Reviews I Love, of Books I Hated.

Here are some of my more "passionate" reviews.

The Lady of the Sea - Rosalind Miles

This is one of my earliest reviews, (2005) so it doesn't have finesse, but I think it's funny.

1/5 stars

I felt obligated to finish the trilogy. It was a mistake. This book was so unbelievably boring. You see, Tristan and Isolde get separated. Then Tristan is beset by something and then Isolde whines to the Goddess, oh my love my love. Then they get back together, and then they get separated and then Tristan is beset by something and Isolde whines to the Goddess, oh my love my love. Repeat. It's horrid. I wish I could get a refund. Truly, don't waste your time. Try the Kushiel series by Jacqueline Carey, it's a way better investment in your time (and reading dollar.)

----------------------

Sometimes a book series just goes on too long. This is one of those times.

1/5 stars

Lean Mean Thirteen

I have been a huge fan of this series, and recommended it to many others. I've read almost every book in hardcover, so I don't say this lightly ... but this book was terrible.

There wasn't a single spark of originality. The Ranger/Morelli dilemma is tired, and frankly ... Stephanie Plum's lack of integrity on the matter is not amusing. It's been 13 books, make a decision.

Is it still funny to others when Stephanie blows up a car? It's not funny to me. Grandma... we get it, she's eccentric.

It feels like Evanovich is just filling in a template, and after 13 books, I'm done. I certainly can't see reading another 13 like this one. Evanovich owes it to her loyal fan base (who have made her a multi-millionaire) to put in a little bit of effort and creativity. We all know that Stephanie's mom irons when she's stressed, they have a family dinner on Friday night, Lula wears clothes that don't fit, and Joyce and Steph have a rivalry.

This series has gone Scooby Doo. I wouldn't be one bit surprised if the next book ended with, "And I would have gotten away with it if it hadn't been for those crazy bounty hunters."

---------------------

Even a favorite author can put out a stinker, and Cantrippy The Girl With No Shadow is just that!

1/5 stars

Oh ... thank God that's over.

I am a big fan of Joanne Harris, and I loved the movie Chocolat, and of course the book it was based on was good too (though I think the movie was better.) This is the "continuation" of the story.

Wow. It was so bad.

For reasons that are never fully comprehended, Vianne is fixated upon by a woman who wants to steal her identity. Because that's what she does. Steals identities, and sees colors and does cantrips. This woman, Zozie, is supposed to be so fun and hip and cool and interesting, but she wasn't. She was just awful. And also, all she did was see colors and do cantrips. And then she taught Anouk to see colors and do cantrips, so then Anouk was seeing colors and doing cantrips. And did I mention there was the seeing of colors and the performing of cantrips?

It was so boring, and I really didn't want to finish it, but I was 300 pages in before I was totally fed up and I felt like I was so far in it would have been a shame not to get to the rushed, entirely uninteresting, and predictable ending.

All the charm of Chocolat was missing, and the magic was jammed down your throat at every opportunity.

The book could have been 200 pages shorter, and you know, had about 700 less cantrips.

Incidentally, Harris's Five Quarters of the Orange was one of my favorite books read this year, so if you are looking to read Harris, I definitely suggest that one.

I still love Harris, and will continue to read her books, but this one was painful. I will now perform a cantrip to try to get it out of my head.

--------------------------

Another series gone on too long - Outlander - A Breath of Snow and Ashes was self-indulgent blather. (This is probably my favorite review ever!)

2/5 (but I was being uber generous)

(Contains spoilers)

Up until this book, I have thoroughly enjoyed the Outlander series. This book was a disaster. Two things saved it from getting a 1 star rating. 1. I read the whole book (painful as it was at times) and 2. The last 300 pages (which I could barely enjoy because I was so irritated by the first 700.)

For the first 700 pages there was no story. Instead, we had an incoherent series of medical emergencies and miscellaneous tragedies cobbled together, featuring Claire as the hero and/or the victim. I mean, come on, Jaime is afraid of snakes but Claire isn't? Absurd.

I wished that I had kept track of the myriad illnesses and medical miracles that our Claire tackled. She delivered a dwarf baby, performed hemorrhoid surgery, grew her own penicillin, made her own ether, saved a whole whore house from syphilis, stuck a needle in Jocasta's eye to relieve her glaucoma pain, treated a dysentery outbreak, made a malaria rub, and performed an appendectomy. And that's just what I can remember off the top of my head. Always ready with just the right herb, or supplies. I think Gabaldon must have gotten a medical encyclopedia for Christmas.

Speaking of the dwarf baby, it was completely irrelevant to the story. (Not to mention the ridiculous, and story irrelevant, induction of labor.)

One can only suspend disbelief so long with a book that reads a lot like historical fiction. I suppose it's one thing for Claire to have sex with Jamie 24 hours after she has been raped, but when Lizzie married both twins because she wasn't sure who she had gotten pregnant by ....

From an editorial standpoint, I'm fairly certain the editor must have been so bored they only pretended to read the book. Timelines were all over the place, at one point Amy's second child was completely missing from the story. Not just absent from that chapter, absent from existence. The novel was written in the first person of Claire but there were sex parts with her daughter Bree. I think when your daughter starts having sex in your novel, it's time to drop the first person. But that's okay, Bree didn't have too much sex because she was busy building indoor plumbing, inventing matches, and brewing her own paper. I don't know how she found time to get kidnapped by Stephen Bonnet yet again.

This book was sloppy. It said to me that Gabaldon is convinced that her readers are so interested in her incoherent blathering, they will read anything. She couldn't be bothered to write a story, and give us some characters we might actually like. She was too busy trying to impress us with her knowledge of medicine. I don't care what happens next in the Outlander series and I won't be reading anymore. This was a true disappointment.

-----------------------

I don't want to give this book any distinctions, it already got a big one ... The Pulitzer, but it's possible I've never hated a book more.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

"Brief" and "Wondrous" = LIES!

1 star uno

Wow. Hated this book.

Oscar Wao is obese, lonely, a sci-fi geek, and a virgin (natch) of Dominican descent. The story is sort of about him, but mostly about his family (there are parts about his sister, his mother, and his mother's parents.) And it's narrated (at times) by some appalling ghetto-speaking "playa." (I mean a player, not a beach.)

The writing is dreadful.

There are 3 1/2 page paragraphs
Spanish never translated to English
Extremely long historical footnotes in minuscule print
Switching of 1st person narrators so that when somebody says "I" you have to try to figure out who it is
DIALOG IS NOT IN QUOTES .... one day, I'm going to write a book, and not use quotes in my dialog, and then I too can win a Pulitzer
Fragmented sentences GALORE (clearly he turned off the thing in MS Word which tells you - politely - "fragment, consider revising")
Frequent use of "Negro, please" (or its less pleasant, but same meaning, alternate) as a rebuttal statement
an odd aversion to personal pronouns

One part of the book takes place in the late 1950's in Dominican Republic. If you've ever seen the movie In the Time of the Butterflies, this part of the book takes place during this horrid dictator's regime. And Oscar's mother is involved with someone close to the dictator. And this passage appears:

Now check it: the truck held a perico ripiao conjunto, fresh from playing a wedding in Ocoa. Took all the courage they had not to pop the truck in reverse and peel out of there.

Now check it????? I'm surprised he didn't start out with a "Yo" and follow up with a "My Bad"

Also during this period:

Home girl was 'bout it.

This is typical of the writing:

Ignored her, ignored me. Sat next to her brother, took his hand.

That kind of writing isn't clever ... It's lazy. But I suppose it's nothing compared to:

I didn't have no medical. (This was narrative, not dialog.)

I hate this book so much that I've taken it personally. Like it was written and won a Pulitzer just to piss me off.

So why did I finish it? I was hoping for some redemption. And I got just the briefest glimpse of it ... but it was in no way wondrous.

Motherless Brooklyn - Jonathan Lethem

What I learned from this book:

- I don't think I would enjoy hanging out with someone who has Tourette's
- Jonathan Lethem loves the word Echolalia

Lethem is a good writer, and I like the neuroses of his characters, but this book didn't do much for me. As a detective story, it was weak. As any kind of story it was kind of weak actually. I didn't dislike it, I didn't love it. It was just sort of "meh."

