Booking Through Thursday: The Best?

This week's Booking Through Thursday question:

It’s a week or two later than you’d expect, and it may be almost a trite question, but … what were your favorite books from 2008?

I thought this would be tough to narrow down, but my list came quite naturally. Here were my five favorites:

What were your top five?

"Waiting On" Wednesday: It Will Come to Me

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:

It Will Come to Me
By Emily Fox Gordon

Publication Date: March 10

From Amazon:

"Ben Blau is the reluctant chair of the philosophy department of The Lola Dees Institute, surrounded by a bestiary of academic innocents and opportunists. His wife Ruth—a writer whose early literary success never quite blossomed into a career—nurtures sometimes noisy and sometimes private rebellions against the conventions of academic life. Their lives have settled, if not always comfortably, into a dull ceremonial round of convocations, committee meetings, and pot-luck dinners. To Ruth it seems that nothing will ever change. Except that this year a new couple has arrived on campus: an ethereal, celebrated young memoirist and her husband, an intellectual jack-of-all-trades and perpetual misfit. Something about these two throws the staid academic world of the Lola Dees Institute into comic chaos and revives Ruth's hopes that she might become once again the writer she used to be."

(I have to admit, this cover freaks me out just a little bit.)

What's your "waiting on" pick this week?

Leave a comment with either the link to your own "Waiting On" Wednesday post or just your answer (if you don't have a blog).

Review: Once Upon a Day

I typically only read newly released books, but I've been in such a reading dry spell lately that I decided to go back and revisit an older book that I had on hand at one time and had to return to the library when my reading list got too full: Once Upon a Day by Lisa Tucker.

When Dorothea O'Brien was four years old, her father, a wealthy and famous Hollywood movie director, moved her and her six-year-old brother Jimmy away from L.A. to a secluded estate in New Mexico. Dubbed "The Sanctuary," the two children grew up with no contact with the outside world. Food was delivered in, they were homeschooled, and the house had neither a television nor a telephone. Their intensely protective father, so worried about harm to them, allowed only timed visits outside the house.

Convinced that nothing good happened in this country past the 1950s, Dorothea's father stopped there with his teaching of the history of the world. Thus, the two children are stuck in a time warp, with their only knowledge of anything beyond their home coming from encyclopedias.

While it's the only life Dorothea has ever known, and she accepts it, it's not enough for her brother, and he runs away at 25 to search for his mother, who they had been told had died. When their father becomes ill, Dorothea leaves to find Jimmy and bring him home, after several years away, stepping outside into a world completely unfamiliar to her.

Her journey brings a realization of what she's been protected from, good and bad, and as her world opens up, so do her eyes. She will ultimately learn what led her family to New Mexico and the reasons behind her father's odd decisions and actions. But while it is Dorothea's story on the outset, the bulk of the book is actually her mother's story, as we find out exactly what happened to her.

This book was immediately and consistently engaging, with a compelling story that had me reading it straight through. Tucker's writing style and character development skills are to be admired. Dorothea's disbelief and lack of knowledge about the world was carried through very well, reminding me a lot of Darryl Hannah's character in Splash.

I'm so excited about this author that I'm off to read her latest, The Cure for Modern Life...

"Waiting On" Wednesday: Handle With Care

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:

Handle With Care

By Jodi Picoult

Publication Date: March 3

From Publishers Weekly:

"Perennial bestseller Picoult delivers another engrossing family drama, spiced with her trademark blend of medicine, law and love. Charlotte and Sean O'Keefe's daughter, Willow, was born with brittle bone disease, a condition that requires Charlotte to act as full-time caregiver and has strained their emotional and financial limits. Willow's teenaged half-sister, Amelia, suffers as well, overshadowed by Willow's needs and lost in her own adolescent turmoil. When Charlotte decides to sue for wrongful birth in order to obtain a settlement to ensure Willow's future, the already strained family begins to implode. Not only is the defendant Charlotte's longtime friend, but the case requires Charlotte and Sean to claim that had they known of Willow's condition, they would have terminated the pregnancy, a statement that strikes at the core of their faith and family."

I haven't read everything Picoult has written, but I loved My Sister's Keeper and The Pact. I wasn't a huge fan of her most recent, Change of Heart, but I'm looking forward to her latest release next spring.

What's your "waiting on" pick this week?

Leave a comment with either the link to your own "Waiting On" Wednesday post or just your answer (if you don't have a blog).

100th Post!

Six months, 100 posts...! Yea! What a way to end the year!

I started this blog on June 9, just on a whim, and quickly got hooked on tracking what I read. Who knew it would be so much fun?

I launched "Waiting On" Wednesday on August 20 to spotlight soon-to-be-released books that I'm much anticipating. My thanks to everyone who participates in this event! I hope you're having as much fun choosing your weekly selections as I am.

