Recently I asked many friends, both online and off, to recommend one book they had read in the past year. In fact here is exactly what I asked:

hello friends!
I have a request for you… If you could recommend (to me or to anyone else) one book that you read in the past year (loosely defined, doesn’t have to be exactly within the ‘08 time span) then what would it be? Who is it by? And why would you recommend it? (The why can be as short or as long as you like. It could even be one word, if you don’t want to write much.)

Linked here for your perusal and enjoyment is the result of everyone’s combined efforts.

Friends, thank you so much for playing the book game along with me!  If you would like to add a book to the list linked above, do fill out this simple form!

P.S. Rajeev Alexander gets the prize (so far) for longest, most thorough review. Thank you, R! :-)