Everyone is making end-of-the-year lists. From unknown literary bloggers to the New York Times Book Review, the top ten book lists are spilling out in waves sufficient to drown even the most persistent reader with books to add to their To Be Read pile. So why should BiblioBuffet be any different?

We’re not!

Last week Lisa Guidarini posted her Best Reads of 2007. And here is my list though it’s not a “Top Ten” or “Best of” because (1) I find it hard to narrow things down like that, and (2) everyone else is doing them. Mine is more of a Category List—what book stood out for me in some off-beat categories. I borrowed a list, added to it, and the result has been both fun and informative. Doing it this way forced me to think about each book on its own terms instead of in competition with others. Note that these are books I read or reread in 2007, which is not necessarily the year they were published. With that in mind, here is my list:

Grimmest: The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan. What happened after Hurricane Katrina is not new. Those who lived during the dust storms that destroyed the Midwest during the Great Depression experienced the same sorts of  post-disaster quacks, con artists, political machinations and overall governmental uselessness.

Most Uplifting: The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan. It also portrays determination, guts and courage. Could there be anything more uplifting?

Funniest: The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson. Though at times he gets on my nerves with his over-the-top sense of self-satisfaction, this book was pure hilarity. It may be because we nearly share a birth year, and his memories of the products, times and experiences of the 1950s and 1960s (his in Iowa, mine in Los Angeles) were surprisingly identical. It’s not often a book makes me guffaw loudly in public, but this one did.  
 
Why Did I Buy This Book: The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific by J. Maarten Troost. Despite good reviews elsewhere, I found this book to be one big whine. Or maybe just depressing. It is funny in parts and culturally enlightening, but overall it was a waste of good reading time.

Book I Started But Dumped the Fastest Because It Was So Bad: Ah, this would be The Secret of Lost Things by Sheridan Hay. It tried to be a quirky literary thriller, a touching coming-of-age chronicle and a “bookstore genre” story. And it failed. Miserably. I forced myself through 60 pages, then threw it against a wall.

Hardest Book to Put Down in Order to Sleep: This was a hard choice, but one of them is surely The Hopkins Manuscript by R.C. Sherriff. Republished by Persephone Books, it is the story of  what might have happened in 1939 if the moon crashed into the earth. I’m not a science fiction fan (though I enjoy Jules Verne and H.G. Wells), but I liked this a lot!  

Best History: Bunion Derby by Charles B. Kastner. It always amazes me to come across books that detail an aspect of American history or culture of which I have no knowledge. Why, I inevitably wonder, have I never heard of it before? This was certainly the case with Bunion Derby, the enthralling story of a footrace of more than 3,000 miles and nearly three months, incorporating the spirit, triumph, hucksterism, capitalism, hope, craziness and desperation that was America in 1928.

Best Use of Language: This may be cheating a bit because it’s a collection, but Highway 99: a literary journey through California’s Great Central Valley wins this award. The book was issued through Heyday Books, a publisher that specializes in California literature. For this, they put together a list of authors sufficient to make a reader drool, and the result is a luscious language feast.

Most Memorable Character (Good or Bad): Oddly, the most memorable character is not a character at all but a memoirist, Griselda Jackson Ohannessian. Her book: Once As It Was. Why she stands out is hard to say. She’s neither “good” or “bad in the way we think of fictional characters, but her skillfully rendered memories of growing up on a farm in 1930s Pennsylvania made her unforgettable for me.

Best Book to Eat By: Heirlooms: Letters from a Peach Farmer by David Mas Masumoto. I tend to prefer literature when I am eating, but this book, a series of essays (with lovely illustrations by Doug Hansen) about farming, childhood memories, personal experiences and more is a superb accompaniment. It’s almost as if the food on my plate became part of the book because it’s the relationship between food and life that underlies the wonderful writing.
 
