Welcome to 2010!!!
Some of you may recall that one of my goals for 2009 was to read 50 books.
In 2008 I set a goal to read 100 books and I read 32 books. I am thinking 100 books was just a little bit unrealistic for me.
So this year, 2009, I decided to be a bit more realistic and I set my goal at 50. I did better this year but didn’t quite hit the mark. I tried and read a lot of great books along the way but only made it to 40!
So today I am sharing the list of books I read in 2009 and my Top Pick for 2009.
Last year’s (2008) Top Pick was Molokai a piece of historical fiction that dealt with the leper colonies over in Hawaii. I highly recommend it.
My favorite genre of book by far is historical fiction so it is no surprise that this year’s Top Pick is also historical fiction.
This year’s top pick is Sarah’s Key. It takes place in France and tells the story of the round up of the Jews in Paris during WWI. A tragic and sad story but fascinating and well written.
I hope you’ll enjoy the list and maybe find a few new books to add to your To Read List. I’d love to hear what your top read for 2009 was.
And for my goal for 2010 – I think it will be to just read more books in 2010 than I did in 2009. I am going to make it this time!!
Leigh Anne’s 2009 Reading List
1. Slowing down to the Speed of Life – Richard Carlson
2. Benjamin Franklin – Walter Isaacson
3. Miss Julia Paints the Town – Ann Ross
4. Night – Elie Wiesel
5. The Book of Unholy Mischief – Elle Newmark
6. Knit Two – Kate Jacobs
7. Firefly Lane – Kristin Hannah
8. The Bonesetter’s Daughter – Amy Tan
9. Obsessive Genius – The Inner World of Marie Curie by Barbara Goldsmith
10. Change of Heart – Jodi Picoult
11. Entre Vous – Women’s Guide to Finding Her Inner French Girl – Debra Olliver
12. Things I Want My Daughter to Know – Alexander Stoddard
13. Reality Check – Guy Kawasaki
14. ProBlogger – Darren Rowse
15. Very Valentine – Adrianna Trigiani
16. In Defense of Food – Mark Bittman
17. Wednesday Letters – Jason F. Wright
18. The Piano Teacher – Jamie Lee
19. Moby Dick – Herman Melville
21. Nothing Like It in the World – Stephen Ambrose
21. Astrid & Veronika – Linda Olsson
22. The Birth House – Ami McKay
23. The 3 big questions for a frantic family – Patrick Lencioni
24. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas – John Boyne
25. The Zookeeper’s Wife – Diane Ackerman
26. Comfort Food – Kate Jacobs
27. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet – Jamie Ford
28. Home Safe – Elizabeth Berg
29. The Rule of Four – Ian Caldwell
30. Tea Time for the Traditionally Built – Alexander Mc Call Smith
31. Not Becoming My Mother – Ruth Reichl
32. My Antonia – Willa Cather
33. Shanghai Girls – Lisa See
34. Sarah’s Key – Tatiana de Rosnay
35. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle -David Wroblewski
36. Traveling with Pomegrantes – Sue Monk Kidd
37. Twenties Girl – Sophie Kinsella
38. Olive Kitteridge – Elizabeth Strout
39. Knit the Season -Kate Jacobs
40. The Book of Mormon
What’s your Top Pick for 2009??
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I just started Sarah’s Key (on your recommendation). My favorite read of ’09 was Tending Roses by Lisa Wingate. Happy Reading!!!
My goal was to read 52 books this year and I read 51. I did listen to several books on my Ipod, so I’m not sure if that technically counts as reading. I’d have to say my favorite book was Twilight – just kidding. :o) I think my favorite would have to be The Count of Monte Cristo. Kind of long and it took me a little while to get into it, but it was really good.
I am so glad I came across your site, because one of my goals is to even get through one book this year. I always make excuses that I am too busy with three kids, which I am, but I need to expand my knowledge. Thanks for sharing your list! I am excited to begin. Will let you know which one I chose!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Hi,
Thanks for the book list! I just finished reading South of Broad by Pat Conroy and loved it. I am starting Greg Mortenson’s new book today. Happy New Year!
I read 68 books last year and my favorite was Sarah’s Key. It is just an amazing book. Another really good book is Trudy’s Promise by Marcia Preston, she has written other books which are also good. Since you liked Sarah’s Key you will like Trudy’s Promise, I highy recommend adding that you your booklist for 2010! Happy reading! Happy New Year!
Leigh Anne,
Thanks so much for posting your book list. I value your opinion and tastes! I’d be interested to know your top 5 picks as well as those you were disappointed in. Are you familiar with Good Reads? It’s a fun place to read other’s book reports.
With all you do I’m amazed that you are able to read as much as you do. You have my vote as a very well balanced person!
