Books read in 2008

No, this year wasn't any more productive than last year as far as blog posting goes. Anyway here are the books that I read last year, (re-reads are marked with an R):

Fantasy
Harry Potter: Books 5-7 (J.K. Rowling) - very good
Elric [Fantasy masterworks #17] (Michael Moorcock) - good

A Game of Thrones (George R.R. Martin) - excellent
A Clash of Kings (George R.R. Martin) - excellent
A Storm of Swords, 1: Steel and Snow (George R.R. Martin) - excellent

Science fiction
The Chrysalids (John Wyndham) (R) - good

Crime
The Maltese Falcon (Dashiell Hammett) - good
The Interpretation of Murder (Jed Rubenfeld) - quite good

Thriller
Night of Error (Desmond Bagley) (R) - entertaining
Archangel (Robert Harris) - quite good
Stalin's Ghost (Martin Cruz Smith) - ok

Historical
Roma (Steven Saylor) - pre-imperial ancient Rome, not bad.
Sharpe's Fortress (Bernard Cornwell) - entertaining

General
The White Tiger (Aravind Adiga) - not bad, but not sure it was worth the Booker prize.
The Book Thief (Markus Zusak) - good characters, but very strangely written. About 250 pages too long and mawkishly sentimental. Overall poor.
The Time Traveler's Wife (Audrey Niffenegger) - quite good. I liked the first half more than the second half.
Suite Française (Irène Némirovsky) - good, but not as great as the hype might suggest.

Non-fiction
Three Cups of Tea (Greg Mortenson, David Relin) - inspiring story, but poorly written.
Joel on Software (Joel Spolsky) - amusing book on managing software development.