At Least I Met One Goal Last Year

At the end of last year I set a goal to read 100 books this year. At the beginning of the year I thought I would easily surpass this goal, but during the summer I began to worry. I kept pushing on, and during the last week of December I reached the magic number!

Here is the list of books I read in 2009:

Adult Books
1. Supreme Courtship - Christopher Buckley
2. The Namesake - Jhumpa Lahiri
3. Sweet Caroline: Last Child of Camelot - Anderson
4. I Wish I Had a Red Dress - Pearl Cleage
5. The Uncommon Reader - Alan Bennett
6. What Was Lost - Catherine O'Flynn
7. What it Is - Lynda Barry
8. Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri
9. Ellen Foster - Kaye Gibbons
10. Are You There Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea - Chelsea Handler
11. The Private Patient - P.D. James
12. What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal - Zoe Heller
13. Sleeping Arrangements - Madeline Wickham
14. Fed Up - Jessica Conant Park, Susan Conant
15. I'm Perfect, You're Doomed - Kyria Abrahams
16. Growing Up - Russell Baker
17. The Levity Effect - Gostick and Christopher
18. The Believers - Zoe Heller
19. Everything You Know - Zoe Heller
20. Nice to Come Home To - Rebecca Flowers
21. The Family Man - Elinor Lipman
22. Nature Girl - Carl Hiaasen
23. She's Come Undone- Wally Lamb
24. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie - Alan Bradley
25. Working - Studs Terkel
26. Tea Time for the Traditionally Built- Alexander McCall Smith
27. Confessions of an Advertising Man- David Ogilvy
28. The Big Rewind - Nathan Rabin
29. The Help - Kathryn Stockett
30. The Baker Street Letters - Michael Robertson
31. The Punch - Noah Hawley
32. Austenland - Shannon Hale
33. Sonata for Miriam - Linda Olsson
34. The Girls from Ames - Jeffrey Zaslow
35. Snark- David Denby
36. Murder at Longbourn - Tracy Kiely
37. Flipping Out - Marshall Karp
38. Necessary as Blood - Deborah Crombie
39. Methland - Nick Reding
40. The Seven Faith Tribes - George Barna
41. Wishful Drinking - Carrie Fisher
42. That Old Cape Magic - Richard Russo
43. The Language of God - Francis Collins
44. Thy Kingdom Come - Randall Balmer
45. The Actor and the Housewife - Shannon Hale
46. The Spellman Files - Lisa Lutz
47. Evidence of Love - Melissa McConnell
48. They Found Him Dead - Georgette Heyer

Audio Books:
49. The Memory of Running - Ron McLarty
50. Art in America - Ron McLarty
51. What I Did for Love - Susan Elizabeth Phillips
52. The Book of Samson - David Maine
53. Best Friends Forever - Jennifer Weiner

Juvenile/Young Adult Books:
54. One False Note (The 39 Clues Book #2) - Gordon Korman
55. The Runaway Dolls - Ann M. Martin, Laura Godwin
56. What I Saw and How I Lied - Judy Blundell
57. White Sands, Red Menace- Ellen Klages
58. Rapunzel's Revenge - Shannon and Dean Hale
59. Paper Towns - John Green
60. The Lincolns: A Scrapbook Look at Abraham and Mary - Candace Fleming
61. Washington at Valley Forge- Russell Freedman
62. I Put a Spell on You- Adam Selzer
63. Swiss Mist- Randy Powell
64. Getting the Girl- Susan Juby
65. The Smile- Donna Jo Napoli
66. Little Audrey - Ruth White
67. Deadville- Ron Koertge
68. Brett McCarthy: Work in Progress - Maria Padian
69. The Last Invisible Boy - Evan Kuhlman
70. The Kind of Friends We Used to Be- Frances O'Roark Dowell
71. Word Nerd- Susin Nielsen
72. Talia Talk - Christine Hurley Deriso
73. The Truth about Horses, Friends, and My Life as a Coward- Sarah P. Gibson
74. Gideon the Cutpurse- Linda Buckley-Archer
75. The Sword Thief (The 39 Clues Book #3) - Peter Lerangis
76. Headlong- Kathe Koja
77. The Juvie Three- Gordon Korman
78. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau Banks - E. Lockhart
79. I, Lorelie - Yeardley Smith
80. The Time Thief - Linda Buckley-Archer
81. Wintergirls- Laurie Halse Anderson
82. Botswana in Pictures - Alison Behnke
83. Mission Control, This Is Appollo - Andrew Chaikin
84. Jemma Hartman: Camper Extraordinaire- Brenda Ferber
85. A Kiss in Time - Alex Flinn
86. Reality Check- Peter Abrahams
87. The Reformed Vampire Support Group - Catherine Jinks
88. The Possiblities of Sainthood - Donna Freitas
89. Beyond the Grave (The 39 Clues Book #4) - Jude Watson
90. Here's How I See It, Here's How It Is - Heather Henson
91. Hamlet - John Marsden
92. Earthgirl - Jennifer Cowan
93. Scat- Carl Hiaasen
94. Peace, Love and Baby Ducks - Lauren Myracle
95. Who on Earth Is Aldo Leopold? - Glenn Scherer and Marty Fletcher
96. Heartsinger - Karlijn Stoffels
97. If I Stay- Gayle Forman
98. The Secret Life of Prince Charming- Deb Caletti
99. The Miles Between - Mary E. Pearson
100. Love Aubrey - Suzanne LaFleur
101. Kaleidoscopt Eyes - Jen Bryant

Books read long ago and re-read for Adult Book Discussion:
102. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
103. Sense and Sensibility- Jane Austen
104. Mansfield Park- Jane Austen
105. Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen
106. Persuasion - Jane Austen

There are a lot of really great books on this list - and some not so great. I discovered the novels of Ron McLarty - and learned that I enjoy them best on audio (he's an actor who has done a lot of audio books for other authors, so his own books on audio are a real treat - good stories, well told). Other pleasing discoveries were The Punch by Noah Hawley, Evidence of Love by Melissa McConnell, and everyone's favorite this year, The Help by Kathryn Stockett.

My goal for this year is not quite as ambitious - through the years as I read reviewing journals for work I write down titles that sound interesting. The list just kind of keeps growing, so my goal this year is to tackle that list and try to whittle it down somewhat. I don't know how successful I'll be - mainly because I know I'll keep adding to it.

Happy New Year. And if you have any books you think I should add to my ever-growing, but hopefully soon-to-be-shorter must read list, please let me know.