Soul Food

Another year, another feast. These are the books I consumed last year – some quite nutritious, others purely indulgent, but for the most part, all greatly enjoyed. I’ve already started on this year’s batch – more on those in the days ahead. But for now, a 2009 recap.

First, the nonfiction. All were great reads - the ones in bold are highly recommended.

90 Minutes in Heaven (Don Piper)
Musicophilia (Oliver Sacks)
Readings from the Ancient Near East (Arnold, Beyer)
The World’s Religions (Huston Smith)
Markings (Dag Hammarskjold)
The Human Brain Coloring Book (Diamond, Scheibel, Elson)
What’s So Great About Christianity? (Dinesh D’Souza)
The Path Between the Seas (David McCullough)
Why Religion Matters (Huston Smith)
Outliers (Malcolm Gladwell)
Here If You Need Me (Kate Brastrup)
The Art of Asking: Ask Better Questions, Get Better Answers (Terry J. Fadem)
What You Can Change and What You Can’t (Martin Seligman)
My God, Our God! (E. Joseph Steier)
What Jesus Meant (Gary Wills)
First, They Killed My Father (Loung Ung)
My Stroke of Insight (Jill Bolte Taylor)
On Gold Mountain (Lisa See)
I and Thou (Martin Buber)
Death: The Final Stage of Growth (Elizabeth Kubler-Ross)
The Color of Water (James McBride)

And fiction which I’ve categorized a bit further:

Favorites:
People of the Book (Geraldine Brooks)
Their Eyes were Watching God (Zora Neale Hurston)
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Stieg Larrson)
The Girl who Played with Fire (Stieg Larrson)
The Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest (Stieg Larrson)
84 Charing Cross Road (Helene Hanff)
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society (Shaffer and Barrows)
44 Scotland Street (Alexander McCall Smith)
Espresso Tales (Alexander McCall Smith)
Love over Scotland (Alexander McCall Smith)
The Unbearable Lightness of Scones (Alexander McCall Smith)
The World According to Bertie (Alexander McCall Smith)
La’s Orchestra Saves the World (Alexander McCall Smith)
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
Firefly Lane (Kristin Hannah)
To Dance with the White Dog (Terry Kay)
The Household Guide to Dying (Debra Adelaide)
The Collected Tales of Nikolai Gogol

Entertaining:
In the Kitchen (Monica Ali)
Inspector Singh: Most Peculiar Malaysian Murder (Shamini Flint)
Inspector Singh: A Bali Conspiracy Most Foul (Shamini Flint)
We Are All Made of Glue (Marina Lewycka)
Simple Genuis (David Baldacci)
The Red Thread (Dawn Farnham)

Left me feeling ? What the heck was that?:
On Beauty (Zadie Smith)
The Accidental (Ali Smith)
Never Let Me Go (Kazuo Ishigero)
My Favourite Wife (Tony Parsons)
The Angel’s Game (Carlos Ruiz Zafon)

Pleasant surprises recommended by Charlie:
A Scandalous Man (Robin Ester)
One Day (David Nicholls)

If you’re a fan of Lamb (as I am – I Know This Much is True is one of my all-time favorites) – otherwise, you may not like either one:
The Hour I First Believed (Wally Lamb)
Wishin’ and Hopin’ (Wally Lamb)

Happy reading!!