best books I read in 2008

*I've affixed asterisks to the best titles.*

Mysteries: These were good but not great. I'm still looking for a great new mystery author, and have high hopes for Donald Westlake.
Elizabeth Ironside: Death in the Garden and The Accomplice
Barbara Vine: Anna's Book
Ian Rankin: Knots and Crosses

Sea books: Patrick O'Brian is the best, followed by CS Forester. Ramage will suffice if you need a fix of salt air and a couple of broadsides.
Dudley Pope: Ramage series
Nordhoff and Hall: Mutiny on the Bounty

Classics:
CS Lewis: Till We Have Faces, The Screwtape Letters*
Anthony Hope: The Prisoner of Zenda and sequel

Best-kept secret:
Louis Hemon: Maria Chapdelaine*

Baseball:
Rind Lardner: You Know Me Al*

Politics:
Mark Steyn: America Alone*

Parenting:
Neufeld and Mata: Hold On To Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More than Peers*
Robert Karen: Becoming Attached*

a very private enterprise

by Elizabeth Ironside

I read this a couple of weeks ago and was surprised to find that I drew a complete blank when I tried to remember what it was about. So I guess I'd have to call it forgettable. I went to Amazon to refresh my memory. It was well-written, as were her other books, but somehow not as engaging. The main character, a middle-aged man, was a rather detached personality. The setting was India, which didn't add or detract anything for me. Eh.

books I've read in the past month

The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope
Rupert of Henzau (sequel to above)

Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall

Raising Your Child, Not by Force but by Love by Sidney Craig

A Very Private Enterprise by Elizabeth Ironside

Ramage books, 10-14, by Dudley Pope

St. Monica by F. A. Forbes

Winning Souls for Christ by Raoul Plus, S. J.

the accomplice

by Elizabeth Ironside

Just finished this. It's as good as, maybe better?, than Death in the Garden. As in the first book, the characters and the mystery have roots in the distant past. This is a "Felony and Mayhem" book. Haven't yet visited felonyandmayhem.com but intend to soon.

death in the garden by elizabeth ironside

This was the best mystery I've read in a year or so. Good writing, complicated plot, shuttling between the 1920's and the 1990's. Plenty of tea-drinking and even a mention of an herbaceous border. The characters were not the usual cliches one finds in contemporary mysteries, and though the requisite relationship-angst was present, it didn't overwhelm as it so often does. I would rate this as very good. If I could have felt more invested in the characters, even one, I would have liked the book more. But I'll look for more of this author's books.

mystery recommendations

Mystery recommendations from the librarian:

Death in the Garden by Elizabeth Ironside
This was the most highly recommended title he gave me. I'm reading it now and it is very good. The bookcover tells me I might also enjoy
Minette Walters.

Death Comes as Epiphany by Sharan Newman
Patricia Highsmith (Strangers on a Train, etc. Have seen the HItchcock movie, probably too creepy for me.)
Thrones, Dominations, a finishing-up of Dorothy Sayers novel
Caroline Graham
Maisie Dodd books by Jacqueline Winspear

I recently read 3 pretty good books by Patricia Carlon: The Price of an Orphan, Crime of Silence, and Hush, It's a Game. She was Australian and wrote under many pseudonyms. The titles I read were written between 1965-1970. They were compelling and not offensive in the usual way many contemporary books are. But the 4th book, Death by Demonstration, was so dull I didn't finish it. It was concerned with student uprisings and filled with the students' political "thought." Blurbs on the back of the Carlon books indicate I might also enjoy Barbara Vine (Ruth Rendell) and Patricia Highsmith, mentioned above.

Marty the librarian also recommended Josephine Tey, which I've read and liked very much. He based his other recommendations on this.