2007 books

Last January, I put a list up of the books I read the previous year. I said I wanted to read more non-fiction this year, and I did. I thought I'd read less this year, but ended up getting to read more, partly because I've been on an extended trip to the States since August!

So, without further ado (and mostly for my own benefit, not intending to brag), here is the list of books I read in 2007. I put a star by the ones I recommend.

Non-fiction:

*Reading Lolita in Tehran – Azar Nafisi
(a teacher and her students in Iran)
*River Town – Peter Hessler
(an American teacher’s life in China)
*Wild Swans – Jung Chang
(a Chinese family’s history)
*For the Time Being – Annie Dillard
(her quirky but genius observations on life)
*Same Kind of Different As Me – Ron Hall and Denver Moore
(a homeless man and art dealer’s lives intersect)
Killing Fields Living Fields – Don Cormack
(a missionary’s story of Cambodia, before and after the Khmer Rouge – sometimes dry, but great to understand more of the country)

Spiritual Non-Fiction:

*Clowning in Rome- Henri Nouwen
The One Necessary Thing – Henri Nouwen
The Korean Pentecost and the Sufferings Which Followed– William Newton Blair and Bruce F Hunt
For a Testimony – Bruce F Hunt
Deep Impressions - Susan
One Thing – Sam Storms
Through Painted Deserts – Donald Miller
Christian Beliefs – Wayne Grudem
*Knowing God – J.I. Packer
In The Presence of My Enemies – Gracia Burnham
*Eat This Book – Eugene Peterson
*Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret – Howard and Geraldine Taylor
*Red Moon Rising – Pete Greig and Dave Roberts
*Soul Keeping – Howard Baker

Fiction:

The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
(the prosperity and materialism of the Jazz Age)
Ahab’s Wife – Sena Jeter Naslund
(the wife of Captain Ahab, who was briefly mentioned in Moby Dick)
가방 드러주는 아이 – 고정욱
(a longish children’s book; my first real book to read in Korean)
To Swim Across the World – Frances Park and Ginger Park
(based on the lives of the authors’ parents)
*Mutant Message Down Under – Marlo Morgan
(based on the author’s experience with the aborigines of Australia - amazing)
*Life of Pi – Yann Martel
(a zookeeper’s son alone with a tiger in the ocean)
A Map of the World – Jane Hamilton
(a mother is accused of murder and abuse in a small Midwestern town)
The Red Badge of Courage – Stephen Crane
(a young soldier in the Civil War)
Gathering Blue – Lois Lowry
(a young adult novel set in the future, the same author as The Giver)
*A Thousand Splendid Suns – Khaled Hosseini
(a story of family relationships in Afghanistan over three generations)