Finally made out my Top 20 list, although I had to make it 21 because I just could. not. remove. any. more. titles from the list. I had already taken off The Age of Innocence, The Help, and Shanghai Girls, which was painful to say the least. I did include some ya/children’s titles as well, though, because they were just that good. Still, I probably left off at least ten 4.5 star books, but what’s the use of a top 30-35 list? It just must be narrowed down somehow.
I’m also working on a stats post, but that takes a little time so look for that later in the week.
I read a lot of great books in 2009. Really great. It’s too bad I didn’t review more of them. I’m still going to try to at least get to the ones on this list, though. I owe them that much. I just hope I have the same success in 2010 as well.
Anyway, in the list below, the first five are ranked, while the rest are in no particular order.
- The Houskeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa (2009)
- A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (2007)
- So Long a Letter by Mariama Ba (1980-81)
- Unless by Carol Shields (2002)
- The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (1998)
- Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy (1891)
- The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck (1931)
- Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri (1999)
- The Remains of the Day by Ishiguro (1989)
- Fear and Trembling by Amelie Nothomb (1999)
- Solaris by Stanislaw Lem (1961)
- The Devil and Miss Prym by Paulo Coelho (2006)
- Finn by Jon Clinch (2007)
- Petropolis by Anya Ulinich (2007)
- Intuition by Allegra Goodman (2006)
- The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley (2009)
- The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh (2004)
- The Forest Lover by Susan Vreeland (2004)
- The First Part Last by Angela Johnson (2003)
- The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer (2002)
- Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary (1983)
Some wonderful books made your list. I love Amitav Ghosh – I want to read more of him this year. And I never read Remains of the Day – I feel shame! Must remedy that also! Haven’t read Interpreter of Maladies either. Where have I been? But I’ll be copying these over for my use for 2010. Thanks for compiling such a great list!
This is a great list, Michelle. You’ve listed so many books that are in my TBR collection that I want to read. The only one on your list I did read was Interpreter of Maladies. It’s a great collection of stories.
I hope you have a wonderful New Year, Michelle!
I’ve read only one of those: Dear Mr. Henshaw. I agree; it’s a great book. I loved The Age of Innocence, too. You’ve just made my wish list grow!
Just added _The Housekeeper and the Professor_ to my reading list after reading your review of it. I also read Allegra Goodman’s _Intuition_ this year and enjoyed it a lot. She made you feel you knew the organizational and behavioral atmosphere of a research lab, even if, like me, you’re not highly educated in science.
I also loved The Remains of the Day. A lot of the books on your list I have not read though – definitely going into the library queue.
These end of the year lists are s hard for me. I will likely need more time to work on mine. This kooks like a really nice list. There are quite a few here that I want to read.
Great list–and Unless is one of my favorite novels ever. I love Carol Shields.
Happy New Year!
How sad that Shanghai Girls came off the list, but I understand the need to whittle a list down a bit. My two favorites on your list are Angela Johnson’s First Part Last and Nancy Farmer’s House of the Scorpion. Both do VERY well at my library and really hook students into reading!
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie made it to my list as well. I really enjoyed both So Long a Letter and Tess of the d’Urbervilles when I read them a few years ago.
I’m in the middle of re-reading Tess of the d’Urbervilles so I was glad to see it make your list. The Poisonwood Bible is sitting on my bookshelf waiting to be read.
That is a great list! I look forward to reading some of these in the coming year and The Poisonwood Bible is one of my all time favorites.
I looks like you have a really good list here! I didn’t talk about it in my summary but I also read “Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie” which I thought was very cute. I’m reading Amitav Gosh’s “Sea of Poppies” now and I’m really enjoying it. I might have to pick up “The Hungry Tide” after I’ve finished it.
I’ve only read The Poisonwood Bible from your list, and I agree it was great! I’ll look into the others you listed.
I can relate to the pain of cutting favorites from your list. Since I didn’t read that many books last year (relatively speaking) I decided to do a couple genre favorites and then restrict my favorite novels to top five. Well, deciding between The Little Stranger, The House at Riverton and The Forgotten Garden, all three of which I loved, was difficult to say the least. I ended up going with The Little Stranger.
Great list though! I’ve got a couple of them on my 2010 TBR pile so will be looking forward to those. Happy Reading!
looks like a great list of books. happy reading in 2010
Great list!
A Thousand Splendid Suns is one of my favorite reads from this year, too. The Poisonwood Bible I read a few years ago but it remains one of my favorite books of all time.
Alan Bradley’s ” The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie” was the best book i read last year. I started reading it and finally ended up in the same day. i added few more to my list and finding time to read all those too.