Reading, 2008

Not sure yet who won the competitive reading club competition for 2008; the results won't be posted for a couple of days. And this will be the last year for competition; my nephews--who coordinate, compile, and post--are getting too busy, and as the club's enrollment has grown and the number of books we each read has swelled, their work has swelled, too.

So we're all being politely pushed toward Shelfari, and the competitive site will go away.

It's just as well; reading shouldn't be about quantity, though it was hard to keep from getting caught up in the whole toting-up of each month's totals.

Speaking of totals, I posted my January through June titles earlier. Here are July through December; keep in mind that some of the titles (um, Nicholas Sparks) I had to read, for work.

Best books I read this year? Charles Baxter, for sure. Ron Rash's "Serena." Helene Cooper. The Tibetan book we all talked about earlier. Blake Morrison's memoir of his father. Tony Horwitz's history of America. Anne Enright's "The Gathering." Jhumpa Lahiri's short stories.

July

"Blueberry Summers" by Curtiss Johnson

"Serve the People: A Stir-Fried Journey through China," by Jen Lin-Liu

"Izzy and Lenore: Two Dogs, an Unexpected Journey, and Me," by Jon Katz

"The Longest Trip Home," by John Grogan

"Dark Summit," by Nick Heil

"Something for the Pain: One Doctor's Account of Life and Death in the ER," by Paul Austin

"The Feast of Love," by Charles Baxter

August

"Reading the OED," by Ammon Shea

"Stanley and Sophie," by Kate Jennings

"The Anglo Files," by Sarah Lyall

"In His Sights," by Kate Brennan

"After the Fire," by Robin Gaby Fisher

"Black Box," by Julie Schumacher

"The Nineteenth Wife," by David Ebershoff

"A Guide to the Birds of East Africa," by Nicholas Drayson

September

"The House at Sugar Beach," by Helene Cooper

"The Second Time Around," by Marcia Willett

"The Lucky One," by Nicholas Sparks

"The Pages in Between," by Erin Einhorn

"My Name is Number 4," by Ting-xing Ye

October

"The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society," by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

"The Condition," by Jennifer Haigh
"American Wife," by Curtis Sittenfeld
"The Leisure Seekers," by Michael Zadoorian
"The Sealed Letter," by Emma Donoghue
"The Sharper the Knife, the Less you Cry," by Kathleen Flinn
"The Road Home," by Rose Tremain
"I'll Never Be French," by Mark Greenside
"Greasy Rider," by Greg Melville
"An Irish Country Christmas," by Patrick Taylor

November

"The Hidden Room," by Johanna Speiss
"A Hidden Life," by Johanna Speiss
"A Pint of Plain," by Bill Barich
"Between the Covers: The Book Babes' Guide to a Woman's Reading Pleasures," by Ellen Helzel and Margo Hammond
"Heart and Soul," by Maeve Binchy

"Serena," by Ron Rash

December

"The Mercy Papers," by Robby Romm
"Losing Everything," by David Lozell Martin
"A Place Called Canterbury," by Dudley Clendenin
"Where Wanderers Cease to Roam," by Vivian Swift

"Alex and Me," by Irene M. Pepperberg

"Keeping the House," by Ellen Baker.