Today’s “Best of 2009″ book list comes to us from Jessica Moyer. Jessica offered us a grab bag of titles, including mysteries, science fiction, and nonfiction. Enjoy!
Genre/Subgenre: Mystery & Detective Stories/Private Investigators
Tarquin Hall–The Case of the Missing Servant
An outstanding debut and a series I can’t wait to read more of. Slightly cozy (and often humorous), the mystery is set in modern India and features an aging PI and his crew and family.
Genre/Subgenre: Mystery & Detective Stories/Paranormal Detectives (with a nod to noir)
Cornelius Kane–Unscratchables
A very funny and clever spin on noir mysteries featuring an all animal cast.
Genre/Subgenre: Mystery & Detective Stories/Police Detectives/Police Procedurals
Stuart MacBride–Blind Eyes
All the Logan Macrae books are great, but this one was memorable because Logan realistically and finally falls apart from stress, especially that incurred during his last case (in Flesh House).
Genre/Subgenre: Science Fiction/Action-Adventure
Kage Baker–Empress of Mars
The best Mars colony story I’ve ever read and my favorite SF of this year. Great characters and realistic events.
Genre/Subgenre: Fantasy/Sword and Sorcery
David Anthony Durham–Acacia
An excellent start to an epic fantasy series, darker and more violent that most, but not overwhelmingly so.
Genre/Subgenre: Fantasy/Dark Fantasy
Ken Scholes–Lamentations
Another amazingly good opener to a new fantasy series, this one has some SF/post apocalyptic overtones. Canticle, the sequel, is everything a 2nd book in a series should be.
Genre/Subgenre: Nonfiction/Environmental Writing/Animal Stories
Anthony Bourke et al–A Lion Called Christian
Short and sweet, a touching animal story that both my husband and I enjoyed.
Genre/Subgenre: Nonfiction/Environmental Writing/Animal Stories
Irene Pepperburg–Alex and Me
Alex the famous talking grey parrot recently passed away and this is his story and that of Irene, his friend and researcher. Not only a good book about animal intelligence, but also a somewhat sad story of a woman’s struggle in academic life.
Jessica also adds that she did some series reading:
“This year I read two series start to finish that were great: Jim Butcher’s ‘Dresden Files’ about PI and wizard Harry Dresden (love the Chicago setting); and Charlaine Harris’s ‘Sookie Stackhouse’ series. I’m so glad I finally listened to my friends suggestions and tried these.”
She also listed her favorite audio book reads for the year:
“The ‘Phryne Fisher’ books read by Stephanie Daniel continue to be a favorite with this year’s best, Raisins and Almonds. Simon Vance does amazing things reading the ‘Temeraire’ series as does Grover Gardiner in his reading of the ‘Vorkosigan’ saga.”
Jessica Moyer was a chair of the 2008 RUSA Awards committee and is a doctoral candidate in the Literacy Education program at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. She is the author of the book Research-Based Readers’ Advisory.
