Favorite Reads 2009

Ok, so I'm a little late on my 10 on Tuesday this week. No worries! I kept a list of all of the books I read in 09. Here, in no particular order, are my favorites:

1. Shanghai Girls Loved it! By the Lisa See who wrote Snow Flower and the Secret Fan which I also loved. Taught me a lot about the Chinese culture.
2. The Help Oh my gosh! So good! Just totally real and very interesting about the South in the early 1960's and the black women hired help and how they were treated.
3. The Book Thief Maybe my favorite. It's a very different book that is narrated by Death. Yep, you read that right. Set in Germany in WWII, it follows a young German girl and her foster family. Couldn't stop thinking about this one.
4. The Invisible Wall This is such a sweet wonderful true story. It is about a boy in England in the early 1900's. He lived down a street where on one side lived Jews and on the other Christians. Such a good book and I also loved his follow up The Dream. Coolest part: the author wrote both memoirs while in his 90's, he's still alive and he's working on book 3!
5. While Falling I really love Laura Moriarty and have read all of her books. This one didn't disappoint. She writes in a way that makes you feel you are living the story.
6. Her Fateful Symmetry Ok, this was totally different from the author's other book, The Time Traveler's Wife, and at first I wasn't sure, but it actually was really good. Very haunting.
7. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle Oh, come on, you've got to read this book. Really addictive. Even if you're not into dog breeding, it is so well written you can't put it down.
8. Hunting Eichmann Wow. This book was fascinating. You know I have a tiny thing for WWII and like to think of myself as an amatuer WWII buff. Eichmann was one of the biggest criminals in the killing of Jews. After the war he escaped to Argentina, and lived there about 20 years before being captured! Gave it to my Grandpa for his B-Day
9. Home Safe What can I say. I LOVE Elizabeth Berg. She writes what I feel, seriously. And I loved her newest novel.
10. Hands of My Father: A Hearing Boy, His Deaf Parents and the Language of Love This story just got to me. It was such a wonderful memoir about growing up with deaf parents.
So there you have it. Read some other pretty good ones like In the Heart of the Canyon Sarah's Key, Best Friends Forever, Plague of Lies. Hope to find some good ones like these this year!