2008 Favorite Books
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It's that wonderful time of year again---the time for Best 10 Lists. These were my favorite reads in 2008 (though not necessarily published this year), from best to 10th best:
1. The Tenderness of Wolves, by Stef Penney: A great tale of the Canadian North, and how a mother, a stranger, and a company man set out in the cold and snow to find a boy.
2. Gentlemen and Players, by Joanne Harris: Mystery, academia, trickery . . . it's all here.
3. Barchester Towers, by Anthony Trollope: Nuff said.
4. A Woman in Berlin, by Anonymous: The true diary of a woman journalist in Berlin at the end of World War II.
5. A Game of Thrones, by George R. R. Martin: A very engaging fantasy novel, easy on the fantasy. More to do with family and political intrigue than dragons and fairies.
6. Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, by Barbara Kingsolver: Interesting to read and informative, a great introduction to how we can eat better.
7. The Dying of the Light, by Michael Dibdin: A quirky mystery that ends up being a totally different kind of book than you think it is at the beginning. Clever and good.
8. Half-Broken Things, by Morag Joss: Psychological . . . what? It's not a mystery, really, and "thriller" seems too dashing a word for the quiet pace of this book. But it's a creepy tale of a housesitter on her last assignment.
9. A Place of Execution, by Val McDermid: Val McDermid writes mysteries usually set in Scotland, and is one of my favorite mystery writers.
10. My Latest Grievance, by Elinor Lipman: A nice antidote to Tolstoy's assertion that all happy families are the same, and boring.
Bonus: Justinian's Flea, a history of late antiquity focusing on the outbreak of plague that dashed Justinian's plans to reunite the Roman empire.
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It's that wonderful time of year again---the time for Best 10 Lists. These were my favorite reads in 2008 (though not necessarily published this year), from best to 10th best:
1. The Tenderness of Wolves, by Stef Penney: A great tale of the Canadian North, and how a mother, a stranger, and a company man set out in the cold and snow to find a boy.
2. Gentlemen and Players, by Joanne Harris: Mystery, academia, trickery . . . it's all here.
3. Barchester Towers, by Anthony Trollope: Nuff said.
4. A Woman in Berlin, by Anonymous: The true diary of a woman journalist in Berlin at the end of World War II.
5. A Game of Thrones, by George R. R. Martin: A very engaging fantasy novel, easy on the fantasy. More to do with family and political intrigue than dragons and fairies.
6. Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, by Barbara Kingsolver: Interesting to read and informative, a great introduction to how we can eat better.
7. The Dying of the Light, by Michael Dibdin: A quirky mystery that ends up being a totally different kind of book than you think it is at the beginning. Clever and good.
8. Half-Broken Things, by Morag Joss: Psychological . . . what? It's not a mystery, really, and "thriller" seems too dashing a word for the quiet pace of this book. But it's a creepy tale of a housesitter on her last assignment.
9. A Place of Execution, by Val McDermid: Val McDermid writes mysteries usually set in Scotland, and is one of my favorite mystery writers.
10. My Latest Grievance, by Elinor Lipman: A nice antidote to Tolstoy's assertion that all happy families are the same, and boring.
Bonus: Justinian's Flea, a history of late antiquity focusing on the outbreak of plague that dashed Justinian's plans to reunite the Roman empire.
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posted by Anonymous at
7:28 PM
2 Comments:
hmm. for me, off the top of my head, i think it was (in no particular order)
excellent cadavers, twilight, animal, vegetable, miracle, revolutionary road, in cold blood, middlesex, the segments of the forsyte saga that i've gotten to, dreams from my father, . . . and a few others that don't come to mind presently.
Reeve Lindbergh memoirs: Under A Wing (growing up with her famous parents, Charles and Anne Lindbergh) and No More Words (her mother's decline and passing)
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls-- disfunctional parents, functional kids, another memoir
Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression -- Mildred Armstrong Kalish -- stories, memories, recipes, the ideals and precepts my parent's generation lived by
Books: A Memoir -- Larry McMurtry -- a different kind of memoir--the memoir of a bookbuyer/seller
How can one have favorites when reading Hamlet, MacBeth and King Lear!
Love's Labor Lost -- a feast of language (and love)
The Winter's Tale -- sad winter's tale ends in summer
Antony and Cleopatra -- find new bourns to say how good it is
(Worst play read: Henry VI, Part 1)
Two favorite books about Shakespeare:
Maynard Mack, Everybody's Shakespeare: Reflections Chiefly on the Tragedies
William Hazlitt -- Characters of Shakespeare's Plays
Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer
Stitch'n Bitch: The Knitters Handbook, Debbie Stoller
Susan E
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