Books of 2009

[brigdh]

So, I'm a bit late in posting this. But, hey: cruise.

Some totals: I read 133 books last year. 53 of them by authors of color, 73 by women. By far (with 9 books) my most read author of the year was Georgette Heyer. Some other trends I notice are more non-fiction than I've read before, a brief fascination with food books, and multiple retellings of the Arthurian legend (by the way, if anyone knows of a retelling where Arthur and co are Saxons, totally let me know! I feel sad that the Saxons are always the bad guys in Arthur stories). Feel free to ask me for my opinion on any title! I love talking about books.


(books marked with a * are by POC)
Trickster's Choice - Tamora Pierce 1/4
Red Seas Under Red Skies - Scott Lynch 1/9
Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking - Malcolm Gladwell 1/10*
Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris 1/15 (audiobook)
Bangkok Haunts - John Burdett 1/17
Sylvester - Georgette Heyer 1/18 (audiobook)
Desperation - Stephen King 1/19
When You Are Engulfed in Flames - David Sedaris 1/20 (audiobook)
Sprig Muslin - Georgette Heyer 1/22 (audiobook)
Grotesque - Natsuo Kirino 1/25*
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation: Volume One: The Pox Party - M. T. Anderson 1/30
Frederica - Georgette Heyer 2/2 (audiobook)
Anathem - Neal Stephenson 2/4
Twenty Years After - Alexandre Dumas 2/6*
Farthing - Jo Walton 2/7
The Adventure of English: The Biography of a Language - Melvyn Bragg 2/7 (audiobook)
A Great and Terrible Beauty - Libba Bray 2/15 (audiobook)
Trading Encounters: From the Euphrates to the Indus in the Bronze Age - Shereen Ratnagar 2/22*
Persuasion - Jane Austen 3/3 (audiobook)
How to Practice - Dalai Lama 3/4 (audiobook)*
Freakonomics - Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner 3/6 (audiobook)
The Unknown Ajax - Georgette Heyer 3/8 (audiobook)
The Arabian Nights: Tales from A Thousand and One Nights - Trans. Sir Richard F. Burton 3/8
The Court of the Air - Stephen Hunt 3/15
Cane River - Lalita Tademy 3/19*
Fingersmith - Sarah Waters 3/21 (audiobook, reread)
Bangkok Tattoo - John Burdett 3/22 (audiobook, reread)
The Book of the New Sun - Gene Wolf 3/29
The Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett 3/31 (audiobook)
The Kingdom Beyond the Waves - Stephen Hunt 4/7
The Palace of Illusions - Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni 4/13*
The Treasures of Darkness: A History of Mesopotamian Religion - Thorkild Jacobsen 4/15
Alphabet of Dreams - Susan Fletcher 4/16
Happy Family - Wendy Lee 4/18*
Regency Buck - Georgette Heyer 4/26
The Social Construction of Ancient Cities - Ed: Monica I. Smith 4/27
Ethnic Identity in Tang China - Marc S. Abramson 5/6
Does My Head Look Big in This? - Randa Abdel-Fattah 5/7*
A La Carte - Tanita S. Davis 5/9*
The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America - Bill Bryson 5/12
Ten Things I Hate About Me - Randa Abdel-Fattah 5/14*
Chinatown Beat - Henry Chang 5/14*
Trickster's Queen - Tamora Pierce 5/17
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian - Sherman Alexie 5/17*
Kinky Gazpacho - Lori L. Tharps 5/18*
White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son - Tim Wise 5/19
The Emperor's Babe - Bernardine Evaristo 5/20*
My Tiki Girl - Jennifer McMahon 5/21
The Wind Done Gone - Alice Randall 5/23*
Getting Stoned with Savages: A Trip Through the Islands of Fiji and Vanuatu - J. Maarten Troost 5/23
Bloodchild and Other Stories - Octavia Butler 5/23*
The Convenient Marriage - Georgette Heyer 5/24
The Forest of Hands and Teeth - Carrie Ryan 5/25
Ha'Penny - Jo Walton 5/28
Koyal Dark, Mango Sweet - Kashmira Sheth 5/30*
The Little Stranger - Sarah Waters 5/31
Masquerade - Terry Pratchett 6/5 (reread)
The Coyote Kings of the Space-Age Bachelor Pad - Minister Faust 6/9*
The Sarasvati Flows On: The Continuity of Indian Culture - B. B. Lal 6/11*
Egyptian Faience and Glass - Paul Nicholson 6/11
Excavations at Kalibangan: The Early Harappans (1960-1969) - B. B. Lal et al 6/12*
Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree - Tariq Ali 6/13*
