2007 Books in Review

What a year. Following in Steph's footsteps I am going to outline my Best and Worst 5 of the year. I may have to include a few other runner up categories to give credit (or bad credit) to as many books as possible.

Top 5
1) A Tale of Two Cities--loved it. Dickens has yet to let me down. I loved the characters, evil and good alike, there is adventure, good dialogue, and good settings. Funny that this is another book that I have tried to start many times and failed.
2) The Fountainhead--loved it. Such a long book, but so great. Ayn Rand did such an amazing job crafting her characters to make them unique and real. I am absolutely going to read Atlas Shrugged very soon.
3) The Glass Castle--what a story. Real stories are generally so much more interesting than fiction--so long as they are written well. The story is beyond unbelievable and well written. Two thumbs up.
4) Frankenstein--Probably the book that I have waited the longest to read. With so much consumerism surrounding "Frankenstein" it is good to know where it all comes from. I love the moral of the story in this one--there is such a thing as too much forward progress.
5) Magical Thinking--How fabulous to round out the 50 with a top 5 book? Augusten Burroughs is hysterical.

Just a few runners up: Three Junes, In the Heart of the Sea, The Three Musketeers and Marley and Me. I am happy to say I had a lot more runner ups for the good than the bad.

Worst 5
1) Vanishing Acts--shoot me if I ever pick up another book by Jodi Picoult.
2) The Dogs of Babel--this one had potential and it just failed miserably. Not even beach read-worthy.
3) The Rule of Four--if you are going to mimic a novel that already exists, you better do it better. They failed at that.
4) Veronica--did I miss the boat on this one? I guess I am just not interested in the "woe is me" story of a has-been model.
5) One-Hundred Years of Solitude--I know!!!! Where did this go so wrong? I had been waiting to read this book for SO long. I would love to hear the opinion of someone who loved it. Please, what did I miss??

Bad runner ups: Captain Alatriste, The Crimson Petal and the White and Something Happened

Book that I was most let down by: The Namesake
Book with the worst ending: Middlesex
Best Beach read: Outlander
Most pleasantly surprised by: The Boy Who Fell Out of the Sky
Most Bizarre: Skinny Legs and All tied with To the Lighthouse