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What is the best book(s) you read in 2008?

Guest Virginia Dawn

By Guest Virginia Dawn,
in General Education Discussion Board

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Guest Virginia Dawn

Guest Virginia Dawn

Posted
Posted

I tried making an 888 list at the beginning of the year, but I didn't stick to it. Instead I kind of muddled around looking for things that interested me at a particular time.

 

Some of my favorites from this past year:

 

The Creature From Jekyll Island

The Dante Club

Dorothy Cannell mysteries

Time After Time

 

It wasn't a year for much heavy reading, how about you?

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pbandpickles

pbandpickles

Posted
Posted

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

If you loved the Kite Runner you will LOVE this book. I did anyway.

 

What I am reading now and almost finished with, The Road by Cormac McCarthy I think is going to be in my top three.

 

I spent a lot of time rereading some books I had read in the past and really loved. The Reader was one of then by Bernhard Schlink. I decided to reread it when I had read somewhere they made a movie based on the book. Kate Winslet playing Hana. I had read it a few years ago and felt compelled to reread the book before the seeing the movie. Still waiting on the movie.

 

 

I love a good book, there's nothing better :D!

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lovemyboys

lovemyboys

Posted
Posted
I tried making an 888 list at the beginning of the year, but I didn't stick to it.

 

It wasn't a year for much heavy reading, how about you?

 

Sounds like me. Even the thought of a 999 group is daunting. Unless the following year would be a 000! :tongue_smilie:

 

One of my categories was ya historical fiction. ;) We liked Johnny Tremain and The Ransom of Mercy Carter quite a lot.

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unsinkable

unsinkable

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Posted

This book wins my award for 2008 Just-Can't-Put-It-Down-I-Have-to-Find-Out-What-Happens/Suspense Category:

 

Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith

 

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Set in the Soviet Union in 1953, this stellar debut from British author Smith offers appealing characters, a strong plot and authentic period detail. When war hero Leo Stepanovich Demidov, a rising star in the MGB, the State Security force, is assigned to look into the death of a child, Leo is annoyed, first because this takes him away from a more important case, but, more importantly, because the parents insist the child was murdered. In Stalinist Russia, there's no such thing as murder; the only criminals are those who are enemies of the state. After attempting to curb the violent excesses of his second-in-command, Leo is forced to investigate his own wife, the beautiful Raisa, who's suspected of being an Anglo-American sympathizer. Demoted and exiled from Moscow, Leo stumbles onto more evidence of the child killer. The evocation of the deadly cloud-cuckoo-land of Russia during Stalin's final days will remind many of Gorky Park and Darkness at Noon, but the novel remains Smith's alone, completely original and absolutely satisfying. Rights sold in more than 20 countries. (May)

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6packofun

6packofun

Posted
Posted (edited)

I'd have to say:

 

Things Fall Apart

The Lovely Bones

A Guide to the Birds of East Africa

The Tenderness of Wolves

The Meaning of Night

Northanger Abbey

Never Let Me Go

Tunnels

Shakespeare: The World as Stage

 

That's out of 70+ books from this year. Sorry, I can't ever just name 1 or 2. lol

Edited by 6packofun
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mellifera

mellifera

Posted
Posted

Crazy For God - Frank Schaeffer

 

and

 

Stride Toward Freedom - Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

A word of warning on the Schaeffer book. It is how he remembers growing up, and it shows his parents warts and all. If you're a huge Francis Schaeffer fan, you might not like it. (Although I am and I enjoyed this book.)

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buddhabelly

buddhabelly

Posted
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"Farther Than Any Man: The Rise and Fall of Captain James Cook" by Martin Dugard. Just fascinating, and very well-written.

 

I also enjoyed "With Speed and Violence" by Fred Pearce, about how global climate change has never been particularly gradual in the past and is not likely to be in the future either. This is a wonderful read. There is an interesting theory mentioned about how methane "burps" from the bottom of the ocean were perhaps responsible for the "Bermuda Triangle" phenomenon. The methane changes the density of the water and if there is a ship directly above the "burp", the ship is sucked directly to the sea floor -- whoosh!

 

Julie

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PariSarah

PariSarah

Posted
Posted

I would say, for family read-aloud, Motel of the Mysteries, by David Macaulay. Not just because that's the only one we finished this year, but also because it was a really fun, silly good book.

 

For me, for fun, In Defense of Food, by Michael Pollan, and the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde.

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elegantlion

elegantlion

Posted
Posted

Also from my 888 list

 

1. Alex Rider series (all of them) I love these books and would love to make a geography curriculum from the books, that would be so fun.

