Books of 2007

I was disheartened recently to read in an article by some postmodern wag trying to prove a point about fragmentary culture that some three hundred and fifty books are published each week. And those are books in English published in this country! Well, I didn’t keep up with that lot but I did keep UF's library staff fairly busy this year. Here are a few of my favorites:

1. Richard Russo – Bridge of Sighs: Five years ago, I read Russo’s last great novel – Empire Falls – with a few of the original LHS email circle participants. Since then HBO made a mini-series based on it and now Russo is back with his latest and – like Empire Falls – it’s an epic yarn full of sad-sack characters holed up in a bleak, post-industrial upstate NY town.
2. Christopher Hitchens – God is Not Great: “The Hitch” has disappointed me recently with his support for the imperial occupation of Iraq, but there’s no denying the power of his prose. In his latest screed, he turns his scabrous pen toward religious doctrine. Thankfully, Hitchens is an equal-opportunity offender and he treats all religious myth-making with
an even-handed scorn.
3. Charles Frazier – The Thirteen Moons: In his follow-up to Cold Mountain, Frazier takes on the thorny topic of the Indian Removal Act and the beginnings of the Cherokee Nation in the mountains of North Carolina.
4. Allegra Goodman – Intuition: A group of hyper-competitive academics, Harvard Square, mystery and intrigue – what else could I ask for from a good summer novel?
5. Gary Younge – Stranger in a Strange Land: In his latest book of columns on race, politics and culture from The Guardian, Younge proves that he’s that rare British writer who actually gets American society and doesn’t have an immediate revulsion for it.
6. Robert Bulman – Hollywood Goes to High School: Bulman’s sociological study of movies about teachers and schools from Blackboard Jungle to Dangerous Minds immediately convinced me to add features films to the syllabus for a class that I’m teaching in the spring.
7. Bill Bryson – The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: Bryson’s take on growing up in fifties Des Moines was a bit sweet and sentimental for my taste, but there was enough of that caustic Bryson wit and scatalogical jokes to make it a fun read.
8. Mark Haddon – A Spot of Bother: Haddon’s last book was an alternately funny and terrifying look at autism. This time around he tries his hand with a family drama/comedy of the “kitchen sink” variety.
9. Derek Birley – A Social History of English Cricket: Birley’s book puts paid to the the Little Englander mythology about cricket as a gentleman’s game, detailing its roots in gambling and pub culture.
10. Lars Holger Holm – Fawlty Towers – A Companion: A microscopic analysis of the sixteen episode – yes! – series and includes the script for a long-lost, unfilmed final episode. Essential for Cleese fans everywhere.

Other Notables
• Stephen Colbert – I Am America (And So Can You)
• Jonathan Zimmerman – Innocents Abroad
• Phillip Roth - The Plot Against America

Worst Book of the Year
David Horowitz – Indoctrination U.: Horowitz’s latest is a brief response to the critics of his last The Professors. Interestingly, he tries to pretend that his is not a McCarthyite project and that the blacklist of his last book was merely the publisher’s idea. This is a remarkable prevarication as anyone who’s read his last book will know that it would’ve only been about thirty pages long without the blacklist! Still, it’s a book that I’ll need around while I’m finishing my dissertation, if only as grist for the ideological mill.