The Books of 2009
I read a lot in 2009, what with the not having a full time job and not going to school. For the first half of the year I had a newborn and it was nice and sweet to read to him as he nursed or hold him while he slept and read for awhile with a book in my lap. I started keeping a list when it was January and I had already finished five or six.
Here is that list, kind of in order.
- A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace
- The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell
- Rookie Mom’s Guild
- The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby
- Northanger Abby by Jane Austen
- Persuasion by Jane Austen
- Emma by Jane Austen
- The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
- Animal Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
- The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
- America the Book by John Stewart and the Daily Show
- Celebration of Discipline (spiritual discipline, not like spanking your kid) by Richard Foster
- The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
- The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
- The Friday Night Knitting Club (sucked)
- Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
- The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
- Take the Cannoli by Sarah Vowell
- Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
- World War Z by Max Brooks
- Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
- Story of a Marriage by Andrew Sean Greer
- The Backyard Homestead
- The Yiddish Policeman’s Union by Michael Chabon
- Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
- The Mentoring Mom (sucked so much)
- Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
- The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
I feel pretty good about it. (Although now that Alton is older and sleeps much less during the day, I don't imagine my 2010 list will be quite so long.) There were only two books that I really didn't like. I finished them because I was reading them with groups—my book club and my moms group. Otherwise I would have thrown them out. Everything else I really enjoyed. Oh, I take that back. I was disappointed with The Wordy Shipmates which I was really looking forward to because I like Sarah Vowell so much. But it was only so-so.
What did you read last year that you loved or hated? Any recommendations for 2010? I've already started a list of books that I want to read this year. What is it about me and lists in January?
Here is that list, kind of in order.
- A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace
- The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell
- Rookie Mom’s Guild
- The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby
- Northanger Abby by Jane Austen
- Persuasion by Jane Austen
- Emma by Jane Austen
- The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
- Animal Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
- The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
- America the Book by John Stewart and the Daily Show
- Celebration of Discipline (spiritual discipline, not like spanking your kid) by Richard Foster
- The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
- The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
- The Friday Night Knitting Club (sucked)
- Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
- The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
- Take the Cannoli by Sarah Vowell
- Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
- World War Z by Max Brooks
- Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
- Story of a Marriage by Andrew Sean Greer
- The Backyard Homestead
- The Yiddish Policeman’s Union by Michael Chabon
- Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
- The Mentoring Mom (sucked so much)
- Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
- The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
I feel pretty good about it. (Although now that Alton is older and sleeps much less during the day, I don't imagine my 2010 list will be quite so long.) There were only two books that I really didn't like. I finished them because I was reading them with groups—my book club and my moms group. Otherwise I would have thrown them out. Everything else I really enjoyed. Oh, I take that back. I was disappointed with The Wordy Shipmates which I was really looking forward to because I like Sarah Vowell so much. But it was only so-so.
What did you read last year that you loved or hated? Any recommendations for 2010? I've already started a list of books that I want to read this year. What is it about me and lists in January?
posted by The Wifest at 10:01 PM
4 Comments:
Likewise I was megadisappointed in Wordy Shipmate. I loved World War Z-they are making a movie of it, if done right it could be so good! Sadly no good recs.
My favorite from my list last year was Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier.
I've read some of those! :) And some of those I want to read. Mostly agree on Friday Night Knitting Club. Far short of exceptional, though apparently I gave it a more positive review on Amazon than I remembered (guilt at bashing a fellow writer, perhaps?)
At any rate, you've led me to the happy calculation that I actually read 29 books last year (at least that I recorded on Goodreads). For me, that's quite good. Heavy representation of Dorothy Sayers (10), Lauren Willig (4) and Alexander McCall Smith (3) in that list, but with Chesterton's Man Who Was Thursday and Stephen Carter's New England White as bookends. Not bad, for a recovering reader.
I miss your writing. Please more blogging. Please please please.
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