Best Books – 2007
Best Books of 2007
Other Years: 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019
The following are the best books of 2007, as determined by book review trade magazines, national newspapers, and popular arts and culture publications. The Top 20 listed below was compiled by tallying the number of Best Books of the Year lists and major award shortlists that included each book (we only counted lists of 30 or less titles in order to ensure selectivity). The parentheses following each book indicate the total number of lists on which the book was included.
Top 20
1. Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson (16)
2. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (15)
3. Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA by Tim Weiner (12)
3. The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century by Alex Ross (12)
3. The Savage Detectives by Mary Robert Bolano (12)
6. Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris (11)
7. The Yiddish Policeman’s Union by Michael Chabon (10)
8. A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah (9)
8. Schulz and Peanuts by David Michaelis (9)
10. Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo (8)
10. Brother, I’m Dying by Edwidge Danticat (8)
10. The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court by Jeffrey Toobin (8)
10. The World Without Us by Alan Weisman (8)
14. Falling Man by Don DeLillo (7)
14. On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan (7)
14. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (7)
17. The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War by David Halberstam (6)
17. The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944 by Rick Atkinson (6)
17. Exit Ghost by Philip Roth (6)
17. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling (6)
17. What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman (6)
Other books on five or more lists:
Away by Amy Bloom (5), Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson (5), Fieldwork by Mischa Berlinski (5), God is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens (5), Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson (5), Ralph Ellison by Arnold Rampersad (5), The Shadow Catcher by Marianne Wiggins (5), Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal by Ben Macintyre (4), Call Me By Your Name by Andre Aciman (4), The Discovery of France: A Historical Geography by Graham Robb (4), Edith Wharton by Hermione Lee (4), The Gathering by Anne Enright (4), A Life of Picasso: The Triumphant Years, 1917-1932 by John Richardon (4), Like You’d Understand, Anyway by Jim Shephard (4), The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (4), No one belongs here more than you. by Miranda July (4), The Zookeeper’s Wife: A War Story by Diane Ackerman (4)
