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The Best of the Best, 2007
By
Published: Dec 20, 2007
Category:
Beyond Classification
‘Tis the season when critics around the world serve up their Ten Best lists.
For HeadButler.com, that’s kind of impossible.
The mission of this site is to pick through the dross, the momentarily popular and the seriously over-hyped to identify and recommend the stuff that will last — that is, the best.
So after trying to do just that four times a week, what am I supposed to do now — cherrypick my selections to present you with the cream of the cream?
And what about the notion of time — the best of 2007?
The second mission of this site is not to care when a book, movie and CD was released because, when almost everything ever published, filmed or recorded is available online, what do a dozen arbitrary months matter?
But okay: “The Best” is a game people like to play. And it is fun.
Let’s just play by Butler Rules: the best I encountered this year, regardless of the copyright date.
Feel free to disagree violently — not that you need much encouragement. And if you have a list of your own, feel free to shoot it my way.
BOOKS
Fiction
To My Dearest Friends: Patricia Volk’s novel is short and punchy, with great lines and a plot that completely nails life in Manhattan — and well beyond.
Non-Fiction
Banker to the Poor: Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus offers the first smart, effective way to make a better world, one micro-loan at a time.
Biography
The Wilder Shores of Love: portraits of four women who fled Europe to find love and adventure in North Africa and the Middle East.
Memoir
The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: Bill Bryson can be side-splittingly funny. In this account of his boyhood in Des Moines, he’s also wistful and tender.
Food & Wine
Real Food: Nina Planck has seen the future of food, and it is good — that is, once you stop eating industrial food.
Children
The Adventures of Polo: No words, just pictures. Your child ‘reads’ you the extremely imaginative story.
Travel
Secret Hotels: And not just little-known — affordable.
Self-Help
Improv Wisdom: Patricia Ryan Madson taught drama at Stanford, but this book isn’t really about acting. It’s a brilliant strategy for being present in your life, relaxing — and winning.
Spirituality
When Things Fall Apart: As a woman, Pema Choron had considerable experience of personal pain. Now she’s one of the best-known Buddhist teachers in this country. The two facts are connected.
Poetry
Stanley Kunitz: “He loved the earth so much/he wanted to stay forever.”
MUSIC
New Bands
Arcade Fire: In a wasteland of slacker bands, here are loud, powerful anthems.
Movie Soundtrack
Into the Wild: Eddie Vedder’s quiet songs reverberate in your bone marrow.
Singer-Songwriter
The Historical Conquests: Josh Ritter surprises fans, critics and audiences with an ebullient rock CD.
The Veteran
Kill to Get Crimson: Mark Knopfler once again defines subtlety and wit in songwriting. And is there a more satisfying guitar player?
Duet
Raising Sand: Robert Plant & Alison Krauss make spooky magic.
Comeback
Revival: John Fogerty recaptures the sound of Creedence Clearwater Revival at its best.
Country
Teddy Thompson: One of rock’s most promising singer-songwriters turns his attention to Nashville.
Soul
We’ll Never Turn Back: Mavis Staples revisits the spirit that stirred the ’60s.
World
Andy Palacio & the Garifuna Collective: Their language may be going extinct, but their music will be hummed for decades.
Classical
Beethoven Violin Concerto: Jascha Heifetz’s virtuosity and Beethoven’s genius are beyond “stirring”.
Jazz
Porgy & Bess: Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong bring ladylike reserve and gravelly passion to a classic, and make it their own.
MOVIES
Foreign
After the Wedding: A heart-tugging brain teaser, starring the world’s most handsome actor.
American
McCabe & Mrs. Miller: Robert Altman’s non-Western, with Warren Beatty and Julie Christie in all their glory, and the music of Leonard Cohen.
