In 2009 I read a record 90 books, averaging almost two a week!  This list remains up throughout the year with the monthly review staying up until I finish my first book of the succeeding month.

1. Horse Racing's Greatest Rivalries (The Blood Horse)
2. My Sister's Keeper (Jodie Picoult)
3. Creation in Death (J.D. Robb)
4. Strangers in Death (J.D. Robb)
5. Where the Heart Is (Billie Letts)
6. Never Forget: An Oral History of September 11 (Mitchell Fink and Lois Matthias)
7. On Call: A Doctor's Days and Nights in Residency (Emily Transue)
8. The Associate (John Grisham)
9. Salvation in Death (J.D. Robb)
10. The Smoke Jumper (Nicholas Evans)
11. Beyond the Homestretch: What I've Learned From Saving Racehorses (Lynn Reardon)
12. The Devil in the White City (Erik Larson)
13. The Lost Symbol (Dan Brown)
14. The Black Stallion (Walter Farley)
15. The Black Stallion Returns (Walter Farley)
16. The Time of My Life (Patrick Swayze and Lisa Niemi)
17. Son of the Black Stallion (Walter Farley)
18. The Black Stallion and Satan (Walter Farley)
19. Chemistry for Beginners (Anthony Strong)
20. Jimmy Stewart (Marc Eliot)
21. The Island Stallion (Walter Farley)
22. The Island Stallion's Fury (Walter Farley)
23. The Blood Bay Colt (Walter Farley)
24. Gib Rides Homes (Zilpha Keatley Snyder)
25. The Wheel on the School (Meindert deJong)
26. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
27. The Kentucky Derby: 101 Reasons to Love America's Favorite Horse Race
28. Jurassic Park (Michael Crichton)
29. The Black Stallion's Filly (Walter Farley)
30. The Black Stallion Revolts (Walter Farley)
31. Wicked (Gregory Maguire)
32. Promises in Death (J.D. Robb)
33. Kindred in Death (J.D. Robb)
34. Ritual in Death (J.D. Robb)
35. Missing in Death (J.D. Robb)
36. Man o' War (Walter Farley)
37. Dog Heroes of September 11th (Nora Kilgore Bauer)
38. Girl With a Pearl Earring (Tracy Chevalier)
39. The Secret of the Old Clock (Carolyn Keene)
40. Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone (J.K. Rowling)
41. Three Cups of Tea (Greg Mortensen and David Oliver Relin)
42. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (J.K. Rowling)

JULY

My first book of July was a recommendation from my friend Judy.  I really enjoyed Girl With A Pearl Earring, which was almost a historical fanfiction, with the author pondering the artist Johannes Vermeer's painting of the same name and wondering about the girl in the portrait.  In the book, she is a teenager who is employed as the Vermeers' maid.  A lovely coming-of-age book, it was a little rough starting out, with every sentence seeming to need three or four metaphors, but it settled quickly into a very interesting story.  I also enjoyed visiting the author's site and seeing the paintings described in the book.

Feeling I was being too harsh on that other girl detective, I picked up the first in the Nancy Drew series, The Secret of the Old Clock.  I wasn't ten pages into the book when I quickly realized why I like Trixie Belden better.  Nancy is driving along in her new convertible that her lawyer daddy bought for her when she sees a small child in danger.  She rescues the child, befriends the girl's aunt caretakers, then takes off after thieves, all the while worrying that she might be exceeding the speed limit (good grief).  She becomes instant friends with two sisters and acquires singing lessons for one of them.  She rescues puppies and old ladies, bandages twisted ankles and plays badminton like a pro.  She's annoyingly perfect.  Is she Nancy Drew or Mary Sue?  Who can tell.  I know I read and enjoyed these books as a child but I don't think I'll be rushing off to re-read the rest of the series any time soon.

I think 13 years is a good long stretch not to cave in to peer pressure.  But, at last, I did pick up the first Harry Potter book.  The consensus?  I enjoyed it.  I'm not sure I quite see why it has become such a global mania but it was a good book and I'll probably get around to the others sooner or later.  But I'm not rushing to devour them, buy all the DVDs, name my cats after characters in the movie, or start writing Harry Potter fanfic.  I liked the ensemble cast of characters.  I chuckled (though never really laughed right out loud) several times.  I liked the twist at the end.  I liked how it left me wanting to read more.  Maybe the books get better as they go, but I was under the impression this thing was a phenomenon from the start and at the moment I'm not quite getting what makes the series so overwhelmingly special.  Then again, I'm just not a big fan of the magic, wizardry, fantasy genre.

Another recommendation from my friend Judy was the magnificent Three Cups of Tea.  (Note:  Always listen to Judy's recommendations...except for Wuthering Heights *g*).  This is the story of a man who, on a return trip from a failed attempt to climb K2, came across an impoverished Pakistani village.  He was so moved by the hospitality of the villagers and the struggle the children made to learn that he promised to build them a school.  That one promise turned into over 125 schools throughout Pakistan and Afghanistan, with a particular interest in educating girls, promoting education as a means to combat terrorism.  The book is an amazing and very touching story and I would highly recommend it!  This is another book you can read more about on the web here.

If Chamber of Secrets had been the first Harry Potter book, I can almost guarantee I wouldn't have bothered to read any more of the series.  It's not that it completely sucked, but for me, it did completely lack the charm of the first book.  First thing that occurs to me (and probably should have in the first book) is, why is Harry the only person at Hogwarts who knows nothing about the history of the school or wizardry in general?  It seems like a lazy way to provide exposition by making him so clueless.  Secondly, as if the Dursleys aren't annoying enough, we need to add not one, not two, but three annoying characters to this book (Dobby, Lockhart and Colin).  Not annoying in a root-against-them kind of way but annoying in a way that makes me want to skim over the text when they appear and honestly made me groan out loud when Dobby reappeared.  I had been hoping this wretched Jar Jar Binks wannabe was a one time deal and then he reappears twice.  Ugh.  The story itself was pretty good but overall, I did not like this book much.