2008 in review

Only 33 books read in 2008. I’ve been keeping track of what I read since 1997, and this is but a fraction of some past years. On the other hand, in the past, I read a lot of … how shall we put it … less than memorable mysteries. These days, I’m busier with work, I have other hobbies and interests, and I often have lunch with friends instead of holing up by myself and reading. Those seem to be good things. (OK, OK, I admit that many days I don’t read while I eat lunch because I’m catching up on email, but still….)

I always used to have to spend a good bit of time going through my list of books trying to come up with the top ten. When there are 200 titles, it’s a little different. I think I’ve had years where my first cut for a top ten was around 30 titles!

Given that I spend less time reading now, I do tend to spend my time with things I enjoy. All of these were well worth my time, and picking a top ten from only 33 seems a bit ridiculous, so I won’t do that this year.

I never set formal reading goals in the past, as I was uncomfortable with making recreation seem like work, but I do have one this year: make sure I read at least one book per month. April 2008 was barren, as you’ll see below, but the March and May reads were on the borders, so the drought was fairly lengthy. That didn’t feel good.

Right now, I’m reading the fourth Stephenie Meyer, to wrap up the Bella-Edward-Jacob saga and have started Pierre Bayard’s Who Killed Roger Ackroyd? I also have the latest Margaret Maron and Laura Lippman from the library.

Happy new year to everyone.

The 2008 List

January

Kate Ellis, The Skeleton Room

Charlaine Harris, Ice Cold Grave

John Hart, The King of Lies

Carol Goodman, The Sonnet Lover

Joanne Trollope, Friday Nights

John Hart, Down River

February

Steve Hamilton, Night Work

Anita Shreve, Resistance

March

Greg Iles, Third Degree

Louise Perry, The Cruelest Month

April

May

Heather Terrell, The Map Thief

June

Carol Goodman, The Night Villa

July

Peter Robinson, Friend of the Devil

Craig Johnson, Another Man’s Moccasins

Harlan Coben, Hold Tight

Ian Rankin, The Naming of the Dead

August

Deborah Crombie, Where Memories Lie

September

David Handler, Sour Cherry Surprise

Hallie Ephron, Never Tell a Lie

October

Robert Crais, Chasing Darkness

Edward Bloor, Taken

November

Ladies’ Night at Finbar’s Hotel (short stories)

Lee Child, Nothing to Lose

Robert B Parker, Rough Water

Edward Bloor, London Calling

Maeve Binchy, Heart and Soul (reviewed for Library Journal, due out in March)

Pierre Bayard, How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read (non-fiction)

Colin Meloy, Let It Be (memoir of sorts, part of Continuum’s 33 1/3 series, about the Replacements’ album, not the Beatles)

December

Stephenie Meyer, Twilight

Stephenie Meyer, New Moon

Jodi Picoult, My Sister’s Keeper

Agatha Christie, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

Stephenie Meyer, Eclipse

Breaking the Reading Drought

Back in the pre-blog days, I used to read a couple of hundred books a year. Really. Mostly mysteries, and not always good, lengthy, complicated ones, lots of subpar series in there, don’t get me wrong, but I was really voracious. I got back into mysteries with a vengeance when I finished my master’s degree in comparative literature and was able to view reading as a pleasurable activity, not as work, when I was able to choose my reading materials once again. Over the years, I’ve slowed down, but still have been coming close to the 100 mark.

In recent years, I’ve become involved in other hobbies, such as knitting. Since moving to Washington State, I’ve also been busier at work, putting in more hours outside the typical day, along with being more social at work, often eating lunch with colleagues instead of holing up with a book.

This spring, though, I really hit a dry spell. Between March and mid July, I didn’t finish a book, except for a couple of books I reviewed for Library Journal, and even those didn’t get my full attention until I was pushing against deadline.

Part of the reason was that we got addicted to a bunch of TV shows and were watching them on DVD as fast as Netflix could deliver them. Another reason was that I got addicted to Packrat, a game hosted in Facebook. But it dawned on me recently that another factor contributing to my reading slowdown may be my changed relationship with food.

Reading mysteries was often linked to eating for me, not just reading while I ate meals alone. I can recall sitting down with a bag of Red Vines and a new Janet Evanovich on a summer afternoon, finishing both within a couple hours. And all sorts of chips and crackers went well with books, as did various candies. I think I must have been eating as compulsively as I read, ripping through food as I ripped through series of mysteries of all sub-genres.

In September 2007 I joined Weight Watchers and have lost 72 pounds so far. My eating habits have changed drastically, obviously.

