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*

anna's book

by Ruth Rendell as Barbara Vine

I guess it's just a coincidence that this, like the Elizabeth Ironside books mentioned earlier, is a mystery that jumps back and forth between the past and the present. The modern characters learn of, and solve, a mystery that originated in the past. This was fairly compelling reading, but for some reason felt like a longer book than it was - not a plus. Maybe the tedium arose from the diary format that part of the book is written in. Again, I felt less than totally involved with the characters, but still it wasn't bad.