Roof Beam Reader

It’s been a while since I’ve participated in a “Top Ten Tuesday” meme. These are hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, and they always have great topics.  This week’s topic is “favorites of the year so far.” Since I like to keep track of my own personal favorites, and share them with others (what else is a book blog for, anyway?), I thought this week’s topic was a good one to post.

According to my records, I have read 40 books so far this year, which puts me a bit ahead of schedule (I only had a goal of 60 for the whole year).  I’m also reading A TON of books for my summer independent reading (preparation for doctoral exams in January), so I’m sure I’ll be way ahead of schedule come mid-August. If I manage to keep up with the reading list, that is. HAH.

Now, the folks at The Broke and The Bookish say, specifically, “favorites.” Not best books, not top rated etc. So, “favorite” being the only qualifier, I have chosen 5 works of fiction and 5 works of non-fiction that I really enjoyed in this first half of the year. I could have included a poetry section, too, as I’ve read some great poetry in this first half of the year, but I spent too much time trimming each of these sections down from 10 works to 7 and, finally, to 5. So, yay for poetry but, no, it’s not making the list this time!

Fiction:

• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
• Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
• Imre: A Memorandum by Edward Prime-Stevenson
• The Stand by Stephen King
• Ulysses by James Joyce

Non-Fiction:

• Eminent Outlaws by Christopher Bram
• If This Isn’t Nice, What Is? by Kurt Vonnegut
• This is Water by David Foster Wallace
• The Lavender Scare by David K. Johnson
• Gay New York by George Chauncey

Have you read any of these? If so, what did you think?  And what are some of your own personal favorites so far this year?