When I started back to work full-time in August, after working from home for the past five years, my reading (and, subsequently, my posting) took a hit. But, I've started to discover my rhythm and how to balance 40 hours a week in the office again with the rest of my life. Wow. How quickly I forgot how to juggle it all.

I'm re-learning how to make it all work, so you'll see more posting, and more reviews, in 2009.

I really appreciate everyone who follows Breaking the Spine and takes time to visit and comment! A special shout-out goes to Trish at Hey Lady! Whatcha Reading? for being the first one to comment on my blog and offer such a warm welcome into this amazing community of book bloggers.

"Waiting On" Wednesday: The Local News

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:

The Local News

By Miriam Gershow

Publication Date: February 24

From Publishers Weekly:

"Bright, precocious but socially awkward Lydia Pasternak reports on the aftermath of her older brother’s disappearance in Gershow’s accomplished debut. Danny was everything Lydia wasn’t: at ease with their parents, popular in school, physically imposing, beloved by the opposite sex. Danny went from being Lydia’s playmate in their youth to her tormentor in high school, so his disappearance leaves Lydia with some very mixed feelings, one of which is relief. Lydia’s perspective gives this Lovely Bones–esque story line an unflinching quality as she details the emotional damage that reverberates even through her 10-year high school reunion."

What's your "waiting on" pick this week?

Leave a comment with either the link to your own "Waiting On" Wednesday post or just your answer (if you don't have a blog).

"Waiting On" Wednesday: The Sweet By and By

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:

The Sweet By and By
By Todd Johnson

Publication Date: February 17

From Publishers Weekly:

"Johnson's bittersweet and often humorous hen-lit debut portrays the lives of five very different Southern women: compassionate Lorraine, bossy Margaret, grief-stricken Bernice, ambitious April and brusque Rhonda. At the center of this character-driven novel is Lorraine, a nurse at the nursing home where Margaret and Bernice live. As the three women drift into friendship, hairdresser Rhonda arrives to take a part-time job, and the older women begin to change her life. Lorraine's daughter, April, meanwhile, is also gradually drawn into the circle. The story unfolds slowly over decades and life milestones, giving the characters plenty of time to reveal themselves. The underlying message of the power of love and friendship resonates, as does its depiction of the way in which people leading unremarkable lives can have a tremendous impact on those around them."

An author's debut? Southern fiction? I'm all about that.

What's your "waiting on" pick this week?

Leave a comment with either the link to your own "Waiting On" Wednesday post or just your answer (if you don't have a blog).

Sunday Salon: Best Fiction of 2008

It's that time of year, and everyone is weighing in on the best fiction releases of 2008. Here's a roundup of five lists:

1. Publishers Weekly

2. Library Journal
Of this list, I read All We Ever Wanted Was Everything (review here), Cost (review here), and Olive Kitteridge (brief review here).

3. Washington Post
I read America, America (review here), Goldengrove (review here), and The House on Fortune Street (before my blog launch). Olive Kitteridge made their list as well.

4. New York Times

5. Amazon

I may need to add a few of these to my TBR, given that there are lots of titles on these lists that I didn't read. One consistent inclusion was Home by Marilynne Robinson, which I just couldn't get through.

I'm curious...what did you think was overlooked that made your personal list of best fiction this year?

"Waiting On" Wednesday: Bridge of Sand

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:

Bridge of Sand

By Janet Burroway
Publication Date: March 25

From Books-A-Million:

"In this beautifully written novel, Burroway uses a woman's personal loss, coincident with 9/11, to explore race, territory and renewal. Dana, the widow of a Pennsylvania senator, buries her husband the morning of 9/11, only miles from the United 93 crash. After months of paralysis, she sells her house and heads south in an effort to pick up the lost strands of her youth. Set amid the blur of 9/11, this wise, beautifully written novel of love, race, territory, and renewal explores the issues that challenge us all."

What's your "waiting on" pick this week?

Leave a comment with either the link to your own "Waiting On" Wednesday post or just your answer (if you don't have a blog).

"Waiting On" Wednesday: Life Without Summer

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:

Life Without Summer
By Lynne Griffin
Publication Date: April 14

From Publishers Weekly:

"Griffin’s fiction debut is a spellbinding tale of loss and hard-won redemption. When Tessa Gray’s four-year-old daughter, Abby, is killed by a hit and run driver, there are no witnesses. From first meeting, Tessa distrusts the detective assigned to the case and, with her journalism background and ties to newspapers in nearby Boston, she begins to dig for her own answers to the identity of Abby’s killer. Meanwhile, she vents her grief with Celia, a compassionate but reserved therapist. Outside therapy, Celia’s and Tessa’s narratives remain separate until they shockingly intersect and lead the way to hard-won healing for both. Griffin’s carefully crafted characters ring heartbreakingly true and her finely wrought plot will snare readers from the first page."

What's your "waiting on" pick this week?

Leave a comment with either the link to your own "Waiting On" Wednesday post or just your answer (if you don't have a blog).