Dec 31 2008
Reading Wrap-up 2008
Hard to believe it’s time for another wrap-up post already! 2008 seems to have just whizzed by. As I look back over the past few years since I’ve kept track of my reading, I see that as my kids get older, I have more time to read. Also, discovering audiobooks means more time can be spent “reading” - time that was normally wasted washing dishes, folding laundry, and fixing meals is now time spent listening to wonderful books.
This year, I read 132 books. For my wrap-up post, I thought I’d sort the titles into genres.
Children/Young Adult fantasy (17 titles):
Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke (read-aloud) - 4 stars
The Field Guide (The Spiderwick Chronicles, Book 1 by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi (read-aloud) - 3 stars
The Seeing Stone (The Spiderwick Chronicles, Book 2) by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi (read-aloud) - 3 stars
Lucinda’s Secret (The Spiderwick Chronicles, Book 3) by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi (read-aloud) - 3 stars
The Ironwood Tree (The Spiderwick Chronicles, Book 4) by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi (read-aloud) - 3 stars
The Wrath of Mulgarath (The Spiderwick Chronicles, Book 5) by Holly Black & Tony DiTerlizzi (read-aloud) - 3 stars
Prince Caspian by C. S. Lewis (read-aloud) - 4 stars
Coraline by Neil Gaiman (read-aloud) - 4 stars
Fly by Night by Francis Hardinge (read-aloud) - 3 stars
Tigerheart by Peter David - 5 stars - related post
Magyk (Septimus Heap, Book 1) by Angie Sage - 4 stars
The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart (read-aloud) - 5 stars - related post
Flyte: Septimus Heap, Book 2 by Angie Sage (read-aloud) - 4 stars
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (audiobook) - 4 stars - related post
New Moon by Stephenie Meyer - 4 stars - related post
Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer - 4 stars
Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer - 4 stars - related post
Children/Young Adult fiction (5 titles):
Heidi by Johanna Spyri - 4 stars
Penny From Heaven by Jennifer Holm (audiobook) - 4 stars
The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall - 5 stars - related post
Waiting for Normal by Leslie Connor (audio) - 4 stars - related post
The Devil’s Arithmetic by Jane Yolen - 5 stars - related post
Children’s graphic novels (2 titles):
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick - 4 stars
Artemis Fowl: The Graphic Novel by Eoin Colfer, Andrew Donkin, and Giovanni Rigano - 3 stars
Children’s non-fiction (4 titles):
Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends by Sarah, Stephen, and Grace Mally (read-aloud) - 3 stars
Heaven for Kids by Randy Alcorn and Linda Washington (read-aloud) - 5 stars
Eric Liddell: Something Greater Than Gold by Geoff and Janet Benge (read-aloud) - 4 stars
Peril and Peace: Chronicles of the Ancient Church by Brandon and Mindy Withrow - 3 stars
Children’s poetry (1 title):
A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein (read-aloud) - 3 stars
Children/Young Adult science fiction (4 titles):
The Softwire: Virus on Orbis by P.J. Haarsma - 3 stars - related post
The Softwire: Betrayal on Orbis 2 by P.J. Haarsma - 4 stars - related post
Gone by Michael Grant - 4 stars - related post
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow - 3 stars
Christian fiction (5 titles):
Winter Haven by Athol Dickson - 4 stars - related post
A Window to the World by Susan Meissner - 4 stars
Home to Holly Springs by Jan Karon (audiobook) - 4 stars - related post
Doesn’t She Look Natural by Angela Hunt - 4 stars - related post
She Always Wore Red by Angela Hunt - 5 stars
Classics (8 titles):
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray - 4 stars - related post
Heart of Darkness & Selected Short Fiction by Joseph Conrad - 3 stars - related post
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy - 4 stars - related post
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (audiobook) - 2 stars
The Quiet American by Graham Greene - 4 stars - related post
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (audiobook) - 3 stars -related post
Kristin Lavransdatter III: The Cross by Sigrid Undset - 4 stars - related post
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh (audiobook) - 3 stars
Essays (1 title):
Standing by Words: Essays by Wendell Berry - 3 stars - related post
Fantasy (2 titles):
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman - 5 stars
Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman (audiobook) - 5 stars - related post
Graphic novels and memoirs (7 titles):
The Complete Maus by Art Speigelman - 4 stars - related post
Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi - 3 stars
Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return by Marjane Satrapi - 3 stars
1602 by Neil Gaiman and Andy Kubert - 4 stars
Hatter M: The Looking Glass Wars, Volume 1 by Frank Beddor, Liz Cavalier, and Ben Templesmith - 3 stars
Slow News Day by Andi Watson - 3 stars
American Widow by Alissa Torres & Sungyoon Choi - 4 stars - related post
Historical fiction (12 titles):
Burning Bright by Tracy Chevalier (audiobook) - 4 stars - related post
Life Class by Pat Barker (audiobook) - 3 stars
Stealing Athena by Karen Essex - 4 stars - related post
Guernica by Dave Boling - 5 stars - related post
The Heretic’s Daughter by Kathleen Kent - 5 stars - related post
Capote in Kansas: A Ghost Story by Kim Powers - 4 stars - related post
A Bell for Adano by John Hersey - 3 stars
