Smart Bitches, Trashy Books

The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs - Hilarious!!

Un Lun Dun by China Mieville. How can you not love a discarded milk carton named Curdle and the little girl who saves an alternate London? Funny, smart and, for a change, a girl is the Chosen One.

I really enjoyed Dreams of My Father by Barack Obama.  Initially, I read it just to get a bit of insight on who Obama was.  Not normally much of a nonfiction fan, so I was surprised at how hard the book was to put down.  I HIGHLY recommend it for anyone who would like a bit of insight into our next president.

And it really helps if you quote the book title accuratly.  It’s actually Dreams FROM my Father.  Duh.

Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

“Accurately.”  Damn

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire.

I know I’m behind the times - shut up!! My TBR stack is a tottering mismash in no chronological order. And you Bitches keep reshuffling it!

Under My Skin, Volume One of Doris Lessing’s memoirs. Beautiful and fascinating insight into one of the world’s most important writers. I love reading about writers and writing. I usually wait until they are dead before emabrking on any auto/biographical delving, but this time I could not resist. It is a good one—can’t wait to read Volume 2!

That wasn’t a romance?  Oooh, tough one but I’m even going to go out of fiction altogether to answer that one. 

Reading the OED by Ammon Shea, and I hope the link below works, I’ve never tried to use this feature before.

Reading the OED

A lover of dictionaries sits down and decides to read the entire Oxford English in a year.  He documents it for us.  And man, he has such a wonderful voice I’d read almost anything he writes.

“emabrking” Guh. Larn, you aren’t the only one misusing the keyboard today :o}

Heartsick by Chelsea Cain. Loved it!!

Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I knew *nothing* about the Biafran war before reading this book, and I still only know enough to talk about the novel. BUT, it is truly excellent: sympathetic, compassionate, skillful, clear-eyed…Also, Kainene will probably go down in history as one of my favorite characters.

Runners up…Arcadia (Stoppard), A Place of Greater Safety (Mantel), and The Homecoming (Pinter). Yes, two of those are plays.

How to Talk to a Widower by Jonathan Tropper. It’s in my top 10 list now.

Well, it’s weird but I really, really enjoyed London: A Life In Maps by Peter Whitfield.  So strange to see areas I know as city-centre being marked as tiny rural hamlets.

As for fiction, I read two Jim Butchers this year: Small Favor and Captain’s Fury, and as ever I’m astonished at the detail, characterisation and relentlessly exciting pace he manages to put onto each page, especially in the Calderon books where the world-building is just wonderful.  Yes, Princeps’ Fury is on my Christmas list!

I’ve got three of them for you, though by no means an exhaustive list.

Fiction:

One of my favorites this year was Angels and Demons by Dan Brown, the DaVinci Code author. I happen to love his turn-the-page-NOW tension which gets my heart beating faster than even most romances do, and being mainly a sci-fi chick, I loved that he included the recently operational Large Hadron Collider in the story. My only issues with the book are that he always throws in a little spurious but not serious romance that never ends with a bang.

I also liked but didn’t exactly tear through Nobel Prize winning author Jose Saramago’s The Double. I can honestly say that I would never, ever, copy his form. But, I cannot say that the book was poorly written. All in all, it’s a difficult read. If you haven’t glimpsed his style yet, let me tell you this: Imagine two-page sentences with no quotation marks to tell you who’s talking, no punctuation other than commas, and no paragraph breaks at all. Sound confusing? It is. That’s why it took me about two months to read it. But I am still glad that I did.

In the non-fiction realm, this one stood out:

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach

If you ever wanted to know just exactly what happens to dead bodies left out in the grass to decompose, what really happens to bodies donated for science and medical purposes, and just how much bacteria you’re made of, you’ll be wanting to pick this one up at the local library. Just don’t eat it at the dinner table!

Cheers!

Yvette Davis

Err…I mean, read it at the dinner table.

Doh!

(Unless you’ve got a fine chianti to go with it?)

I really enjoyed Devil May Ride by Wendy Roberts

I really enjoyed To Hell and Back by Lilith Saintcrow and
Halfway to the Grave by Jeaniene Frost.
I wouldn’t consider them Romance. *shrugs*

But I also enjoyed Easy Green Living by Renne Loux.  Though it was a little over whelming.  I thought it was informative.

The Case of the Not-so-nice Nurse, by Mabel Maney

Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead.  It has some romantic overtones to it, but its a YA book and not a romance.

I thought Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali was a fascinating read.

I have many choices but I will throw out there Jim Butcher’s Princeps’ Fury.

His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik. Well, actually, the entire Temeraire series.
Alternate reality during the Napoleonic wars, from the perspectives of a British former naval captain turned Dragon aviator and the dragon he rides, Temeraire. Dragons and big ships! What’s not to love? I listened to the audiobooks, and am currently listening to the fifth in the series. The production is great.

darlynne, I loved Un Lun Dun as well.

And I can’t believe you guys are asking me to pick just one!!!! Can’t be done, I tell you, even if it disqualifies me.

Fiction:
Big Fat Manifesto by Susan Vaughn
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Small Favor by Jim Butcher
The Scourge of God by S.M. Stirling
Bewitching Season by Marissa Doyle
Vampire Academy and Frostbite by Richelle Mead
The Blue Girl by Charles de Lint
Valor’s Trial by Tanya Huff
World War Z by Max Brooks
Nurk: the Strange Surprising Adventures of a Somewhat Brave Shrew by Ursula Vernon
The Courtney Crumrin series by Ted Naifeh
Amulet: Gift of the Stonekeeper by Kazu Kabuishi
Company by Max Barry
Sorcery and Cecelia and the sequels by Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer.
Don’t Hex with Texas by Shanna Swendson

And yes, some of these have romantic subplots, but the romance was not the primary plot, so I feel safe in including them.

