Top 10 Books of 2009

Another year has gone by, and I've read more books this past year than I've ever read in a single year. But,....uh,....I don't know what the final number is yet. :o) I've got one book for sure that'll be finished by 11:59pm tonight, and maybe I can squeeze in one more....we'll have to see. And maybe one of those will make it on this list as an honorable mention or something.

In the mean time, I wanted to share with you my Top 10 Books of 2009. In no particular order....here we go:

1. Daughters of Boston series by Julie Lessman (REVIEW of Book 3)
2. Talking to the Dead by Bonnie Grove (REVIEW)
3. The Face by Angela Hunt
4. Sisters of the Quilt series by Cindy Woodsmall
5. The Veil by Diane Noble (REVIEW)
6. Shadows of Lancaster County by Mindy Starns Clark (REVIEW)
7. Stand-in Groom by Kaye Dacus (REVIEW)
8. Love Finds You in North Pole, Alaska by Loree Lough (REVIEW)
9. Pièce de Résistance by Sandra Byrd (REVIEW)
10. The Hope of Refuge by Cindy Woodsmall (REVIEW)

And oops...I cheated a little bit. Hey, there are just some series where every single book is fabulous!

Booking Through Thursday: Recent Serious Read

Here's this week's question:

What’s the most serious book you’ve read recently?

Answer:

I actually have 2--one non-fiction and one fiction.

The serious non-fiction read was called Stolen Innocence by Elissa Wall, and let me tell you just what an eye-opener that was. Up to this point, I'd only ever heard about the FLDS from what was told on the news and a handful of TV specials. Most of that is a little bit sugar-coated, and you don't really get the full picture of what life is like for women in particular. I was appalled at what Elissa had to endure on a constant basis, and amazed at what she has done since being able to flee her community.

The serious fiction read was The Veil by Diane Noble, and I have a review posted of it here. I read this one a few weeks after I had read Stolen Innocence simply because I wanted to read more about the history surrounding the Mormon church. This book was not overloaded with historical facts, but it definitely had a few pieces of information that were new to me. I would classify it as a serious read because it is based on the Mountain Meadows Massacre in the mid-1800's.

Booking Through Thursday: Preferences

Booking Through Thursday is a weekly bookish meme held every Thursday. I've missed out on the last couple of weeks, so I'm jumping back in... This week’s question asks:

Which do you prefer? (Quick answers–we’ll do more detail at some later date)

• Reading something frivolous? Or something serious?
• Paperbacks? Or hardcovers?
• Fiction? Or Nonfiction?
• Poetry? Or Prose?
• Biographies? Or Autobiographies?
• History? Or Historical Fiction?
• Series? Or Stand-alones?
• Classics? Or best-sellers?
• Lurid, fruity prose? Or straight-forward, basic prose?
• Plots? Or Stream-of-Consciousness?
• Long books? Or Short?
• Illustrated? Or Non-illustrated?
• Borrowed? Or Owned?
• New? Or Used?
  (Yes, I know, some of these we’ve touched on before, and some of these we might address in-depth in the future, but for today–just quick answers!)

So, here are my answers.....

• Reading something frivolous? Or something serious? A little of both
  
• Paperbacks? Or hardcovers? I own more paperbacks than hardcovers, but it doesn't matter what they are when it comes to reading them.
  
• Fiction? Or Nonfiction? fiction, all the way
  
• Poetry? Or Prose? prose
  
• Biographies? Or Autobiographies? don't read too many of either
  
• History? Or Historical Fiction? historical fiction (quickly becoming my favorite genre)
  
• Series? Or Stand-alones? both
  
• Classics? Or best-sellers? best-sellers
  
• Lurid, fruity prose? Or straight-forward, basic prose? straight-forward and basic
  
• Plots? Or Stream-of-Consciousness? plots
  
• Long books? Or Short? either
  
• Illustrated? Or Non-illustrated? non-illustrated
  
• Borrowed? Or Owned? I visit the library about as frequently as my own bookshelf, which is quite often.
  
• New? Or Used? doesn't matter
  

Booking Through Thursday: Unread

Here's this week's question:

“So here today I present to you an Unread Books Challenge. Give me the list or take a picture of all the books you have stacked on your bedside table, hidden under the bed or standing in your shelf – the books you have not read, but keep meaning to. The books that begin to weigh on your mind. The books that make you cover your ears in conversation and say, ‘No! Don’t give me another book to read! I can’t finish the ones I have!' "

Well, if I were to list all the books in my TBR pile, it'd take me a week to list them all, and months to read it all! (Not really...just joking.) My entire TBR pile has 1,262 books in it....hopefully, I can read all of those before I die! I do have a few that are stacked on my nightstand. Let's see if I can 'member them all:

Face of Betrayal by Lis Weihl
Boneman's Daughters by Ted Dekker
A Gathering of Finches by Jane Kirkpatrick
Drawing Marissa by Jessica Adriel (not physically on my nightstand but definitely a part of my current TBR)
Letter Perfect by Cathy Marie Hake
Your Chariot Awaits by Lorena McCourtney
The Road Winds On by Francena Arnold
Rich Like Them by Ryan D'Agostino

These are some of the ones I'm wanting to get tackled in the next few weeks. I'm anticipating some good readin'! :o)

Booking Through Thursday: Celebrities

Thanks to Deb for hosting Booking Through Thursday every week!

