Details of this weekly feauture from Deb. "It’s a week or two later than you’d expect, and it may be almost a trite question, but…what were your favorite books from 2008?"
I tried to keep the list short but of the 143 books I read during the year there were at least 25 that were truly outstanding to my mind.
The Swallows of Kabul***** by Yasmina Khadra
Village of Stone***** by Xiaolu Guo
Disobedience***** by Naomi Alderman
Memory***** by Philippe Grimbert
Through Black Spruce***** by Joseph Boyden
The Lizard Cage***** by Karen Connelly
Me and Emma***** by Elizabeth Flock
The Boys in the Trees***** by Mary Swan
Night Train to Lisbon***** by Pascal Mercier
Breath**** by Tim Winton
The Whalestoe Letters***** by Mark Z. Danielewski
Ten Thousand Lovers***** by Edeet Ravel
City of Thieves***** by David Benioff
The Door***** by Magda Szabo
Detective Story***** by Imre Kertesz
A Pigeon and a Boy***** by Meir Shalev
A Thousand Splendid Suns**** by Khaled Hosseini
The White Tiger***** by Aravind Adiga
Home***** by Marilynne Robinson
The Secret Scripture***** by Sebastian Barry
Guernica***** by David Boling
What Was Lost***** by Catherine O'Flynn
Sorry***** by Gail Jones
Offshore***** by Penelope Fitzgerald
The Dawning of the Day***** by Haim Sabato
I need to check this list! Strangly I have not read any of it. And only got two sitting on my TBR pile..
ReplyDelete2008 Top reads
Wow, I'm impressed you read a lot of books! Let's hope this year will be better for all of us! :)
ReplyDeleteSandra - what I love about your selection of 'best books' is how cosmopolitan it is. Plenty of 'unheards' in there for me too, so plenty of research to do. Thanks for taking the time to put this together..oh and congrats on such a massive reading total for 2008. I'm not jealous or nothin' :o)
ReplyDeleteTake Care
Rob
Yes, congrats on reading so many. This is a great list. One of these days I need to tackle 'A Thousand Splendid Suns.'
ReplyDeleteWow! Quite a lot of new to me books. That's a good thing -- now I can use your list when I'm looking for something new.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great list - I'm off to research a few titles!
ReplyDeleteI'm sad to say I haven't read a single one of those books - Home and Guernica are both on my bookshelves, though.
ReplyDeleteI've not heard of any of these. It's so interesting to see the variety of everyone's lists!
ReplyDeleteI've heard good things about The Swallows of Kabul, if it is one of your favorites for the year, maybe I'll add it to my wishlist.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I wasn't the only one who had to pick 20+ books!
haven't read any of those. good ideas, though.
ReplyDeleteI got 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' for Christmas from my daughter, looking forward to reading that later this year.
ReplyDeleteI'm really wanting to read Edeet Ravel, especially "Your Sad Eyes and Unforgettable Mouth"!!
You have a great list of books, all of them I have never heard of before!
ReplyDeleteI've never read any of these either. Thanks for the list.
ReplyDeleteYou've got a lot of my favorites on this list. It's so hard for me to pick favorites from all I read because I like so many of them.
ReplyDelete143 books...oh, I am so envious! I haven't read a single book on your "best of" list...how pathetic am I?!!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great list! The Secret Scripture was not just a 2008 favorite for me. It was an all-time favorite.
ReplyDeleteI'm linking to this post for my Friday Finds tomorrow, rather than re-write your list!
ReplyDeleteWe have similar taste in books, so I'll be checking out those in your list that I'm not familiar with!
I love your list because I haven't read nor heard of very many of the books listed here. I'm definitely checking out some of these titles!!
ReplyDeleteThat is an impressive list! I haven't heard of most of those. Happy BTT and thanks for the comment... you should definitely give the Bums another read if you get a chance.
ReplyDeleteI always think I am well read--then I visit other blogs and don't recognize one book on their list--like yours! ;) I will need to check on some of these titles.
ReplyDelete*smiles*
Kim
I liked The Boys in the Trees and The White Tiger, too. Looking to read Through Black Spruce, Ten Thousand Lovers, Home, and The Secret Scripture. I have never heard of, but am intrigued by the title, of Night Train to Lisbon.. how good is it? :D
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting my blog and good luck with Jane Eyre, it is such a good book. I think I may give The White Tiger a go soon, my partner won it as a prize and neither of us have opened it yet!
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