Nonfiction:
Pushed: The Painful Truth about Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care

But if I had to choose just one, bamboo slivers under my fingernails, etc., I’d have to go with World War Z. It’s an amazing book; funny, touching, sad but not depressing. Well worth picking up, IMHO.

The Tale of Desperaux I read to my daughter.  I was a bit disappointed with the movie, of course.  It was such a great story, there was no need to change anything.  And that acid induced veggie man of inspiration? 

I also read one of Anne Rices totally edgy books but can’t go into that here….

  HOLD TIGHT by Harlan Coben.  Who, IMNSHO, can’t write a bad book. 

Spaminator : yet43

You’re damn right I am NOT yet43

Best book I’ve read this year is Little Brother by Corey Doctorow.

In a nutshell it’s Orwell for the net-generation.  Satisfaction for techno-geeks guaranteed.

Best non-romance I read was also non-fiction.
The Wisdom of Whores: Bureaucrats, Brothels, and the Business of AIDS by Elizabeth Pisani

I have two books, that left a lasting impression
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins; loved the book hated the heroine’s name
People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks, I love books about books

Two non romances I read this year that stand out are Josephus by Lion Feuchtwanger and The Jesus Mysteries by Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy

No wonder I’m nuts, I read Jewish, Christian, Agnostic and Sherrilyn Kenyon’s long list of gods and goddesses all in the same year LOL

The Good Wife by Stewart O’Nan - a really beautiful and deceptively simple book about a woman’s life while her husband’s in jail.  O’Nan is like Annie Proux for me, elegant prose about every day life (assuming your every day life involves things like your husband going to jail or being the manager at a Red Lobster or being a Cowboy).

For some reason my mind empties out when people ask me to name a good book I’ve read, but eventually a name floated up: Deadwood, by Pete Dexter, which was funny and strange.

Rapscallion by James McGee.

I love his Hawkwood books and this one was a blast from start to finish.

Krakatoa by Simon Winchester—but that was a reread ...

A Universal History of the Destruction of Books by Fernando Baez—deliciously fact-filled and provoking.

World War Z by Max Brooks. Changed my life, no lie. I read way back in February, but it stuck with me. It’s terrifying not only because I am completely unprepared for the Zombie Apocalypse, but also because the portrayals of how people react in the face of major crisis are spot on.

I’ve read several non-romance books this year, but my favorite would have to be “The Hollywood Book of Death: The Bizarre, Often Sordid, Passings of More than 125 American Movie and TV Idols” by James Parish - call me morbid, but this is fabulous.  I’m a trivia nut and received this book as a gift for Halloween.  :)

iPod Fully Loaded.

It was really helpful and I read it cover to cover when I got my iPod.

Sarah Vowell’s The Wordy Shipmates. She’s hard to beat when it comes to hilarious, historical nerdiness.

Ha. I read and enjoyed a couple of the books already mentioned (“Year of Living Biblically” and “Reading the OED”), but my favorite book was Randa Jarrar’s “A Map of Home”. Funny, lusty, often exotic (set mostly in Kuwait, Egypt, and Texas) and colorful language that the SBs should appreciate. Also, it’s just a damn good coming of age story.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman.

Charming, wonderful, sweet and sad—not to mention a wonderful take on what a family can be! I’d love more tales of Nobody Owens!

An Incomplete Revenge by Jacqueline Winspear. I was haunted by this story long after I finished the book.

I have to agree on The Wordy Shipmates - hilarious and educational! I love to listen to her on my ipod…

Spamword: feeling67. Well no, I don’t feel that old!

Ragtime by EL Doctorrow

I love how he took three families, an upper middle class white family, a black family and a poor immigrant father and daughter and merged their lives in the first decade of the 19th century, with famous and infamous people from the time weaved in an out of the story. The way he does it is fascinating.

Cute, Quaint, Hungry and Romantic: The Aesthetics of Consumerism

by Daniel Harris

The Overspent American: Why We Want What We Don’t Need

by Juliet B. Schor

These two books totally changed both my understanding of our culture, and my experience of living within it.  Highly recommended for anyone who wants to know more about how we got into this economic madhouse.

OMG! The prize contains MYSTERIES OF PITTSBURGH by Michael Chabon.  He’s my cousin and I remember when that was released YEARS ago. Quite an interesting book! LOL!

My favorite non-romance book from this year that I read:

The Glass Castle
A Memoir
by Jeannette Walls

Dammit, those were supposed to be italics, not quotes.  I suck at this game.

special74 - yes, I am special. How did you know?

Best non-romance book ? Well, I have two. Let me explain.

I start reading Heart-Shaped-Box, from Joe Hill (Stephen King’s son) and I am ashamed to say that it was so well written that my imagination got to work over-time and I got too scare to continue reading the book. When my husband came back for lunch that day, I gave him the book and told him to take it away from me, that I was too scare of it to have it in my house.

The other book, this one I finish, was Double-Cross, featuring the detective Alex Cross, from James Patterson. I can’t help but follow Det. Cross “adventures” (somebody almost always end end wanting to kill him).
Thanks !!

Why Men Don’t Listen and Women Can’t Read Maps

It’s a study of how men and women think differently (complete with brain scan images) and touches on what seems like everything, based on how we think affecting everything from career choices to sex. It generalizes but I found a lot of truth in it and it explained some things that I knew but didn’t know why (if you follow what I mean.)

The best book I read this year, romance or not, was The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb.  It’s absolutely beautiful.

Oh, man, what to pick…

Okay, Small Gods by Terry Pratchett

Stardust by Neil Gaiman… Why did I buy it? Because I was pregnant with my second child, and remembered from kiddo number 1 that what with long nursing sessions, I’d be able to go through a bunch of books like wildfire.

