TNBBC 2009 Top Pick Challenge

[Robin]

This list is still growing over on another post and I'll post the "latest and greatest" here. But someone had a great idea to turn this into a 2009 challenge - so here it is. Any book you "completed" between 01/01/2009 and 12/31/2009.

10 points for a "first read"
5 points for a "re-read"


1. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
2. Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
3. Persuasion by Jane Austen
4. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
5. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
6. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
7. Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
8. A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah
9. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
10. Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres
11. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
12. The Gawgon and the Boy by Lloyd Alexander
13. Fair and Tender Ladies by Lee Smith
14. The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian
15. A Fortune-Teller Told Me: Earthbound Travels in the Far East, by Tiziano Terzani
16. Dissolution, by C.J. Sansom
17. The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
18 The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
19. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
20. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
21. Blindness - Jose Saramago
22. The Giver - Lois Lowry
23. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
24. Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
25. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
26. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
27. Suite Francaise- Irene Nemirovski
28. The Fountainhead- Ayn Rand
29. The Horse Whisperer - Nicholas Evans
30. The Things They Carried-Tim O'Brien
31. The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
32. The Sparrow - Mary Doria Russell
33. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
34. Outlander - Diana Gabaldon
35. Little Women-Louisa May Alcott
36. The Island - Victoria Hislop
37. The Crown Conspiracy - Michael J. Sullivan
38. House of Mirth - Edith Wharton
39. Time and Again - Jack Finney
40. A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hossieni
41. Watership Down by Richard Adams
42. Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry
43. Mistress of the Art of Death - Arianna Franklin
44. Everything that Rises Must Converge by Flannery O'Connor
45. Widow of the South by Robert Hicks
46. Book of Lost Things by Connolly
47. Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
48. Interred With Their Bones by Jennifer Carrell
49. Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts
50. Just one look by Harlan Coben
51. Water For Elephants by Saru Gruen
52. East of Eden by John Steinbeck
53. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
54. Mahabharata by R. Rajagopalachari
55. Straight Man by Richard Russo
56. Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore
57. The Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst
58. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
59. A River Runs Through It and Other Stories by Norman Maclean
60. The Hours by Michael Cunningham
61. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
62. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
63. Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
64. Icy Sparks - Gwyn Rubio
65. The Stolen Child - Keith Donohue
66. A Great and Terrible Beauty - Libba Bray
67. These Is My Words - Nancy Turner
68. Daughter of the Forest - Juliet Marillier
69. What is the What - Dave Eggers
70. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
71. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
72. I Know This Much Is True - Wally Lamb
73. Written On The Body - Jeanette Winterson
74. The Red Tent - Anita Diamant
75. Howards End - E.M. Forster
76. Endurance- Alfred Lansing
77. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
78. Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris
79. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Jonathan Safran Foer
80. Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card
81. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
82. Alas, Babylon - Pat Frank
83. The Scarlet Letter -Nathaniel Hawthorn
84. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
85. Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
86. Witch Fire by James Clemens
87. The Prince of Tides, Pat Conroy
88. Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald
89. Molvania, A Land Untouched by Modern Dentistry by Cilauro, Gleisner, Sitch
90. The Stand by Stephen King
91. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
92. Atonement by Ian McEwan
93. The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo
94. How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World by Harry Browne
95. Away by Amy Bloom
96. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
97. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
98. 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
99. The Godfather by Mario Puzo
100. The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan
101. The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse
102. Little, Big by John Crowley
103. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
104. Lightning by Dean Koontz
105. Enchantment by Orson Scott Card
106. The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
107. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
108. My Cousin Rachel, Daphne du Maurier
109. The Eight by Katherine Neville
110. Evasion - Anonymous. Published by Crimethinc
111. Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
112. Good Omens The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman

[Robin]

Tallies so Far

40 - Robin (portrait)
20 - Laura (flower)
20 - Vicki (dog)
10 - Emily (kittens)
10 - Fiona (tweety)
10 - Jen (portrait)
10 - Hayes (artichokes?)
10 - Nicole (portrait)
10 - Megan (portrait)
10 - Stephanie (portrait)

[[deleted user]]

10 pts. 31. The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

Where did this list come from, Robin?

[Laura]

Wow...I've read 19 so far...this is a great list.

[Megan]

only one so far this year, The Book Thief, but 21 excellent novels so far. :)

[Laura]

Hee hee, in this case 2 so far this year....quite an inspirational list Fiona ! Can't believe we're not up to 100 yet. Although - adding more is harder each time as you can't use one already there. If I had it to do over again, I might put I am the Messenger instead of Prodigal Summer. Yes, it's true.

[Vicki]

40. A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hossieni
65. The Stolen Child - Keith Donohue

20 points so far for this year. I can definitely do the ten though.

[Leah]

i plan on reading a lot of those books this year so I'm definitely in on this one.. ^_^

[Jen B]

I'll do this one, too. I've read a lot of these already, and I have a lot more on my TBR shelf, though I haven't yet read any this year.

[Jen B]

Ooh, I take that back...I just finished #53 The Secret Life of Bees this week. So 10 points for me!

