2009 Books Read and Reviewed

For those of you who are faithful readers of both my blogs, I apologize for this duplicate post. But some of you may not know that I carry on another life on my reading blog, SmallWorld Reads. And today I finished a most satisfying task: compiling my list of my Top 10 Favorite Books of the year. Click that link to go to my reading blog, or read on below. I hope you add some of my favorites to your own TBR lists, if you haven't read them already!

I read 65 books in 2009, including 20 children's or young adult chapter books (I didn't include history books, picture books, etc.) that I either read to my kids or taught in various co-op classes.

It was a good year for reading, although I was often frustrated with myself for failing to read faster. I fell asleep too frequently during my allotted before-bed reading time. Someday I will again be a person who reads during the day, but for this season of my life, I must be content with my bedtime reading.

And so, out of those 45 "adult" books read, here are my favorites:

The Top 10

Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
Cutting for Stone (Abraham Verghese)
Day After Night (Anita Diamant)
Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (Shaffer and Barrows)
Other Side of the Bridge, The (Mary Lawson)
People of the Book (Geraldine Brooks)
Road, The (Cormac McCarthy)
Sarah's Key (Tatiana de Rosnay)
Skeletons at the Feast (Chris Bohjalian)
Prayers for Sale (Sandra Dallas)

It was hard for me to narrow this down. I had about eight other contenders for the Top 10 list, but I'm sticking with the list above. These are books that are especially memorable to me. They were well-written, poignant, and captured my attention and imagination more than the others.

And for my number one favorite novel of the year: Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. Part of the draw for me is the "sweeping epic" aspect of this novel. I love "sweeping epics" that span generations. A book like this gives me that sense of closure. Nearly all my questions as a reader were answered; the prose was perfect; and I felt truly satisfied upon finishing the novel.

Below are my two lists. Click on the titles for my reviews of nearly all these books. (A few of the children's books didn't get reviewed.) If the book as one or two asterisks** by the title, I can't really recommend it with any sort of enthusiasm.

The Whole List of Books Read in 2009

• All Good Gifts (Kathleen Morgan)*
• Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (Dai Sijie)****
• Bonesetter's Daughter (Amy Tan)****
• Bookseller of Kabul (Asne Seierstad)***
• Breaking Dawn (Stephanie Meyer)***
• Buster Midnight's Cafe (Sandra Dallas)***
• Chocolat (Joanne Harris) **
• Conversations with a Fat Girl (Liz Palmer)****
• Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)*****
• Cowboy and Wills (Monica Holloway)***
• Cutting for Stone (Abraham Verghese)*****
• Dancing Under the Red Star (Karl Tobien)****
• Day After Night (Anita Diamant)****
• Dedication (McLaughlin and Kraus)***
• Dogs of Babel (Carolyn Parkhurst)***
• Eclipse (Stephanie Meyer)***
• Epileptic Vol. 1 (David B.)***
• Funny in Farsi (Firoozeh Dumas)****
• Girl from Yamhill (Beverly Cleary)****
• Good Earth, The (Pearl S. Buck)****
• Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (Shaffer and Barrows)*****
• Her Fearful Symmetry (Audrey Niffenegger)****
  
• House of the Spirits (Isabel Allende)***
• House on Mango Street (Sandra Cisneros)****
• Kitchen Confidential (Anthony Bourdain) *
• Lacuna, The (Barbara Kingsolver)***
• Made in the U.S.A. (Billie Letts)*
• New Moon (Stephanie Meyer)***
• New Stories from the South, 2009 (ed. JJ Packer)**
• Other Side of the Bridge, The (Mary Lawson)*****
• Outcast, The (Sadie Jones)***
• Paula (Isabel Allende)****
• People of the Book (Geraldine Brooks)****
• Persepolis 1: The Story of a Childhood (Marjane Satrapi)*****
• Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return (Marjane Satrapi)****
• Persian Pickle Club (Sandra Dallas)***
• Prayers for Sale (Sandra Dallas)****
• Raisin in the Sun vy Lorraine Hansberry****
  
• Road, The (Cormac McCarthy)*****
• Sarah's Key (Tatiana de Rosnay)*****
• Secret to True Happiness, The (Joyce Meyers)***
• Short Guide to a Happy Life (Anna Quindlen)**
• Skeletons at the Feast (Chris Bohjalian)****
• Things Fall Apart (Chinua Achebe)*****
• Tramp for the Lord (Corrie ten Boom)***

Children's Chapter & YA Books Read/Taught

Abe Lincoln Grows Up by Carl Sandburg
Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt
Bound for Oregon: by Jean van Leeuwen
Boy in the Striped Pajamas (John Boyne)
Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink
Children of the River (Linda Crew)
The Christmas Doll by Elvira Woodruff
Dear Mr. President: Abraham Lincoln--Letters from a Slave Girl (Andrea D. Pinkey)
Dragon of Trelian by Michelle Knudson
George Washington Carver: From Slave to Scientist by Geoff and Janet Benge
Little Britches by Ralph Moody
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr
Snow Treasure by Marie McSwigan
Sounder by William Armstrong
Road to Paris (Nikki Grimes) YA
Sonshine Girls: Summer Secret (Rene Morris)
Stargirl (Jerry Spinelli)
Ties That Bind, Ties That Break (Lensey Namioka)
Wright Brothers by Quentin Reynolds

And there we have a year of reading in my own Small World. I've started 2010 out with a bang, having just finished John Iriving's Late Night in Twisted River. How will the rest of the year measure up?

For more reading lists, check out Semicolon's blog beginning on Saturday, Jan. 2.