2009 Book List

This is my 2009 book list....each year I begin a new list of all the books I read during that year. This is a practice that I began back in the mid-1980's, to help me remember or recall the title or author of this or that book that I might want to find again. I started the list as an aid to my memory, for my future reference. When I started blogging I decided to publish the most recent years on my sidebar for any who are interested in perusing them. I noticed that lots of bloggers are also voracious readers of books.

But I also keep my lists on paper....all 24 of them.

La Liseuse
Georges Croegaert (1848-1923)

A book is a garden you can carry in your pocket.
~ Arabian proverb

A book is a garden....so many gardens, so many worlds, have I walked through with my eyes and my imagination over the years. Today I can look back over my book lists, typed or handwritten on half-sheet ruled paper in my old, duct-taped, half-sized, 3-ring binder bought at the bookstore at San Diego State University a quarter of a century ago. Running my eye over the titles and authors, month by month down through the years, events of my life, both happy and sad, flash through my mind, somehow bound up in my memory with the books I was reading at the time. My life's history, coded in the words of titles and the names of authors...

Now it is October 2009 and I'm getting antsy to start the new list...what will I be reading in January 2010? At this moment there are 13 books waiting to be read, and 3 more on their way to me, ordered online....and no doubt there will be others too, waiting on that shelf, by the time January rolls around.

Do you keep lists of the books you read? I've seen one or two on the blogs. There is something heart warming about finding another who loves many of the same books I do, and reads them over again like I do. It's like a connection of the heart and soul....a relationship, a measure of understanding between individuals. A kind of meaningful connection....what we all crave.


January 2009
1. A Joy of Gardening, V. Sackville-West
2. The Gypsy in the Parlour, Margery Sharp
3. Smokey House, Elizabeth Goudge
4. The Blue Hills, Elizabeth Goudge

February 2009
5. I'll Never be French (No Matter What I Do), Mark Greenside
6. The Photograph, Penelope Lively
7. The Joy of the Snow, Elizabeth Goudge (an autobiography)
8. The Little Princesses, Marion Crawford
9. Heart and Soul, Maeve Binchy

March 2009
10. Wisdom in the Waiting: Spring's Sacred Days, Phyllis Tickle
11. Renovation of the Heart, Dallas Willard
12. Finally Comes the Poet, Walter Brueggemann
13. The Carousel, Rosamunde Pilcher
14. Wildwood, Roger Deakin
15. The Finishing School, Muriel Spark
16. A Quiet Neighborhood, George MacDonald
17. A Walk with Jane Austen, Lori Smith
18. The Secret of Guidance, F.B. Meyer (You can read the book online at: http://www.ccel.org/m/meyer/guidance/guidance.htm)

April 2009
19. Islam and the Jews, Mark A. Gabriel, Ph.D.
20. Acedia and Me, Kathleen Norris
21. The Cross, Martyn Lloyd-Jones
22. The Seasoned Parish, George MacDonald
23. The Vicar's Daughter, George MacDonald
24. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
25. Gift from the Sea, Anne Morrow Lindbergh
26. Only One Life: Biography of Leon Rosenberg, Vera Kuschnir
27. A Beggar in Jerusalem, Elie Wiesel

May 2009
28. Territories of the Voice (Contemporary Stories by Irish Women Writers)
29. Very Valentine, Adriana Trigiani
30. The Dance of the Dissident Daughter, Sue Monk Kidd (be warned; if you are a Christian, you will find this a very dissident book!)
31. In Arabian Nights, Tahir Shah
32. The Wisdom in the Hebrew Alphabet, Rabbi Michael L. Munk

June 2009
33. The Unbearable Lightness of Scones, Alexander McCall Smith
34. Celebration of Discipline, Richard J. Foster
35. The Complete Julian of Norwich, Fr. John-Julian, OJN
36. Two Under the Indian Sun, Jon & Rumer Godden

July 2009
37. The Uncommon Reader, Alan Bennett
38. Mrs. DeWinter, Susan Hill
39. The Blessing, Nancy Mitford
40. The Clothes They Stood Up In, Alan Bennett
41. The Lady in the Van, Alan Bennett
42. A House in Fez, Suzanna Clarke
43. Persuasion, Jane Austen
44. The Church beyond the Congregation, James Thwaites
45. Elegy for Iris, John Bayley (about his wife, Iris Murdoch)
46. Pursuit of Love, Nancy Mitford
47. Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen

August 2009
48. Love in a Cold Climate, Nancy Mitford
49. Too Deep for Words, Thelma Hall
50. Hannah Coulter, Wendell Berry
51. Tyler's Row, Miss Read
52. Brother and Sister, Joanna Trollope
53. In the Steps of the Master, H.V. Morton
54. Letters by a Modern Mystic (and The Game with Minutes), Frank Laubach

September 2009
55. Fidelity, Wendell Berry
56. For Everything a Season, Philip Gulley
57. The Center of Everything, Laura Moriarty
58. The Bird in the Tree, Elizabeth Goudge
59. Pilgrim's Inn, Elizabeth Goudge
60. The Heart of the Family, Elizabeth Goudge
61. A Testament of Devotion, Thomas Kelly
62. Refractions: a journey in faith, art and culture, Makoto Fujimura
63. The Dean's Watch, Elizabeth Goudge
64. The Way of the Heart, Henri Nouwen
65. Called Out of Darkness: a spiritual confession, Anne Rice

October 2009
66. Savoring God's Word, Jan Johnson
67. The Scent of Water, Elizabeth Goudge
68. Wedding Song: Memoirs of an Iranian Jewish Woman, Farideh Goldin
69. Abide in Christ, Andrew Murray
70. Experiencing the Depths of Jesus Christ, Madame Jeanne Guyon
71. Judas and the Gospel of Jesus, N.T.Wright
72. Madame Jeanne Guyon: Her Autobiography, Jan Johnson

November 2009
73. The Vintage Caper, Peter Mayle
74. Once Upon a Christmas, Pearl S. Buck
75. A Christmas Longing, Joni Eareckson Tada
76. An Irish Country Christmas, Alice Taylor

December 2009
77. Behold That Star, A Christmas Anthology, edited by the Bruderhof
78. The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady, Edith Holden
79. A Christmas Book, Elizabeth Goudge
80. The Story of Holly & Ivy, Rumer Godden
81. Hearing God Through the Year, Dallas Willard
82. God so Loved the World, Elizabeth Goudge
83. The High Calling (a novel), James Street
84. The Longing for Home, Frederick Buechner
85. My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers