The year that was: Part I

Another year has come and gone and now, as is my way, I will tell you what the best stuff from that year was. So as not to inflict too much damage on you at once (and knowing if I make too long a post, no one will read it) I'll be splitting it up this year. First up is my true love, books.



The best book of last year, as far as I'm concerned, was The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon. It's easy to see why Chabon has previously won the Pulitzer (in '01) and it will be no surprise if this book wins awards of its own. The writing is colorful and full of life and every time you read one of his similes or metaphors you know he is taking pleasure in his own prodigious talents. How could he not? It was fairly common to come across a turn of phrase and have to pause for a moment to let it sink in to fully appreciate it.

Damn he's good.

What's it about, you ask? What the hell does it matter? Go buy it.

A small list of other worthies:

The Terror by Dan Simmons

Has Simmons ever failed to deliver? Let me think...no. Not once. He just has different levels of greatness and this is on the high end. He once again proves that he knows literature down in his marrow and can make words dance with a snap of his fingers. How is it that there are still people that don't buy every book he writes the instant it comes out?

Boomsday by Christopher Buckley

Like A Modest Proposal for the 21st century. I've been a fan of Buckley's for some time and he hits the mark with this. Definitely worth your time.

The Best Of Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet

Lady Churchill's is a zine that comes out quarterly and is full of the yummiest of stories. This is the first collection of the best of those and considering the high standard that they have, they damn well mean it when they say best of. Editors Kelly Link and Gavin Grant, who also publish the zine and choose the fantasy stories for The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror know a thing or seven about stories. Easily the best collection of the year.

We also lost a few writers in '07. They will be sorely missed.

Rest in peace.

Kurt Vonnegut
Robert Anton Wilson
Norman Mailer
Ira Levin

You can't discuss books and '07 without mentioning J. K. Rowling (Seriously, you can't. It's a law now.) For those that may be sick of hearing about her and/or her boy wizard I will say only this, 51% of children that read her did not read for pleasure before her but had begun to do so after her. God bless anyone that can do that.

Brian Lumley and Terry Brooks both released a book in '07 thereby causing the level of suck in the world to increase by quite a lot. Thanks a lot, fuckers!

This year's What The Fuck Award goes to Warren Ellis for Crooked Little Vein. Wonderfully sick, deliciously perverted and truly weird in that special Ellis way. Congratulations, Warren!

See, that wasn't so bad was it? I know good and well that by the middle of next year I'll have worked my way down the to read pile to discover a bunch of stuff that could have been included here. That's the way it goes and it drives me nuts. Not enough hours in the day, I swear. You have some homework now so get crackin'.