So I bought one, just one - this one, based on the SBTB recommendation! (even though it is not, strictly speaking, a romance, even if it has romantic elements)

My baby was all of 3 weeks old by the time I finished it.

Lesson learned? The ‘relaxing’ time you have with your first child doesn’t repeat itself with the second child… because you STILL have your first child!!

Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich

It follows the author as she tries to make a living at minuimum wage and really puts the difference between the rich and working class.

Wow!  I have a read a lot of the same books and liked most of them too.

But I have to say the best was “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” By Steig Larsson.
This is the first book in a new Swedish Crime Thriller trilogy.
Unfortunately Mr. Larsson died shortly after handing in all three manuscripts.  The second comes out next year and I can’t wait to see what happens.

My Jesus Year. Its a book about the son of a rabbi who marries a converted daughter of a minister. He spends an entire year going to different christian churches and trying to find inspiration for his own faith. He goes to the mega churches and a christian wrestling match and little country churches. I read it all in one night and absolutely loved it!

Consider the Lobster and Other Essays by the late David Foster Wallace—in particular, the essay “Big Red Son” (about the porn industry) was one of the most hilariously horrible things I’ve read.  A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again and Brief Interviews With Hideous Men were also excellent.

aside to Marski: was “that acid induced veggie man of inspiration” something like this? Animated Arcimboldo would be pretty cool to see as far as I’m concerned (though I’m afraid the movie looks more like a “wait for it at Netflix” one).

Oohj! Let me go back and add Bonk by Mary Roach. Its all about the intersection of science and sex. If your like me and you love anything that has to do with the human response to sex, then this is a book you HAVE to read!

Followup: “Big Red Son” is even more hilariously horrible when you find that you are reading in the doctor’s office while waiting for your annual pelvic exam. :o

Travels with Herodotus was so completely out of the norm for what I typically read and I was blown away by it.

Kapuscinski is one of the most believable narrators I have ever met.  In his writing, he comes close to ingenuousness, but his childlike wonder of the world around him doesn’t conceal a sharp wit, intellect and a deep understanding and respect of humanity in all its forms. This is so much more than a travel novel.

I got the book from the library and the moment I finished it, went out and purchased my own copy.

The Queen’s Bastard, by C.E. Murphy. Excellent pseudo-alternate-history fantasy wherein we have a heroine who’s the bastard daughter of a Queen suspiciously like Elizabeth I, who’s been raised up to serve her mother as an assassin—and who possesses magic.

Deliciously complex, full of politics and intrigue, this thing is fun. But the biggest draw for me is the main character, Belinda. She’s morally ambiguous, enough that more than once through this book I caught myself wondering if I actually liked her. Yet she’s also utterly compelling. She cuts a swath through any number of lovers, and yet in this book, each and every sexual encounter she has furthers the plot. Some of them come back later to haunt her in significant ways, too.

Highly, highly recommended.

The Tender Bar, a memoir by J.R. Moehringer
or Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, it’s a tie.

Really, really tough to pick only one, but I’d have to say - 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff - a collection of letters exchanged between Hanff and Marks & Co bookshop in London, beginning in 1949 and going on to the late 60s.  Warm and humerous, and just brimming over with a love of books and words.  Absolutely wonderful.

The Hippopotamus, by Stephen Fry. Genius.

The Dracula Tape by Fred Saberhagen.  I know it isn’t new, but it is a really a great book and how I managed to miss it is beyond me.  I just like all the snark at Bram Stoker and I cannot read just Vampire Porn all the time… ;)

Sooo hard to recall all this year’s books. I’m going with a picture book: Big Momma Makes the World by Phyllis Root. Amazing language, huge heart, soaring spirit, and gorgeous illustrations. It’s a warm and funny book about the biggest subject imaginable—and it’s female-friendly. Memorable and uplifting.

Snow by Orhan Pamuk and
Dirty Havana Trilogy by Pedro Juan Gutierrez

This year I had so much reading to do for grad school that I didn’t read much other than textbooks & romances.  There was one nonfiction book that I managed to finish that was very good.

The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan.  It was fascinating and horribly sad and I learned a lot that I didn’t know about the Dust Bowl. 

Verification word schools83.  Actually school’s more than 83% of my reading these days.

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde!

Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain.  So funny/interesting/insightful… some damn good nonfiction!

Farthing by Jo Walton

What if Britain hadn’t kept fighting the Third Reich after Dunkirk, but had made a separate peace with it instead? What if, in the late 40’s, France was still occupied and Britain was selling itself out to fascism? What if. . .

It sends chills down your spine.

I read Charlaine Harris—yes, yes the southern vampire books were interesting and the girl who finds dead bodies were good but I read the last few of her Shakespeare series.  Its older and just being reissued in light of the HBO series True Blood but Shakespeare’s Landlord (the first of the series) and all the others give you an unfolding picture of the trauma of rape and the slow recovery of a shattered life.  Lily Bard goes from a happy careerwoman to cleaning houses in a little town and trying to cope with her memories getting involved with the people of the town and solving mysteries in spite of herself.  Quietly moving books.  Try them!!

I read the Black Jewels Trilogy this year - I think that’s definitely not romance and it was great… got me started on a whole fantasy kick.  But… now, I’m back to the urban fantasies.  I can’t stop reading them…. any urban fantasy recommendations?  I just devoured Karen Chance’s Cassie Palmer series….

I also loved the Temeraire books, and am in the middle of Isabel Allende’s Zorro which is awesome. Inkdeath was long awaited and satisfying. . .but I think by far the best I read all year, the one that wrecked me, was the Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie. Alexie never ceases changing my life.

