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* Bruce Jacobs
* Sarah Bagby
* Todd Robins
* Carolyn Kretzer
* Lisa Johnson
* Beth Golay
* Mark David Bradshaw
* Rebekah Rine
About a week ago, I asked the staff at Watermark to look over our online reading
journals (http://www.watermarkbooks.com/staffpicks.html)
and choose the books we read in 2007 which we enjoyed the most. That was the
only criterion. We had to enjoy reading the book. Found below are the responses.
Like any good bookstore, the reading tastes of our staff are varied. But I also
enjoyed the varied *ways* in which we responded. Some of us use quotes. Some
don't. Some use upper case letters. Some don't. All of the responses are posted
exactly as they were received.
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Bruce Jacobs
five skies - ron carlson
unknown terrorist - richard flanagan
maytrees - annie dillard
later at the bar - rebecca barry
tree of smoke - denis johnson
loving frank - nancy horan
some day this pain will be useful to you - peter cameron
last night at the lobster - stewart o'nan
bangkok haunts - john burdett
http://www.watermarkbooks.com/brucejacobs.html
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Sarah Bagby
*On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan--The brilliant final chapter reveals our ability
to miss each other at the most inopportune times.
Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell—-incredible prose, vivid images.
Loving Frank by Nancy Horan
Away by Amy Bloom—-a pleasure for its ambitious settings and surprising stories
within the story.
Maytrees by Annie Dillard—-the book demands a re-reading.
What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman—-My first time reading the popular author.
*Christmas Memory by Truman Capote-—I'd read this years ago and didn't get what
the big deal was. This year I read it aloud to any willing listener. The writing
is superb and the portrayal of finding and losing "home" is genius.
Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O'Nan—-I recently listened to an audio of
the Old Man and the Sea—a fable about facing life as it comes. This incredible
volume is an updated telling of that same story.
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy--My first reading. Brilliant.
*Made me cry.
http://www.watermarkbooks.com/sarahbagby.html
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Todd Robins
Exit Ghost, by Philip Roth
Brothers: The Hidden History of The Kennedy Years, by David Talbot
High Water Mark: Prose Poems, by David Shumate
Tree of Smoke, by Denis Johnson
http://www.watermarkbooks.com/toddrobins.html
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Carolyn Kretzer
"The Perfect Mess" by Erik Abrahmson and David H. Freidman
"Last Night at the Lobster" by Stewart O'Nan
"Pirate's Daughter" by Margaret Cezair-Thompson
"Away" by Amy Bloom
"Loving Frank" by Nancy Horan
"The Rest of Her Life" by Laura Moriarty
"A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini
"Magic Time" by Doug Marlette
"The Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers" by Ziaolu Guo
"House of Happy Endings" by Leslie Garis
"Charlatan" by Pope Brock
"Bleeding Kansas" by Sara Paretsky
http://www.watermarkbooks.com/carolynkretzer.html
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Lisa Johnson
A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon.
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini.
Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O'Nan.
Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie.
Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer (third book in the "Twilight series).
The Monk Upstairs by Tim Farrington (the first book was The Monk Downstairs, I
loved them both).
Loving Frank by Nancy Horan.
God of Animals by Aryn Kyle.
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.
http://www.watermarkbooks.com/lisajohnson.html
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Beth Golay
My favorites, in the order in which I read them...
