999 Challenge

These are the books I read to complete my 999 Challenge. I picked 9 categories and read 9 books in each category in 2009. Sorry for the lengthy post, there's just no great way to list these.

-New Authors
-"Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer" by: Steven Millhauser - ★★★☆
-"Bowl of Cherries" by: Millard Kaufman - ★★★
-"Rabbit Hole" by: David Lindsay-Abaire - ★★★★
-"Revolutionary Road" by: Richard Yates - ★★★★☆
-"Before You Know Kindness" by: Chris Bohjalian - ★★★☆
-"Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" by: Seth Grahame-Smith - ★★★☆
-"Wit: A Play: by: Margaret Edson - ★★★★
-"Atlas Shrugged" by: Ayn Rand - ★★★★☆
-"The Good Women of China" by: Xiaran - ★★★★

-Favorite authors
-"Black Dogs" by: Ian McEwan - ★★★☆
-"Shakespeare: The World As A Stage" by: Bill Bryson - ★★★★
-"When You Are Engulfed in Flames" by: David Sedaris - ★★★★
-"The Martian Chronicles" by: Ray Bradbury - ★★★★☆
-"Babylon Revisited" by: F. Scott Fitzgerald - ★★★★
-"Echoes" by Maeve Binchy - ★★★
-"F is for Fugitive" by: Sue Grafton - ★★★★
-"Treasure Box" by: Orson Scott Card - ★☆
-"Out of the Silent Planet" by: C.S. Lewis - ★★★★

-Nonfiction
-"The Middle Place" by: Kelly Corrigan - ★★★★
-"A Girl Named Zippy" by: Haven Kimmel - ★★★☆
-"Freakonomics" by: Steven Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner - ★★★★
-"Fever Pitch" by Nick Hornby - ★★☆
-"Brave Men" by: Ernie Pyle - ★★★★
-"Nickel and Dimed" by: Barbara Ehrenreich - ★★★★
-"A Beautiful Mind" by: Sylvia Nasar - ★★★☆
-"Partly Cloudy Patriot" by: Sarah Vowell - ★★★★
-"My Life in France" by: Julia Child - ★★★★

-Recommended
-"The Muse Asylum" by:David Czuchlewski - ★★★★☆
-"Winesburg, Ohio" by: Sherwood Anderson - ★★★★
-"Looking for Alaska" by: John Green - ★★★★
-"The Brothers K" by: David James Duncan - ★★★★★
-"The Penelopiad" by: Margaret Atwood - ★★★★
-"Sherlock Homes: A Baker Street Dozen" by: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - ★★★★
-"The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" by: Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows - ★★★★
-"Close Range: Wyoming Stories" by" Annie Proulx - ★★
-"Blessings" by: Anna Quindlen - ★★★★

-Amy's List (a list of books a friend created for me as must reads)
-"The Portable Dorothy Parker" by: Dorothy Parker - ★★★★
-"Anna Karenina" by: Leo Tolstoy - ★★★★★
-"The Name of the Rose" by: Umberto Eco - ★★★☆
-"My Sister's Keeper" by: Jodi Picoult - ★★★★
-"Bee Season" by: Myra Goldberg - ★★★☆
-"Uncle Tom's Cabin" by: Harriet Beecher Stowe - ★★★★
-"Crime and Punishment" by Fyodor Dostoevsky - ★★★★
-"Time and again" by Jack Finney - ★★★★
-"Old School" by Tobias Wolff - ★★★☆

-1,000 books to read before you die
-"White Noise" by: Don Delillo - ★★
-"Things Fall Apart" by: Chinua Achebe - ★★★☆
-"Wide Sargasson Sea" by: Jean Rhys - ★★☆
-"Hideous Kinky" by: Esther Freud - ★★★☆
-"The Prime of Miss Brodie" by: Muriel Spark - ★★★☆
-"On Beauty" by: Zadie Smith - ★★★★☆
-"The World According to Garp" by: John Irving - ★★★☆
-"The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien - ★★★★☆
-"The Corrections" by: Jonathan Franzen - ★★☆

-Young Adult
-"Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz" by: L. Frank Baum - ★★★
-"Anne of Windy Poplars" by: L.M. Montgomery - ★★★☆
-"The Call of the Wild" by: Jack London - ★★★
-"Peter and the Star Catchers" by: Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson - ★★★☆
-"Eggs" by: Jerry Spinelli - ★★☆
-"The Hostile Hospital" by: Lemony Snicket - ★★☆
-"Inkheart" by: Cornelia Funke - ★★★★☆
-"The Graveyard Book" by: Neil Gaiman - ★★★★
-"Because of Winn-Dixie" by: Kate DiCamillo - ★★★☆

-Sequels
-"Perelandra" by: C.S. Lewis - ★★★
-"The Well of Lost Plots" by: Jasper Fforde - ★★★★
-"Something Rotten" by: Jasper Fforde - ★★★★
-"Dexter in the Dark" by: Jeff Lindsay - ★★★☆
-"Dearly Devoted Dexter" by: Jeff Lindsay - ★★★★
-"Teacher Man: A Memoir" by: Frank McCourt - ★★★★
-"Eclipse" by: Stephenie Meyers - ★★★★★
-"Son of a Witch" by: Gregory Maguire - ★★★☆
-"Coming Attractions" by: Robin Jones Gunn - ★★★★

-Book Club
-"Isaac's Storm" by: Erik Larson - ★★★★☆
-"The Ride of Our Lives" by: Mike Leonard - ★★
-"Cry, the Beloved Country" by: Alan Paton - ★★★☆
-"Peace Like a River" by: Leif Enger - ★★★★☆
-"The Soloist" by: Steve Lopez - ★★★★☆
-"A Mercy" by: Toni Morrison - ★★
-"The History of Love" by: Nicole Krauss - ★★★★★
-"The Grapes of Wrath" by: John Steinbeck - ★★★★★
-"Manhunt" by: James L. Swanson - ★★★

My Rating System (I rate on my personal reaction to the book):

★ = one star
☆ = 1/2 star

★★★★★ - a must-read
★★★★ - liked it a lot
★★★ - nothing special, but OK
★★ - not my cup of tea
★ - a waste of time

Photo by moi.