Books Read in 2009

Here is a list of the books I read in 2009 and some brief totals.

Total books read: 145
Books read from library: 75
Own books read: 70
Books written by female authors (more than one book by same author counted as one): 82
Books written by male authors: 21
Books read by new-to-me authors: 72
YA/children's books read: 70
Re-reads: 12

Most read authors this year:

Charlaine Harris - 9 titles (Sookie Stackhouse)
Sarah Dessen - 7 titles (a new discovery for me this year!)
Neil Gaiman/Meg Cabot - 4 titles each (yay for favourite authors!)

Instead of creating a list of top reads in 2009, I've gone through the year and chosen my favourite reads of each month. It's different looking at each month and choosing my favourites at the end of the year then it is choosing a favourite of the month after each month. Some books stayed with me longer than I realised.

January

1. Princess Diaries: Ten Out of Ten by Meg Cabot
2. A Mercy by Toni Morrison
3. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
4. Affinity by Sarah Waters
5. The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster
6. The Tales of Beedle the Bard by JK Rowling
7. Airhead by Meg Cabot
8. Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
9 Ten Things I Hate About Me by Randa Abdel-Fattah
10. Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume

Favourite book of the month? The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster

February

11. Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
12. What I Loved by Siri Hustvedt
13. Saffy's Angel by Hilary McKay
14. Regeneration by Pat Barker
15. The Chocolate Run by Dorothy Koomson
16. M Is For Magic by Neil Gaiman
17. The War Poems by Wilfred Owen
18. Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
19. Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt

Favourite book of the month? Tie between Fingersmith by Sarah Waters and What I Loved by Siri Hustvedt
March

20. American Gods by Neil Gaiman
21. The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan
22. Rumour Has It by Jill Mansell
23. Goodnight, Beautiful by Dorothy Koomson
24. The Eye in the Door by Pat Barker
25. Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella
26. Looking For Alaska by John Green

Favourite book of the month? Looking For Alaska by John Green

April

27. Marshmallows For Breakfast by Dorothy Koomson
28. Audrey, Wait by Robin Benway
29. After The Wreck, I Picked Myself Up, Spread My Wings, and Flew Away by Joyce Carol Oates
30. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
31. Someone Like You by Sarah Dessen
32. Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr
33. Case Histories by Kate Atkinson
34. Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones
35. The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway
36. Pay It Forward by Catherine Ryan Hyde

Favourite book of the month? Pay It Forward by Catherine Ryan Hyde

May

37. Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka
38. Small Island by Andrea Levy
39. Savvy by Ingrid Law
40. Falling Man by Don DeLillo
41. Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr
42. City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare
43. Tithe by Holly Black
44. Baby Bonanza by Maureen Child
45. Slow Hands by Leslie Kelly
46. Price of Passion by Susan Napier
47. Irresistable Forces by Brenda Jackson
48. Hide in Plain Sight by Marta Perry
49. Stranded with a Spy by Merline Lovelace
50. Once a Cowboy by Linda Warren
51. Dancing in the Moonlight by Raeanne Thayne
52. Snowbound by Janice Kay Johnson
53. The Bride's Baby by Liz Fielding
54. A Very Special Delivery by Linda Goodnight
55. Speed Dating by Nancy Warren
56. His Lady Mistress by Elizabeth Rolls
57. Homespun Bride by Jillian Hart
58. The Rebel Doctor's Bride by Sarah Morgan

Favourite book of the month? Small Island by Andrea Levy

June

59. Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks
60. Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen
61. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
62. Suddenly Single by Sheila O'Flanagan
63. Take Two by Danielle Bronson
64. Dreamland by Sarah Dessen
65. Born Confused by Tanuja Desai Hidier (reread)
66. Unsticky by Sarra Manning
67. Let's Get Lost by Sarra Manning
68. Unsticky by Sarra Manning (reread)
69. Twilight by Stephanie Meyer (reread)
70. New Moon by Stephanie Meyer (reread)
71. Eclipse by Stephanie Meyer (reread)
72. Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer (reread)
73. If I Stay by Gayle Forman
74. The Girlfriend Curse by Valerie Frankel
75. This Charming Man by Marian Keyes

