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Book List 2008
See also: Current Book Pick Book List 2009 Book List 2008 Book List 2006 Book List 2005 Book List 2004 Book List 2003
Book List 2002 Book List 2001
Book Title | Author | Cover | Month/Year | Comments |
| The Lottery | Patricia Wood |  | Dec, 2008 Rating: 7.5 High: 8 Low: 6 | We have changed this book because we will have a chance to speak with the author. Our original December choice, And Then There Were None, will be read later. |
| Call of the Wild | Jack London |  | Nov, 2008 Rating: 8.0 High: 9.5 Low: 6.5 | Here's another book we all enjoyed. Many of us had read it before, but a good number of us hadn't, either. Those who had read it when they were much younger commented on how the story changes perspective with age. The animal abuse was disturbing, but we understand that London was depicting reality of the time. We think the Russian translation of the title is apt - their title translates to The Call of the Ancestors. |
| Random Passage | Bernice Morgan |  | Oct, 2008 Rating: 7.5 High: 8.5 Low: 6 | We all liked this book. There were several comments about the vivid descriptions and passages. We discussed the living conditions, the ruggedness, the hardships encountered, and the characters. Linda, who is from New Foundland, gave us more history and a feeling of the culture and people there. |
| Saving Fish from Drowning | Amy Tan |  | Sep, 2008 Rating: 5.5 High: 7.5 Low: 3 | We were across the board in a appreciation of this book. Some of us didn't finish it, others felt like they struggled, others really enjoyed the book. Most of us agreed the travelers were very naive and we had trouble empathizing with the characters. |
| Dr. Zhivago | Boris Pasternak |  | Aug, 2008 Rating: 6.5 High: 9 Low: 4 | Many of us had problems with this book because the English translation from Russian was clumsy. The English version has been revised and now flows better. One person mentioned that the relationship of the people reflects what was happening in Russia at the time - the joining, the upheavals, and the acceptance of the new. Thank you to Lidia, our Russian immigrant. She gave a talk about Russian history and Pasternak's life that helped bring the book into focus. |
| Giant | Edna Ferber |  | Jun, 2008 Rating: 5.5 High: 8 Low: 4 | Cathy calls this book "a historical soap opera". Most of us had trouble reading it - lack of punctuation, not enough explanation, too much repetition, etc. Our overall rating was just above average - not great but had some interesting parts. |
| All Creatures Great and Small | James Herriot |  | May, 2008 Rating: 9.3 Low: 8 High: 10 | "The copy on my bookshelf is about 30 years old - it's still one of my favorites." |
| Teacher Man | Frank McCourt |  | Apr, 2008 Rating: 6.9 Low: 3 High: 9 | We agreed that this was an easy to read book. After that, our opinions ranged from excellent, almost perfect to it was dark and depressing and disliked. The first two thirds of the book is about his early, harder teaching years. That's the dark section. The last third is about the encouraging part of his career, so it picks up there. |
| Middlemarch | George Eliot |  | Feb - Mar, 2008 Rating: 6.2 Low: 2 High: 9 | It was dense and hard to read the older English. Most of us appreciated the characters and their struggles. Not all of us finished it. Vicki commented on how the more people change, the more they stay the same. For example, the people in Middlemarch were longing for "the good old days". |
| Water for Elephants | Sara Gruen |  | Jan, 2008 Rating 6.9 Low: 3 High: 9 | We enjoyed this book. We discussed how realistic it may be - Valerie pointed out that the language didn't always fit with the character. |
| The Holy Man | Susan Trott | Dec, 2002 | ||
| The Other | Thomas Tryon | Nov, 2002 | ||
| Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas | James Patterson | Oct, 2002 | ||
| A Confederacy of Dunces | John Kennedy Toole | Sep, 2002 | ||
| The Red Tent | Anita Diamant |  | Aug, 2002 | |
| To Kill a Mockingbird | Harper Lee |  | Jul, 2002 | |
| Raney | Clyde Edgerton | Jun, 2002 | ||
| A Painted House | John Grisham | May, 2002 | ||
| Blackbird - a Childhood Lost and Found | Jennifer Lauck | Apr, 2002 | ||
| The Hotel Honolulu | Paul Theroux | Mar, 2002 | ||
| A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius | Dave Eggers | Feb, 2002 | ||
| Gap Creek | Robert Morgan | Jan, 2002 | ||
| The Evening Class | Mave Binchley | Dec, 2001 | ||
| House of Sand and Fog | Andre Dubus | Nov, 2001 | ||
| A Personal History | Katherine Graham | Oct, 2001 | ||
| Earth Abides | George Stewart | Sep, 2001 | ||
| White Oleander | Janet Fitch | Aug, 2001 | ||
| The Persian Pickle Club | Sandra Dallas | Jul, 2001 | ||
| She Walks These Hills | Sharyn McCrumb |  | Jun, 2001 | |
| A Walk in the Woods | Bill Bryson |  | May, 2001 | |
| All the Pretty Horses | Cormac McCarthy |  | Apr, 2001 | |
| Booked to Die | John Dunning |  | Mar, 2001 | |
| Pigs in Heaven | Barbara Kingsolver |  | Feb, 2001 | |
| The Bean Trees | Barbara, Kingsolver |  | Feb, 2001 | |
| Range of Motion | Elizabeth Berg |  | Jan, 2001 |
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