A year in books, 2008

I’m a little late in getting this together, but it’s always fun for me to go back and reflect on what I read in the last year. I had more ambitious goals for the year – thinking I’d dive into some non-fiction already on my shelves – but I ended up reading a lot more contemporary fiction. (I’ve gotten into the habit of ripping out a review that sounds interesting to me and then requesting the book from the library. This keeps a steady stream of great stuff flowing.)

I’m not sure what this year will hold. I’ve already devoured “American Wife” and am deep into a book about Charles Dickens and “A Christmas Carol.” Please send your recommendations! And maybe I can write something of my own this year…hopefully by next January I’ll be talking about one of my children’s book ideas.

(By the way, I'm fully aware that I'm a dork.)

1. The Abstinence Teacher – Tom Perrotta
2. Bloodletting & Miracle Cures (audio) – Vincent Lam
3. The Audacity of Hope – Barack Obama
4. We Need to Talk About Kevin… -- Lionel Shriver – This book should come with a warning label: Highly disturbing.
5. Songs Without Words – Ann Packer
6. Into the Wild – Jon Krakauer – I picked this up after seeing the movie – both were incredibly well done. The photo of Christopher Candless is haunting.
7. The Collection – Gioia Diliberti – A fun piece of historical fiction about Coco Chanel.
8. Clemente (audio) – David Maraniss
9. The Post-Birthday World – Lionel Shriver – This one will make you consider the choices you've made in your life, and for me, be happy with my decisions.
10. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day – Winifred Watson
11. The Appeal – John Grisham – I tore through this the weekend before the Wisconsin State Supreme Court election -- eerie parallels.
12. Public Enemies (audio) – Bryan Burrough – I’m eagerly awaiting the film version of this book, which was made in Wisconsin last year.
13. Interpreter of Maladies – Jumpha Lahiri
14. A Walk in the Woods (audio) – Bill Bryson – I love Bryson’s truly funny travel tales.
15. The Queen’s Fool – Philippa Gregory – I love getting swept up in Gregory’s Elizabethan world, even though – as Colin put it – I’m essentially reading the same story over and over.
16. American Ground – William Langewiesche – I re-read this book about the breaking down of the World Trade Center after Sept. 11 because I was speaking about my experience that day to a class of UW-Madison students. It’s pretty amazing how your perspective and memories can change in just a few years, and it’s hard to believe that I actually had that experience in the first place.
17. Persepolis – Marjane Satrapi – This was another interesting foray into graphic novels – if this is what all comic books were like, I’d be hooked. And the two Persepolis books, in combination with “The Septembers of Shiraz,” made me realize my education was lacking when it comes to the Iranian Revolution.
18. Unaccustomed Earth – Jhumpa Lahiri – I love Lahiri’s graceful and intricate portraits of the meaning of family.
19. Things I’ve Learned from Women Who’ve Dumped Me – ed. Ben Karlin
20. Persepolis 2 – Marjane Satrapi
21. Nice to Come Home To – Rebecca Flowers – This was a fun read based on one of my all-time favorite books, Sense & Sensibility.
22. Kindred – Octavia Butler
23. See You in 100 Years – Logan Ward – Our book group’s selection about a family that decides to live like it’s 1900 for a year was a nice surprise, and it led great phone discussion with the author. Much like “Julie & Julia” last year, this made me think all I need is a concept and I’ve got the makings of a book.
24. Mr. Wrong – ed. Harriet Brown
25. The Septembers of Shiraz – Dalia Sofer
26. Water for Elephants – Sara Gruen – This can’t-put-it-down peek behind the scenes of the circus was a true eye opener. It seemed like a pretty seedy world.
27. Dreams of My Father (audio) – Barack Obama
28. Loving Frank – Nancy Horan
29. So Many Books, So Little Time -- Sara Nelson – Here’s one I could have written myself, too: The author writes about the books she reads throughout the year.
30. A Most Uncommon Degree of Popularity – Kathleen Gilles Seidel – I was so nervous the day before Owen was born I read this book about raising an adolescent daughter in one sitting. And what a relief to have a son! (Ha.)
31. The Summons – John Grisham – I started this book as my doctor started my induction on Aug. 7. I didn’t make it very far, and it was about two weeks before I picked it up again. But this speedy thriller was just what I needed at that point.
32. Floater – Calvin Trillin
33. Belly Laughs – Jenny McCarthy
34. Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man – Fannie Flagg – Daisy Fay is one of the most fun and charismatic characters I’ve encountered in my many years of reading. You'll be rooting for her the whole way.
35. Neither Here Nor There (audio) – Bill Bryson
36. So Long at the Fair – Christina Schwarz
37. About Alice – Calvin Trillin
38. The Likeness – Tana French – If you’re in the mood for a good mystery, this is a twisty one that delivers. And it takes place just outside of Dublin – fantastic.
39. The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society – Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Burrows – A sweet tale of World War II resiliance.
40. Rome 1960 – David Maraniss – Hands down, this was the best book I read last year. Maraniss weaves the story of the Olympic Games with threads of politics, race relations, gender politics, the Cold War and the business of sports and does it in a way that has the reader on the edge of the seat. I managed to get out of the house for a few hours this fall to see him at the Wisconsin Book Festival, too, where he answered my question about how he writes so engagingly. (It’s all in the personal details, he said.) Now I have to work on putting his advice to use.
41. The Size of the World – Joan Silber
42. Death in Prairie House – William Drennan – This is the bookend to “Loving Frank,” which was the romanticized story of Frank Lloyd Wright and his mistress, Mameh Borthwick. “Death in a Prairie House” is the ugly reality of the horrific end of their relationship.
43. Here’s the Story – Maureen McCormick – My brother waited in line for two hours to get Marcia, Marcia, Marcia to sign a copy of her autobiography for me. He declared her to be a real sweetheart.
44. What Was Lost – Catherine O’Flynn
45. Downtown Owl – Chuck Klosterman – I’ve loved his laugh-out-loud non-fiction about popular culture and enjoyed his first foray into fiction. Hold on for the ending – I was blown away by it after wondering through most of the book how the three concurrent stories were going to come together.
46. The Other Queen – Philippa Gregory – Again, Elizabethan history, this time from the perspective of Mary Queen of Scots, who got stuck in a really terrible position.
47. Don’t You Forget About Me – Jancee Dunn – A fun, breezy read for anyone who came of age in the late 1980s.
48. Revolutionary Road – Richard Yates – This was the second time I picked up this Yates classic. I enjoyed it both times – and am looking forward to the movie – but many of the women in my book club disagreed with me.
49. The Mysterious Benedict Society – Trenton Lee Stewart – I was wandering through the Borders children’s book section and knew I had to pick this one up for Owen’s library.
50. The Partner – John Grisham