# Your top five reads from 2009 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 14, 2009, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-five-reads-from-2009/521283 "2009-12-14T23:24:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![susan\_foster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@susan\_foster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan_foster)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-five-reads-from-2009/521283/21 "2009-12-15T17:39:23Z")
Top 5 from Goodreads: 1. **The Book of Lost Things** - John Connolly. Far and away my #1 2. **Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-Time Eater** - Frank Bruni 3. \*\* Nightlife\*\* - Rob Thurman 4. **It Sucked and Then I Cried: How I Had a Baby, a Breakdown, and a Much Needed Margarita** - Heather Armstrong 5.\*\* My Horizontal Life - A Collection of One-Night Stands\*\* - Chelsea Handler ---
**Author:** ![Alice\_The\_Goon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-five-reads-from-2009/521283/22 "2009-12-15T18:06:14Z")
Not in any particular order: Top 1. **Middlsex** Jeffrey Eugenides Fiction about an ambiguously gendered teen in a Greek family set in Detroit. 2. **Year of Wonders** Geraldine Brooks Historical fiction inspired by the true story of a town in England that quarantined itself against the plague for a year in the 1600s. 3. **Seven Types of Ambiguity** William Empson A stalker story with a happy ending. 4. **Robinson Crusoe** Daniel Defoe Finally read this classic, wish I’d done it sooner. 5. **The Courts of Love: The Story of Eleanor of Aquitaine** Jean Plaidy Reading this right now. I love historical fiction, and this book holds my interest because I recently learned that my family is related to her (as are millions I know but still) and the first line of the book closely resembles my life- “_When I look back over my long and tempestuous life, I can see that much of what happened to me- my triumphs and most of my misfortunes- was due to my passionate relationships with men._”😛 Those are not all of the books I thoroughly enjoyed this year but I’ll limit my list. Bottom 1. **Happiness Sold Separately** Lolly Winston Piece of insufferable dreck- pissed at myself for sticking with it to the end. 2. **Santa Steps Out** Robert Devereaux A friend gave me this at Easter as a gag gift referencing my atheism. It’s probably cheating to list it seeing as how I only read a few pages, but the horror that is the book made me want to scrub myself raw in the corner of the shower while sobbing. shudder 3. **Gift of Fear** Gavin De Becker I’ve heard this book recommended so many times on this board so I got it. I do agree with his ideas and principles for sure- he is definitely on the money. But the book itself and how it’s written is boring and tedious- dude, stick to your classes and seminars and quit writing. Fortunately, those are all the bad books I read (or tried to) this year. I think. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-five-reads-from-2009/521283/23 "2009-12-15T18:45:04Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > I know some of you keep lists. 🙂 > > Top 5: > > _Echoes from the Dead_ – Johan Theorin, mystery > _The Gone-Away World_ - Nick Harkaway, SF > _The Little Stranger_ – Sarah Waters, psychological thriller > _Three Day Road_ – Joseph Boyden, general fiction > _Middlemarch_ – George Eliot, general fiction > > Bottom 1: > > _Under the Dome_ – Stephen King. By far the most disappointing book I’ve read in several years, from any author. OK, are you the one who recommended \*Middlemarch \*to me, in a thread a while back asking for great big (out of copyright) novels to read? I came into this thread to say that I have been reading this so long that I can’t remember anything else that I read this year. And you had time to read all those other books too? Mostly I only read on the commute to and from work, and while doing cardio at the gym, so it does take me a while to get through something this size. I have to say, though, that I am nearly to the end and I can’t really figure out how all the character arcs are going to wind up. In other words, it is managing to (finally) maintain my interest until the bitter end. I guess that means it’s a good (but loooooong) read. Roddy ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-five-reads-from-2009/521283/24 "2009-12-15T18:54:29Z")
> [@Chum](#): > > 1. _Housekeeping_ - Marilynne Robinson. Sometimes I feel like certain books were written for me but no one else would really appreciate them. With this book, I felt that it was written for me and that everyone who reads it must absolutely love it. This is one of those books I read many years ago and still think of as one of the best ever. **Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant** is another in that category for me. I’m working on Robinson’s **Gilead** and then have her\*\* Home \*\*lined up and I hope they are somewhere near as good as **Housekeeping**. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-five-reads-from-2009/521283/25 "2009-12-15T19:05:41Z")
Top 5, most enjoyed this year: _The Given Day_ - Dennis Lehane _Cold Granite_ - Stuart Macbride _Get Real_ - Donald Westlake…the final Dortmunder novel ☹ _Exit Music_ - Ian Rankin _The Amateurs_ - Marcus Sakey ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-five-reads-from-2009/521283/26 "2009-12-15T19:37:29Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > OK, are you the one who recommended \*Middlemarch \*to me, in a thread a while back asking for great big (out of copyright) novels to read? Um, probably? 🙂 When you’re finished with _Middlemarch_, take a break and then pick up _Kristin Lavrandsdattar_ by Sigrid Undsett. I think it’s 1200+ pages, but it reads **much** faster than _Middlemarch_, maybe because (unlike _Middlemarch_), stuff happens. It was recommended by a Doper and was the best book I read that year. ---
**Author:** ![Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-five-reads-from-2009/521283/27 "2009-12-15T19:42:00Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > 1. **Already Dead** by Charlie Huston > A vampire PI in a neo-noir setting. Awesome! I really like Charlie Huston. I’m looking forward to his newest Joe Pitt book, which is on my Christmas list. I’ve had a great reading year, and it’s hard to narrow down my list of favorites, but here’s one attempt: - _The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay_, Michael Chabon - _Snow Crash_, Neal Stephenson - Robin Hobb’s Realm of the Elderlings books (three trilogies) - _Silver Pigs_ (and others of the Marcus Didius Falco series), Lindsey Davis - _Tempting Fate_, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro (my favorite of the Saint-Germain books so far) ---
**Author:** ![Chum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3ab097/32.png) [@Chum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chum)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-five-reads-from-2009/521283/28 "2009-12-15T19:50:18Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > I’m working on Robinson’s **Gilead** and then have her\*\* Home \*\*lined up and I hope they are somewhere near as good as **Housekeeping**. I read _Gilead_ a couple years ago and didn’t particularly like it. But I might have to give it another try in light of the excellence of her first novel. _Home_’s on my list, too. I barely remember reading _Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant_, but I see I gave it 2/5 on Goodreads. Goes to show that people with very different tastes can both love _Housekeeping_, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Humble\_Servant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/47e85d/32.png) [@Humble\_Servant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Humble_Servant)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-five-reads-from-2009/521283/29 "2009-12-15T20:02:17Z")
The best, in approximate order of enjoyment: The Absolute Sandman (the entire series) Dresden Files (the entire series–even though some of them clunked) Idylls of the King (I thought I read this before, but didn’t) Get Real Unseen Academicals Snow Crash The worst: Wide Sargasso Sea (man, did this suck) Peace Like a River (man, did this suck) Furies of Calderon (Jim Butcher makes the best and the worst list) (man, did this suck) I only read seasoned stuff (or new installments in series)–it’s funny how something like the Dresden Files gets picked up in a given year–lots of repeats in the thread, but at least as many one-offs. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-five-reads-from-2009/521283/30 "2009-12-15T20:20:49Z")
**All Quiet on the Western Front** - classic novel **Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors** - nonfiction book about the time between when _homo Sapiens_ left Africa and before writing was invented. **Power and the Darkness** - biography of Josh Gibson, the Negro Leagues’ home run king who died at age 35. **Motherless Brooklyn** - novel about a small-time crook’s flunkie with Tourette’s who has to solve a crime **Professor’s House** - I love me some Willa Cather. Worst: **Big Stone Gap** - I’m still trying to get the puke smell out of my reading chair. ---
**Author:** ![valleyofthedolls](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a4c791/32.png) [@valleyofthedolls](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/valleyofthedolls)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-five-reads-from-2009/521283/31 "2009-12-15T20:23:50Z")
Lowboy by John Wray The Road by Cormac McCarthy The Adderall Diaries by Stephen Elliott War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (Pevear Translation) The Lost City of Z by David Grann Book I wished I never read: Wetlands by Charlotte Roche. Biggest Disappointment: Vanilla Ride by Joe Landsdale and the Girl who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-five-reads-from-2009/521283/32 "2009-12-15T20:43:06Z")
Imperial Reckoning (Caroline Elkins) Bonk (Mary Roach) The Ethics (Barach Spinoza) An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” (Chinua Achebe) Man’s Search for Meaning (Victor Frankl) ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-five-reads-from-2009/521283/33 "2009-12-15T21:03:14Z")
Best five, in no particular order: Like others, I’ll count as one the whole Dresden Files series. The Crimson Petal and the White, by Michel Faber. Fascinating story, and every time I put it down, I thought about it until the next time I picked it up again. The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins. Tuf Voyaging and Fevre Dream, by George R. R. Martin. That’s right, I’m cheating! Two unrelated books by the same author. Only one more? I have to give it to The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard. * * * I don’t have that many worsts because I won’t usually suffer all the way through a bad book, but: The Travelling Vampire Show/Dreadful Tales, by Richard Laymon. I took this on vacation, so I was stuck with it. Soft porn, not horror. House of Leaves, by Mark Danielewski. Gimmicky and a literal pain to read. There was a tiny shadow of a frightening idea here, but it was so not worth the work to mine it out. ---