Obviously, the the main character has Tourette's, and I think perhaps that bit may have been just a tinge overdone. And as Harris overused the word "cantrip" in The Girl with No Shadow, this book had the word "tic" more than I've ever seen in any book. It was almost ticcish in its use of tic. A tic of tics. Tictacular. Tic-Tock. Hickory Dickory Dock. Hickory smoked bacon. (Yep, it was like that.)

I'm just not sure that this book would inspire me to read any Lethem in the future.

3 tics out of 5

Super Sad True Love Story - Gary Shteyngart

Publication Date: July 27






I didn't find this book to be a "super sad true love story" ... nor a "super sad, true, love story". Mostly, I found the love missing and rather than sad, I found it kind of depressing.

So why the 5 stars?

Let me break it down:

Originality/creativity - 5
Humor - 2
Characters - 2.5? maybe 3
social commentary/satire - 5
eerie plausibility - 5

Originality/creativity

It's the near future. Perhaps it's now. It's impossible to tell. We are addicted to social networking, online shopping and our iPhones. Our worth as humans is measured by our credit scores and LDL cholesterol. There IS no privacy. Dying is optional. We're all members of the Bipartisan Party. Credit is King, and a highly valued profession. Media is an aspiration and a high compliment. The dollar is wallpaper, unless it's Yuan-pegged.

Shteyngart really did a fantastic job with his "vision" of our near future.

Humor

There's a lot of talk about how funny this book is. I didn't find it so at all. The truth is very often funny, but in this case, the truth was just too scary for me. That didn't detract (for me) in any way from the book, but I wouldn't go in expecting a laugh riot.

Characters

The "love" in this story was ostensibly between Eunice, a beautiful young girl, of Korean decent and Lenny, an "old man" (39 ... old in the context of the book), of Russian descent, not attractive, kind of a dweeb. The story is told from their alternating points of view.

Here's where I really struggled, because I'm not convinced it was possible to love the characters. Or perhaps even to like them. We've all seen it ... A group of people sitting at a table, having dinner or a coffee, and nobody is interacting. They're on their iPhones, Blackberries. Texting, googling, checking the stock market or their auction. Human interaction is becoming superfluous. Need a friend? Login to Facebook. Need some shoes? shoes.com. Imagine what we'll be like in ten to twenty years. Self-absorbed, self-sufficient, uninteresting, SHALLOW. Only the most innate biological imperative will drive us to other people.

I didn't "feel" the love in this potential "love" story, because I'm not convinced the characters were capable of love, either of themselves or others. Maybe they weren't fully developed, but I don't think that was it. I think they were as fully developed as they could be given the times they grew up in.

Social Commentary/Satire

It's so well-done, and so plausible, it almost doesn't even feel like satire. Quite simply: Brilliant.

Eerily Plausible

David Mitchell called this book "social prophecy" in his blurb. I hope he's wrong, but it sure does seem like we are headed down this path. Shteyngart had to have started writing this book at least two years ago. Yet, so much of what is in this book is happening right now. The Facebook privacy controversy is a prime example.

In addition to the social aspects of this book, there's also the political. I don't want to give any more detail than I already have, but this passage really struck me:

"....there were all these like little shacks for the homeless people in Central Park. It was really sad. These people are getting kicked out of their homes along the highway because the Chinese central banker is coming and Lenny says the Bipartisans don't want us to look poor in front of our Asian creditors."

This is an eye-opening novel. A cautionary tale! We are selling America to the highest bidder so we can wear our Juicy dresses and Prada sunglasses, while dining on truffled lobster Mac 'n Cheese in our kitchens with subway tile blacksplash.

Take Heed!

Incidentally, this would make and OUTSTANDING (though not traditional) book club read. So many great topics for undoubtedly heated discussion.

Rated 5/5 stars

Neither Here Nor There - Bill Bryson

Neither interesting, nor funny. Neither entertaining, nor educational. Neither provacative nor engaging.

Awful.

Not funny.

Maybe I've travelled too much to appreciate this book, but it was awful, bordering on offensive. I would have thought that Bryson would be an enthusiastic and passionate traveler, but he wasn't. At least not in this book. In this book he was bitter, whiney and did nothing but complain.

