Favorite Books of 2008
Looking over my Goodreads profile, I read a lot of books this year that I wasn't crazy about. I went through the Dark is Rising sequence, which I'd been meaning to since about age 10. I went on a Madeleine L'Engle jag during the summer, thanks in large part to my friend Kate. I read a lot of forgettable young adult books, confirming my suspicion that I don't want to go back into YA services. And it seems that I read a fair number of talked-about books that didn't make it past "meh" on my enthusiasmometer -- e.g., Water for Elephants, The Abstinence Teacher, Heart-Shaped Box.
(I have yet to read my own manuscript from NaNoWriMo, which is going to be hi-lariously awful.)
So here are my ten favorites from this year, in no particular order.
1. 4th of July, Asbury Park: A History of the Promised Land by Daniel Wolff
I used to hang out in Asbury Park, the broken-down beach town immortalized by Bruce Springsteen, when I lived in New Jersey. I loved it because it reminded me of Cleveland.
2. Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders by Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman is one of the few authors who makes me feel glad to be alive. That's part of the reason why I've never finished the Sandman series -- I just want to meter it out over the course of the next fifty years.
3. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
I watched this on PBS and immediately smacked myself for never having read it. When I worked at Facts on File, I had an assignment that required reading a number of author biographies. I remember this line: "Charlotte Bronte celebrated her 30th birthday full of discouragement, feeling as if she had accomplished nothing with her life." And then she wrote Jane Eyre.
4. Bed of Roses by Daisy Waugh
Sometimes British chick-lit is just a lot of fun.
5. Silk Road to Ruin: Is Central Asia the New Middle East? by Ted Rall
With his ability to describe the multitudinous types of intestinal difficulty a human could endure, Ted Rall has pretty much skyrocketed to my top ten favorite authors of all time.
6. Silver on the Tree by Susan Cooper
The last book in the Dark is Rising sequence. It was absolutely beautiful.
7. Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life by Robert Reich
If I were some kind of super-teacher, I'd make every high-school kid in the country read this book.
8. Meet the Austins by Madeleine L'Engle
If I had a family, I'd want it to be the Austin family. The kids are polite and inquisitive and they live in a big old farmhouse in New England and they sing songs and talk about science and politics over the dinner table.
9. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond
I read this book thinking about Cleveland -- how it could either collapse or succeed. It seemed to me at the time that Cleveland was heading toward the same fate as the Greenland Norse, who refused to let go of values that had outlived their usefulness and were unwilling to learn from those who had adapted to the inhospitable climate.
10. It by Stephen King
I just read this book for the second time (the first time was in 2000). This is a brilliant masterwork of character development and setting, and I am twice as blown away by it as I was when I read it the first time.
What were your favorite books this year?
(I have yet to read my own manuscript from NaNoWriMo, which is going to be hi-lariously awful.)
So here are my ten favorites from this year, in no particular order.
1. 4th of July, Asbury Park: A History of the Promised Land by Daniel Wolff
I used to hang out in Asbury Park, the broken-down beach town immortalized by Bruce Springsteen, when I lived in New Jersey. I loved it because it reminded me of Cleveland.
2. Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders by Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman is one of the few authors who makes me feel glad to be alive. That's part of the reason why I've never finished the Sandman series -- I just want to meter it out over the course of the next fifty years.
3. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
I watched this on PBS and immediately smacked myself for never having read it. When I worked at Facts on File, I had an assignment that required reading a number of author biographies. I remember this line: "Charlotte Bronte celebrated her 30th birthday full of discouragement, feeling as if she had accomplished nothing with her life." And then she wrote Jane Eyre.
4. Bed of Roses by Daisy Waugh
Sometimes British chick-lit is just a lot of fun.
5. Silk Road to Ruin: Is Central Asia the New Middle East? by Ted Rall
With his ability to describe the multitudinous types of intestinal difficulty a human could endure, Ted Rall has pretty much skyrocketed to my top ten favorite authors of all time.
6. Silver on the Tree by Susan Cooper
The last book in the Dark is Rising sequence. It was absolutely beautiful.
7. Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life by Robert Reich
If I were some kind of super-teacher, I'd make every high-school kid in the country read this book.
8. Meet the Austins by Madeleine L'Engle
If I had a family, I'd want it to be the Austin family. The kids are polite and inquisitive and they live in a big old farmhouse in New England and they sing songs and talk about science and politics over the dinner table.
9. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond
I read this book thinking about Cleveland -- how it could either collapse or succeed. It seemed to me at the time that Cleveland was heading toward the same fate as the Greenland Norse, who refused to let go of values that had outlived their usefulness and were unwilling to learn from those who had adapted to the inhospitable climate.
10. It by Stephen King
I just read this book for the second time (the first time was in 2000). This is a brilliant masterwork of character development and setting, and I am twice as blown away by it as I was when I read it the first time.
What were your favorite books this year?
posted by Christine Borne at 8:48 AM
10 Comments:
While I've not read the Ted Rall book, i really enjoy his comics over on Eurasianet. As a student of post-Soviet Central Asia who spent a summer in Uzbekistan, I really ought to check that book out. Thanks for the kick in the pants!
DV - the autobiography of Diana Vreeland. It is every romance of London, Paris and New York in her own words. Simply enchanting.
Whoops, I totally ignored the question! My favorite book of the year, and one that might be of some interest because of the Cleveland connections, was The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread by Don Robertson. certainly not a new book, but new to me, it follows the mundane-turned-adventurous story of a young Cleveland boy as he embarks on a trip to visit his recently relocated friend. Set against the backdrop of the East Ohio Gas explosion of 1944 (which I never knew about until reading this), the book is beautifully written and captivating at times. Definitely recommended.
Interesting list. I was expecting that it might be all fiction, so was pleased to see a mix.
What would've been wrong with all fiction?
Nothing wrong with it or right with it. Just a matter of choice. I'm just biased toward nonfiction, as males generally tend to be (statistically, we read WAY more of it than fiction). So I'm always highly attuned to how that balance works for others.
OK, John - now I remember you said something like that once before, and I pointed out that most of the "great novelists" they make you read in school are men. I'll add now that my favorite authors - Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Kurt Vonnegut, Ray Bradbury - those are men too.
Merry Christmas! :)
Touche, Christine. But I'm guessing that there's much more of a gender balance in those must-read authors than even when you were in school, let alone when I was in school. To cite but a single example of many, Toni Morrison has pretty well insinuated herself into the canon in the last decade.
John- just out of curiosity, have you ever seen the Gender Genie?
I've tried it with dozens of passages. It always thinks I'm male.
Nope, that's a new one for me. But I can't say I'm too surprised that it doesn't work well (at least in your case). Algorithms tend to have their limitations.
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