Best Books 2009

Well, I fell far short of my annual goal of 52 books this year! I read 21, but can only take partial credit for that since some were re-reads and honestly, Sophie Kinsella books barely count anyway, they are just little mental cupcakes. They were necessary because frankly, the more cerebral books were pretty boring this year.

So no top 10 list, but here are some noteworthies:

• My favorite was Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell. He is a terrific writer and can make anything interesting. He's author of The Tipping Point, Blink, and a new book called What the Dog Saw, which is coming up soon on my list.
  
• The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo; Larsson. Unusual mystery with some espionage, colorful characters and an unusual flavor with Stockholm as the setting.
• The Gargoyle; Davidson. A story about a recovering burn victim and his lover, with some extremely interesting flashbacks to another age, vignettes of love stories, stone sculpting and Dante's Inferno to round things out.
• Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife; Roach. Another non-fiction author that can make any topic fun, wrote Stiff which is one of my all-time favorites.
  
• Assassin's Apprentice; Hobb. This is the fantasy genre, taking place in a royal court, I guess it is what it sounds like. I was pleasantly surprised.

On the second tier, I also read The Road, Twenties Girl, Her Fearful Symmetry and The Lost Symbol. All interesting but not extraordinary... although the last page of The Road is something special.

As usual my list of upcoming books looks much more exciting, so keep your fingers crossed for 2010! I started Super Freakonomics at lunch and it's already a pleasure.