Top 9 of 2008

Okay, this has to be a top 9 because well, there aren't 10 books that I feel that I can say I loved this year - of course that probably has a lot to do with the fact that I'm down from over 70 books read from last year to just over 30 this year, including audio books. Oh, and it should be noted that it doesn't mean that they were published in 2008 - just that I read them in 2008.

So, without further ado, here were my favorites of 2008 listed in no particular order (other than the order that I read them):

1. The Second Virginity of Suzy Green by Sara Hantz. I'll be honest, I picked this one up because Amanda Ashby is Sara's good friend and I absolutely loved Amanda's book, You Had Me At Halo - it's one of my all time favorite books. But you know what? I really liked this book. Very smart, relatable characters that I liked and a believable storyline. I'd definitely recommend it to others.



2. Stupid and Contagious by Caprice Crane. I'd read the author's other book, Forget about it last new year's eve and couldn't put it down. It was hysterical. So, I picked up a copy of this book - which I believe was an earlier book. Anyway, this one was hysterical too. The heroine is not always believable in the things she does but the writing and the fun of it all was so good, I didn't care. If you want to laugh, I'd say this would be a good choice.


3. The Devil's Daughter by Laura Drewry. I'm a huge fan of all things Laura Drewry. I've read all of her books but I have to say, this one was my favorite. The things that come to mind that I loved so much about the story are things that would give plot twists away and include spoilers and I don't want to do that but I can say without hesitation, I really liked this book a lot. :)



4. Remember Me by Sophie Kinsella. I'll start this by saying, I don't recall specific details of this story because I've read several "amnesia" stories in the last year and a half. However, I do recall the feeling that I was reading a classic Sophie Kinsella, which would mean I loved it. I've enjoyed everything she's written, with the exception of the Shopaholic and Sister story - and I was glad to see that one book was the fluke that didn't fit with the others.


5. Unpredictable by Eileen Cook. This was a book that I was seeing talked up early in the year. I'd put it on my "save for later" cart over at Amazon but never actually got around to purchasing (I blame school and work). Then I met Eileen in San Francisco and instantly liked her and got an autographed copy of the book. It wasn't long after that that I pulled it out and read it and it is hysterical. Seriously, I don't know when I've laughed so much. It's up there with my favorite books of all time. Highly recommend it.

6. The Fidelity Files by Jessica Brody. This is one that I saw recommended on Amanda Ashby's blog. She had met Jessica in San Francisco and interviewed her for her blog (Jessica later returned the favor via Skype). On the blog she had the book trailer. I got to tell you, few book trailers have made me want to buy a book but this one did. It was done like a movie and I still want them to do the movie. When my local bookstore didn't have it in stock, I ordered it online and promptly read it when it arrived. It lived up to the trailer. Another I would highly recommend.

7. What Would Emma Do? by Eileen Cook. After I read Unpredictable, I started following Eileen's blog. She's had the WWED information up for a while now. And to be honest, I hadn't expected to buy it, after all it's a YA. Then one day I was checking out her blog and decided to check out the first chapter of the book. I only read a couple of paragraphs before I went over to amazon and ordered the book. I ordered several other books that I had to wait for because WWED wasn't released yet. It came a day or two before Christmas and I read it within a couple of days of when it arrived. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Now, that's all I had for "chosen" reading to list but I wanted to come as close to 10 as I could so I decided to include "required" reading (ie for class/school). I'm not going to post the cover here though - sorry. ;)

8. Cymbeline by William Shakespeare. I took a Shakespeare class and this was the only one that I didn't have to read page after page of "footnotes" in order to understand the language. I'm a visual person and I could totally visualize this story. I totally did the laughing out loud with a maybe snort laugh when reading this one. :)

9. The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I was drawn in immediately into the story and instantly cared about the characters. It wasn't at all predictable and I loved that even though, by today's standards, it's a historical, it was a novel that when written reflected the times as they were then. That's so fascinating to me. The only downfall to this story for me was that we were having to read criticisms of the novel as we went along and they had some unexpected spoilers in them - which wouldn't be a problem for someone else just picking up the novel to read.


So that's my list. Now, I want to say that this doesn't mean that other books on my list weren't good, it just means that they didn't stand out like these did for me.

But that's my list. . . what made your list?