Let me sum up the book for you:

EVERYTHING IS EXPENSIVE
the food is bad
People are different than him, therefore, awful
something poop related

He bashed the culture of every country visited in some way. When he was in Switzerland and bored he made up some riddles. Here's one: "What do you call a gathering of boring people in Switzerland?" ... "Zurich."

Every once in a while something seemingly positive would happen, and I would think ... maybe ... maybe he's going to have ONE good experience on this trip. But nope. Always a "but". Murphy's Law always right around Bill Bryson's corner.

I'm shocked that this book was published. I've written better travel commentary on the back of an American Airlines cocktail napkin.

Rated 1 of 5 stars

The Ark - Boyd Morrison

I love Biblical fiction; books like David Maine's The Preservationist or The Red Tent. While this book is not biblical fiction, it has that element that I love. Taking a story from the bible, kind of taking it a part and putting it back together again. All the elements are still there, but it allows the reader to think of it in a way they may not have thought of before. I find that fun! Especially with a tale as tired as Noah's Ark.

This is a modern day thriller, with all the cool technology, twists and turns, gun fights and explosions, loony tunes bad guys, and near death experiences that go along with that genre. But it also deals with the story of Noah's Ark in a really interesting way.

As with most thrillers, it's a very fast-paced, fun and enjoyable read.

This is not Christian fiction, I don't know why anyone would think that (Was Indiana Jones a Christian Movie?). I thought the author was quite respectful in dealing with the slippery slope of presenting an alternate point of view of the Bible's Noah.

Entertaining!

Rated 4 of 5 stars

Books I Read in 2010

1. I Am the Messenger - (1/2) - Markus Zusak 368p
2. The Stand: Expanded Edition: For the First Time Complete and Uncut (Signet) - (1/24) - Stephen King 1141p
3. Bite Me: A Love Story - (1/30) - Christopher Moore 320p
4. The Giver - (1/31) - Lois Lowry 208p
5. The Shipping News - (2/13) - Annie Proulx 352p
6. Music for Torching - (2/20) - A.M. Homes 368p
7. From Dead to Worse - (2/27) - Charlaine Harris 302p
8. The End Of Alice - (2/28) - A.M. Homes 272p
9. The Girl Who Chased the Moon - (3/7) - Sarah Addison Allen 288p
10. Illustrado - (3/27) - Miguel Syjuco 320p
11. The Idiot - (4/4) - Fyodor Dostoyevsky 656p
12. The Things They Carried - (4/10) - Tim O'Brien 256p
13. The Spellman's Strike Again - (4/11) - Lisa Lutz 400p
14. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest - (4/23) - Stieg Larsson 576p
15. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (Random House Reader's Circle) - (4/24) - MaryAnn Shaffer 290p
16. Tell All - (4/25) - Chuck Palahniuk 192p
17. Light Boxes - (5/1) - Shane Jones 160p
18. The Nobodies Album - (5/4) - Carolyn Parkhurst 320p
19. A Gate at the Stairs - (5/7) - Lorrie Moore 336p
20. Backseat Saints - (5/8) - Joshilyn Jackson 352p
21. Imperial Bedrooms - (5/9) - Bret Easton Ellis 192p
22. Chasing Darkness: An Elvis Cole Novel (Elvis Cole Novels) - (5/16) - Robert Crais 408p
23. Cry to Heaven - (5/30) - Anne Rice 576p
24. The Ark - (6/5) - Boyd Morrison 420p
25. Super Sad True Love Story - (6/6) - Gary Shteyngart - 352p
26. Motherless Brooklyn - (6/26) - Jonathan Lethem 311p
27. My Fair Lazy - (6/27) - Jen Lancaster 384p
28. Jack - (7/3) - A.M. Homes 240p
29. Gathering Blue - (7/4) - Lois Lowry 240p
30. Messenger - (7/5) - Lois Lowry 176p
31. The Safety of Objects - (7/19) - A.M. Homes 176p
32. Adam & Eve: A Novel - (8/3) - Sena Jeter Naslund 352p
33. Dark Life - (8/15) - Kat Fails 304p
34. Switching Time: A Doctor's Harrowing Story of Treating a Woman with 17 Personalities - (8/24) - Richard Baer 368p
35. Mockingjay - (8/28) - Suzanne Collins 400p
36. C - (9/5) - Tom McCarthy 320p
37. Gone with the Wind - (9/26) - Margaret Mitchell 860p
38. Little Bee - (9/30) - Chris Cleave 304p
39. Room - (10/9) - Emma Donoghue 336p
40. The Discovery of Socket Greeny - (10/16) - Tony Bertauski 282p
41. Grave Peril (The Dresden Files, Book 3) - (10/31) - Jim Butcher 378p
42. The Forgotten Garden: A Novel - (11/7) - Kate Morton 560p
43. Number the Stars - (11/12) - Lois Lowry 136p
44. The Diviner's Tale - (12/4) - Bradford Morrow 320p
45. Lolita - (12/10) - Vladimir Nabokov 336p
46. The End of Alice - (12/12)- A.M. Homes 272p(re-read)
47. Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name: A Novel (P.S.) - (12/13) - Vendela Vida 256p
48. Columbine - (12/19) - Dave Cullen 464p
49. Swamplandia! - (12/29) - Karen Russell 336p
50. In the Lake of the Woods - (12/31) - Tim O'Brien 321p

