Bibliomusings: Best new reads of 2008

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Best new reads of 2008

I won't be finishing a book today (I'm barely into The Mists of Avalon), so I guess it's time to blog my best reads of last year. I chose my ten top reads from the books I gave five stars, and I'm not counting rereads. Here we go, in no particular order!

I Am Legend by Richard Matteson.

A well written, scientific look at what makes a vampire.

Slam by Nick Hornby

Hilarous and thought-provoking young adult book about teen pregnancy.

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

A beautiful love story about an old man remembering his travels with a circus during the depression.

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

A story so real it's hard to believe it's fiction.

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

One of the best non-fiction books ever, a heart-breaking tale about a young man who tries to survive alone in nature.

America: The Book by Jon Stewart

This textbook parody was so funny!

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

A masterpiece in style with a beautiful story, about a family of missionaries in Africa.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

A stark and beautiful post-apocalyptic story of love and survival.

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

A gothic tale of orphans, insanity, and ghosts haunting an estate.

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

A brilliant and captivating story about a wealthy family's downfall during the depression, and the impact upon two sisters.

Honorable Mentions:

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
The Book of Lost Things by John Connelly
Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck
Abarat by Clive Barker
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

Great Rereads:

Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander

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Great Quotes

"The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience." (Atticus, To Kill a Mockingbird; Harper Lee)

"But maybe the last part of the symphony was the music she loved the best--glad and like the greatest people in the world running and springing up in a hard, free way. Wonderful music like this was the worst hurt there could be. The whole world was this symphony, and there was not enough of her to listen." (The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers)

"Dark of the invisible moon. The nights now only slightly less black. By day the banished sun circles the earth like a grieving mother with a lamp." (The Road; Cormac McCarthy)

"There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened." (The Restaurant at the End of the Universe; Douglas Adams)

"I ought not to have listened to her," he confided to me one day. "One never ought to listen to the flowers. One should simply look at them and breathe their fragrance. Mine perfumed all my planet. But I did not know how to take pleasure in all her grace. This tale of claws, which disturbed me so much, should only have filled my heart with tenderness and pity."

And he continued his confidences: "The fact is that I did not know how to understand anything! I ought to have judged by deeds and not by words. She cast her fragrance and her radiance over me. I ought never to have run away from her... I ought to have guessed all the affection that lay behind her poor little strategems. Flowers are so inconsistent! But I was too young to know how to love her..." (The Little Prince; Anton de Saint-Exupery)

Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead. (Betting on the Muse; Charles Bukowski)

Disbelief in magic can force a poor soul into believing in government and business. (Tom Robbins)

But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure,Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing-floor,Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears. (The Prophet; Kahlil Gibran)

You don't have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body. (C.S. Lewis)

"For in a swift radiance of illumination he saw a glimpse of human struggle and of valor. Of the endless fluid passage of humanity through endless time. And of those who labor and of those who--one word--love." (The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers)