My list of 2007 literary highlights, over on the website, has been bugging me. It’s clearly tilted toward the end of the year. (Because, of course, of my poor memory.)
So I’m throwing in some things I overlooked.
2007 was a great year for blurbing. Again, I’m going to forget some books here, but the books I had the pleasure of blurbing in 2007 included: A Poisoned Mind (Natasaha Cooper); An Ordinary Spy (Joseph Weisberg); Saturday’s Child (Ray Banks); Head Games (Craig Macdonald); The Graving Docks (Gabriel Cohn).
The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta. Endings are one of my persistent pet peeves in fiction, especially in literary fiction. They often peter out, as if the writer had no intention of sullying himself; satisfying endings are the mark of genre fiction, after all. Or they’re a little too perfect and feel unearned. (I know, I sound very hard-to-please here.) Perrotta finds such graceful ways to exit his stories.
Last Night at the Lobster. I’m a huge fan of O’Nan’s.
The Omnivore’s Dilemma. A terrific book that makes the case for eating meat, even as it makes (for me) the case for not eating meat at certain fast food restaurants. To wit: “Mistakes are inevitable on an assembly line that is slaughtering four hundred head of cattle every hour. (McDonald’s tolerates a 5 percent ‘error rate.’)” It’s no coincidence that 2008 is the year that I’m going in with friends to buy a cow raised on a Virginia farm. I’m told I’ll be getting enough beef to last my family a year.
I’ll keep adding to this in the comment section, as other highlights occur to me.
Paul Guyot cited LAST NIGHT AT THE LOBSTER as one of his 3 Favorites picks over on my blog. Since you’re recommending it, too, maybe I’ll have to check it out.
Not that I don’t have enough to read already…
I was just reading People Magazine the Dec. 31 issue. It is the year end issue with their top picks for 2007. On pages 58-59 they list the Top 10 books of 2007 and guess who came in at #9? Why, that would be Laura Lippman with What The Dead Know! Whoo Hooo, it doesn’t get much better then that, except that Laura beat Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows!
You go girl!
Wow, I didn’t even know there WAS a new Paretsky out. this really bugs me.
This wasn’t a banner year for me. in coming up with best books, i really struggled. And I gotta admit that my puny list (3 books???) of the “absolutely gotta read” variety were WHAT THE DEAD KNOW and Seranella’s DEADMAN’S SWITCH. Which really really pisses me off (since we won’t be getting any more from Barbara and I HATE THAT.)
I also am finding myself very surprised to be touting HEART-SHAPED BOX by Joe Hill, because it’s so not my kind of book.
But i guess it just wasn’t a very good year in lots of ways. Several books didn’t work for me when in the past, the author’s been a reliable favorite. (Jasper Fforde, for example. Qiu Xiaolong,Peter Lovesey, Greg Rucka. SIGH. All authors whose work i like, until this year’s book. Reading is way down too for me, I’m just not liking a lot of books I start.
So what the heck, I get to suck up here. The fact that it’s TRUE, that really truly i thought your book this year was the best book i read, well, truth, schmooth.
But it really was.
On next year’s blurb list is Louise Ure’s new one – I suspect you’ll be talking about that next year at this time.
I, too, enjoyed “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” recently. (Bought it from a grocery store’s book section, oddly enough. I don’t think they knew what they were selling.)
Is the Virginia farm the same one as in the book?
Right now, I’m working my way through “Heat,” by Bill Buford, which starts out with him taking a break from writing for the New Yorker to work in Mario Batali’s kitchen, but the last section of the book deals with his apprenticeship to a Tuscan butcher, and reminds me of portions of “Omnivore” in terms of his growing awareness and acceptance of where his food comes from. Very interesting book.
Mooove over Heifer International! Laura chooses Virginia Beef!
Seriously, Laura, that sounds like a smart mooove.
Talk about endings petering out in literary fiction, I recently read Bel Canto. Phew. What the heck was up with that nonsense?
I’m reading the new Sara Paretsky (Bleeding Kansas), which is really good so far.
I also liked Abstinence Teacher. I think it’s my favorite one of his so far. (Although I did also like Election and Little Children.)