Marti,
It was hard but here are my Top Five picks –
Sarah’s Key
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
Very Valentine
Knit Two (Read The Friday Night Knitting Club first)
My Antonia (Top Classic for the year)
I also loved Sarah’s Key, and we read many of the same books. I love seeing your booklist so that I can get other recommendations I may have missed, but I would really love to see your reviews of these books so that I know what ones are really a must-read. If you don’t already have that, then maybe for next year?
“The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society” is a wonderful book about real life events that took place in the islands off of England during the Second World War when the Nazi’s occupation there changed the lives of many people living there. I highly recommend the book.
As I wrote on FB, there are so many from which to choose…a favorite? Different genres for different moods and different reasons: Web of Debt by Ellen Brown when I was trying to figure out the banking debacle; The Bookseller of Kabul, The Sewing Circles of Herat by Christina Lamb and many others as I continued to be immersed in Middle East.
Two books that have stayed with me the longest perhaps are:
When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to present by Gail Collin. I’m of a certain age (almost 79), married at age 20, first child at age 21…aware of how much “women’s lib”, “The Pill” changed everything…and then abortion…AIDS. So much has changed since the 60’s that has changed women’s, men’s, families’ lives forever. Fascinating book.
The Widow’s War by Sally Gunning – historical fiction about the customs back in the day related to a widow, whose property and her rights were legally in the hands of her nearest male relative after the death of her husband. This author successfully maintained the voice of the time and the character throughout, making this a book I might even have enjoyed reading aloud. It made an impact on me especially because I was widowed at age 40, left with four teen-aged children. I can’t imagine how it might have been if all of my property and personal rights might have been assumed by my or my husband’s nearest male relative. Horrors! The Widow’s War, however, is a book I highly recommend. Even my 100 year old male friend, a voracious reader to whom I loaned the book recently, said it was a favorite of the stack he read.
My favorite read of the year was “The Gurnsey Literary and Potato Peel Society”. Currently reading Les Miserables…tough to get into but once I did..can’t put it down and has wonderful history! Don’t currently have a goal for a number of books but am definitely focusing on the classics this year.
I just finished The Help and I was sorry to see it end. I loved it. It is fiction and is about black maids working for white families in the early 60’s in Mississippi. A great Book Group choice.
A great book that I read in 2009 that I highly recommend is The Shack by William P. Young .
i read quite a few of those but as the person before me “the help” was my favorite . the hunger games and catching fire were intriguing too! on my list for 2010 is the alchemist and still alice. i love reading any good book. also as a member i had a recommendation for the continuous atonement by brad wilcox so i just started that. happy reading!
I’m definitely going to read the book you recommended about the leper colony. I’ve also got a suggestion for you that was my favorite book this year: “In the Sanctuary of Outcasts” by Neil White. Great read, and it also deals with a leper colony. Happy New Year!
I too loved Sarah’s Key..Also My Sisters Keeper was very good..I did not understand The Time Travelers Wife..
Thanks for posting this. I love finding new books to read. Are you on Goodreads? I wish you were so I could know your reviews for the books you read.
I am on Goodreads but not real good about keeping it up to date! You can be my friend on Goodreads!!
Thanks for this great list. It will come in handy when I have to suggest a book for Book Club. At your recommendation, I read Molokai. I loved it and it was my pick for Book Club this year. My favorite read from last year was The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. It’s very well written and unlike anything I’ve ever read. It is also a historical fiction, so I bet you’d enjoy it. 🙂
I read 27 books this year which I thought was pretty good! That averages out to about one every two weeks, though looking through my log I notice that in June it was more like one a week and April was only one and November I was slogging through a book that I have STILL not finished. I still have my bookmark in it and don’t think I’ll give up but I HAD to move on to more light hearted books. Plus some of my holds came up at the library and I couldn’t renew them so I just had to read them! There were so many “favorites” that it’s hard to choose just one. So from my top five I will say the favorite of those is “Made in the U.S.A.” by Billie Letts. Or “Twenties Girl” by Sophie Kinsella. Or “These Is My Words” by Nancy E. Turner. See what I mean?
Great post! I was fairly new to your blog when you posted last years list and I read so many based on your comments. Molaki was great! Just last week I said to myself, “I wonder if Leigh Anne is going to post her book reads again this year?” You made my day! Happy 2010.
Love your book list – I will definitely be reading a few of those! My favorites for the year were: The Tea Rose (Jennifer Donnelly), The Kite Runner, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle and The Host (Stephanie Meyer). Not sure the last one would be your type, but I loved it! I think you would love The Tea Rose though. That is the one I was telling you about that my sister gave to me to read that I didn’t think I would be interested in, but ended up loving it. It is set in 1888 East London and New York, about a women’s journey to overcome tragedy and lost love, and exact revenge while pursuing her dream of being the most successful tea merchant in the world.
