Camille Alexa -- Best Literature Picks of 2007

Some of us are afflicted/blessed with wanderlust. I've wandered through this city and that one; through one cacophonous wardrobe and another. My reading habits are similar. There's no rectilinear, no chronological method to what found its way into my hands, into my brain, in 2007. One or two of my favorite reads last year came fresh off the presses, while others were written before I was born.

Several months ago, I mentioned here at GMR that one of my favorite reviewed reads of 2007 had been The Best of Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet. Other favorites specifically reviewed or mentioned at The Green Man include the intriguing, difficult to forget dark fantasy action story Maledicte and the incredible, tragic, hilarious Feed by M.T. Anderson. I can't recommend M.T. Anderson's fiction highly enough. Those who've not read his award-winning The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Vol. 1: The Pox Party should rectify the situation forthwith. It's nothing short of astounding.

Juliet Marillier enchanted me with her beautifully-rendered alterno-historical fantasy duology, Wolfskin and Foxmask [. As mentioned above, some of these fantastic reads were released in 2007, some earlier. All were new to me. A friend introduced me to one of my absolute favorites of the year: I Capture the Castleby Dodie Smith, first published in 1948.

Three things I began reading at the end of 2007 bled into 2008, and would definitely make a current list of favorites: a fascinating experimental literary print zine edited by authors Doug Lain and M.K. Hobson, called Diet Soap[http://www.dietsoap.org/, with quality works by the likes of Tim Pratt. I also fell in love all over again with Jessica Reisman's lyrical literary sci-fi novel The Z Radiant, and fell in love anew with Steven Ultey's collection of short stories, The Beasts of Love, out on Wheatland Press. Only the excellence of these last few allow me to sneak them on to the tail end of a list of 2007 favorites. I'm setting the bar high, 2008! You have been warned.