Book List ’08

Book List for 2008

1. The Alienist by Caleb Carr
2. Art of Urban Cycling by Robert Hurst
3. Beer: Tap Into the Art and Science of Brewing by Charles Bamforth (completed reading 3/30/08)
4. The Confusion by Neal Stephenson (completed 8/27/2008)
5. The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs
6. Dishwasher : one man’s quest to wash dishes in all fifty states by Pete Jordan (completed 12/23/2008)
7. The Fabric of America by Andro Linklater (completed 8/19/2008)
8. Fire on the Prairie by Gary Rivlin
9. A Game of Brawl by Bill Felber (completed reading 5/12/08)
10. Ghost Writer by John Harwood
11. Great Fortune: The Epic of Rockefeller Center by Daniel Okrent (completed 12/30/08)
12. Jane Goodall: The Woman Who Redefined Man by Dale Peterson (reading as of 12/30/08)
13. Lee Miller’s War by Anthony Penrose (completed 5/28/08)
14. Making People’s Music: Moe Asch and Folkways Records by Peter Goldsmith
15. Man Gone Down by Michael Thomas
16. Manhattan ‘45 by Jan Morris (completed 10/9/08)
17. March of Folly by Barbara Tuchman
18. Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick (completed reading on 1/9/08)
19. Middlesex by Jefferey Eugenides (completed 11/17/2008)
20. The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan (completed 6/19/08)
21. Oxford by Jan Morris
22. The Pirates! In an Adventure With Scientists, A Novel by Gideon Defoe
23. Pride of Baghdad by Brian K Vaughan (completed reading on 1/12/08)
24. Round Ireland in Low Gear by Eric Newby
25. Rough Crossing by Simon Schama (completed 12/17/2008)
26. Slam by Nick Hornby (completed reading on 1/6/08)
27. The System of the World by Neal Stephenson -(“Solomon’s Gold” completed on 10/19/2008)
28. Trawler by Redmond O’Hanlon (completed 11/20/08)
29. Where’s My Jetpack?: A Guide to the Amazing Science Fiction Future that Never Arrived by Daniel Wilson (completed 11/14/08)
30. The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations by James Surowiecki (completed 6/6/08)
31. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins (read online via DailyLit from 1/1/08 – 12/17/08)
32. The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan (completed reading on 1/20/08)
33. The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs (completed reading on 2/23/08)
34. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

Around the World for a Good Book

January – Haiti: Danticat Krik? Krak! (completed reading as of 1/25/08)
February – South Africa: Paton Cry, the Beloved Country (completed reading 3/3/08)
March – Palestine: Gate of the Sun by Elias Khoury (completed reading 4/15/08)
April – Germany: Billiards at Half-Past Nine by Heinrich Boll (completed reading 4/30/08)
May – Argentina: Hopscotch by Julio Cortazar (completed 5/31/08)
June – Australia: Woman of the Inner Sea by Thomas Keneally (completed 6/11/08)
July – Peru: Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter by Mario Vargas Llosa (completed 7/24/08)
August – Czech Republic: The Joke by Milan Kundera (completed 8/13/08)
September – Somalia: Maps by Nuruddin Farrah (completed 9/26/08)
October – Bosnia and Herzegovina: The Lazarus Project by Aleksandar Hemon (completed 10/29/08)
November – Uganda: Snakepit by Moses Isegawa (completed 12/16/08)
December – Zimbabwe: Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga (completed 12/19/08)

W&M Boston alumni book group

January: The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke (completed reading on 1/4/08)
February: American Pastoral by Phillip Roth (completed reading on 2/6/08)
March: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (completed reading as of 3/9/08)
April: The Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies (completed reading 4/2/08)
May: Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain
June: Bleak House by Charles Dickens
July: Bleak House by Charles Dickens (reading as of 7/9/08)
August:The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan (completed 6/19/08)
September: The Driftless Area by Tom Drury (completed 9/3/08)
October: Other Voices, Other Rooms by Truman Capote (completed 10/1/08)
November: The Gun Seller by Hugh Laurie
December:  The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro (read in 1996)

