God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

I did read several other good ones as well but these are the ones that I liked the most. Although I gave Breaking Dawn only a 4, I valued the reading experience a great deal.

Yeah to all The Book Thief lovers. Between The Book Thief and Shadow of the Wind, it doesn't get any better then that.

Linda, since I am one of those Book Thief lovers, I looked up Shadow of the Wind. It looks great! I am going to have to check it out!

I read Shadow of the Wind in 2007 it was definitely best read of the year.
The Book Thief is one my TBR pile it will be one of my first reads of 2009.

Linda wrote: "Yeah to all The Book Thief lovers. Between The Book Thief and Shadow of the Wind, it doesn't get any better then that."

One of these days I have to pick-up 'The Yiddish Policeman's Union' I've heard it is good.

Hayes, Touchstone was a decent read, but no where near as great as the Russell/Holmes series. I've read a couple of other of Laurie King's books outside this favorite series of mine, but they just don't thrill me like Russell and Holmes. However, I haven't read Folly, so I will put it on my list of to-read in 2009.

I liked the alternate Yiddish universe and the noire detective style.
It provided a lot of food for thought but also made me laugh out loud


Robin wrote: "One of these days I have to pick-up 'The Yiddish Policeman's Union' I've heard it is good."

Add me to The Book Thief lovers.

1000 Splendid Suns was definitely a close second, though.

My favorites were:
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Wicked by Gregory Maguire
Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

Murder on the Orient Express was the first Agatha Christie book I read, and I'm excited to read some of her other ones. :D

jamie, that is great! I liked a lot Endless night when I read it the first time. But I adore all her stories!

Twilight
Shadow of the Wind
The Book Thief

I collect Agatha Christie and have read most of them.

'The Murder of Roger Ackroyd' is reputedly her best but save it until you have read a few of her others and have got thoroughly into her style.


Murder on the Orient Express was the first Agatha Christie book I read, and I'm excited to read some of her other ones. :D

Esther, me too!!!!!! I collect them too and have most in Dutch and French, some in English and then I read sooooo many or better said reread from the library too...I love ehr books. It's true that The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is said to be her best and I liked it a lot but there are so many others as least as good, don't you think?

I love her earlier ones. I like the picture of life she paints in 1920s-30s.

Jeane wrote: "Esther, me too!!!!!! I collect them too and have most in Dutch and French, some in English and then I read sooooo many or better said reread from the library too...I love ehr books. It's true that ..."

Two books, that I read this year, that really stood out:

Fiction: Prodigal Summer: A Novel by Barbara Kingsolver lovely, beautiful book.

Non-Fiction:The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein this book readjusted my thinking and I am greatful for it.

Two books; two very different experiences.

Okay, believe it or not lots of the books on my "Best of 2008" were not published in 2008--I would like to sincerely thank GR and TNBBC for putting most of these books on my list:

1. A Great and Terrible Beauty
2. Water for Elephants (bought this one for 2 people for Christmas)
3. The Devil and Miss Prym: A Novel of Temptation-Paulo Coelho is one of my new favorite authors (I also read The Alchemist in '08 and it's a close 2nd)
4. Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
5. Odd Thomas-well, actually the whole series (okay, all but the last book b/c its on my TBR shelf)
6. The Book Thief-add me to the list
7. Life of Pi
8. The Dead Zone- this one's almost 30 years old
9. The Thirteenth Tale: A Novel-does Setterfield have anything else coming out yet???
10. The Art of Racing in the Rain-I might even like this one better than Marley and Me (which I read in 2005)

Lol - we need to cut off this post now and make this "The best books of 2008" and starta a "best of 2009" thread

-- Wife of GR author Michael J. Sullivan: The Crown Conspiracy (10/08) | Avempartha (04/09)

My favorites this year were:

Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Twilight series

I'm planning on reading many of the books mentioned in this thread for 2009 - I can't wait to get started! My only problem is that I seem to be stalled on Austen's "Emma." I just can't seem to get into it, but I still want to finish it before I move on to something new.

Jamie, sometimes watching the movie helps me with this when there is one available- just because I love to compare & contrast movie/books. Didn't Gwenneth Paltrow star in this a few years back? I haven't seen the movie Emma, but I've had my eye out for it since having my little Austen period a while ago. My movie store either doesn't have it or it wasn't in the couple of times it has occurred to me. There are great BBC/A&E versions of all the Austen novels though, I think. A good movie version always gets me in the mood to read the book.

Marsha - I do have a couple of versions saved on my DVR that I've been waiting to watch once I've finished the book, so I may go ahead and watch one of them. I think part of my problem, though, is that I'm too familiar with the plot because I've seen (and actually enjoyed) the movie Clueless, so my interest level is low because I know what's coming already. I also keep thinking of that movie while I read the book - which is getting pretty annoying, as I'm sure you understand if you've seen Clueless. My other big problem is that I really don't like the character Emma very much. I find it difficult to keep reading about such a big snob! I know it should get better, though, once she starts to understand herself and the errors she's made.