The year in review.
Well, in book review.
I’m happy, and somewhat relieved, to say that I achieved my goal of reading 50 books. I even went that extra mile and read 54. (Three of which I discovered while doing all the links for this post- I need to do a better job of keeping up my list!) It’s possible I would have gotten to 55 today, but the book I started didn’t suck me in. Boo.
I thought about doing a decade in review, but I didn’t start keeping track of what I was reading until 2003, so I’ll put that off until 2013. Ha!
Some stats for this year:
I read 31 fiction and 23 non-fiction, which I was impressed by until I looked at last year’s numbers and saw that they were almost exactly the same. And interestingly, looking back over the years (which I said I wasn’t going to do, but so what) I’ve averaged right around 22 non-fiction books a year, even if the fiction books have rocketed into the 90s. It’s like I max out.
Only 2 books were rereads.
17 books came from the library
15 were bought in paperback or hardback
9 were bought on the Haunted Kindle
8 were free on the Haunted Kindle
5 were books I already owned, or was given as gifts
Most exceeded expectation: Listening below the noise: A Meditation on the practice of Silence – Anne D. LeClaire
Most failed expectation: Resurrection Club – Christopher Wallace
Here’s the list of this year’s reads, with my favorites bolded. If you want to read my original review, just click on the title. (If the title and the author are linked separately, it’s because I wrote about the book 2 times. You know, should you want to read my multiple thoughts. And if there’s no link, it’s because I’d forgotten I’d read it until just now.)
The Monsters of Templeton- Lauren Groff
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn – Betsy Smith
Frankly My Dear, I’m Dead- Livia J. Washburn
Jesus the Christ- James E. Talmage
Six word memoirs on Love and Heartbreak by writers famous and obscure- ed. Smith Magazine
Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child- Marc Weissbluth
The clutter Diet – Lorie Marrero
Mr Fooster traveling on a whim – Tom Corwin and Craig Frazier
Playful Parenting- Lawrence J. Cohen
Ms. Hempel Chronicles – Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum
Istanbul Noir
Why New Orleans Matters- Tom Piazza
AAP Guide to Toilet Training – Mark L Wolraich
Listening below the noise: A Meditation on the practice of Silence – Anne D. LeClaire
Decline and Fall- Evelyn Waugh
Resurrection Club – Christopher Wallace
Still She Haunts Me- Katie Roiphe
You Can’t Keep a Good Woman Down- Alice Walker
Pandora in the Congo- Albert Sanchez Pinol
The Manual of Detection- Jedediah Berry
The Voyage Out- Virginia Woolf
The Snows of Kilamanjaro- Ernest Hemingway
Book of Mormon
Lectures on Faith- Joseph Smith
Suffering is Optional- Cheri Huber
The Creative Family by Amanda Soule
The Salvage Studio Amy Duncan and all
In Praise of Slowness- Carl Honore
What the Scriptures teach us about raising a child – S. Michael Wilcox
My Life in France- Julia Child
Gourmet Rhapsody- Muriel Barbery
The Ghost Stories of Muriel Spark- Muriel Spark
The Promise of Enough – Emily Freeman
Help! My apartment has a Kitchen Cookbook – Kevin Mills and Nancy Mills
Amish Peace – Suzanne Woods Fisher
To Kill A Mockingbird- Harper Lee
100 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum – Cathy Duffy
The White Garden – Stephanie Barron
Confessions of Arsene Lupin – Maruice LeBlanc
A Christmas Carol- Charles Dickens
Sum: 40 Tales from the Afterlives– David Eagleman
The Housekeeper and the Professor- Yoko Ogawa
Oscar Wilde and the Dead Man’s Smile- Gyles Brandreth
The Blonde Lady – Maurice LeBlanc
The Club of Queer Trades- GK Chesterton
The Importance of Being Ernest- Oscar Wilde
The Power of Less- Leo Babauta
Death on A Midsummer Night- Kerry Greenwood
And that’s it for this year. I achieved (or got close to) most of my book related goals; there were a couple that fell completely by the wayside, but aren’t there always?
Anyway, for anyone still reading, what was your favorite book this year?
First things first, I HEART the new lay out! Very delicate and pretty, like my Maryanne…
My favorite book of 2009? Hmm…I’m gonna say it’s a tie between New York by Edward Rutherford and The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. Oh, and my prayer book trilogy, The Divine Hours by Phyllis Tickle was my biggest find this year. A good year.
Quite an ambitious list; I’m impressed. Thanks for reading our book, The 25 Best Time Management Tools & Techniques.
I’ve added a few you read to my list for this year. Wish I was a fast reader, but such is life.
Happy reading in 2010.
Pam
Thanks for reading our book in 2009! And for the nice review…I am one of the ‘bunch of other people’ who co-authored the book…
And A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is still one of my top 5 favorite books of all time…
Lisa Hilderbrand, Salvage Studio