Friday, December 12, 2008

My favorite books of 2008

The Twilight saga by Stephenie Meyer
~ Great series of 4 books which many of my friends also devoured and they are definitely on my re-read list.

The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver
~ I found this book amazing and absolutely needed to share it with someone so I asked my friend Amanda to read it and we still need to talk about it.

Queen of the Road: The True Tale of 47 States, 22,000 miles, 200 Shoes, 2 Cats, 1 Poodle, a Husband, and a Bus with a Will of its Own by Doreen Orion
~ Great book, great stories, great recipes...but even greater is how amazing the queenly author is. She really connects with her fans and I've enjoyed that quite a lot.

The Confessions of Georgia Nicolson series by Louise Rennison
~ Though this series of nine books is for young adults I hysterically laughed out loud multiple times (ask Josh :)) while reading each book and would love to own them so I can re-read them again and again. The titles alone made me laugh outloud and inspired me to read them.

Peculiar Treasures and On a Whim by Robin Jones Gunn
~ As always, I love anything and everything written by this author and I particularly love that she has continued on my favorite characters through this Katie Weldon series. Looking forward to more over the next few years.

My Life in France by Julia Child
~ This was an amazing book which told me so much more about Julia Child's life than I had ever realized. She had a very full life with so many adventures and neat experiences. I loved it and would highly recommend it to anyone who likes autobiographies or books about food culture.

All the President's Pastries by Roland Mesnier
~ This was a really fascinating book about the former pastry chef at the White House for over 20 years. Great pictures, neat stories and several recipes are included.

The Last Chinese Chef by Nicole Mones
~ Though this was fiction, it really read like a non-fiction story. I found it fascinating and very enjoyable to read. Beautiful descriptions and a neat love story too.

Around the World in 80 Dinners by Bill Jamison
~ Intriguing idea for an anniversary trip by the author and his wife. Though sometimes slow, I liked how descriptive they were about the foods and travel and quite enjoyed the book.

Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account by Miklos Nyiszli
~ Not a fun book to read, but important and a different perspective from many books written about the Holocaust as the author was a prisoner whose medical skills saved him from death, though at what cost?

The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber
~ This was a very large book, but it never felt tiresome to read. Intriguing story and interesting characters made for a great novel which I enjoyed reading and discussing with Aunt Annette.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
~ Interesting non-fiction about a family's decision to eat locally and organically for one year growing most of the food themselves or obtaining it from a short distance from their farm. It really made the idea of growing vegetables sound good and I specifically enjoyed the short essays written by their teenage daughter which included recipes.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mmm, definitely going to try some of those books.

Sarah Simpson said...

Thanks for posting some of your favorites! Kelly has got me back in to reading with the addictive Twilight series so it will be great to know what to read next!