TOP 25 FAVORITE BOOKS READ IN 2009

Happy New Year 2010!

I did not intend to take an entire nine days off from blogging but the holidays were just too much fun this year. Parties, family, cooking, even some reading, plus a two day trip to Temecula, CA for wine tasting with girlfriends.

Sadly, I read less books this year than I have in recent years. Because of my mom's stroke last January 3rd and her eventual passing on April 12th, I got way behind at the beginning of the year. Despite my best efforts to catch up, I still only read 120 books in 2009. (My highest year ever was 2006 with 141.)

But...it was a banner reading year anyway because while I usually choose 20 favorite books, this year I could not get the favorites to less than 25. I don't care what the doomsters say about the death of reading and publishing and all that. There are enough good books out there to keep me happy for the rest of my life and more stellar new books came out this year than I could believe possible.

Each year, I keep a running list of books that sound interesting as I hear about them, which usually adds up to about 100 titles. This year my list went to 147! I am sure a change is coming with e-readers, etc, but we love stories and in some form or other they will be there for us.

THE LIST:

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz (Pulitzer in 2008)
Child 44, Tom Rob Smith
Darwin's Radio, Greg Bear
Desert, J M G LeClezio (Nobel Prize for Literature in 2008)
The Enchantress of Florence, Salman Rushdie
The Feast of Love, Charles Baxter
The Fountain Overflows, Rebecca West
The Geometry of God, Uzma Alsam Khan
The Golden Compass, Philip Pullman
Her Fearful Symmetry, Audrey Niffenegger
The Lacuna, Barbara Kingsolver
Love Invents Us, Amy Bloom
The Magicians, Lev Grossman
Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman
Out Stealing Horses, Per Petterson
The Plague of Doves, Louise Erdrich
The Quiet Girl, Peter Hoeg
The Reader, Bernard Schlink
The Story of the Amulet, E Nesbit
Sunnyside, Glen David Gold
Til We Have Faces, C S Lewis
What I Loved, Siri Hustvedt
Will You Take Me As I Am, Joni Mitchell's Blue Period, Michelle Mercer
Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel (Booker Prize, 2009)
The Year of the Flood, Margaret Atwood

Most of these books have been reviewed on this blog or at BookBrowse. All are available either on the shelves or by special order at Once Upon A Time Bookstore.

I urge, invite and beg you to post your opinions on my list or your lists of favorites. Happy reading in 2010 and keep the wisdom!