Tuesday, January 12, 2010

... the 41 of 2009

**** Pick it up from the library today!
*** Add it to your reading list.
** Eh, it was ok...
* Forget you ever heard about it.

Fiction
The Day the Falls Stood Still by Cathy Marie Buchanan - "The stone walls of Loretto Academy are so thick I can sit curled up on a windowsill, arms around the knees tucked beneath my chin." ****

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon -- "I still remember the day my father took me to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books for the first time." ***

Lush Life by Richard Price -- "The Quality of Life Task Force: four sweatshirts in a bogus taxi set up on the corner of Clinton Street alongside the Williamsburg Bridge off-ramp to profile the incoming salmon run; their mantra: Dope, guns, overtime; their motto: Everyone's got something to lose." **

The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson -- "Accidents ambush the unsuspecting, often violently, just like love." ****

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout - "For many years Henry Kitteridge was a pharmacist in the next town over, driving every morning on snowy roads, or rainy roads, or summertime roads, when the wild reaspberries shot their new growth in the bramlbes along the last section of town before he turned off to where he wider road led to the pharmacy." **

Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian - "The girl - a young woman, really, eighteen, hair the color of corn silk - has been hearing the murmur of artillery fire for two days now." **

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson - "It happened every year, was almost a ritual." ***

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger - "Claire: It's hard being left behind." ***

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein - "Gestures are all that I have; sometimes they must be grand in nature." **

The Given Day by Dennis Lehane - "Due to travel restrictions placed on major league baseball by the war department, the world series of 1918 was played in September and split into two home stands." **

Shanghai Girls by Lisa See - "'Our daughter looks like a South China peasant with those red cheeks,' my father complains, pointedly ignoring the soup before him." ***

Daphne by Justine Picardie - "To begin." *

The Things that Keep Us Here by Carla Buckley - "It was quiet coming home from the funeral." **

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows - "Susanne Scott is a wonder." ***

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing by M.T. Anderson *

The Boat by Nam Le ***

Brick Lane by Monica Ali **

Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo ***

The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway ***

The Children of Men by PD James **

Serena by Ron Rash ****

The Elegance of the Hedgehog
by Muriel Barbery ***

Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald ***

The Lazarus Project by Aleksander Hemon **

The Likeness by Tanya French **

Mudbound by Hillary Jordan ***

My Sisters Keeper by Jodi Picoult ***

Netherland by Joseph O'Neil *

The Pig Did It by Joseph Caldwell **

The Plague of Doves
by Louise Erdrich **

Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh ***

So Brave, Young, and Handsome by Leif Enger ***

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski ****

Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri **

Non-Fiction
Annie's Ghosts by Steve Luxenburg **

The Hemingses of Monticello by Annette Gordon-Reed ***

The Island at the Center of the World by Russell Shorto ***

Jamie at Home by Jamie Oliver **

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch **

Long Walk to Freedeom by Nelson Mandela ***

Tears of the Desert by Halima Bashir - ****

4 comments:

Judy said...

Oh boy! A book list! I loved The Time Traveler's Wife. Shanghai Girls, not so much. I liked Snow Flower & Peony in Love a whole lot more.

I see you read My Sister's Keeper. Did you see the movie? I didn't see the movie because I read somewhere that the ending was changed. I thought it was a pretty good read, maybe the ending was a bit over the top, but pretty good nonetheless.

Thanks Michelle, you bookworm, you!

Michelle said...

I agree -- Snowflower was way better than Shanghai Girls.

Haven't seen My Sisters Keeper. Not sure if I will. I heard about the ending change too....

Pass some recommendations over my way! :)

Bekah said...

yay! I love your book lists....I've been looking for "The Day the Falls Stood Still" at the library but cant get my hands on it...guess Ill have to keep looking!

Lizzy said...

thanks!! i always enjoy your annual book list ;)