Books Read in 2009:
1. The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean
2. Give Me a Break by John Stossel
3. Banana Rose by Natalie Goldberg
4. The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler
5. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
6. Tickled Pink by Rita Rudner
7. Fermat’s Last Theorem by Simon Singh
8. Naked by David Sedaris
9. The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells
10. The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
11. The Lost Years of Merlin by T.A. Barron
12. What Makes Me a Muslim? by Catherine M. Petrini
13. Ten Great Mysteries by Edgar Allan Poe
14. Just a Geek by Wil Wheaton
15. The Once and Future King by T.H. White
16. Centauri Dawn by Michael Ely
17. Moominsummer Madness by Tove Jansson
18. Out of the Fallout by Veronica A. Mullen
19. The Bonesetter’s Daughter by Amy Tan
20. The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron
21. The Ig Nobel Prizes by Marc Abrahams
22. Everything Here is Mine by Nicole Hollander
23. The Eight by Katherine Neville [reread]
24. The Magical Worlds of Harry Potter by David Colbert
25. The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
26. Hotel World by Ali Smith
27. The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories by Tim Burton
28. Sideshow by Mike Resnick
29. The Three-Legged Hootch Dancer by Mike Resnick
30. The Wild Alien Tamer by Mike Resnick
31. Redbeard by Michael Resnick
32. Fermat’s Last Theorem by Amir D. Aczel
33. Eros Ascending by Mike Resnick
34. The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales by Edgar Allan Poe
35. Eight Tales of Terror by Edgar Allan Poe
36. The City of Dreaming Books by Walter Moers
37. The Code Book by Simon Singh
38. Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman
39. Silverstein and Me by Marv Gold
40. Driving Mr. Albert: A Trip Across America with Einstein’s Brain by Michael Paterniti
41. The Fire by Katherine Neville
42. The Next Queen of Heaven by Gregory Maguire
43. The Geographer’s Library by Jon Fasman
44. The Lonely Planet Guide to Experimental Travel by Rachael Antony
45. Stories to Read with the Door Locked by Alfred Hitchcock
46. The Unnameables by Ellen Booraem
47. In Odd We Trust by Dean Koontz
Books Listened to in 2009:
1. Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill
2. Brother Odd by Dean Koontz
3. Time and Again by Jack Finney
4. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
5. The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
6. Everything’s Eventual by Stephen King
7. The City of Falling Angels by John Berendt
8. Eragon by Christopher Paolini
9. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
10. Fear Nothing by Dean Koontz [reread]
11. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
12. The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
13. Seize the Night by Dean Koontz
14. Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card [reread]
15. Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card
16. Xenocide by Orson Scott Card
17. Children of the Mind by Orson Scott Card
18. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
19. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
20. New Moon by Stephenie Meyer
21. Ender’s Shadow by Orson Scott Card
22. Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
23. Shadow of the Hegemon by Orson Scott Card
24. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
25. The Hours by Michael Cunningham
26. The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
27. The Stranger by Albert Camus
28. My Latest Grievance by Eleanor Lipman
29. When You are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris
30. Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer
31. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson [reread]
32. Catherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman
33. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
34. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig
Books Started but not Finished
* Maple Sugarin’ in Vermont by Betty Ann Lockhart (not interested)
* Wacky Chicks by Simon Doonan (obnoxious)
* My Last Days by Lou Rowan (weird!)
* The Dragon and the Unicorn by A.A. Attanasio (too epic to understand)
* The New Diary by Tristine Rainer (nothing I hadn’t read before)
* The Queen’s Handmaiden by Jennifer Ashley (just didn’t grab me)
Previous years: 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | Review Archive
by Dean Koontz and Queenie Chan: I’ve read the first three Odd Thomas novels. I really enjoyed the first one (Odd’s a pretty nifty character) but the second two, not so much. So when I heard the new graphic novel was actually a prequel to the first book, I got interested. And you know, it was pretty okay. The art wasn’t stellar but it was actually pretty fantastic to actually get to see Pico Mundo, Stormy, and the rest. And since it was just pictures and dialogue, most of Koontz’s purple prose was left out, making it a much tighter story. If other Odd Thomas comics come out I’ll probably look them up.
