The Bookshelf

(Editor’s Note: every year at the Library staff are asked to submit a list of their favorite books, DVDs, and albums. These can be materials that came out before 2009, as long as they came to discover them in the past year. We’ve invited everyone to elaborate on their choices. Look for additional blog pieces in the weeks to come. -TG)

2009 was quite an interesting year for books. I don’t know if I’m getting more picky in my old age, but I felt like fewer titles absolutely blew me out of the water. Or maybe it was simply a matter of these five titles being head and shoulders beyond anything else I read this year.

We’ll start with Darwyn Cooke’s graphic novel adaptation of Richard Stark’s first Parker novel, The Hunter. (If you want to add even more modifiers, you could also mention that Stark is a pseudonym for Donald Westlake.) Cooke’s expressive watercolor-and-ink work – which calls to mind Mad Men-era poster design – is a perfect match for the character, one of the original (and best) hard-boiled noir antiheroes. If you’re a crime fan – regardless of whether you’ve read Parker before – this version breathes new life into a crime classic.

We move to far more real (and serious) crimes with Colorado reporter Dave Cullen’s exploration of the Columbine massacre. Refusing to look away from the tragedy, nor to accept the easy, more commonly accepted explanations, Cullen provides a thorough analysis of a tragic event fraught with complexity.

My next top pick changes course entirely. E. Lockhart’s young-adult novel The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks received a Printz honor from the American Library Association, and it’s a well-deserved accolade. Young Frankie’s adventures as she uses her brain, her cunning, and her razor-sharp wit to dismantle the boy’s club at her tony New England boarding school. Were you a fan of the TV show Veronica Mars? Old Ronnie would find a kindred spirit in Frankie Landau-Banks.

I greatly enjoyed every book on this list, but one in particular stands above the rest. Christopher McDougall’s Born to Run takes a look at the Tarahumara tribe living in Mexico’s Copper Canyon. Their ability to run great distances over some of the worst terrain serves as a jumping-off point for the historical, sociological, and evolutionary reasons for why we run. Part adventure story, part profile of some insane endurance athletes, the book will make you want to dig out your sneakers – assuming you can tear yourself away from the pages.

Finally, we have Tom Piazza’s novel City of Refuge, following two very different families struggling to put their lives together following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Piazza, a music writer from New Orleans, captures a mix of desperation and hope, enveloping the narrative with you-are-there immediacy.

What were your favorite books? Is there anything you’re looking forward to reading in 2010?