Book-A-Month Challenge

January: Challenge # 1 – Time. My choice: The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan (completed reading 1/20/08)
February: Challenge #2 – Heart. My choice: The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs (completed reading on 2/23/08)
March: Challenge #3 – Craft. My choice: Beer: Tap Into the Art and Science of Brewing by Charles Bamforth (completed reading 3/30/08)
April: Challenge #4 – Beauty. My choice: Vermeer’s Hat by Timothy Brook(completed reading 4/18/08).
May: Challenge #5 – Mother. My choice: Lee Miller’s War by Anthony Penrose (completed 5/28/08)
June: Challenge #6 – Knowledge. My choice: The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations by James Surowiecki (completed 6/6/08)
July: Challenge #7 – Independence. My choice: The Declaration of Independence: A Global History by David Armitage (completed 7/11/08)
August: Challenge #8 – Cool.  My choice: Terra Incognita: Travels in Antarctica by Sara Wheeler (completed 9/3/08)
September: Challenge #9 – Change.  My choice: A Pocketful of History: Four Hundred Years of America–One State Quarter at a Time by Jim Noles (completed 8/15/2008)
October: Challenge #10 – Haunting.  My choice: Ghost Writer by John Harwood
November: Challenge #11 – Giving.  My choice: Respect by Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot (completed 12/8/2008)
December: Challenge #12 – Light.  My choice: The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America’s Favorite Planet by Neil Degrasse Tyson (completed 12/20/2008)

