Your 'Top Reads' of 2009!

Glowing

Hi,

Buying and reading books are my little pleasure in life

What have been your top reads of 2009?

Mine have been:

1) Shantaram; Gregory David Roberts

2) White Tiger; Aravind Adiga

3) The Pianist; Wladyslaw Szpilman

4) I know this much is true; Wally Lamb

5) The God Delusion; Richard Dawkins

Am looking forward to topping up my reading list with your suggestions!

lemon_sherbert

1. Diving Bell and the Butterfly - Jean-Dominick Bauby
2. The Gathering Storm - Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson
3. Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
4. The Book Thief - Markus Zusak

Denerick

Best books of the last year? What a treat.

1) Aldous Huxley's 'Point Counter Point'
2) Tom Wolfe 'Bonfire of the Vanities'
3) Jerome K. Jerome 'Three Men on a Boat'
4) Harper Lee 'To Kill a Mockingbird' (Took me this long to get around to it, what a book!)
5) Walter Scott 'The Talisman'.

Hrududu

1) The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
2) The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson
3) Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts

JesseCuster

Lots of Shantaram love I see, must finally get around to reading this...

lemon_sherbert wrote: »

4. The Book Thief - Markus Zusak

Loved this too!

My top ten in no particaular order:
1) The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson
2) The Knife of Never Letting Go - Patrick Ness
3) The Likeness - Tana French
4) Mailman - J. Robert Lennon
5) Behind The Scenes At The Museum - Kate Atkinson
6) Child 44 - Tom Rob Smith
7) The End of Mr Y - Scarlett Thomas
8) The Believers - Zoe Heller
9) Under The Skin - Michel Faber
10) Rough Ride - Paul Kimmage

rickman

paddy clarke ha ha ha - roddy doyle
here comes robert kingdom - peter mc cluskey
the life of pi - yann martel



3 of the best

paoloiaquinta

liked the snapper more than pady clarke ha ha ha.
will try "here comes robert kingdom".
life of pi and the tiger on the boat was good.

yer man's site is location27books.com

i didn't like dan brown's new one.

Glowing

Oh I have 'The book Thief' - can't wait to get around to that one!!

I also LOVED life of pi, but that must have been a 2007 read for me :P

Morzadec

'A Fraction of the Whole' by Steve Toltz, by an absolute mile (and I too read Shantaram this year)

Sammy Jennings

The Death of Bunny Munro by Nick Cave: be warned, though, N.C. has a ****ed up sense of humor, so read it only if you're not easily disturbed...

buck65

Lords Of Finance - the 1929 wall street crash - great book.

zesman

Heres some for me......

1. The Hunters by James Salter
2. The Honoured Society by Norman Lewis
3. Waiting for Leah by Arnost Lustig
4. Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age by Hrabal
5. Like Eating A Stone by Wojciech Tochman
6. Berlin City of Smoke by Jason Lutes
7. Alois Nebel by Jaroslav Rudiš

emeraldstar

Morzadec wrote: »

'A Fraction of the Whole' by Steve Toltz, by an absolute mile (and I too read Shantaram this year)

Have this sitting on the shelf at home looking at me, just never bothered to open it though! My brother raved about it.

Morzadec

emeraldstar wrote: »

Have this sitting on the shelf at home looking at me, just never bothered to open it though! My brother raved about it.

Open it you will not regret it. Please do not be put off by the size as it's not laborious at all. Couldn't recommend it highly enough to be honest, it'll have you in stitches laughing for one, but has some amazing philosophical insights too. Brilliant yarn as well, the story should grip you too.

Martin Dean is possibly my favourite literary character of all time...!

JesseCuster

Must check out A Fraction of the Whole, sounds right up my street!

I would also like to recommend Lush Life by Richard Price, the best thing I have read in quite a while.
It is a crime novel and so much more. The story revolves around a murder on New York's Lower East Side and the investigation and consequences that follow.
Fans of The Wire will certainly enjoy it.

Morzadec

JesseCuster wrote: »

Must check out A Fraction of the Whole, sounds right up my street!

I would also like to recommend Lush Life by Richard Price, the best thing I have read in quite a while.
It is a crime novel and so much more. The story revolves around a murder on New York's Lower East Side and the investigation and consequences that follow.
Fans of The Wire will certainly enjoy it.

I hav this sitting on my shelf at home and have not got round to reading it yet. I've heard some great things, but also some some who say it is a bit difficult to get into. I'm a fan of the Wire though so I must give it a read soon

Longboard

Nothing jumped out, but some good ones were

"Fatherland" - Robbert Harris
"Ender's Game" - Orson Scott Card
"The last Theorm" - Arthur C Clarke

"The Van" was definatley better than "The snapper" or "Paddy clarke ha ha ha"

"The life of Pi" is good.

