Your best books read in 2008! Fiction

Again, try to limit yourselves. ;o)

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
The Girl With No Shadow by Joanne Harris

The Plague by Albert Camus
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay by Michael Chabon
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri

Fablehaven by Brandon Mull
The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
Ashes of Worlds by Kevin J. Anderson
Playing for Pizza by John Grisham
Autobiography of Santa Claus by Jeff Guinn

#2 - When I read The Plague in the late 80's I thought it awesome, and lately I've been reconsidering it for a reread. Thanks for the reminder!

Books that kept me up late this year -

Anathem by Neal Stephenson
Regenesis by C.J. Cherryh

Honoraries to
Julie E Czerneda for In the company of others
Ursula K. Le Guin for Powers
Haruki Murakami for After Dark
Brandon Sanderson for Well of Ascension
C.J. Cherryh for Hellburner and Forty thousand in Gehenna

Not counting rereads - the list would be too long!
No true 5-stars this year, if not Regenesis ends up as one (which maybe it does).

All of the Terry Pratchett books I've read. I will read them all again. That's my cheat.

The Novice's Tale by Margaret Frazer (It's great to discover a new mystery author I like.)
Home to Holly Springs by Jan Karon
The Shack by William P. Young
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden (This is really tied with several other books, but I bow to clamairy.)

Like Busifer, this doesn't count my rereads.

5 stars
Vanity Fair by Wm Makepeace Thackeray
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

4.5 stars
Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
The Last Chronicle of Barset by Anthony Trollope

OK, that's technically 8 books, sorry clam. I read lots of Victorians this year and lots of fantasy.

Oh Oh Oh!

That's just fine, lg. The more classics the better, I say. I need to read me some Wilkie one of these days. I did sort of read The Moonstone in college.

The Secret Countess by Eva Ibbotson - my only new 5-star book
Flora Segunda by Ysabeau S. Wilce
Flora's Dare by Ysabeau S. Wilce
Melusine by Sarah Monette
The Virtu by Sarah Monette
The Mirador by Sarah Monette
New Amsterdam by Elizabeth Bear

Gone
The Hunger Games
Elantris
The Winter Rose
Uglies (the whole trilogy)
The Clan of the Cave Bear (I've only read the first three of the series so far)

The Other
Donovan's Brain
The Silmarillion
The Graveyard Book
The Ladies of Grace Adieu
The Horned Man
The Killer Inside Me
The Stolen Child

#7 Wilkie rocks hard and long. I think you'd love him.

#11 - Long AND hard? Sounds like just what the doctor ordered. ;o)

Oh, my!

*hangs head*

*giggle/snort*

ahem, back on topic.

Lonely Werewolf Girl by Martin Millar
Anathem by Neal Stephenson
Sacred Games by Vikream Chandra
Stardust by Neil Gaiman
Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler (just finished last night).

Hmm...

Word of Honour by Michael Pryor
World War Z by Max Brooks
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
The Arrival by Shaun Tan

and special mentions to
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznik
The Cloud Chasers by Stephen Hunt and David Richardson
and The Tamir Triad by Lynn Flewelling,
which were great, but didn't make the top five.

Ooh! Forgot World War Z.

Tarzan of the Apes - by Edgar Rice Burroughs - I'm not really sure why I haven't read any Tarzan stuff before now, I really enjoyed it
Y the Last Man: Whys and Wherefores - by Brian K Vaughan - the guy is a genius, and no mistake. Y the Last Man was a fantastic series, well worth reading.
Fables: Good Prince - by Bill Willingham - some more graphic novel goodness (because books with pictures can be literature, too :-)
Thud! - Another Pratchett classic, I really enjoyed this one, Vimes is probably my favourite Discworld character.
I Am Legend - I enjoyed this more than the film, although I liked that too.

and I can tell you one that I really didn't enjoy - Hunter's Moon by David Devereux... Andy McNab meets Buffy, but in all the wrong ways.

My Antonia by Willa Cather - I'm sooooo glad I finally picked up Cather. O, Pioneers! is next.
The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy - Hardy has so much atmosphere. Love his writing.
Misfortune by Wesley Stace - Hilarious and touching.
Berlin Stories by Christopher Isherwood - Amazing writing. Beautiful.
The Ice-Shirt by William T. Vollman - Best read while drinking wine.
Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding - Love the movie, so read the book finally. Hilarious.

I'm going to skip some that I think everyone knows about if they are a fan of the author or genre, and pick several that I only learned about somewhat by accident:

The Etched City by K.J. Bishop - Dreamy, atmospheric steampunk/new weird. Her first novel, and I'll definitely check out her next effort.
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield - satisfying modern gothic with a nice Jane Eyre motif
The Black Tower by Louis Bayard - an engaging mystery and a pleasingly eccentric chief detective in Restoration-era Paris
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell - gripping off-world dramatic page-turner, plus hey! - Jesuits in space
Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner - an Edwardian spinster meets the devil; a short, gentle tale. Best 50-cent-bin find ever!
Out by Natsuo Kirino - unique, brutal, bleak noir crime novel with a twist; really excellent
Fludd by Hilary Mantel - strange ecclesiastical happenings in the dour, joyless village of Fetherhoughton; this is a small gem
The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks - because who doesn't want to take a short holiday in the mind of a murderous, deranged adolescent?

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
(those for first two were my SantaThing gifts from '07 -- great choices!)
The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier (an audiobook read)
The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde
The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory

The Professor's Daughter by Joann Sfar
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer
Feed by MT Anderson
Zoe's Tale by John Scalzi
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

The Professor's Daughter is a graphic novel, The Time Traveler's Wife is adult (science) fiction, Life As We Knew It could be described as YA post-apocalyptic fiction. Feed, Zoe's Tale, and Little Brother are YA science fiction.

About half my books this year were rereads, these were just taken from the new reads.

The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
The Girls by Lori Lansens
The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill
Summer Lightning by P.G. Wodehouse

Those were all my 6 out of 5's, the best of the best so to speak. But

Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon
The Meaning of Night by Michael Cox
The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly
Late Nights on Air by Elizabeth Hay
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
and last by not least
Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier
were all 5 out of 5's and very, very good too! These were my new reads, not mentioning re-reads.

And I concur with WillSteed and feel that The Invention of Hugo Cabret deserves a special mention.

To WillSteed and katylit: I'm glad to hear that about Hugo, because it is one of my Christmas presents to my daughter. ( I just hope she doesn't decide to sign in to GD for the first time in months. LOL)

Not counting rereads, here is my list. I've tried to arrange in order starting with the best, but that's a difficult task. I keep changing the order!

World Without End by Ken Follett
Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
Duma Key by Stephen King
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Mudbound by HIllary Jordan
World War Z by Max Brooks
The Host by Stephanie Meyer

25 - It doesn't matter - it's worth reading even if it isn't a surprise. The illustrations (which are a key part of the story-telling experience in this) are wonderful.

World War Z by Max Brooks is, hands down, the best book I read this year. Then again, I have a thing for zombies, so, this is not all that surprising.

Top two:
Dawn by Octavia E. Butler
The Man on the Ceiling by Steve Rasnic Tem and Melanie Tem

Honorable Mentions:
Alcatraz versus the Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson
Castle Waiting by Linda Medley
Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters

I'm hoping to read World War Z very soon--especially seeing how often it's been mentioned so far!

Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson
Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson
The Road Home by Rose Tremain
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant

Several of mine are kids' or teen books (all except Hero of Ages, in fact) because those are what I read most. I tried to limit myself, but there were a lot of good books this year.
Graceling by Kristin Cashore -- this one is particularly exciting to me because it's a new author doing fantasy with strong female characters. Tamora Pierce fans will want to read this one, for sure.
Forever Rose by Hilary McKay -- last in a kids' series that I've been loving ever since I read the first book (Saffy's Angel) a couple years ago.
Waiting for Normal by Leslie Connor -- if I were on the Newbery committee, I'd be looking pretty closely at this book. I really enjoyed it.
Nation by Terry Pratchett -- just finished this last night, so I am perhaps not objective about it yet; my thoughts on it haven't settled. Nevertheless, it was excellent. Go read it, Pratchett fans.
Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway -- another new author for me to keep an eye on. This book had a great plot and lots of humor.
Flora Segunda by Ysabeau Wilce -- I tried to limit myself to 2008 releases, but I had to include this one because I just loved it that much. The worldbuilding in this series is incredible.
The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson -- Most recent release in the Mistborn series. I know that some of you weren't as crazy about it as the ones before -- I'll have to reread the series before I can say which one is my favorite, and it may not be this one, but I did get completely wrapped up in it.

