For the sixth year in a row, here are all the books I read this year. (I read 34 books this year and 31 last year, so it seems I’m pretty consistent.)
(Previous lists can be found here: 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003.)
They’re listed in the order I read them, except for the two fiction books which I listed separately at the bottom. My favorite nonfiction books were #’s 4, 16, 20, 25, and 32. The two fiction books by Khaled Hosseini were both excellent as well.
Nonfiction:
1. Every Second Counts, by Lance Armstrong
2. Gluten-Free Girl: How I Found the Food That Loves Me Back…And
How You Can Too, by Shauna James Ahern
3. Service Included: Four-Star Secrets of an Eavesdropping Waiter, by Phoebe Damrosch
4. See You in a Hundred Years: Four Seasons in Forgotten America, by Logan Ward
5. In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, by Michael Pollan
6. The Lady in the Palazzo: At Home in Umbria, by Marlena de Blasi
7. Not That You Asked: Rants, Exploits, and Obsessions, by Steve Almond
8. Living in a Foreign Language: A Memoir of Food, Wine, and Love in Italy, by Michael Tucker
9. Gaining: The Truth About Life After Eating Disorders, by Aimee Liu
10. Cheer!: Three Teams on a Quest for College Cheerleading’s Ultimate Prize, by Kate Torgovnick
11. Bitter is the New Black, by Jen Lancaster
12. The Perfect Scent: A Year Inside the Perfume Industry in Paris and New York, by Chandler Burr
13. The Geography of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World, by Eric Weiner
14. Half-Assed: A Weight-Loss Memoir, by Jennette Fulda
15. Pretty Is What Changes: Impossible Choices, The Breast Cancer Gene, and How I Defied My Destiny, by Jessica Queller
16. Chalked Up: Inside Elite Gymnastics’ Merciless Coaching, Overzealous Parents, Eating Disorders, and Elusive Olympic Dreams, by Jennifer Sey
17. Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex, by Mary Roach
18. Singled Out: How Singles Are Stereotyped, Stigmatized, and Ignored, and Still Live Happily Ever After, by Bella DePaulo
19. C’est La Vie: An American Woman Begins a New Life in Paris and–Voila!–Becomes Almost French, by Suzy Gershman
20. Honeymoon with My Brother: A Memoir, by Franz Wisner
21. Do Travel Writers Go to Hell?: A Swashbuckling Tale of High Adventures, Questionable Ethics, and Professional Hedonism, by Thomas Kohnstamm
22. I Was Told There’d Be Cake, by Sloane Crosley
23. Things I’ve Learned From Women Who’ve Dumped Me, by Ben Karlin
24. Such a Pretty Fat: One Narcissist’s Quest To Discover if Her Life Makes Her Ass Look Big, Or Why Pie is Not The Answer, by Jen Lancaster
25. The Kabul Beauty School: The Art of Friendship and Freedom, by Deborah Rodriguez
26. Waiting: The True Confessions of a Waitress, by Debra Ginsberg
27. Moose: A Memoir of Fat Camp, by Stephanie Klein
28. Identical Strangers: A Memoir of Twins Separated and Reunited, by Elyse Schein and Paula Bernstein
29. Helping Me Help Myself: One Skeptic, Ten Self-Help Gurus, and a Year on the Brink of the Comfort Zone, by Beth Lisick
30. Don’t Let The Lipstick Fool You: The Making of a Champion, by Lisa Leslie
31. The Woman Who Can’t Forget: The Extraordinary Story of Living with the Most Remarkable Memory Known to Science, by Jill Price
32. Madness: A Bipolar Life, by Marya Hornbacher
Fiction:
33. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
34. A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini
13 Comments
I read “The Kabul Beauty School” and loved it.
I’m about to start A Thousand Splendid Suns, and I have high hopes for it because the Kite Runner was such a gripping read!
LOVED “I Was Told There’d Be Cake”! Good call.
Cool! Now we need a list of your favorites:)
I am always fascinated by your year end lists. You read so much non-fiction and that just amazes me (plus I always find great non-fictions from your list and I almost always read some of yours the next year, so thank you for that.)
Read more fiction.
Sagan: I already said in the post what my favorites were! (I just listed the numbers in the list though, I was lazy.)
Happy New Year to you!
I wanna read so many of these…moose is the first on (next one?) on my list!
Wow, you read a lot! I get quite a few books finished when on vacation, but other than that I struggle to finish my book club book each month!
The only one on your list I’ve read is “The Geography of Bliss.”
LOVED Kite Runner! Actually, I didn’t read it, but had the audio book and saw the movie! I’ve been wanting to read “A Thousand Splendid Suns” but have not gotten around to it yet!!!
Happy New Year!
Amazingly, I think we only have one book in common – Sloane Crosleys.
I am so impressed! My count for 2008 is only 19! (Although that is more than one a month; which I’m impressed to discover!)
i love both of khalded hosseni’s book, so amazing! i’ll definitely have to check out some of that non fiction you read too.