Mommy Brain

Here is the final list of books for 2008 – 132 titles. If you prefer to see it broken down into genres, click here.

Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life by Steve Martin (audiobook) – 3 stars – related post

Perfect Match by Jodi Picoult (audiobook) – 4 stars – related post

T is for Trespass by Sue Grafton – 2 stars – related post

Broken for You by Stephanie Kallos – 5 stars – related post

What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist-The Facts of Daily Life in Nineteenth-Century England by Daniel Pool – 3 stars – related post

Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke (read-aloud) – 4 stars

The Field Guide (The Spiderwick Chronicles, Book 1) by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi (read-aloud) – 3 stars

Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends by Sarah, Stephen, and Grace Mally (read-aloud) – 3 stars

Standing by Words: Essays by Wendell Berry – 3 stars – related post

Burning Bright by Tracy Chevalier (audiobook) – 4 stars – related post

The Seeing Stone (The Spiderwick Chronicles, Book 2) by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi – 3 stars

Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray – 4 stars – related post

Lucinda’s Secret (Spiderwick Chronicles #3) by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi (read-aloud) – 3 stars

The Ironwood Tree (The Spiderwick Chronicles, Book 4) by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi (read-aloud) – 3 stars

The Wrath of Mulgarath (Spiderwick Chronicles, Book 5) by Holly Black & Tony DiTerlizzi (read-aloud) – 3 stars

The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop by Lewis Buzbee – 4 stars – related post

A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein (read-aloud) – 3 stars

The Crime Writer by Gregg Hurwitz (audiobook) – 3 stars

Matrimony by Joshua Henkin – 2 stars

Prince Caspian by C. S. Lewis (read-aloud) – 4 stars

Winter Haven by Athol Dickson – 4 stars – related post

How to Be Good by Nick Hornby – 4 stars – related post

Songs of Innocence and Experience by William Blake – 5 stars – related post

Coraline by Neil Gaiman (read-aloud) – 4 stars

The Senator’s Wife by Sue Miller (audiobook) – 2 stars

Heart of Darkness & Selected Short Fiction by Joseph Conrad – 3 stars – related post

Heidi by Johanna Spyri – 4 stars

The Softwire: Virus on Orbis 1 by P.J. Haarsma – 3 stars – related post

Ararat (American Poetry Series) by Louise Gluck – 4 stars

The Softwire: Betrayal on Orbis 2 by P.J. Haarsma – 4 stars – related post

A Window to the World by Susan Meissner – 4 stars

Home to Holly Springs by Jan Karon (audiobook) – 4 stars – related post

Heaven for Kids by Randy Alcorn and Linda Washington (read-aloud) – 5 stars

Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War by Nathaniel Philbrick – 4 stars – related post

Blasphemy by Douglas Preston (audiobook) – 3 stars

The Ordering of Love: The New and Collected Poems of Madeleine L’Engle – 5 stars – related post

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick – 4 stars

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy – 4 stars – related post

The Radiation Sonnets: For My Love, in Sickness and in Health by Jane Yolen – 4 stars

About My Sisters by Debra Ginsberg – 4 stars

Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders by Neil Gaiman (audiobook) – 3 stars

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman – 5 stars

The House at Midnight (ARC) by Lucie Whitehouse – 2 stars

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (audiobook) – 2 stars

Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by Z.Z. Packer – 3 stars

Fly by Night by Francis Hardinge (read-aloud) – 3 stars

What the Light Was Like: Poems by Luci Shaw – 3 stars

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (audiobook) – 4 stars – related post

The Best American Short Stories 2007 edited by Stephen King – 3 stars – related post

Doesn’t She Look Natural by Angela Hunt – 4 stars – related post

The Quiet American by Graham Greene – 4 stars – related post

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (audiobook) – 3 stars -related post