Audio

1. Peter and Max - Bill Willingham 3/5 stars
2. The Goose Girl - Shannon Hale 5/5 stars
3.Horns - Joe Hill 4/5 stars
4. The Help - Kathryn Stockett 5/5 stars
5. Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe - Bill Bryson 1/5 stars
6. When You Are Engulfed in Flames - David Sedaris 3/5 stars
7. Enna Burning (Books of Bayern) - Shannon Hale 2.5/5 stars
8. Radio Free Albemuth - Philip K. Dick 4/5 stars
9. The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ - Philip Pullman 1/5 stars
10. Hunger Games - Audio - Suzanne Collins 4.5/5 stars
11. Catching Fire (The Second Book of the Hunger Games) - Audio - Suzanne Collins 5/5 stars
12. Paper Towns - John Green 5/5 stars
13. The Elegance of the Hedgehog - Muriel Barbery 3/5 stars
14. Beatrice and Virgil - Yann Martel 2/5 stars
15. The Wild Things - Dave Eggers 3/5 stars
16. Life of Pi - Yawn Martel 1/5 stars (click link for my review)
17. The Good Earth (Blackstone Audio Classic Collection) - Pearl S. Buck 5/5 stars
18. Blackout - Connie Willis 4/5 stars
19. I'm Dreaming of a Black Christmas - Lewis Black 2/5 stars
20. The Scorch Trials - James Dashner 2/5 stars
21. Alice I Have Been: A Novel - Melanie Benjamin - 5/5 stars

My top 10 reads of 2009

In no particular order

I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith
The Yiddish Policemans Union - Michael Chabon
The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro
The Housekeeper and the Professor - Yoko Ogawa
American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis
East of Eden - John Steinbeck
Five Quarters of the Orange - Joanne Harris
Cathedral of the Sea - Ildefonso Falcones
God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater - Kurt Vonnegut

