CharlieDean

Yeah, I should have written this last week, but I was fairly successful at NOT opening my laptop over Christmas Vacation, much to the delight of my family! (except to watch Seinfeld – but that’s another story!)  I think you all know that I love to read.  So, here are my favorite 9 books of 2009, sorted by category:

• Best “Church-y Read” (books about church)
  • The Divine Commodity [Skye Jethani] – This book calls out the consumerism that has infected the American church, and well, all of us.
• Milestone Book (books that I put pressure on myself to read, in order to call myself “well read”)
  • The Brothers Karamazov [Fyodor Dostoevsky] – This book has sat on my shelf for years and mocked me.  I didn’t necessarily love it, but I finished it, which was a total victory.
• Non-Fiction
  • The Omnivore’s Dilemma, & In Defense of Food [Michael Pollan] – These two books really challenged how I think about food and eating, and really inspired me to double the size of our garden next year!
  • What the Dog Saw [Malcolm Gladwell] – Just enjoyable and thought-provoking.
  • The Year of Living Biblically [A. J. Jacobs] – I alternated between laughing and contemplation.
• Fiction
  • The Brothers K [David James Duncan] -  I should have called this category “Fiction – excluding my favorite novel A Prayer for Owen Meany, which I re-read for the third time this year.”  Anyway, someone recommended this book to me and it was completely enjoyable, mixing religion, family and baseball all into one novel.
• Business/Leadership/History
  • How the Mighty Fall [Jim Collins] – I just read this in the last week or so of 2009.  I love Jim Collins’ previous book Good to Great and this book didn’t disappoint!
  • Benjamin Franklin: an American Life [Walter Isaacson] – Solid read on one of the most interesting founding fathers.

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