Best Books 2007

Notice anything different this year? Yes, LJ has moved its Best Books list forward; from now on, the list will appear in the December issue of the year in question instead of the January issue that follows. In the old days, we wanted all the time we could get to pore over the likely candidates. Now, with most best books compilations appearing well before the end of the year and most immediately available on the web, waiting until January seems counterproductive, and we relish the opportunity to get our selections out as soon as possible. So, from Diane Ackerman’s moving morality tale, The Zookeeper’s Wife, to Paul Trynka on the inimitable Iggy Pop, here are the books that LJ’s editors want to see on your shelves.

Ackerman, Diane. The Zookeeper’s Wife: A War Story. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-06172-7. $23.95.

Although the 1939 Nazi invasion of Poland decimated the Warsaw zoo, zookeepers Jan and Antonina Zabinski remained unbowed, boldly smuggling over 300 people from the doomed Jewish Ghetto and hiding them in their villa and the zoo’s ruined cages. A profoundly moving tale of moral courage and grace under fire. (LJ 9/1/07)

Berlinski, Mischa. Fieldwork. Farrar. ISBN 978-0-374-29916-3. $24.

In this first novel, an ex-pat journalist in Thailand named Mischa Berlinski gets wind of a story he can’t ignore—anthropologist Martiya van der Leun has killed herself in prison, where she was serving time for murdering an American missionary. Berlinski puts forth a riveting tale that’s part mystery and part cultural study all the more remarkable because the Dyalo subculture he delineates is entirely of his own making. (LJ 1/07)

Busch, Akiko. Nine Ways To Cross a River: Midstream Reflections on Swimming and Getting There from Here. Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-59691-045-4. $19.95.

Just two weeks before 9/11, Busch swam across her first river and found the experience so transformative that she made it an annual summer ritual. From the Hudson to the Mississippi, her elegant little book chronicles the eight rivers she crossed (she swam one river twice) and celebrates their power to connect and heal us. (LJ 6/1/07)

Chabon, Michael. The Yiddish Policemen’s Union. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-00-714982-7. $26.95.

In this wildly inventive blackest of black comedies, which reimagines Alaska as the homeland of the Jews after World War II, has-been cop Meyer Landsman’s hunt for a murderer is the excuse Chabon needs to show us the dangers of regarding anything—self, country, religion—as inviolable. Absorbing, thought-provoking, and stylistically arresting. (LJ 3/1/07)

Clay, Catrine. King, Kaiser, Tsar: Three Royal Cousins Who Led the World to War. Walker. ISBN 978-0-8027-1623-1. $26.95.

How could it be that King George V, Kaiser Wilhelm, and Tsar Nicholas II, Queen Victoria’s grandsons Georgie, Willy, and Nicky, whose empires embraced so much of their era’s Western World, held the fate of that world—and ultimately of our own—in their immaculately gloved hands? Clay’s humane and literate prose, and many quotes from the cousins’ letters to one another, result in a responsibly compassionate tale of intertwined destinies. (LJ 5/15/07)

Díaz, Junot. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Riverhead: Penguin Group (USA). ISBN 978-1-59448-958-7. $24.95.

Díaz follows up his breathtaking story collection, Drown, with a brief and wondrous novel about a second-generation Dominican nerd nicknamed Oscar Wao. More than a coming-of-age tale—and more than an account of the Latino experience—this robust work uses Oscar’s sharp and distinctive voice to delineate the human struggle to define oneself. (LJ Xpress Reviews, 8/28/07)

The Elephant in the Playroom: Ordinary Parents Write Intimately and Honestly About the Extraordinary Highs and Heartbreaking Lows of Raising Kids with Special Needs. Hudson Street: Penguin Group (USA). ed. by Denise Brodey. ISBN 978-1-59463-035-4. $21.95.

This collection achieves its goal of articulating the hard-earned wisdom of parents with special-needs children, a neglected audience if ever there was one. Under the sensitive direction of Fitness editor in chief Brodey, contributors open readers’ eyes to the rage, rock-bottom despair, and exhilaration that come with managing youngsters’ developmental and learning disorders. (LJ 3/15/07)

Grinker, Roy Richard. Unstrange Minds: Remapping the World of Autism. Basic Bks: Perseus. ISBN 978-0-465-02763-7. $26.95.

Anthropologist Grinker’s affecting investigation communicates a much-needed truth: autism is both a disease (biological) and an illness, i.e., a life-altering experience completely at odds with society. Hope then comes like a bullet via vignettes of parents from America to Korea who’ve adapted to their children’s “unstrange” worldviews. (LJ 1/07)

Hamilton, Nigel. Biography: A Brief History. Harvard Univ. ISBN 978-0-674-02466-3. $21.95.

Nothing fascinates people more than other people. As best-selling biographer Nigel explains, the drive to record the lives of others has existed longer than we may realize. In this impeccable study—brief but as satisfying as any great Russian novel—he shows how biography has evolved from its most primitive forms like cave painting to today’s biopics and blogs. (LJ 2/1/07)

Hospital, Janette Turner. Orpheus Lost. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-06552-7. $24.95.

