25 Books to Remember from 2007

Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal
Macintyre, Ben | Harmony Books, © 2007 | 940.5486 M
In a tale more compelling than a Hollywood production, Macintyre delivers the unlikely story of Eddie Chapman, a double agent during World War II.
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Be Near Me
O'Hagan, Andrew | Harcourt, © 2007 | FIC O
An uneasy relationship between a Catholic priest and two teenagers ignites the suspicions of a tightly knit Scottish community.
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The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Díaz, Junot | Riverhead Books, © 2007 | FIC D
In the gritty streets of both New Jersey and the Dominican Republic, a sci-fi fan seeks love and acceptance while trying to escape what he believes is a family curse.
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by George: A Novel
Stace, Wesley | ; Little, Brown and Co., © 2007 | FIC S
Despite his eccentric family’s intractable silence about the past, young George Fisher finds his voice in a warmly imagined coming-of-age tale.
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Cheating at Canasta
Trevor, William | Viking, © 2007 | FIC T
Throughout a dozen stories of triumph and tragedy, Trevor masterfully reveals the extraordinary within the everyday.
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Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis
Harcourt, © 2007 | B Merian T
This arresting portrayal of an early German naturalist traces her life’s work discovering and documenting the hitherto-unknown wonders of insect metamorphosis.
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The Dirt on Clean: An Unsanitized History
Ashenburg, Katherine | North Point Press, © 2007 | 391.64 A
Ashenburg provides a fascinating study of the history of personal cleanliness in the Western world, abounding in enlightening anecdotes and charming illustrations.
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The Door: Poems
Atwood, Margaret | Houghton Mifflin, © 2007 | 811 Atwood
Themes ranging from the weather to mortality are examined in this impressive collection of lucid poems.
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Edith Wharton
Lee, Hermione | Knopf, © 2007 | B Wharton L
Through meticulous research, Lee paints a brilliant and uncompromising portrait of the secretive author.
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Empire of Blue Water: Captain Morgan's Great Pirate Army, the Epic Battle for the Americas, and the Catastrophe That Ended the Outlaws' Bloody Reign
Talty, Stephan | Crown, © 2007 | 972.904 T
This story of a buccaneer’s attacks on Spanish colonies in the New World is an adventure that reveals the dangerous realities of the golden age of piracy.
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Grammar Lessons: Translating a Life in Spain
Morano, Michele | University of Iowa Press, © 2007 | 946 M
Inspired by her time spent living and teaching in Spain, Morano’s intimately personal essays explore the ways in which language shapes experience.
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Heyday: A Novel
Andersen, Kurt | Random House, © 2007 | FIC A
Brimming with period details and satisfying coinci-dences, this picaresque novel follows an unlikely group of friends on a journey from New York City to San Francisco in 1848.
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Hotel de Dream: A New York Novel
White, Edmund | Ecco, © 2007 | FIC W
In this illusory meditation on love and art, a dying Stephen Crane dictates a tragic, scandalous novel about a young male prostitute.
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The Indian Clerk: A Novel
Leavitt, David | Bloomsbury USA, © 2007 | FIC L
A renowned English mathematician reconsiders ideas about himself and his country when he meets a civil servant from India who is a genius of equal stature.
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Last Night at the Lobster
O'Nan, Stewart | Viking, © 2007 | FIC O
With a blizzard raging outside, Manny DeLeon and his staff endure the bittersweet last day of a Red Lobster restaurant fallen on hard times.
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Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name
Vida, Vendela | Ecco, © 2007 | FIC V
In succinct and beautiful prose, Vida tells the story of a woman who searches for the truth about her past and discovers more than she expects.
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The Man Suit
Schomburg, Zachary | Black Ocean | 811 Schomburg
Schomburg launches his first full-length collection of poetry, combining levity and gravity for darkly comic effect.
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Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present
Washington, Harriet A. | Doubleday, © 2007 | 174.28 W
Myriad examples of shocking abuses committed in the name of science are adeptly examined by journalist and bioethicist Washington.
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Oscar Micheaux: the Great and Only: The Life of America's First Black Filmmaker
McGilligan, Patrick | HarperCollins, © 2007 | B Micheaux M
This illuminating biography depicts the little-known history of the early 20th-century homesteader, author, and maverick.
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Out Stealing Horses
Petterson, Per | Graywolf Press, © 2007 | FIC P
With poignant parallels between past and present, an elderly man recalls the formative summer of his childhood.
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The Pesthouse
Crace, Jim | Nan A. Talese, © 2007 | FIC C
Thrown together by chance, a pair of travelers come to rely on one another as they make their way across a ruined future America in hopes of a better life overseas.
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Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography
Michaelis, David | HarperCollins, © 2007 | B Schulz
Michaelis’s biography offers an insightful interpretation of the life of Charles Schulz, creator of Peanuts, the iconic American comic strip.
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A Slave No More: Two Men Who Escaped to Freedom, Including Their Own Narratives of Emancipation
Blight, David W. | Harcourt, © 2007 | 973.7115 B
These powerfully moving writings open a unique window into slave society and the complex struggles of life after escape.
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Time and Materials: Poems 1997-2005
Hass, Robert | Ecco, © 2007 | 811 Hass
In this new collection, America’s former Poet Laureate contemplates the uncertainties of contemporary life while taking solace in the unchanging truths of nature.
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Tree of Smoke
Johnson, Denis | Farrar, Straus and Giroux, © 2007 | FIC J
The early days of the Vietnam War are experienced by American CIA agents in a novel in which thoughts are rendered with the same visceral intensity as actions.
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Books to Remember is an annual list of 25 titles chosen for their ability to provide an informative or transformative reading experience for adults. Selection criteria include literary excellence, uniqueness of concept and command of subject matter.

These books were selected by the following committee from the staff of The New York Public Library: Matthew Baiotto, Tracy Crawford (Chair), Abigail Dreyer, Sarah Jewell, Billy Parrott, Jessica Pigza, Lisa Piraino, Joseph Vissers, with Adele Bellinger, Advisor.

Selected titles appearing on this booklist may be available in recorded, braille or large print versions. For more information, please contact the Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library, 40 West 20th Street, New York NY 10011-4211, (212) 206-5400, (212) 206-5458 (TTY). The New York Public Library Office of Adult and Information Services 455 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10016-0122