books #10-47 (2008)

If I wait until I feel like writing reviews, I'll never post this. Ratings will have to do.

If you're looking for recommendations, you should read Hunting and Gathering, What Was Lost and Bookhunter (and also maybe Among Other Things, I've Taken Up Smoking, An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England and Lost in Austen, and any other 4 star rated book; there are quite a few of them in here).

10. Beginner's Greek by James Collins ***. Chick lit by a guy. The only differences that made was that the main character was male, had higher self-esteem and a better career and there was less shopping. The last three things did help a little, admittedly.

11. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz ****.

12. Status Anxiety by Alain de Botton ***1/2.

13. Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris ****. I'd heard good things about this, but I wasn't sure I'd like it when I realised it was written in first-person plural and was about working in an office. It was very good, though.

14. The Journal of Dora Damage by Belinda Starling ****.

15. The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall ***1/2.

16. Lost in Austen by Emma Campbell Webster ****1/2. This was so fun! My first time through I was imprisoned for killing Mr Elton. There was quite a lot of death in this book, actually.

17. Beige by Cecil Castellucci ***1/2.

18. Skylight Confessions by Alice Hoffman ***1/2.

19. Behind the Moon by Hsu-Ming Teo ***1/2.

20. What You Have Left by Will Allison ***1/2.

21. Mathematicians in Love by Rudy Rucker ***.

22. Three Junes by Julia Glass ***1/2. Surely there are reasons for men to be infertile aside from mumps at age 12, but that's the only one I've ever seen in a book.

23. The Wife by Meg Wolitzer ***1/2.

24. Strawberry Fields by Marina Lewycka ***1/2.

25. Straight Man by Richard Russo ***1/2.

26. Among Other Things, I've Taken Up Smoking by Aoibheann Sweeney ****.

27. Foreskin's Lament by Shalom Auslander ****.

28. Stuck in the Middle edited by Ariel Schrag ***.

29. Echo Maker by Richard Powers ***1/2.

30. The Secret Language of Sleep by Evany Thomas ***1/2. This was cute. I liked the online test to determine your sleeping position, too, and it seemed pretty accurate:

Find your own pose!

31. An Anthropologist on Mars by Oliver Sacks ***.

32. Away by Amy Bloom ****.

33. What Was Lost by Catherine O'Flynn ****1/2. (review added 12/31/08). This is the book that has stuck with me most this year. The first section, about a young girl who wants to be a reporter, reminded me of Harriet the Spy, but it's definitely a much more grown-up and nuanced book. I say I don't like mysteries, but this was a wonderful one.

34. Charity Girl by Michael Lowenthal ***.

35. An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England by Brock Clarke ****.

36. The Archivist by Martha Cooley ****.

37. Hunting and Gathering by Anna Gavalda *****. I'm not sure why I loved this book, especially after someone I recommended it to complained about the ending and the way the main character needed rescuing by others. I did love it, though. I still need to see the movie.

38. Bookhunter by Jason Shiga *****. A graphic novel that's like CSI or for book nerds. Here's the Making Light review that made me want to read it.

39. The Opposite of Love by Julie Buxbaum *.

40.The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory ***.

41. The 60-second Procrastinator by Jeffrey P. Davidson ***.

42. How to Write A Lot by Paul J. Silvia ***.

43. Digging to America by Anne Tyler ***.

44. Say When by Elizabeth Berg (audiobook) ***.

45. Blue Shoes by Anne Lamott (audiobook) ***.

46. Happier by Tal Ben-Shahar ***.

47. The Pesthouse by Jim Crace ***1/2.