Holly's Year in Review 2009--By Genre

I read 50 books last year and had a goal originally to read 72 books this year. That would be one more book per month than 2008. My LibraryThing tag for 2009 was at 67 as of yesterday (but I don't always put Picture Books in my Library Thing account). So yesterday I quickly finished off two middle-grade books I had lying around (39 Clues #5 and The Unusual Mind of Vincent Shadow) and a graphic novel I needed to return to the library. Got my total up to 70. So I'll be two books short of my goal. But not too shabby. With our new baby due the end of January, I can only hope that I can keep up with reading next year. I think my goal will be much lower though! :-) Without further ado, here's 2009's books listed by genre:

Adult Fiction
The Shepherd, The Angel and Walter the Christmas Miracle Dog
Casting Spells
The Double Bind
Laced With Magic
Cherries in Winter
The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane
Etta: A Novel
Vanishing Acts
Sarah's Key
The Great Christmas Bowl
The Lost Hours
The Last Bridge
Spinning Forward
Wishin' and Hopin': A Christmas Story
Shoot the Moon
Testimony
The Next Thing on My List
The Fragment
The Associate
Knit Two
The Late, Lamented Molly Marx
Words Unspoken
The Disappearance

Adult Mysteries
Sworn to Silence
Fear the Worst
Evil at Heart
Witch Hunt (Ophelia & Abby #4)
The Witch is Dead (Ophelia & Abby #5)
The Witch's Grave (Ophelia & Abby #6)
Witch Way to Murder (Ophelia & Abby #1)
Charmed to Death (Ophelia & Abby #2)
The Trouble with Witches (Ophelia & Abby #3)
A Bone to Pick (Aurora Teagarden Mysteries #2)
Wife of the Gods
What the Dead Know
Lethal Legacy
Three Bedrooms, One Corpse (Aurora Teagarden Mysteries #3)

YA Adult
The Hunger Games
Bad Girls Don't Die
The Boy in Striped Pajamas
Twilight

Middle-Grade
The Red Blazer Girls: The Ring of Rocamadour
Rescuing Seneca Crane
The Mystery of the Third Lucretia
Emma Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree
Ladies of the Lake
Flawed Dogs: The Shocking Raid on Westminster
39 Clues #5: The Black Circle
Closed for the Season
The Unusual Mind of Vincent Shadow
Luv Ya Bunches
Emma Jean Lazarus Fell in Love
39 Clues #4: Beyond the Grave
The Graveyard Book
Lily' Crossing
The Hanging Hill
Secrets of a Christmas Box
39 Clues #2: One False Note
39 Clues #3: The Sword Thief
The Postcard
Twilight (Summer Confidential)
Sunset (Summer Confidential)
Sunrise (Summer Confidential)

Children's Fiction
Roxie and the Hooligans
Llama Llama Misses Mama
Pouch
Bear-ly There
Pumpkin Baby
Me With You
Ladybug Girl and Bumblebee Boy

Graphic Novels
Rapunzel's Revenge
Coraline
Good as Lily
The Irregulars
Museum Vaults: Excerpts from the Journal of an Expert

Also just for my information here's a breakdown of how many of the above books were:
Bought this year: 13
Advanced Copies/From the Publisher: 31
Borrowed from Library/Friend: 11 (Library), 11 (Friend)
Already sitting on my shelf: 2
Received free from Bookmooch/Giveaway: 6

Not bad, I think I need to work on reading more from my shelves in 2010 though! Only two! That doesn't seem right to me. But I guess it is.

Happy New Year and Happy Reading in 2010!!

Holly's Year in Reading 2009--By rating

I have to say, even though I read a ton of books this year, there were very few that I thought were outstanding, many were very good and entertaining. But I can't say I read one book I would recommend to EVERYONE I meet. I think Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is still the best book I've read in the last couple years.

Five stars:
The Hunger Games

Four and a half stars:
The Shepherd, The Angel and Walter the Christmas Miracle Dog
The Red Blazer Girls: The Ring of Rocamadour
Casting Spells
Sworn to Silence
Rapunzel's Revenge
Roxie and the Hooligans
Rescuing Seneca Crane
The Mystery of the Third Lucretia
Emma Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree

Four Stars:
Bad Girls Don't Die
The Ladies of the Lake
Fear the Worst
The Double Bind
Flawed Dogs: The Shocking Raid on Westminster
Laced with Magic
Evil at Heart
39 Clues #5: The Black Circle
Cherries in Winter
Witch Hunt (Ophelia & Abby #4)
The Witch is Dead (Ophelia & Abby #5)
The Witch's Grave (Ophelia & Abby #6)
Witch Way to Murder (Ophelia & Abby #1)
Charmed to Death (Ophelia & Abby #2)
The Trouble with Witches (Ophelia & Abby #3)
Llama Llama Misses Mama
Coraline (graphic novel)
Closed for the Season
A Bone to Pick (Aurora Teagarden Mysteries #2)
The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane
The Boy in Striped Pajamas
The Unusual Mind of Vincent Shadow
Good as Lily
Etta: A Novel
Luv Ya Bunches
Vanishing Acts
Wife of the Gods
Sarah's Key
Emma Jean Lazarus Fell in Love
The Great Christmas Bowl
39 Clues #4: Beyond the Grave
The Lost Hours

Three and a half stars:
The Last Bridge
Spinning Forward
The Graveyard Book
Lily's Crossing
The Hanging Hill
Secrets of a Christmas Box
39 Clues #2: One False Note
Wishin' and Hopin': A Christmas Story
39 Clues #3: The Sword Thief
Shoot the Moon
What the Dead Know
Museum Vaults: Excerpts from the Journal of an Expert
Twilight
Testimony
The Next Thing on my List