Here's this week's question:

Do you read celebrity memoirs? Which ones have you read or do you want to read? Which nonexistent celebrity memoirs would you like to see?

I'm not much of a memoir reader, no matter if it's about a celebrity or a regular Joe. Probably the only book that would even remotely qualify as a "celebrity" memoir that I've read would be "My Sergei" by Ekaterina Gordeeva. That book was about her life as a pairs skater with her husband, Sergei Grinkov, who passed away about 10 years ago. The 2 of them were paired up as skating partners at a very young age, and what started out as just getting the job done on the ice one day blossomed into love. No doubt about it....this book will leave you in tears.

The only book that's out that I'm even remotely interested in reading in the future would be the newest book by Melissa Gilbert called Prairie Tale. I grew up watching Little House on the Prairie (have since purchased all the seasons on DVD), and I am just flat-out addicted to the show to this day. I read an excerpt online from the book, and just from that little snippet, I am very eager to read more. Just wanna wait until I can find it on sale somewhere.....$26 is a lot for a book, IMO, especially for someone who doesn't do memoirs. :)

What about you? Any celebrity memoir that you're interested in?

Booking Through Thursday: Hot!

First off, let me just apologize for practically falling off the map in regards to my blog lately! My life has just been a rollercoaster ride lately, and I'm trying so hard to stay caught up with everything. :o) Things seem to be much calmer now, so blogging should resume as normal (hopefully) starting today.

With that said....let me pick back up with one of my favorite memes, Booking Through Thursday. Here's this week's question:

Now that summer is here (in the northern hemisphere, anyway), what is the most “Summery” book you can think of? The one that captures the essence of summer for you?

(I’m not asking for you to list your ideal “beach reading,” you understand, but the book that you can read at any time of year but that evokes “summer.”)

This one is a little tough because I don't typically remember books based on what season of the year they fall in (Christmas being the exception here). Surprisingly though, I have thought of 2 books that could fit this bill, and both of them have been read within the last month or so.

My first pick would be Stealing Home by Allison Pittman. This book is all about baseball at the turn of the 20th century, and you can't help but feel that you're in the crowd watching the baseball games in this book. The characters in the story are just wonderful, and are not ones that I'll soon forget. I have a review posted of this book here along with a synopsis of the book.

My second pick is slightly ironic, considering what happened at my house 2 weeks ago. The book I'm referring to would be Last Light by Terri Blackstock. My husband thought I had a weird sense of humor when I picked up this book right after our power had gone out due to some bad storms in our area. Thankfully, we were only without it for about a day, but that didn't stop me from picking up a book that dealt with the power going off over the entire planet! (What is wrong with me here!!!) Anyway, the story takes place in the dead of summer and in the south, where it's known to be scorchingly hot at times. It's determined that an electromagnetic pulse has caused all electricity to cease functioning as well as all automobiles and generators. The water doesn't work all that well either, so everyone's stuck with boiling lake water just to have something to drink. Combine that with whatever non-perishable food you've got in your family, and things start to look pretty grim. No one knows when the power's going to come back on, so people start to think about getting chickens, cows, and planting their own vegetable gardens to survive. Needless to say, after I finished this book, I was thinking, "We need to start a vegetable garden, need to plant some fruit trees, need to get some chickens, need to stockpile some bottled water, etc." Pretty strange to think about, huh?

Booking Through Thursday: Gluttony

Here's what we're talking about today on Booking Through Thursday:

Mariel suggested this week’s question:

Book Gluttony! Are your eyes bigger than your book belly? Do you have a habit of buying up books far quicker than you could possibly read them? Have you had to curb your book buying habits until you can catch up with yourself? Or are you a controlled buyer, only purchasing books when you have run out of things to read?

Well, I'd have to say that I can answer yes to two of these questions (while covering my face in slight embarrassment). Yes, my eyes are definitely bigger than my book belly. And yes, I have a habit of buying up books far quicker than I could ever possibly read them. Right now, I've got 1,182 books in my house that are waiting to be read. Here's how I managed to get there.....Paperbackswap and Bookmooch. Oh, and used bookstores. And library book sales. And even Goodwill once in awhile. I just cannot seem to resist. Right now, I do have space for every single one of them....but they are getting a little cramped in my bookshelves.

