These are books that I read in 2007, not books that necessarily were published in 2007.

Favorite Novel:

The Road by Cormac McCarthy (sorry, sort of anticlimactic, I realize.). It was also the first book I read in 2007.

Favorite Non-Fiction

 The World Without Us by Alan Weisman. From my review:

It’s hard for me to discuss this book from any angle without wanting to shout: “This book is awesome! You must read this book!”

From the moment I heard the premise–what would happen to the earth if the human race were suddenly to disappear from it–I knew the notion could be a fascinating one, but Weisman could have screwed this up in any number of ways.

The success of this book is in several places. One, Weisman manages to posit the realm o the relatively unlikely simultaneous cessation of all human life without making it sound morbid or frightening. This book is not a droning lecture about the ills we have caused mother nature, and it doesn’t ever lose its little campfire of hope, burning at the center. [Read More (You'll have to scroll down...no direct link]

Honorable Mention (Fiction)

•  Black Swan Green: A Novel
• The Thirteenth Tale: A Novel
• Wild Life
• March
• The Magus
• O Pioneers!
• Suite Française
• Great Expectations (Penguin Classics)
• Jane Eyre (Penguin Classics)
• The Master Butchers Singing Club: A Novel (Erdrich, Louise)
• A Tale of Two Cities (Penguin Classics)
• The Yiddish Policemen’s Union: A Novel
• Absurdistan: A Novel

Honorable Mention (Non-Fiction)

•  In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex
• The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America
• Heat: An Amateur’s Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany
• Brutal Journey: Cabeza de Vaca and the Epic First Crossing of North America
• Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War

Stinkers (Fiction)

• Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
• The Last Town on Earth: A Novel
• House of Sand and Fog (Oprah’s Book Club)

Stinkers (Non-Fiction)

•  The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology
• Do You Speak American?

You can read more about why I hated or liked a given book on my reviews page on LibraryThing. Or subscribe to it (RSS).