So what was the best thing you Read in 2009?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by LDBoblo

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

Interesting choice. I enjoyed it, certainly, but I wouldn't say that it was my best book of 2009. What was it that you liked about it so much?

[Jack Tingle]

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

Might be the book I'm reading now, The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Boulgakov.

I enjoyed that strange novel. It led me to look up other early Twencen Russian novels. I also liked "And Quiet Flow the Don".

Regards,
Jack Tingle

[lilac_jive]

Hrmm, I can't pick just one..

The Johnstown Flood by David McCullough
1984 by George Orwell
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
The Fever Series by Karen Marie Moning (can't pick just one of those)
In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick
The Dresden Files Series by Jim Butcher (can't pick one of those either)
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

I read a lot of great books this year but those were the ones that stuck out the most for me.

[kennyc]

Thanks everyone. Keep 'em coming!

My to-be-read list is growing with almost every post.

[rhadin]

Well, since the question wasn't limited to fiction ebooks, I'd have to say my two favorites in 2009 were Abraham Lincoln: A Life by Michael Burlingame and Louis D. Brandeis: A Life by Melvin Urofsky.

Lincoln is one of the most fascinating persons in American history and Burlingame's biography is the standard against which all Lincoln bios will be judged for many years to come. if anything, it is too complete a bio.

Brandeis was a highly successful Boston lawyer who is mainly known for his role as a U.S. Supreme Court Justice. But Brandeis is the lawyer, the standard, that every lawyer should strive to be and reach but to which no lawyer before or since Brandeis ever rose. Brandeis was often a lawyer "to the situation" rather than a lawyer to an individual, with the result that he was exceptionally well-revered in his day, as well as well-disliked.

For anyone interested in biography, I'd recommend these two titles in particular.

Other interesting nonfiction books include Why the Dreyfus Affair Matters by Louis Begley; The Poison King: the Life and Legend of Mithradates by Adrienne Mayor; Democracy's Prisoner: Eugene V. Debs, the Great War, and the Right to Dissent by Ernest Freeberg; Fear: Antisemitism after Auschwitz by Jan Tomasz Gross; The Lexicographer's Dilemma by Jack Lynch; and Anti-Semitism: Myth and Hate from antiquity to the Present by Marvin Perry.

[DixieGal]

Either I'm becoming harder to please, or else the new stuff out there is getting worse. Remember, I actually read every single Hugo nominee for the past 2 yrs, knowing that they were supposed to be the best of the year.

So if I'm reading some of the very best new books, why were my favorites of 2009 actually re-reads of very old books, Vernor Vinge's "A Fire Upon the Deep" and "A Deepness in the Sky," and "Nova" by Samuel R. Delany?

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by DixieGal

Either I'm becoming harder to please, or else the new stuff out there is getting worse. Remember, I actually read every single Hugo nominee for the past 2 yrs, knowing that they were supposed to be the best of the year.

So if I'm reading some of the very best new books, why were my favorites of 2009 actually re-reads of very old books, Vernor Vinge's "A Fire Upon the Deep" and "A Deepness in the Sky," and "Nova" by Samuel R. Delany?

Amazing isn't it. I'm with ya. I think there is some good stuff out there, but there is way more marginal stuff that tends to confuse things!

[FlorenceArt]

Originally Posted by kennyc

I think there is some good stuff out there, but there is way more marginal stuff that tends to confuse things!

Yes, that's how I feel too.

[ErwinOtten]

The book that impressed me most this year is a rather old one.

It stuck out so much because I know I've come across it at high school and it didn't impress me then by one bit.
This year it was the most hilarious book I've read. Shows how you change through the years.

My book of 2009 was ............. Pride & Prejudice

[mtravellerh]

The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
Perdido Street Station by China Miéville

[fiver]

This year was filled with a lot of re-reads since I got my kindle, but the best things in total I read were:

Watership Down by Richard Adams (my favorite novel since I was ten)
The Pearl By John Steinbeck
The Red Pony by John Steinbeck
Coraline by Neil Gaiman
How To Disappear Completely by David Bowick
The Monsters Within Idea by R. Thomas Riley
Kindred by Octavia Butler
The Collector by John Fowles


Least liked book by far was Pride & Prejudice & Zombies - does not do justice in any way to the Austen novel.

Michael

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by fiver

This year was filled with a lot of re-reads since I got my kindle, but the best things in total I read were:

Watership Down by Richard Adams (my favorite novel since I was ten)
The Pearl By John Steinbeck
The Red Pony by John Steinbeck
Coraline by Neil Gaiman
How To Disappear Completely by David Bowick
The Monsters Within Idea by R. Thomas Riley
Kindred by Octavia Butler
The Collector by John Fowles


Least liked book by far was Pride & Prejudice & Zombies - does not do justice in any way to the Austen novel.

Michael

Maybe a quick review of Kindred? I've thought about reading it?

[LDBoblo]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Interesting choice. I enjoyed it, certainly, but I wouldn't say that it was my best book of 2009. What was it that you liked about it so much?

Actually I haven't read it, but I figured it'd ruffle a couple of the pretentious feathers after that loooong Dan Brown thread.

To add a serious answer...I reread a lot of classics that I'm fairly fond of, but I suppose my favorite fresh read of the year was Barry Hughart's Bridge of Birds. I think it's a good book even for a casual reader, but as a scholar of Chinese literature, I found it particularly evocative and enjoyable. Granted, a lot of Chinese scholars would look down their nose at a book that didn't involve everyone dying...but I'm too immature to adopt such a perspective.

[lene1949]

Originally Posted by neilmarr

A tough call, but two ebooks in particular really grabbed me to the extent that I can't wait for the details to dim so I can read them again: Ken Follett's Pilars of the Earth and World Without End. WWE was a recommendation from friends here at MR, but I re-read the earlier book to refresh my memory, and was glad I did. Another highlight of the year was Earth Abides, thanks to Mores. Also really enjoyed some work by Margaret Attwood that was recommended here. Happy reading in 2010, folks. Best wishes. Neil

Yes! I read them both twice... and will read them again, but it'll have to be on my palm as they're in a secure format (Pillars of the Earth and World without End)

[sjb]

I can't pick just one so in no particular order here are my favourite reads from '09.
The Diviners by Margaret Laurence.
Julian: A Novel by Gore Vidal.
The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann.