2008 book review
Fair warning to y-slaybelle, my 2008 selection clearly scoffs at your system, given that I have five authors with a minimum of five books each on the list (many of which were read consecutively) and six more authors with at least two books each. So, better look away now while you have the chance. *weg*
According to my tally, I read one more book in 2008 than in 2007 (96 and 95, respectively) but since two of them were novellas, I call that a wash. On the plus side, new authors outnumbered old authors (31 to 17) for the first time since I started keeping a list. More importantly, one-third of these new authors I liked enough that I have read and/or plan to read more of their work. I have already waxed over the real find this year but let me say it again, Bujold’s Vorkosigan saga FTW!
On the minus side, my non-fiction reading dived from 13 to 3 (a record low), the last one being Jeffrey Toobin’s BTS look at the modern US Supreme Court. Also, I can’t believe I mainlined the Sookie Stackhouse mysteries and then HBO failed me with that awful adaptation. Bleagh!
On to the list! As usual, Instant Classics & Trash It are organized according to their descending order of awesomeness and awfulness, respectively.
Instant Classics
Young Miles (The Warrior’s Apprentice, The Mountains of Mourning, The Vor Game)- Lois McMaster Bujold (I just finished rereading this omnibus this yesterday)
Uncommon Reader - Alan Bennett
A Civil Campaign - Lois McMaster Bujold (Heyer+Sci-fi=\o/)
Miles Errant (Borders of Infinity, Brothers in Arms, Mirror Dance) - Lois McMaster Bujold
Checkmate - Dorothy Dunnett
Hero - Perry Moore
Victory of Eagles - Naomi Novik
The House of the Scorpion - Nancy Farmer
The Masqueraders - Georgette Heyer
American Wife - Curtis Sittenfeld
Trash It
Spike: Shadow Puppets - Brian Lynch & Franco Urru
Heat Stroke - Rachel Caine
Mr. Dixon Disappears - Ian Sansom
Powers of detection: stories of mystery & fantasy - Dana Stabenow (ed.)
Mystique - Amanda Quick (It pained me to discover that my usually reliable source of bubblegum entertainment wrote an awfully boring trashy novel.)
Worth a Second Reading
Fiction
Shards of Honor - Lois McMaster Bujold
Barrayar - Lois McMaster Bujold
Falling Free - Lois McMaster Bujold
Labyrinth - Lois McMaster Bujold
Diplomatic Immunity - Lois McMaster Bujold
Komarr - Lois McMaster Bujold
Winterfair Gifts - Lois McMaster Bujold
The Disorderly Knights - Dorothy Dunnett
Pawn of Frankincense - Dorothy Dunnett
Ringed Castle - Dorothy Dunnett
These Old Shades - Georgette Heyer
Devil’s Cub - Georgette Heyer
The Grand Sophy - Georgette Heyer
Cotillion - Georgette Heyer
Venetia - Georgette Heyer
The Nonesuch - Georgette Heyer
Charmed Life - Diana Wynne Jones
The Lives of Christopher Chant - Diana Wynne Jones
The Magicians of Caprona - Diana Wynne Jones
Witch Week - Diana Wynne Jones
Sunshine - Robin McKinley
Dragonhaven - Robin McKinley
Dewey Defeats Truman - Thomas Mallon
Sourcery and Cecelia, or, The Enchanted Chocolate Pot - Patricia C. Wrede & Caroline Stevermer
Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog!) - Jerome K. Jerome
To Say Nothing of the Dog - Connie Willis
Un Lun Dun - China Mieville
Non-Fiction
Season Finale: The unexpected rise and fall of the WB and UPN - Susanne Daniels
The Dirt on Clean: An Unsanitized History - Katherine Ashenburg
The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court - Jeffrey Toobin
Comics
All-Star Superman, Vol. 1 - Grant Morrison & Frank Quitely
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8, Vol. 3 (Wolves at the Gate) - Drew Goddard
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8, Vol. 4 (Time of Your Life) - Joss Whedon
Teen Titans: Titans of Tomorrow - Sean McKeever
Once and Once Only
Fiction
Dead Until Dark - Charlaine Harris
Living Dead in Dallas - Charlaine Harris
Club Dead - Charlaine Harris
Dead to the World - Charlaine Harris
Dead as a Door Nail - Charlaine Harris
Definitely Dead - Charlaine Harris
All Together Dead - Charlaine Harris
From Dead to Worse - Charlaine Harris
Grave Sight - Charlaine Harris
Grave Surprise - Charlaine Harris
Ice Cold Grave - Charlaine Harris
Sylvester - Georgette Heyer
The Foundling - Georgette Heyer
The Quiet Gentleman - Georgette Heyer
Conrad’s Fate - Diana Wynne Jones
Howl's Moving Castle - Diana Wynne Jones
The Grand Tour, or, The purloined coronation regalia - Patricia C. Wrede & Caroline Stevermer
The Mislaid Magician, or Ten Years After -Patricia C. Wrede & Caroline Stevermer
A Game of Thrones - George R.R. Martin
A Great and Terrible Beauty - Libra Bray
As You Desire - Connie Brockway
Beauty - Robin McKinley
Cabinet of Curiosities - Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
Evernight - Claudia Gray
Heart of Stone - Renate Dorrestein
Ill Wind - Rachel Caine
Limitations - Scott Turow
Logorrhea - John Klima (ed.)
