Staff Favorites of 2008

As promised, we polled the staff here at TFPL and came up with our favorites for the year. Here they are:

Favorites Published in 2008:

• The Actress by Elizabeth Sims (Beth)
• Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer (Amy & Erica)
• The Commoner by John Burnham Schwartz (Jennifer)
• Dewey: Small T0wn Library Cat by Vicki Myron (Susan)
• The Enders Hotel by Brandon Schrand (Susan)
• Gaviotas: A Village to Reinvent the World by Alan Weisman (Nirmala)
• Heirloom: Notes from an Accidental Tomato Farmer by Tim Stark (Melissa)
• Killer View by Ridley Pearson (Barbara)
• The Little Book by Selden Edwards (Jennifer)
• Losing It by Valerie Bertinelli (Amy)
• Mr. Fooster Traveling on a Whim by Tom Corwin (Melissa)
• Odd Hours by Dean Koontz (CJ)
• Pawprints of Katrina by Cathy Scott (Tina)
• Rumors by Anna Godbersen (Beth)
• The Seduction of the Crimson Rose by Lauren Willig (Courtney)
• Strangers in Death by J.D. Robb (Clydene)
• The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling (CJ)
• Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri (Nirmala)
• Waiter Rant by Waiter (Erica)
• Winter Study by Nevada Barr (Barbara)

Older books that we read and loved this year:

• The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama (Cathy)
• Bitterbrush Country by Diane Josephy Peavey (Clydene)
• Blasphemy by Douglas Preston (CJ)
• City of Shadows by Ariana Franklin (Jennifer)
• Holy Bible – King James Version (Courtney)
• I Am America (And so Can You!) by Stephen Colbert (CJ)
• Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs (Gina)
• The King of Elfland’s Daughter by Lord Dunsany (Morgan)
• Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson (Susan)
• Mrs. Mike by Benedict Freeman (Melissa)
• Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar by Thomas Cathcart (Cathy)
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (Erica)
• Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers (Amy)
• Right Before Your Eyes by Ellen Shanman (Beth)
• Shane by Jack Schaefer (Courtney)
• Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson (Amy)
• Three Weeks with My Brother by Nicholas Sparks (Tina)
• Trouble by Jesse Kellerman (Beth)
• Tularosa by Michael McGarrity (Barbara)
• A Walk Across France by Miles Morland (Susan)
• Wicked by Gregory Maguire (Erica)
• The Zahir by Paulo Coehlo (Nirmala)

Well, that’s it from us for 2008. See you in the NEW YEAR!

Best Books

It’s that time of the year again — the Best Books of the publishing world for 2008 have been announced. And, since librarians love lists, we’ve taken a look at what three different organizations have listed as their choices for the year. From these, we’ve collected only the titles owned by TFPL (for the full lists, see the links at the end of this post.)

The editors at Amazon.com are known for including a lot of popular titles, while Publishers Weekly does a great job of looking within specific genres (such as mystery, romance, or religion). Of course, if you’re looking for books with a ton of literary merit, but maybe not so much hype, check out the New York Times list.

Only 11 books were included on all three lists:

FICTION:

• 2666 – Robert Bolaño
• The Lazarus Project – Aleksandar Hemon
• Unaccustomed Earth – Jhumpa Lahiri
• The Boat – Nam Le
• Netherland – Joseph O’Niell
• Lush Life – Richard Price

NONFICTION:

• The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family – Annette Gordon-Reed
• The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America – David Hajdu
• Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood – Mark Harris
• The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How The War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals – Jane Meyer
• The Post-American World – Fareed Zakaria

Links to the full lists:

• Amazon.com Best of 2008
• New York Times Book Review – 100 Notable Books of 2008
• Publishers Weekly Best Books of the Year 2008

We’ve also got hard copies of all of these lists, along with a display, at the Reference Desk inside TFPL. And look for a list of staff favorites of 2008 coming up later this month.