3 Favorite Books of 2007 - Part 10

Read this post to see what this is all about. For more favorites, see here.

Eric Van Lustbader, author of The Bourne Betrayal

• Neal Stephenson - Cryptonomicon. Simply staggering, unclassifiable, gonzo fiction on the grandest scale. The very best part is that it never falters or falls apart from first page to last.
• David Mitchell - Cloud Atlas. Yes, folks, science fiction can be literate and exciting. A breath of fresh air. The best novel Mitchell's written, by far.
• Elizabeth Gilbert - Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia. Despite a flawed middle section, a transcendent, incandescent experience. Both life-affirming and life-altering.

Philip Hawley, Jr., author of Stigma

• Miguel de Cervantes - Don Quixote. Okay, so I’m 400 years behind in my reading.
• G.K. Chesterton - St. Thomas Aquinas. Filled with humor and wisdom.
• Ross Thomas - Missionary Stew. He makes it look so easy.

Clea Simon, author of Cries and Whiskers and reviewer for the Boston Globe and San Francisco Chronicle

• Ariana Franklin - Mistress of the Art of Death. Because I do love my historicals, and Franklin has created an intriguing heroine in Dr. Vesuvia Adelia Rachel Ortest Aguilar, a 12th Century proto-coroner, without too many noticeable anachronisms. Made me go back and read her City of Shadows too.
• Colin Cotterill - Anarchy and Old Dogs. Although I actually thought this was the weakest of the series, taking Dr. Siri too far afield from his Vientiane morgue, I still love spending time with these characters. Grim humor, politics, history, and a touch of the paranormal and somehow it all works. Bring on book #5!
• James Lee Burke - The Tin Roof Blowdown. Again, a flawed book. I suspect Burke lost interest in the central crime because of the greater devastation surrounding Hurricane Katrina. But a haunting read, perhaps the best book on Katrina and the tragedy of New Orleans since Chris Rose's nonfiction memoir 1 Dead in Attic.

Nick Stone, author of Mr. Clarinet

• Edwidge Danticat - Brother, I'm Dying
• David Peace - Tokyo Year Zero
• Cathi Unsworth - The Singer

James Sallis, author of Salt River

• George R. Stewart - Earth Abides. A reread, and one of my favorite novels of all time.
• Judith Freeman - The Long Embrace: Raymond Chandler and the Woman He Loved
• James Lee Burke - The Tin Roof Blowdown. Breaking our hearts with its portraits of New Orleans during and after Katrina.
  (tied with)
• Luis Ortiz - Emshwiller: Infinity x Two. A study of artist, filmmaker and science fiction illustrator Ed Emshwiller.