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel.  It was orginally read for a class but I love, love, LOVE this graphic novel.  It’s so awesome I really have no words.  Basically, its the memior of a comic strip writer looking back on her youth and her father, a deeply flawed closeted gay man.  She, is a lesbian, and the memior is her trying to figure out her father, their relationship, and the effects he had on her life.

I think the most fascinating book I’ve read this year was The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows.
It takes place after World War II, when a woman, looking for ideas for her next book, gets a letter from a man she’s never met. As they write letters back and forth, she learns of where he’s from, the island of Guernsey, and the “Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society,” an excuse when for breaking the curfew when the Germans occupied their island. She begins correspondence with the rest of the “club,” who are charming and eccentric and from all walks of life. (I won’t give too much away, though.) She finally visits the island, where she makes an incredible discovery.
The book is written brilliantly and excitingly as a series of letters, and it is full of warmth (however cheesy and cliched that probably sounds right now.) It made me smile and lifted my heart, and really affected me.

Anne Bishop’s Black Jewels Trilogy and His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik were my best finds for 2008

The End of the Affair Yes, I’m a late-comer to the Graham Greene bandwagon.  I guess it could technically be considered a romance as it’s the most lucid take I’ve ever read on obsessive unresolved love.

Runner-up: On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan.  A beautiful, moving account of how people can love one another without understanding each other in the least.

Oh I’m torn. I read several great non-romances this year.  I read Julia Spencer-Flemings entire Claire Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne series (omg when does the next one come out) and felt like I was becoming a broken record recommending these books to people but I love them a lot. They’re the perfect blend of mystery/romance for me.

But I also read Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians series and it’s quite enjoyable and I can’t wait for the last book. I’d recommend them to anyone who enjoyed Harry Potter but was perhaps bored by some of the minutia (I remain unconvinced that book 7 needed all of those pages devoted to “we’re wizards and we’re in the woods” moments) and how tiresomely emo-tastic Harry could get.

Then there was The Secret Adversary which was my first foray into Agatha Christie and it was a fabulous choice because I love Tommy and Tuppence.

I guess, if I must choose, I’ll have to go with that one because it’s only one and doesn’t force me to pick a favorite out of 2 series that I love.  Also, because Tommy and Tuppence are kind of the template for all other man and woman crime-solving duos that I love.

Definitely Belong To Me by Marisa de los Santos. I loved her debut novel Love Walked In but actually managed to enjoy the sequel more! Just a beautifully told story of friendship, love, sacrifice and secrets—and what it means to truly “belong” to those who love us, if we ever really do.

Grave Peril by Jim Butcher.

I picked up “Almost Moon” by the same author who wrote “The Lovely Bones” and pushed through it in an evening.  Disturbing.  Harsh.  Oh so good.

A Life at Work by Thomas Moore.

I can be tempted out of lurking for free books.  At least I’m honest about being mercenary!

I have a whole bunch of favorite books for this year, but we’re going to go with the most recently published: Havemercy by Jaida Jones and Danielle Bennet.  Fantasy with romantic elements, so so good.

Company of Liars - Maitland - a group of people fleeing the Black Plague, all of whom have Secrets in their Pasts.  (dum-dum-DUM!)

Marrying Mozart - Cowell - Mrs. Mozart’s family life when she was a teenager.  Really touching.

What Was Lost - O’Flynn - about a little girl who wants to be a detective and the shopping mall she explores

I read Nicked and Dimed several years ago and I would highly recommend it.

I reread all my Barbara Pyms- lovely books-

A Primate’s Memoir by Robert Sapolsky

Moon Called by Patrica Briggs

Wow there’s a lot of comments already. I’m at least the second person to say The Year of Living Biblically. I dig non-fiction when I’m not reading romance, and this one totally delivered.

This is how pathetic my life is.  Since I started grad school, I’ve read maybe 3 romances from start to finish, everything else has been rereading.  So, um, if you’re interested in the decorative arts or are writing a paper on art nouveau, I’d recommend the VMFA’s Late 19th and Early 20th Century Decorative Arts.  However, if a young adult book that just happens to have romance thrown in counts as not a romance, it’s Rapunzel’s Revenge all the way.  Shannon Hale tells the Rapunzel story with a fantastically original slant, and you gotta love the Western setting with Jack (of the beanstalk fame) thrown in.

I so look forward to reading real books this January.  Books without footnotes, of just imagine!

ps: My security thing is “making51,” which I sure as hell hope isn’t a prediction of the end result of this paper I’m embroiled in.

The Black Butterfly by Mark Gatiss. Imagine if Oscar Wilde and Ian Fleming had written a book together, and the hero was an elderly bisexual with no fear, a slight contempt for the rules and a son called Christmas. Lucifer Box is one of my all time favourite characters because he’s devastatingly dashing, sarcastic, a daredevil and he gets the job done. The book was sadly too short but I enjoyed every second. How can you not like a plot that includes gorgeous American secret agents, world travel and evil brainwashed boy scouts!?

Final Salute by Jim Sheeler was an incredible read. It is based off of Sheeler’s article of the same name for the Rocky Mountain Times (http://www.rockymountainnews.com/special-reports/final-salute/) and it follows several casualty assistance calls officers who must deliver the news to families that a relative has died in Iraq. It certainly wasn’t light reading, but it was one of the most powerful books I’ve read in a while.

The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger was probably the best with Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen a close second.

I really enjoyed Water For Elephants.  I believe it made a best seller list or two, and often I prefer things more off the beaten track, so to speak, but this was just very well done indeed.

Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg.  This book is so compelling.  I also loved My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki

Neil Gaiman’s American Gods.  Not only the best book I’ve read all year, but the best book I’ve read in several years, and a serious competitor for My Favorite Book Ever.