Mistress - Amanda Quick
Naked in Death - J.D. Robb
Niccolo Rising - Dorothy Dunnett
Passage - Connie Willis
The Fall of the Kings - Ellen Kushner
The Last of the Wine - Mary Renault
The Lion’s Lady - Julie Garwood
The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway
The Royal Treatment - Mary Janice Davidson
The Spiderwick Chronicles: The Field Guide - Tony DiTerlizzi & Holly Black
Comics
Angel: After the Fall, Vol. 1 - Brian Lynch and Franco Urru
Angel: After the Fall, Vol. 2 - Joss Whedon, et al.
Batman: Bruce Wayne - Fugitive, Vol. 2 - Greg Rucka & Devin Grayson
Batman: Bruce Wayne - Fugitive, Vol. 3 - Ed Brubaker & Greg Rucka
Superman of Tomorrow, Vol. 2 - Brian Azzarello & Jim Lee
I know it looks like I spectacularly failed at my resolution not to resort to the sci-fi/fantasy section but in my defense, it wasn't just by default that I was borrowing all these genre books. Many of them came recommended or were discovered while I was trawling various blogs.
According to my tally, I read one more book in 2008 than in 2007 (96 and 95, respectively) but since two of them were novellas, I call that a wash. On the plus side, new authors outnumbered old authors (31 to 17) for the first time since I started keeping a list. More importantly, one-third of these new authors I liked enough that I have read and/or plan to read more of their work. I have already waxed over the real find this year but let me say it again, Bujold’s Vorkosigan saga FTW!
On the minus side, my non-fiction reading dived from 13 to 3 (a record low), the last one being Jeffrey Toobin’s BTS look at the modern US Supreme Court. Also, I can’t believe I mainlined the Sookie Stackhouse mysteries and then HBO failed me with that awful adaptation. Bleagh!
On to the list! As usual, Instant Classics & Trash It are organized according to their descending order of awesomeness and awfulness, respectively.
Instant Classics
Young Miles (The Warrior’s Apprentice, The Mountains of Mourning, The Vor Game)- Lois McMaster Bujold (I just finished rereading this omnibus this yesterday)
Uncommon Reader - Alan Bennett
A Civil Campaign - Lois McMaster Bujold (Heyer+Sci-fi=\o/)
Miles Errant (Borders of Infinity, Brothers in Arms, Mirror Dance) - Lois McMaster Bujold
Checkmate - Dorothy Dunnett
Hero - Perry Moore
Victory of Eagles - Naomi Novik
The House of the Scorpion - Nancy Farmer
The Masqueraders - Georgette Heyer
American Wife - Curtis Sittenfeld
Trash It
Spike: Shadow Puppets - Brian Lynch & Franco Urru
Heat Stroke - Rachel Caine
Mr. Dixon Disappears - Ian Sansom
Powers of detection: stories of mystery & fantasy - Dana Stabenow (ed.)
Mystique - Amanda Quick (It pained me to discover that my usually reliable source of bubblegum entertainment wrote an awfully boring trashy novel.)