Morzadec

Longboard wrote: »

Nothing jumped out, but some good ones were

"Fatherland" - Robbert Harris
"Ender's Game" - Orson Scott Card
"The last Theorm" - Arthur C Clarke

"The Van" was definatley better than "The snapper" or "Paddy clarke ha ha ha"

"The life of Pi" is good.

Great book

mikemac

Azincourt Bernard Cornwell
The Associate John Grisham

Blush_01

Really enjoyed the following:

Middlesex - Eugenides
Shantaram - Roberts
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo -Larsson
The Girl Who Played With Fire - Larsson
The Eyre Affair - Fforde
Lost in a Good Book - Fforde
The Well of Lost Plots - Fforde
Confessions of a Fallen Angel - O'Brien
The Wasp Factory - Banks
Atonement - McEwan
The Cement Garden - McEwan
The Host - Meyer
Theft: A Love Story - Carey
Secret Scripture - Barry
The Secret History - Tartt
The Time Traveller's Wife - Niffenegger
The Raw Shark Texts - Hall
American Wife - Sittenfeld (also liked Prep, but that was a 2006 like)
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell - Clarke

Some were infinitely better than others, some were better written, more touching, more entertaining, more informative etc. but I enjoyed each of them for their own reasons. The ones in bold were the real highlights of my reading so far this year though - they were the ones I sacrificed things for to read, because they were compulsive.

Malari

Oh I thought it was books written in 2009

The best books I read this year were:

1. We Need to Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver
2. Life & Death in Shanghai - Nien Chang
3. The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
4. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court - Mark Twain

I liked Larsson's Millenium Trilogy but I wouldn't read it again, and all the above I definitely would.

JesseCuster

Blush_01 wrote: »

Really enjoyed the following:

Middlesex - Eugenides
Shantaram - Roberts
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo -Larsson
The Girl Who Played With Fire - Larsson
The Eyre Affair - Fforde
Lost in a Good Book - Fforde
The Well of Lost Plots - Fforde
Confessions of a Fallen Angel - O'Brien
The Wasp Factory - Banks
Atonement - McEwan
The Cement Garden - McEwan
The Host - Meyer
Theft: A Love Story - Carey
Secret Scripture - Barry
The Secret History - Tartt
The Time Traveller's Wife - Niffenegger
The Raw Shark Texts - Hall
American Wife - Sittenfeld (also liked Prep, but that was a 2006 like)
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell - Clarke

Some were infinitely better than others, some were better written, more touching, more entertaining, more informative etc. but I enjoyed each of them for their own reasons. The ones in bold were the real highlights of my reading so far this year though - they were the ones I sacrificed things for to read, because they were compulsive.

Excellent list Blush!
The Secret History, Atonement and Jonathan Strange are amongst my all-time favourites.
I would recommend The Likeness by Tana French for any fan of The Secret History.
And The Raw Shark Texts was fantastic, I have been raving about this to anyone who will listen!

Blush_01

I adored The Little Friend - The Secret History wasn't as good, although it was magnificent.

I must seek Tana French out so!

I just love reading... I'll read almost anything.

It's very difficult to pick out the best of a year - if I didn't have the reading log I'd be adding in books I loved from last year and the year before too.

My favourite book of all time is probably Goodnight Mr. Tom - Magorian. I've loved it since I was in primary school.

Red Hand

The Year of the Flood by Magaret Atwood which was the sequel (or companion to) Oryx and Crake. Was looking forward to it all year...mostly lived up to expectations, had more humour in it than the first book, but a little unsatisfactory for reasons I won't go into here as regards choice and interlinkage of characters. Still, I reread it a few times, so its the book of the year for me.

In second place, Redemption Falls. Third place, Greatest Show on Earth by Richard Dawkins (non-fiction).

Eliot Rosewater

• Lord of the Flies - William Golding
• Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut
• To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
• That They May Face the Rising Sun - John McGahern
• Hemingway Novels

Those are probably the ones Ive enjoyed the most...

todolist

Think and grow rich-Napoleon Hill
Success Principals-Jack Canfield
Collected poems-Patrick Kavanagh

Three books I can't live without.

CatFromHue

jupiters travels by ted hughes for me.

its about a fella who motor bikes around the world in the 80's (i think) really good read.

cailinardthair

time travelers wife
lovely bones
the heir of the sevenwaters
to kill a mocking bird
1984

Quality

Blush_01 wrote: »

My favourite book of all time is probably Goodnight Mr. Tom - Magorian. I've loved it since I was in primary school.

I have actually bought this book for my daughter... Unfortunately she did not inherit my love for reading.. Hoping this will hook her..





On topic

enjoyed a good few this year.. In no particualr order...

The girl with the dragon tattoo and the girl who played with fire by larsson.

The time travellers wife- Neffinger

A Thousand splendid suns. khaled hosseini

The secret scriptures- Barry

To kill a ,mockingbird-Lee..

pauline fayne

The Secret Scriptures by Sebastian Barry .
This book put every other book i read this year firmly in the shade !