The God Box - Alex Sanchez 6/14*
Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America - Ayana D. Byrd and Lori L. Tharps 6/16*
Wild Sweet Love - Beverly Jenkins 6/21*
Tooth and Claw - Jo Walton 6/22
Skim - Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki 6/23*
A Civil Contract - Georgette Heyer 6/23 (audiobook)
An Archaeology of Identity: Soldiers and Society in Late Roman Britain - Andrew Gardner 6/28
The Talisman Ring - Georgette Heyer 6/30 (audiobook)
Fudoki - Kij Johnson 7/5
The Story of Tea: A Cultural History and Drinking Guide - Mary Lou Heiss and Robert J. Heiss 7/8
Beneath My Mother's Feet - Amjed Qamar 7/8*
Meeting Faith: The Forest Journals of a Black Buddhist Nun - Faith Adiele 7/10*
Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal - Eric Schlosser 7/12
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals - Michael Pollan 7/13
Cinderella's Sisters: A Revisionist History of Footbinding - Dorthy Ko 7/15*
The Crystal Cave - Mary Stewart 7/19
The Hollow Hills - Mary Stewart 7/22
Flygirl - Sherri L. Smith 7/24*
The Game of Thrones - George R. R. Martin 7/28
The Foundling - Georgette Heyer 7/28 (audiobook)
The Last Enchantment - Mary Stewart 8/1
In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto - Michael Pollan 8/2
Kushiel's Mercy - Jacqueline Carey 8/5
Lost on Planet China - J. Maarten Troost 8/7
Empress - Shan Sa 8/10*
A Clash of Kings - George R. R. Martin 8/12
Kushiel's Dart - Jacqueline Carey 8/15 (reread)
Naamah's Kiss - Jacqueline Carey 8/16
Beka Cooper: Terrier Tamora Pierce 8/24
No God But God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam - Reza Aslan 8/30*
The Wicked Day - Mary Stewart 8/31
Food Matters - Mark Bittman 8/31
Smile as They Bow - Nu Nu Yi 9/1*
The Lost Daughter of Happiness - Geling Yan 9/2*
A Storm of Swords - George R. R. Martin 9/11
Gentlemen of the Road - Michael Chabon 9/13
Living Dead in Dallas - Charlaine Harris 9/13 (audiobook)
Archaeology Matters! Action Archaeology in the Modern World - Jeremy Sabloff 9/14
Londonstani - Gautam Malkani 9/20*
Silver Phoenix - Cindy Pon 9/24*
Crescent - Diana Abu-Jaber 10/3*
Snow Country - Yasunari Kawabata 10/6*
Lives of Indian Images - Richard Davis 10/11
The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language - John McWhorter 10/12*
Ash - Malinda Lo 10/13*
Clothing Gandhi's Nation: Homespun and Modern India - Lisa Trivedi 10/24*
The Mists of Avalon - Marion Zimmer Bradley 10/28
Clothing Matters: Dress and Identity in India - Emma Tarlo 10/31
Living Dead Girl - Elizabeth Scott 11/2
Black London - Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina 11/3*
Name of the Wind - Patrick Rothfuss 11/11
Photos of the Gods: the Printed Image and Political Struggle in India - Christopher Pinney 11/12
How to Win a Cosmic War: God, Globilization, and the War on Terror - Reza Aslan 11/13*
India by Design: Colonial History and Cultural Display - Saloni Mathur 11/13*
Racing the Dark - Alaya Dawn Johnson 11/16*
Gods in the Bazaar: The Economies of Indian Calendar Art - Kajri Jain 11/19*
Searching for Whitopia: An Improbable Journey to the Heart of White America - Rich Benjamin 11/20*
Cinema India: The Visual Culture of Hindi Film - Rachel Dwyer and Divia Patel 11/23*
I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President - Josh Lieb 11/24
The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights - John Steinbeck 11/26
The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food - Jennifer Lee 11/30*
Origin - Diana Abu-Jaber 12/4*
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightime - Mark Haddon 12/6
Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary "Jacky" Faber, Ship's Boy - L. A. Meyer 12/8
A Feast for Crows - George R. R. Martin 12/11
What I Saw and How I Lied - Judy Blundell 12/16
Speaking Treason Fluently: Anti-Racist Reflections from an Angry White Male - Tim Wise 12/17
M + O 4Eva - Tonya Cherie Hegamin 12/18*
Empress of the World - Sara Ryan 12/20
Bite Marks: A Vampire Testament - Terence Taylor 12/31*
Stories of Your Life and Others- Ted Chiang 12/31*



