Jessica Day George

Monday, January 11, 2010

Best of the Year- Now with a Chair!

I like books. I really, really do. And every year I read a lot of books. Usually more than a hundred, and I think my top year was 2006, when I read 152 books. And I love to recommend books, too. So every year I list my favorite books from the year before, broken up into categories so that I don't have to pick just ten total. Also, please note that these weren't necessarily published in 2009, that's just when I read them.

And I'm not saying that you're guaranteed to like them, too, or that I won't like you if you don't read them, I'm just saying, "Here, this is what I liked!" Please feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments!

Picture Books

1. Princess Hyacinth, Florence Parry Heide, Lane Smith
2. Naked Mole Rate Gets Dressed, Mo Willems
3. Llama Llama Mad at Mama, Anna Dewdney
4. Crazy Hair, Neil Gaiman, Dave McKean
5. The Queen of Style, Mark and Caralyn Buehner
6. Elephants Cannot Dance! (and all the Elephant & Piggie books), Mo Willems
7. The Dangerous Alphabet, Neil Gaiman, Gris Grimly
8. Blueberry Girl, Neil Gaiman, Charles Vess
9. Mary Had A Little Lamp, Jack Lechner
10. The Hair of Zoe Fleefenbacher Goes to School Laurie Halse Anderson

Middle Grade

1. The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman
2. A Crooked Kind of Perfect, Linda Urban
3. Kenny and the Dragon, Tony DiTerlizzi
4. Silksinger, Laini Taylor
5. Savvy, Ingrid Law
6. House of Many Ways, Diana Wynne Jones
7. The Ice Dragon, George R. R. Martin
8. The Willoughbys, Lois Lowry
9. Middle School is Worse Than Meatloaf, Jennifer L. Holm
10.Starcross, Philip Reeve

Young Adult

1. Lips Touch, Laini Taylor, Jim DiBartolo
2. Dreamhunter, Dreamquake, Elizabeth Knox
3. Once Was Lost, Sara Zarr
4. The Knife of Never Letting Go, Patrick Ness
5. The Ask and the Answer, Patrick Ness
6. The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
7. Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins
8. The Loser's Guide to Life and Love, A. E. Cannon
9. Ice, Sarah Beth Durst
10.The Chosen One, Carol Lynch Williams

Graphic

These are just my favorites, in no particular order.

The Arrival, Shaun Tan
Stitches, David Small
Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?, Neil Gaiman
Schlock Mercenary: Under New Management, Howard Tayler

Adult*

1. The Girl Who Played With Fire, Stieg Larsson
2. Bel Canto, Ann Patchett
3. The Hamish MacBeth mysteries, M. C. Beaton
4. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson
5. Reservation Blues, Sherman Alexie
6. The Blue Castle, L.M. Montgomery
7. Any Given Day, Dennis Lehane
8. The Hero of Ages, Brandon Sanderson
9. Victory of Eagles, Naomi Novik
10. Diaries: 1969-1979, Michael Palin

*Please note, younger readers: These are ADULT books and some of them are not for the faint of heart or young of age!

And now, because you've all been so good, I'm going to give you a peek at my innermost sanctum. I'm sure you're all thinking, What is her DEAL with the chair?! Well, dear readers, here's the thing: I have written most of my books sitting on a kitchen chair at the kitchen table. Now, finally, I have purchased myself this fine and worthy item, and have been lounging in it as often as I can, finding it very comfy but also very conducive to writing. At last I feel like I have a real, comfortable Writing Spot.

Ta da!

14 comments:

Catherine Denton said...

152 in one year? Wow, I thought I read fast but I've never come close to that many. Thanks for sharing your favorites. Many of them are on my To-Be-Read list but now I may move them up.

Love the chair!

BBB said...

Love, love, love the chair. Thank you for the list of books. I've read a chunk of them, and look forward to some more good book ideas.

Windybrook Spinner said...

Awesome chair. I LOVE Blue Castle.

Cara said...

Wonderful reads!!!! A good few of those I've already read and most of the others are on my to-read list. For everybody who hasn't you MUST read the Hunger Games to see what's the big deal. I read it before it got really popular but goodness I'm so glad there are so many people who enjoy reading the series too.
One of my fav reads this year was of course Princess of Midnight Ball (much anticipating the Princess of Glass). I would recommend also North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headley.

Jackee said...

Love, love the chair. And I'm so grateful you are on goodreads and use it because I get some of my best reads from your 150+ reviews a year. Thank you!

Angie said...

Fabulous Chair...LOVED North and South (current reads)...

Debbie Barr said...

That is one sweet chair.

And The Blue Castle is one of my very favorite books, but most people are a lot less familiar with it than L.M. Montgomery's other books. I adore it, though. :) Glad to see you have good taste. ;)

Melinda said...

Oooh, you listed some books I haven't read yet....

LOVE the chair. You are so lucky!!!!

Meredith said...

Thanks a million for the recommendations. I've been in a slump. PS, I got my mom and sister to read (and love) Dragon Slippers over Christmas. My mom isn't a big reader, but she just got Dragon Flight today and is excited to read it.

Alice said...

Thanks for sharing. I'm amazed by all the books you read. Cool chair!

dragonfan said...

will u pretty pretty please write a fourth dragon book. i love them i read one of them when my mom was in the hospital please write more

dragonfan said...

i am reading the third book and was wondering could u mak ever lasting series of the dragon book

Ann said...

love the chair
thanks fir the shoutout
congrats on the ala honor--you deserve it

Anonymous said...

Love the chair! I've been lucky enough to receive copies of the first three Creel books- looks like I can safely say "first three"??- to review. Much fun, they've been.

In regards to the Ice Dragon, loved it, but I have trouble viewing it as a younger novel. Seems more like 12ish to me, emotionally speaking. Great book though. Amazingly well written. (also one that I was fortunate enough to get a review copy of!)

Looking forward to seeing what you write next!