North River by Pete Hamill (audio) - 5 stars - related post
Company of Liars by Karen Maitland - 3 stars - related post
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows - 5 stars - related post
The Passion of Artemisia by Susan Vreeland (audiobook) - 5 stars - related post
Blindspot: By a Gentleman in Exile and a Lady in Disguise by Jane Kamensky and Jill Lepore - 4 stars - related post
The Observations by Jane Harris - 4 stars - related post
History (3 titles):
What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist-The Facts of Daily Life in Nineteenth-Century England by Daniel Pool - 3 stars - related post
Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War by Nathaniel Philbrick - 4 stars - related post
A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599 by James Shapiro - 3 stars - related post
Memoir (7 titles):
Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life by Steve Martin (audiobook) - 3 stars - related post
About My Sisters by Debra Ginsberg - 4 stars
The Woman Who Can’t Forget: The Extraordinary Story of Living with the Most Remarkable Memory Known to Science by Jill Price & Bart Davis (audiobook) - 3 stars - related post
Mediterranean Summer: A Season on France’s Cote d’Azur and Italy’s Costa Bella by David Shalleck and Erol Munuz - 3 stars - related post
Half-Assed: A Weight-Loss Memoir by Jennette Fulda - 4 stars - related post
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris (audio) - 3 stars
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls (audiobook) - 5 stars - related post
Modern fiction (19 titles):
Perfect Match by Jodi Picoult (audiobook) - 4 stars - related post
Broken for You by Stephanie Kallos - 5 stars - related post
Matrimony by Joshua Henkin - 2 stars
How to Be Good by Nick Hornby - 4 stars - related post
The Senator’s Wife by Sue Miller (audiobook) - 2 stars
The House at Midnight (ARC) by Lucie Whitehouse - 2 and a half stars
The Dew Breaker by Edwidge Danticat (audiobook) - 3 stars
Belong to Me by Marisa De Los Santos - 5 stars - related post
The White Mary by Kira Salak - 3 stars - related post
This Charming Man by Marian Keyes - 2 stars
Inglorious by Joanna Kavenna - 2 stars - related post
My Husband’s Sweethearts by Bridget Asher - 4 stars - related post
Fieldwork by Mischa Berlinski - 5 stars - related post
The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver - 3 stars
The Night Country by Stewart O’Nan - 4 stars - related post
The Grift by Debra Ginsberg - 4 stars - related post
The Professors’ Wives’ Club by Joanne Rendell - 3 stars
The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister - 5 stars - related post
Goldengrove by Francine Prose (audiobook) - 3 stars - related post
Names My Sisters Call Me by Megan Crane - 3 stars
Mystery (11 titles):
T is for Trespass by Sue Grafton - 2 stars - related post
The Crime Writer by Gregg Hurwitz (audiobook) - 3 stars
Booked to Die by John Dunning - 3 stars - related post
The Bookman’s Wake (A Cliff Janeway Mystery) by John Dunning - 3 stars
An Unsuitable Job for a Woman by P.D. James (audiobook) - 4 stars
The Bookman’s Promise by John Dunning - 4 stars
One for the Money by Janet Evanovich (audiobook) - 3 stars
The Beekeeper’s Apprentice by Laurie R. King (audio) - 5 stars -related post
A Monstrous Regiment of Women by Laurie R. King - 5 stars - related post
A Letter of Mary by Laurie R. King - 5 stars - related post
The Moor by Laurie R. King - 4 stars - related post
Cover Her Face by P.D. James - 3 stars - related post
Non-fiction (5 titles):
The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop by Lewis Buzbee - 4 stars - related post
An Incomplete Education: 3,684 Things You Should Have Learned but Probably Didn’t by Judy Jones & William Wilson - 4 stars - related post
Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes by Thomas Cathcart & Daniel Klein (audiobook) - 3 stars
The Faith of Barack Obama by Stephen Mansfield - 3 stars
The Intellectual Devotional by David S. Kidder & Noah D. Oppenheim - 3 stars
Vintage Jesus: Timeless Answers to Timely Questions by Mark Driscoll & Gerry Breshears - 3 stars
Poetry (5 titles):
Songs of Innocence and Experience by William Blake - 5 stars - related post
Ararat (American Poetry Series) by Louise Gluck - 4 stars
The Ordering of Love: The New and Collected Poems of Madeleine L’Engle - 5 stars - related post
The Radiation Sonnets: For My Love, in Sickness and in Health by Jane Yolen - 4 stars
What the Light Was Like: Poems by Luci Shaw - 3 stars
Science fiction (4 titles):
Blasphemy by Douglas Preston (audiobook) - 3 stars
The Host by Stephenie Meyer - 5 stars - related post
The Cross-Time Engineer (Book 1 in The Adventures of Conrad Stargard) by Leo Frankowski (re-read) - 3 stars - related post
The High-Tech Knight (Book Two in The Adventures of Conrad Stargard) by Leo Frankowski - 3 stars
Short story collections (6 titles):
Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders by Neil Gaiman (audiobook) - 3 stars
Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by Z.Z. Packer - 3 stars
The Best American Short Stories 2007 edited by Stephen King - 3 stars - related post
Life Studies: Stories by Susan Vreeland - 4 stars - related post
The Pacific and Other Stories by Mark Helprin (audiobook) - 3 stars
Irish Girls Are Back in Town by various authors - 2 stars - related post
Rating system:
1 star - Terrible
2 stars - Just Okay
3 stars - Good
4 stars - Very Good
5 stars - Brilliant, Wonderful, Excellent, Fabulous
Books I started but didn’t finish:
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen (I made it to page 56. Ugh.)
