2008 in Books

Dexter Filkins started as the foreign correspondent at the Los Angeles Times before moving on to work for the New York Times. During this time, he covered the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan, the American invasion there after 9/11. The bulk of the time was spent covering the war in Iraq. This book is based on his eyewitness accounts of the wars in both countries.

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This should be required reading for every human on this planet. It's not just environmentalist sabre rattling, it's a well thought out as well as thought provoking book.

The massive bestseller about how Economics runs through all our lives and can sometimes provide interesting insights into them.

The memoir of Russian ice skater Ekaterina Gordeeva written in the memory of her partner and husband, Sergei Grinkov. She has not held back and has given her all in the book. The end result is a moving and engrossing story, all the better for being true.

A short description of what it means to be a Buddhist and how you can practice it's tenets in your daily life.

I read the book because I like the TV series based on it (True Blood) quite a bit. I wasn't sure what to expect, despite having watched the series. I liked what I read. The first season of the series had more or less stuck to the plot of this book despite playing around with the characters. The most remarkable quality of the book is that it makes the world of Sookie Stackhouse feel very natural. It's not easy considering that she is telepathic and her boyfriend is a vampire. Writing in the first person is an excellent idea since it prevents the story from getting carried away and keeps it grounded in the thoughts and concerns of Sookie herself and is the chief reason for the natural feel of the story.

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Second in the Sookie Stackhouse series of novels.

A little note before the first chapter explains that the book is based on the life of 'an' American First Lady. It's pretty clear that the book is based on Laura Bush. It's intriguing reading and paints a picture of Laura and George Bush that feels very close to how many people would perceive them publicly.

Pat Barker is a very gifted writer. She writes about her characters like she has known them all her life and her portraits of them are intimate and complex. All her books have a smattering of damaged and/or twisted characters. She can create these characters without even a hint of a false note. They are not the rabidly violent killers than seem to inhabit most thrillers. Rather, they are people who have a more pronounced dark side than the average person (a point she does not fail to emphasise by exploring the dark sides of the more 'normal' characters in her stories).

This book is another in a series of exceptional books she has produced. A fantastic read from start to finish with more than it's share of surprises, right to the very end.

This book speaks at different levels. It is a tale of politics and war. It is a tale of contact between two species, It is also a commentary on gender and gender roles. Being science fiction, it talks about technology and other scientific aspects of the tale such as biology and evolution as well.

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An engrossing thriller that consists of two tales - one set in modern day France and one in medieval France. The two female protagonists seem to share a spiritual connection of some kind.. The story is basically another one about the search for the mythical holy grail of Christianity and as just that is not an extraordinary one. The real worth of this book lies in it's development of the two female characters and it's tight interweaving with the history of the region it is set in (southern France, primarily Carcassonne.)

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The first book in Ashok Banker's retelling of the ancient Indian mythological tale - The Ramayana.

The Second Book in the Ramayana series.

Another of Agatha Christie's mytery novels. I must have read at least 50 of these in my lifetime.

Knightfall is one of the most ambitious Batman stories ever attempted. This book collects the first and arguably the best part of this story - the breaking of the Batman by Bane (the symbolism of the name is pretty obvious). The story begins with Bane engineering the breakout of all the insane criminals that are housed in Arkham Asylum. All of Batman's nemeses - The Joker, Scarecrow, Killer Croc and others - are let loose on the streets of Gotham all at once. This is Bane's clever and twisted strategy to break the Batman.

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