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Books of 2009

December

House of Leaves, Mark L. Danielewski

The Seagulls Woke Me, Mary Stolz

The Brontes Went to Woolworth’s, Rachel Ferguson

Darkchild, Sydney van Scyoc

The Mask of Apollo, Mary Renault

Can Any Mother Help Me?, Jenna Bailey

Stern Men, Elizabeth Gilbert

November

The Well and the Mine, Gin Phillips

Chalice, Robin McKinley

The Comedy of Errors, William Shakespeare

Richard III, William Shakespeare

The Wordy Pilgrims, Sarah Vowell

Henry VI, Part 3, William Shakespeare

Dogsbody, Diana Wynne Jones

The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, Laurie R. King

The Magicians, Lev Grossman

October

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher, Kate Summerscale

Crocodile on the Sandbank, Elizabeth Peters

Sorcery and Cecelia, Patricia C. Wrede & Caroline Stevermer

Magician’s Ward, Patricia C. Wrede

Silent in the Grave, Deanna Raybourn

Mairelon the Magician, Patricia C. Wrede

The Seance, John Harwood

In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan

The Ghost Map, Steven Johnson

The Letters of Dorothy L. Sayers: 1899 – 1936, ed. Barbara Reynolds

Gaudy Night, Dorothy Sayers

September

West with the Night, Beryl Markham

Mothering Sunday, Noel Streatfeild

Odd and the Frost Giants, Neil Gaiman

Ballerina, Edward Stewart

A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge, Josh Neufeld

A Vicarage Family and On Tour, Noel Streatfeild

the Griffin and Sabine trilogy, Nick Bantock

The Quest of the Fair Unknown, Gerald Morris

The Squire’s Tale, Gerald Morris

Gig, eds. John Bowe, Marisa Bowe, and Sabin Streeter

The Girl in a Swing, Richard Adams

The Ask and the Answer, Patrick Ness

I’m Looking Through You, Jennifer Finney Boylan

Fool on the Hill, Matt Ruff

Her Fearful Symmetry, Audrey Niffenegger

The Real Trial of Oscar Wilde, Merlin Holland, ed.

August

Bayou, Volume 1, Jeremy Love & Patrick Morgan

Slave and Citizen: A Life of Frederick Douglass, Nathan Irvin Huggins & Oscar Handlin

84 Charing Cross Road and The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street, Helene Hanff

The Time Traveler’s Wife, Audrey Niffenegger

Indigo’s Star, Hilary McKay

Saffy’s Angel, Hilary McKay

Siberia, Ann Halam

Sex and the Soul, Donna Freitas

The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood

Palimpsest, Catherynne Valente

Chicken with Plums, Marjane Satrapi

Fun Home, Alison Bechdel

On Agate Hill, Lee Smith

Little Women, Louisa May Alcott

The Josie Gambit, Mary Frances Shura

The Lady’s Not for Burning, Christopher Fry

Buffy comics up to Time of Your Life, by all sorts of people including Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard

Reading Lolita in Tehran, Azar Nafisi

Iran: A People Interrupted, Hamid Dabashi

The Robe of Skulls, Vivian French

July

The Coachman Rat, David Henry Wilson

Children Who See Too Much, Betsy McAlister Groves

Regarding the Pain of Others, Susan Sontag

Stolen Voices, Zlata Filipovic & Melanie Challenger, eds.

The Rebel Angels, Robertson Davies

The Thirteenth Child, Patricia C. Wrede

River of Darkness, Rennie Airth

Censoring an Iranian Love Story, Shahriar Mandanipour

Tricked, Alex Robinson

The Enchantress of Florence, Salman Rushdie

White Jenna, Jane Yolen

Sister Light, Sister Dark, Jane Yolen

We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Shirley Jackson

Forbidden Fruit, Mark D. Regnerus

Fire from Heaven, Mary Renault

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

The Patron Saint of Butterflies, Cecilia Galante

The Knife of Never Letting Go, Patrick Ness

Making Comics, Scott McCloud

Smoke and Mirrors, Barbara Michaels

Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi

The Mysterious Benedict Society, Trenton Lee Stewart

Ordinary Victories, Manu Larcenet

Fables: Arabian Nights (and Days), Bill Willingham

Starseeker, Tim Bowler

Children of Men, P.D. James

Iran Awakening, Shirin Ebadi

C.S. Lewis: Letters to Children

Reinventing Comics, Scott McCloud

The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins

June

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, Katherine Howe

Love is Blue, Joan Wyndham

Devil-May-Care, Elizabeth Peters

The Love Talker, Elizabeth Peters

Understanding Comics, Scott McCloud

My Cousin Rachel, Daphne du Maurier

A History of Psychiatry, Edward Shorter

The Witch of Portobello, Paulo Coehlo

The Little Stranger, Sarah Waters

The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Muriel Barbery, Alison Anderson (trans.)

