It’s that time again

Time for book recommendations. I’ve worked my way through all of the recommendations I got from you all in September (and those I haven’t read yet are in my book queue at the library).  Since January 1, I have read:

Title; Author; (Date Read)

  1. Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space; Sagan, Carl; (1/12/2009)
  2. Interpreter of Maladies; Lahiri, Jhumpa; (1/16/2009)
  3. Such a Pretty Fat: One Narcissist’s Quest to Discover if Her Life Makes Her Ass Look Big, or Why Pie is Not the Answer; Lancaster, Jen; (1/18/2009)
  4. The Fifth Elephant; Pratchett, Terry; (1/18/2009)
  5. Dead Watch; Sanford, John; (1/19/2009)
  6. The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl; Reid, Shauna; (2/6/2009)
  7. The Meaning of Liff; Adams, Douglas; (2/7/2009)
  8. Twilight; Meyer, Stephenie; (2/26/2009)
  9. Infinite Jest: A Novel; Wallace, David Foster; (3/4/2009)
  10. Breaking Dawn; Meyer, Stephenie; (3/5/2009)
  11. New Moon; Meyer, Stephenie; (3/5/2009)
  12. Eclipse; Meyer, Stephenie; (3/5/2009)
  13. Crazy Aunt Purl’s Drunk, Divorced, and Covered in Cat Hair: The True-Life Misadventures of a 30-Something Who Learned to Knit After He Split; Perry, Laurie; (3/8/2009)
  14. After Dark; Murakami, Haruki; (3/11/2009)
  15. Unaccustomed Earth; Lahiri, Jhumpa; (3/11/2009)
  16. Bright Lights, Big Ass: A Self-Indulgent, Surly, Ex-Sorority Girl’s Guide to Why it Often Sucks in the City, or Who are These Idiots and Why Do They All Live Next Door to Me?; Lancaster, Jen; (3/17/2009)
  17. The Namesake; Lahiri, Jhumpa; (3/21/2009)
  18. We Are Still Married; Keillor, Garrison; (3/22/2009)
  19. Atomised; Houellebecq, Michel; (4/8/2009)
  20. Jingo (Discworld, #21); Pratchett, Terry; (4/9/2009)
  21. Vampire Stories from the American South; Schimel, Lawrence; (4/14/2009)
  22. The Selfish Gene; Dawkins, Richard; (4/20/2009)
  23. Dreams from my Father; Obama, Barack; (4/22/2009)
  24. Special Topics in Calamity Physics; Pessl, Marisha; (4/29/2009)
  25. The Curious Gardener’s Almanac: Centuries of Practical Garden Wisdom; Edworthy, Niall; (7/8/2009)
  26. B is for Beer; Robbins, Tom; (7/19/2009)
  27. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven; Alexie, Sherman; (7/28/2009)
  28. Cryptonomicon; Stephenson, Neal; (9/7/2009)
  29. Go Ask Alice; Anonymous; (9/20/2009)
  30. Are You There Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea; Handler, Chelsea; (10/2/2009)
  31. A Disobedient Girl: A Novel; Freeman, Ru; (10/3/2009)
  32. A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail; Bryson, Bill; (10/9/2009)
  33. Moon Called; Briggs, Patricia; (10/11/2009)
  34. The Stranger; Camus, Albert; (10/13/2009)
  35. Vampyres of Hollywood; Barbeau, Adrienne; (10/13/2009)
  36. Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life; Weir, Alison; (10/22/2009)
  37. Official Book Club Selection: A Memoir According to Kathy Griffin; Griffin, Kathy; (10/22/2009)
  38. Dead Until Dark; Harris, Charlaine; (10/24/2009)
  39. The Four Day Win: End Your Diet War and Achieve Thinner Peace; Beck, Martha; (10/24/2009)
  40. Her Fearful Symmetry; Niffenegger, Audrey; (10/29/2009)
  41. The hunger games; Collins, Suzanne; (11/1/2009)
  42. Blood Bound; Briggs, Patricia; (11/13/2009)
  43. Iron Kissed; Briggs, Patricia; (11/14/2009)
  44. Anathem; Stephenson, Neal; (11/20/2009)
  45. Bone Crossed; Briggs, Patricia; (11/22/2009)
  46. Uglies (#1); Westerfeld, Scott; (11/27/2009)
  47. The Idiot Girls’ Action Adventure Club; Notaro, Laurie; (11/28/2009)
  48. Pride & Prejudice & Zombies; Grahame-Smith, Seth; (12/4/2009)
  49. Queen Isabella: treachery, adultery and murder in medieval England; Weir, Alison (in process)
  50. Swan Song; McCammon, Robert (in process)
  51. A Short History of Nearly Everything; Bryson, Bill (at home)
  52. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close; Safran Foer, Jonathan (at home)
  53. The kind diet; Silverstone, Alicia (at home)
  54. Catching Fire; Collins, Suzanne (in library queue)
  55. The Big Sea; Hughes, Langston (in library queue)
  56. Boy’s Life; McCammon, Robert (in library queue)

