Books Read in 2007

This is the list of books I read in 2007, in the order that I read them. For an explanation of my rating system, see here.

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden (3.5/5)

The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer (on the Modern Library Top 100 list; 4/5)

Animal Farm by George Orwell (on the Modern Library Top 100 list; 4.5/5)

Judgment Calls by Alafair Burke (3/5)

The 12th Card by Jeffrey Deaver (3/5)

The Fourth Hand by John Irving (2.5/5)

A Bend in the River by V.S. Naipaul (on the Modern Library Top 100 list; 4/5)

Fear of Flying by Erika Jong (4/5)

For Whom the Bell Tolls by Earnest Hemingway (4/5)

Dance Hall of the Dead by Tony Hillerman (3/5)

The Art of Mending by Elizabeth Berg (3/5)

The Broker by John Grisham (2/5)

Humbolt’s Gift by Saul Bellow (winner of the Pulitzer Prize; 4/5)

Rasputin’s Daughter by Robert Alexander (2.5/5)

The Assistant by Bernard Malamud (reviewed here) (4/5)

The Reptile Room by Lemony Snicket (3/5)

The Closers by Michael Connolly (3/5)

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut (on the Modern Library Top 100 list; 2/5)

New England 2007 by Karen Brown (3.5/5)

Living the 7 Habits by Stephen Covey (3.5/5)

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris (reviewed here; 3.5/5)

Fear of the Dark by Walter Mosely (2/5)

Finnegans Wake by James Joyce (on the Modern Library Top 100 list; un-ratable)

Love Among the Chickens by P.G. Wodehouse (4/5)

Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser (on the Modern Library Top 100 list; 4/5)

The Second Chair by John Lescroart (3.5/5)

Light in August by William Faulkner (on the Modern Library Top 100 list; 4/5)

Little Green Men by Christopher Buckley (reviewed here; 3/5)

The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington (reviewed here; on the Modern Library Top 100 list; winner of the Pulitzer Prize; 3/5)

The Winter of Frankie Machine by Don Winslow (reviewed here; 3/5)

Sailing the Wine Dark Sea by Thomas Cahill (3.5/5)

Therese Raquin by Emil Zola (reviewed here; 3.5/5)

The Forgotten Man by Robert Crais (3/5)

Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie (reviewed here; on the Modern Library Top 100 list; winner of the Booker Prize; 4/5)

Madame Bovary by Gustav Flaubert (4/5) Restless by William Boyd (reviewed here) (4/5)

The Roald Dahl Omnibus by Roald Dahl (4/5)

Empire Falls by Richard Russo (reviewed here; winner of the Pulitzer Prize; 4/5)

A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce (on the Modern Library Top 100 list; 3/5)

Havoc, in Its Third Year by Ronan Bennett (reviewed here; 3.5/5)

Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky (3.5/5)

The Fox by D.H. Lawrence (3/5)

What Paul Meant by Gary Wills (3/5)

The Sea by John Banville (winner of the Booker Prize; 3.5/5)

The Golden Bowl by Henry James (reviewed here; on the Modern Library Top 100 list; 3/5)

A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway (on the Modern Library Top 100 list; 4/5)

Thomas Paine by Craig Nelson (reviewed here; 3.5/5)

A Damsel in Distress by P.G. Wodehouse (3/5)

The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald (2.5/5)

Criminal Intent by Sheldon Siegel (3/5) Alibi by Joseph Kanon (3.5/5)

Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte (3/5)

Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow (reviewed here; on the Modern Library Top 100 list; winner of the National Book Award; 4/5)

Getting to Yes by Roger Fisher (3/5) Turning Angel by Greg Iles (3.5/5)

Leap of Faith by Queen Noor (2.5/5)

Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy (4/5)

China, Inc. by Thomas Fishmann (3/5)

The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher (reviewed here) (3/5)

Queen’s Ransom by Fionna Buckley (2.5/5)

Blanding’s Castle by P.G. Wodehouse (3.5/5)

Housekeeping by Marilyn Robinson (3.5/5)

Portland Confidential by Phil Stanford (3/5)

Gifted by Nikita Lalwani (reviewed here; 3.5/5)

Mormon America by Richard and Joan Ostling (3.5/5)

A Crack in the Edge of the World by Simon Winchester (3/5)

The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis (4/5)

A Tidewater Morning by William Styron (3.5/5)

Digging to America by Anne Taylor (3/5)

Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov (5/5)

Founding Brothers by Joseph Ellis (3/5)

The Party by Sally Quinn (3/5)

Prelude to Terror by Helen MacInnes (3/5)

