2008 Releases: Best in Year

Misfit · Post by **Misfit** » Tue December 30th, 2008, 2:12 pm

The only 2008 releases that I've read this year and would put at the tops of my books are Devil's Brood by Penman and The Time of Singing by EC. I started The Whiskey Rebels but could not finish it. Took me almost two months to get about 100 pages.

boswellbaxter · Post by **boswellbaxter** » Tue December 30th, 2008, 2:28 pm

[quote=""SonjaMarie""]You're welcome! I did find it odd that a paperback that came out in Oct is no longer in stock and that the hardback is out tomorrow. The hardback actually does have one review http://www.amazon.com/Independence-Miss ... 639&sr=1-1

SM[/quote]

Cool! I'll definitely have to pick it up.

Helen_Davis · Post by **Helen_Davis** » Tue December 30th, 2008, 3:08 pm

[quote=""Divia""]The only novel I really got excited over and couldn't put down was The Heretic Queen. Everything else was nice, but didn't inspire me much.

Surprisingly I did like Lady Elizabeth and I thought Id hate it.
I enjoyed the Virgin's Queen Daughter.[/quote]

same here!

Divia · Post by **Divia** » Tue December 30th, 2008, 5:11 pm

Hmm, I'm not a Jane Austen fan...AT ALL. However, this does look somewhat intersting

The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet

Kasthu · Post by **Kasthu** » Tue December 30th, 2008, 5:29 pm

Some of the best new releases I read this year (listed in the order I read them) include:

The House at Riverton, by Kate Morton.
Silent in the Sanctuary, by Deanna Raybourn.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Company of Liars, by Karen Maitland
The Sealed Letter, by Emma Donoghue
Girl in a Blue Dress, by Gaynor Arnold
The Glass of Time, by Michael Cox
Devil's Brood, by Sharon Kay Penman (and I read these last two back-to-back)

Not HF, but historical: The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher, by Kate Summerscale.

Divia · Post by **Divia** » Tue December 30th, 2008, 5:49 pm

I have had the The Sealed Letter for quite sometime and havent read it yet! I think I'll start today!

EC2 · Post by **EC2** » Tue December 30th, 2008, 5:57 pm

Hmmm, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Anne Schaffer
The Heretic Queen by Michelle Moran

That's about it for this year. I've read others but they are not 2008 releases.
I am currently very much enjoying my latest Amazon Vine read, but it's not historical. Baking Cakes in Kigali by Gaile Parkin. That would probably go on an honourable mention best of list.
I have been promised a UK ARC of Devil's Brood by Sharon Kay Penman in the New Year. I needed a few months of closure before reading this one anyway because of the proximity of subject matter, but I'm just about ready for it now - so DB could be one of my best of 2009!

cw gortner · Post by **cw gortner** » Tue December 30th, 2008, 6:49 pm

My personal favorite for 2008 was my book, of course.

I think this was a banner year for historicals. Most of what I read this year I loved. I'd highlight the following, in no particular order:

Company of Liars by Karen Maitland
The Heretic Queen by Michelle Moran
Needle in the Blood by Sarah Bower
Mistress of the Sun by Sandra Gulland
Revelation by C.J. Sansom
Stealing Athena by Karen Essex
The Twice Born by Pauline Gedge

boswellbaxter · Post by **boswellbaxter** » Tue December 30th, 2008, 6:56 pm

My favorite 2008 HF releases were Devil's Brood by Sharon Penman and Michelle Moran's The Heretic Queen. Most of the books I read were released before 2008.

For nonfiction, I realy enjoyed Julia Fox's Jane Boleyn (if this was late 2007 instead of 2008, shoot me), Ian Mortimer's The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England, and Linda Porter's The First Queen of England: The Myth of Bloody Mary."

gyrehead · Post by **gyrehead** » Tue December 30th, 2008, 9:18 pm

[quote=""Margaret""]Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson and Conceit by Mary Novik. Both wonderful novels and completely different, except that they are both full of richness and depth and things to think about, and the characters might as well be real people inhabiting the room with you while you read. [/quote]

Gargoyle somehow fell into the "fantasy" category a bit too strongly for me to make this list. It did make my fantasy list though. Just a purely arbitrary subjective tic on my part.

[quote=""Margaret""]My "cheat" is Linda Proud's A Tabernacle for the Sun, published in England in 2005 but not yet in the U.S.[/quote]

Yeah but cheats have to be coming out in the US at some point!

[quote=""Kasthu""]Some of the best new releases I read this year (listed in the order I read them) include:

...
Company of Liars, by Karen Maitland
[/quote]

I totally forgot about Maitland! A rather bad oversight on my part. Company of Liars definitely should be on my list.