Books I have read in 2008

(in red: I recommend it!)

Jan 2008
1. Eat, Pray, Love – Elizabeth Gilbert
2. The Assault on Reason – Al Gore
3. Garlic and Sapphire – Ruth Reihl
4. The Big Oyster – Mark Kurlansky
5. Dear Exile

Feb 2008
6. Number the Stars – Lois Lowry
7. A Dog Year
8. Blue-eyed Salaryman – Peter Murtagh
9. Inkspell – Cornelia Flunke
10. Gentlemen and Players – Joanne Harris
11. The Yankee Girl – Kyusun Chung
12. The Cheeses of Vermont – Henry Tewksbury
13. Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant – Jenni Ferrari-Adler
14. In the Pond – Ha Jin
15. My Country vs Me – Wan Ho Lee
16. Late Bloomer – Fern Michaels
17. Death by Darjeering – Laura Child
18. Ella Minnow Pea

March 2008
19. Enslaved by Ducks – Bob Tarte
20.  I Have Chosen to Stay and Fight – Margaret Cho
21. Hungry Planet  – Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio
22.  Chopsticks!  An Owner’s Manual – Hashi-san
23. Water for Elephants – Sara Gruen

24. False Impression – Jeffrey Archer
25. The Lady and the Panda
26. Galileo’s Daughter
27. The Lifer, Bad Company – Arkas
28. Amy’s Story: Portraits of Little Women – Susan Beth Pfeffer
29. Tao of Cow
30. Kabul Beauty School – Deborah Rodriguez

April 2008
31. The Loop – Nicholas Evan
32. The Barbarians are Coming – David Wong Louie
33. Flush – Carl Hiassen
34. His Majesty’s Dragon – Naomi Novik
35. Empress Orchid – Anchee Min
36. Carpe Demon: Adventures of a Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom – Julie Kenner
37. The Girls – Lori Lansens
38. The Music of Dolphins – Karen Hesse

May 2008
39. Collapse – Jared Diamond
40. How To Live With A Neurotic Dog -Stephen Baker
41. Songs to an African Sunset – Sekai Nzenza-Shand
42. Across Five Aprils
43. Act One: Suspense (Audio Book)
44. Stiff – Mary Roach
45. Julie & Julia – Julie Powell
46. The Wine Guy – Andy Besch
47. I am Legend – Richard Matheson
48. Girl Cook – Hannah Mccouch
49. Giving – Bill Clinton
50. Neverwhere – Neil Gaiman
51. The Rescue – Nicholas Sparks
52. A New Adventure Every Day – David Silberkleit

June 2008
53. Fat Girl – Judith Moore
54. How to Marry a Millionaire Vampire – Kerrelyn Sparks
55. Where Have All The Leaders Gone? – Lee Iaccoca
56. The Anansi Boys – Neil Gaiman
57. Last Day at The Lobster
58. Perfume
59. It’s Not About The Coffee – Howard Behar
60. The Omnivore’s Dilemma – Michael Pollan

July 2008
61. Red River – Lalita Tademy
62. Expat: Women’s True Tales of Life Abroad
63. The Sunflower – Richard Paul Evans
64. The Curious Incident of the Dog at Night – Mark Haddon
65. The Other Bolyen Girl – Philippa Gregory
66. Bearing an Hourglass – Piers Anthony
67. Paperquake – Kathryn Reiss
68. Lying Awake – Mark Salzman
69. Almost French – Sarah Turnbell
70. Sister Bernadette’s Barking Dog – Kitty Burns Florey

August 2008
71. Rococo
72. Vampire, Interrupted – Lyndsay Sands
73. The Gardens of Kyoto
74. In the Company of A Courtesan – Sarah Durant
75. A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary For Lovers – Xiaolu Guo
76. Weedflower – Cynthia Kadohata
77. The Year of the Goat: 40,000 miles and the quest for the perfect cheese – Margaret Hathaway
78. Zhuangzi Speaks – Tsai Chih Chung
79. Out of India
80. Shanghai Baby – Wei Hui
81. Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea – Charles Seife
82. Altering The Blueprint: The Ethnics of Genetics – Alexander McCall-Smith
83. Project X Challengers: Cup Noodle – Tadashi Katoh
84. The Thief Lord – Cornelia Funke
85. My Lover’s Lover – Maggie O’Farrell
86. So You Want to be A Wizard – Diane Duane

September 2008
87. Self Made Man – Norah Vincent
88. The Talking Horse and the Sad Girl and the Village Under the Sea – Mark Haddon
89. Hearing Birds Fly
90. Mr. Muo’s Travelling Couch – Dai Sijie
91. Death in Venice – Thomas Mann
92. The Food Taster – Peter Elbling
93. The Zookeeper’s Wife
94. How Pourst Can Change Your Life – Alain de Botton
95. The Prophet – Kahlil Gibran
96. Mrs. Marco Polo Remembers – Mary Parker Dunning
97. Diary – Chuck Palanuick

October 2008
98. Plague – Albert Camus
99. Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Labor in the American Black Market – Eric Schlosser
100. The Importance of Being Earnest (Graphic Novel) – Oscar Wilde/Tom Bouden
101. Motherland: The Other Side of My Heart – Vineeta Vijayaraghaven
102. The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place – E.L. Konigsburg
103. A Goose in Toulouse
104. A Bear from the North – Yvonne de Fresne
105. Jungle Child – Sabine Kuegler
106. Peace is the Way – Deepak Chopra
107. The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
108. Embroideries – Marjane Satrapi
109. The Nine Lives of Louis Drax

November 2008
110. Joanna and Ulysses – May Sarton
111. Genome – Matt Ridley
112. Zenzele: A Letter for My Daughter – J. Nozipo Maraire
113. France: A Love Letter – MKF Fisher, Ruth Reichl, Alice Kaplan et al
114. Middlesex – Jeffrey Eugenides
115.  Sex Lives of Cannibals – J. Maarten Troost

December 2008
116. Black Swan Green – David Mitchell
117. The Pearl Diver – Jeff Talarigo
118. Nights in Rodanthe – Nicholas Sparks
119. Tulipomania – Mike Dash
120. Himalaya – Michael Palin
121. Finding George Orwell in Burma – Emma Larkin
122. Bloodsucking Fiends – Christopher Moore
123. Climbing the Mango Tree
124. Anna of Byzantium – Tracy Barrett
125. Dear John – Nicholas Sparks
126. The Starving Time: Elizabeth’s Diary, Book Two – Patricia Hermes
127. Count Karlstein – Philip Pullman
128. Momo – Michael Ende
129. Life al Dente – Gina Cascone
130. 4th of July – James Patterson
131. The Unauthorized Autobiography of Lemony Snickett – Lemony Snickett
132. The Meaning of Everything – Simon Winchester

My Top Ten of 2008

(in no strict order):
Hungry Planet
Gentlemen and Player
Stiff
Neverwhere
The Zookeeper’s Wife
The Food Taster
The Omnivore’s Dilemma
Jungle Child
The Shadow of the Wind
The Pearl Diver

Some Useless Statistics:
Year 2008 –
Bookcrossing Books: 102  (77.3%)  Non-BC Books: 30
Fiction: 74     Non Fiction: 58 (43.9%)