Okay, it seems to be time to start a "best of 2007" list. IF PW did it and Linda is getting ready for January to do it I guess it's time to get started.

I can't tell if it is my mood or just reality but I cannot find enough titles for a useful list for either best mysteries or best first. A few years back, I had seven. I did better last year.

To get started, I went over to the "Deadly Pleasures"website and looked at their lists. Of the books they listed that I'd read, for the most part,here is my reaction. Blech. OF THE FEW I"D READ, or even tried. Many many were new to me, i mean we're talking total bafflement. I could not possibly list Chabon's YIDDISH POLICEMAN'S UNION as a best of. it was interesting, but not great by any definition I use. (Stu liked it a fair amount and we'd both been anticipating it a lot.) Lots of Brits over at DP, but I haven't seen many British mysteries this year. There were a number of disappointments among those I thought/hoped would<\i> make my list. And I don't think I read ONE of the "first mysteries" on the DP list.

As of this second, there are two books. I knew immediately after reading them they'd be on the "best of 2007" list/ Those two are Laura Lippman's WHAT THE DEAD KNOW and Barbara Seranella's DEADMAN'S SWITCH. These lists, by the way, only list books published in the year 2007.

Looking at my reviews for 2007, a list that is way shorter than I had hoped, I think I probably need to add HEART SHAPED BOX by Joe Hill, except it's not a mystery, so maybe it'll be on my sf/fantasy "best of" list which would then make that<\i> list 2 books long. Maybe. I have 3 books that I reviewed and thought really good, but I don't know if they're "best of" material. I mean it's hard when there is so much you don't read, can't be bothered with. I'd feel better if I'd read more but I'm still getting far too much epic-fantasy-sixth-in-the-trilogy doorstops.

So I'll keep checking.

How 'bout you? Read any good books this year? Help?