The Meaning of Everything by Simon Winchester (3.5/5) Decorating with Books by Marie Proeller Hueston (3.5/5)

Rubaiyat by Omar Khayyam (2/5)

Feast of Love by Charles Baxter (2.5/5)

The Nasty Bits by Anthony Bourdain (3.5/5)

The Centaur by John Updike (reviewed here; winner of the National Book Award; 3/5)

The Lay of the Land by Richard Ford (3.5/5)

Peace Kills by P.J. O’Rourke (3/5)

Scout’s Honor by Patrick Boyle (3/5)

Wolves Eat Dogs by Martin Cruz Smith (3.5/5)

Real Cooking, by George! by George Jacobs (reviewed here) (3/5)

Old School by Tobias Wolf (3/5)

The Paperboy by Peter Dexter (3.5/5)

The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole (3/5)

The Hard Way by Lee Child (3.5/5)

Barrel Fever by David Sedaris (3/5)

The Wide Window by Lemony Snicket (3/5)

The Pirate’s Daughter by Margaret Cezair-Thompson (reviewed here; 3.5/5)

The Jungle Law by Victoria Vinton (3/5)

Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris (4/5)

Miracle Cure by Sally Pipes (3/5)

Cakes and Ale by Somerset Maugham (3.5/5)

Suspicion of Rage by Barbara Parker (3/5)

The Shortest Way to Hades by Sarah Caldwell (3/5)

The Hunt Club by John Lescroart (3/5)

Dinner at Antoine’s by Frances Parkinson Keyes (3.5/5)

Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai (winner of the Booker Prize; 3/5)

Stuff on My Cat by Mario Garza (3/5)

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Housseni (3.5/5)

My Book Ratings

Ratings should be taken with a grain of salt, because they are a little loosey goosey. This is a subjective rating system, based on my likes and dislikes, although my subjective judgment usually correlates to objective criteria. That is, if a book is poorly written, has clunky dialog, flat characters, or plot flaws, I am probably not going to like it and will give it a low rating. On the other hand, if a book is technically good and I enjoy it, I will give it a high rating. These subjective and objective notions meet in a muddled middle in my 3/5 rating. I give a lot of books 3/5 because I was entertained and glad to have read them, but did not think they were all that well-written. But a 3/5 rating can also mean I thought the book was excellent from an objective standpoint, but I did not care for it personally (most Henry James novels come to mind). With those general ideas in mind: 5/5 means it is an all-time favorite; 4/5 means I liked it and either would recommend it generally, or at least think it worthy of general recommendation, even if no one takes me up on it; 3/5 means either that I enjoyed it for what it was or think it is a "good" book, but would probably not recommend it; 2/5 means I did not like it; and 1/5 means I really, really disliked it. Half a point added means my judgment is on the borderline, with one exception: 3.5/5 means that I liked a book and would recommend it to certain people who I think would enjoy it, either because they like that type of book or some other particular reason, but I would not make a general recommendation. No rating does not mean 0/5. It just means that I read the book too long ago to remember it enough to rate it, I am not qualified to rate it (poetry, for instance)or I simply forgot to rate it.

Merry Christmas!

Snowed In!

With 13-16 inches of snow in Portland so far, no sign of melting, and another storm expected today, this could be The Year Without Christmas! Well, no. Of course Christmas will be here tomorrow, no matter what. But this could be the first of my 42 Christmases not spent with my family. As much as they are clamoring for us to drive across the mountains to Bend, the thought of driving 200 miles with tire chains seems like a pioneer-level adventure that I am just not up for. All I can imagine is throwing a chain somewhere on Mt. Hood and -- off on the shoulder in a sleet storm -- trying to jerry-rig something out of bungee cords and Christmas ribbon. To distract myself from the idea of my mother weeping over her empty Christmas nest -- or, in truth, drinking martinis and eating oysters Rockefeller without me -- I have been playing with my blog. I have a couple of ideas for organizing and rearranging things. For one, I think I have figured out how to have an alphabetized directory of past reviews over on the right side. Right now, I have every book review listed, but that is getting too long, and will just get longer. I think I can make a series of alphabet letter links that will lead to a list of books sorted by title. Using that same system, I also plan to have a list on the right side of my annual reading lists. Not necessarily of interest to anyone but myself, I have kept track of the books I read, in order, each year for the last five years or so. I am going to make a list of links that will lead to each year's book list. I can use these lists to keep track of when I read what. We will see how it goes. But I think I will have a couple more snowy days to play around with all these changes. And to celebrate Christmas, of course. Although it won't really be Christmas without oysters Rockefeller. Or my mother.

1 Day Until Christmas