+1 for the rec of *Corner Of A Foreign Field*. I also enjoyed the five books so far in Naomi Novik's *Temeraire* series, a fantasy in which the Napoleonic Wars are fought with dragons. The style is bracing, the action exquisite, and the moral and emotional weight of the books deepens with each successive volume.
[Although my best experience by far last year was re-reading the unabridged *The Count Of Monte Cristo.*] On Tue, Jan 13, 2009 at 10:03 AM, Udhay Shankar N <[email protected]> wrote: > Forwarding... > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: Vardhini Shankar <[email protected]> > Date: Tue, Jan 13, 2009 at 2:33 AM > Subject: Re: [silk] Favourite books read in 2008 > To: Udhay Shankar N <[email protected]> > > > > Books that I read and liked: > > An omnivore's dilemma - Michael Pollan - generally informative, though > the last parts of it drag a bit. > Slaughterhouse five - Kurt Vonnegut - Reread and appreciated it a lot > more the 2nd time > A gift of rain - Tan Twan Eng - new writer, very evocative, beautiful > prose, great style. > Dolores Claiborne - Stephen King - he knows how to build realistic > characters, the movie comes nowhere close to the book, this has become > one of my favourite King novels. > The gumshoe, the witch and the virtual corpse - Keith Hartman - just a > lot of fun! > Phantoms in the brain - VS Ramachandran > Persepolis: The story of a childhood - Marjane Satrapi > > > Booked not to read (IMO),I wasted my time on them: > > Interitance of loss - Kiran Desai - Dull and very pretentious writing, > very phony and preachy, lots of errors (I think the editor was high > when he/she worked on this) and the prose read like it was written by > a high school student trying to wow the teachers with her prowess with > words. It sucked big time! > > A year without made in China - (worst non fiction ever!) by Sara Bongiorni > > I read the above two for a bookclub that I am part of - would have > never finished them but for the commitment to read and discuss and > review these books. > > - V > > -- roswitha.tumblr.com
