The challenge: Consider the books you read this year and name your favorites.

The participants: Contemporary authors you know and love.

The rules were simple: List as many books as you'd like. Books could be for any age group, from any genre, and published in any year. (In other words, they weren't limited to books published in 2007.)

Just wait until you see who's read what!

Monday, December 10th: Christopher Golden
Tuesday, December 11th: Sarah Miller
Wednesday, December 12th: Lorie Ann Grover
Wednesday, December 12th: Dia Calhoun
Thursday, December 13th: Robin Brande
Friday, December 14th: Sara Holmes

Monday, December 17th: Tracie Vaughn Zimmer
Tuesday, December 18th: Deb Caletti
Wednesday, December 19th: Tom Sniegoski
Thursday, December 20th: Kerry Madden
Friday, December 21st: Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Monday, December 24th: Justina Chen Headley
Monday, December 24th: Tara Altebrando
Tuesday, December 25th: Rachel Cohn
Wednesday, December 26th: E. Lockhart
Wednesday, December 26th: Caridad Ferrer
Thursday, December 27th: Laurie Stolarz
Friday, December 28th: Micol Ostow

Monday, December 31st: Elizabeth Scott
Monday, December 31st: Laura Wiess
Monday, December 31st: Laura Bowers
Monday, December 31st: Kristen Tracy

Many thanks to all of the participants!

Further reading: Colleen at Chasing Ray is also posting end-of-the-year booklists under the tag Recommendations From Many Bookish Folks.

Kristen Tracy also snuck in to list her favorite 2007 reads. Now I'll let her have the floor:

Rather than a comprehensive list, I picked the five most fabulous books that I read last year. Also, I'm going to explain why I found them so fabulous.

I LOVED Margot Rabb's CURES FOR HEARTBREAK. I thought it was basically a perfect book: charming, poignant, honest, funny, and the language had real integrity. Loved it!

I really liked Erin Vincent's GRIEF GIRL too. It was a sincere book, and I admired the way it confronted sudden loss. It didn't flinch. I thought it was raw and bold.

I read Jennifer Egan for the first time and I was glad that I found her. Her book THE INVISIBLE CIRCUS was incredibly interesting, and I was 100% hooked on it right until the end. The language was fabulous.

In 2005, one of my former students insisted that I read Beth Lisick's book EVERYBODY INTO THE POOL. It took me a year, but I finally got to it. It was the best! It was hilarious and enlightening and her storytelling seemed anchored by a certain wacky soberness that I found utterly compelling. At some point in my life, I hope, hope, hope to be seated next to her at a dinner party.

Okay. I said only five, and now I feel like a big liar-face, because I'm going to close with two authors, and taken together they exceed one book. Last year, I read every book Sherman Alexie ever wrote (poems and prose). He is an amazing writer and I have complete admiration for his stuff. Also, I read Libba Bray's A GREAT AND TERRIBLE BEAUTY and REBEL ANGELS and I thought they were both smashing and fearless. Lots of texture. Lovely writing. And I admire the work's historical scope.

There are a slew of other authors out there that I read and loved last year: Scott Westerfeld, John Green, M.T. Anderson (I actually met him and John at a book event in Kalamazoo and taught them both a thing or two about bear safety -- I hope), E. Lockhart, Justine Larbalestier, Elizabeth Scott, Deb Caletti, Cecil Castellucci, Rachel Cohn, David Levithan (whom I always pronounce Leviathan for some reason), Maureen Johnson, and on and on. Very fertile fields out there.

Find out what other authors have read and loved this year.

Laura Bowers snuck in her list of favorite young adult books she read in 2007:

13 Reasons Why, Jay Asher ("SO awesome!")

An Abundance of Katherines, John Green

Breathing Underwater, Alex Flinn

Head Case, Sarah Aronson

How to be Popular, Meg Cabot

Invisible, Pete Hautman

Saint Iggy, K.L. Going ("My favorite out of this list.")

I backdated this post so that it fell in line with the other participants.

Find out what other authors have read and loved this year.

Tomorrow, Laura Wiess's novel Leftovers will hit the shelves. Today, she shares her list of repeat reads from this year.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
The Last Days of Dogtown by Anita Diamant
On Writing by Stephen King
All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot (the whole series)
Bird by Bird by Anne LaMott
The Wisdom of Wilderness by Gerald G. May
The Plague and I by Betty MacDonald (and all of her adult books)
Veil of Roses by Laura Fitzgerald
Repossessed by A.M. Jenkins
Good Girls by Laura Ruby
In the Space Left Behind by Joan Ackermann

Find out what other authors have read and loved this year.

Elizabeth Scott decided to pick ten books she read and loved this year - then had a really hard time narrowing it down to ten! Here they are, in no particular order:

The Oracle Bones by Peter Hessler
The Book of Dave by Will Self
The Double Bind: A Novel by Chris Bohjalian
Girls in Trouble by Caroline Leavitt
The End of an Error by Mameve Medwed
No Shame in My Game: The Working Poor in the Inner City by Katherine S. Newman
Digging to America by Anne Tyler
Black Swan Green by David Mitchell
The Life Before Her Eyes by Laura Kasischke
Eagle Blue: A Team, A Tribe, and a High School Basketball Team in Arctic Alaska by Michael D'Orso

Find out what other authors have read and loved this year.

Micol Ostow picked the following books as standouts, "just for starters!"

MT Anderson, Octavian Nothing
Blake Nelson, Paranoid Park
Walter Dean Myers, Monster
Nick Hornby, Slam
Lauren Myracle, TTFN
Alison Bechdel, Fun Home
Rob Thomas, Rats Saw God

Find out what others have read and loved this year.

For more author picks, visit Bildungsroman every weekday for the rest of the month!

Here are Laurie Stolarz's top 5 faves of 2007:

Breaking Up: Fashion High by Aimee Friedman
Breathe My Name by R.A. Nelson
What Happened to Cass McBride by Gail Giles
Tantalize by Cynthia Leitich Smith
Such a Pretty Girl by Laura Wiess

Find out what others have read and loved this year.

For more author picks, visit Bildungsroman every weekday for the rest of the month!

In-between working on revisions for her upcoming book and keeping her cat away from her holiday decorations, author Caridad Ferrer gave me a list of books she enjoyed reading this year.

Heartbreak Hotel - Anne Rivers Siddons
The Witch of Blackbird Pond - Elizabeth George Speare
Boy Toy - Barry Lyga (She notes this is probably her favorite of the new books she read this
year.)
Atlantis Rising - Alyssa Day
Rising Wind - Cindy Holby
Michael Tolliver Lives - Armistead Maupin
Boom!: Voices of the Sixties Personal Reflections on the '60s and Today - Tom Brokaw
Love Actually - Richard Curtis (Screenplay)

Find out what others have read and loved this year.

For more author picks, visit Bildungsroman every weekday for the rest of the month!

E. Lockhart was writing a novel when I interrupted her to ask what great books she read this year. The rest of this post should be read in her voice, as they are her words:

I always write up my favorite YA books on my blog, so I'm going to give you a list that reflects the adult books I most loved this year -- though actually, I think older teenagers would probably like all of them, too.

You'll see I'm an eclectic reader, and also that I took it pretty EASY this year. I had way more writing to do than usual, so my reading was light, relaxing -- and fun city.

• The Gourmet Cookbook. I got this about a year and a half ago for my birthday and it is a stellar and fun-to-read cookbook. Recently I made an amazing cranberry coffee cake and awesome pimento cheese. It has recipes for everything.

• P.G. Wodehouse, Pigs Have Wings. This is a Blandings Castle story involving the Shropshire Fat Pigs competition and a lot of country house hijinks, written with Plum's inimitable style. I love to read Wodehouse before bed, as he sends me off to sleep feeling the world is a comical, jolly place.

• Janet Evanovich, first three in the Stephanie Plum series, One for the Money, etc. ON AUDIO. This last part is crucial. The actress is Lori Petty, and she only did the first three Plum books -- after that they switched to someone else. But Petty is perfect. So funny. So Jersey. These are great for a long car-ride or a stint at the gym.

• Mo Willems, You Can Never Find a Rickshaw When It Monsoons: The World on One Cartoon a Day. The author of Knufflebunny spent a chunk of his youth touring around and drawing amusing sketches of scenes he witnessed in Thailand, India, Japan, China, Israel, Turkey, and more. A fast and addictive read that's also full of astute observations.

• Diane Setterfield, The Thirteenth Tale. I love a good gothic country house story -- and this has bibliophilia, too! And weird twins!

• Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle. I re-read this, and it's just so lovely and wonderful and sad and joyful and funny.

• Matt Groenig, Will & Abe's Guide to the Universe. Heh heh heh.

Oh, and since it's the holiday season and people are buying gifts for the picture book set, here is what I've read over and over this year for the younger crowd -- good presents for people age 3-7 that will make grown-ups happy, too.

Meg Rosoff, Meet Wild Boars, illus. Sophie Blackall
Beverly D'Onofrio, Mary and the Mouse, the Mouse and Mary, illus. Barbara McClintock
LeUyen Pham, Big Sister, Little Sister
Amy Schwartz, The Glorious Day

E. then peeked at Rachel Cohn's list and added The Spell Book of Listen Taylor by Jaclyn Moriarty to her own, calling it "AMAZING and wonderful." Now I'm craving pancakes again. Thanks, ladies.

Find out what others have read and loved this year.

For more author picks, visit Bildungsroman every weekday for the rest of the month!

When asked to name her favorite books of the year, author Rachel Cohn replied:

"My reading was sadly remiss this year, but of the books I did read, my absolute favorite (quickly vaulting into my all-time favorites list, not just of the year) was Jaclyn Moriarty's I HAVE A BED MADE OF BUTTERMILK PANCAKES, the Canadian/Australian edition of the book that was published as a YA in the U.S. this year as THE SPELL BOOK OF LISTEN TAYLOR."

I must say I like the original title. Mmm, pancakes!

Find out what others have read and loved this year.

For more author picks, visit Bildungsroman every weekday for the rest of the month!

Read a new interview with Rachel Cohn and David Levithan.