Dream When You’re Feeling Blue by Elizabeth Berg (I tried to listen to the audio version read by the author. She shouldn’t read her own books. I may try to read the print version one of these days.)
Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult (I couldn’t get past the fact that she stole much of the storyline from Stephen King’s The Green Mile.)
Petite Anglaise (ARC) by Catherine Sanderson (I just didn’t like it.)
The Ten-Year Nap by Meg Wolitzer (It didn’t grab me. Every time I started to get interested in a character’s storyline, she switched to a different character. It was just kind of blah, and there are too many other books waiting to waste any more time on this one.)
Passion on the Vine: A Memoir of Food, Wine, and Family in the Heart of Italy by Sergio Esposito (Just couldn’t get into this one - it’s very well-written, though. I think it was too similar to another book I had recently read.)
When We Were Romans by Matthew Kneale (The book is narrated by a 9-year-old boy. I have son who will be 9 in a little over two weeks. I talk to him on a daily basis. I love him - very much - but I don’t think I’d want to read a novel that is entirely made up of his inner thoughts and narration of daily events. However, I loved To Kill a Mockingbird, which is narrated by a 9-year-old girl, so maybe it’s purely the execution. Author Matthew Kneale has written not only in Lawrence’s voice, but with lots of misspellings, as if he actually wrote the book. Maybe that’s what pushed it over the top. I also couldn’t take the descriptions of his sister Jemima’s misbehavior - it made me want to lock her in an eternal time-out. I did, however, find another reviewer who enjoyed the book - and several Amazon reviewers liked it enough to give it at least three stars. So it’s probably just me. 
)
The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway (ARC) (I made it to page 100. Very well-written - Harkaway has a unique voice, but it is not my kind of thing. The sheer size of it is daunting anyway, but to make it to page 100 and not feel like you want to keep reading - enough said. It is getting rave reviews from other people, though, as you can see here and here.)
The Islands of Divine Music by John Addiego (I made it to page 100 or so, and then put it aside. It’s very well-written, but I didn’t like any of the characters, and when I found that I was forcing myself to keep reading, I thought, “Nope. Life’s too short, and there are too many other books waiting on the to-read stack.”
Impressive list and range of genres! Happy New Year!
Awesome! I felt the same way about The Corrections, only you are a better reader than I, I couldn’t get past page 5. I loved The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop so much I wrote the author to tell him so and he was ever so gracious to write me back. Happy reading in 2009!
Beth- thanks - and Happy New Year to you as well!
Book Psmith - It’s amazing how many “best of the 20th century” lists The Corrections appears on. And how cool to hear back from the author of The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop! Have a wonderful New Year.
OOoh, I love booklists. Thanks so much for the recap.
Aren’t these fun to put together? They bring back all the emotions and small details of life that took place when you read the book. At least they do for me!
I like your star system. Also books you couldn’t finish - a nice reflection of the reality of a reader.
Happy New Year!
Deb - thanks for stopping by!
Carol - Happy New Year to you - enjoy those new grandbabies.
Oh my! I feel excited and overwhelmed at the same time! I loved reading your list; however, it has reminded me of books I can’t wait to read and don’t know when I can get to them all.
Happy New Year, Carrie!
Joy - isn’t that always the case - too many good books out there, and a finite amount of time.
You are a very balanced reader; that’s an incredible list! I need to write down the 5 star mysteries; I’m always on the lookout for ones there, since it’s a genre I don’t read much.
I laughed over your comments on When We Were Romans. (I hadn’t heard of it before.)
I also haven’t read Dragon Rider by Funke but love some of her other stuff. Since you gave it four stars I think I might just dive on in!
Great list!
I see you gave The Glass Castle 5 stars - I have that on a shelf, waiting TBR. I’ll have to read it this year. Great list!
Melissa - Laurie KIng’s Mary Russll/Sherlock Holmes series is excellent -the first one is The Beekeeper’s Apprentice. My favorite mystery series by far.
Carrie - Dragon Rider was a read aloud that my kids and I all enjoyed very much.
Laura - It’s an amazing story!
Wow, what a great year of reading! Wishing you the best for 2009
Sharon - thanks, Happy New Year to you as well!