I also got into the Cal Leandros series by Rob Thurman this year—dark urban fantasy series with a snarky attitude and great supporting cast.

Mine’s probably Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy. It’s a YA urban fantasy with lots of spunk (and if you listen to the audiobook I’ll guarantee you’ll fall in love with Rupert Degas’ narration as well as the book itself).

Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrel. Absolutely amazing-made me laugh and cry sometimes at the same time. I am in awe of him.
I would also say Year of Living Biblically by AJ Jacobs. Hillarious.

What a tough decision.  I guess I’ll have to go with Agatha Christie’s Ten Little Indians.  I promised myself I would reread it when I go the bath tub functioning so that I could read it in the bath.  Bathtub finally fixed and I got a hot bubble bath.

Ok so there’s no walls yet, but the tub is fine,

“Digital Fortress” by Dan Brown

Moon Called and its sequels.  Couldn’t put them down!

]I don’t remember if I started reading HIs Majesty’s Dragon this year, but it’s worthy of a shout-out.  The first book that sprang to my mind is The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss.  It’s a fantasy about a legendary figure named Kvoth, currently living the life of a simple inkeeper.  A historian comes and begs for an interview, so he bitterly begins retelling the story of his early years trying to learn magic.  No quests, no epic battles, but a very good exploration of a larger-than-life character living with his triumphs and regrets.  I look forward to book #2.

PS - The Dracula Tape and The Black Jewels Trilogy FTW!!!

The Girlfriends guide to Pregnancy by Vicki Iovine.

I’m pregnant with twins and the other books are very clinical or try to freak you out. This one had tons of useful knowledge and was hilarious. Also I can already relate to just about every chapter. Definately a must read when you’re expecting.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. I love a good children’s story.

I read Notes from a Small Island By Bill Bryson

Winterbirth by Brian Ruckley—it actually came out in 2006, but book two, Bloodheir came out this year.
Anyway, this is a great fantasy about rival noble/royal houses struggling for power while another bloodline that got booted generations before after they tried to force their cultish religion on everyone is making a sneaky play to take back what is “rightfully theirs.” Good enough that it distracted me from being sick with the flu while bouncing around between airports last December.

Nightlife by Rob Thurman. Hands down the best book for me.

Let’s see: Jim Butcher’s White Knight, Lilith Saintcrow’s To Hell And Back, her Night Shift, Bernard Cornwell’s Sharpe’s Something (I forget which Sharpe it was, but it was good), Lee Child’s Persuader, Barbara Hambly’s Dead Water. I am sure I read some other stuff, but those were the ones that stood out. Besides the romance, that is.

Telex from Cuba by Rachel Kushner. Set in Cuba in the 1950’s right at the beginning of the revolution, it follows a few different Americans (among others), one a child. The prose was gorgeous, and the plot was completely unpredictable- even though it was set around an actual historical event. I seriously can’t recommend it enough!

I really loved The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz.  I hear that I should have read his book of short stories Drown first.

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

It isn’t a complicated literary work but it was the most entertaining and memorable “non-romance” read of 2008 - and I’ve read A LOT of books this year. It’s creepy, fun, brilliantly crafted and reminds me of nightmares I had as a child.

I loved reading Sweetheart by Chelsea Cain.

Toast: The Story of Boy’s Hunger by Nigel Slater

It is a culinary biography that is just lovely. If you like food or memoir, this is a book that you should definitely check out.

I second Rob Thurman and Patricia Briggs.  Bliss!  I also re-read Lois McMaster Bujold’s Chalion books.

I’m doing a Beowulf to Virginia Woolf (picking up one course per term, I may have a degree by the time I retire), and I was totally digging the alliteration in Sir Gawain & the Green Knight.  Re-reading Bujold at the same time, I found huge tracts in which I just got lost in how beautifully alliterative her paragraphs were.

One book I read this year that was out of my normal niche was Cory Doctorow’s Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town.  Surreal and lovely.

I’ve read lots of great new books this year.  Probably my favorite was “Nation” by Terry Pratchett.

But this was also my year to discover Lois McMaster Bujold and Sharon Shinn—Yay!.  Almost all of their books are going to be on-going favorites for me…especially “A Civil Campaign” by LMB and “Archangel” by SS.  Wonderful stuff!

Kushiel’s Dart, by Jaqueline Carey…. hands down the best book I’ve read this year. It has opened me up to the fantasy genre quite nicely.

The Real Animal House, by Chris Miller

He was one of the screenwriters on the movie, and based some of the movie on his on Frat at Dartmouth.

It’s both filthy and hilarious.

Rome’s Gothic Wars: From the Third Century to Alaric, by Michael Kulikowski.  I realize this makes me sound like a pretentious historian, but I’m just an average geek that REALLY LOVES history.  Also, almost everything I read, whether it fits the definition of the romance genre or not, has some elements of romance in it, so it’s hard to find books that don’t fit.

But this has sweeping moments of history, and things that changed the entire world.  Not to mention it’s great research for historical romances, and debunks some of the myths of history that people have been using to support unfounded, nationalistic claims.

Hi, I’m a geek.  But at least I admit to it.  :)

The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi.

I have plenty of deadlines bearing down on me, and yet this story of a young girl growing up in Iran in the early 1980s, then leaving to live and be educated in Europe, coming home and realizing home is no longer her home kept me up nights reading when I should’ve been working. It’s the perfect mix of autobiography and art (as it’s in graphic novel form), and I learned so much about Iran in the process. It’s funny, heartbreaking, and touching without ever becoming overly sentimental, and the art is beautiful and evocative in its simplicity. In fact, I started to dream in black and white illustrations for the duration of my reading.

Book:  The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat

Not only is it interesting popular science but if you ever watch the show House you will recognize a few of the patient cases.  When isn’t an oddly wired brain interesting?