by Ellen Booraem: Medford Runyuin lives on the Island, a place where everything is named for its Use and nothing Useless is allowed. If you bake, your name is Baker; if you carve, your name is Carver; and everyone follows the rules laid out in The Book. Medford hopes to be called Carver once he reaches adulthood, but is worried about banishment because he has secretly been carving Useless (though beautiful) works of art. Now, if this had been the entire story, it would have been fairly generic. However, Medford’s life is turned upside-down when he is visited by the Goatman, a smelly man with hooves and horns who can control the wind. This nifty little twist adds life to an otherwise rather standard story about the joy of creativity. I hope there’s a sequel that goes into more detail about the goatfolk. He was the most interesting character.
by Rachael Antony: This was a gift from my sister, with the note “Long live your sense of adventure!” It’s a marvelous collection of travel games, from the simple (take the first left turn, then the first right turn, etc.) to the complex (a couple showing up separately at a foreign place and seeing if you can find each other) to the plain old bizarre (traveling while wearing a horse head mask). Each game is accompanied by a description of “laboratory results” (that is, someone who actually did it), most of which are beautiful and funny. One day I’ll try some of these. If nothing else, it’s a very entertaining read, and makes me want to explore.
by Robert M. Pirsig: There are several layers to this book. The outermost layer is a cross-country motorcycle trip Pirsig takes with his son, Chris. I probably enjoyed this part of the book the most, traveling vicariously through states I’ve never visited. Pirsig’s occasional descriptions of the scenery and people is refreshingly frank. The next layer is a series of talks Pirsig conducts in his head while riding the motorcycle. Most of this is a discussion of Quality. Since most of the book is spent describing this concept I won’t go into it here. The innermost layer is the life story of Phaedrus, a man whose past continually haunts Pirsig and serves as a backbone for his concept of Quality. Now that I’ve finished it, I don’t feel particularly enlightened. I think I may have gotten more out of this book had I read it when it first came out, or perhaps if I were at all familiar with the existing schools of philosophical thought. Having never read Aristotle or Socrates, I can’t say whether or not Pirsig’s arguments against them have any merit. My favorite parts were when he was less zen and more motorcycle maintenance, especially the course on Gumptionology 101. That made me smile. All in all, this isn’t the sort of book I could read for long stretches at a time, but rather something to dip into now and again. I’m glad to have read it, but I don’t think it’s something I would read again.
by Jon Fasman: Paul Tomm is a smart but somewhat aimless college grad who lands a reporter job at a weekly newspaper in the tiny town of Lincoln, Connecticut. When a professor from his alma mater dies, he is assigned the obituary, but soon finds that there is more to this quiet professor than meets the eye. Soon he is swept up in an unusual tale of murder, greed, and alchemy. A collection of alchemical objects are described in alternating chapters, and their sordid histories are almost as engaging as the main plot. And while the story itself was a very enjoyable read, what really drew me in was my empathy with Paul. His observations and reactions are so familiar to me. It really helped me feel like part of the story. I’ll definitely be on the lookout for Fasman’s other works.
by David Mitchell: Spent much of the book having absolutely no idea what’s going on. But that’s okay. Basically it’s a series of interconnected stories that go through the diary of an American man in Australia in the 1850s, a British musician in the 1930s, a mystery-solving American journalist in the 1970s, an elderly British publisher in the present day, a clone on trial in nearish-future Korea, a goat herder in post-apocalyptic Hawaii, and back again. I’d hoped there would be a little more connection between the stories – more on the comet-shaped birthmark, for example – but that was not to be. It also got a little preachy in places. My favorite was probably the elderly British publisher who gets committed to an old folks’ home against his will. All in all it’s a decent read, but far too long for the amount of interest it held for me. Which sounds about like how I felt about the other Mitchell book I’ve read, 