1) John the Baptizer by Brooks Hansen:

No matter your faith background, or lack of it, or your knowledge of the Bible, or lack of it, I highly recommend John The Baptizer.  Its blends the historical and the literary in ways that defy genre and subject matter to create a powerful story.

2) Right Time, Right Place by Richard Brookhiser

For anyone wanting to understand the conservative movement, and its flagship magazine, Right Time, Right Place is a must read.  And anyone interested in becoming a journalist/writer would do well to read it. But at its heart is a more humane vision: that being true to your ideals and friends is what’s important.

3) The Everafter War by Michael Buckley

With the Everafter War Michael Buckley again shows why this series has won the acclaim and popularity it has.  Each book has just the right amount of humor and seriousness; of plot and character development mixed with satire and slapstick.  He keeps the reader guessing – although both the traitor and the master are pretty easy to spot – and despite all the silliness (and the YA audience) the characters are surprisingly well developed. It is just an ideal light read for me and for kids of all ages.

4) The New Policeman by Kate Thompson

So whether you are fascinated by Celtic lore, love traditional Irish music, or just enjoy creative storytelling, there is plenty to like in The New Policemen.  Thompson’s love of Ireland – its culture, history, people, and land – comes shining through and it is infectious.  When combined with a unique adventure story it makes for enjoyable reading. I recommend it for readers young and old.

5) Through Black Spruce by Joseph Boyden

This is something of a big complicated mess.  And yet it is a big complicated beautiful mess.  And not to sound cliche, but ain’t that life?

6) Leap Over a Wall by Eugene Peterson

Eugene Peterson takes the story of David and reveals the important theological insights it offers in accessible and yet poetic language. Each chapter is a short read but packed with insights into the Christian life and deep thoughts about what it means to be human.

7) Children of Odin by Padraic Colum

So whether you are looking for an accessible introduction to these myths, something interesting for the younger readers you know or if, like me, you just like exploring myths and ancient stories check out the Children of Odin.

8) The Sorceress by Michael Scott

If you have been living in a cave and haven’t stumbled on this series yet, and you like fantasy adventure, I highly recommend it.

This is one of those great series where each book seems to get better and each wait for the next one to come up seems more intolerable.

9) The End of Secularism by Hunter Baker

If you are interested in the subject of secularism or the interaction of faith in the public square you will want to read this book.  It can serve as a useful introduction or an interesting argument/debate kickoff for those with more of a background in the subject.

10) Secret Son by Laila Lalami

Secret Son has many traditional elements: coming of age; rags to riches to rags; East meets West; family versus individual identity; fate versus free will; etc.  But it has a simplicity and honesty that makes it fresh and avoids cliche or a preachy tone.

So there you have it. Ten books I really enjoyed in 2009. What were your favorites in 2009?

List below with what I have read in bold.

1. What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, by Raymond Carver

Book cover via Amazon

2. Collected Stories of John Cheever
3. Deliverance, by James Dickey
4. The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck
5. Blood Meridian, by Cormac McCarthy

6. The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky
7. The Known World, by Edward P. Jones

8. The Good War, by Studs Terkel

9. American Pastoral, by Philip Roth
10. A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories, by Flannery O’Connor
11. The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien
12. A Sport and a Pastime, by James Salter
13. The Call of the Wild, by Jack London
14. Time’s Arrow, by Martin Amis
15. A Sense of Where You Are, by John McPhee
16. Hell’s Angels, by Hunter S. Thompson
17. Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison
18. Dubliners, by James Joyce
19. Rabbit, Run, by John Updike
20. The Postman Always Rings Twice, by James M. Cain
21. Dog Soldiers, by Robert Stone
22. Winter’s Bone, by Daniel Woodrell
23. Legends of the Fall, by Jim Harrison
24. Under the Volcano, by Malcolm Lowry
25. The Naked and the Dead, by Norman Mailer
26. The Professional, by W.C. Heinz
27. For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway
28. Dispatches, by Michael Herr
29. Tropic of Cancer, by Henry Miller
30. Revolutionary Road, by Richard Yates
31. As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner
32. The Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara
33. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
34. All the King’s Men, by Robert Penn Warren
35. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey
36. Sophie’s Choice, by William Styron
37. A Fan’s Notes, by Frederick Exley
38. Lucky Jim, by Kingsley Amis
39. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, by Haruki Murakami
40. Master and Commander, by Patrick O’Brian
41. Plainsong, by Kent Haruf
42. A Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole
43. Affliction, by Russell Banks
44. This Boy’s Life, by Tobias Wolff
45. Winter’s Tale, by Mark Helprin
46. The Adventures of Augie March, by Saul Bellow
47. Women, by Charles Bukowski
48. Going Native, by Stephen Wright
49. Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad
50. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, by John LeCarré
51. The Crack-Up, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
52. CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, by George Saunders
53. War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy
54. The Shining, by Stephen King
55. Winesburg, Ohio, by Sherwood Anderson
56. Moby Dick, by Herman Melville
57. Midnight’s Children, by Salman Rushdie
58. Labyrinths, by Jorge Luis Borges
59. The Right Stuff, by Tom Wolfe
60. The Sportswriter, by Richard Ford
61. American Tabloid, by James Ellroy
62. The Autobiography of Malcolm X, by Alex Haley
63. What It Takes, by Richard Ben Cramer
64. The Continental Op, by Dashiell Hammett
65. The Power and the Glory, by Graham Greene
66. So Long, See You Tomorrow, by William Maxwell
67. Native Son, by Richard Wright
68. Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, by James Agee and Walker Evans
69. Angle of Repose, by Wallace Stegner
70. The Great Bridge, by David McCullough
71. The Dharma Bums, by Jack Kerouac
72. Lonesome Dove, by Larry McMurtry
73. Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov
74. Underworld, by Don DeLillo
75. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain