The Best and Worst Books of 2009: A Pictorial History

[trinityofone]

Better late than never: My favorite books of 2009 and a year of reading in review!

TOP FIVE FICTION

5.

4.

3.

2.

1.

TOP FIVE GRAPHIC NOVELS

5.

4.

3.

2.

1.

TOP FIVE YOUNG ADULT

5.

4.

3.

2.

1.

TOP FIVE NONFICTION

5.

4.

3.

2.

1.

FIVE WORST BOOKS

5.

4.

3.

2.

1.

And now some gratuitous statistics!

Types of Books:
Fiction: 81%
Nonfiction: 19%

In Fiction:
Sci-Fi/Fantasy: 30%
Mystery: 8%
Graphic Novel: 18%
Literary/Other: 35%

Books Acquired:
Library: 39%
Borrowed: 22%
Gifts: 1%
Internet: 1%
BookMooch: 12%
Bought: 11%
ARCs: 13%

Sex of Author:
Male: 141
Female: 59
Ratio: 2.39:1 (oy)

Books by People of Color:
Total: 34
Percentage: 16% (*facepalm*)

Old vs. New:
New: 97%
Reread: 3%

But now it is a new year! A fresh start! Please rec me:

1. Awesome books by women!
2. Awesome books by POC!
3. Goofy-fun books with angels in ’em!

Obviously, any that are three-in-one would be amazing.

Comments

[miasnape.livejournal.com]

One book I would highly recommend to anyone - and which has the bonus of fitting both 1 & 2 on your list if not, sadly, 3 - is The God of Small Things (http://www.amazon.com/God-Small-Things-Arundhati-Roy/dp/0060977493) by Arundhati Roy. I haven't seen it on your booklog, so I thought I'd rec it on the off chance you hadn't read it.

[k00kaburra.livejournal.com]

Agreed on Hush, hush. As I speculated in my review of the book (http://fashion-piranha.livejournal.com/83515.html?mode=reply):

So how many of us, after reading Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series, threw the book across the room and declared “I could write that book better than she did?”

A lot of us, yes?

But how many of us actually turned around and actually wrote our own paranormal teen romance? Not quite so many, right?

Well, it is my personal theory that this gut reaction is exactly the impetus that led Becca Fitzpatrick to write her debut novel, Hush, Hush.

[ravurian]

Elizabeth Knox's 'The Vintner's Luck' is awesome, and has an angel. It's set in Napoleonic France - a young man, Sobran, spurned by the woman he loves, sneaks off to get drunk in the vinyard and meets an angel named Xas. They agree to meet again on the same night every year. It's a book of love and life and death, of improbable relationships, of theology and wars (Napoleon's, and the one in Heaven), and of wine, and it's beautiful.

[mecurtin.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the recs, especially the non-fiction.

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

I haven't read it yet. I'll look for it—thanks!

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

I suspect you are correct. I only wish she'd strayed a little (okay, a lot) farther from the formula.

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

I actually read The Vintner's Luck two years ago (2008) and you're right, it's beautiful. I wish there were more books like it!

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

Heh. I hope you enjoy them!

I absolutely adore The Lymond Chronicles. Few books have effected me so strongly: toward the end of book six, when you-know-what happens and you're made to think it's happened to you-know-who, I actually had to put the book aside and go sob in the bathroom for ten minutes until I calmed down.

A very dignified story to share, that.

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

My pleasure; I hope you find something that you enjoy!

[22by7.livejournal.com]

Er, I don't know if you've already read the following, so here we go:

RECS

1. Everything ever written by Penelope Fitzgerald, but especially of course The Blue Flower.

2. Shyam Selvadurai's Funny Boy.

1+2. This is nonfiction, a very important book and very, very important to me, personally and culturally. Urvashi Butalia's The Other Side of Silence.

3. You've read the Knox book... wow, there just isn't enough out there right now. Unless you want manga?

[ravurian]

Oh cool - I almost wish that someone would write the SPN version, LOL. After all, the difference between Xas and Cas might only be a matter of pronounciation and universe...

Also (also) if you loved TVL, please, please, please stay away from its newly released sequel. I mean, I've heard of a couple of people who loved it, but not many. I had to put it down after the first 80 pages. It's badfic. IMO.

Since you've read TVL, let me instead recommend 'Rapture' by David Sosnowski which, while written by a man, has angels and awesome...

[souliesoul.livejournal.com]

I'm so pleased to see 'The Arrival' by Shaun Tan on your list - I keep meaning to buy it, but when it comes to it I can't remember the name of either the book or the author/illustrator. It's such an amazing piece of work, my tutor was uses that book to make a point about creating places and use of text.

I, er, don't have any recs because I have a problem remembering names, but thank you for all the recs here!

[indian-skimmer.livejournal.com]

Ahdaf Soueif's In The Eye Of The Sun was my female author find of 2009 even though it was written in 1990ish and I found it as a second hand copy. Also Chris Brookmyre's Pandaemonium, as long as you don't have any problems with blasphemy, gore, a bit more blasphemy, more gore, even more blasphemy, school trips or trans-dimensional phyisics. No angels though. Sadly.

Although given that Dragon Tattoo was the book I would have most happily pulped of 2009 I'm not sure I should be making recommendations...

[sonofzeal.livejournal.com]

I recently read "The Warrior's Apprentice" by Lois McMaster Bujold. It's really good, and written by a woman! Also it's space opera.

[persephone-il.livejournal.com]

Read recently and enjoyed greatly: the first volume of The Orphan's Tales by Catherynne M. Valente. Arabian-nights-ish recursive storytelling.

[soho-iced.livejournal.com]

The sequel, The Angel's Cut, is also wonderful, if you happened to miss it? I read recently that she is planning a third book about Xas, which made me extremely happy.

(A Supernatural/Vinter's Luck fusion occured to me too, though unfortunately I lack any writing talent.)

Other angel books - the Samaria series by Sharon Shinn, starting with Archangel, though they are a might romance-y in tone. Stronger recommendation for the wonderful Damiano trilogy by RA MacAvoy, featuring the Archangel Raphael.