[Maggie]

Oh fun! I've already read a lot of the books, but I also have a bunch of them in my pile of unreads!

[[deleted user]]

53. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd 10 pts.

[Stephanie]

10 pts. 4. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Yikes! Better get reading. :) Many of these are on my TBR.

[Robin]

My Tally so far...

4. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak - 10
6. The Road by Cormac McCarthy - 5
8. A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah - 10
41. Watership Down by Richard Adams - 5
70. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss - 10

Total: 40 POINTS

[Becky]

Aww man! I've read a bunch of these, but I read them before January! :(

I could get a total of 90 points (9 books) just by reading "new" books that I already own, and another 95 points (19 books) by rereading books I own.

But I get 0 points since none of these have been read since January 2009.

[Laura]

:( bummer Becky!

[Becky]

Laura wrote: ":( bummer Becky!"

I know. Oh, woe is me! ;)

[Nicole]

Good list I've read 15, but only #61 The Thirteenth Tale since January - 10 points.

[Robin]

Tallies so Far

40 - Robin (portrait)
20 - Laura (flower)
20 - Vicki (dog)
10 - Emily (kittens)
10 - Fiona (tweety)
10 - Jen (portrait)
10 - Hayes (artichokes?)
10 - Nicole (portrait)
10 - Megan (portrait)
10 - Stephanie (portrait)

[Angela]

20 Points
Kite Runner
Little Women

But read about four other last year :(

[Lisa]

I have read lots of these books, but only 1 since January.

10 pts for Corelli's Mandolin. (It was a great book!)

[[deleted user]]

67. These Is My Words - Nancy Turner 10 points 2/5/09

31. The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger Jan 10, 2009 10 points

[Robin]

Current Tallies

40 - Robin (portrait)
20 - Angella (portrait)
20 - Laura (flower)
20 - Cassie (flowers)
20 - Vicki (dog)
10 - Emily (kittens)
10 - Fiona (tweety)
10 - Jen (portrait)
10 - Lisa (books)
10 - Hayes (artichokes?)
10 - Nicole (portrait)
10 - Megan (portrait)
10 - Stephanie (portrait)

[Emma]

10-Watership Down

Yay, AGATB is on the list!

[Nicole]

The Giver & Rebecca - 20 new points; 30 total.

[Becky]

Still 0 points.

But soon, I will have points too! MWAHAHA!

...excuse me. My maniacal side was showing. ;)

[Robin]

Current Tallies


40 - Robin (portrait)
30 - Nicole (portrait)
20 - Angella (portrait)
20 - Laura (flower)
20 - Cassie (flowers)
20 - Vicki (dog)
10 - Emily (kittens)
10 - Fiona (tweety)
10 - (G)emma (ostrich)
10 - Jen (portrait)
10 - Lisa (books)
10 - Hayes (artichokes?)
10 - Megan (portrait)
10 - Stephanie (portrait)

[Robin]

Weee Free points because a book came on

4. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak - 10
6. The Road by Cormac McCarthy - 5
8. A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah - 10
41. Watership Down by Richard Adams - 5
70. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss - 10
112. Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett - 10

Total: 50 POINTS

[Robin]

Current Tallies


50 - Robin (portrait)
30 - Nicole (portrait)
20 - Angella (portrait)
20 - Laura (flower)
20 - Cassie (flowers)
20 - Vicki (dog)
10 - Emily (kittens)
10 - Fiona (tweety)
10 - (G)emma (ostrich)
10 - Jen (portrait)
10 - Lisa (books)
10 - Hayes (artichokes?)
10 - Megan (portrait)
10 - Stephanie (portrait)

[Catamorandi]

10 points. 51. Water for Elephants

[Catamorandi]

10 points 6. The Road

[Alyssa]

oh go figure my reading goal for this year is not to re-read anything. BAH. well, we'll see how far i get without those :)

[Marie]

"Snow Flower and the Secret Fan"/ Lisa See

[Becky]

Woohoo! I'm on the board with 10 points for a 1st time read of The Kite Runner! :)

[Robin]

Current Tallies


50 - Robin (portrait)
30 - Nicole (portrait)
20 - Angella (portrait)
20 - Cassie (flowers)
20 - Laura (flower)
20 - Operandi (no photo)
20 - Vicki (dog)
15 - Fiona (tweety)
10 - Becky (comic)
10 - Emily (kittens)
10 - (G)emma (ostrich)
10 - Jen (portrait)
10 - Hayes (artichokes?)
10 - Lisa (books)
10 - Marie (flower)
10 - Megan (portrait)
10 - Stephanie (portrait)

[Nicole]

The Secret History - Donna Tartt, 10 more points!

[Jamie]

I've read 84, Charing Cross Road this year (10 points). I'm planning on reading many more from the list as well. Glad to join you!

[Nicole]

93. The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo - 10 points

[Jen B]

It's not on your list on this thread yet, but I read #117 The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society in February.

New total: 20 points

[Stephanie]

10 more points for me - #117 - Guernsey. It's on the most recent list.

Total Points: 20

Sad, sad, sad. I have so many of these sitting on my shelf - I better get busy!