Recently during my “staycation” I was able to relax and read, polishing off the latest Craig Johnson, last year’s Ian Rankin (oh god how can there only be one more Rebus novel but I digress), and the latest Harlan Coben over the course of a few days. However, it dawned on me that I was also polishing off a lot of food. Healthier snacks, to be sure, such as apples and carrots, but I was also consuming a higher volume of WW snack bars and the 100 calorie bags of Doritos, which are on program but are still a bunch of empty carbs.

This is definitely something I will be working on in the future, because I really enjoyed reading again, but I have to figure out how to break the connection between the two activities.

January booklist

Kate Ellis, The Skeleton Room
#7 Wesley Peterson

One of my favorite series. The plot always mixes a present day case with a historical one. Our police detective Wesley has a degree in archaelogy.

Charlaine Harris, Ice Cold Grave
latest Harper Connelly

I don't really like supernatural themes that much, but I like Harris so much I just can't help but love this series. Harper has the ability to find dead people and see what killed them as a result of being struck by lightning. In this outing, Harper is drawn into a serial killer case -- and finally works out her relationship with her step-brother.

John King, The King of Lies

I loved this book. Main character is a lawyer with a messed up family history who has to solve the murder of his father.

Carol Goodman, The Sonnet Lover

One of my favorite authors. In this one, an English professor gets pulled into a situation involving murder and stolen poetry. The poems in question may provide the answer to long-lived literary mysteries: who was Shakespeare's Dark Lady? and did he ever go to Italy?

Joanna Trollope, Friday Nights

This is her new one - got it to review for Library Journal. I like her books a lot, and this one was very good too. It's about a group of women who become friends and go through some challenges, but they don't get together for a book club or knitting group, and no one is terminally ill, so it was quite refreshing!

John Hart, Down River

I was initially disappointed to realize this one wasn't a continuation with the characters from King of Lies but I got over that pretty quick. In this novel, a man who was acquitted of murder charges returns to his hometown after 5 years when a friend calls him for help. King is a master of writing about dysfunctional families. The mystery elements are pretty good, too :-)

Catching up - November and December reads

Just for the record, here are the November and December 2007 lists.

November

Jodi Picoult, Vanishing Acts - another excellent one from Picoult; dealt with a woman who does search and rescue and learns that her own life is not what she thought it was. Very compelling characters and a complex plot.

Kate Ellis, The Painted Doom - another strong entry in the Wesley Peterson series; really enjoy the historical aspects that blend in with a present-day case

Robert B. Parker, Now and Then - one of the better recent Spensers

December

Stuart Woods, Shoot Him If He Runs - Stone Barrington and his superb vodka gimlet recipe return to action

Benjamin Black, Christine Falls - Black is the penname used by Irish novelist John Banville, for this, the first in a projected mystery series. Set in 1950's Dublin, interesting characters, and a plot that jumped across the pond to Boston, I really enjoyed this and look forward to more. Definitely not a formulaic mystery; very well written.

Sue Grafton, T is for Trespass - latest in the Kinsey Millhone series; an excellent entry in one of my all-time favorite series

Kate Wilhelm, A Wrongful Death - latest in the Barbara Holloway series - well done story of a woman caught up in industrial espionage and a custody battle who turns to Barbara and the crew for help.

Dean Koontz, The Darkest Evening of the Year - I don't typically like supernatural type novels, but Koontz does it so well. His recent works have been very deep, with good characters and plotting, and this one continues that trend. Do I believe that the spirit of a little girl could come back and embody a dog in order to help her mother in many ways? It doesn't matter, really. The book is excellent.

Valerie Martin, Trespass - an intriguing tale of two families that connect through the romance of the respective son and daughter; very richly drawn characters and a plot that weaves together the brutality of the Bosnian conflict and present day America.

The Year in Review

A year in review posting is perhaps a bit premature, because, after all, I could read a great book tomorrow, and because I haven't posted my November or December reading lists. Nevertheless, here's the scoop for 2007.

This was my lowest reading year since 1997, with a total of 83 books read. For the first time ever, I had a top 10 mystery list with only one pass through my reading journal. No whittling down a list of 25, no honorable mention category needed. However, I did read more fiction and non-fiction this past year. I think the biggest impact on my reading, though, was being hooked on watching TV series on DVD.

