all books all the time

Popco - Scarlett Thomas. Re-read. Nothing else to say that I haven't said before: I still adore this book & find it immensely comforting & inspiring.

Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers - Lois-Ann Yamanaka. ( Read more... )

Short Girls - Bich Minh Nguyen. ( Read more... )

"Lesbians" in East Asia: Diversity, Identities, and Resistance - Edited by Diana Khor and Saori Kamano. ( Read more... )

Wind Follower - Carole McDonnell. ( Read more... )

Bone Crossed - Patricia Briggs. ( Read more... )

White Witch, Black Curse - Kim Harrison. ( Read more... )

River's Daughter - Tasha Campbell. ( Read more... )

Lesbians Talk: Making Black Waves - Valerie Mason-John & Ann Khambatta. ( Read more... )

These are the best books I read in 2007--not necessarily published in 2007. Also, they're not in any order (except, I think, the order I happened to read them in). I tried to keep the list relatively short--I managed to get it down to 15, & given that I read 219 books in 2007, that's not bad!

Links are to my reviews.

Zahrah the Windseeker - Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu
The Green Glass Sea - Ellen Klages
Story of a Girl - Sara Zarr
Behold the Many - Lois-Ann Yamanaka
Does My Head Look Big in This? - Randa Abdel-Fattah
Can We Talk About Race? And Other Conversations in an Era of School Resegregation - Beverly Daniel Tatum, Ph.D.
Kitty Takes a Holiday - Carrie Vaughn
The Emotional Lives of Animals - Marc Bekoff
Heads by Harry - Lois-Ann Yamanaka (yes, two by Yamanaka... sue me)
The Dogs Who Found Me: What I've Learned from Pets Who Were Left Behind - Ken Foster
The Secret History of Moscow - Ekaterina Sedia
Crystal Rain - Tobias Buckell
The Sons of Heaven - Kage Baker
Redemption: The Myth of Pet Overpopulation and the No Kill Revolution in America - Nathan J. Winograd
Talking to the Moon - Noel Alumit
One Tribe - M. Evelina Galang

Behold the Many - Lois-Ann Yamanaka. Yamanaka's books are always heartwrenching, & this is no exception. It's Hawaii in 1913, & Anah & her two sisters have been taken away from their home & put into an tuberculosis orphanage for children whose families can't afford treatment. Eventually, Anah's sisters die, & she lives the rest of her life fighting off their bitter, angry hauntings. Sometimes magical realism is hard for me to sink my teeth into (odd considering how much fantasy I read), but this was amazing: disturbing & compelling & upsetting. Yamanaka always gives a real window into poor, multicultural communities in Hawaii. I love the other books of hers that I've read (& I don't think Blu's Hanging is anti-Filipino--I don't think anyone in that book gets off lightly), but this one might be the best.

Kissing Sin - Keri Arthur. And now for something completely different! This is the second in a series, & not much of a departure from the first (Full Moon Rising): slightly ridiculous plotlines, lots of smut, & too many beautiful people. Still, this is fun, if fluffy. Riley Jenson is half-vampire, half-werewolf, which makes her really attractive to scientists trying to genetically engineer super-creatures. Plus, in this universe, werewolves have a massive sex drive. Hence, danger! Sex! Danger! Sex! I don't mind the "werewolves must have lots of sex" world-rule from any sort of moral basis--I think it's neat to have a female protagonist who argues that sex can just be sex, for fun, & there's nothing immoral about it. But it still seems a bit silly in how it's deployed in the plot, even if it makes for lots of steaminess. Whatever, I'll keep reading, although I probably will never reread this series.