Here’s the full list of what I read in 2008, minus some scholarly articles that I didn’t think to write down at the time. But then, I really can’t imagine why anyone would care about those….

NOVELS (or Collections):

1 – Breath and Bone (Carol Berg) *1.10.08*
2 – Lust, Caution (Eileen Chang) *2.13.08*
3 – The Guin Saga, Book One: The Leopard Mask (Kaoru Kurimoto) *2.15.08*
4 – Captain Alatriste (Arturo Perez-Reverte) *3.10.08*
5 – Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass (Lewis Carroll)*4.08*
6 – Seven Japanese Tales (Junichiro Tanizaki) *5.1.08*
7 – Lord of Snow and Shadows (Sarah Ash) *5.13.08*
8 – Snake Agent (Liz Williams) *5.24.08*
9 – The Demon and the City (Liz Williams) *5.30.08*
10 – The Giver (Lois Lowry) *6.7.08*
11 – Prisoner of the Iron Tower (Sarah Ash) *8.08*
12 – The Time Machine (H. G. Wells) *8.29.08*
13 – The Island of Dr. Moreau (H. G. Wells) *9.9.08*
14 – Children of the Serpent Gate (Sarah Ash) *9.14.08*
15 – New Grub Street (George Gissing) *10.4.08*
16 – The Beetle (Richard Marsh) *10.16.06*
17 – The Woman Who Did (Grant Allen) *11.23.08*
18 – Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad) *12.1.08*
19 – The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde) *12.1.08*
20 – Storm Front (The Dresden Files #1) (Jim Butcher) *12.15.08*
21 – Fool Moon (The Dresden Files #2) (Jim Butcher) *12.26.08*

On to the Non-Fiction, Short Stories, Graphic Novels, Poems, and Plays….

I can honestly say that 2008, despite what I’d hoped for at the end of 2007, was not my best reading year. Oh, sure, I read my fair share of things, but most of it was studies related. In terms of the books I did pick up outside of class, there’s not a lot. Even so, I managed to find ten books from 2008 that I liked enough to put on my list.

Well…technically it’s seven books, a play, an essay, and a short story. But why get specific? They were in book format, after all.

For a full reading list from 2008, go HERE.

10 – LORD OF SNOW AND SHADOWS (Sarah Ash): I wrote quite a long review for Lord of Snow and Shadows once I’d finished it. For that, you can go back just a little ways in my archive, but for a more general overview, I’ll say this: Of the three novels in this series, I did enjoy this one quite a bit. It could have been a standalone, if the author had wanted it that way (though I can see why she wouldn’t, what with having so much else to write about the characters), and I appreciate it both for that and for the jumping point it gives for the next two novels. And while the story actually involves multiple countries, it still feels contained enough that I’m not overextending myself in an attempt to keep the events straight. While, perhaps, not the best book I read in 2008, it was still pretty enjoyable, and I do have plans to purchase books by Sarah Ash in the future (which reminds me, I would really get busy ordering my copy of Tracing the Shadow). [Read the Review]

9 – LUST, CAUTION (Eileen Chang): Technically a short story that takes place in China in the 1920′s, Lust, caution is one of those stories that you really need to read twice to fully appreciate. It’s subtle and gradual, though the length of the text is short. The descriptions are vivid and sensual. You can smell the smokiness of a room and see the shine of a large diamond on a woman’s small hand. There’s an incredible amount of detail packed into a tiny space. And the emotional impact – I can’t begin to describe it adequately. Eileen Chang does an amazing job with this story, and I’m happy to have stumbled on it. [Read the Review]

8 – STORM FRONT (Jim Butcher): I started reading The Dresden Files series at the tail end of 2008. Turns out they’re exactly the kind of reading I need to untangle my brain from the jumbled mass it becomes at the end of each semester. Harry Dresden, Wizard, based in Chicago and doing the occasional job for the Special Investigations section of the Chicago police. I have to say, I love this character. He’s determined, he’s fallible, sometimes he fails to be as good as he might like, and just because you’ve fired him doesn’t mean he’s out of the game (arrests notwithstanding). I’m glad that Butcher is good at holding back the revelations about Harry’s background. Some authors would have revealed it all in the first book or two, but Butcher leaves breadcrumbs instead. It leaves me wanting to know more about Harry, which keeps me picking up the next novel and the next. Also, I like Karrin Murphy. And Bob. And Harry’s ginormous cat, Mister. I can’t help myself. The stories are pretty good, the reading is easy, and there’s lots of action. The Dresden books are great when you need something to read over a weekend.

7 – SNAKE AGENT (Liz Williams): Snake Agent has a lot in common with Storm Front in terms of readability. Easy stuff, not mind-boggling, but the story is good, the characters are fun, and there’s lots of supernatural business going on. Difference being, the mythology is Chinese rather than Western which, I think, gives it a pretty nice spin. Zhu Irzh is still my favorite character, and if the publishing company would get around to releasing the mass market of Precious Dragon, I would really appreciate it. [Read the Review]

6 – THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU (H. G. Wells): Easily one of the most legitimately creepy books I’ve had the pleasure of reading. There was just so much happening in this story that was plain out wrong, and there were moments when I really wasn’t sure I’d be able to continue reading. Which just goes to show you how affecting this book can be. Also, don’t confuse this amazing book with the craptacular movie. Please.

5 – THE BEETLE (Richard Marsh): My Victorian instructor made fun of this book a lot. I don’t know why, but at least he was amusing when he did it. Regardless, I enjoyed this book. There were a lot of things that made me laugh, and there were a lot of things that made me cringe. Chapter three (I believe) when Robert Holt meets the creature — oh my heavens. I made faces I didn’t think I’d ever make while reading a book. That chapter completely squicked me out on some instinctual level. Nice job, Richard Marsh. In any case, The Beetle is pretty enjoyable if you like Victorian genre fiction about preternatural Egyptian forces with an undercurrent of racist Empire commentary.

4 – THE TIME MACHINE (H. G. Wells): I remember trying to read War of the Worlds back in the seventh grade. I never finished it, but that’s not so surprising. I wasn’t really able to appreciate what you would call “classical” literature until about five…wait…six?…years ago. Anyway, my point is, The Time Machine is the first Wells novel that I ever completed. Frankly, I was surprised. When I got into Victorian literature, I expected to read massive novels that might threaten to bury me under their weight. I didn’t expect something shorter than 200 pages with a succinct writing style that I really enjoyed. But The Time Machine was exactly that, and it easily bumped Wells into a slot as one of my preferred authors. I’m going to have to hunt down my copy of War of the Worlds and try it again. Or maybe buy a new one. I’m pretty sure the edition I had was abridged.

3 – RICHARD III (Shakespeare): My best friend once told me that, even though I didn’t have a huge interest in Shakespeare, I’d almost certainly love Richard III. Apparently, she knows me too well. Of all the Shakespeare I’ve read so far (a reasonable amount, I suppose, but certainly not everything) this is definitely my favorite of all the plays. For those not in the know, there’s politics, conspiracy, murder, seduction, and everything else you’d find in a modern blockbuster film, only done better. And when you consider the fact that I have this thing for really clever and classic villains, well, there you are. Also, as a side-note, the movie version with Ian McKellen, Annette, Benning, Robert Downey, Jr., etc was actually pretty interesting if you can forgive the one or two totally bizarre moments.

2 – IN PRAISE OF SHADOWS (Junichiro Tanizaki): This is not technically a book, either. It’s an essay, or what have you, but it’s high on my reading list because it struck me hard right from the start. In Praise of Shadows imagines Japanese aesthetics as they used to be — at least, according to Tanizaki’s position on the topic. It isn’t so much what he says in the essay that affected me so much as how he says it. The language he uses to describe his visuals were so vivid to me that I could imagine it all precisely, from the dim light of candles on lacquer to the subtle differences in skin tone between women at a party. Amazing. I’ve been trying to get my own copy of this essay since I read it. It’s been tougher than I would like, but I’m determined to have this essay as part of my collection.

1. – BREATH AND BONE (Carol Berg): That this book made my number one selection doesn’t surprise me in the least. In fact, I’d go so far as to say it spoiled me for the rest of the year. Not that I’d expect anything less from Carol Berg, who has been one of my favorite authors since 2003. The sequel to her previous book (which was on my Top Ten 2007), Flesh and Spirit, was all I’d hoped for and then some. Characters continued to progress, mysteries were explained, and, well…really cool stuff happened (“cool stuff” — that’s a literary term. Write it down). And, of course, it was all beautifully written. I couldn’t put it down — and I mean that. I lost a whole day reading it. It appeals to my innate desire for Something Greater, which I think is why I connected so well with the character Valen. Highly Recommended. [Read the Review]

~

This took me quite a bit longer to complete than I had expected but luckily I’ve found time to finish my list of favorites from 2007. Unfortunately, the number of novels I read was considerably fewer than usual, and it was also littered with a number of books I really didn’t care for. But there were some that I just couldn’t have done without, and I expect all of those are listed here.

My full reading list from 2007 can be found in THIS POST.

10 – HORNBLOWER DURING THE CRISIS(C. S. Forester): Who knew that I’d enjoy age of sail novels when I started reading the Hornblower series? But I do. I really do. This particular selection is book four, I believe, in terms of chronology. And while I enjoy the main story, the fact remains that it’s incomplete (sadly, Forester died) and what really makes this one fun is the inclusion of the short stories “Hornblower’s Temptation” and “The Last Encounter” which offer us glimpses of Hornblower when he was still with Captain Sawyer and also after he’s Admiral of the Fleet Lord Hornblower. The last story, in particular, I found quite humorous. I am sorry that the main story in the book was not completed, however, as I would have truly enjoyed getting to read about Hornblower being a spy in Spain.

9 – THE BONE KEY (Sarah Monette): I hate short stories, but I love Sherlock Holmes. This might not make any sense at first because, clearly, the book I have listed here is not Sherlock Holmes. The stories in The Bone Key, however, have the same feel to them, not to mention the fact that they can best be termed “mysteries” (a fact which quite surprised me when I first started reading, as I had almost no idea what The Bone Key was really about when I bought it). The book itself is a series of short stories, all from the point of view of Kyle Murchison Booth, a quirky museum archivist with a penchant for attracting the supernatural. He’s quite a fun character to read about, and the fact that he’s nothing at all like a gung-ho hero, ready to take on anything, makes him more accessible to those of us who, though we think we’d like to run out and solve nifty and intriguing problems, would probably be quite put out and uncomfortable if actually put in that position. I’m not sure which story I would term my favorite of the ones in this collection, but without a doubt the one that sticks out in my memory most clearly is “Elegy for a Demon Lover.” It’s undeniably one of the most heartbreaking things I’ve ever read. Knowing that Booth’s actions in the story are necessary makes it all the more tragic. I cried. But, to wrap this up, I truly enjoyed The Bone Key, and if Monette writes anything else with Booth, you can expect I’ll be hunting it down.

8 – AMERICAN GODS (Neil Gaiman): Call me behind the times, but I finally finished reading a Neil Gaiman novel. I had purchased Good Omens a number of years ago, along with several other of his books, but I never got around to reading them. But I suppose that’s fitting enough since this particular book is wonderful, and I’m just as glad that it was my first Gaiman story. I recall trying to review it, and it rather defied explanation. Suffice it to say that this book is chock full of stuff, and if you’re not paying attention, then you’re likely to miss something. Of course, what I find really great about American Gods is the imagery. It’s just the kind of thing you’d hope for from a book about gods from world mythology. Parts of the story felt like I was reading a folk myth, which was incredibly fun. Initially, I thought the book moved a bit slowly, but somewhere between page fifty and a hundred, I realized that I kept picking it up out of some kind of compulsion. Next thing I knew, I’d been reading for three hours and had passed the halfway point a long time ago. I’d say this book’s reputation is well earned. [Read the Review]

