I don't think I'll list every single one of the 64, instead I'll just list those that were, for me, standout titles.
The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver
The Camel Bookmobile - Masha Hamilton
Gentlemen and Players - Joanne Harris
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith
Monstrous Regiment - Terry Pratchett
The Various Haunts of Men - Susan Hill
Myself When Young - Daphne du Maurier
All Quiet on the Western Front - Erich Maria Remarque
The thing is, it might have been an average year number-wise, but it wasn't average quality-wise. I could easily have listed another 20 superb reads. The fact is it's been a terrific year for me book-wise. 95% of what I've read I've really enjoyed and I certainly could not say that about every year.
Choosing a book of the year is very hard but if I absolutely *had* to choose, it would be A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. I loved, loved, loved it.
Apart from my 64 books I've also read over 100 short stories this year. Not all of them were complete books so haven't featured in my list. Of the complete books I'd say my favourites were:
Dreams Underfoot by Charles de Lint
Minnie's Room: the Peacetime stories by Mollie Panter Downes
The Ghost Stories of M.R. James
I've also read several series this year. The best of those:
The Hollow Kingdom trilogy by Clare B. Dunkle
The Wee Free Men trilogy by Terry Pratchett
But I've also loved continuing with the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series by Laurie R. King and starting the Mortal Engine series by Philip Reeve.
All in all, quite a memorable reading year for me. I only hope 2009 will be as good.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And to finish this post off - a couple of pics of books I got for Christmas.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_Bz1HWkjbEryx4i3FQ_2G9CM92dBsmAONWk_5sDgnaP04Xd9BS8Tn2ypEUNrwZoLQAgGNVXRhWr73vrbZLgUap_EEV27lx56IPq4QE7a3TgTr2uuClKJ7iDByRWd61fA_5zgd0DhAezDs/s320/Christmas08+016a.jpg)
Three books from folk who know my reading tastes perfectly. Stephen Fry in America was a Christmas gift from my youngest daughter, the book is based on his TV series of the same name of course. Nation by Terry Pratchett was from an online, and now RL, friend of about eight years, a big Terry Pratchett fan too. And Here, There be Dragons was from from my lovely friend, Deslily.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDtCP7BSQUIsOBw2dSlMEM_2C8qA5U7rbNKwFUkZypvs8Nb01xS9zS1c9kfhHb1-7AOOJ80bzjYbk5C9rY4mLP_w-S29PmBA1HubUd7Hq-bxB_mFOBZSOrnOBF3QTJNzH5hqs3XlGBTJhb/s320/Christmas08+018.jpg)
These two came from a friend in Ohio. A gorgeous cookbook based on recipes used by the governors of Ohio through the centuries. Love it to bits. And the other is full of pics of Lake Erie, a lake we've been lucky enough to visit twice, the last time spending time at Put-in Bay, which is featured in the book. Fond memories.