Books I Read in 2009

73. Go with Me: A Novel (P.S.) - (12/31) - Castle Freeman Jr. 192p
72. God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater - (12/30) - Kurt Vonnegut 190p 2009 FAVORITE
71. Snuff - (12/28) - Chuck Palahniuk 208p
70. Altar of Eden - (12/27) - James Rollins 416p
69. Shades of Grey: A Novel - (12/23) - Jasper Fforde 400p
68. Chronic City - (12/12) - Jonathan Lethem 480p
67. The Woods - (12/4) - Harlen Coben 418p
66. Pirate Latitudes - (11/20) - Michael Crichton 320p
65. New World Monkeys - (10/09) - Nancy Mauro 304p
64. The Girl With No Shadow - (9/23) - Joanne Harris 480p
63. I Capture the Castle - (9/7) - Dodie Smith 352p 2009 FAVORITE
62. The Maze Runner - 9/4 - James Dashner 384p
61. Catching Fire - (8/30) - Suzanne Collins 400p
60. The Year of the Flood: A Novel - (8/29) - Margaret Atwood 448p
59. Love Walked In - (7/23) - Marisa de los Santos 320p
58. Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West - (7/10) - Cormac McCarthy 352p
57. Tortilla Flat - (7/4) - John Steinbeck 208p
56. Summer of Love - (6/30) - Lisa Mason 384p
55. John the Revelator - (6/26) Peter Murphy 277p
54. L.A. Candy - (6/21) - Lauren Conrad 336p
53. American Adulterer (6/12) - Jed Mercurio 352p
52. Orlando: A Biography - (6/11) - Virginia Woolf 352p
51. All Together Dead - (6/5) - Charlaine Harris 352p
50. Johannes Cabal the Necromancer - (5/30) - Jonathan Howard 304p
49. Glover's Mistake - (5/29) - Nick Laird 256p
48. The Watchman: A Joe Pike Novel - (5/27) - Robert Crais 416p
47. The Yiddish Policemen's Union: A Novel (P.S.) - (5/25) - Michael Chabon 432p 2009 FAVORITE
46. The Angel's Game - (5/20) - Carlos Ruiz Zafon 470p
45. Fool Moon - (5/17) - Jim Butcher 352p
44. All That I Have: A Novel - (5/15) - Castle Freeman, Jr. 176p
43. The Shadow of the Wind - (5/10) - Carlos Ruiz Zafon 487p
42. Dexter by Design: A Novel - (5/6) - Jeff Lindsay 304p
41. Thirteen Reasons Why - (5/1) - Jay Asher 320p
40. A Lion Among Men: Volume Three in the Wicked Years - 4/27 - Gregory Maguire 336p
39. His Majesty's Dragon (Temeraire, Book 1) - (4/26) - Naomi Novik 384p
38. Definitely Dead - (4/25) - Charlaine Harris 352p
37. The Book Thief - (4/22) - Marcus Zusak 576p 2009 FAVORITE
36. B Is for Beer - (4/21) - Tom Robbins 128p
35. The Girl Who Played with Fire - (4/12) - Stieg Larsson 569p
34. So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish - (4/10) - Douglas Adams 224p
33. We - (4/5) - Yevgeny Zamyatin 232p
32. Brave New World - (4/4) - Aldous Huxley 288p
31. Never Let Me Go - (4/2) - Kuzuo Ishiguro 304p 2009 FAVORITE
30. Cathedral of the Sea: A Novel - 3/30 - Ildefonso Falcones 624p 2009 FAVORITE
29. Shogun - 3/28 - James Clavell 1,152 p
28. Five Quarters of the Orange: A Novel (P.S.) - (3/15) - Joanne Harris 336p 2009 FAVORITE
27. After Silence - (3/7) - Jonathan Carroll 225p
26. The Metamorphosis - (3/6) - Franz Kafka 76p
25. The Uncommon Reader: A Novella - (3/5) - Alan Bennett 128p
24. The Housekeeper and the Professor: A Novel - (3/2) - Yoko Ogawa 192p 2009 FAVORITE
23. In the Company of the Courtesan - (3/1) - Sarah Dunant 385p
22. The Hunger Games - (2/27) - Suzanne Collins 384p
21. The Post-Birthday World: A Novel (P.S.) - (2/21) - Lionel Shriver 544p
20. Blindness - (2/16) - Jose Saramago 352p
19. Storm Front - (2/14) - Jim Butcher 336p
18. Fool: A Novel - (2/14) - Christopher Moore 336p
17. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - (2/7) - Junot Diaz 352p
16. Dead as a Doornail - (2/7) - Charlaine Harris 295p
15. Good Grief: A Novel - (2/4) - Lolly Winston 352p
14. Fortune's Rocks: A Novel - (2/1) - Anita Shreve 453p
13. East of Eden - (1/31) - John Steinbeck 602p 2009 FAVORITE
12. Less Than Zero - (1/24) - Bret Easton Ellis 208p
11. The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet: A Novel - (1/23) - Colleen McCullough 352p
10. American Psycho - (1/18) - Bret Easton Ellis 416p 2009 FAVORITE
9. Pride and Prejudice - (1/10) - Jane Austen 314p
8. Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation - (1/13) - Lynn Truss 240p
7. Dead to the World - (1/11) - Charlaine Harris 292p
6. Slaughterhouse-Five - (1/10) - Kurt Vonnegut 224p
5. Sepulchre - (1/9) - Kate Mosse 592p
4. The Magician's Nephew (Narnia) - (1/6) - C.S. Lewis 208p
3. The Ghost in Love: A Novel - (1/4) - Jonathan Carroll 320p
2. All Encompassing Trip - (1/2) - Nicole Del Sesto 308p
1. A Clockwork Orange - (1/1) - Anthony Burgess 192p