7 – CARNIVAL (Elizabeth Bear): It took me two trips to the library to get through Carnival. When I initially picked it up, I was in the middle of two or three other books, and something about the language was driving me nuts. I couldn’t visualize what I was reading. As it turns out, this was probably because I hadn’t read a proper science fiction novel in a very, very long time, and I’d forgotten what it was like. I had to return it to the library but I left a little piece of paper to mark my page and, after a week, the fact that I’d returned it without finishing it was absolutely plaguing me, so I checked it out again. On the second reading, what I ended up with was a really good story that I thoroughly enjoyed with political intrigue, clashing cultures, new worlds, and gender issues all wrapped together and peppered with action. The two main characters (both ambassadors to the matriarchal New Amazonia), Vincent Katherinessen and Michelangelo Kusanagi-Jones, are what made this book really fun for me. Their dynamic was fascinating, particularly in the way they played on each other to achieve their ends in the political sphere. And, of course, the gender issues laid out in this book were well done, particularly where it concerned the main characters, who were out of place both on New Amazonia and in their own society. In the end, I’m really glad that I went back to this book as quickly as I did.

6 – ANANSI BOYS (Neil Gaiman): Of course, I immediately followed American Gods with Anansi Boys. How could I not? And to be honest, this is the kind of story I was expecting when I first picked up Gaiman’s other book. Anansi Boys has a different style, which is no less intriguing than that found in American Gods, but which is a little more direct and a lot more…how should I say it…light. And what I mean by that is…well, you remember the stuff that I said was in American Gods? There’s a little less of that. Anansi Boys is centered around one main character, more or less, and that would be Fat Charlie Nancy. He’s a fairly ordinary guy with a fairly ordinary life who gets a little more than he expected when he discovers one particular family member that he never knew he had. This book is fun and humorous and a really quick read. While not directly related to American Gods, it’s got some of that same imagery and deals with the descendants of one of the gods. So it’s not necessarily a must read for those who have read the other novel, but it’s still a should-really-and-probably-will. [Read the Review]

5 – FLESH AND SPIRIT (Carol Berg): If there’s ever a time when I don’t enjoy a Carol Berg novel…. Oh wait. That won’t happen. And there are very good reasons for that, most of which are given example in this book (and especially in the sequel, Breath and Bone, which will be on my top ten 2008). In this particular novel (which reminds me a little of her Rai-kirah series in terms of themes) the main character, Valen, finds himself amongst a group of Karish monks when his compatriot leaves him wounded and abandoned outside the gates of their monastery. What follows for him is a series of unexpected revelations and situations (most of which he’d just as soon avoid) that finally leave him in the place he least expected and least wanted to be. It’s a little difficult to say more without giving away potential plot, but I can say that one of my favorite aspects of this novel is watching Valen progress as a person and witnessing the evolution of his sense of loyalty toward others. This goes even further in the novel that follows, but I’ll refrain from commenting on that one until it’s time.

4 – THE PRIVILEGE OF THE SWORD(Ellen Kushner): This novel is a wonderful return to the setting of Riverside. The Duke Tremontaine has called for his niece Katherine to come to the city, but rather than introduce her as a lady of his family, he intends to make her a swordsman. This addition to the collection of Riverside novels was extremely fun to read, serious in moments and humorous in others, following Katherine as she deals with the situation into which her uncle has placed her as well as the problems she causes for herself. Overall, it’s probably my favorite Ellen Kushner novel to date. It’s easy to read and very exciting for fans of the other books as we get to see the return of several characters from Swordspoint. [Read the Review]

3 – THE GOLDEN COMPASS/THE AMBER SPYGLASS (Philip Pullman): Oh. My. This series is amazing. Yes, I’ve only listed the first and last books of this series solely for the purposes of space on the listing, but the trilogy as a whole is remarkable. The characters are vibrant and unique; Lyra, in particular, is a wonderful character, and the way she interacts with everyone else in the story is half the fun of reading these books. I realize that there are people who won’t read Pullman or who tear the books apart based solely on some philosophical or religious position. To those people I say: ridiculous. To have a position on the underlying meaning in the story and to want to debate it is one thing, and I can accept that, but to be unable to let that go long enough to at least appreciate the books on a more surface level, that being great characters, a beautiful setting, lovely writing, and a plot you go trailing after like a toddler to her favorite auntie, is truly sad. Part of me wishes that I had read The Golden Compass back when I received the book in the 1990′s, but I’m just as glad that I waited until 2007 so that I could better appreciate it. [Read the Review]