Now, here’s where smart people (hope I’m not giving myself too much credit here) must agree to disagree. I loved Bel Canto.
I love Heat, too. I have a whole shelf of books about food and am rather disappointed that Maud Newton has not invited me to share a recipe over at her blog. (Ah well, at least she ran Katherine Lanpher’s roast chicken recipe. I am a big believer in roasting chickens and I now save the carcasses to make my own stock. Which makes me sound like a much better cook than I am. I’m too impatient to be a good cook.)
Did you ever get a chance to read MISTRESS OF THE ART OF DEATH by Ariana Franklin?
I also greatly enjoyed COAL BLACK HORSE by Robert Olmstead.
I am reading my 1st Sujata Massey Rei Shimura novel (Zen Attitude)and as I read I get excited thinking I have lots more from her ahead of me.
And remember, impatience in cooking is cured by mastering bread baking.
Did anyone read ”Heartsick” by Chelsea Cain? What did you think?
Enjoyed it except
1. Vicodin is hydrocodone, not codeine. The pills-a-go-go part of my brain would not shut up each time I read that mistake.
2. Because she used an admittedly implausible villain, (lady serial killer that wasn’t ”nurse/landlady killing for profit/angel of mercy delusions, a Karla Homolka/Caril Bundy ‘just loving that man of mine’ accomplice or crazy, wild card Aileen Wuornos ”) for the first time I realized the absurdity of the detective hunted by serial killer genre.
At least I think it’s absurd. Has anyone ever heard of a serial killer really targeting the investigators beyond an anonymous ”Haha! You can’t catch me!” letter? Happily my suspension of disbelief kicked in because I enjoyed the snappy dialogue.
I saw the People mention too! I discovered Ms. Lippman via the Entertainment Weekly review of ”What The Dead Know”. Enjoyed it so much I bought all the previous novels. I’m midway through ”Butcher’s Hill” right now.
‘Heart-Shaped Box” and ”Last Night at the Lobster” are in my ‘to read’ pile.
Lastly, Beef. It’s what’s for dinner
HI all,
I am not totally staying on point although I do agree “What the Dead Know,” is on my list of favorite reads for 2007 and I’m giving a copy to a good friend for Xmas/solstice/Chanukkah. Also favorites were Cornelia Read’s “A Field of Darkness,” and Peter Temple’s “Broken Shore.” Discovered French writer Fred Vargas and devoured four of her books (love them) and as always, Donna Leon is a favorite.
But, needing a book for the weekend, I got “By a Spider Thread” and am enjoying it much, especially because of the Jewishness theme. I come from a secular but very Jewish family (my mother’s side) and an Irish side (my father dropped the Catholic part at aged 15 after reading philosophy books). And all of the aspects, points, arguments, discussions, are so on target about Jewish life, identity, etc., I feel like I’m talking to myself or arguing with myself. Am passing this one on, especially to my sister who will relate to this. Amazing how on target it is! Thanks to Laura for that. Happy New Year to all!
Forgot last night to mention “No time for Goodbye,” by Linwood Barclay, a favorite of 2007, just a plain old-fashioned suspenseful page-turner but contemporary. Can’t put it down.
My favorite new books of 2007 remain What The Dead Know and On Chesil Beach.
I love the idea of subscribing to a cow. Last year we subscribed to an organic farm in PA and got a sizable box of whatever veggies and fruit were in season every Sat from March through Nov. It certainly shifted the way we eat and what we buy. I’ve entered my hating-to-cook stage of life, but it was easy to do simple justice to seasonal veggies, as long as you still believe in butter and olive oil–roasting or grilling them the first few nights, then a Thai or Indian curry (thanks to sauces from Trader Joe’s), then, by Friday, a frittata made of whatever was left. I was stymied only by the quinces.
And I roasted my first chicken the other night, at the age of 45–the trip from vegetarian to flexitarian to omnivore has been a long one. It was a previously-happy free-range chicken with normal-sized breasts, but I was unnerved while rubbing it with olive oil and salt and pepper, as instructed by Julia Child–too much like lotioning and powdering a newborn–and so put it in the pan too quickly, and roasted it wrong side down, but it was still delicious. I’ll look for Katherine Lanpher’s recipe.
We are celebrating the end of the year in Cooperstown, much cheered by seasonal brews from Ommegang–Ommegeddon and Chocolate Indulgence, which tastes much better than it sounds.
Happy New Year to all.
Laura, thanks for including ME in that smart person remark. Ha! I loved Bel Canto too… until the end. I just didn’t think it fit with the rest of the book. But that’s what makes books (music, TV, movies, etc.) so fun — different things appeal to different people. HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
Andi,
I think I read The Fault Tree in 2006. Is that possible? Louise, if you’re here, did I really read it almost 18 months ago? My memory (!) is that I was reading it on an overcast day in spring while eating Ethiopian food. That’s me. Can’t remember dates, can’t even remember what I wore on key events. But what I ate — that I can remember.
Serial killer novels. They are problematic, says a writer who has written one of her own. For me, I’ve decided that the books, while crime stories, may fit better within the horror genre, in that serial killers are monsters who kill because they kill. Some writers include psychological explanations, some don’t, but the serial killer tends to be a machine who won’t stop until dead. I am am admirer of Chelsea Cain; I adored her first novel and very much want to track down a copy of her memoir. But I haven’t read Heartsick.
There are several books within the serial tradition that I love — Red Dragon, Sleepyhead come to mind, and I’m sure I’m overlooking several — but I’ll admit I recently declined to blurb a book with a serial killer plot. Then again, that’s because the book is being published under a pseudonym by a writer who is said to be a “literary writer.” My thinking: If you don’t want to put your name on your book, why should I put my name on it? (Best I can tell, this isn’t the case of reinvention to transcend sales records; that’s something different to my mind.)
It’s always interesting to me to learn how readers found me and richly ironic that Kim found me via that EW review because — have I confessed this previously? — that review represented a real nadir for me. It came out just before publication and it was a very respectable
B+, the highest grade I’ve ever gotten from EW. (When they review me, it’s always been B or B+.)
And I wouldn’t have spoken openly about this at the time, but I had very high hopes for What the Dead Know. Yes, in part, I hoped it would be a breakout for me commercially. But what I really wanted was some acknowledgment that I was pushing myself and, possibly, the form. I hoped that reviewers would see it as a seminal book for me and a B+ in Entertainment Weekly did not bode well.
In hindsight, it’s fun to laugh at how low I was that night. What the Dead Know had an even more charmed life than I would have dared to imagine for it.
And now that it’s the end of 2007, how do I feel? Well, I had a nightmare last night about my 2008 book being viciously panned by someone who swore they knew the world I was writing about — and that I had gotten everything wrong! There’s not a lot of laurel-resting for the book-a-year-writer — and that’s probably my only hope of staying relatively sane.
“…who came in at #9? Why, that would be Laura Lippman with What The Dead Know! Whoo Hooo, it doesn’t get much better then that, except that Laura beat Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows!”
Woo Hoo! is right! People magazine! cool deal! (Now that I’ve got that out of the way)…Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanza, and whatever else floats your boat.
Congratulations, Laura, seriously. And I know what you mean about memory, and forgetting the best things you read earlier in the year. I’m going to have to start keeping a list.
Stuart Kaminski’s The Dead Don’t Lie and Jim Swain’s Midnight Rambler…read them both in one night…see the bags under my eyes, and the twitch in my cheek? the bags are from the late hour…the twitch is from the ending of Jim’s book…can’t wait for the next one! Talk about…uhoh!!!
BTW, who’s coming to Sleuthfest? the cost goes up Jan 15th!
Laura, did you ever end up reading POST-BIRTHDAY WORLD? I remember you were looking forward tor eading it, but am not quite sure I ever caught your review. WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN is one of my all-time favorite contemporary novels.
and, Happy New Year!
I adored The Post-Birthday World — that’s one of those early 2007 reads that I forgot when I was doing my top-of-the-head list. One of the best novels I read this year.
And for those of you who care about such things — Lionel Shriver and I will be appearing together March 11 in Philadelphia.
I’m not sure there was any rhyme or reason to the People list, but if there was, I’m pretty sure I was #10.
