The Books of 2008

The Comfort of StrangersSo many books, so little time-part two

My son started keeping a reading list in third grade, so I did too. This is the second year we’ve done this. Last year I set a goal to read better books but this year I actually read MORE books that weren’t necessarily of the highest quality. I’m finding that more and more I lean to read to escape, rather than be challenged, which is kind of sad.

My favorite book of 2008 was probably The Comfort of Strangers by Ian McEwan, he also wrote Atonement, which I loved. I have a few more of his books on my night table so I’m looking forward to those. Other favorites were The End of the Affair, by Graham Greene, and Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen.

I’d love to hear about other people’s favorite books this year.

  1. 19 Minutes – Jodi Picoult
  2. Blood Brothers – Nora Roberts
  3. Bookends-Jane Green
  4. The Breakdown Lane-Jacquelyn Mitchard
  5. A Thousand Splendid Suns-Khaled Hossseini
  6. Eat, Pray, Love-Elizabeth Gilbert
  7. The Year of Magical Thinking-Joan Didion
  8. Garlic and Sapphires-Ruth Reichel
  9. Boy-Roald Dahl
  10. Creation in Death-J.D. Robb
  11. The Last Beach Bungalow-Jennie Nash
  12. Three Cups of Tea-Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
  13. Paris to the Moon-Adam Gopnik
  14. Suburban Diva-Tracy Henry
  15. The Not-So-Perfect Man-Valerie Frankel
  16. The Hollow-Nora Roberts
  17. The End of the Affair-Graham Greene
  18. Summerland-Michael Chabon
  19. There’s No Place Like Here-Cecelia Ahern
  20. Bridge of Sighs-Richard Russo
  21. Tribute-Nora Roberts
  22. Outside Providence-Peter Farrelly
  23. The Pact-Jodi Picoult
  24. Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict-Larie Viera Rigler
  25. Remember Me? – Sophie Kinsella
  26. The Sweet Potato Queens Guide to Raising Children for Fun and Profit-Jill Conner
  27. Jinx-Meg Cabot
  28. The Writing Class-Jincy Willett
  29. Kabul Beauty School-Deborah Rodriguez
  30. Water for Elephants – Sara Gruen
  31. Married Lovers-Jackie Collins
  32. Talk Talk-T.C. Boyle
  33. Twilight-Stephenie Meyer
  34. Certain Girls-Jennifer Weiner
  35. Hometown Santa Barbara-Nancy Ransohoff, Zak Klobucher, Starshine Roshell, Cheryl Crabtree, Leslie Dinaberg (yes, I wrote some of it, but I read all of it and really liked the history chapters, Cheryl!)
  36. Are you there Vodka, it’s me Chelsea? – Chelsea Handler
  37. Size 12 is not Fat-Meg Cabot
  38. The Last Lecture-Randy Pfausch
  39. Strangers in Death-J.D. Robb
  40. Expensive People-Joyce Carol Oates
  41. Candy Girl-Diablo Cody
  42. The Comfort of Strangers-Ian McEwan
  43. New Moon-Stephanie Meyer
  44. All American Girl-Meg Cabot
  45. Ready or Not-Meg Cabot
  46. I Just Want my Children to be Happy-Aaron Cooper
  47. Queen of Babble-Meg Cabot
  48. House of Testosterone-Sharon O’Donnell
  49. Keep Your Skirt On-Starshine Roshell
  50. My Antonia-Willa Cather

Originally posted on January 2, 2009.

Click to read The Books of 2007.