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Year consensus · 2007

The Most Recommended Books of 2007

We counted 2,575 entries from 101 sources in 2007. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz appeared on 12, 1 more than any other book.

A source counts once per book, whatever the result: a win, a shortlist place, or a list pick. We show books named by 3 or more sources. 2007 is the award or list year, not the publication year.

12 sources

  1. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

11 sources

  1. Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA by Tim Weiner

10 sources

  1. The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon

9 sources

  1. Brother, I'm Dying by Edwidge Danticat

  2. The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century by Alex Ross

  3. The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano

  4. Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson

8 sources

  1. Edith Wharton by Hermione Lee

  2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling

  3. On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan

  4. The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

7 sources

  1. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah

  2. Falling Man by Don DeLillo

  3. Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson

  4. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

  5. The Gathering by Anne Enright

  6. Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris

6 sources

  1. Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis

  2. Schulz and Peanuts by David Michaelis

  3. The Arrival by Shaun Tan

  4. The Nine by Jeffrey Toobin

  5. The Shadow Catcher by Marianne Wiggins

  6. Thomas Hardy by Claire Tomalin

5 sources

  1. Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo

  2. Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje

  3. Fieldwork by Mischa Berlinski

  4. Like You’d Understand, Anyway: Stories by Jim Shepard

  5. Ralph Ellison by Arnold Rampersad

  6. The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War by David Halberstam

  7. The Day of Battle by Rick Atkinson

  8. The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

  9. The Life Of Picasso: The Triumphant Years, 1917-1932 by John Richardson

  10. The Terror by Dan Simmons

  11. The Wall: Growing Up behind the Iron Curtain by Peter Sís

  12. The World Without Us by Alan Weisman

  13. Time and Materials by Robert Hass

4 sources

  1. A Field of Darkness by Cornelia Read

  2. A Good Day by Kevin Henkes

  3. A Swift Pure Cry by Siobhan Dowd

  4. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

  5. Agent Zigzag by Ben Macintyre

  6. American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic by Joseph J. Ellis

  7. Before I Die by Jenny Downham

  8. Call Me by Your Name by André Aciman

  9. Cheating at Canasta by William Trevor

  10. Exit Ghost by Philip Roth

  11. Glasshouse by Charles Stross

  12. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

  13. King of Lies by John Hart

  14. Orange Pear Apple Bear by Emily Gravett

  15. Red Spikes by Margo Lanagan

  16. Slam by Nick Hornby

  17. Stanley: The Impossible Life of Africa's Greatest Explorer by Tim Jeal

  18. Tamar by Mal Peet

  19. The Assassin’s Song by M.G. Vassanji

  20. The Maytrees by Annie Dillard

  21. The Ministry of Special Cases by Nathan Englander

  22. The New Policeman by Kate Thompson

  23. The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story by Diane Ackerman

  24. Two Lives: Gertrude and Alice by Janet Malcolm

  25. What They Found: Love on 145th Street by Walter Dean Myers

3 sources

  1. 47 Rules of Highly Effective Bank Robbers by Troy Cook

  2. A Darkling Plain (The Hungry City Chronicles) by Philip Reeve

  3. A Free Life by Ha Jin

  4. Alexis de Tocqueville: Prophet of Democracy in the Age of Revolution by Hugh Brogan

  5. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, Steven L. Hopp and Camille Kingsolver

  6. Arsenals of Folly by Richard Rhodes

  7. At Night by Jonathan Bean

  8. Away by Amy Bloom

  9. Be Near Me by Andrew O’Hagan

  10. Blindsight by Peter Watts

  11. Carnival by Elizabeth Bear

  12. Cultural Amnesia: Necessary Memories from History and the Arts by Clive James

  13. Dog and Bear: Two Friends, Three Stories by Laura Vaccaro Seeger

  14. Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson

  15. Farthing by Jo Walton

  16. Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq by Thomas E. Ricks

  17. Finn by Jon Clinch

  18. God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens

  19. Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill

  20. Helpless by Barbara Gowdy

  21. Holmes on the Range by Steve Hockensmith

  22. How Doctors Think by Jerome Groopman

  23. How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now by James L. Kugel

  24. Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone by Rajiv Chandrasekaran

  25. In The Country of Men by Hisham Matar

  26. Inferno by Ellen Datlow

  27. Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity by Mo Willems

  28. Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O’Nan

  29. Leaves by David Ezra Stein

  30. Lost City Radio by Daniel Alarcon

  31. Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones

  32. Mistik Lake by Martha Brooks

  33. Mothers and Sons by Colm Tóibín

  34. Mr. Clarinet by Nick Stone

  35. Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks

  36. Nova Swing by M. John Harrison

  37. Pictures from Our Vacation by Lynne Rae Perkins

  38. Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge

  39. Red Moon at Sharpsburg by Rosemary Wells

  40. Remainder by Tom McCarthy

  41. Run by Ann Patchett

  42. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

  43. Shortcomings by Adrian Tomine

  44. Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You by Peter Cameron

  45. Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood by Ibtisam Barakat

  46. The Apple Pie That Papa Baked by Lauren Thompson

  47. The Art of Political Murder by Francisco Goldman

  48. The Atomic Bazaar: The Rise of the Nuclear Poor by William Langewiesche

  49. The Beautiful Cigar Girl by Daniel Stashower

  50. The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengestu

  51. The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill

  52. The Braindead Megaphone by George Saunders

  53. The Chicken-Chasing Queen of Lamar County by Janice N. Harrington

  54. The Dead Hour by Denise Mina

  55. The Discovery of France: A Historical Biography from the Revolution to the First World War by Graham Robb

  56. The Faithful Spy by Alex Berenson

  57. The Gravedigger's Daughter by Joyce Carol Oates

  58. The House That George Built by Wilfrid Sheed

  59. The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch

  60. The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright

  61. The Night Watch by Sarah Waters

  62. The Privilege of the Sword by Ellen Kushner

  63. The Unknown Terrorist by Richard Flanagan

  64. The Virgin of Small Plains by Nancy Pickard

  65. The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt

  66. The White Darkness by Geraldine McCaughrean

  67. The Wild Trees: A Story of Passion and Daring by Richard Preston

  68. Twenty Grand: And Other Tales of Love and Money by Rebecca Curtis

  69. Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution by Woody Holton

  70. Varieties of Disturbance: Stories by Lydia Davis

  71. What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman

  72. What Was Lost by Catherine O'Flynn

  73. Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett

  74. Young Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore

  75. Zeroville by Steve Erickson

Sources counted in 2007