Wow – I love hearing from so many other readers. I am a voracious reader, although I have never tracked my books as many of you have. I’m going to do that this year! I am halfway through Stephen King’s “Under The Dome”. I had given up reading him a number of years ago, as his books just got wayyyy too creepy for me. This one, though, reminds me of “The Stand”, which I loved. An end-of-the-world tale, with so many interesting characters and situations. I can’t put it down! I request lots of books through the public library, and sometimes I really have to read fast to get through them all. Many favorites in 2009 – I’d have to count “Still Alice” as one of the best. Also, The Hunger Games and Catching Fire were amazing. All of Jodi Picoult’s books are thought-provoking, and I’ve enjoyed everything she’s written. As I work in an elementary-school library and have sons in 5th & 8th grades, I’ve gotten into young adult fiction. Some GREAT ones in that genre: Rules, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Schooled, Life As We Knew It (high-school, not grade-school). So many more! I have printed Leigh Anne’s list, as we have read very few of the same books – I can’t wait to follow up on some of her picks. I will get onto Good Reads as well!
There are a surprising number of Leigh Anne’s on goodreads. Can you connect to me with this link http://www.goodreads.com/friend/i?i=LTM2MDY2NTM3NzY6MzE0
Thanks!
Margaret
The Hunger Games and Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins were two of my favorite books that I read this year. The third book of the trilogy will be out this summer and I cannot wait. I will go out and buy Sarah’s Key – I need a book to read now. I have also heard that Three Cups of Tea is a great book.
I was just going to put The Hungar games and Catching fire. I love them! I am currently reading the The Book Thief and is it good. The Road by Cormac McCarthy is worth reading too.
I love books, so this post was obviously interesting to me. I’m intrigued by your top picks from 2008 and 2009. It looks like you did pretty great for 2009! I noticed you had several Kate Jacobs books on your list. I really enjoyed all of her books! Happy reading in 2010!
Thanks for posting your list! I’ve read several on your list and have some good recommendations as well from you and the comments here. Uh, so hard to choose a favorite book- maybe just a few that stick out;
The Book Thief- READ IT! Its sooo very good and I think you’ll really like it.
I also like the Hotel on the corner of Bitter and Sweet- just finished it. It was really personal on some level for me- I grew up in N California where there was a large Japanese American population. My ex-husband’s family were sent to Tule Lake- . I really like the book and it gave me some pause.
A great mystery- The THIRTEENTH TALE- Diane Setterfield- great twists and not gory or overly brutal- good thriller.
STILL ALICE- Another Great Great book! I loved this book. I was in Europe at the time with tears running down my face in the Frankfurt airport. It is about a cognitive psych professor at Harvard who gets early onset Alzheimers- its not too deep, is a great personal journey. I absolutely loved it- especially from a Speech Pathologist point of view!
Madonnas of Leningrad- just finished this for by Book Club- it was a good book- also historical fiction. I would only say that I found myself wishing for more details!
Thanks for the blog- we really enjoy it.
You can connect with me at GoodReads by entering my email to find me – [email protected] There are a lot of Leigh Anne’s on Goodreads!!
I think I’ll probably take some of those books and put them on my “to read” list. Not that I need more books for that list … it’s already long enough that it’ll take me much longer than a year to read them all. But that’s okay. I love to get new recommendations! I am really excited to read “Sarah’s Key”. That looks like an incredible book! I posted about my reads for 2009 too – http://harwoodharbor.blogspot.com/2010/01/book-list-of-2009.html – I’m too lazy to write about it here as well. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for posting your reads for 2009. I love to read and am always looking for suggestions. Last year my goal was to read 9 new to me authors. I ended up reading 20 new to me authors and a total of 40 books. This year my goal is 10 Newberry Awards, 10 Classics and 10 Random reads. What are your favorite Classic reads – got to get my list going?
As a few people have already mentioned, my favorite reads of the year were “The Help” and “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society”. Both are historical fiction and fascinating in so many ways. I also really loved the non-fiction “Freakonomics” (but didn’t enjoy the sequel Superfreakonomics as much).
Thanks for the book list. For Christmas I copied the list of books you posted earlier this year and gave it to my family for gift ideas. I ended up receiving 10 books off the list from 3 different people and none were duplicates. It’s been a challenge every day to get my work done first then make time to read… I want to reverse it! So far I’ve read Distant Shores, Sarah’s Key, and I finished The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society at 1:38 a.m. last night. I’ll have to take a break today or my eyes will never forgive me.
Wow! Tons of new books to read!!!
My favorite books from 2009 were:
Three Cups of Tea – Greg Mortenson
Jane Eyre (always a good one!) – Charlotte Bronte
Enchanted – Orson Scott Card
You’ve got to add Undaunted by Gerald Lund to your 2010 list. It’s fantastic!
Happy Birthday too! SO excited for your trip! You deserve it!
Wow! Quite a list! I am Googling the descriptions of many of them now! Thank you!