And now on to a recap of the books I read in 2009, in the order read.  Click on the title to read each book’s Goodreads synopsis and reviews:

	The Time Traveler’s Wife	Niffenegger, Audrey*
	Outlander (Outlander, #1)	Gabaldon, Diana
	Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Harry Potter, #1)	Rowling, J.K.
	The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time	Haddon, Mark
	A Certain Slant of Light	Whitcomb, Laura
	The Tales of Beedle the Bard	Rowling, J.K.
	The House on Fortune Street: A Novel	Livesey, Margot
	Revolutionary Road	Yates, Richard
	Dead Until Dark (Sookie Stackhouse, #1)	Harris, Charlaine
	Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter, #2)	Rowling, J.K.
	Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4)	Rowling, J.K.
	Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter, #5)	Rowling, J.K.
	Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter, #6)	Rowling, J.K.
	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter, #7)	Rowling, J.K.
	Dragonfly in Amber (Outlander, #2)	Gabaldon, Diana
	The Thirteenth Tale	Setterfield, Diane
	The Art of Racing in the Rain	Stein, Garth*
	This Lullaby	Dessen, Sarah*
	Water for Elephants	Gruen, Sara
	Voyager (Outlander, #3)	Gabaldon, Diana
	Drums of Autumn (Outlander, #4)	Gabaldon, Diana
	Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Harry Potter, #3)	Rowling, J.K.
	The Road	McCarthy, Cormac
	Moloka’i	Brennert, Alan
	Remember Me	Pike, Christopher
	The Gunslinger (Dark Tower, #1)	King, Stephen
	Heath Ledger: Hollywood’s Dark Star	Robb, Brian J.
	On Writing	King, Stephen
	1984	Orwell, George
	Angels & Demons (Robert Langdon, #1)	Brown, Dan
	Sloppy Firsts	McCafferty, Megan
	Second Helpings	McCafferty, Megan
	Charmed Thirds	McCafferty, Megan
	Fourth Comings	McCafferty, Megan
	Perfect Fifths: A Novel	McCafferty, Megan
	The Book Thief	Zusak, Markus
	The Reader	Schlink, Bernhard
	Q & A	Swarup, Vikas
	The Catcher in the Rye	Salinger, J.D.
	The Lovely Bones	Sebold, Alice
	The Truth About Forever	Dessen, Sarah*
	I Am the Messenger	Zusak, Markus
	The Great Gatsby	Fitzgerald, F. Scott
	Then We Came to the End	Ferris, Joshua
	The Hobbit	Tolkien, J.R.R.
	The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, #1)	Tolkien, J.R.R.
	The Bean Trees	Kingsolver, Barbara
	The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane	Howe, Katherine
	The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1)	Riordan, Rick
	The Hunger Games (Hunger Games, #1)	Collins, Suzanne
	Getting the Girl	Zusak, Markus
	The Color Purple	Walker, Alice
	Pride and Prejudice (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)	Austen, Jane
	Shutter Island	Lehane, Dennis
	To Kill A Mockingbird	Lee, Harper
	Thirteen Reasons Why	Asher, Jay
	Catching Fire (Hunger Games, #2)	Collins, Suzanne
	Needful Things	King, Stephen
	The Lost Symbol (Robert Langdon, #3)	Brown, Dan
	Under the Dome	King, Stephen

Most were first time reads, but a few (the Harry Potter series, for example) were my second time through.  As a child, teen, and even early 20’s I was an avid reader, but like all of my other hobbies reading took a back seat in recent years. I guess you could say I was in a reading slump.  When I did read, it was always the same books over and over (mostly Stephen King novels, but The Poisonwood Bible and Brave New World were also on standby at any time).

My online book club lists personal challenges for its members, so I chose to commit to 50 books in one year.  As you already know, faithful few readers of this blog, I met my goal and was able to exceed it by 10.   Most of the books I read on recommendation from the book club, but I picked up a few based on reviews from Barnes and Noble or Amazon.

Book club hyped books that actually lived up to the hype:

The Time Traveler’s Wife,  Outlander (the series, though I ran out of steam after book 4), The Thirteenth Tale, The Art of Racing in the Rain, The Book Thief, Water for Elephants, Moloka’i, Jessica Darling Series (starting with Sloppy Firsts), The Hunger Games/Catching Fire, Shutter Island, and of course, Harry Potter.

Book club (or generally) hyped books that didn’t do it for me:

Thirteen Reasons Why, This Lullaby, The Lost Symbol, The Lightning Thief, Sookie Stackhouse series (to be fair, I only read book 1), Revolutionary Road, The Hobbit (I know, I know)

If forced to list 5 must-reads out of my list for the year, I would have to pick:

1) The Time Traveler’s Wife

2) The Book Thief

3) Shutter Island

4) Water for Elephants

5) The Road

I didn’t set a book goal for 2010.  I think I might focus on finishing, then re-writing, my NaNo and I would love to conjure up another screenplay for Script Frenzy in April.  I’m going to read as many books as I can now that I’m back in the habit, and I’ll continue to review them here as extras.  Thanks to the book club, I already have a long list of to-reads for 2010.