Sunday, January 06, 2008

1. Jim Shepard "Like You'd Understand, Anyway"

(Belated) '07 Wrap up

Once again, instead of a top 10, I will say only that Junot Diaz's "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" was the best book I read last year. Thanks to the great city of New York and its absurd cost of living and the fact that I had to work way more than I did last year, I did not read nearly as many books as I would have liked. Which is not too say that Diaz's novel wouldn't have taken first place if I'd had time to read, say, "Tree of Smoke."

Other notable books of 2007: Miranda July's "No One Belongs Here More Than You," Lydia Davis' "Varieties of Disturbance," and Joshua Ferris' "Then We Came to the End."