kaufman (McSweeney's)
.
What the Dead Know
Laura Lippman (Morrow)
.
The Complete Stories
David Malouf (Pantheon)
Them
Nathan McCall (Atria)
Remainder
Tom McCarthy (Vintage)
Be Near Me
Andrew O'Hagan (Harcourt)
.
Surveillance
Jonathan Raban (Pantheon)
Jamestown
Matthew Sharpe (Soft Skull)
The Secret Servant
Daniel Silva (Putnam)
Beyond Reach
Karin Slaughter (Delacorte)
White Walls: Collected Stories
Tatyana Tolstaya (NYRB)
The Shadow Catcher
Marianne Wiggins (Simon & Schuster).
________________________________________
Mystery
Songs of Innocence
Richard Aleas (Hard Case)
.
The Cloud of Unknowing
Thomas Cook (Harcourt/Penzler)
American Detective: An Amos Walker Mystery
Loren D. Estleman (Forge)
.
The Commission
Michael Norman (Poisoned Pen)
The Collaborator of Bethlehem
Matt Benyon Rees (Soho Crime)
.
The Water's Lovely
Ruth Rendell (Crown)
The Snow Empress
Laura Joh Rowland (St. Martin's Minotaur)
.
Person of Interest
Theresa Schwegel (St. Martin's Minotaur)
.
Kept
D.J. Taylor (HarperCollins)
________________________________________
SF/Fantasy/Horror
Inferno
Edited by Ellen Datlow (Tor)
Acacia
David Anthony Durham (Doubleday)
Ilario: The Lion's Eye
Mary Gentle (Eos)
.
In War Times
Kathleen Ann Goonan (Tor)
Bright of the Sky: Book One of Entire and the Rose
Kay Kenyon (Pyr)
.
The Name of the Wind: Book One
Patrick Rothfuss (DAW)
The Winds of Marble Arch
Connie Willis (Subterranean).
________________________________________
Romance
Twice the Temptation
Suzanne Enoch (Avon)
The Perfect Bride
Brenda Joyce (HQN)
.
Wired
Liz Maverick (Dorchester/Shomi)
.
One with the Shadows
Susan Squires (St. Martin's)
The Winter Lodge
Susan Wiggs (Mira).
________________________________________
Nonfiction
The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943–1944
Rick Atkinson (Holt)
.
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
Ishmael Beah (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
.
The Pursuit of Glory: Europe 1648–1815
Tim Blanning (Viking)
Photo by Sammy Davis Jr.
Burt Boyar (HarperEntertainment)
.
Brother, I'm Dying
Edwidge Danticat (Knopf)
.
The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939–1945
Saul Friedländer (HarperCollins)
.
Can't Buy Me Love: The Beatles, Britain, and America
Jonathan Gould (Harmony)
Graffiti L.A.
Steve Grody (Abrams)
.
How Doctors Think
Jerome Groopman (Houghton)
.
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism
Naomi Klein (Holt/Metropolitan)
The Curtain: An Essay in Seven Parts
Milan Kundera (HarperCollins)
.
The Atomic Bazaar: The Rise of the Nuclear Poor
William Langewiesche (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
Edith Wharton
Hermione Lee (Knopf)
.
First Class Citizenship: The Civil Rights Letters of Jackie Robinson
Edited by Michael G. Long (Times)
Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle over Global Warming
Chris Mooney (Harcourt)
Coltrane: The Story of a Sound
Ben Ratliff (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
The Baby Thief: The Untold Story of Georgia Tann, the Baby Seller Who Corrupted Adoption
Barbara Bisantz Raymond (Carroll & Graf)
.
Arsenals of Folly: The Making of the Nuclear Arms Race
Richard Rhodes (Knopf)
The Discovery of France: A Historical Geography from the Revolution to the First World War
Graham Robb (Norton)
.
The Door of No Return: The History of Cape Coast Castle and the Atlantic Slave Trade
William St Clair (BlueBridge)
.
Touch and Go: A Memoir
Studs Terkel (New Press)
Shadow of the Silk Road
Colin Thubron (HarperCollins)
Poor People
William T. Vollmann (Ecco)
Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA
Tim Weiner (Doubleday)
Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain
Maryanne Wolf (HarperCollins)
Call Me by Your Name
André Aciman (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
Fieldwork
Mischa Berlinski (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
The Savage Detectives
Roberto Bolaño (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
The Tin Roof Blowdown
James Lee Burke (Simon & Schuster)
Falling Man
Don DeLillo (Scribner)
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Junot Díaz (Riverhead).
The Reluctant Fundamentalist
Mohsin Hamid (Harcourt)
Returning to Earth
Jim Harrison (Grove)
The Chicago Way
Michael Harvey (Knopf)
Heart-Shaped Box
Joe Hill (Morrow)
The Archivist's Story
Travis Holland (Dial)
Body of Lies
David Ignatius (Norton)
Tree of Smoke
Denis Johnson (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
.
