My Favorite Books of 2009

By request, I'm highlighting my "Top 20" of the 81 books I read in 2009. The only order of the books below is chronological. More recent reads are on top. These books were more interesting than the rest but from the original 81, I'd recommend them all. Generally, I tried not to waste my time on boring books. The one exception was The Christmas Bus which I got for free on my Kindle and kept reading for sentimental reasons during the holidays even though I wasn't really into it.

Best Non-Fiction: Guests of the Ayatollah, by Mark Bowden
Best Fiction: The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak

• The Thirteenth Tale, by Diane Setterfield
• Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen
• Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe
• World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, by Max Brooks
• Year of Wonders, by Geraldine Brooks
• Interred with their Bones, by Jennifer Lee Carrell
• The Help, by Kathryn Stockett
• When You Are Engulfed in Flames, by David Sedaris
• Liars and Saints, by Maile Meloy
• The Virgin Blue, by Tracy Chevalier
• The Places in Between, by Rory Stewart
• Food Matters, by Mark Bittman
• The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak
• Band of Sisters,by Kirsten Holmstedt
• A Reliable Wife, by Robert Goolrick
• American Wife, by Curtis Sittenfeld
• Kabul Beauty School, by Deborah Rodriguez
• Remembrance of Things Paris : Sixty Years of Writing from Gourmet, by Ruth Reichl
• Guests of the Ayatollah, by Mark Bowden
• Unaccustomed Earth, by Jhumpa Lahiri

50 Books in 2009

NOTE: The comment was a good point. My top 20 books are coming tomorrow.

I've not only completed my resolution for New Year's 2009, I've exceeded it - by 31 books! Since I'm going to eliminate the side bar to make room for my 2010 resolution I wanted to keep the list as a posting for memory's sake.

• 81. Shakespeare's Trollop, by Charlaine Harris
• 80. Shakespeare's Christmas, by Charlaine Harris
• 79. Shakespeare's Champion, by Charlaine Harris
• 78. Shakespeare's Landlord, by Charlaine Harris
• 77. The Interruption of Everything, by Terry McMillan
• 76. The Thirteenth Tale, by Diane Setterfield
• 75. Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen
• 74. The Christmas Bus, by Melody Carlson
• 73. Fireflies in December, by Jennifer Erin Valent
• 72. Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe
• 71. Ambivalence: Adventures in Israel and Palestine, by Jonathan Garfinkel
• 70. Posh, by Lucy Jackson
• 69. Grave Secret, by Charlaine Harris
• 68. Commencement, by J. Courtney Sullivan
• 67. An Ice Cold Grave, by Charlaine Harris
• 66. Grave Surprise, by Charlaine Harris
• 65. Grave Sight, by Charlaine Harris
• 64. The French Mistress, by Susan Holloway Scott
• 63. Keeping Faith, by Jodi Picoult
• 62. Duchess, by Susan Holloway Scott
• 61. The Heretic Queen, by Michelle Moran
• 60. Nefertiti, by Michelle Moran
• 59. Cleopatra's Daughter, by Michelle Moran
• 58. The Speckled Monster, by Jennifer Lee Carrell
• 57. An Echo in the Bone, by Diana Gabaldon
• 56. Kabul in Winter, by Ann Jones
• 55. World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, by Max Brooks
• 54. The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger
• 53. When Will There Be Good News, by Kate Atkinson
• 52. One Good Turn, by Kate Atkinson
• 51. The White Queen, by Philippa Gregory
• 50. Case Histories, by Kate Atkinson
• 49. Year of Wonders, by Geraldine Brooks
• 48. Interred with their Bones, by Jennifer Lee Carrell
• 47. The Dowry Bride, by Shobhan Bantwal
• 46. The Help, by Kathryn Stockett
• 45. Best Friends Forever, by Jennifer Weiner
• 44. South of Broad, by Pat Conroy
• 43. When You Are Engulfed in Flames, by David Sedaris
• 42. Liars and Saints, by Maile Meloy
• 41. The Virgin Blue, by Tracy Chevalier
• 40. The Places in Between, by Rory Stewart
• 39. Food Matters, by Mark Bittman
• 30-38. Southern Vampire Mystery series (Sookie Stackhouse), by Charlaine Harris
• 29. Revolutionary Road, by Richard Yates
• 28. The Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell
• 27. National Geographic Guide to the National Parks of the United States, by National Geographic
• 26. The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak
• 25. Band of Sisters,by Kirsten Holmstedt
• 24. Baking, by Dorie Greenspan
• 23. A Reliable Wife, by Robert Goolrick
• 22. My Horizontal Life, by Chelsea Handler
• 21. The Feast of Roses, by Indu Sundaresan
• 20. Breaking Dawn, by Stephanie Meyer
• 19. Eclipse, by Stephanie Meyer
• 18. New Moon, by Stephanie Meyer
• 17. American Wife, by Curtis Sittenfeld
• 16. Twilight, by Stephanie Meyer
• 15. Kabul Beauty School, by Deborah Rodriguez
• 14. The Twentieth Wife, by Indu Sundaresan
• 13. Enchantment: The Life of Audrey Hepburn, by Donald Spoto
• 12. Remembrance of Things Paris : Sixty Years of Writing from Gourmet, by Ruth Reichl
• 11. The Digital Photography Book, by Scott Kelby
• 10. Shopaholic & Baby, by Sophie Kinsella
• 9. Bait and Switch : The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream, by Barbara Ehrenreich
• 8. The Last Wife of Henry VIII, by Carolly Erickson
• 7. In Defense of Food, by Michael Pollan
• 6. Guests of the Ayatollah, by Mark Bowden
• 5. Change of Heart, by Jodi Picoult
• 4. Song of Hannah, by Eva Etzioni-Halevy
• 3. The Triumph of Deborah, by Eva Etzioni-Halevy
• 2. Unaccustomed Earth, by Jhumpa Lahiri
• 1. The Partly-Cloudy Patriot, by Sarah Vowell

It's Banned Books Week!