My top 10 reads of 2008

(In no particular order)

Letters Home Sylvia Plath

Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey - Chuck Palahnuik

The Origin - Irving Stone

Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides

Sexing the Cherry - Jeanette Winterson

Windfalls - Jean Hegland

House of Leaves - Mark Danielewski

The Art of Racing in the Rain - Garth Stein

My Life So Far - Jane Fonda

The Magus - John Fowles

Books I read in 2008

100. Club Dead - (12/30) - Charlaine Harris 292p
99. The Sugar Queen - (12/28) - Sarah Addison Allen 288p
98. Living Dead in Dallas - (12/27) - Charlaine Harris 291p
97. Dead Until Dark - (12/26) - Charlaine Harris 304p
96. The Magus - (12/25) - John Fowles 672p
95. The Blind Assassin: A Novel - (12/20) - Margaret Atwood 544p
94. Immoveable Feast: A Paris Christmas (P.S.) - (12/20) - John Baxter 288p
93. The Forgotten Man (Elvis Cole Novels) - (12/13) - Robert Crais 368p
92. Cellophane - (12/12) - Marie Arana 384p
91. Lover of Unreason: Assia Wevill, Sylvia Plath's Rival and Ted Hughes' Doomed Love - (12/8) - Yehuda Koren, Eliat Negev 250p
90. The Bell Jar - (12/4) - Sylvia Plath 288p (yes, again)
89. Letters Home - (12/1) - Sylvia Plath 512p
88. The Book of Lost Things: A Novel - (11/28) - John Connolly 348p
87. When Will There Be Good News?: A Novel - (11/22) - Kate Atkinson 400p
86. The Paris Enigma: A Novel - (11/18) - Pablo De Santis 244p
85. Garden Spells (Bantam Discovery) - (11/15) - Sarah Addison Allen 320p
84. Cosmicomics - (11/11) - Italo Calvino 153p
83. Out: A Novel - (11/2) - Natsuo Karino 400p
82. The Modern Neurosis Handbook: A Guide to Coping - (10/26) - Andrea Sarvady 144p
81. The Catcher in the Rye - (10/24) - JD Salinger 224p
80. The Bell Jar - (10/19) - Sylvia Plath 288p
79. When the Sacred Ginmill Closes (Matthew Scudder Mysteries) - (10/18) - Lawrence Block 354p
78. Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas - (10/15) - Tom Robbins 386p
77. Curse of the Spellmans: A Novel - (10/11) - Lisa Lutz 416p
76. Coyote Blue - (9/30) - Christopher Moore 320p
75. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - (9/22) - Steig Larsson 480p
74. Amazonia - (9/18) - James Rollins 544p
73. Breaking Dawn - (9/6) - Stepehenie Meyer 768p
72. The Soloist - (9/5) - Mark Saltzman 304p
71. Eclipse - (8/31) - Stephenie Meyer 672p
70. The Last Detective - (8/30) - Robert Crais 352p
69. The Glass Castle - (8/28) - Jeannette Walls 288p
68. My Life As A Fake - (8/23) - Peter Carey 288p
67. Galilee - (8/20) - Clive Barker 656p
66. Confessions of a Recovering Slut - (8/9) - Hollis Gillespie 272p
65. Picasso at the Lapin Agile - (8/8) - Steve Martin 78p
64. Golden Bones - (8/3) - Sichun Siv 336p
63. Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany - (7/25) - Bill Buford 336p
62. The Dracula Dossier - (7/19) - James Reese 343p
61. Key Witch - (7/12) - Robert Tacoma 217p
60. New Moon - (7/9) - Stephenie Meyer 565p
59. I Love You, Beth Cooper - (7/6) - Larry Doyle 255p