The House at Riverton, Kate Morton

May

The Tales of Beedle the Bard, J.K. Rowling

Milk, Sulphate, and Alby Starvation, Martin Millar

A Pale View of Hills, Kazuo Ishiguro

The Tenth Circle, Jodi Picoult

The Haunting of Hill House, Shirley Jackson

Thames: Sacred River, Peter Ackroyd

Life As We Knew It, Susan Beth Pfeffer

The Death Collector, Justin Richards

The Genie of Sutton Place, George Selden

Ella Minnow Pea, Mark Dunn

Blackbriar, William Sleator

Mother Come Home, Paul Hornschemeier

The Savage, David Almond and Dave McKean

Feeling Like a Kid, Jerry Griswold

Have His Carcase, Dorothy Sayers

Time at the Top, Edward Ormondroyd

Travel Far, Pay No Fare, Anne Lindbergh

Murder Must Advertise, Dorothy Sayers

French Milk, Lucy Knisley

Love and Friendship, Alison Lurie

Skellig, David Almond

The Brooklyn Follies, Paul Auster

Winter Rose, Patricia McKillip

Sima’s Undergarments for Women, Ilana Stanger-Ross

Ex Libris, Anne Fadiman

April

Strong Poison, Dorothy Sayers

Juniper, Gentian, and Rosemary, Pamela Dean

The Case of Madeleine Smith, Rick Geary

War for the Oaks, Emma Bull

The Shooting Party, Isabel Colegate

Death: The High Cost of Living, Neil Gaiman

The Queen of Spells, Dahlov Ipcar

The Court of the Air, Stephen Hunt

Baltimore, or, The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire, Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden

Taller Tales, Bill Willingham

Autobiography of a Face, Lucy Grealy

The Ordinary Princess, M.M. Kaye

Threshold, Caitlin Kiernan

jPod, Douglas Coupland

Well Wished, Franny Billingsley

The Meaning of Night, Michael Cox

The Illustrated Man, Ray Bradbury

Gifted, Nikita Lalwani

Walking Through Walls, Philip Smith

Jump at the Sun, Kim McLarin

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, Maggie O’Farrell

The Elfish Gene, Mark Barrowcliffe

Accidentally on Purpose, Mary Pols

Those Who Hunt the Night, Barbara Hambly

March

The New Moon with the Old, Dodie Smith

An Inconvenient Wife, Megan Chance

100 Bullets: The Counterfifth Detective, Bill Azzarello et. al.

A Far Cry from Kensington, Muriel Spark

Beyond Black, Hilary Mantel

Fables: All the Other Ones, Bill Willingham et. al.

Fables: The Mean Seasons, Bill Willingham et. al.

The Dancers of Sycamore Street, Julie L’Enfant

Murrow, A.M. Sperber

The Child that Books Built, Francis Spufford

Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, Rachel Cohn & David Levithan

Black Mirror, Nancy Werlin

Thursday’s Children, Rumer Godden

A Map of Home, Randa Jarrar

Free for All, Don Borchert

February

Surprised by Joy, C.S. Lewis

What I Was, Meg Rosoff

The Servants, Michael Marshall Smith

Spies, Michael Frayn

The Fire Fighter, Francis Cottam

Love Lessons, Joan Wyndham

Joy Street, Michael T. Wise, ed.

Broadcasts from the Blitz, Philip Seib

9 of 1: A Window to the World, Oliver Chin

Just in Case, Meg Rosoff

The Children’s War, Monique Charlesworth

How I Live Now, Meg Rosoff

The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro

Darkmans, Nicola Barker

Kindred, Octavia Butler

January

In the Springtime of the Year, Susan Hill

Virgin: An Untouched History, Hanne Blank

Of Other Worlds, C.S. Lewis

Season of Mists, Neil Gaiman

Year of the Griffin, Diana Wynne Jones

The Dark Lord of Derkholm, Diana Wynne Jones

A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.

Dream Country, Neil Gaiman

The Doll’s House, Neil Gaiman

Preludes and Nocturnes, Neil Gaiman

Shortcomings, Adrian Tomine

Rereading Sex, Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz

The Shadow in the North, Philip Pullman

Revolutionary Road, Richard Yates

The Ruby in the Smoke, Philip Pullman

Keeping Faith, Jodi Picoult