My 10 Ten for this year (encompassing a variety of genres):

Title; Author; (Date Read)

  1. Special Topics in Calamity Physics; Pessl, Marisha; (4/29/2009) – I really enjoyed this; it was great literary fiction
  2. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven; Alexie, Sherman; (7/28/2009) – I love Sherman Alexie, and this was an excellent collection of short stories that wove a common (if rather depressing) theme.
  3. Go Ask Alice; Anonymous; (9/20/2009) – I’m not sure if this would have the same effect on everyone, but this made me so sad for the main character (true story) and so happy that I’ve never done any drugs.
  4. The Stranger; Camus, Albert; (10/13/2009) – This was beautifully written. The protagonist is so perfectly cold, although I had a lot of sympathy for him.
  5. Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life; Weir, Alison; (10/22/2009) – I love historical biographies of powerful women, and this was excellent. Eleanor is my favorite queen of England (what, you don’t have one?) and I really enjoyed reading about her rise to power in an era where women (even queens) didn’t so much have any.
  6. The Four Day Win: End Your Diet War and Achieve Thinner Peace; Beck, Martha; (10/24/2009) – This is a great book – and the only one on the list that I purchased after. I recommend it to everyone who is trying to lose those last pounds (or possibly even those first pounds).
  7. The hunger games; Collins, Suzanne; (11/1/2009) – I love post-apocalyptic society books, and this was right up my alley. It was well-written & a very engaging story (if a bit predictable).
  8. Anathem; Stephenson, Neal; (11/20/2009) – This was sooooo long, but so good. Although others disagree (*cough* Mr Pi *cough*) I think it could’ve been a couple of hundred pages shorter without losing any of the story, BUT I enjoyed the story so much that not only did it make the top 10 list, I also bought a copy for my father.
  9. Pride & Prejudice & Zombies; Grahame-Smith, Seth; (12/4/2009) – Seriously fantastic. Really. I love Jane Austen, and love Pride & Prejudice, but with the zombies added? Classic. Or should that be classic-er? 🙂 Read it. For real.
  10. Swan Song; McCammon, Robert (in process) – I am almost done with this one, and although it took me a while to get into it (a hunderd and fifty pages or so), I am really enjoying it, and was almost pleased that flight delays gave me even more time to get through it. I am very nearly finished, but I think that I won’t finish until this weekend when my class is over & I go on a 3-week hiatus from school.

(That was really hard. In reality, it was closer to a top 25 or so.)

And, I will definitely make my goal of 52 new books this year (I didn’t list any re-reads). So – next year, same goal (I’m not going to get crazy, since I have grad school) – I just want to read an average of 1 book a week – not counting school books.

So – what have you read this year that you’d recommend?

Follow me on social!