Here are the books I read in December:
- The Baby on the Car Roof and 222 More Urban Legends by Thomas J. Craughwell
- Not as interesting or as entertaining as I hoped. A pale shadow of the Brunvand books, or of snopes.com for that matter.
- The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
- This was one of those books where I could have used an unabridged dictionary and a Latin phrase book by my side while reading it. But at least now I know what glycyrrhiza is and what it's used for, and how to cicatrize eczemas (and, for that matter, what cicatrization is). But I have a particular fondness for works of fiction set against a ecclesiastical backdrop, so I enjoyed this novel.
- Be Careful Who You Love: Inside the Michael Jackson Case by Diane Dimond
- I remember when this book came out in 2005, and saw it on the shelves at the store fairly frequently, and then picked up a remaindered copy for a buck late last year, but it was only after I started reading it that I realized that the title is taken from the song "Billie Jean." A real pop culture savant, I am.
- Degree of Guilt by Richard North Patterson
- Well-crafted legal thriller.
And for reference purposes, here's the complete list of all the books I read in 2007. Books in large text are ones I particularly enjoyed; books in small text I thought were unusually stinky:
- Rules of Prey by John Sandford
- Guilt by John Lescroart
- You Suck by Christopher Moore
- Lord Darcy by Randall Garrett
- California Demon by Julie Kenner
- The Littlest Hitler by Ryan Boudinot
- All Mortal Flesh by Julia Spencer-Fleming
- James K. Polk by John Siebenthaler
- 99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style by Matt Madden
- Pictures of Adam by Myron Levoy
- Natural Born Charmer by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
- The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama
- The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron
- Rumpole and the Reign of Terror by John Mortimer
- The Alexandria Link by Steve Berry
- Storm Over Texas: The Annexation Crisis and the Road to Civil War by Joel H. Silbey
- The Watchman by Robert Crais
- The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz
- Tyrannosaur Canyon by Douglas Preston
- 1632 by Eric Flint
- The Thieves of Heaven by Richard Doetsch
- Cinderella: Inside the Rise of Mid-Major College Basketball by Michael Litos
- Bobbie Faye's Very (very, very, very) Bad Day by Toni McGee Causey
- Land of Mist and Snow by Debra Doyle and James Macdonald
- Burn the Town and Sack the Banks: Confederates Attack Vermont! by Cathryn J. Prince
- Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry
- Drama! The Four Dorothys by Paul Ruditis
- Vinnie's Head by Marc Lecard
- Dreaming in Code: Two Dozen Programmers, Three Years, 4,732 Bugs, and One Quest for Transcendent Software by Scott Rosenberg
- Acceptance by Susan Coll
- Altruistic Armadillos, Zenlike Zebras: A Menagerie of 100 Favorite Animals by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson
- The Remarkable Millard Fillmore: The Unbelievable Life of a Forgotten President by George Pendle
- One True Thing by Anna Quindlen
- Last Harvest: How a Cornfield Became New Daleville: Real Estate Development in America from George Washington to the Builders of the Twenty-first Century, and Why We Live in Houses Anyway by Witold Rybczynski
- If I Am Missing or Dead: A Sister's Story of Love, Murder, and Liberation by Janine Latus
- Boomsday by Christopher Buckley
- The Plain Janes by Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg
- A Killing in Comics by Max Allan Collins
- Can I Keep My Jersey? 11 Teams, 5 Countries, and 4 Years in My Life as a Basketball Vagabond by Paul Shirley
- One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Wedding by Rebecca Mead
- Agents of Atlas by Jeff Parker and Leonard Kirk
- The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon
- The Thumpin': How Rahm Emanuel and the Democrats Learned to Be Ruthless and Ended the Republican Revolution by Naftali Bendavid
- The Annotated Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen with annotations by David M. Shapard
- Christopher's Ghosts by Charles McCarry
- The Assault on Reason by Al Gore
- Bloom by Elizabeth Scott
- Bridge to Terabithia: The Official Movie Companion by David Paterson
- Re-Gifters by Mike Carey, Sonny Liew, and Marc Hempel
- ...and His Lovely Wife: A Memoir from the Woman Beside the Man, on love, marriage, and life on the campaign trail by Connie Schultz
- The Lost Constitution by William Martin
- Land of Lincoln: Adventures in Abe’s America by Andrew Ferguson
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling
- Doctor Strange: The Oath by Brian K. Vaughn and Marcos Martin
- Whiskey Sour by J. A. Konrath
- Off Center: The Republican Revolution and the Erosion of American Democracy by Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson
- King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard
- The Golden Dream of Carlo Chuchio by Lloyd Alexander
- Will the Vampire People Please Leave the Lobby? True Adventures in Internet Geekdom by Allyson Beatrice
- My Freshman Year: What a Professor Learned by Becoming a Student by Rebekah Nathan
- Power Play by Joseph Finder
- Once Upon a Quinceañera: Coming of Age in the USA by Julia Alvarez
- Love, Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
- Reasonable Doubt by Philip Friedman
- Aftermath, Inc.: Cleaning Up After CSI Goes Home by Gil Reavill
- An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England by Brock Clarke
- How to Conquer the New York Times Crossword Puzzle: Tips, Tricks and Techniques to Master America's Favorite Puzzle by Amy Reynaldo
- God’s Harvard: A Christian College on a Mission to Save America by Hanna Rosin
- Outside In by Courtney Thorne-Smith
- The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible by A. J. Jacobs
- Deadline by Chris Crutcher
- Eternals by Neil Gaiman and John Romita Jr.
- Confessions of a Blabbermouth by Mike & Louise Carey and Aaron Alexovich
- The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta
- Critical Condition by Stephen White
- Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell
- Drop Shot by Harlen Coben
- I Killed Adolf Hitler by Jason
- A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
- The Collectors by David Baldacci
- Stigma by Philip Hawley, Jr.
- Shazam! The Monster Society of Evil by Jeff Smith
- Two Dollar Bill by Stuart Woods
- In the Shadow of the Arch by Robert J. Randisi
- Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko
- The Baby on the Car Roof and 222 More Urban Legends by Thomas J. Craughwell
- The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
- Be Careful Who You Love: Inside the Michael Jackson Case by Diane Dimond
- Degree of Guilt by Richard North Patterson