Hospital stands mythology on its head, for here it is Orpheus who vanishes into the underworld—the terrorist-wracked Middle East, where consummate musician Mishka has gone in search of his identity. An astonishingly rich novel less concerned with politics than with the overwhelming forces that shape us and the battle between appearance and truth. (LJ 8/07)

Isaacson, Walter. Einstein: His Life and Universe. S. & S. ISBN 978-0-7432-6473-0. $32.

With full access to Einstein’s newly released papers and scientific assistance from leading mathematicians and physicists, Isaacson has written one of the best and most complete Einstein biographies so far. This is no dry tome but a lively and fascinating portrait of the most famous scientist of the 20th century. (LJ 2/15/07)

Johnson, Denis. Tree of Smoke. Farrar. ISBN 978-0-374-27912-7. $27.

Perhaps this is the novel to end all Vietnam novels, fully capturing the imagination of contemporary readers even as it captures the awful futility of war—and especially that war. Young CIA recruit Skip Sands labors under the tutelage of his uncle, a legendary agent who is possibly crazy. Gritty immediacy at its finest. (LJ 8/07)

Jungerson, Christian. The Exception. Nan A. Talese: Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-51629-7. $26.

Office politics turn malevolent in this European best seller as four women working for a Danish antigenocide organization suspect one another of sending threatening emails. Jungerson’s brilliant mix of thriller and philosophical drama shows how easy it is for ordinary people to commit acts of appalling cruelty. (LJ 3/1/07)

Karabell, Zachary. Peace Be Upon You: The Story of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish Coexistence. Knopf. ISBN 978-1-4000-4368-2. $26.95.

“Focusing only on conflict is like skipping every other page while reading a book,” proclaims Karabell, who examines not what tears Jews, Christians, and Muslims apart but what brings them together. Karabell is no naïve fool but a sensitive scholar with the knowledge and wisdom to remind us that shalom, salaam alaykum, and peace be upon you all mean the same thing. (LJ 3/1/07)

Kessler, Lauren. Dancing with Rose: Finding Life in the Land of Alzheimer’s. Viking. ISBN 978-0-670-03859-6. $24.95.

Just when you thought that nothing good could ever derive from guilt, along comes Kessler with her frank, first-person reports from a residential Alzheimer’s community. Driven by her desire to understand the illness that killed her estranged mother, she wakes, feeds, and bathes a medley of men and women who show us the humanity inherent in this terrible disease. (LJ Xpress Review, 7/10/07)

Matar, Hisham. In the Country of Men. Dial: Random. ISBN 978-0-385-34042-7. $22.

In this profoundly affecting first novel, set in 1979 Libya, young Suleiman inadvertently betrays family and friends as the Revolutionary Committee zeroes in on his agitator father. And, as happens worldwide, the adults surrounding this innocent boy betray him as well, stealing his childhood in large ways and small. A novel of heat-drenched oppression that refuses to comfort its readers. (LJ 11/15/06)

Montefiore, Simon Sebag. Young Stalin. Knopf. ISBN 978-1-4000-4465-8. $30.

Though the murderous Soviet dictator’s years in power have been much chronicled, his early life was thought to be obscured beyond discovery. Through intrepid research, identification of overlooked material—how about an unpublished memoir by Stalin’s mother?—and stirring narrative, Montefiore brings into relief a fiercely intelligent, boisterous, and crafty youth who turned romantic poet, gang leader, and revolutionary. Once you start this book, justtry putting it down! (LJ 10/15/07)

O’Hagan, Andrew. Be Near Me. Harcourt. ISBN 978-0-15-101303-6. $24.

Out of his depth when he lands in the grubby parish of Dalgarnock in Scotland, slightly effete, Oxford-educated Father David Anderton naïvely reaches out to near-delinquents Mark and Lisa. After a misstep with Mark, the whole town wants his blood. A beautifully crafted tale of human misunderstanding, told in shimmering language. (LJ 12/06)

Pamuk, Orhan. Other Colors: Essays and a Story. Knopf. ISBN 978-0-307-26675-0. $27.95.

Any writer knows: to create a world imagined but true to life is the stuff of genius. Turkish author Pamuk is no stranger to literary success. Yet in these essays on being a writer, his tone is that of a humble literature student rather than last year’s Nobel prize winner. It is this mix of humility and intellect that makes his nonfiction as captivating as his novels. (LJ 9/15/07)

Penney, Stef. The Tenderness of Wolves. S. & S. ISBN 978-1-4165-4074-8. $25.

As winter closes in on tiny Dove River in 19th-century Canada’s frigid north, a murder is committed and a young man disappears—two events whose connection is considerably more tangled than one would imagine. An engrossing tale that throws human passion and folly in high relief by transporting events to the very edge of civilization. (LJ 5/1/07)

Petterson, Per. Out Stealing Horses. Graywolf. ISBN 978-1-55597-470-1. $22.