Gone by Michael Grant – 4 stars – related post

Tigerheart by Peter David – 5 stars – related post

New Moon by Stephenie Meyer – 4 stars – related post

She Always Wore Red by Angela Hunt – 5 stars

Eclipse (The Twilight Saga, Book 3) by Stephenie Meyer – 4 stars

The Dew Breaker by Edwidge Danticat (audiobook) – 3 stars

Belong to Me by Marisa De Los Santos – 5 stars – related post

Magyk (Septimus Heap, Book 1) by Angie Sage – 4 stars

Life Studies: Stories by Susan Vreeland – 4 stars – related post

Life Class by Pat Barker (audiobook) – 3 stars

Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman – 5 stars – related post

The Complete Maus by Art Speigelman – 4 stars – related post

The Host by Stephenie Meyer – 5 stars – related post

An Incomplete Education: 3,684 Things You Should Have Learned but Probably Didn’t by Judy Jones & William Wilson – 4 stars – related post

Booked to Die (A Cliff Janeway Mystery) by John Dunning – 3 stars – related post

The Woman Who Can’t Forget: The Extraordinary Story of Living with the Most Remarkable Memory Known to Science by Jill Price & Bart Davis (audiobook) – 3 stars – related post

The White Mary by Kira Salak – 3 stars – related post

Mediterranean Summer: A Season on France’s Cote d’Azur and Italy’s Costa Bella by David Shalleck and Erol Munuz – 3 stars – related post

The Bookman’s Wake (A Cliff Janeway Mystery) by John Dunning – 3 stars

An Unsuitable Job for a Woman by P.D. James – 4 stars

Eric Liddell: Something Greater Than Gold by Geoff and Janet Benge (read-aloud) – 4 stars

Kristin Lavransdatter III: The Cross by Sigrid Undset – 4 stars – related post

The Bookman’s Promise by John Dunning – 4 stars

Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi – 3 stars

Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return by Marjane Satrapi – 3 stars

Penny From Heaven by Jennifer Holm (audiobook) – 4 stars

This Charming Man by Marian Keyes – 2 stars

Inglorious by Joanna Kavenna – 2 stars – related post

One for the Money by Janet Evanovich (audiobook) – 3 stars

Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer – 4 stars – related post

Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes by Thomas Cathcart & Daniel Klein (audiobook) – 3 stars

My Husband’s Sweethearts by Bridget Asher – 4 stars – related post

Stealing Athena by Karen Essex – 4 stars – related post

The Cross-Time Engineer (Book 1 in The Adventures of Conrad Stargard) by Leo Frankowski (re-read) – 3 stars – related post

A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599 by James Shapiro – 3 stars – related post

Half-*ssed: A Weight-Loss Memoir by Jennette Fulda – 4 stars – related post

The Devil’s Arithmetic by Jane Yolen – 5 stars – related post

Guernica by Dave Boling – 5 stars – related post

The High-Tech Knight (Adventures of Conrad Stargard, Book 2) by Leo Frankowski – 3 stars

The Pacific and Other Stories by Mark Helprin (audiobook) – 3 stars

The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall – 5 stars – related post

The Heretic’s Daughter by Kathleen Kent – 5 stars – related post

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris (audio) – 3 stars

Waiting for Normal by Leslie Connor (audio) – 4 stars – related post

Capote in Kansas by Kim Powers – 4 stars – related post

Fieldwork by Mischa Berlinski – 5 stars – related post

A Bell for Adano by John Hersey – 3 stars

The Beekeeper’s Apprentice by Laurie R. King (audiobook) – 5 stars – related post

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart (read-aloud) – 5 stars – related post

The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver – 3 stars

1602 by Neil Gaiman and Andy Kubert – 4 stars

Artemis Fowl: The Graphic Novel by Eoin Colfer, Andrew Donkin, and Giovanni Rigano – 3 stars

Hatter M: The Looking Glass Wars Volume 1 by Frank Beddor, Liz Cavalier & Ben Templesmith – 3 stars – related post

North River by Pete Hamill (audio) – 5 stars – related post

Slow News Day by Andi Watson – 3 stars

The Night Country by Stewart O’Nan – 4 stars – related post

The Faith of Barack Obama by Stephen Mansfield – 3 stars

A Monstrous Regiment of Women by Laurie R. King – 5 stars – related post

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls (audiobook) – 5 stars – related post