Top 10 Mysteries of 2007 (in alphabetical order)

Giles Blunt, By the Time You Read This

Lee Child, Bad Luck and Trouble

Michael Connelly, The Overlook

Deborah Crombie, Water Like a Stone

Sue Grafton, T is for Trespass

Margaret Maron, Hard Row

Marcia Muller, The Ever Running Man

Nancy Pickard, The Virgin of Small Plains

S. J. Rozan, In This Rain

Karin Slaughter, Beyond Reach


Best Fiction:

Sarah Addison Allen, Garden Spells

Elisabeth Hyde, The Abortionist's Daughter

Valerie Martin, Trespass


Find of the Year (or, the I-Can't-Believe-I-Never-Read

-This-Author-Before Award):

Jodi Picoult


Best New or New-to-Me Mystery Series:

Benjamin Black

Craig Johnson

Louise Penny

October reads

Jodi Picoult, Picture Perfect
Continuing the Picoult trend, this one drug a bit for me. But it was still good.

PJ Parrish, A Thousand Bones
Latest in their Louis Kincaid series. They turn their focus to Joe this time, outlining her first big case as a rookie cop. Very well done.

Robert Parker, High Profile
Recent in the Jesse Stone series, enjoyable enough, although the cross-pollination with the other series is a mite tedious.

Wendy Walker, Four Wives
This was an ARC sent to me for a Library Journal review – a very well done novel about four friends and their lives. Wilda sends me such great stuff to review, I'm a lucky girl.

Sarah Addison Allen, Garden Spells
Loved this book! A great story of sisters, dealing with your past and finding a new path.

Robert Parker, Spare Change
The recent Sunny Randall -- she helps out on a case that appears to be the re-emergence of a serial killer, called the Spare Change Killer. Her dad had been unable to solve this case back when he was on the police force. It was nice to get to know Sunny's dad a bit better.

Stuart Woods, Fresh Disasters
Catching up on the Stone Barrington series with this one. It's a typical Stone adventure. You would think his reputation would get around and he would never get a new girlfriend (given the chances that you'll die a violent death before page 150).

Thomas Perry, Nightlife
Excellent suspense - a police detective is on the hunt for a serial killer.

Jo Bannister, Flawed
Latest in the Brodie Farrell series, just OK imo, a lot of time spent re-trodding the love sorta-triangle stuff.

September reads

Craig Johnson, Death Without Company
#2 in the series about the sheriff in Wyoming. Very well done in terms of plot, characters, humor. A great series.

Craig Johnson, Kindness Goes Unpunished
#3 in the series, another great one

Marcia Muller, The Ever Running Man
Latest in the Sharon McCone series, one of my long-time favorites. In this one, Sharon has to investigate Hy and his partners in order to find out who is trying to destroy them and their firm.

Susan Isaacs, Past Perfect
Funny novel with a light mystery element. Isaacs makes me laugh out loud at least a few times per book. In this one, a woman who was fired from her low-level job at the CIA and still doesn't know why has the chance to find out what was going on. As she digs into the past, things get tricky and turn into a spy thriller (with that hint of farce).

Jodi Picoult, Plain Truth
Jodi Picoult, Second Glance
Jodi Picoult, The Pact
Jodi Picoult, The Tenth Circle

Had never gotten around to reading any of her work and for some reason finally tried one. Plain Truth was an excellent legal thriller, and I just gobbled up a bunch of hers. I loved all four of these, although Second Glance and The Tenth Circle were my favorites. I really admire the complexity of her plotting.

August reads

August was a bit slow for me in terms of reading, but an excellent assortment. (Well, except for the two DNF's discussed in the previous post. :-)

Ann Hood, The Knitting Circle
A group of women are drawn together through a knitting group at their yarn store. They are all suffering in their own ways and are able to overcome their personal barriers and become friends. Well-written, not too sentimental or cliched.

Karin Slaughter, Beyond Reach
The latest in the Sara Linton - Grant Co. series. It's a good one, but the ending is heartbreaking.

Peter Lovesey, The Secret Hangman
Latest in the Peter Diamond series. Diamond and the team investigate a series of murders made to look like suicides.

Harlan Coben, The Woods
Latest standalone thriller from him. Paul Copeland, a widowed attorney with a young daughter, is faced with evidence that his sister may not have been killed 20 yrs ago as had always been assumed. The end has an improbable twist, like all of his do, but this one was not throw-book-against-wall silly, imo.

Margaret Maron, Hard Row
Latest in the Deborah Knott series, one of my all time favorite series. Some gruesome discoveries pull Deborah and Dwight into an unusual case.

Anita Shreve, Body Surfing
A young widow who works as a tutor for the lovely daughter of a family falls in love with one of the sons. Nothing is ever really as it seems. I had a strange reaction to this one -- didn't really like it but couldn't quit reading.