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*

mutiny on the bounty

by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall

Very good. Gripping. An unusual combination of truth and fiction. The authors researched extensively, but told the tale from the point of view of a fictional character, based on one of the participants.


The brutality of British Navy is shown in a flogging episode near the beginning of the book. I'd advise younger and more sensitive readers to avoid it.

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.