Top Ten Favorite Books Read in 2009

1.       These are my top ten books read in 2009. I have some riveting commentary about the selections, but first the list, in reverse author alpha order:

1. Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
2. The Financial Lives of Poets by Jess Walter
3. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
4. When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
5. Stitches by David Small
6. The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa
7. The Family Man by Elinor Lipman
8. If I Stay by Gayle Forman
9. The Scarecrow by Michael Connelly
10. Little Bee by Chris Cleave

I'm often excited about a book right after I read it, and in the past my Top Ten lists have leaned toward most recently-read loves. But this year I was diligent about putting my books on goodreads (although I was a total slacker about writing real reviews and my tags aren't all that helpful -- yet). I kept a Favorites of 2009 "book shelf" and just threw things on there when I was particularly blown away. Out of the 95 books I read, 23 made it to that shelf. Getting it down to ten was hard, and Little Bee and Stitches were often in jeopardy of being bumped (by Jonathan Tropper and Richard Russo; two worthy authors if you're going to be edged out).  Oh, and The Oxford Project, my favorite nonfiction book of the year, didn't make it to the final top ten. I think I'd better hit "publish post" before I monkey with this some more.