Keep track of all the books I read in 2009

Oh, Miss Read, how I love you.

Awesome.

This book is what I hope real “literature” will be and it so rarely is: a dense and weighty story with huge themes intertwining, filled with all kinds of ideas and surprising revelations about the world and the human condition, written with breath-takingly lovely images in every sentence

And an engaging plot that is actually about something and that pulls you forward, drawing you in so you want to stay up too late and read it.

I can not wait to read another Chabon book now.

25.5 – Amulet: Book 1 – The Stonekeeper

Interesting ya adventure manga. Cool girl protagonist, well-drawn and surprising fantasy world, and intriguing plot. And the opening scene, where the father is killed in a car crash, had me in tears in the library. Will keep my eyes open for book 2.

26 – Jellaby
More manga style but a lot more predictable. Alienated adolescent finds magical helper and helping him finds her a friend and adventure. Not worth pursuing further.

Taste the tangy satire. Laugh and cringe.

A collection of essays about Blume’s wisdom and girlhood dramas. I read the first five and then realized it was depressing me. I don’t want to revisit my adolescence or any girl’s adolescence unless it’s stylized or unrealistically cheerful.

The fact that I don’t have to live through that again is one of the best things about having a boy! And I don’t want to spend my time thinking about it, either. Let’s not pick those scabs.

Totally forgot I had read this. Read most of it, skimmed some.

My weight issues aren’t related to my mess issues, though it was interesting to see how the two might be connected for many people.

Wait! I have read something worth mentioning in civilized circles!

An amazing book about surfing, about pushing the limits, about breath, about growing up, and about irresponsibility.

Incredibly well written. It’s not often that beautiful language that makes you want to read it aloud to admire how it hangs in the air is used to serve a real page-turning story.

Really beautiful and something I’ll be thinking of for a long time.

As opposed to this book, which blew me away. I mean, there was hardly any sex at all (I know, right?) but I didn’t mind because it was so well written.

Extremely well drawn characters, interesting and layered plot, and full of fascinating details (I had always wondered exactly what a mangel wurtzel was).

I had come across this title, as I do, wandering people’s blogs after reading a book, trying to get some context for it. It was held up as a masterpiece of the genre and, in my very limited experience, that is definitely is.

I’ve now read more romance books by more authors and I can say that this book was pretty bad.

I also notice the S&M theme running through a lot of Quick’s books. And not good S&M for the most part – violent. Hmm – not really a fan of that.

I just read that Talking to Dragons was actually the first of the books and the others are prequels. That makes a lot of sense – it felt less formed than the others and a lot less steady than Calling on Dragons, which I thought was the best of the bunch.

These really are fun books. Perfect for bedtime.