Your 'Top Reads' of 2009!

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..

Notorious

East of Eden by John Steinbeck was my favourite read of the year, and it has possibly become one of my favourite books. I'll be giving it a reread in the near future.

I had my first proper venture into science fiction with Issac Asimov's Foundation after a friend recommended it. An amazing read and it's driven me towards more sci-fi.

F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button also deserves a mention. There wasn't one of the short stories in the book that I didn't like.

Kai

This year i managed:
The Road - Mccarthy
No country for old men
Blood Meridian
Started All the pretty horses but was burned out with McCarthy at thi stage so ill wait a while.

Foundation - Asimov - First three books.
Enders Game - Orson Scott Card.
First 3 Master and Commander books by Patrick O'Brian - Enjoying them a lot more than i expected.
Blink,Outliers, The Tipping point - Malcolm Gladwell.
Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson
Moby Dick - Herman Melville.
Slaughterhouse 5 - Vonnegut

Started but have yet to finish The Count of Monte Cristo.

Currently reading J Robert Oppenheimers Biography - American Prometheus.

Denerick

First 3 Master and Commander books by Patrick O'Brian - Enjoying them a lot more than i expected.

Same here. I find that my interest drops all the time though until you come across a few paragraphs that get you into them again. Its very hard to concentrate on but when you're in the zone, they are really good books.

Kai

Denerick wrote: »

Same here. I find that my interest drops all the time though until you come across a few paragraphs that get you into them again. Its very hard to concentrate on but when you're in the zone, they are really good books.

Yep, and he wrote something like 20 books in the series. If the quality stays the same then that is a major accomplishment.

Flex

Favourite books I read this year were

- "The Alchemist"
- "The Five People You Meet in Heavan"
- "Conspiracy" (a book about famous Irish trials).

Couple of other ones I liked were "Day of the Dragon", "The Poisonwood Bible" (although it dragged on alooooooooot) and a book called "Empire".

mishimab

Flex wrote: »

Favourite books I read this year were

- "The Alchemist"

good choice.. good book..

tallulah_crack

I know this much is true- Wally Lamb
Generation A- Douglas Coupland
Post Birthday World- Lionel Shriver
Catseye- Margaret Atwood
The Death of Bunny Monroe- Nick Cave
Black Swan Green- David Mitchell
&A fraction of the whole by Steve Toltz which I found almost painful to finish!

Glowing

tallulah_crack wrote: »

I know this much is true- Wally Lamb

Great book(but it's technically in my great reads of 2008 ) I've got his second book in my pile of books to read, can't wait to start that!

Rainbow_brite

- A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hossein
- The Time Traveler's Wife- A Niffenegger
- The Forgotten Garden - Kate Morton
- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - S Larsson
- The Book Thief - Markus Zusak

And not forgetting the latest Adrian Mole The Prostate Years a childhood favourite

tallulah_crack

Glowing wrote: »

Great book(but it's technically in my great reads of 2008 ) I've got his second book in my pile of books to read, can't wait to start that!

Is that the hour i first believed??? It's amazing! Definitely one of my favourite reads ever, was gutted when i finished it!