 

2. Huckleberry Finn - had never read it before. I still find myself thinking about it months later.

 

3. Latin-Centered Curriculum - saved my sanity and probably my son's too.

 

4. Revision & Self-editing - detailed a process that seemed very scary to me before.

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Sharon H in IL

Sharon H in IL

Posted
Posted

I'll go get my commonplace book. That's where I keep my lists of books read.

 

OK, here we go:

 

- Human Accomplishment: The Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts and Sciences 800 BC to 1950 by Charles Murray

 

- Culture Shock! India [travel guide series] by Gitanjali S. Kolanad

 

- Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 35 Billion-Year History of the Human Body, by Neil Shubin

 

- The Iliad [audiobook] trans. by Robert Fagles read by Derek Jacobi (this was much abridged)

 

- SuperCrunchers: Why Thinking-by-Numbers Is the New Way to Be Smart by Ian Ayres

 

- The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby

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SFP

SFP

Posted
Posted

The Creature From Jekyll Island

 

 

Hey, didn't I recommend you get this one for your son last Christmas, Virginia Dawn? How'd he like it?

 

My favorites (so far):

 

The Birds Fall Down. Rebecca West

Our Horses in Egypt. Rosalind Belben

Half of a Yellow Sun. Chimananda Ngozi Adichie

Olive Kitteridge. Elizabeth Strout

Oscar and Lucinda. Peter Carey

The Suicide Index. Joan Wickersham

A High Wind in Jamaica. Richard Hughes

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lauranav

lauranav

Posted
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I would recommend two that I read this fall.

 

Antsy Does Time by Neal Shusterman was great. My 14 year old nephew read it in one day and loved every bit of it!

 

I also discovered Elizabeth Goudge and really enjoyed two books by her: The Heart of the Family and The Castle on the Hill. I look forward to reading more in 2009.

 

I've been using this thread to start my list for 2009!

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Guest Virginia Dawn

Guest Virginia Dawn

Posted
Posted
Hey, didn't I recommend you get this one for your son last Christmas, Virginia Dawn? How'd he like it?

 

 

 

He just started reading it last week. All things college consumed him for a while.

 

His father read it in October and I read it in November. Ds got so tired of hearing us rave about the book that he finally picked it up when he was home for Thanksgiving break.

 

Great book! Too bad I can't go bury my head in the sand now. ;)

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Stacey in MA

Stacey in MA

Posted
Posted

Will you tell me more about Mere Christianity.....? I have that book, started it once, and couldn't get into it with the time I had. It seemed very interesting though!

 

Also, coincidentally, my DH is an engineer, but was formerly a physics professor like your DH! He considered along the way becoming a private school physics teacher during a career switching time. He still loves teaching, and would go back to it if the opportunities were just right, but has moved on to other things for now....but his love is in teaching.

 

Thanks! - Stacey in MA

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unsinkable

unsinkable

Posted
Posted
I read some really great books in 2008. Here are some that stick out:

 

The Twilight saga -- not great writing, but I was totally absorbed. I read all four books, then went back to the beginning and read them again! I guess I'm still a teenager at heart! LOL

 

Heartsick & Sweetheart by Chelsea Cain -- serial killer / Silence of the Lambs type books, but with a female bad-guy. Not for the weak stomached, but oh so good!

 

The Likeness by Tara French -- suspenseful sequel to Into The Woods. It reminded me a bit of A Secret History by Donna Tartt, an all-time favorite book.

I'm sure I'll think of more as soon as I hit "Submit". ;)

 

Shari,

 

I really enjoyed French's books, too. Maybe you'll like the one I listed, Child 44.

 

:)

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SBP

SBP

Posted
Posted

My favorite non-fiction read was Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore. My favorite fiction was The Witch of Blackbird Pond, which I read out loud to the kids. Somehow, I'd never read it before, but it was one of those (like Anne of Green Gables the previous year) that I was sneaking upstairs at night so that I could read ahead :).

 

The book that made me go "huh?" and wish I had those hours back was Twilight. Sorry, but I just don't get what all the fuss is about with that one. :confused:

 

SBP

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Guest Lorna

Guest Lorna

Posted
Posted

'The Summer Book' by Tove Jansson.

It is at once funny, poignant and wise. A grandmother and her six year old granddaughter are summering alone on their own tiny Finnish island. There are two absent characters - the child's mother, who has died recently, and the father, who is so withdrawn into himself he is really absent too. They have many philosophical conversations and some very funny small adventures. It is full of Tove Jansson' quirky spirit and it made me feel brave enough to look forward to old age.

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