Bowl of Cherries
Maynard Kaufman (McSweeney's)
.
What the Dead Know
Laura Lippman (Morrow)
.
The Complete Stories
David Malouf (Pantheon)
Them
Nathan McCall (Atria)
Remainder
Tom McCarthy (Vintage)
Be Near Me
Andrew O'Hagan (Harcourt)
.
Surveillance
Jonathan Raban (Pantheon)
Jamestown
Matthew Sharpe (Soft Skull)
The Secret Servant
Daniel Silva (Putnam)
Beyond Reach
Karin Slaughter (Delacorte)
White Walls: Collected Stories
Tatyana Tolstaya (NYRB)
The Shadow Catcher
Marianne Wiggins (Simon & Schuster).
________________________________________
Mystery
Songs of Innocence
Richard Aleas (Hard Case)
.
The Cloud of Unknowing
Thomas Cook (Harcourt/Penzler)
American Detective: An Amos Walker Mystery
Loren D. Estleman (Forge)
.
The Commission
Michael Norman (Poisoned Pen)
The Collaborator of Bethlehem
Matt Benyon Rees (Soho Crime)
.
The Water's Lovely
Ruth Rendell (Crown)
The Snow Empress
Laura Joh Rowland (St. Martin's Minotaur)
.
Person of Interest
Theresa Schwegel (St. Martin's Minotaur)
.
Kept
D.J. Taylor (HarperCollins)
________________________________________
SF/Fantasy/Horror
Inferno
Edited by Ellen Datlow (Tor)
Acacia
David Anthony Durham (Doubleday)
Ilario: The Lion's Eye
Mary Gentle (Eos)
.
In War Times
Kathleen Ann Goonan (Tor)
Bright of the Sky: Book One of Entire and the Rose
Kay Kenyon (Pyr)
.
The Name of the Wind: Book One
Patrick Rothfuss (DAW)
The Winds of Marble Arch
Connie Willis (Subterranean).
________________________________________
Romance
Twice the Temptation
Suzanne Enoch (Avon)
The Perfect Bride
Brenda Joyce (HQN)
.
Wired
Liz Maverick (Dorchester/Shomi)
.
One with the Shadows
Susan Squires (St. Martin's)
The Winter Lodge
Susan Wiggs (Mira).
________________________________________
Nonfiction
The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943–1944
Rick Atkinson (Holt)
.
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
Ishmael Beah (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
.
The Pursuit of Glory: Europe 1648–1815
Tim Blanning (Viking)
Photo by Sammy Davis Jr.
Burt Boyar (HarperEntertainment)
.
Brother, I'm Dying
Edwidge Danticat (Knopf)
.
The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939–1945
Saul Friedländer (HarperCollins)
.
Can't Buy Me Love: The Beatles, Britain, and America
Jonathan Gould (Harmony)
Graffiti L.A.
Steve Grody (Abrams)
.
How Doctors Think
Jerome Groopman (Houghton)
.
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism
Naomi Klein (Holt/Metropolitan)
The Curtain: An Essay in Seven Parts
Milan Kundera (HarperCollins)
.
The Atomic Bazaar: The Rise of the Nuclear Poor
William Langewiesche (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
Edith Wharton
Hermione Lee (Knopf)
.
First Class Citizenship: The Civil Rights Letters of Jackie Robinson
Edited by Michael G. Long (Times)
Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle over Global Warming
Chris Mooney (Harcourt)
Coltrane: The Story of a Sound
Ben Ratliff (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
The Baby Thief: The Untold Story of Georgia Tann, the Baby Seller Who Corrupted Adoption
Barbara Bisantz Raymond (Carroll & Graf)
.
Arsenals of Folly: The Making of the Nuclear Arms Race
Richard Rhodes (Knopf)
The Discovery of France: A Historical Geography from the Revolution to the First World War
Graham Robb (Norton)
.
The Door of No Return: The History of Cape Coast Castle and the Atlantic Slave Trade
William St Clair (BlueBridge)
.
Touch and Go: A Memoir
Studs Terkel (New Press)
Shadow of the Silk Road
Colin Thubron (HarperCollins)
Poor People
William T. Vollmann (Ecco)
Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA
Tim Weiner (Doubleday)
Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain
Maryanne Wolf (HarperCollins)
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Julie Elliott on
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A favorite on the nonfiction side that I read this year--
Is This a Great Game or What? By Tim Kurkjian--he's my favorite on Baseball Tonight, and I'm so glad he finally wrote a book. My husband gave it to me the same weekend my in-laws came to visit, and it was tough to be social and not just hole up and read this in one sitting.
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Permalink Reply by Jeannie on -
Richard Russo's new novel "Bridge of Sighs" was very good, also a title by Joseph O'Conner "Redemption Falls" stands out in my mind as a top pick of 07. I also read "Tipperary" by Frank Delany which was excellent. I would say that these three are my favorites. Several books on my top ten for 2007 are older books.
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