Worst Book to Eat By: No Mercy: A Journey to the Heart of the Congo by Redmond O’Hanlon. Any book that talks about flying insects burrowing into ears, mouth and sweaty armpits, and about eating dried monkey and palm-maggots (“You bite the heads off and eat the rest. They taste like bacon.”) is definitely not one I want anywhere near me when I am having dinner or even a snack.

Best Bed Book: The Eustace Diamonds by Anthony Trollope. I have often heard that Trollope is perfect bedtime reading, and in my opinion “they” are right. This novel was once described as “the closest thing the Victorians had to Dynasty and in Lizzie they had their Alexis.” I never watched the show, but I heard about it and it seems an accurate statement. However, the scheming in the book is surely much better.

Worst Bed Book: This is not one that would put me out too fast but one that would keep me up in fear. No question, it is Dracula, which I love and reread in 2007. Even after all this time—it was originally published in 1897—it has the ability to cause shivers all the way into my gut. It’s a classic for a reason.

Biggest Book Purchase: After a professional lunch in a restaurant that shares the same outdoor shopping center with our local independent bookstore, I wandered by the latter’s window intending only to browse. Alas, they had a display of astronomy books that drew me in. Two hours and $376 later, I emerged, along with a helpful bookstore employee, lugging five bags of books to my car’s trunk. I have to say, though, it was a wonderful evening looking through all my new purchases.

Smallest Book Purchase: This happened at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. I was walking by a booth and happened to notice a line of audiobooks laid out on the front table. I flipped through them, found Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild (abridged) and asked how much it was. “They’re free,” was the reply. Now that’s my kind of pricing.
 
Not Deep, Mostly Just Fun: Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys and the Battle for America’s Soul by Karen Abbott. This is my kind of fun, a fascinating piece of American history written in a captivating way and populated by a cast of characters that both repulses and attracts. Rollicking reading.

Best Illustrated Book: Vincent Van Gogh: A Self-Portrait in Art and Letters by H. Anna Suh (ed.). I own a number of books about Van Gogh, all of them gorgeous. This one is unique, combining reproductions of his illustrated letters with selected translations as well as his individual drawings and paintings. I love this book almost beyond description.  

High Hopes / Big Letdown Book: Island of the Lost: Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World by Joan Druett. I’m not really sure why this book is my choice for this category. In some ways, it was quite good (I intended to review it and changed my mind). I was engrossed by the story a fair amount of the time but when the story speeded up, as it occasionally did, to rush by in a blur I found my attention wandering. A real shame.

Best Book Event: There’s no question. It’s the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. If you haven’t been, it’s hard to describe exactly what makes it so good. The size is one, the location another, and the range of authors, events, panels, stages and vendors is nearly endless and fantastic. The air seems to throb with bookish energy. I think this is probably the largest (or at least one of the top two or three largest) in the nation, and for those of us within driving distance it is heaven.

Best Book Bargain: $5 for what turned out to be my brother’s Christmas book—Creating Bonsai Landscapes: 18 Miniature Garden Projects by Su Chin Ee. It’s a lovely smallish coffee table book that has gorgeous illustrations and practical instructions on making the loveliest bonsai landscapes. Originally priced at $30, it was tempting enough to keep it myself. But I squared my shoulders and gave it to him last week. He has the talent to really use it so I figure I will simply wait for one of the landscapes to come my way.

Most Paid for a Single Book: Not too bad. Previous years’ purchases have been in the range of $150-$200 so this year’s $75 for The Natural World by Thomas D. Mangelsen wasn’t bad at all by comparison. And despite the odd format—it opens like a wall calendar—which gives the brilliant photographs the space they need it’s superb.  

Month That Most Books Were Read: It looks like December is going to be the winner. Between the four books started that will continue into 2008, the three books begun in mid-November that are likely to be done by the last day, and the six books started and finished in December, we are talking about—woohoo!—thirteen books! I am so pleased.