58. A Girl Named Zippy (7/5) - Haven Kimmel 282p
57. The Virgin Suicides - (6/28) - Jeffrey Eugenides 256p
56. Black Cocktail - (6/25) - Jonathan Carroll 76p
55. House of Leaves - (6/23) - Mark Danielewski 709p
54. The Raw Shark Texts - (6/20) - Steven Hall 448p
53. Such a Pretty Fat - (6/15) - Jen Lancaster 400p
52. The Ice Queen - (6/10) - Alice Hoffman 224p
51. Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World - (6/8) - Haruki Murakami 416p
50. Twilight - (6/6) - Stephenie Meyer 498p
49. The Stranger - (6/1) - Albert Camus 144p
48. Dead Silver - (6/1) - Neil McMahon 288p
47. Generation X - (5/31) - Douglas Coupland 192p
46. Julian - (5/31) - Gore Vidal 528p
45. Windfalls - (5/25) - Jean Hegland 368p
44. The Art of Racing in the Rain - (5/18) - Garth Stein 336p
43. High Fidelity - (5/18) - Nick Hornby 336p
42. The Ruins - (5/11) - Scott Smith 528p
41. The Girl Who Stopped Swimming - (5/4) - Joshilyn Jackson 320p
40. Voice of Our Shadow - (5/3) - Jonathan Carroll 189p
39. L.A. Requiem - (4/30) - Robert Crais 416p
38. The Thirteenth Tale - (4/28) - Diane Setterfield 432p
37. The Lilac Bus - (4/26) - Maeve Binchy 196p
36. Indigo Slam - (4/20) - Robert Crais 320p
35. The Plague - (4/19) - Albert Camus 320p
34. Oranges are Not the Only Fruit - (4/19) - Jeanette Winterson 176p
33. Sexing the Cherry - (4/15) - Jeanette Winterson 167p
32. Sunset Express - (4/13) - Robert Crais 338p
31. Haunted - (4/12) - Chuck Palahniuk 432p
30. Antony and Cleopatra - (4/9) - Colleen McCullough 551p
29. Filth - (4/5) - Irvine Welsh 392p
28. The Diving Pool - (4/1) - Yoko Ogawa 164p
27. On, Off - (3/31) - Colleen McCullough 432p
26. Ice Hunt - (3/24) - James Rollins 544p
25. Dexter in the Dark - (3/22) - Jeff Lindsay 320p
24. Queenmaker - (3/16) - India Edghill 384p
23. Nefertiti - (3/15) - Michelle Moran 480p
22. Monster, 1959 - (3/9) - David Maine 256p
21. Middlesex - (3/8) - Jeffrey Eugenides 544p
20. No Country for Old Men - (3/2) - Cormac McCarthy 309p
19. Breakfast at Tiffany's - (3/2) - Truman Capote 178p
18. My Life So Far - (2/27) - Jane Fonda 624p
17. I Am Not Myself These Days - (2/20) - Josh Kilmer-Purcell 336p
16. Runemarks - (2/19) - Joanne Harris 544p
15. The Boleyn Inheritance - (2/16) - Philippa Gregory 528p
14. Water for Elephants - (2/9) - Sara Gruen 350p
13. Bright Lights, Big Ass - (2/8) Jen Lancaster 385p
12. Carry Me Down - (2/8) - M.J. Hyland 326p
11. Brown Girl in the Ring - (2/5) - Nalo Hopkinson 256p
10. Sputnik Sweetheart - (2/3) - Haruki Murakami 224p
9. Carter Beats the Devil - (2/2) - Glen David Gold 496p
8. Dearly Devoted Dexter - (1/25) - Jeff Lindsay 304p
7. The Penelopiad - (1/24) - Margaret Atwood 224p
6. The Origin - (1/22) - Irving Stone 774p
5. Thursday Next: First Among Sequels - (1/12) - Jasper Fforde 384p
4. The Amber Spyglass - (1/11) - Philip Pullman 480p
3. Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey - (1/7) - Chuck Palahniuk 336p
2. The Glass Harp - (1/5) - Truman Capote 97p
1. The Stolen Child - (1/4) - Kevin Donohue 336p