I bought Brave Story by Miyuki Miyabe because it had a neat cover. I ended up reading all 800+ pages in less than 24 hours and crying like a baby at the end. It’s now enshrined on my “re-read at least once a year” bookshelf.

John Adams by David McCullough.

And does the Captcha, like, read these posts, because mine is (cross my heart)

second76

As in second President and 1776. //humming Twilight Zone theme//

“The Bachelorette Party” by Karen McCullah Lutz. She’s one of the co-writers of Legally Blonde, and man could you tell - this book was hilarious.

I’ve read a lot of great books, but the one that rated highest for me was: Mayada, Daughter of Iraq by Jean Sasson.

Stone Junction by Jim Dodge. A really amazing book.

Oh, and Dr. Strangelove - The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat is very near the top of my tbr pile - looking forward to it even more now :)

Nice prize—My non-romance book:

Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America’s Soul by Karen Abbott

Very interesting

Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet! This is actually a hard choice for me:) I just started reading sci fi and really enjoyed a lot of those as well!

Dispatches from the Edge: A Memoir of War, Disasters, and Survival by Anderson Cooper

One of the most interesting memoirs I’ve read.

The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch.  :)

To Kill a Mocking Bird, by Harper Lee. I try to re-read this book every couple of years or so. In my mind, it is the greatest book ever written. The story resonates so strongly, even with multiple readings. I find new things to appreciate each time.

For a book I’ve never read before, it would have to be Impossible, by Nancy Werlin. It is romantic, but not a romance (I don’t think). I found it by following an ad link right from this here website! Ms Werlin is a National Book Award Finalist.

I had expected it to be all literary and depressing. It wasn’t. Well, it was “literary” in that it was not an easily identifiable genre. But. There was a hope, a lightness to it from beginning to end. Even though the main character went through a dark and scary time, you sensed that she would prevail because of all the support she had from her family. It set her apart from those who came before her, who had no hope.

And (Spoiler Alert!) nobody died, the bad guy lost, and it had an HEA. What’s not to love?

Probably the best book I’ve read this year was The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman.  Funny, sad, thought-provoking…I wish all “childrens’ books” were as good!

The Sound of Language by Amulya Malladi - loved it!

NATION by Terry Pratchett

For some reason it is shelved with the YA but it is a book not only about how nations come about and how they grow, but it is a book about catastrophic loss and the grieving process.

It is an excellent book, and funnier than you might think given the tough topics it is about.

Kris Longknife: Intrepid. Talk about girl power!

Three Cups of Tea… a non-fiction (yes, I read those too *grin*) book about how one man’s (naive idealistic improbable wonderful) desire to build a school for one little village in Pakistan has snowballed, in incredible coincidence-laden ways that wouldn’t work in fiction, to a whole movement to build schools over there, and promote peace (and education).  Which is a kind of lame summary but the book is really really fascinating.

(also the temeraire books, because they are so much win.)

*Reading Lolita In Tehran*—all the reasons stories are worth dying for..

I really loved “The Name of the Wind” by Patrick Rothfuss. It’s epic fantasy and doing something unique and interesting with the genre. I can’t wait for the sequel coming out sometime next year.

I Am Legend by Richard Matheson.

Deidre

I’d have to say the best book I’ve read this year was Cory Doctorow’s “Little Brother.” One of the best new YA books out there!

The Junie B Jones collection. My 7 year old daughter is now reading chapter books so every night she reads aloud to me from a Junie B Jones book.

Junie is the perfect heroine. She’s funny, profane for a kindergartner, sassy and she has an arch-nemesis (“Jim, that boy I hate” is how she mentions him).

I think any book that makes a child love reading (especially as much as her Mama loves reading) is a great book.

Absolutely the best book I read this year was Sex in the Second City by Karen Abbott, about the Everleigh sisters who ran the best brothel in Chicago at the turn of the last century.  Great, great stuff.

Oops!  The title is actually Sin in the Second City.  Still a great book, though.

Great non-fiction book read this year: The Nasty Bits by Anthony Bourdain.

Voices of Silence: Lives of the Trappists Today (Yup, monks. The monastic life fascinates me.  Actually, belief systems in general fascinate me.  Will be tackling Thomas Merton next—or maybe give the Carthusians a chance.)

A collection of H. P. Lovecraft stories (don’t recall the exact title).  Actually, I revisit Lovecraft pretty regularly.  Guess I need some Cthulhu-mythos vibe to counteract all that religion. ;-)

Triangle: The Fire That Changed America; The Devil in the White City; some Great Lakes and other history.

Just can’t remember them all.  Then there are the books I started but haven’t finished yet . . .

I really enjoyed the latest (paperback!) book from Julie E. Czerneda, Reap the Wild Wind. I also read a lot of “teen” books this year, and the series I liked the most is The Old Kingdom by Garth Nix.

Oops, sorry.  Just realized I broke the rulz.  That’s okay; I’m pretty much inundated with reading material that I have precious little time to read!

I have been wanting to read Sin in the Second City since it came out but can’t justify the purchase right now. If it’d come out when I was still doing my Master’s thesis I’d have bought it and written it off as a school book. I’m glad other people are liking it as that bodes well for when I eventually read it.

The Known World by Edward P. Jones

Engaging story about the slave-owning black population in the South right before the Civil War. You would think that the large cast of characters and interwoven plots would get confusing, but Jones handles it beautifully with exquisite writing.

Link to its Amazon information page above - Strongly recommended!

I enjoyed Getting Off: A guide to masturbation by Jamye Waxman, and damn if it didn’t take me a minute to think of a non-romance.  I kept wanting to say the titles of romances I enjoyed this year, and then, wait, damn, NON-romance.  Argh.