What's to become of me?!?!?! Guess I just need to read faster, huh?

Booking Through Thursday: Worse?

Here's what Booking Through Thursday is asking us this week:

Which is worse?

Finding a book you love and then hating everything else you try by that author, or

Reading a completely disappointing book by an author that you love?

In my opinion, the second choice is much worse. Francine Rivers is one of my favorite authors (I've got too many favorite authors to narrow it down to just one). I've read just about every single book that she's ever written, except one. Her book, The Last Sin Eater, was my all-time least favorite of anything she's ever written. I felt the style was completely different from everything else I'm accustomed to reading by her, and I just did not like it. Nothing else that she's written has disappointed me as much as that one book.....didn't like the movie version, either.

Booking Through Thursday: The Best Book That You Haven't Read

Here's this week's Booking Through Thursday question:

We’ve all seen the lists, we’ve all thought, “I should really read that someday,” but for all of us, there are still books on “The List” that we haven’t actually gotten around to reading. Even though we know they’re fabulous. Even though we know that we’ll like them. Or that we’ll learn from them. Or just that they’re supposed to be worthy. We just … haven’t gotten around to them yet.

What’s the best book that YOU haven’t read yet?

I actually have more of these than I ought to! Yikes!

First on the list would be both of Julie Lessman's books. I have read tons of reviews/comments about both of her novels and that they are fabulous, but I haven't started them yet. Both of them are just sitting on my bookshelf, staring me down. It is my plan to have both of them read by this coming summer.

Second would be Lady of Milkweed Manor by Julie Klassen. A friend of mine has read this book as well as The Apothecary's Daughter (which I think is the sequel), and she has raved about how good they are.

I'd also have to include Speak Through the Wind and With Endless Sight by Allison Pittman. I read Ten Thousand Charms about 6 months ago, and I could not put it down! If the next 2 are a great as book 1, then I know I will enjoy them for sure. :o)

In addition to those, I have several Deb Raney books (about 6 or 7), Terri Blackstock books (her entire newest series), and Angela Hunt books (try 12-15 that still haven't been read) that are waiting for me to read them. Where will I ever find the time!?!?!?!

Booking Through Thursday: Collectibles

Here's this week's Booking Through Thursday question(s):

Hardcover? Or paperback?
Illustrations? Or just text?
First editions? Or you don’t care?
Signed by the author? Or not?

I have a larger collection of paperbacks than I do hardbacks, and I really have no preference on either. However, if I'm collecting a series of books, I prefer them to either be all paperback or all hardback. Just helps with the flow of things.

I could care less about first editions....not into book collecting that much! :o)

I have a handful of autographed books, some that are personalized. I don't mind passing along the autograped books to someone else, but the personalized ones I will not part with. :o)

Booking Through Thursday: Storage

This is a meme that I've wanted to participate in for some time, but I can never seem to get over there on a Thursday! Probably not a big deal, but it would drive me nuts to post it on a Friday. Anyway, courtasy of Booking Through Thursday, here's this week's question:

This week’s question is suggested by Kat:

I recently got new bookshelves for my room, and I’m just loving them. Spent the afternoon putting up my books and sharing it on my blog . One of my friends asked a question and I thought it would be a great BTT question. So from Tina & myself, we’d like to know “How do you arrange your books on your shelves? Is it by author, by genre, or you just put it where it falls on?”

Answer:

My hubby and I were living in an apartment a year ago, and all I had was 1 bookshelf with 5 shelves. I really couldn't think about having my books in any kind of order....it was more about what really skinny book will fit in this last little bit of space! Anyway, back last April we found our first house. I knew this was the one, too, especially considering all the other ones we had looked at. I walked into the master bedroom, and there in the corner (with a beautiful glow surrounding it, I might add....well, not really, but work with me here) was a built-in bookshelf from floor to ceiling. We're talking 8 deep shelves that were just waiting for all my books. :o) I immediately turn to my husband and ask, "Uh, you weren't wanting this, were you?" He sweetly replies, "No, dear. It's all yours."

Since I now have the bookshelf from heaven, I'm much more organized with how my books go in it. I have all of my large paperbacks stored in the built-in bookshelf, and all of my hardbacks and trade-size paperbacks in my old bookshelf. It is a tad bit annoying to have everything broken up like that, but I find that it gives me more space in the long run, so I can deal with it. Unfortunately, when I need to add books to the built-in bookshelf, it's quite an ordeal since all of my books are organized by authors last name, and I even go a step further by organizing them by date of publication (no, I really don't have OCD). Trust me, it can be a 2-3 hour job filing new books away. But hey, I got myself into this mess.....I am not going to complain. :o)