Nominate your favorite book read in 2008 for the Axis Best of Book List

[Charissa, That's Ms. Obnoxious Twat to You.]

Look at your list of books finished since January 2008. Pick out your favorite three. Post them here and we can see if any of our picks overlap.

Mine are:

The Other

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

[Rusty]

Okay Char, Rusty is going to go with:

Dune

Salem's Lot

[Cyril]

What a great question. My picks:

The Good Soldier Ford
Invisible Man Ellison
U.S.A. The 42nd Parallel 1919 The Big Money Hardcover Dos Passos

[Hayley]

Hmmm I've read some great books this year so far:-

The Talisman

The curious incident with the dog in the night-time

City of Bone - The Mortal Instruments

[Dave]

Bleak House by Charles Dickens
Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail by Hunter S. Thompson

[Debbie]

The Tale of Despereaux (diCamillo)
Chocolat (Joanne Harris)
Curse of the Giant Hogweed (Peter something-or-other)

[[deleted user]]

The Tale of Despereaux (LOVED)
The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
My Brain is Hanging Upside Down by David Heatley

[trivialchemy]

I... I can't read or write.

[Kelly]

For an illiterate person you spell remarkably well.

Mine:
The Good Soldier, Ford Maddox Ford
Enduring Love, Ian McEwan
I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith

[Debbie]

Dodie Smith wrote 101 Dalmations....is I Capture the Castle adult or kids fiction?

[Jackie "the Librarian", Cool Star Trek Nerd]

I Capture the Castle is adult, or young adult.

[Charissa, That's Ms. Obnoxious Twat to You.]

The Tale of Despereaux

I'm seeing a trend here. Isn't that the story about the mouse with a rapier? Isn't that a movie coming to theatres soon? Should I read the book or see the film?

[Chloe]

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

The Power & The Glory by Graham Greene

The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick

[Jackie "the Librarian", Cool Star Trek Nerd]

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman.

The Arrival by Shaun Tan.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie.


I would say see the movie of Despereaux first, then read the book, Charissa. Very few movies can live up to their books.

[Debbie]

I would say read the book and forget the movie altogether....it looks very 'cutesified' from the images I have seen. Yeccch!

[Charissa, That's Ms. Obnoxious Twat to You.]

LOL!! Thanks a lot gals. Now I have two more warring voices in my head about this book/film. Equally matched!!

[Jackie "the Librarian", Cool Star Trek Nerd]

The book itself is pretty cutesified, in my opinion...

[Debbie]

"Reader, there is nothing sweeter in this sad world than the sound of someone you love calling your name. Nothing."

Cutesified? That?

[Jackie "the Librarian", Cool Star Trek Nerd]

The tone feels artificial to me, Debbie. I wish it didn't, I wish I loved it.

I didn't care for the treatment of the character Miggery Sow, either.

[Debbie]

The way she was treated or the way she was 'drawn'?

[Jackie "the Librarian", Cool Star Trek Nerd]

Both, I guess. She was used by the author who made her into a villain, and by the other characters in the book. It left a bad taste in my mouth.

[Debbie]

The thing is...the world is full of Miggery Sows; passive, ill-starred victim-types. This one gets to play a pivotal and ultimately happy part in this tale. And authors create their characters for the sole purpose of using them to one end or another......

[[deleted user]]

Oh my gawd, I love that book. I just read it to 2nd and 3rd graders and it was magical.

Jackie, Miggery's hands weren't clean. Just like Roscuro, being badly treated can cause one to make hurtful decisions.

I loved the Miggery/Pea relationship.

[Jackie "the Librarian", Cool Star Trek Nerd]

:::shrugs:::

I just don't like it very much. Sorry, Sarah!

[[deleted user]]

I can deal!

[Debbie]

...and let's face it....it wasn't written for us anyway! The intended audience certainly love it, and they all get Miggery because they all know one.

[Arminius]

Here is my unlikely overlap able three:

Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow
Barbarians at the Gate by Brian Burrough
The Great Getty by Robert Lenzer

[John]

Hmmmm I guess these would be mine:

The Tao of Physics
Wicked the Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
Godel Escher Bach an Eternal Golden Braid
Garden of Beasts

Admittedly re-reads except Garden of Beasts which I found when bored and looooved. Seems an odd thing that when I can't find anything to read some semi-historical fiction lands in my lap that I wouldn't have read otherwise ("The Alienist" was another) Jeffrey Deaver would have to be my author of the moment though.

Oh, and I really liked Despereaux, but not as much as my ten year old...;-)