Best of 2009

2009 was a slow reading year for me, as you all know. I only read 45 books in 2009, compared to 101 in 2008 (top reads) and 95 in 2007 (top reads). And the ones that I did read were mostly in my favorite genre, mystery thriller, trying to kick-start my reading for the year. But these are all definitely my favorite authors and I recommend you read anything by them.

All of these books got the 5 star rating on my librarything list. Links are to the few that I did review on here.

Mystery/thrillers

• Kindred in Death (Eve Dalla)- JD Robb
• A Plague of Secrets (Dismas Hardy) - John Lescroart
• Undone (Grant County) - Karin Slaughter
• The entire series of Heartsick, Sweetheart and Evil at Heart - Chelsea Cain
• Finger-lickin Fifteen - Janet Evanovich (much lighter than others in this group - back to her original laugh-out-loud books)
• Judas Kiss - J.T. Ellison
• Boneyard - Michelle Gagnon
• Revenge of the Spellmans - Lisa Lutz (similar to Janet Evanovich)

Other Fiction

• Greetings from Somewhere Else - Monica McInerney (LOVE all her books!)
• The Help - Kathryn Stockett

All of these I highly recommend. You won't be disappointed.

Top Reads of 2008

I read 101 books in 2008. That's only a few more than the 95 I read in 2007. I had issues in the fall both years - maybe I should stop blaming my different life stressors and just realize that the fall is a hard time for me! LOL

Listed below are all my 5 star ratings in my library for the year 2008. I broke them up into a few categories. Since the biggest genre of books I read is mystery/thrillers I made that it's own category. But just because you don't generally like mysteries, it doesn't mean you won't find something you like there. They are listed in the order that I read them, so the early ones don't have blog reviews (blog started in May).

If you've read any of these, let me know your thoughts. If you have a top reads list of 2008, I'd love to add it or link to it at the bottom. Let me know!





Non-fiction
+ Mission Possible: Wonderful story of God and a Wyclife Translater in the Jungles of Papua, New Guinea - Marilyn Laszlo
+ Mistaken Identity - Don and Susie Van Ryn [my review]
+ The Oxford Project [my review]

Mysteries/Thrillers
+ Strangers in Death - J.D. Robb
+ The Appeal - John Grisham
+ T is for Trespass - Sue Grafton (Kinsey Millhone series - LOVE it!)
+ Takeover - Lisa Black [my review]
+ Beyond Reach - Karin Slaughter (Sara Linton/Jeffrey Tolliver series) [my review]
+ No Time for Goodbye - Linwood Barclay [my review]
+ The Accident Man - Tom Cain [my review]
+ Say Goodbye - Lisa Gardner [my review]
+ Fractured - Karin Slaughter [my review]
+ The Darker Side - Cody McFadyen [my review]
+ The Brass Verdict - Michael Connelly [my review]
+ Triptych - Karin Slaughter [my review]

General Fiction
+ Sarah's Quilt - Nancy E. Turner (Book 2 of These is My Words - top read in 2007)
+ The Star Garden - Nancy E. Turner (Book 3 of These is My Words series)
+ Dominion - Randy Alcorn [my review]
+ Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks - E. Lockhart [my review]
+ Love Walked In - Marisa de los Santos [my review]
+ The Lace Reader - Brunonia Barry [my review]
+ The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows [my review]

Top Reads for 2007

I dug back through my email and found one I sent out at the beginning of this year listing my top reads for 2007. I am putting it here to share and to help me keep track!

I wanted to share and pat myself on the back – 2007 was the first year that I kept track of all my books read for the entire year. Normally I lose track around July or August. Of course, this year also turned into the ‘No reading in the fall’ so that helped. J

In 2007, I read 95 books (85 Jan-Sep and only 10 after that..sigh). I kept track of them all on Library Thing. I rated each book and the following are the ones I rated 5 stars. Some are stand-alone and some are part of on-going series that I enjoy. They are in order of when read only because that’s how library thing is sorting them – LOL. I cannot pick one or two as the very top as I have a hard time remembering single books. That’s why rating them at the end of the book works best for me.

Bad Blood: A Novel by Linda Fairstein (Alexandra Cooper Series)
Innocent in Death and Creation in Death by J.D. Robb (Eve Dallas Series)
Sandcastles by Luann Rice
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
Nineteen Minutes: A Novel by Jodi Picoult
The Witness by Dee Henderson
Dinner with a Perfect Stranger by David Gregory
The Virgin of Small Plains: A Novel by Nancy Pickard
The Department of Lost & Found: A Novel by Allison Winn Scotch
Bones to Ashes: A Novel by Kathy Reiches (Temperance Brennan series)
The Faraday Girls by Monica McInerney
We need to talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver
These is my words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine by Nancy E. Turner

I’ve also got some rated 4.5 stars but you can look at those yourself. For those who haven’t used library thing before, you can sort on any of the tags (just click on the tag name) or by any of the column headings. (For example, to get the above list, I clicked on 2007 tag and then sorted by rating.)

And I’d LOVE to see your top reads for 2007. Please share!