The last week of September is Banned Book Week and to celebrate, I'm pulling out my old, worn-out copy of 'A Wrinkle in Time'. There are other books on there that I should revisit or read for the first time but I'm in the middle of another book and would prefer a shorter break

'A Wrinkle in Time' is an old favorite, a children's book, and will be a quick read. It's the story of Meg Murray, her friend Calvin, and her brother Charles Wallace. The group comes together to rescue Meg and Charles Wallace's father from the IT in the fifth dimension. The book is banned due to the "religious implications" behind the story's take on science, spirituality, and the supernatural.

This list of 50 banned books that everyone should read contains some works of great literature. Maybe those 50 will be my New Year's resolution for 2010! Wikipedia has a more complete list here.

The American Library Association has more information about Banned Books Week on their website here.

Books 48, 49, and 50

If you've been paying attention, you'd notice that I've completed my New Year's resolution of reading 50 books in 2009. Yay! This is probably one of the most enjoyable resolutions I could've made and it should be no surprise that I've already made it to number 56 and plan to keep going.

The official 50th book was 'Case Histories', by Kate Atkinson. 'Case Histories' is the first of what is currently a three-book mystery series 'starring' private detective Jackson Brodie. While the Sookie Stackhouse series would be my first pick for 'most entertaining series of the year', this set is a close second.

Based on the recommendation of a friend, I also rounded out the last few with 'Interred With Their Bones', a sort of literary/Shakespeare version of the DaVinci Code. While that may be a turn-off for some, I should definitely assure you that Jennifer Lee Carrell is a MUCH better writer than Dan Brown. I'm saving her first book, 'The Speckled Monster', on the Kindle for my next plane trip.

'Year of Wonders' is probably one of my favorites though and I have Geraldine Brooks to thank for that. A fictional account of the 17th century plague that attacked an English village, the story of 18-year-old Anna Frith is compelling.

One last note, I purchased Pat Conroy's latest book 'South of Broad' and was really excited to read it. 'The Water is Wide' was one of my high school English assignments and I fell in love with the author's depictions of southern life and drama in both that book and in the 'Prince of Tides'. I was really disappointed by 'South of Broad'. Set in Charleston and spanning the youth through adulthood of a group of friends, I felt like the story was so....generic. It was still an ok read (and probably perfect for summer on the beach) but it was definitely a let-down compared to Conroy's other works.

Books #39 and #40

The Sookie Stackhouse/Southern Vampire Mystery series made a great summer distraction to take me through July. Like caramel popcorn, delicious and easy to get though. It made it a little harder to focus on less shallow books right afterwards but luckily the next two that followed were quick and good reads.

39. Food Matters. Mark Bittman writes for the New York Times and is the author of my favorite cookbook, 'How to Cook Everything'. 'Food Matters' is similar to the Michael Pollen books out now about sustainable and healthy eating and Bittman includes a host of delicious recipes in the back. There are some new ways to cook quinoa and beans which I found pretty useful and prompted me to go through some of the bags of dried beans and grains bought long ago. Inspired by a friend's facebook status, I'm actually using a Bittman technique to cook dried black beans for the first time today...to be used in tonight's black bean chipotle enchiladas.

40. The Places in Between. A Scot walks through Afghanistan right after the 2001 invasion. The story is compelling and particularly relevent to me - it's the first Afghan-centric book I've read since my assignment to Kabul. I'm not going to lie, some parts were a little nerve-wracking since I put a bit too much empathy into his predicaments but I just had to keep reminding myself that my travels will NOT be on foot from Herat to Kabul. The excavation and sale of thousands of precious artifacts from the Silk Road were almost as heart-breaking to read about as the bleak lives of some (though not all) of the villages that Stewart interacted with. I kept going back to an Afghan picture/travel book to cross-reference stops like the Minaret of Jam and the Buddhas of Bamiyan, dynamited by the Taliban in 1999. In a 30 day walk, Stewart runs into a diverse population of Afghanis and paints fascinating descriptions of the differences between the various villages and tribes. This was just one man's view but it was an entertaining introduction to Afghanistan that I look forward to following up on.

50 Books in 2009, an update

I've hit the halfway mark! Both the Kindle and the Twilight series were large factors in keeping my reading interest high when work was trying to get the best of me. The teen-lit vampire series was strangely addicting, though not particularly well-written and full of the WRONG kind of messages for teenage girls. Girls, being controlled by your boyfriend =/= love. Still, it was light and quick.

However, I have two clear-cut favors so far. In the non-fiction categories, 'Guests of the Ayatollah' by Mark Bowden wins out. It was a really interesting and vivid portrayal of the Iran embassy hostage crisis. While it was a long book, it was pretty engrossing. Points to Bowden for making sense of the acronyms from so many different branches of the USG.

For fiction, I loved loved loved Jhumpi Lahiri's 'An Unaccustomed Earth'! This collection of short stories follows several different Bengali characters as they search and struggle to find their places in the world. It was a gorgeous book and I would recommend it along with all of Lahiri's other books.

25 more to go!