In a world where the Goldman family is now making money (and taking writing credit for) O.J. Simpson’s tasteless IF I DID IT book, and where the Kindle and the iPhone have made the media act like giddy schoolgirls, we at least have the solidity of BOOKGASM, presenting good (and bad) books for us to read on a daily basis. So let’s take a look back through 2007 and pick out the best of the titles you may want to pick up with all the gift cards you got this season.

Best Books I Reviewed in 2007
So what piqued my interest in 2007? We’ll start with the fabulous debut of Lisa Unger in BEAUTIFUL LIES. Truly remarkable were her entirely believable characters, who actually behaved like normal folk when dealing with the police instead of the intensely idiotic morons we are normally used to reading about. It was also highly evocative of New York City – not just using the city as a crutch, but really writing about it.

MEMORY AND DREAM by Charles De Lint is actually from 1994, but I reviewed a 2007 reprint of this disturbing contemporary fantasy about artists who can create beings from what they paint on canvas. The moral and social responsibilities they inherit by creating these creatures is soul-wrenching for everyone – characters and readers alike – and the book stays with you long after it’s read.

My big find of the year was Mark Lindquist’s THE KING OF METHLEHEM. Lindquist, an actual chief of a drug unit trial team in Tacoma, knows the meth culture inside and out. His tale concerns a detective on the trail of the King of Methlehem, otherwise known as Howard, and the trials and tribulations of tracking him down. Funny, smart, and horrible all at the same time, this is super-realistic fiction, and a book I’ve convinced at least four other people to read. Join the club.

Cherie Priest’s reluctant ghost-hunting detective Eden Moore has really grown on me, first with WINGS TO THE KINGDOM and now with NOT FLESH NOR FEATHERS. Her Southern Gothic style is perfect for the spooky atmosphere she creates, and the books have a lot of humor in them. These aren’t gory horrorfests, but they are wonderfully written and fun to read.

A big surprise to me was Karen Miller’s THE INNOCENT MAGE. My point in the initial review was that after 640 pages, I actually thought “Damn, I wish I had the second book in the series to start.” She takes pretty standard fantasy set pieces (rude country boy meets sophisticated prince and they hit it off) and thoroughly develops them so you care about the characters and the world they inhabit. It’s the best fantasy novel I read this year.

Stef Penney’s THE TENDERNESS OF WOLVES was another excellent work, set in the far Canadian North in the year 1860. In a riveting mystery, she also managed to explore mixed race and homoerotic relationships with a delicate touch of subtlety and grace. Not easy to do. But the book isn’t obsessed with these themes, and that makes it even better. Penney is an absolute master of characterization and this is only her debut novel. Much more can be expected in the future.

Best Books I Read – but Did Not Review – in 2007
Published in 2005, Nick Jans’ THE GRIZZLY MAZE is an account of grizzly bear lover and pseudo-educator Timothy Treadwell, and how he and his girlfriend eventually were attacked and eaten by bears in Alaska’s Katmai National Park. I read this after seeing Werner Herzog’s brilliant documentary GRIZZLY MAN, and recommend you do the same. Jans will add a lot of detail and context to what you see in the movie, and also helps you to understand just how freaking brilliant a filmmaker Herzog is. (Speaking of which, do yourself a favor and rent his and Zak Penn’s mockumentary INCIDENT AT LOCH NESS, which is knock-dead hilarious.)

If you love old-time country music, you will definitely want to read HOW NASHVILLE BECAME MUSIC CITY, U.S.A.: 50 YEARS OF MUSIC ROW by Michael Kosser, published in 2006. This is a phenomenal look at Nashville recording studios and the history of country music in the city. The subject is so broad that no book could be comprehensive, but Kosser does a good job just by interviewing people who were instrumental in putting Nashville on the map. He doesn’t talk to everyone and some big stars get a little bit of short shrift (such as Johnny Cash). But because Kosser isn’t writing about the celebrities, he’s really writing about the studios and record labels, how they got started, how they survived, how they grew from the honky-tonk days of the ‘40s through the Garth Brooks overexposure of the ‘80s, to the Gretchen Wilson and Toby Keiths of the ‘90s. Lots of great anecdotes and loving commentary and unusual facts, this is a really fun book.

Best Publishing Development
Night Shade Books out of San Francisco has a lovely off-kilter focus on its fiction line that’s hard to pin down, but worthwhile because it’s different, from the romantic tone of Nathalie Mallet’s THE PRINCES OF THE GOLDEN CAGE to the urban madness of Richard Kadrey’s BUTCHER BIRD to the tremendous detective noir/fantasy cross of Alex Bledsoe’s THE SWORD-EDGED BLONDE.

Oooo, oooo, I also have to put a plug in for the Online Books Page, which lists thousands and thousands of free books available on the Internet. I love checking out their daily updates and wishing I had time to read some of the truly obscure titles out there.

Worst Publishing Development
Dammit! Still no new books from D.B. Weiss or Antoine Bello (both of whom haven’t been heard from in four years) and Nicholson Baker’s newest book doesn’t come out until March 2008.

Disappointments
Alberto Manguel’s A READING DIARY (published in 2004) was way too self-obsessed and trivial to be interesting. I was also saddened by Don Rickles’ RICKLES’ BOOK and Bob Newhart’s I SHOULDN’T EVEN BE DOING THIS! AND OTHER THINGS THAT STRIKE ME AS FUNNY, because neither title really got off the ground or shared enough information about the writers. Newhart’s book is funnier (and it’s interesting to note that it was his wife who came up with the idea for the classic ending of the final NEWHART sitcom), but Rickles’ book has a picture of him dressed as C.P.O. Sharkey.

Naomi Novik’s HIS MAJESTY’S DRAGON made me cry and introduced me to the wonderful dragon lore of the Temeraire series. The most recent book I reviewed of hers was EMPIRE OF IVORY and it was a little disappointing with an ending that went over the top. Maybe the approaching invasion of Napoleon will jazz up the series once more.

My nastiest review of the year was plopped on Christian Jungersen’s THE EXCEPTION, a European best-seller that was a big turd of overinflated self-regard, nanny statism, and moral relativism. Plus, you get boring interludes of articles on genocide and symbolism so blatant, I thought at first it was parodic. Yeesh.

And that’s about it. I hope all of the readers have a healthy 2008 with lots of time to read lots of books. Until then … –Mark Rose

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