Being a self-professed Book Nerd, I thought I’d get our Flagstaff Bookmans employees to compile a favorite books list for 2009.  I asked the staff to each list a few of the books they read this year and loved.  Here are some stand-outs: The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon made several lists, as did The Road by Cormac McCarthy, and Fool by Christopher Moore.  Anyone who has shopped our store in the past nine months knows that Linda’s favorite was The Help by Kathryn Stockett.  Some favorites are by authors close to home: T.Greenwood was in the store to read and sign her lovely novel Nearer than the Sky and local Gary Paul Nabhan’s Coming Home to Eat was also a hit. Others are classics by Jane Austen and Vladimir Nabokov, or rising literary stars like Alice Munro. As it turns out, we Bookmans employees are as passionate and diverse about the books we read as the books we buy and sell!

Kids Bookies 2009

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

Coraline by Neil Gaimen

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson

Brisingr by Christopher Paolini

Kids Reviews

Desiree Ducharme writes about Evil Genius by Catherine Jinks:

Jinks is my new favorite in a long line of favorite Australian authors.  This book and its sequel were brilliant.  It has lots of plot twists and villain’s villains (with instructions!) and well-developed characters.

Desiree also reviews The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznik:

Many people will recognize Selznik’s art style in this book that melds picture and story in a flawless and engrossing way.  The book is a story of early silent films, and the unique style of the book reflects its subject matter beautifully.

Kate Beles on Go Dog Go! by P.D. Eastman:

My daughter loves this book, and it’s perfect for her developmental age (just over one year) since it deals mostly in up and down, fast and slow, over and under.  Plus, it has drama!  In the scene where the dogs in cars almost hit the bird until the light turns red, my daughter’s eyes get huge, and she begins to chatter in fear. Apparently, children of this age are geared to anticipate impeding collisions, so this is one version of a toddler plot climax!  .

Fiction Bookies 2009

Day by Day Armageddon by J.J. Bourne

Fool by Christopher Moore

The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk

One Fifth Avenue by Candace Bushnell

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Kafka on the Shore by Harukai Murakami

Double Eagle by Dan Abnett

Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides

Landscape Painted with Tea by Milorad Pavic

2666 by Roberto Bolano

The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall

The Women by T.C.Boyle

Geek Love by Katherine Dunn

The Morningstar Strain by J.R. Recht

Fifth Business by Robertson Davies

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Nearer Than the Sky by T.Greenwood

Crime by Irving Welsh

The Girls by Lori Lansens

Candy by Luke Davies

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Soon I will be Invincible by Austin Grossman

After Dark by Haruki Murakami

A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace

Drood by Dan Simmons

Iron Council by China Mieville

Despair by Vladimir Nabakov  

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

Oh Pure and Radiant Heart by Lydia Millet 

Postsingular by Rudy Rucker

Fiction Reviews

Angi Christiansen on The Scar by China Mieville:

I love China Mieville.  Love him.  He uses awesome words like "juddering". 
His books are dark and light and unexplained and so real on the page, yet so unreal and unimaginable in our day-to-day lives.

Andrew Shklonik writes on Thomas Pynchon's latest, Inherent Vice:

It is extremely entertaining and fairly light compared to most of his door-stopping novels.  Pynchon successfully combines noir and 60's psychedelia with a swiftly moving plot, drug-addled excursions, and the usual flights of paranoid fancy that can be found in most of his other works.  It’s enjoyable and a great introduction to the world of Thomas.

 

Kate Beles writes: These are four of my favorite fiction books this year, and yes, they are all by women, but trust me, this ain’t chick lit. Here they are:

Sula by Toni Morrison

Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich

Surfacing by Margaret Atwood

Runaway by Alice Munro

All of these books have gorgeous prose and are rich in influences. Erdrich is reminiscent of Faulkner, Morrison is heavy with the bible, Atwood is an acerbic classic who reevaluates women’s relationships with nature, and unforgiving Munro leaps great spans of time in a single bound.  They all contain critiques of how women are enculturated, dealing with stuff like the ennui of housewives, the virgin-whore complex, women of color becoming sexual subjects, and other more-complex-than-the-party-line-of-feminism kinda stuff.  The bonus is that these books share exciting plotlines, complex characters, and great sex.

Nonfiction Bookies 2009

Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs

Girlbomb, a Halfway Homeless Memoir by Janice Eribaum

Being and Time by Martin Heidegger

Phenomenology and Perception by Maurice Merlau-Ponty

Elements of Style by Strunk and White

Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

Organic Chemistry by Paula Brucie

Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks

How I Learned to Cook: Culinary Educations from the World’s Greatest Chefs edited by Kimberly Whithersoon and Peter Meehan

Coming Home to Eat: The Pleasures and Politics of Local Food by Gary Paul Nabhan

Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees Expanded Edition by Lawrence Weschler

Black, the History of a Color by Michael Pastoreau

On Ugliness by Umberto Eco

When You Are Engulfed In Flames by David Sedaris

Tape Op: The Book About Creative Music Recording, Vol. II by Larry Crane

I AM A Strange Loop by Douglas Hofstadter

Diary Of A Drug Fiend by Aleister Crowley

Let’s Don’t Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood by Alexandra Fuller

Nonfiction Reviews

Michael Cejka (Michael “formerly Big Music Jerk, currently Big Book Jerk”) writes about

Perfecting Sound Forever by Greg Milner: This book gave me a good perspective on just why I was so in love with music for so many years.  Unfortunately, it’s also why I had to “get a divorce” and switch to books recently.

Michael Cejka also writes that The Book of Genesis Illustrated by Robert Crumb:

Is Crumb’s finest hour.  It’s a great corrective to people like Kincade, Osteen, and the “Precious Moments”.

Desire Ducharme writes about My Life in France by Julia Child and Alex Purd’homme:

Julia Child is AWESOME. This book illuminates post WW2 Paris through the eyes of a young woman looking for her destiny.  In a time when being a wife is all that was expected of women, Julia wants more.  With the passionate love and support of her husband, she changes the way people think about food and how we cook.

Kate Beles writes about The No Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley:

I have trouble balancing my need for sleep with my child’s need for night parenting.  I’m not a hardcore “cry it out” kind of mom, but I won’t let my baby run me too ragged, if I can help it.  My child will not sleep in the “family bed” until she is a teenager, but nor can I leave her wailing alone in the dark until she cry-chokes herself to sleep.  So, Pantley is for me, and others who want to be that “attachment-oriented but not so hippy that I’ll sacrifice self and discipline” type of mom.

Well, this is a long rough list, but, if you decide to pick-up any of these books, at least you’ll know that one or more Bookmans employees found it delightful or even life-altering. And we’d love to hear your 2009 favorites, if you’re willing to share!