Favorites from 2007?

Hello All,

Before we each get too far in our first books (or probably in some cases before we start on our second), I was hoping that we could briefly reflect on the 2007 book club. For those that are new members of this book club, please feel free to add your thoughts of other great books that you read in the last year.

In general, I read a lot of non-fiction and already had two of the five on my list to read before we even began. This post is not intended as a knock on that side of the list - I throughly enjoyed all five nonfiction works. However, it was the two novels by female authors that were absolutely surprising delights (in very different ways) that really had me excited to participate again.

When I first saw the list on Christmas Day, 2006, Calamity Physics by Pessl was the one that I was the most concerned with. Why would I want to read a novel about physics? Who knew that it would be an incredibly entertaining suspenseful novel with tons of literary references and not an ounce of physics (well at least not the equation kinds). It was hard to put it down.

On the other hand, Messud's Emperor's Children was so filled with tragic characters, I wanted to put it down. I kept trying to simply put it in the mail and forget about it. I didn't have any desire to know the characters or learn more about their lives. Yet, something kept pulling me back. Finally finishing it one morning at 4 am, I promptly put Messud's previous works on my Amazon list. This one actually had real characters and intentions that could have actually lived in our real world.

So as we start 2008's list, I'm hoping that I find one work that gets me as excited as those two gems from last year. And knowing the quality from last year, I don't think I will be disappointed.