The Sunday Salon: Farewell 2009

Happy Sunday to all you Saloners and other readers! I hope the holidays are being sane and peaceful for you. We've had a quiet week - by design. The most exciting event was our puppy Liza Jane getting her new toys out of her stocking. She already had a stuffing-free moose, and now she's added a polar bear and a penguin to the collection. Our living room floor looks a bit like an Arctic massacre took place.

2009 is going out with a flutter rather than a bang in terms of my reading. I tapered off during the summer and in the fall, my reading was almost non-existent. But I'm back in the groove and 2010 looks like a good reading year. Most of what I plan to read is already on my shelf, which is a great feeling. And I generally move books along after I've read them, unless it's one I know I'll want to re-read in the not too distant future. So I'll be making room for more books throughout the year!

Some of my 2009 reading highlights (starred books are the best of the best):

• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak*
• The Help by Kathryn Stockett*
• The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent*
• The Night Watch by Sarah Waters
• Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse by Louise Erdrich*
• The Wilderness by Samantha Harvey*
• The Colour by Rose Tremain*
• The Day the Falls Stood Still by Cathy Marie Buchanan*
• The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon*
• The Earth Hums in B Flat by Mari Strachan*
• The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa
• The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver*
• The Flying Troutmans by Miriam Toews
• A Mercy by Toni Morrison
• Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
• Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
• Crow Lake by Mary Lawson
• The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
• Gilead by Marilynne Robinson*
• Waking: A Memoir of Trauma and Transcendence by Matthew Sanford
• Stitches by David Small (graphic memoir)

I've reviewed some of these; in the sidebar, 'Books I've Read in 2009' has links to reviews.

I'll be starting 2010 off with a classic, Dr. Zhivago and some more Orange prize winners/nominees for Orange January, from among these:

• Home by Marilynne Robinson
• White Teeth by Zadie Smith
• The Mammoth Cheese by Sheri Holman
• The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
• The Septembers of Shiraz by Dalia Sofer
• What the Body Remembers by Shauna Singh Baldwin
• Voyage of the Narwhal by Andrea Barrett
• Ursula Under by Ingrid Hill

Got suggestions?


Happy 2010 to all of you - may the year be peaceful, prosperous and include plenty of good books!