2 – THE CRIMSON LABYRINTH(Yusuke Kishi): A renewed interest in reading more works from Japanese authors led me to this novel of Yusuke Kishi’s at the end of 2007 (the only one that he currently has published in America, sad to say. I’m hoping the publisher of this book will pick up some of his others). I was surprised by the premise, which is what caused me to purchase it initially: Fujuki wakes up to find himself stranded on a foreign landscape, equipped with only a few necessities and a portable computer pad with a message. He soon discovers that he’s been dropped into the middle of a game, and he and the other people he meets are expected to follow the instructions given to them or else have no chance of making it to the end. Think Battle Royale meets Choose Your Own Adventure (and I’m not joking when I say that. The actual novel references choose your own adventure novels). This is a survival thriller with several fun twists and turns.

1 – MÉLUSINE/THE VIRTU (Sarah Monette): My crown jewels of 2007, I read these two books back to back within less than 72 hours. The Virtu I read straight through, even while I was working, despite the fact that the shop owners were visiting and I could have gotten in trouble. These are the books I talked about all year and which I’ll probably talk about again when the fourth book of the series comes around sometime next year. There are many aspects of these novels that I could point at and say: that’s why I love it! But above any of those I have to claim the characters as the most engaging. Without Felix and Mildmay these books wouldn’t be the same. It’s the play between them that makes it so interesting, though even on their own, both characters are quite a lot of fun. They’re complete opposites and yet so similar at the same time, each existing in a different level of society and neither really accepted anywhere they go. I look forward to seeing the conclusion of their story. After the third book (The Mirador) there are a number of things I’d like to see resolved before it’s over. [Read the Review]

And that’s it! Hopefully 2008 will bring me a number of excellent choices for my next list.

~

The full list of what I read from January 2007 through December 2007.

NOVELS (or Collections):

1 – Exquisite Corpse (Poppy Z. Brite) *1.8.07*
2 – Mélusine (Sarah Monette) *1.17.07*
3 – The Virtu (Sarah Monette) *1.20.07*
4 – A Call to Faith and Freedom (Shirley A. Roe) *2.17.07*
5 – The Privilege of the Sword (Ellen Kushner) *2.25.07*
6 – ‘Ol Middler Saves the Day (Timothy Weeks) *3.7.07*
7 – A Lyrical Look at Life, vol. 3 (Mark Stellinga) *3.11.07*
8 – Bushido: The Way of the Samurai (Tsunetomo Yamamoto) *3.13.07*
9 – How Town (Michael Nava) *4.8.07*
10 – American Gods (Neil Gaiman) *5.16.07*
11 – Carnival (Elizabeth Bear) *5.24.07*
12 – The Chosen of Azar (Carol Kluz) *6.13.07*
13 – The Golden Compass (Philip Pullman) *6.20.07*
14 – Anansi Boys (Neil Gaiman) *6.27.07*
15 – The Subtle Knife (Philip Pullman) *7.5.07*
16 – Hornblower During the Crisis (C. S. Forester) *7.6.07*
17 – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (J. K. Rowling) *7.28.07*
18 – The Mirador (Sarah Monette) *8.5.07*
19 – The Amber Spyglass (Philip Pullman) *8.12.07*
20 – Flesh and Spirit (Carol Berg) *8.20.07*
21 – Windows on Our World, Part 1: Hope (Bill Les Gates) *9.8.07*
22 – Piercing (Ryu Murakami) *10.20.07*
23 – Time Will Reveal, Part 1 (Black Coffee) *11.14.07*
24 – The Bone Key (Sarah Monette) *11.22.07*
25 – The Crimson Labyrinth (Yusuke Kishi) *12.1.07*

On to E-Books, Graphic Novels, and Short Stories….