Inspired by Hannah's impressive end of year book list last year, I decided to keep track of what I read in 2008. Life interfered some months, or I'd start a few at once, and end up finishing them the following month.  All told I finished 40 books in 2008.  I meant to review as I went along, but it just didn't happen (with a few exceptions).

January

1. Atonement – Ian McEwan: enjoyable, though slow at moments.  The most engrossing part?  A really well-written sex scene in the library.

2. A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian – Marina Leywka: Short and fun.  Would recommend.  Reviewed it here.

3. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – JK Rowling:  I delayed reading the last book just because I wasn't quite ready to be done with Harry and Hogwarts.  I enjoyed it the most of all the books in the series and thought the ending was perfect.

February

4. Austenland – Shannon Hale: Good, fluffy read about an Austen fan who predictably finds her own Mr.Darcy.

5. Shadow of the Wind – Carols Ruiz Zafon: Came highly recommended by a friend of mine.  Took a while to get into it, but once I was I could not put it down.

6. Never let me go – Kazuo Ishiguro:  Creepy at times, but definitely thought-provoking and beautifully-written.

7. The Wonder Spot – Melissa Banks: Fun and light.

8.  Little Children – Tom Perrotta: It was so close to the film (which I saw first) that it was a bit boring.  Still Perrotta nails suburbian angst to perfection.

March

9. Naptime is the new happy hour – Stefanie Wilder-Taylor:  Reviewed this one here.

April

10. Traveling Mercies – Anne Lamott:  I <3 Anne Lamott.  What else is there to say?  This a collection of her thoughts on faith.  She's an unorthodox Christian, and I really dig that.

May

11. A Widow for one year – John Irving:  Read it over a weekend.  Though I can't remember too much of it in hindsight.  Is that strange?

12.  The Yummy Mummy Manifesto – Anna Johnson:  Reviewed it here.

13.  The Poisonwood Bible – Barbara Kingsolver (re-read for book club):  As I recently commented elsewhere in blogland, this is not a feel-good novel.  But, it is incredible.  Characters are so distinct you'll think it's a biography and writing so rich I longed to write at her level.

June

14. Middlesex – Jeffery Euginides:  Insightful, funny, and quite frankly one of the best books I read all year.  P.S it's about a hermaphrodite, but not in the least bit creepy.

July

15.  A Prayer for Owen Meany – John Irving (read for a book club):  Enjoyed it, but also found it diffcult to read at times.  Didn't like it as much as other John Irving books I've read.

16.  The Memory Keeper’s Daughter – Kim Edwards:  Kept my interest initially, but didn't love it.

17.  This Charming Man – Marian Keyes:  I will read anything Marian Keyes writes and usually love it.  This was no exception.  She falls in chick lit territory, but her stories aren't as vapid and cliched as other novels in that genre.

August

18.  On Chesil Beach – Ian McEwan: About the unravelling of a marriage.  Don't remember much else about it.  Written in typical McEwan meandering style.

19.  Four Seasons in Rome – Anthony Doerr:  Memoir about a writer who wins a fellowship to Rome and goes for a year with his wife and twin boys. It brought back fond memories of Rome, and as a writer I couldn't help fantasizing that I would win the same fellowship someday and be paid to write in the Eternal City.

20.  Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith – Anne Lamott:  Didn't adore it as much as Traveling Mercies, but it had some good moments.

21.  Lullabies for little criminals – Heather O’Neill: Dark, but excellent.  Made me cherish my sometimes boring childhood.

September

22. Odyssey of Homer – Richard Lattimore translation (read for class):  Read first in high school, and found it much more palatable as an adult.

23.  Free Food for Millionaires – Min Jin Lee: Rather long, but engrossing novel about a young woman in New York.  Enjoyable, but possibly could have been edited a bit.

24.  Carry on Jeeves - P.G. Wodehouse:  Light and easy to digest short stories about the always impressive butler Jeeves.

October

25.  The Ramayana – R.K. Narayan (read for class):  Quintessential Indian epic. Thankfully easy to read.

26.  Recognition of Sakuntala – Kalidasa (play read for class):  Japanese drama that was painful to read.  Seriously, I hated it.

27.  StoriTelling – Tori Spelling:  Yes, I'm actually admitting I read this.  It was - in my defense - given to me by a friend who said it wasn't bad.  And was it bad?  Not really.  But, only if you see it as long-form US Weekly. 

28.  The Uncommon Reader – Alan Bennett:  Short and delightful read.  Fiction about how the Queen of England re-discovers reading and basically can't stop.  Thanks Cori.