Worth a Second Reading
Fiction
Shards of Honor - Lois McMaster Bujold
Barrayar - Lois McMaster Bujold
Falling Free - Lois McMaster Bujold
Labyrinth - Lois McMaster Bujold
Diplomatic Immunity - Lois McMaster Bujold
Komarr - Lois McMaster Bujold
Winterfair Gifts - Lois McMaster Bujold
The Disorderly Knights - Dorothy Dunnett
Pawn of Frankincense - Dorothy Dunnett
Ringed Castle - Dorothy Dunnett
These Old Shades - Georgette Heyer
Devil’s Cub - Georgette Heyer
The Grand Sophy - Georgette Heyer
Cotillion - Georgette Heyer
Venetia - Georgette Heyer
The Nonesuch - Georgette Heyer
Charmed Life - Diana Wynne Jones
The Lives of Christopher Chant - Diana Wynne Jones
The Magicians of Caprona - Diana Wynne Jones
Witch Week - Diana Wynne Jones
Sunshine - Robin McKinley
Dragonhaven - Robin McKinley
Dewey Defeats Truman - Thomas Mallon
Sourcery and Cecelia, or, The Enchanted Chocolate Pot - Patricia C. Wrede & Caroline Stevermer
Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog!) - Jerome K. Jerome
To Say Nothing of the Dog - Connie Willis
Un Lun Dun - China Mieville
Non-Fiction
Season Finale: The unexpected rise and fall of the WB and UPN - Susanne Daniels
The Dirt on Clean: An Unsanitized History - Katherine Ashenburg
The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court - Jeffrey Toobin
Comics
All-Star Superman, Vol. 1 - Grant Morrison & Frank Quitely
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8, Vol. 3 (Wolves at the Gate) - Drew Goddard
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8, Vol. 4 (Time of Your Life) - Joss Whedon
Teen Titans: Titans of Tomorrow - Sean McKeever
Once and Once Only
Fiction
Dead Until Dark - Charlaine Harris
Living Dead in Dallas - Charlaine Harris
Club Dead - Charlaine Harris
Dead to the World - Charlaine Harris
Dead as a Door Nail - Charlaine Harris
Definitely Dead - Charlaine Harris
All Together Dead - Charlaine Harris
From Dead to Worse - Charlaine Harris
Grave Sight - Charlaine Harris
Grave Surprise - Charlaine Harris
Ice Cold Grave - Charlaine Harris
Sylvester - Georgette Heyer
The Foundling - Georgette Heyer
The Quiet Gentleman - Georgette Heyer
Conrad’s Fate - Diana Wynne Jones
Howl's Moving Castle - Diana Wynne Jones
The Grand Tour, or, The purloined coronation regalia - Patricia C. Wrede & Caroline Stevermer
The Mislaid Magician, or Ten Years After -Patricia C. Wrede & Caroline Stevermer
A Game of Thrones - George R.R. Martin
A Great and Terrible Beauty - Libra Bray
As You Desire - Connie Brockway
Beauty - Robin McKinley
Cabinet of Curiosities - Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
Evernight - Claudia Gray
Heart of Stone - Renate Dorrestein
Ill Wind - Rachel Caine
Limitations - Scott Turow
Logorrhea - John Klima (ed.)
Mistress - Amanda Quick
Naked in Death - J.D. Robb
Niccolo Rising - Dorothy Dunnett
Passage - Connie Willis
The Fall of the Kings - Ellen Kushner
The Last of the Wine - Mary Renault
The Lion’s Lady - Julie Garwood
The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway
The Royal Treatment - Mary Janice Davidson
The Spiderwick Chronicles: The Field Guide - Tony DiTerlizzi & Holly Black
Comics
Angel: After the Fall, Vol. 1 - Brian Lynch and Franco Urru
Angel: After the Fall, Vol. 2 - Joss Whedon, et al.
Batman: Bruce Wayne - Fugitive, Vol. 2 - Greg Rucka & Devin Grayson
Batman: Bruce Wayne - Fugitive, Vol. 3 - Ed Brubaker & Greg Rucka
Superman of Tomorrow, Vol. 2 - Brian Azzarello & Jim Lee
I know it looks like I spectacularly failed at my resolution not to resort to the sci-fi/fantasy section but in my defense, it wasn't just by default that I was borrowing all these genre books. Many of them came recommended or were discovered while I was trawling various blogs.