**Author:** ![TheMerchandise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b487fb/32.png) [@TheMerchandise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheMerchandise)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-five-reads-from-2009/521283/34 "2009-12-15T21:05:12Z")
Top 5: 1. _Fool_, by Christopher Moore 2. _Johannes Cabal the Necromancer_, Jonathan L. Howard 3. _When You are Engulfed in Flames_, David Sedaris 4. _Agent ZigZag_, Ben Macintyre 5. _Hannah’s Dream_, Diane Hammond Bottom 4: 1. _The Ethical Assassin_, David Liss 2.\* Winkie,\* Clifford Chase 2. _The Wrong Hands_, Nigel Richardson 3. _The Historian_, Elizabeth Kostova ---
**Author:** ![LVBoPeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/858c86/32.png) [@LVBoPeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LVBoPeep)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-five-reads-from-2009/521283/35 "2009-12-15T21:24:06Z")
> [@Humble\_Servant](#): > > The best, in approximate order of enjoyment: > The worst: > > Wide Sargasso Sea (man, did this suck) > . Seconded- I read that earlier this year, what a waste of the paper it was printed on. That would qualify as my worst too, I think. A ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-five-reads-from-2009/521283/36 "2009-12-15T21:45:02Z")
> [@TheMerchandise](#): > > 1. _Johannes Cabal the Necromancer_, Jonathan L. Howard I’ve been keeping a list of my reading at Goodreads, and somehow left this off entirely. It was one of the good ones, too! ---
**Author:** ![blinkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/43a26b/32.png) [@blinkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blinkie)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-five-reads-from-2009/521283/37 "2009-12-15T22:20:40Z")
Always looking for new reads. See some of the ones I enjoyed The Road, Evergreen, Exit Music. Sad to see Under the Dome got bad reviews. Just took it out today My favorite mystery was Finding Nouf by Zoe Ferraris Set in Saudi Arabia it really gets into Saudi customs in a murder investigation. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2009, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-five-reads-from-2009/521283/38 "2009-12-16T03:39:31Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > Best five, in no particular order: > > …Tuf Voyaging and Fevre Dream, by George R. R. Martin. That’s right, I’m cheating! Two unrelated books by the same author… All is forgiven. They’re two of my favorites, too (although I didn’t read them this year). I keep a list of books I read (as suggested by my MIL, who’s also an avid reader, awhile back), and am up to 64 for 2009, much to my surprise. My top five reads this year, in no particular order: _Iron Tears_ by Stanley Weintraub - Very interesting history of the British political, military and social response to the American Revolution. It really was the British Empire’s Vietnam War in many ways. _Time for the Stars_ by Robert Heinlein - Re-read this childhood favorite of mine. A great story of adventure, telepathy and finding your own path in life. _The Silmarillion_ by J.R.R. Tolkien - Re-read this college favorite for I think the third (or is it fourth?) time. Each time I read it, I understand it better, and find more to appreciate in it. _Join Me!_ by Danny Wallace - Quirky, funny semi-true story of a British slacker who, on a whim, starts his own cult and then struggles to conceal it from his girlfriend. _True History of the Kelly Gang_ by Peter Carey - Intriguing novel about Australia’s version of Jesse James, told as if it were a long-lost autobiographical account. A remarkable book. Honorable mentions: _A Separate War and Other Stories_, Joe Haldeman’s fine sf short-story collection; _The Last Colony_ by John Scalzi, a funny and clever military sf novel; and _Assassination Vacation_ by Sarah Vowell, a very offbeat, darkly funny travelogue of presidential murder sites. ---
**Author:** ![jordanr2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/838e76/32.png) [@jordanr2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jordanr2)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2009, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-five-reads-from-2009/521283/39 "2009-12-16T06:01:59Z")
> [@valleyofthedolls](#): > > Book I wished I never read: Wetlands by Charlotte Roche. Aw, I liked that one! I expected an all-out gross-out, but it actually turned out to be kind of a sweet love/lust story, rendered entirely on the narrator’s own terms. ---
**Author:** ![jordanr2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/838e76/32.png) [@jordanr2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jordanr2)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2009, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-five-reads-from-2009/521283/40 "2009-12-16T06:03:41Z")
> [@Humble\_Servant](#): > > Wide Sargasso Sea (man, did this suck) I’ve tried twice to read this one but it seems impenetrable. I’ve really liked the other three Rhys novels I’ve read, but this I just couldn’t get into - maybe it’s the fault of my relative unfamiliarity with _Jane Eyre_. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-five-reads-from-2009/521283.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-top-five-reads-from-2009/521283.md?page=3)