2008: In Books

These are the books I read in 2008. I didn't exactly have a goal in mind, but I'm happy that I completed twenty books this year. It's one more than my total from 2007, even if these books were shorter than many that I read last year. Genre-wise, 2008 was a bit of a mixed bag: scientific essays, short stories, grown-up fairy tales, children's lit, true crime, contemporary fiction, modern fantasy, British mystery, late 19th-century American literature, etc.

• Dance for Two, by Alan Lightman
• The Grass Harp, by Truman Capote
• The Gun Seller, by Hugh Laurie
• Franny and Zooey, by J.D. Salinger
• The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger
• The Dark Lantern, by Gerri Brightwell
• Wicked, by Gregory Maguire
• The Monster of Florence, by Douglas Preston with Mario Spezi
• Son of a Witch, by Gregory Maguire
• Breaking Dawn, by Stephenie Meyer
• The Doctor's Wife, by Elizabeth Brundage
• Blackbird House, by Alice Hoffman
• The Sugar Queen, by Sarah Addison Allen
• Practical Magic, by Alice Hoffman
• Hallowe'en Party, by Agatha Christie
• Sparkling Cyanide, by Agatha Christie
• The Sittaford Mystery, by Agatha Christie
• Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott
• The Tales of Beedle the Bard, by J.K. Rowling
• The Tale of Despereaux, by Kate DiCamillo