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow – 3 stars

Peril and Peace: Chronicles of the Ancient Church by Brandon and Mindy Withrow – 4 stars

Company of Liars by Karen Maitland – 3 stars – related post

American Widow by Alissa Torres & Sungyoon Choi – 4 stars – related post

Flyte (Septimus Heap, Book 2) by Angie Sage (read-aloud) – 4 stars

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows – 5 stars – related post

The Grift by Debra Ginsberg – 4 stars – related post

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh (audiobook) – 3 stars

The Professors’ Wives’ Club by Joanne Rendell – 3 stars

A Letter of Mary by Laurie R. King – 5 stars – related post

The Intellectual Devotional by David S. Kidder & Noah D. Oppenheim – 3 stars

The Passion of Artemisia by Susan Vreeland (audiobook) – 5 stars – related post

Blindspot: By a Gentleman in Exile and a Lady in Disguise by Jane Kamensky & Jill Lepore – 4 stars – related post

The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister – 5 stars – related post

Goldengrove by Francine Prose (audiobook) – 3 stars – related post

Irish Girls Are Back in Town by various authors – 2 stars – related post

The Moor by Laurie R. King – 4 stars – related post

The Observations by Jane Harris – 4 stars – related post

Vintage Jesus: Timeless Answers to Timely Questions by Mark Driscoll & Gerry Breshears – 3 stars

Cover Her Face by P.D. James (audiobook) – 3 stars – related post

Names My Sisters Call Me by Megan Crane – 3 stars

Books I started but didn’t finish:

The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen (I made it to page 56. Ugh.)

Dream When You’re Feeling Blue by Elizabeth Berg (I tried to listen to the audio version read by the author. She shouldn’t read her own books. I may try to read the print version one of these days.)

Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult (I couldn’t get past the fact that she stole much of the storyline from Stephen King’s The Green Mile.)

The Ten-Year Nap by Meg Wolitzer (It didn’t grab me. Every time I started to get interested in a character’s storyline, she switched to a different character. It was just kind of blah, and there are too many other books waiting to waste any more time on this one.)

Petite Anglaise (ARC) by Catherine Sanderson (Just didn’t like it.)

Passion on the Vine: A Memoir of Food, Wine, and Family in the Heart of Italy by Sergio Esposito (Just couldn’t get into this one – it’s very well-written, though. I think it was too similar to another book I had recently read.)

When We Were Romans by Matthew Kneale (The book is narrated by a 9-year-old boy. I have son who will be 9 in a little over two weeks. I talk to him on a daily basis. I love him – very much – but I don’t think I’d want to read a novel that is entirely made up of his inner thoughts and narration of daily events. However, I loved To Kill a Mockingbird, which is narrated by a 9-year-old girl, so maybe it’s purely the execution. Author Matthew Kneale has written not only in Lawrence’s voice, but with lots of misspellings, as if he actually wrote the book. Maybe that’s what pushed it over the top. I also couldn’t take the descriptions of his sister Jemima’s misbehavior – it made me want to lock her in an eternal time-out. I did, however, find another reviewer who enjoyed the book – and several Amazon reviewers liked it enough to give it at least three stars. So it’s probably just me. )

The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway (ARC) (I made it to page 100. Very well-written – Harkaway has a unique voice, but it is not my kind of thing. The sheer size of it is daunting anyway, but to make it to page 100 and not feel like you want to keep reading – enough said. It is getting rave reviews from other people, though, as you can see here and here.)

The Islands of Divine Music by John Addiego (I made it to page 100 or so, and then put it aside. It’s very well-written, but I didn’t like any of the characters, and when I found that I was forcing myself to keep reading, I thought, “Nope. Life’s too short, and there are too many other books waiting on the to-read stack.”)

Rating system:

1 star – Terrible
2 stars – Just Okay
3 stars – Good
4 stars – Very Good
5 stars – Brilliant, Wonderful, Excellent, Fabulous