29. Twilight – Stephenie Meyer:  I resisted for months.  I did.  I heard over and over that it was worth reading.  But, a young adult book about vampires and first love?  Finally, a close friend (you know who you are because we salivated over Robert Pattison in the theater together) convinced me to try it.  I mean, this friend is getting her Masters in Literature - I trust her!  Stephenie Meyer's not in line to win any critical acclaim and certainly her books are flawed, but all of the Twilighters out there are proof that she can weave a good tale.

November

30. Tale of the Genji – Lady Murasaki (read for class):  Not a bad Japanese novel, but it interfered with my ability to get through the Twilight series, so I was bitter.

31. New Moon - Stephenie Meyer:  Devoured.  See Twilight.

32. Eclipse - Stephenie Meyer:  See above.

33. Breaking Dawn - Stephenie Meyer:  Darker tone and heavier on the vampire "culture", which I actually liked (other readers did not).  Read it in a few hours, then re-read it a second time because I wasn't ready to let the series go.

34.  Penelopiad – Margaret Atwood: My return to adult fiction, and a great read.  If you've read the Odyssey and wondered what Penelope was really thinking, this novella is the answer.

35. When you are engulfed in flames – David Sedaris:  Usually I love anything he writes, but this one was just sort of meh.  David are you getting too comfortable with success?

36. Arabian Nights – Husain Haddawy translation (read for class): Enjoyable, but not something I would pick up on my own.

December

37. The Inferno – Dante (read for class):  My favorite assigned reading for the semester.  According to Dante I'd probably be headed toward some circle in Upper Hell, but I didn't let that marr my enjoyment of it.

38. An exact replica of a figment of my imagination – Elizabeth McCracken:  Heartbreaking memoir, but therapuetic to read.  A woman gives birth to a stillborn, then goes on to give birth to a healthy son later that year.  That kind of loss made me weep repeatedly, but like I said, in a good way.

39.  The Namesake – Jhumpa Lahiri:  Intelligent, enjoyable, and well worth the read.

40.  White Oleander – Janet Fitch:  Another great novel where I thanked God for my staid, but stable childhood.

I finally succumbed to the popularity of Twilight, and read it.  In fact, I read it in two sittings (in more time-plentiful days it would have been one sitting), and am all ready to dive into the next book in the series and see the movie.  It seems I needed some good, old-fashioned, entertainment reading after analyzing The Odyssey, The Ramayana, and other assorted literary heavies.  Well, that's my excuse anyhow. We all need a little mental candy every now and again.

I really wish I had time to read these books. sigh.

Books

3 comments

I took the daughter to Barnes and Noble this morning to enjoy some books.  This basically translates into her pulling all of the books in her reach off the shelves, and me re-ordering the displays.  In a former life (college) I worked at a bookstore, and had to straighten shelves then too.  Anyhow, I digress…

My daughter will eventually pick out a few books that she wants to review.  This visit she selected a Backyardigans book.  She took the book, and sat down near the Thomas the Train area where a couple of boys were playing.  First off, the train set looked suspiciously like the trains that were recalled a little while back for lead paint issues.  Maybe they weren’t, but I wasn’t going to let daughter near them just in case.  At any rate, the mothers of the boys were in the train area and they happened to discover that both boys had the same name, which was Aidan.  Apparently this is an extremely popular name these days, but these two particular mothers decided to spell this common name unusually.  The first mother said she spelled it Aydin because she always liked names with"y" in them.  The second mother said she spelled it Aedan – no explanation given. 

Don’t get me wrong, unusual names can be really cool, but why spell a common name in an unusual way?  Yes, I understand then on paper it’s a “different” name, but people are not going to say, “Hey, Aydin with the Y, come on over.”  Forever, these boys are going to have to correct the spelling of their names.

I'm tired now.  Chasing a toddler through a bookstore is exhausting.

I realized as I was reading Mama Tami's posting on Gastronomic Literature that if I had my druthers I would just sit on my comfy couch with a lemonade, TLC oatmeal cookies, and a stack of books, and do one of the things that makes me really happy - read.  Alas, the last point in my life that I had this kind of time was when I was unemployed, and of course, I was so pre-occupied with finding work that I didn't enjoy that brief moment to the fullest.

As I am now chasing a toddler all day (cleaning in her massive wake of crumbs and scattered toys), and also simultaneously trying to revive a writing career that's laid dormant for about 10 years, a stack of books I've purchased are sitting on my nightstand, collecting the proverbial dust. 

Too bad I can't steer a stroller and read at the same time.