100th Post and End of Year Review

According to Blogger, this is my 100th post. If I hadn't slacked off so much in the last few months I would have hit 100 a long time ago so I don't really feel like celebrating. I do want to celebrate an awesome year of books, though. This has been an incredible year of reading for me, probably one of my best. That has everything to do with my blog and the book blogging community. I'm not especially active in the book blogging community but I've "met" some really great people and learned about a lot of great books. Here are a couple lists of favorites:

Favorite Books Read in 2008:

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt

My Antonia by Willa Cather

Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy by Gary D. Schmidt

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The Giver by Lois Lowry

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

There are several other books that I really liked and that I gave 4-5 stars but these are the ones that make me say, "Oh yeah, that was a good one," when I read the title.

Favorite New Authors (to me) in 2008:

Agatha Christie

Gary D. Schmidt

Shannon Hale

Lois Lowry

Georgette Heyer

These are authors that I read for the first time and have read at least 2 of their books. I plan on reading many more by each of these authors.

In 2008, I received about a dozen review copies of books. While it is fun to get new books for free, I've decided in general not to ask for them anymore. There are just too many books that I want to read and even though I've enjoyed most of the books I've reviewed, having them and knowing that I have to read and review them has stressed me out at times. So, I've decided to be much choosier about review books in the future.

Thanks so much for reading my blog and I look forward to 2009 being an even better year than last.