She’s Not There by Jennifer Finney Boylan, formerly James Finney Boylan. Very interesting book about changing genders.

I had to look back at my goodreads.com account and having read 574 books this year, 64 were contemporary romance, 122 paranormal romance, and 256 regency romance. I got most of them from the wonderful library, yet actually read other non-romance stuff too.

Best non-romance of the year: The Host by Stephenie Meyer. I was sucked in and wanted more. Worst non-romance: USGBC LEED for New Construction and Major Renovation - Bo-ring….

Rebel Angels by Libba Bray—A lovely Literary Suspense about a 16 year old girl coming to grips with the supernatural murder of her mother and the developing her own magical ability.

The best non-romance read this year is probably Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner. I loved that book to pieces.

Dragon bones, and Dragon blood by Patricia Briggs. Total fantasy.
Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett, for years,I’ve had costumers telling me to read it and a copy finally came in so I grabbed it and I really did like it.

Eighth Grade Bites (Chronicles of Vladimir Tod, Book 1) by Heather Brewer. My son who had just finished eighth grade asked me to read this and kept pestering me until I actually did. Ninth Grade Slays is the next in my TBR stack.

I loved Funny in Farsi by Firoozeh Dumas. Hilarious, and great insight into a fascinating culture.

My favorite book i read this year that was not a romance was YOU :on a Diet, haven’t finished this but i really like it and it’s the only book i’ve read this year that’s not a romance.  I would love to be entered in your contest!!
photoquest(at)bellsouth(dot)net

The best non-romance I’ve read this year was “Never Suck a Dead Man’s Hand” by Dana Kollman, which is a collection of true stories from a real live CSI.  I never thought I would laugh so much at the descriptions of crime scene investigations.

Im a dork. This was a great book.
Hope Diamond: The Legendary History of a Cursed Gem.
Kurin, Richard.

I also read all the Lillith Saintcrow books.. Love them. Dante Valentine series is awesome and the Jill Kismeth series looks promising.

Ive also read some some of the Stephanie Plum books. But Janet Evanovich dont know if those would be considered romance.

I had a lot of fun reading Jeffrey Steingarten’s The Man Who Ate Everything.  If you’re an aspiring gourmand or content to remain a devoted foodie, this was a great set of essays.  Each was a delicious little bite that I could consume in small nibble or devour whole.

MMmmm…it’s dinnertime here - can you tell that food’s on my mind?  :)

A terrific memoir: Spilling the Beans by Clarissa Dickson Wright, formerly of the Two Fat Ladies cooking show. On the fiction front: One Hundred Years of Solitude….oh to be able to write like that.

Just to say Milan Kundera

The best book is often the book I’ve just finished. However, I have to say the best book of this year was probably actually a trilogy, Anne Bishop’s Black Jewel trilogy.

I also liked Flanders by Patricia Anthony, Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult, Odd Hours by Dean Koontz.

And I like the fact that I know I am going to go through all the above (and below) posts and find new books to put on my wish list.

Thanks.

The Fourth Bear
& Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde
Both books are nursery crimes and are heavy on literary references and humor.  I always feel smarter yet my brain feels lighter after reading him.

I really enjoyed Spectre by Phaedra Weldon.  http://booklover07202.blogspot.com/2008/09/spectre-review.html

Great giveaway! I’ve read Michael Chabon before and he is fabulous. I read Kavalier and Clay and The Yiddish Policeman’s Union.  I’ve heard of Everything is Illuminated but haven’t read it. Also that last book, I never heard of but I’m sure I’d enjoy. I like just about anything.

I have two:
The Green Glass Sea - Ellen Klages
A children’s book telling the history of Los Alamos and the Manhattan Project through the eyes of two junior high school girls.  Gets the history right and captures the feel of what it must have been like.

The Audacity of Hope - Barack Obama
The stump speeches and the book follow each other. Extremely well-written, and a window into the mind of our next President.

Joanne

Recently read Caliban’s Hour by Tad Williams.  Also loved Naomi Novek’s series, Sara Douglass’s Crippled Angel, Pulman’s the golden compass and Christopher paolini’s eldest (second to eragon).  Alas, not much non fiction for me tho I really enjoyed Guns, Germs and Steel which was a reread for me.

p.s spam word other67:  I need to get to the other 67 books in my pile!!!

It’s a tie between SEVERANCE PACKAGE and THE BLONDE, both written by Duane Swierczynski. Each book is wickedly funny, thriller-paced, and centers around premises that are so outlandish they actually seem plausible.

SEVERANCE PACKAGE is a tale of a super secret spy wing of the US operating out of Philadelphia and the eye-popping, jaw-dropping craziness that ensues when the operatives and their civilian copywriter are locked on their floor (stairwells and elevators rigged with sarin gas) and end up fighting for their lives as one of their own (sort of) tries to off them in increasingly creative ways.  Seriously, you’ll never look at office supplies the same way again.

THE BLONDE centers around a kick ass woman infected with nanobots. She can’t be more than 10 feet away from another human being without risking her head going kablooey. She drugs a reporter she meets in the Philadelphia airport, promising him the antidote if he’ll just spend the night with her and then publish her tale. She unknowingly sets off a chain of totally whacked out events spread out over one unforgettable night in Philly. Oh, and they’re running from a government assassin toting around a head in a bag. Shit magnet? Oh, yeah…

The Last Chinese Chef by Nicole Mones. It’s this amazing combination of narrative, love story and a culture I could connect to - a half-Chinese chef and his relationship with the elders in his family.

I love winter break. Means I actually have time to read.

The Watchman by Robert Crais.

“Mindless Eating:  Why We Eat More than We Think”—Brian Wansink.

