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!

The Dawn of a New Age

Those of you who have seen "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" are now thinking, "An age of lacy, pink, intimate things!"

Unfortunately, no.

It is 2010, and behold, there is new life on the moons of Jupiter and monoliths being planted on other worlds and . . . wait! Curse you, Arthur C. Clarke!

All right, I'll stop talking about movies.

And get down to brass tacks: New Year's Resolutions. They say you shouldn't make them, because you're just setting yourself up for failure. But who are "they?" "They" sound remarkably depressed and depressing. Let us ignore "them" and make some resolutions. I'm feeling awfully resolutiony.

In 2010 I want to:

Read over 150 books (I got to 149 last year. So close!)

Finish the book I'm currently working on, and get at least 2/3 of the way through another.

Lose 7 pounds.

Learn to play mah jong.

Go to the movies at least once a month.

Blog every week, and start including pictures in the blog.

Take a trip to a supersecret, supercool location where I will do loads of research and begin writing a supersecret, supercool book.

Oh, that last one is just a big TEASE isn't it? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! But it's so true: Mr. Man and I are planning a Very Special Vacation which will include a guided tour of a number of castles and other Ancient Sytes of Ye Intereste, followed by several days of lounging around so that I can begin my Supersecret Book on site, for Maximum Ambience.

Also, I'd really like to take the kiddies to Disneyland again. Just for a day or two. Ride the Thunder Mountain Railroad, eat a giant smoked turkey leg. Perhaps it should be a family tradition: every September when there is NO ONE THERE, we go to Disneyland. (Seriously, no one was there. It. Was. Awesome.)

I was going to start off this blog right, by including a picture, but Baby Girl is asleep in the Chamber I Wished to Photograph, so I will not. We were up all night with the little moppet, as she has stomach flu for the first time ever, and threw up every five minutes from 2 am to about 7:30. Not. That. Awesome. Now she is asleep in my bed, so I cannot photograph the Chair. I recently used my ill-gotten gains (aka, "royalties") to purchase new furniture for my bedroom. Part of this furniture includes a freakin' awesome chair and ottoman which has already cradled me comfortably for the longest writing stint I've managed since November. I wished to show you all the Chair, but since you would also get a good luck at the Bed, which contains a sick, sleeping child and has sheets in dire need of washing after last night, I shall forbear.

Perhaps next Monday.

When I keep to my resolution to blog every week, by presenting to you my favorite books of 2009! (Cue cheers, cue crashing of cymbals!)

But here, as just a small taste of "Best of" list goodness, are my Top Five favorite movies of 2009:

1. Star Trek
2. Avatar
3. Up
4. Sherlock Holmes
5. The Princess and the Frog

What are your resolutions?