Bests and Worsts, in order of awesomeness (or horribleness):
5 Worst Books of the Year:
1. The Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett. SO MANY RAPE SCENES. So many, many graphic rape scenes. And graphic non-rape sex scenes, but those weren't much fun to read either. Also, you know, annoying unbelievable characters, bad plots, and so very long that I thought it would never end. The same person who recommended this book to me recommend my #1 worse book last year, so I suppose I should have known better.
2. A Great and Terrible Beauty - Libba Bray. OMG RACEFAIL. And bonus evil lesbians! I couldn't stand the main characters, especially the narrator, and kind of wanted to slap every single person in this book.
3. he Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America - Bill Bryson. I've heard so many people recommend this author that I suppose I'll have to give him a second chance, but this was not a good book to start with. I have no problem with snarkiness or misanthropy (since I have a tendency to both myself), but this was just kind of hateful and petty.
4. The Mists of Avalon - Marion Zimmer Bradley. Morgaine: STOP BEING EMO. Guinevere: STOP WHINING. A book that I have always heard described as "sex-positive! feminist!" should not hate on female characters who have sex so much.
5. The Adventure of English: The Biography of a Language - Melvyn Bragg. Have you ever read one of those books where you finish only because you hate it so much, you feel more passionate about it than most things you like? Yeah. There were so many basic facts gotten wrong in this book, but that was nothing compared to the constant anthropomorphization of English into the Best Person Ever Who Can Do No Wrong.

5 Best Books of the Year:
1. The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation: Volume One: The Pox Party - M. T. Anderson. OMG OMG OMG. If you have not yet read this book, you MUST. YOU MUST. But it's hard to say why without giving away a spoiler, even though I think most people know the spoiler already.
2. Farthing - Jo Walton. AU of WWII: what if England and Germany had made peace? This starts out as a standard country-house mystery, but quickly gets much deeper and scarier. The narrators are amazing.
3. The Little Stranger - Sarah Waters. Sort of a haunted house story, sort of a romance, sort of commentary on class issues in post-WWII England. Always awesome. I am only sad that there were not historical lesbians (unlike all of Waters's other books). This is subtle and scary and so, so good.
4. The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights - John Steinbeck. This is an amaaaaaaaazing retelling. The only negative is that Steinbeck died before he finished it, and so it ends right at the beginning of the Lancelot/Guinevere development. But the writing is poetic and beautiful, and it's definitely worth reading, even if it doesn't have the whole story.
5. Gentlemen of the Road - Michael Chabon. It's like Swordspoint, but set in realistic Dark Ages Baltic area! It's like Fritz Leiber, but with gorgeous lush writing! It's Jews with Swords (seriously, that was the working title of the book). I haven't liked the other Chabon books I've read, but this one is fantastic.


For next year, I do want to do 50books_poc again. However, I also really, really, really need to read more books related to my field (particularly since I am doing my comps this semester hahahahaohgodiamgoingtodie), so I am setting myself a personal challenge to read 50 books at least vaguely related to archaeology this year. Of course, I could probably manage both challenges (particularly since some archaeology books are written by people of color, obviously [though I don't think anyone wants to read reviews of archaeology books]), but if that proves difficult, I think I will have to prioritize the archaeology.

Of course, we'll see how this all works out, since previous attempts at putting aside fiction to concentrate on work have quickly led to me losing my ability to think normally (seriously, not exaggerating. Apparently fiction allows me necessary stress release in a way nothing else does). But hey, New Year's Resolutions that will probably not be kept: hooray!