An older man living alone in the remote reaches of Norway encounters the brother of a childhood friend and is thus compelled to relive events that involve misplaced lust, resistance to the Nazis, and a child’s inadvertent death. Remarkably, these events are never sensationalized but told with spare and quiet assurance. (LJ 5/15/07)

Rediker, Marcus. The Slave Ship: A Human History. Viking. ISBN 978-0-670-01823-9. $27.95.

Using detailed narratives of particular slave ships and their occupants, both above and below deck, the author obliges us to reckon with the full and complex monstrosity of the Atlantic slave trade. He reveals the machinery—human and commercial—that propelled millions of captured Africans into oceangoing dungeons. And then came their release into land-based bondage. Deeply researched. Deeply moving. Deeply essential. (LJ 9/15/07)

Richmond, Michelle. The Year of Fog. Delacorte. ISBN 978-0-385-34011-3. $20.

A casual walk on a foggy San Francisco beach ends in a parent’s worst nightmare: a missing child. Richmond’s wonderful second novel is a heart-wrenching meditation on loss, grief, memory, and redemption. (LJ 2/15/07)

Romano-Lax, Andromeda. The Spanish Bow. Harcourt. ISBN 978-0-15-101542-9. $25.

Loosely based on the life of the great Spanish cellist Pablo Casals, Romano-Lax’s riveting debut novel follows a Catalan boy’s musical journey through 50 years of Spain’s tumultuous history. (LJ 8/07)

Sandoval-Strausz, A.K. Hotel: An American History. Yale Univ. ISBN 978-0-300-10616-9. $37.50.

Not Arthur Hailey. Marrying contemporary critical approaches to sound historical method, this Hotel presents the history of a structure that existed both in reaction to, and as motivator of, social, political, and civic change in America. Young scholar Sandoval-Strausz exhibits that rare blend of erudition and clarity that most of us can only dream of possessing. You’ll never look at the evolution of your built environment the same way again. (LJ 11/1/07)

Sheed, Wilfrid. The House That George Built: With a Little Help from Irving, Cole, and a Crew of About Fifty. Random. ISBN 978-1-4000-6105-1. $29.95.

Opening with pianos tinkling from tenement windows on Irving Berlin’s Lower East Side, this warm tribute to the American popular song is presided over by George Gershwin, that amiable genius and mentor who remade “White Russian fussbudget” Vladimir Dukelsky into Vernon Duke because lifting American song boosted his own reigning position. Throughout, Sheed animates songwriters who indelibly shaped American culture, though today’s listeners may know them mostly by a line from the chorus. (LJ 5/15/07)

Shriver, Lionel. The Post-Birthday World. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-118784-1. $25.95.

An expatriate in London living with staid lover Lawrence, children’s book illustrator Irena McGovern is suddenly, surprisingly attracted to a friend’s ex-husband, star snooker player Ramsey Acton. Should she or shouldn’t she? In this original and involving work, Shriver lets Irena have it both ways in alternating chapters, reassuring us that life is full of opportunity and our fate is never sealed. (LJ 2/15/07)

Temple, Peter. The Broken Shore. Farrar. ISBN 978-0-374-11693-4. $25.

Although it deservedly won Britain’s 2007 Duncan Lowrie Dagger award as well as other top international crime-writing prizes, this rich, complex novel is much more than a conventional police procedural. Temple’s lean prose captures the bleak beauty of the Australian landscape, the feisty humor of its people, and the racial and class conflicts bubbling just under the surface. (LJ 5/15/07)

30,000 Years of Art: The Story of Human Creativity Across Time and Space. Phaidon. ISBN 978-0-7148-4789-4. $49.95.

Milan Kundera wrote recently that while history might have the poor taste to repeat itself, the history of an art form will not stand for such recycling. Surveying the history of the fine arts from 28,000 B.C.E. to today, this 13-pound tome fully supports this claim. The 1000 masterpieces shown here help us see that art, wherever created, has always gone beyond reflecting reality. (LJ 1/08)

Tolkien, J.R.R. The Children of Húrin. Houghton. ed. by Christopher Tolkien. ISBN 978-0-618-89464-2. $26.

First penned in 1918, reworked by Tolkien throughout his life, and shaped into its final form by son Christopher, this brooding tale of tragic heroism and malevolent evil set in a Middle-earth 6000 years before The Lord of the Rings is a glorious addition to the Tolkien canon. Calling Peter Jackson. (LJ Xpress reviews, 4/17/07)

Trynka, Paul. Iggy Pop: Open Up and Bleed. Broadway. ISBN 978-0-7679-2319-4. $23.95.

Trynka presents the showman who is Jim Osterberg, Iggy Stooge, and Iggy Pop, covering a career of drug-addled success and failure that has embraced sex appeal, cocaine revelry, and self-inflicted violence. Band mates, roadies, and lovers told Trynka of Iggy’s complete penetration of Osterberg, and the biographer marries the ego and the alter ego beneath leather pants and silver gloves. (LJ 4/1/07)