Books Read in 2008

1. The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke (completed reading on 1/4/08)
2. Slam by Nick Hornby (completed reading on 1/6/08)
3. Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick (completed reading on 1/9/08)
4. Pride of Baghdad by Brian K Vaughan (completed reading on 1/12/08)
5. The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan (completed reading on 1/20/08)
6. Krik? Krak! by Edwidge Danticat (completed reading as of 1/25/08)
7. American Pastoral by Phillip Roth (completed reading on 2/6/08)
8. Ten Prayers God Always Says Yes To by Anthony DeStefano (completed reading on 2/9/08)
9. The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis (completed reading 2/13/08)
10. God’s Library by Joe Paprocki (completed reading 2/12/08)
11. The Radical and the Republican by James Oakes (completed reading on 2/18/08)
12. The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs (completed reading on 2/23/08)
13. How Big is Your God? by Paul Cutinho (currently reading as of 2/23/08)
14. Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton (completed reading 3/3/08)
15. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (completed reading as of 3/9/08)
16. Hell’s Abyss, Heaven’s Grace: War and Christian Spirituality by Lawrence D. Hart (completed reading as of 3/12/08)
17. Saints Behaving Badly by Thomas J. Craughwell (completed reading 3/16/08)
18. Jesus Before Christianity by Albert Nolan (completed reading 3/18/08)
19. The Rapture Exposed by Barbara R. Rossing (completed reading 3/20/08)
20. The Misunderstood Jew by Amy-Jill Levine (completed 3/22/08)
21. Googling God by Mike Hayes (completed reading 3/25/08)
22. Beer: Tap Into the Art and Science of Brewing by Charles Bamforth (completed reading 3/30/08)
23. The Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies (completed reading 4/2/08)
24. Vermeer’s Hat by Timothy Brook(completed reading 4/18/08)
25. Gate of the Sun by Elias Khoury (completed reading 4/15/08)
26. Mets by the Numbers by Jon Springer and Matthew Silverman (completed reading 4/29/08)
27. Billiards at Half-Past Nine by Heinrich Boll (completed reading 4/30/08)
28. The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing: Traitor to the Nation, Vol. 1 by M.T. Anderson (completed 5/2/08)
29. The Deportees and Other Stories by Roddy Doyle (completed reading 5/6/08)
30. A Game of Brawl by Bill Felber (completed reading 5/12/08)
31. The Bloody Shirt: Terror After Appomattox by Steven Budiansky (completed reading 5/14/08)
32. All Shall Be Well; and All Shall Be Well; and All Manner of Things Shall Be Well by Tod Wodicka (completed reading 5/19/08)
33. Lee Miller’s War by Anthony Penrose (completed 5/28/08)
34. Hopscotch by Julio Cortazar (completed 5/31/08)
35. The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations by James Surowiecki (completed 6/6/08)
36. Woman of the Inner Sea by Thomas Keneally (completed 6/11/08)
37. The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan (completed 6/19/08)
38. In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan (completed 6/28/08)
39. The Pirates! In An Adventure with Scientists by Gideon Defoe (completed 7/6/08)
40. Bleak House by Charles Dickens (completed 7/9/08)
41. The Declaration of Independence: A Global History by David Armitage (completed 7/11/08)
42. This Republic of Suffering by Drew Gilpin Faust (reading as of 7/15/08)
43. Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter by Mario Vargas Llosa (completed 7/24/08)
44. Simplexity: Why Simple Things Become Complex (and How Complex Things Can Be Made Simple) by Jeffrey Kluger (completed 7/28/2008)
45. Groundswell by Charlen Li and Josh Bernoff (completed 7/30/2008)
46. Crosstown by Helen Levitt (completed 8/1/2008)
47. The Confusion (Baroque Cycle Book 4: “Bonanza”) by Neal Stephenson (completed 8/5/08)
48. The Joke by Milan Kundera (completed 8/13/08)
49. New York Calling edited by Marshall Berman and Brian Berger (completed 8/14/2008)
50. A Pocketful of History: Four Hundred Years of America–One State Quarter at a Time by Jim Noles (completed 8/15/2008)
51. The Fabric of America by Andro Linklater (completed 8/19/2008)
52. The Confusion (Baroque Cycle Book 5: “The Juncto”) by Neal Stephenson (completed 8/27/2008)
53. Terra Incognita: Travels in Antarctica by Sara Wheeler (completed 9/3/08)
54. The Driftless Area by Tom Drury (completed 9/3/08)
55. The black swan : the impact of the highly improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb (completed 9/13/2008)
56. Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations by Clay Shirky (completed 9/14/2008)
57. How the States Got their Shapes by Mark Stein (completed 9/18/2008)
58. Maps by Nuruddin Farrah (completed 9/26/08)
59. Other Voices, Other Rooms by Truman Capote (completed 10/1/08)
60. A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906 by Simon Winchester (completed 10/8/08)
61. Manhattan ‘45 by Jan Morris (completed 10/9/08)
62. Paula Spencer by Roddy Doyle (completed 10/11/08)
63. Solomon’s Gold by Neal Stephenson (completed 10/16/08)
64. The Blind Side by Michael Lewis (completed 10/23/08)
65. The Lazarus Project by Aleksandar Hemon (completed 10/29/08
66. Empire Rising by Thomas Kelly (completed 10/30/08)
67. The Devil We Know by Robert Baer (completed 11/5/08)
68. The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Vol II (completed 11/13/2008)
69. Where’s My Jetpack?: A Guide to the Amazing Science Fiction Future that Never Arrived by Daniel Wilson (completed 11/14/08)
70. Middlesex by Jefferey Eugenides (completed 11/17/2008)
71. Trawler by Redmond O’Hanlon (completed 11/20/08)
72. Freeman Walker by David Allan Cates (completed 11/23/08)
73. Brisingr by Christopher Paolini (completed 11/30/08)
74. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (conpleted 12/1/08)
75. Respect by Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot (completed 12/8/2008)
76. Snakepit by Moses Isegawa (completed 12/16/08)
77. Rough Crossing by Simon Schama (completed 12/17/2008)
78. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins (read online via DailyLit from 1/1/08 – 12/17/08)
79. Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga (completed 12/19/08)
80. The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America’s Favorite Planet by Neil Degrasse Tyson (completed 12/20/2008)
81. Dishwasher : one man’s quest to wash dishes in all fifty states by Pete Jordan (completed 12/23/2008)
82. Great Fortune: The Epic of Rockefeller Center by Daniel Okrent (completed 12/30/08)