I have only just discovered Fred Vargas and really enjoyed her Have Mercy On Us All. Also featuring the Bubonic Plague, I read Eifelheim. Another fascinating bit of speculative fiction was Forty Signs of Rain. Another good mystery was Touchstone. Finally, I read Binu and the Great Wall, not in keeping with most of what I read this year, but nonetheless worthwhile.

If you like Zombies, and liked World War Z I highly recommend The Living Dead an excellent volume of zombie short stories.

Others

Affinity by Sarah Waters
Swann's Way by Marcel Proust
Heart Of Empire: The Legacy Of Luther Arkwright by Bryan Talbot (Graphic novel)
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman (graphic novel)
The Night Watch by Sarah Waters
and
Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko

The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly
Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
Burning Bright by Tracy Chevalier

The Man in the High Castle
World War Z
A Canticle for Liebowitz
The Years of Rice and Salt

Eee! I LIKE these kind of lists. Gives me stuff to look for. And isn't that what this site is all about?

Wow, it's hard to remember everything over a year, but here are some stand outs:

Elantris by Brandon Sanderson, thanks to LT! I wouldn't have read it if I hadn't heard so many good things about it

Dragon Slippers by Jessica Day George - found on Good Reads

The New Policeman - just stumbled onto this at the library and loved it!

The Snow Queen by Mercedes Lackey and Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow - variations on the same story, both really good.

The Willoughbys - found on Good Reads. Classic children's lit with a fun twist

Lords and Ladies by Terry Pratchett.

I better stop there. I'm sure that I could come up with a bunch more, but I can't go on forever. One more? Well, okay. Just The Mysterious Benedict Society. And The Case of the Missing Marquess. Oops. I'll stop now. Really.

I need to stop and consider, but one that leaps out at me from the bookshelf near where I am sitting is Wreck of the Mary Deare. I really liked that old chestnut.

And then for something completely different, I fell in love with Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians.

These are the books that have stood out for me:

The Twilight Saga
Inkheart
The Lovely Bones
The Embers of Heaven
Pretty Little Devils

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak and City of Refuge by Tom Piazza were two of my favorites this year.

I really enjoyed reading: The Whistling Season and Foreigner. I think Black Horses for the King is to be recommended for the younger people in our lives. The Graveyard Book was a great romp. (touchstone is incorrect)

The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta
Anathem by Neal Stephenson

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
March by Geraldine Brooks
The Law of Dreams by Peter Behrens
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire
Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

Stalking Darkness Lynn Flewelling
Luck in the Shadows Lynn Flewelling
Pagan in Exile by Catherine Jinks
Vintage by Steve Berman
Havemercy by Jaida Jones

Loved my fantasies this year :-)

Elantris Brandon Sanderson
Smoke and Mirrors Neil Gaiman
Name of the Wind Patrick Rothfuss
Poison Master Liz Williams
Kingmaker Kingbreaker duo by Karen Miller

Honourable mentions
Waking Dream Rhiannon Lassiter
The Enchantresses Vera Chapman
Rosa and the Veil of Gold Kim Wilkins

#42 - Oh, limerts, we have some matches there!

My daughter bought me Water for Elephants for Christmas. is there a review in GD on it? Any good recommendations in here?

jewels: I loved it. Ok, it is history + animals + love, loyalty and good stuff. You will enjoy it, I am sure.

#47 - Yes, maggie has it right. The book is just wonderful. :o)

come to chat....there are two of us there

I did! No one was there! :(

It's just as well, I need to finish stitching a gift.

oh, sorry, you just missed us I think. Babies and doggies were asking for our attentions.

Best of 2008:

Elantris by Brandon Sanderson
Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson
Ending an Ending by Danny Birt
The Pale Blue Eye by Louis Bayard

There were of course others, but these four are in a class by themselves, all standouts not just for the year's tally, but for years! It was an excellent year of reading, quality-wise, to have read four impactful books such as these!

Yay! I am so glad people are still loving on Brandon Sanderson!!

For me, I think they were:

Mistborn: the Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
Helm by Steven Gould (reread)

...I'm sure there were others, but darn my brain is swiss cheese this late in the day at work.