Saturday, January 9, 2010

Books 09


One of my New Years Resolutions for 2009 was to read more. And I feel pretty good that I gave it a good effort. One of the great things about being in the UAE last year was I had more time for reading with not working. At the same time I could have done better! Here's a list of books I read last year:

01. The BFG by Roald Dahl
02. Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
03. The Kite Rider by Geraldine McCaughrean
04. George's Marvellous Medicine by Roald Dahl
05. Ramona Quimby, Age 8 by Beverly Cleary
06. The Giver by Lois Lowry
07. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
08. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
09. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
10. Princess: The True Story of Life Inside the Saudi Arabia's Royal Family by Jean Sasson
11. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
12. Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator by Roald Dahl
13. Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
14. The Olive Readers by Christine Aziz
15. Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea
16. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
17. Stuart Little by EB White
18. Belong to Me by Marisa de los Santos
19. The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
20. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
21. Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
22. The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
23. Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri

--Love re-reading #22 and #06 (very favorites of mine)
--Book that surprisingly affected and touched me the most, especially because it's something I would not normally have read: #8 (thanks, Robin)
--Some books I really did NOT like: #19, #20, #15, #03, #13
--Most disturbing but enjoyed: #7 and #9
--Everything pre #20 was in the UAE and my choices were not as wide with no public libraries there and only having limited access to a school library - hence lots of great classic children's titles I enjoyed reading. They did have adult fiction though as well.


When we returned to the US, my friend Dianna and I invited some friends to start up a book group. I'm so happy we did this! It's great to see everyone at least once a month and motivates me to read since it's usually all the time I have for reading anymore. The last four books were book group reads. Now we are reading Keeping Faith by Jodi Picoult which I am looking forward to.

I'll be updating my sidebar with books I am reading this year. Take a look.

So do you have a favorite book you read this year you'd like to share? I'd love to hear it.

photo credit
book plates found here

2 comments:

Melinda said...

Nothing like a good book club to get you through these snowy Columbus days. My book club has been meeting for 18 months and I really look forward to it every month. Can't wait to hear some of your picks!
Melinda

Anonymous said...

I haven't read any of the books you didn't like. :) Suppose that's a good thing.

I recently read Number the Stars by Lowry for the first time, and I was kind of taken by surprise by how powerful it was. What a story!

I should do a better job tracking my reading. I keep track on GoodReads, but it's nice to look at a list like this.