Decuc500

Some of my favourites this year...

The Given Day - Dennis Lehane
Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman
Northline - Willy Vlautin
Serena - Ron Rash
Bad Things - Michael Marshall
Tijuana Straits - Kem Nunn

JesseCuster

Decuc500 wrote: »

Some of my favourites this year...

The Given Day - Dennis Lehane
Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman
Northline - Willy Vlautin
Serena - Ron Rash
Bad Things - Michael Marshall
Tijuana Straits - Kem Nunn

The Given Day is sitting on my shelf, begging to be read.
I'm a huge Lehane fan but the sheer size of it is a little daunting.
Maybe once I've finished Mr Toppit I'll finally get round to it!

powerfade

White Teeth - Zadie Smith
Wild Swans - Jung Chang
We Need to Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver
The Piano Tuner - Daniel Mason
Papillon Henri Charriere
Catch 22 - Joseph Heller (Major Major!)

Decuc500

JesseCuster wrote: »

The Given Day is sitting on my shelf, begging to be read.
I'm a huge Lehane fan but the sheer size of it is a little daunting.
Maybe once I've finished Mr Toppit I'll finally get round to it!

I envy you reading it for the first time! It's great.

scriba

Haven't really read anything actually written or published this year, but what I enjoyed were (that I haven't read before!):

Baudolino by Umberto Eco (I think my favourite this year)
Kite Runner
Shadow of the Wind
Life of Pi
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Blush_01

Jeremiah 16:1 wrote: »

The Year of the Flood by Magaret Atwood which was the sequel (or companion to) Oryx and Crake. Was looking forward to it all year...mostly lived up to expectations, had more humour in it than the first book, but a little unsatisfactory for reasons I won't go into here as regards choice and interlinkage of characters. Still, I reread it a few times, so its the book of the year for me.

I must get that actually - Oryx and Crake was my first Atwood. I'm so excited now!

Red Hand

Blush_01 wrote: »

I must get that actually - Oryx and Crake was my first Atwood. I'm so excited now!

Same as me. I've read a load of her other books since then, even checked out interviews involving her on youtube. One of my favourite writers.:)

St Bunt

The Fourth Hand- John Irving
The Little Stranger- Sarah Waters
House of Suns- Alistair Reynolds
Tin Roof Blowdown- James Lee Burke

oncevotedff

The True Blood Series- Charlaine Harris

The Forgotten War- David Fiddimore

The Ascent of Money- Niall Ferguson

A Million Bullets- James Ferguson

Tyrekicker

I would add....

2666 - roberto bolano
A Fraction of the Whole - Steve Toltz
The Infinities - John Banville

DarkRaven

I'm going to go for:

1. Judging Dev by Diarmuid Ferriter.
2. A Game of Thrones - George R.R. Martin.
3. A Secret History of the IRA - Ed Moloney
4. Anna Karrenina - Leo Tolstoy
5. In Search of Schrodingers Cat - John Gribbin.

Sephiroth_dude

Fablehaven: Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary by brandon mull.

IronMan

Tyrekicker wrote: »

I would add....

2666 - roberto bolano

An utterly fantastic novel.

I also loved Lustrum by Robert Harris. The chap is a great novelist.

PurpleBee

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is pretty amazing.

kraggy

Eliot Rosewater wrote: »

• Lord of the Flies - William Golding
• Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut
• To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
• That They May Face the Rising Sun - John McGahern
• Hemingway Novels

Those are probably the ones Ive enjoyed the most...

Loved that. McGahern was a genius. Not rated highly enough if you ask me.

The_Kew_Tour

On the road to kandahar by Jason Burke

Berlin by Arthur Beavor

both great books

joker999

Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut
American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis
The Time Travellers Wife - Audrey Niffeneger
The Time Machine - H.G Wells

Valmont

Requiem for a Dream - Hubert Selby Jr.
Bonfire of the Vanities - Tom Wolfe.
The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks.

Apart from these three, 2009 wasn't really a good reading year for me.

Denerick

Valmont wrote: »

Requiem for a Dream - Hubert Selby Jr.
Bonfire of the Vanities - Tom Wolfe.
The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks.

Apart from these three, 2009 wasn't really a good reading year for me.

Join the fanclub over here. Bonfire of the Vanities was a fantastic book.

Valmont

Denerick wrote: »

Join the fanclub over here. Bonfire of the Vanities was a fantastic book.

I read the last few chapters in bed and after the denouement in the courthouse I couldn't sleep. It was that exhilarating! Sherman McCoy is right up there as one of my favourite characters of all time. Comedy and drama, he provided it all.

mishimab

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami ... and loved it.. recently bought his Blind Willow and Sleeping Woman which includes short stories.. and addicted to murakami..