2009 Reading Wrap Up!

Today I finished Katrina Kittle’s The Kindness of Strangers.  It was book #69 of the year, and while I am disappointed I didn’t hit 70, there are still 2 days left in the year, so if I can find a quick and easy read, I still might make it.  The Kindness of Strangers was a hard read, but unputdownable.  I’ve been sneaking in a sentence here, half a page there, a chapter somewhere else every chance I could.  And boy did I snuggle my daughter tight and promise to kill anyone who ever hurt her after I finished it.

The book also counted as my letter K for the 2009 Alphabet challenge.  I don’t know if it formally exists, my sister has put me up to it and I worked hard at it.  Unfortunately not hard enough, as there were 4 letters I didn’t get to this year:  N, O, X, and Z.  Oddly enough, I do have books starting with N, O, and Z, just not X.  I just didn’t get around to them.  The full list is as follows:

• A - Aprons on a Clothesline (Traci Depree)
• B - Bet Me (Jennifer Crusie)
• C - A Can of Peas (Traci Depree)
• D - Dandelions in a Jelly Jar (Traci Depree)
• E - Everything I Needed to Know About Being a Girl I Learned from Judy Blume (Jennifer O'Connell, ed.)
• F - Friendship Cake (Lynn Hinton)
• G - The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows)
• H - Home from the Vinyl Cafe (Stuart McLean)
• I - I Love You, Beth Cooper (Larry Doyle)
• J - Julie & Julia (Julie Powell)
• K - The Kindness of Strangers (Katrina Kittle)
• L - The Lace Reader (Brunonia Barry)
• M - The Mistress's Daughter (A.M. Homes)
• N -
• O -
• P - Plum Spooky (Janet Evanovich)
• Q - The Quality of Life Report (Meghan Daum)
• R - Revolutionary Road (Richard Yates), The Reader (Bernhard Schlink)
• S - Salem's Lot (Stephen King)
• T - To My Dearest Friends (Patricia Volk)
• U - Up the Down Staircase (Bel Kaufman)
• V - The View from Mount Joy (Lorna Landvik)
• W- Where the Broken Heart Still Beats (Carolyn Meyer)
• X -
• Y- You Can't Curl Your Hair With Holy Rollers (Nolan & Sarrett)
• Z -

Some literary highlights of the year:

Well the granddaddy highlight of them all was meeting Janet Evanovich back in June.  That road trip and meeting Janet was an absolute highlight of my life.  Many thanks to Melissa, Russell and Amy for helping make such a dream come true a real dream come true.

I also got to meet Annie Barrows this year, an awesome author of one of my new favorite books, Guernsey, which I have gushed over quite enough.  I got to meet Judy Blume this year, something I never dreamed would happen as a girl writing in her Judy Blume diary.  It was a brief meeting, but it was a true thrill.  I also met Franz Wisner this year, who was a lot of fun.  I didn’t get to too many signings this year, but the ones I did get to were quality.

I also found a new author to love, Stuart McLean and his Vinyl Cafe books.  Two books this year made me laugh until I cried, the first being I Love You, Beth Cooper by Larry Doyle and the second being In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash by Jean Shepherd.

So we’ll see what the new year brings.  Lesley and I are cooking up a little project that I will keep under wraps for right now, but I’m excited to talk with her about it when I visit in January.  The National Book Festival is a given again.  The Philip Gulley Weekend in North Carolina in February is happening and I have no doubt will be an incredible experience (hopefully I don’t freeze like I did with Janet E.). 

So happy reading everyone! :-)  And I’ll be trying to blog much more regularly in 2010!