THE NIGHT GARDENER by George Pelecanos.  It was like reading an episode of The Wire, which makes sense since he wrote for the show.

The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich

I’ve read so many this year, but some of my favorites include:
The Singing by Alison Croggon (final book of the YA series),
A Great and Terrible Beauty (and sequels) by Libba Bray,
Temeraire series by Naomi Novik,
Hero by Perry Moore,
Melusine (and sequels) by Sarah Monette

My Wicked Wicked Ways by Errol Flynn.

The man had every bad job in the whole world before the age of 25. And gave me my new measure of job badness: any day my job does not involve castrating sheep with my teeth, is a good day.

I have 2-one YA and one adult

Nation by Terry Pratchett. I hate Discworld, but really loved this. It’s a coming-of-age story with a twist.
Anathem by Neal Stephenson-Not to everyone’s taste, but I liked this. If you liked Sophie’s World by Jostein Garrder, you will like this.

The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold.

I reread The Aeneid this year, which is by far my favorite of the epics.

The best new non-Romance I read this year was probably The Whiskey Rebels by David Liss, a mystery/thriller set a bit before the Whiskey Rebellion.  David Liss’ books are always at least as much historical fiction as they are whatever other genre they fit in, and this was his first late eighteenth-century book and his first book set before the twentieth century in America.

Stardust, by Neil Gaimon. Incredible.

Watching the English by Kate Fox.  It’s a marvelous study of English behavior, which made me laugh on many occaisions and also gave me several a-ha moments about what motivates my English friends. : )

Hmm…. so hard to pick, really.

(and, wow, I am picking up fantastic rec’s from this list, which is just as awesome as the chance to win more books!)

Best book: I think I’m going to have to put Alan Moore’s “Watchmen” up at the top of the list. Yes, finally got around to reading it. Am now eagerly anticipating the movie version, to see what they do with it.

Other recommendations:  “Ouran High School Host Club” (not all of which is out in English yet—great comic manga about a high school student attending an elite private school who gets mixed up with the “host club,” a group of male students dedicated to bringing romantic happiness to women), Donna Leon’s fantastic Comissario Brunetti mysteries (contemporary Venetian setting, great characterizations), Jonathan Spence’s “The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci” (non-fiction account of a 16th-century Italian Jesuit in China who writes a treatise introducing the Chinese to a classical Greek system of mnemonic learning)... rats; I’m sure there are other examples, but I’m blanking on them. Ah, well; was technically supposed to only have one anyway.

JD

Reported88: So, if I reported 88 book recommendations, would I get 88 chances at the 8 Crazy Nights giveaway?

“The Likeness” by Tana French—amazing mystery set in modern Ireland.

I read a few Christopher Moore books earlier this year. He has an interesting combination of humor/supernatural/suspense. I liked “Island of the Sequined Love Nun” and “A Dirty Job”.

Terrier (Legends of Beka Cooper Book 1) by Tamora Pierce

It’s a teen book written in first-person journal style. I enjoyed it.

I know I’m too late to win, but I really wanted to answer this question!

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

:)

Dan Brown’s “Angels and Demons”.  I had resisted for so long the whole hype about “The DiVinci Code”, but my brother recommended a different DB title and I really enjoyed it.  So I bit the bullet and read A&D;.  Excellent book.  Much better than TDC - just not nearly as controversial.

The characters are well written, the plot and dialogue is fast paced and well done.  I would highly recommend it to anyone.

Don’t Hex with Texas by Shanna Swendson

Faefever [Fever Series #3]  by Karen Marie Moning

re-reading (listening to audio version) of David Weber’s…
On Basilisk Station,
The Honor of the Queen,
The Short, Victorious War,
and Field of Dishonor

re-reading (listening to audio version) of Anne McCaffery’s
Crystal Singer
Killashandra
and Crystal Line

I fell in love with Maria Snyder’s Study-series. Poison Study, Magic Study and Fire Study

Ack! I can’t pick just one favorite, either. So here are my picks in several categories:

Professional: A Mind At A Time by Mel Levine - great take on working with students who need something other than the mainstream.

Hobby: The Year-Round Vegetable Gardener by Anne Halpin - I’m growing leeks, cauliflower and lettuce now and have my tomato and pepper seeds ready for spring.

Mystery: Still Life by Louise Penny - like an old-fashioned English village mystery but set in Canada

Humor: A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore - Kitty!

The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen, hands down. (It was released years ago, but I only got to it now…)

That being said, I absolutely inhaled the Temeraire series this summer. INHALED. LIKE BOOK COCAINE.

I’d also like to say that “Big Red Son” out of Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace is an absolutely brilliant essay. What a voice he had.

But I also did read The Unbearable Lightness of Being, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, and Everything is Illuminated this year. They are all awesome in totally different ways. (JSF’s second book, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close should also get a shout out.) It was a good book year for me!

i know its been around for ages but i discovered and devoured
Richard Dawkins - The Selfish Gene

The Steerswoman’s Road by Rosemary Kirstein. Sci-Fi masquerading as Fantasy with a ton of twists and turns.

It’s a toss-up between The Warrior Women of Television: A Feminist Cultural Analysis of the New Female Body in Popular Media, by Dawn Heinecken, and Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, by Barack Obama (the latter I listened to as an audiobook, but I think that still counts, right?).

It’s difficult to pick just one—of course—so I’m going to be total dunderhead and pick two. I loved them both, but for different reasons.

1. Un-Lun-Dun by China Mieville
A wonderful YA by an author who loves language and what fun can be had with it. I mean, black window spiders? Lurve.

2. Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon
Recommended by two poets and an independent bookstore owner in Portland—a reader-y town if ever I’ve experienced one. Again with the nigh magical command of language and its power. Lurve, cubed.