[Vicki]

I have another 10, just finished Water for Elephants. Still many of these on on my To-read and also sitting on my shelf.

And I did read Guernsey this year, even if it was before it was on the list, so that still counts right?
Total: 40 points

[Maggie]

10pts for me! I just finished Rebecca. Loved it!

[Nicole]

I have a bunch of updates
# 6 The Road - hated this!!!
#74 The Red Tent
#77 The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
#112 Good Omens
#117 Guernsey

All were new to me, so I think that puts me at 100 points, woo!

[Susanna - Censored by GoodReads]

This year I've read:

31. The Time Traveler's Wife
117. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

and reread:

16. Dissolution

So I make my tally 25 points.

[Jamie]

98. 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff (10 pts)
117. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (10 pts)

Total: 20 points

[Cait]

I've read 4 so far this year:

4. The Book Thief
21. Blindness
31. The Time Traveler's Wife
79. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Total: 40 Points

I counted 10 more on the list that I'm reading for the Spring Challenge alone. Yay!

[Stephanie]

#61 - The Thirteenth Tale (10 points)

30 points to date

[Stephanie]

And the most current list, as the one previously posted is now missing several:

1. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
2. Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
3. Persuasion by Jane Austen
4. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
5. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
6. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
7. Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
8. A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah
9. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
10. Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres
11. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
12. The Gawgon and the Boy by Lloyd Alexander
13. Fair and Tender Ladies by Lee Smith
14. The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian
15. A Fortune-Teller Told Me: Earthbound Travels in the Far East, by Tiziano Terzani
16. Dissolution, by C.J. Sansom
17. The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
18 The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
19. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
20. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
21. Blindness - Jose Saramago
22. The Giver - Lois Lowry
23. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
24. Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
25. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
26. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
27. Suite Francaise- Irene Nemirovski
28. The Fountainhead- Ayn Rand
29. The Horse Whisperer - Nicholas Evans
30. The Things They Carried-Tim O'Brien
31. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
32. The Sparrow - Mary Doria Russell
33. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
34. Outlander - Diana Gabaldon
35. Little Women-Louisa May Alcott
36. The Island - Victoria Hislop
37. The Crown Conspiracy - Michael J. Sullivan
38. House of Mirth - Edith Wharton
39. Time and Again - Jack Finney
40. A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hossieni
41. Watership Down by Richard Adams
42. Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry
43. Mistress of the Art of Death - Arianna Franklin
44. Everything that Rises Must Converge by Flannery O'Connor
45. Widow of the South by Robert Hicks
46. Book of Lost Things by Connolly
47. Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
48. Interred With Their Bones by Jennifer Carrell
49. Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts
50. Just One Look by Harlan Coben
51. Water For Elephants by Saru Gruen
52. East of Eden by John Steinbeck
53. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
54. Mahabharata by R. Rajagopalachari
55. Straight Man by Richard Russo
56. Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore
57. The Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst
58. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
59. A River Runs Through It and Other Stories by Norman Maclean
60. The Hours by Michael Cunningham
61. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
62. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
63. Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
64. Icy Sparks - Gwyn Rubio
65. The Stolen Child - Keith Donohue
66. A Great and Terrible Beauty - Libba Bray
67. These Is My Words - Nancy Turner
68. Daughter of the Forest - Juliet Marillier
69. What is the What - Dave Eggers
70. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
71. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
72. I Know This Much Is True - Wally Lamb
73. Written On The Body - Jeanette Winterson
74. The Red Tent - Anita Diamant
75. Howards End - E.M. Forster
76. Endurance- Alfred Lansing
77. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
78. Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris
79. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Jonathan Safran Foer
80. Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card
81. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
82. Alas, Babylon - Pat Frank
83. The Scarlet Letter -Nathaniel Hawthorn
84. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
85. Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
86. Witch Fire by James Clemens
87. The Prince of Tides, Pat Conroy
88. Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald
89. Molvania, A Land Untouched by Modern Dentistry by Cilauro, Gleisner, Sitch
90. The Stand by Stephen King
91. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
92. Atonement by Ian McEwan
93. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
94. How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World by Harry Browne
95. Away by Amy Bloom
96. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
97. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
98. 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
99. The Godfather by Mario Puzo
100. The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan
101. The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse
102. Little, Big by John Crowley
103. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
104. Lightning by Dean Koontz
105. Enchantment by Orson Scott Card
106. The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
107. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
108. My Cousin Rachel, Daphne du Maurier
109. The Eight by Katherine Neville
110. Evasion - Anonymous. Published by Crimethinc
111. Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
112. Good Omens The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman
113. To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
114. Power of One by Bryce Courtenay
115. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass -Lewis Carroll
116.Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
117. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows
118. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
119. The Plague by Albert Camus
120. The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
121. Before I Wake by Robert J. Wiersema
122. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
123. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

[Jen B]

Just finished another one (in bold)
#4 The Book Thief - Marcus Zusak
#117 The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Shaffer/Barrows
#53 The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd

Total: 30 Points

[Lisa]

So far I have...
3. Persuasion
10. Corelli's Mandolin
51. Water for Elephants
77. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
117. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society

50 pts