My favorite books of 2007

Here are some of the books I enjoyed most this year, in no particular order:

1. Wicked by Gregory Maguire.
   
2. The Boleyn Inheritance by Phillipa Gregory
3. The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

Also enjoyed, but in a more qualified way:

1. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. An exploration of many kinds of social boundaries, told from the point of view of the ultimate fence-straddler -- a genetic hermaphrodite.
   
2. The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl. It is similar in flavor to The Alienist. It concerns a psychopath who is systematically inflicting the tortures of each circle of Dante's Inferno on targets that have personally offended him. Several distinguished poets and writers in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "Dante Club" are the only experts who know enough about Dante to recognize and anticipate the pattern, to catch him. I loved most of this story and except for the fizzle out ending, it would have made it to my first list.
3. Harry Potter 7. An enjoyable page turner, as always, but longer and more rambling than necessary (again, as usual). And I found the ending a bit too kiddie
4. The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory. A fictionalization of the life of Catherine of Aragon. Gives historical perspective, in an entertaining way, as usual.
   
5. The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh. A very interesting story about the marginal existence of people living on the remote Sundurban Islands of India. Writing quality varies considerably, and there is a fairly high proportion of melodrama, which brings the book down to my second tier list, but I do recommend it.
6. Shalimar the Clown by Salman Rushdie
   

I highly recommend that you stay away from:

1. The Darwin Conspiracy by John Darnton
2. The Poe Shadow by Matthew Pearl -- this was a big disappointment considering how much I liked The Dante Club.
3. Fury by Salman Rushdie