Month That Fewest Books Were Read: There were two—June and August, and I am ashamed to say that in neither month I finished a single book. In fact, I barely picked any up, and had to force myself to read even the few pages I did. It was not for lack of trying, but my responsibilities with BiblioBuffet had increased, work difficulties and dreadful home repairs all took my attention and dominated my thoughts. Several changes/fixes were made, and I have thankfully returned to my normal level of reading.

First Book Purchased in 2007: I wish I could remember. I have been over my bookshelves several times trying to recollect which book it was (or at least which ones were early purchases). And I can’t. But I’ll remember my first purchase of 2008 because I intend, a year from now, not to be embarrassed by my memory again.

Last Book Purchased in 2007: Citrus: A History by Pierre Laszlo. I picked this up on December 24 when I was looking for my mother’s Christmas gift at our local indie bookstore. There it was, one copy, sitting with the other gardening books. When I opened it up, it was to see some gorgeous image reproductions and wonderful writing. I was smitten. I had to buy it.

Cecilia Manguerra Brainard is one of a rare breed of authors—someone who found international success with her first novel in the 1990s. From that early triumph, she has since gone on to write, edit or co-edit more than a dozen books that highlight the Filipino experience covering food, literature, women and more. This month, Dan Jaffe, in Talking Across the Table, discovers a complex, rich woman with international insights on writing and reading.

“Most family histories include stories about food,” says Paul Clark in this week’s A Walk Through My Bookshelves. His certainly are. From his experiences as one of the quieter members of a large family at the dinner table to a self-created Christmas ritual to a hilarious disaster-turned-triumph, Paul’s history of memories will surely remind readers of their own wonderful connections between family history and food.

Kathryn Warren, reader extraordinaire, goes through books at a rate of which I can only dream. She possesses an incredible knowledge of books that span fiction and nonfiction, which makes her strong opinions on what is worth reading valuable. This week, in Bibliopinions, she returns with a new list, this time of her favorite winter reads that is bettered only by memories of her first winter.

Propaganda has been an essential part of war-making probably since wars were fought with sticks and stones. Convincing a people that spending money, energy, time and lives on something ugly takes careful analysis of a particular war’s goals and then turning those goals into something desirable, whether that be creating a popular enemy, becoming a more powerful nation or even just distracting attention away from internal problems. In World War II, bookmarks played an important role in America’s propaganda war as seen in this week’s On Marking Books.

As a reward for working so hard this year, Amanda Joseph gave herself a trip to Melbourne, on the east side of Australia. Naturally, she found a bookstore. In Rants & Raves From Down Under this week, she shares her excitement about her discovery.

“Ever since our Founding Fathers included a clause in the Constitution regulating the relationship between church and state,” notes Henry Carrigan, American society has struggled with establishing a healthy and productive relationship between religions and society.” In this week’s Readings, he looks at some of the many books published between 1956 and 2006 that have tracked that relationship.

As a subject, New Year’s resolutions attracted two of BiblioBuffet’s columnists this week. Anne Michael vowed “hands off” resolutions until she came to realize the “regrets of others in novels, stories, songs and acquaintance played endlessly in my head. I didn’t want a set of my own.” So she made one. What is it? See this week’s  Seasoned Lightly.

Lisa Guidarini also tackled resolutions in Reviews & Reflections, but her perspective led her to take a different approach, one that emphasizes positivism, respect and choices.  

 

Win a Gorgeous Bookmark! There’s still time to win a beautiful brushed stainless steel bookmark from Mirage Bookmarks of Switzerland. Twenty winners will be announced next week so enter now. It’s easy; details are here.

During December, I talked about and provided links for a lot of bookish gifts and small publishers with wonderful books. Now, however, we’re going to return to things that you don’t need a wallet for—and this week it’s Fun With Words, a web site that offers games, puzzles and other fun for “word-philes.” Learn about anagrams, palindromes, spoonerisms, oxymorons, tongue twisters, pangrams, rebus puzzles, malapropisms, mnemonics, Tom Swifties and nym words and other fun things. Who knew language could be this much fun?
 
Until next week, read well, read often and read on! (Oh, and Happy New Year!)

Lauren