Well, in looking back over the 98 titles I read and reviewed this year it appears I am a sexist bastard as both the reading list, and my list of favorites is heavily slanted towards male writers. Not sure why this is the case as I tend to concentrate more on spreading the wealth amongst different forms of writing, and different presses, as opposed to paying attention to the sex of the author. I'll have to look at this as I wander into 2007 and determine if I really think it's a problem or not.
Anyway, while I probably had a higher percentage of titles with ratings of 3.5 and lower this year than in most, I also was able to continue to find work that truly spoke to me as a reader, as 39 of the 98 titles received rankings of 4.5 or 5 from me.
Overall, my top ten would go as follows:
1. Shyness & Dignity by Dag Solstad - novel from Graywolf Press
2. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - novel from Knopf
3. All Things, All at Once by Lee K. Abbott - short story collection from Norton
4. Good, Brother by Peter Markus - short story/fictions collection from Calamari Press (reprint)
5. The Singing Fish by Peter Markus - short story/fictions collections from Calamari Press
6. Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell - novel from Little, Brown
7. The End of California by Steve Yarbrough - novel from Knopf
8. Dead Fish Museum by Charles D'Ambrosio - short story collection from Knopf
9. The Open Curtain by Brian Evenson - novel from Coffee House Press
10. Leadbelly by Tyehimba Jess - poetry collection from Verse Books
The reading breakdown this year was as follows:
Novels 35, short story collections 15, poetry collections 14, chapbooks 9, novels translated to English 7, memoirs/non-fiction 5, fictions collections 5, graphic memoirs 2, novellas 2, short story collections translated to English 2, non-fiction translated to English 1, and interview collections 1.
Favorite Novels:
Shyness & Dignity by Dag Solstad - Graywolf Press
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Knopf
Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell - Little, Brown
The End of California by Steve Yarbrough - Knopf
The Open Curtain by Brian Evenson - Coffee House Press
The World Made Straight by Ron Rash - Holt
John Crow's Devil by Marlon James - Akashic Books
The Echo Maker by Richard Powers - FSG
Stalemate by Icchokas Meras - Other Press (reprint)
Bust! by Ken Bruen and Jason Starr - Hard Case Crimes
Favorite Story Collections/Chapbooks/Fictions Collections:
All Things, All at Once by Lee K. Abbott - Norton
Good, Brother by Peter Markus - Calamari Press (reprint)
The Singing Fish by Peter Markus - Calamari Press
Dead Fish Museum by Charles D'Ambrosio - Knopf
The Language of Elk by Benjamin Percy - Carnegie Mellon University Press
Other Electricities by Ander Monson - Sarabande Books
Before You She Was a Pit Bull by Elizabeth Ellen - Future Tense
Michael Martone by Michael Martone - FC2
Following Richard Brautigan by Corey Mesler - Plan B Press
Sideshow by Sidney Thompson - River City Publishing
Favorite Poetry Collections:
Leadbelly by Tyehimba Jess - Verse Books
The Seed Thieves by Robert Fanning - Marick Press
Rose by Li-Young Lee - BOA Editions
For Common Love of Words by Steve Scafidi Jr - LSU Press
Mulberry by Dan Beachy-Quick - Tupelo Press
Not for Specialists by W.D. Snodgrass
Favorite Non-Fiction:
The Reach of a Chef by Michael Ruhlman - Viking
The Flatness and Other Landscapes by Michael Martone - University of Georgia Press
The Things Between Us: A Memoir by Lee B. Montgomery - Free Press
FYI - as the publisher of Corey Mesler's chapbook, Following Richard Brautigan, I would like to say that Plan B Press is the ??? listed after the chapbook, and I hope the blogger can change that. Thanks.
And thank you for picking Corey's work.
best
stevenallenmay
www.planbpress.com
Posted by: stevenallenmay | January 02, 2007 at 10:52 AM
Thank you VERY much. That chapbook is buried away in my basement and when I did the big review earlier in the year I did not note the publisher.
Posted by: Dan Wickett | January 02, 2007 at 11:03 AM