As you can tell from my earlier post on all the books I’ve read this year, I read quite a variety of fiction and nonfiction in 2009. Usually I would do my top ten list, but this time I was able to whittle it down to eleven, which is just one over, and I really enjoyed all eleven books very much so (and many, unsurprisingly turned out to be books by authors I interviewed on BookBanter. Gee, it’s almost like I intentionally pick authors to interview whose books I like; funny how that is.) The review for each book is linked, just click on the title, and where possible, there’s the link to the BookBanter interview with the author.
So without further ado, here’s my Top Ten Eleven Books of 2009:
- Drood by Dan Simmons (Episode 4)
- Wake by Robert J. Sawyer (Episode 11)
- Under the Dome by Stephen King
- Agincourt by Bernard Cornwell (Episode 5)
- Crush by Alan Jacobson (Episode 19)
- Breathers by S. G. Browne (Review and interview appearing on a future episode of BookBanter.)
- The End of Empire by Christopher Kelly
- Booklife by Jeff VanderMeer (Episode 22)
- Boneshaker by Cherie Priest (Review and interview appearing on a future episode of BookBanter.)
- Death Troopers by Joe Schreiber (Episode 18)
- Panama Fever by Matthew Parker
Honorable Mention: Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Hunger Games gets an honorable mention because while all the books mentioned above were published in 2009, Hunger Games wasn’t, but was still a truly incredible book and had it been published in 2009, it would’ve made it into the top three.
Coming up next: Since I’ve done a decent job of keeping track of what I’ve read over “most” of the last decade, especially the latter half, we’ll be having my Top Ten Reads of the Decade, from 2000-2009.
Bookbanter 
Great to see you giving Drood some love, Alex, but moody and epic as it was, tell me you’ve read The Terror, Simmon’s previous and most powerful novel besides the Hyperion cantos.
Under the Dome was probably my greatest disappointment of 2009, on the other hand. A more anti-climactic ending that King latest cop-out I truly cannot imagine.
Now, a friendly challenge. My Boneshaker review for The Speculative Scotsman could very well beat your Book Banter interview to the net. I’ll race you, mate!
Thanks for you comment.
Fortunately I read “The Terror” the year before, and while “Drood” is a great and stunning work, “The Terror” is a piece of perfection and in my top ten favorite books of all time, possibly top five.
King just can’t do endings, and I’ve accepted that now and never expect anything from them — though “The Dark Tower” had a decent ending, but maybe that was because it took him his entire lifetime to write! — but the rest of the book I thought a lot of fun.
We’ll have to see with Boneshaker and Cherie Priest. Think I’m shooting for February 1st right now!