Three Stars:
The Postcard
The Irregulars
Fragment
Lethal Legacy
The Associate
Three Bedrooms, One Corpse (Aurora Teagarden Mysteries #3)
Knit Two
The Late, Lamented Molly Marx
Words Unspoken
The Disappearance

Two and a half stars:
Twilight (Summer Confidential)
Sunset (Summer Confidential)
Sunrise (Summer Confidential)

Mystery Monday - Juvenile Edition

The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilemma by Trenton Lee Stewart: There's enough mystery in The Mysterious Benedict Society series to qualify it for Mystery Monday, though it's also fraught with adventure and fantasy. The extraordinary group of children assembled by Mr. Benedict in the first book, The Mysterious Benedict Society, return for their third adventure. Villainous Ledroptha Curtain is trying to reclaim the dangerous Whisperer for his own nefarious purposes, and Reynie, Sticky, Kate, and Constance are in seclusion for their own protection. The opening Prisoner's Dilemma exercise with the children is hilarious, and the unfolding adventure is rollicking as usual, with added suspense regarding Constance's new powers and her mysterious past. This one feels like the end of the series, though the door is open for future adventures. Start with the first book.

Source disclosure: I purchased this book.

Enola Holmes and the Missing Marquess by Nancy Springer: Enola Holmes is the much younger sister of Sherlock and Mycroft. She lives alone with her mother, who disappears on Enola's fourteenth birthday. She enlists the help of her brothers, who are shocked at the decrepit state of the family estate and at Enola's total lack of femininity and polish. They plan to send her to finishing school, but Enola has no desire to be a proper Victorian lady. She dresses as a widow and escapes to London, where she becomes involved in the disappearance of a marquess while eluding her brothers. Enola is thoroughly engaging, a plucky, independent heroine trying to escape the constrained life of a Victorian lady. The mysteries (of her mother and of the marquess) are interesting and complex and the addition of Sherlock and Mycroft is great fun for those familiar with Sherlock's tales. Victorian England is beautifully imagined, in a realistically squalid way, and the language of flowers and ciphers of which her mother was fond are nice touches. I also read the next three in the series: The Case of the Left-Handed Lady, The Case of the Bizarre Bouquets, and The Case of the Peculiar Pink Fan, in which Enola solves more mysteries while eluding her brothers. This is a delightful series.

Source disclosure: I purchased Missing Marquess, Left-Handed Lady, and Bizarre Bouquets. I received Peculiar Pink Fan through BookMooch.

Mystery Monday!

Yes, I am taking a break from holiday craziness to get caught up on a few reviews. Several of my favorite mystery series have had recent additions.

Swan for the Money by Donna Andrews: I really enjoy the Meg Langslow mysteries, and this one was no exception. This is the eleventh entry, and by now, the characters are old friends. Andrews keeps the series fresh with a full complement of supporting characters (especially Meg's crazy family) and venue changes. In this case, Meg has been hornswaggled into overseeing a rose show. I don't have much interest in flower competitions, so I wasn't sure how exciting this entry would be, but the rose information is well-incorporated and not belabored. The prize-crazy participants, including a saboteur and a dognapper, add to the chaos and humor. An enjoyable entry in a long-running favorite. Start with the first, Murder WIth Peacocks.

Source disclosure: I purchased this book.

Plum Pudding Murder by Joanne Fluke: I enjoy Hannah Swensen's mysteries and recipes, and the twelfth in the series, set during the Christmas season in Lake Eden, Minnesota, was a fun visit with familiar characters. The solution to this one was on the lame side, I thought, but the murder isn't the real draw in this series. I still find Hannah's chaste love triangle to be contrived and really implausible: Mike and Norman, her beaux, are friends with each other, and neither is bothered by her dates with the other. I have been wishing for the past few books that Fluke would just have her pick a guy and be done with it, but this is not that book. However, this entry introduces an unforeseen complication that may make the next book a doozy. Oh, have I not mentioned the murder? Larry, the owner of the Christmas tree farm, is shot in his trailer after eating Hannah's plum pudding (with actual plums!). He wasn't a particularly sympathetic guy, so I didn't care that much about the sleuthing. Hannah's holiday preparations (especially her cat, Moishe, and his response the the Christmas tree) and the mystery of Norman's mother's odd behavior are more engaging. Start with the first in the series, Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder.

Source disclosure: I purchased this book.

The Tale of Briar Bank by Susan Wittig Albert: I could not love this adorable series more, and it seems clear that Wittig Albert is having a great time writing it. This book blends facts from Beatrix Potter's life in the winter of 1909 with an imaginative tale involving Viking treasure, a dragon, and the local animals trying to crack the apparently accidental death of a man whose head was clobbered with a falling branch. But what of the claw marks on the tree? A delightful blend of biography, historical fiction, fantasy, and gentle mystery. Start with the first, The Tale of Hill Top Farm.

Rotton to the Core by Sheila Connolly: I really enjoyed the first in this series, One Bad Apple, and was looking forward to the next installment. I was very pleased with the follow-up. Meg Corey is settling into ownership of an apple orchard in Granford, Massachusetts, having hired a student to help manage the orchard. A young man is found dead in her orchard, and turns out to have ties to her manager. The victim, Jason, was part of GreenGrow, an organization promoting organic farming. Was his death a political statement, or something personal? Meg is a complex, interesting protagonist, and Granford a charming setting. The information about apple orchards is well-incorporated and fascinating.