I couldn’t get that Chelsea Cain book out of here fast enough. It’s gotten lots of buzz and it made me queasy just reading ABOUT it. i’m too wimpy or something but I thought it sounded GROSS and AWFUL and did not want to read it. So go figure about my taste – though I never said i was mainstream. But you guys who liked it – you are braver/stronger than me for sure.
As someone who spent over 10 years ON vicodin, I so get your being driven crazy about this mistake. I’d be nuts. Before that I was on codeine. It’s a whole different school and it’s not like the information isn’t easily available on a reputable website. Didn’t anyone who read the ms. know? Apparently not. That always amazes me, that an easy-to-check error gets trhough. I know it’s hard – you don’t know that you don’t know, but still…like my friend who had “Jeff Greenberg” on CNN a few years ago when his name is “Greenfield”. I just assumed someone who saw this book in ms or ARC watched CNN and Aaron Brown as much as I did. Apparently not!
But it would make me twitch to see that mistake, especially if it was repeated throughout the book.
Where in Philadelphia? Need to get that in my calendar! I’m writing from Texas where I’m filling up on Mexican food and Schlotzsky’s. Didn’t get to compile my favorite reads before I left town, but What the Dead Know was in there. I only read it this month because I didn’t want it to be missing from my favorites
Happy New Year all
My Japanese publisher has just discovered that a recurring character in my stand-alones has different first names.
And the translator for the Italian edition of WHAT THE DEAD KNOW — Hi, Luisa! — found some errors as well.
So I tend to be sympathetic. It’s true, that it’s easy enough to get any one thing right. But the average novel has two overlapping spheres of accuracy — the real world and its own world. In a series, one adds a third world of facts. A novel of 300-plus pages has, I would hazard, at least that many facts to check.
I just glanced at the running tally I kept during the copy-edit of ANOTHER THING TO FALL, where I queried myself on more than 30 items while answering the copy editor’s (excellent) queries. Is there an apostrophe in Orphans Court? What does a pack of Lucky Strikes look like? (Turns out I had confused them with Pall Malls.)
But these are the things that were caught. Sometimes, the eye glazes over. (Greenberg/Greenfield is an error I could make so easily.)
Lisa Lutz (The Spellman Files) has a funny post on this, over at her blog.
Jack, I always knew your heart was in the right place. (Um, high up in the chest, toward the left, correct?)
Bella, I admit that every time I catch that fleeting glimpse of myself I think: “She’s old, isn’t she? But not too terribly blimpish.” For those who care, I’m in the first episode only, but — in a nice twist — the soup kitchen where I volunteer has a significant role in the final season.
No, you don’t look fat. I also caught that half a second scene and recognized you right away in the green outfit, the eyeglasses and the serious look. I have watched all the previews on On Demand. Bring on The Wire!!!! Thanks for that mention of the Omnivore’s Delimma. I bought it last night with my Christmas money.
Does this <a href=”http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/28/books/28intro.html?_r=1&ref=books&oref=slogin”_blank”>photo</a> make me look fat?
LOL, no. Before I looked I was getting ready to remind you that that you gave up that fixation. Saw HBO piece on the wire where you were shown as one of the “b’more friends” who got to act and you looked quite slender, but now i don’t have to. .
Hi, Laura! You probably already know this but just in case: You’re in the NY Times today – favorite books of the year section!
Dang! I just clicked on that link above. So you do already know! But my heart is in the right place.
Hi, Laura, we just had dinner with Megan Abbott and her husband. Do you know her work? She writes these great old-fashioned hardboiled novels with female protagonists. QUEENPIN was her most recent one. Anyway, we had a long and admiring conversation about your work. She talked about your short stories in a way that makes me want to read them all. Are they collected in a single volume? Because she really got me worked up about reading them. Okay, good night!
Many congrats on the 10 Best list!
And that’s great news about your short stories. I’ve always enjoyed them when I’ve come across them and am now looking forward to having them in one place and seeing what I’ve missed.
Jack,
I love Megan AND her mother. They may one day be recognized as the female Amises of crime fiction. THE SONG IS YOU was so good it made my head hurt.
And what a timely question: My short stories, which do tend to be at once darker and funnier than my novels, will be published in trade paperback next fall, under the title: Hardly Knew Her.