Best Books of 2009
Here we are again - my seventh annual post where I list the books I read in the past year that didn't stink. Since most of my book reviews and posts are now on Facebook or Goodreads, this list may not have much of an audience. Then again, who knows?
Side note: these lists are my only public entries for the most part. They are not solicitations for more LJ friends. However, if you'd like to add me on Goodreads, my page is at http://www.goodreads.com/michael . I love that URL, truly.
Favorites in italics.
A Better Angel: Stories - Chris Adrian
The Makioka Sisters - Juni'chiro Tanizaki
A Medicine for Melancholy - Ray Bradbury
Usagi Yojimbo, Books 1 and 2 - Stan Sakai
The Sea Came in at Midnight - Steve Erickson
Agent of Byzantium - Harry Turtledove
More Information Than You Require - John Hodgman
The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov
36 Views of Mount Fuji - Cathy N. Davidson
The Invention of Morel - Adolfo Bioy Casares
The Domino Men - Jonathan Barnes
BPRD: Plague of Frogs - Mike Mignola
The Inland Sea - Donald Richie
Scott Pilgrim vol. 1-5 - Bryan O'Malley
The Book of Dave - Will Self
The Land of Laughs - Jonathan Carroll
The Shockwave Rider - John Brunner
Beneath the Shattered Moons - Michael Bishop
The Eyes of Heisenberg - Frank Herbert
Shambling Towards Hiroshima - James Morrow
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami
The Green Man - Kingsley Amis
The Gargoyle - Andrew Davidson
The City and the City - China Mieville
Something Like an Autobiography - Akira Kurosawa
The Last Coin - James Blaylock
The Child Garden, or a Low Comedy - Geoff Ryman
Gandhi: An Autobiography - Mahatma Gandhi
Savage Season - Joe R. Lansdale
Robot Visions - Isaac Asimov
Julian Comstock - Robert Charles Wilson
The Beatles: The Biography - Bob Spitz
Buddhism Without Beliefs - Stephen Batchelor
Love and Rockets, vol. 1-3 - Los Bros Hernandez
Everything Matters! - Ron Currie, Jr.
The Temple of the Golden Pavilion - Yukio Mishima
Mucho Mojo - Joe R. Lansdale
Magritte - Sarah Whitfield
Mark Rothko - Jeffrey Weiss
Into the Forest - Jean Hegland
The Making of a Chef - Michael Ruhlman
Lord of Light - Roger Zelazny
American Nomad - Steve Erickson
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler - Italo Calvino
Unseen Academicals - Terry Pratchett
The Separation - Christopher Priest
Teenagers from the Future - Timothy Callahan, ed.
The Golden Strangers - Henry Treece
Bangs and Whimpers - James Frenkel, ed.
Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition - Frances Yates
Archangel - Mike Conner
The Dwarf - Par Lagerkvist
The History of Hell - Alice K. Turner
No book in 2009 was a life-changer although I enjoyed many of them immensely. My favorites of the year ... a tie between the Murakami and the Ryman. The former I knew would be great, the latter was a great surprise.
Side note: these lists are my only public entries for the most part. They are not solicitations for more LJ friends. However, if you'd like to add me on Goodreads, my page is at http://www.goodreads.com/michael . I love that URL, truly.
Favorites in italics.
A Better Angel: Stories - Chris Adrian
The Makioka Sisters - Juni'chiro Tanizaki
A Medicine for Melancholy - Ray Bradbury
Usagi Yojimbo, Books 1 and 2 - Stan Sakai
The Sea Came in at Midnight - Steve Erickson
Agent of Byzantium - Harry Turtledove
More Information Than You Require - John Hodgman
The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov
36 Views of Mount Fuji - Cathy N. Davidson
The Invention of Morel - Adolfo Bioy Casares
The Domino Men - Jonathan Barnes
BPRD: Plague of Frogs - Mike Mignola
The Inland Sea - Donald Richie
Scott Pilgrim vol. 1-5 - Bryan O'Malley
The Book of Dave - Will Self
The Land of Laughs - Jonathan Carroll
The Shockwave Rider - John Brunner
Beneath the Shattered Moons - Michael Bishop
The Eyes of Heisenberg - Frank Herbert
Shambling Towards Hiroshima - James Morrow
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami
The Green Man - Kingsley Amis
The Gargoyle - Andrew Davidson
The City and the City - China Mieville
Something Like an Autobiography - Akira Kurosawa
The Last Coin - James Blaylock
The Child Garden, or a Low Comedy - Geoff Ryman
Gandhi: An Autobiography - Mahatma Gandhi
Savage Season - Joe R. Lansdale
Robot Visions - Isaac Asimov
Julian Comstock - Robert Charles Wilson
The Beatles: The Biography - Bob Spitz
Buddhism Without Beliefs - Stephen Batchelor
Love and Rockets, vol. 1-3 - Los Bros Hernandez
Everything Matters! - Ron Currie, Jr.
The Temple of the Golden Pavilion - Yukio Mishima
Mucho Mojo - Joe R. Lansdale
Magritte - Sarah Whitfield
Mark Rothko - Jeffrey Weiss
Into the Forest - Jean Hegland
The Making of a Chef - Michael Ruhlman
Lord of Light - Roger Zelazny
American Nomad - Steve Erickson
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler - Italo Calvino
Unseen Academicals - Terry Pratchett
The Separation - Christopher Priest
Teenagers from the Future - Timothy Callahan, ed.
The Golden Strangers - Henry Treece
Bangs and Whimpers - James Frenkel, ed.
Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition - Frances Yates
Archangel - Mike Conner
The Dwarf - Par Lagerkvist
The History of Hell - Alice K. Turner
No book in 2009 was a life-changer although I enjoyed many of them immensely. My favorites of the year ... a tie between the Murakami and the Ryman. The former I knew would be great, the latter was a great surprise.