Dear Bookish Friends,

I’m going to take a little blog break to enjoy the Christmas season with family and friends. I hope your holiday is filled with good times (and good books too!). I wish you health, happiness and love in 2008!

I’ll try to pop in here and there around the blogosphere and I’ll be back posting soon after the New Year.

Con cariño,
iliana

Don’t you love those Best of the Year lists? I love reading them and adding to my TBR list. I know there are still some days left and that all time favorite could be waiting for me next, but I’ll go ahead and share some of my favorites reads of the year.

Fiction
The Girls by Lori Lansens
The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengestu
Astrid & Veronika by Linda Olsson
Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky
Jane and Prudence by Barbara Pym
The Hummingbird’s Daughter by Luis Alberto Urrea
Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Wilson
Evening by Susan Minot

YA
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Mystery
Except the Dying by Maureen Jennings
Consequences of Sin by Clare Langley-Hawthorne
Raven Black by Ann Cleeves
Sacred Cows by Karen E. Olson
Deadly Advice by Roberta Isleib

Non-Fiction
Girls of Tender Age by Mary-Ann Tirone Smith
Love is a Mixed Tape by Rob Sheffield

I’ve had a great reading year and enjoyed so many books. I feel bad about leaving some out and I know as soon as I post this I’ll regret not adding some others, but I’ll stick with this list.

It’s almost the end of the year and I am going to throw in the towel on two challenges. Back on the bookshelves go Don Quixote and the rest of the books I was reading for the Armchair Travel Challenge. Oh this is sad.

I really enjoyed Don Quixote until I got towards the end of the first part – I actually did finish the first part of Don Quixote but it was a struggle to get through it. This is actually my second attempt and at least I made it through the first part so perhaps on my third attempt I’ll finish it all!

Anyway a big thanks go to Dorothy W. who organized the Tilting at Windmills blog. It was great fun to read the posts. Also big thanks go to Lesley who hosted the Armchair Travel Challenge.

Of course now what do I do but join more challenges. I participated in nine challenges this year and only completed two so you would think that with that track record I wouldn’t join others but to me these are fun. I enjoy “meeting” other bookworms, the excitement generated over books, and as I always read books from my shelves (Graphics Challenge aside) this is a great way to remember those shelf-sitters and work through my stacks. So without further ado, here are the two other challenges I’m joining:

Becky’s 19th Century Women Writers Challenge. This year I only read one classic so hopefully with this challenge I’ll make a bit more effort and read some books I’ve been wanting to read for a long time. Here are my six choices:

• Sense & Sensibility by Jane Austen
• Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
• The Awakening by Kate Chopin
• The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
• Lady Audley’s Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
• Elizabeth & Her German Garden by Elizabeth Von Arnim

Joy’s First in a Series Challenge. I’m a big fan of mysteries, and as I always start with the first one in the series this challenge should be a snap (I hope so at least!). Here are my 12 choices:

• A Thousand Bones by P.J. Parrish
• A Corpse in the Koryo by James Church
• The Shape of Water by Andrea Camilleri
• Death of a Red Heroine by Qiu Xiaolong
• The Blind Man of Seville by Robert Wilson
• What Angels Fear by C.S. Harris
• This Dame for Hire by Sandra Scoppettone
• Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison
• The Last Kashmiri Rose by Barbara Cleverly
• Quieter Than Sleep by Joanne Dobson
• Detective Inspector Huss by Helene Tursten
• A Great Deliverance by Elizabeth George

Some of the choices may overlap with other challenges or book groups and I may switch out a title here or there but that’s it for now. And, I’m going to keep my fingers crossed that no new tempting challenges come up (like that’s going to happen – hee).