Favourite of the month? Hard to choose. If I Stay by Gayle Forman, Unsticky by Sarra Manning and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

July

76. Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen
77. The Lottery by Beth Goobie
78. What My Mother Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones
79. Are These My Basoomas I See Before Me? by Louise Rennison
80. The Savage by David Almond
81. Life on the Refrigerator Door by Alice Kuipers
82. Queen of Babble Gets Hitched by Meg Cabot
83. Are We There Yet? By David Levithan
84. Cracked Up To Be by Courtney Summers
85. City of Glass by Cassandra Clare
86. Fairest by Gail Carson Levine
87. Just Listen by Sarah Dessen
88. Ways To Live Forever by Sally Nicholls
89. Jake's Tower by Elizabeth Laird
90. Stop Pretending by Sonya Sones
91. The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen
92. Just Listen by Sarah Dessen
93. Rumble Fish by S.E. Hinton

Favourite of the month? Nothing jumps out at me when deciding this at the end of the year. All good books though!

August

94. 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson
95. City of Ember by Jeanne duPrau
96. Last Chance by Sarah Dessen
97. Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan
98. Memoirs of A Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin
99. Cyrano by Geraldine McCaughrean
100. The Valley of the Horses by Jean Auel (re-read)
101. The Mammoth Hunters by Jean Auel (re-read)
102. Unsticky by Sarra Manning (re-read)
103. Holly's Inbox by Holly Denham
104. The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline B Cooney (re-read)
105. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Schaffer and Annie Barrows

Favourite of the month? Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Schaffer and Annie Barrows

September

106. Airhead: Being Nikki by Meg Cabot
107. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
108. The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness
109. Nocturnes by Kazuo Ishiguro
110. Holly's Inbox: Scandal in the City by Holly Denham
111. A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
112. One Day by David Nicholls

Favourite of the month? One Day by David Nicholls and A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry

October

113. Charlotte's Web by EB White (re-read)
114. The Outsiders by SE Hinton (re-read)
115. Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
116. Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick
117. I Heart You, You Haunt Me by Lisa Schroeder
118. Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
119. Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris
120. Club Dead by Charlaine Harris
121. Dead To the World by Charlaine Harris
122. Dead As A Doornail by Charlaine Harris
123. Definitely Dead by Charlaine Harris

Favourite of the month? Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

November

124. Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn
125. The Bride's Farewell by Meg Rosoff
126. All Together Dead by Charlaine Harris
127. From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris
128. Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris
129. The Enemy by Charlie Higson
130. Generation A by Douglas Coupland
131. The Road of the Dead by Kevin Brooks
132. Heaven Can Wait by Cally Taylor
133. The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood
134. Goodbye Tsugumi by Banana Yoshimoto
135. Evermore by Alyson Noel
136. Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton
137. The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera
138. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin

Favourite of the month? Heaven Can Wait by Cally Taylor and Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn

December

139. Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman
140. The Vampire Diaries: The Awakening by LJ Smith
141. Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
142. What I Was by Meg Rosoff
143. Mort by Terry Pratchett
144. Jackdaw Summer by David Almond
145. An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro

Favourite of the month? Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

And because I haven't written about my December totals, I'll write that briefly here. Two books by Neil Gaiman. Definitely one of my favourite ever authors. I was very disappointed in The Vampire Diaries. I decided against writing a review of it as it would be almost entirely negative. What I Was and Jackdaw Summer were beautifully written. I probably didn't understand the subtleties and layers of An Artist of the Floating World but I certainly enjoyed it very much and Kazuo Ishiguro finds a place on my list of favourite authors. Mort by Terry Pratchett was the big surprise of the month. I did NOT expect to love Mort as much as I did. I found the lack of chapter breaks a little tedious but it will not be the last book I read by Terry Pratchett. I now cringe at all the times I've said that Terry Pratchett is 'not my sort of thing' - in fact, he should be everyone's 'thing'!

Anyway, happy reading in 2010!