Recreation

New Zealand Listener’s best books of 2007

The December 8 2007 issue of the New Zealand Listener has a special feature on the best books, CDs and DVDs of 2007.

Their reviewers’ picks for best books:

Novels

Amalgamation PolkaThe Amalgamation Polka
Stephen Wright
Animals
Keith Ridgway
Arlington Park
Rachel Cusk
The Brief wondrous life of Oscar Wao
Junot Diaz
Consequences
Penelope Lively
Darkmans
Nicola Barker
Death of a murderer
Rupert Thomson
The Delivery RoomThe Delivery Room
Sylvia Brownrigg
Divisadero
Michael Ondaatje
Dreamquake
Elizabeth Knox
Edwin + Matilda
Lawrence Fearnley
Exit Ghost
Philip Roth
Falling Man
Don DeLillo
Imposture
Benjamin Markovits
LiesLies
Enrique de Hertiz
The Lost dog
Michelle de Kretser
Miss me a lot of
Louise Wareham Leonard
The Mistress's daughter
A M Homes
The Night watch
Sarah Waters
On Chesil Beach
Ian McEwan
The Rain before it falls
Jonathon Coe
The Road HomeThe Road home
Rose Tremain
Restless
William Boyd
Run
Ann Patchett
A Thousand splendid suns
Khaled Hosseini
The Totem hole
Paul Shannon
What is the what
Dave Eggers
Your face tomorrow 2: Dance and dream
Javier Marias

Cheating at CanastaShort stories

Cheating at Canasta
William Trevor
Coming up roses
Sarah Laing
Luminous
Alice Tawhai
The Secrets of a fire king
Kim Edwards

Young Adult

Before I die
Jenny Downham
The Transformation of MinnaThe Transformation of Minna Hargreaves
Fleur Beale
Harry Potter and the deathly hallows
J. K. Rowling

Poetry

The Great Modern Poets: An Anthology of the Best Poets and Poetry since 1900
Michael Schmidt
Laughing Mirror
Douglas Wright
The Ponies
Bernadette Hall
Popup book of invasionsThe Pop-up book of invasions
Fiona Farrell
Sol
Andrew Johnston
The Year of Adverbs
Elizabeth Smithers

Essays / Music / Travel

Agamemnon's Kiss: Selected Essays
Inga Clendinnen
The Curtain
Milan Kundera
Dylan Redeemed
Stephen H. Webb
An Elemental thing
Eliot Weinberger
How Life imitates chess
Garry Kasparov
How the Irish invented slang
Daniel Cassidy
How to catchHow to catch a cricket match
Harry Ricketts
How to watch a bird
Steve Braunias
Luca Antara
Martin Edmond
The Paris Review interviews - volume 1
introduced by Philip Gourevitch
Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette wore to the Revolution
Caroline Weber
Searching for Schindler
Tom Keneally
Soundtrack: 118 Great New Zealand albums
Grant Smithies
Travels with Herodotus
Ryszard Kapuscinski

Dark journeyHistory

Dark Journey: Three key New Zealand battles of the Western Front
Glyn Harper
The Lost - A Search for six of six million
Daniel Mendelsohn
Shakespeare's Wife
Germaine Greer

Politics / Journalism

Globalisation and the wealth of nations
Brian Easton
Imperial life in the Emerald City
Rajiv Chandrasekaran
In EuropeIn Europe: Travels throught the Twentieth Century
Geert Mak
In the blood - A memoir of my childhood
Andrew Motion
Londonistan: How Britain is creating a terror state within
Melanie Phillips
No left turn
Chris Trotter

Memoirs / Letters

Peeling the onion
Gunther Grass
Tennessee WilliamsNotebooks by Tennessee Williams
edited by Margaret Bradham Thornton
The Letters of Martha Gellhorn
selected and edited by Caroline Moorehead
When a crocodile eats the sun
Peter Godwin

Biography

The Best man who ever served the Crown? - A Life of Donald McLean
Ray Fargher
Daughter of the desert
Georgina Howell
The Sixth man
James MacNeish
Young StalinYoung Stalin
Simon Sebag Montefiore

Science

The Never-ending days of being dead
Marcus Chown
The Transit of Venus
published by Awa Press
Unstrange minds: Remapping the world of autism
Roy Richard Grinker

Cookbooks

Chocolate and Zucchini
Clotilde Dusoulier
Jamie at home
Jamie Oliver