"Sleeping Freshman Never Lie" by David Lubar
"The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak
"The God of Animals" by Aryn Kyle
"Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell
"Tallgrass" by Sandra Dallas
"On Chesil Beach" by Ian McEwan
"The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" by Sherman Alexie
"The Commoner" by John Burnham Schwartz
"People of the Book" by Geraldine Brooks
"The Rug Merchant" by Meg Mullans
http://www.watermarkbooks.com/bethgolay.html
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Mark David Bradshaw
In the purely adult realm, Kate Braestrup's memoir "Here If You Need Me: A True
Story" is my feel-good stand-out. Braestrup recalls Anne Lamott and
Elizabeth Gilbert as she writes about her pastoral work as a chaplain with a
Maine search-and-rescue squad. Her voice is wise and funny, and her stories and
reflections convey an embracing faith that shuns judgment and reminds us that
loving one's neighbor is a strikingly fine idea:
Read review
But most of my favorite books this year have been written about, and sometimes
for, teenagers:
"Saints of Augustine" by P. E. Ryan hits on a vital but rarely-seen
subject: friendships between young guys. This affecting novel follows former
best friends Charlie and Sam as they flail about in their last high-school
summer. One has fallen into stupid drug use while the other is slowly coming to
terms with being gay. When they finally start to patch up their differences,
each finds he can forgive the other his unbrotherly silences and deceptions:
Read review
"Story of a Girl" by Sara Zarr is uncommonly honest and
flat-out excellent: it's about a young woman who has worn a scarlet letter ever
since her father found her in a car in a compromising position with a much older
boy. A finalist for the National Book Award, it explores the consequences of
having sex too young or too unhappily, and it explodes the idea that a young
person's choices, however naive, can erode her intrinsic worth:
Read review
"Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You" by Peter Cameron is a
twenty-first century "Catcher in the Rye." Like Holden Caulfield, James Sveck
is an articulate New Yorker on the brink of adulthood and on the verge of
breakdown. Passionately opinionated but painfully reserved, he gradually reveals
the many pressures that come with coming of age in the new millennium. His wry,
funny voice and sharp love of language give his struggles the perfect mix of
wisdom and heartbreak and make this novel both wonderfully subtle and quietly
profound: Read
review
For Shakespeare (and with me, there's always Shakespeare): "Ungentle
Shakespeare: Scenes from His Life" by Katherine Duncan-Jones may have been
published in 2001, but it has been my can't-put-it-down Shakespeare book of the
year. Duncan-Jones is an Oxford professor, and her biography is made unique by
her insistence on showing us the playwright with all his warts intact, and by
her ability to hatch surprising but logical surmises about the parts of
Shakespeare's life we know too little about. It's fantastic stuff worthy of a
place alongside the excellent recent biographies by Stephen Greenblatt and James
Shapiro.
http://www.watermarkbooks.com/markdavidbradshaw.html
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Rebekah Rine
"I Am America (And So Can You!)" by Stephen Colbert (Grand Central,
9780446580502, $26.99)
Just opening the cover of Colbert's new book makes you 25% more patriotic! If
the writers' strike has left you wanting for your nightly dose of comedy gold,
then it's time to hunker down with your own Stephen Colbert on the printed page.
This book is written by Colbert's evening fake-news character. It reads like a
civics textbook/autobiography…but it's laugh-out-loud funny. Über-patriot
Colbert writes the book in three sections: My American Childhood, My American
Adolescence, and My American Maturity. Each contain hilarious chapters from "Old
People: Your Glasses Are on Top of Your Head" to "Sex & Dating: 1001 Abstinence
Positions," and finally, "Science: Thanks for the Nukes, Now Go Away."
This is the gift of ultimate truthiness for sardonic college students and
hipsters, fun-loving jokesters, or anyone who follows the news with an eyebrow
quizzically raised.
"Boomsday" by Christopher Buckley (Hachette Book Group, 9780446579810, $24.99)
The author of "Thank You For Smoking" once again revisits the world of the spin
doctors. Straight-A student Cassandra Devine can't accept her admittance to Yale
because her father spent all her tuition money on a dot-com start up. Instead,
she joins the military, winding up in a mine explosion/sexual scandal.
A decade later, Cassandra finds herself working PR in Washington for a Senate
campaign, and devoted to her catastrophe-prediction blog. The nation is facing a
social security crisis, and Cassandra is keeping herself up all night blogging
and hopped up on Red Bull & No-Doz…when she casually suggests that young people
stand up and revolt against retired baby boomers.
Buckley feeds our curiosity when his novel shows us the possibilities of what
could happen if we took stronger action in the shaping of government policies.
http://www.watermarkbooks.com/rebekahrine.html
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Here's to some good reading in 2008.
Best.
Sarah
See Our Best Reads of
2006
See Our Best Reads of
2005
See Our Best Reads
of 2004
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