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I read a lot of memoirs this years, mostly because that's what I'm trying to write when I'm not using my manuscript as a footrest in my truck.

Sarah Vowell's Assassination Vacation and Killing Yourself to Live by Chuck Klosterman both focused on death-inspired road trips. Vowell drove to the assassination locations of three U.S. presidents, and Chuck drove cross-country, visiting the deathplaces of rock stars. I preferred Sarah's work, and not just because she introduced me to the best nickname ever: Jinxy McDeath.

There were depressed mom memoirs: Marrit Ingman's Inconsolable and Tracey Thompson's The Ghost in the House", which happened to be book #25. Both books left me thinking, "Why in the hell am I writing a book about PPD/maternal depression when these two authors have already nailed it?" Excellent reads that made me cry, made my nod until my neck grew tired, and made me use my manuscript as a footrest in my truck.

I read most of the books written by members of The Memoirists Collective. One of the authors, Maria Dahvana Headley, contacted me on MySpace and made me feel all giddy and special, so I joined. Good reads, all of them: Maria's The Year of Yes chronicles the year in which she went out with every person who asked her. Danielle Trussoni's Falling Through the Earth depicts her life with her father, who suffered post-traumatic stress syndrome after serving as a tunnel rat in the Vietnam War. Josh Kilmer-Purcell's I Am Not Myself These Days focuses on his life as a NYC drag queen with a crack whore boyfriend. Collectively, good reads.

I read Haven Kimmel's She Got Up Off the Couch, because I love everything that comes from Ms. Kimmel's brain. I read The World According to Mimi Smartypants because, even though I'd read all of it on her blog, I felt the need to read it in book form, too.

And finally, I read three of the big, well-known memoirs. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion broke my heart, as did John Grogan's Marley and Me, although it's unfair to compare the two. Both are memoirs about love, family, and death. Both are excellent reads. But Didion's by far the more accomplished and skilled writer. Besides, "Marley and Me" gave me anxiety attacks about my dogs dying, so it loses cool points for that.

My top pick in the memoirs comes from the beginning of the year. The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer was book perfection, in my world. If it wasn't for the fact that I've saddled myself with this book quota, I would have read it twice.

And that leaves us with ten novels, ranked Casey Kasem/David Letterman style, with a preface that I think all ten are worthwhile reads:

10. What Do You Do All Day? by Amy Scheibe. Decent, but you'd be better off reading the Marrit Ingman and Tracey Thompson non-fiction books I mentioned earlier. Not to be a spoiler, but the final chapter almost landed this book in my "avoid at all costs" list.

9. Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld
8. The Man of My Dreams by Curtis Sittenfeld

I liked both. Really, I did. I was bothered by the fact that "The Man of My Dreams" was basically "Prep Lite". The main characters were virtually the same. They both had some issues in learning their lessons. But both books were engrossing, and Sittenfeld creates rich worlds.

7. Veronica by Mary Gaitskill. I feel like I should like this book more than I did, especially after reading Jodi's adoration of Gaitskill. It's beautifully written, no doubt. I just have problems when I don't like the main character, and I didn't like the main character of this book at all.

6. The Singing and Dancing Daughters of God by Tim Schaffert. I'm a sucker for a book about midwestern or southern eccentrics, and this chronicle of a family of Nebraska weirdos qualifies. Bonus points to Schaffert for offering a mix CD through his web site to accompany the book.

5. Plain Heathen Mischief by Martin Clark. I normally don't like mystery/thriller-types, but this one had enough humor and truly surprising turns to keep me hooked. One minute I'd be laughing, and the next minute I'd feel sick for the main character. Bonus points to Clark for commenting on my blog, even though he poked fun at me because Alan Jackson makes me sob.

4. The Ha-Ha by David King. Wonderfully written with a twist that had me mesmerized: a main character who can barely communicate. Such a unique, original, challenging perspective for an author to attempt. Beautiful story to boot.

3. Between, Georgia by Joshilyn Jackson. I love Jackson's modern take on Southern Gothic. Add another character with communication issues (a blind and deaf mother), and I'm hooked.

2. Which Brings Me to You by Steve Almond and Julianna Baggot. Remember Vox by Nicholson Baker, the smutty early-1990s novel that's nothing but the transcript of a conversation between two people on one of those 1-900 "party" phone lines? "Which Brings Me to You" is like that, only smarter, more heartfelt, and lovely. The book is nothing but letters exchanged between two people who nearly have a tryst after meeting at a wedding. The letters confess everything they've done wrong in relationships. This damn book almost derailed my entire quota, because when I finished, I immediately turned back to the beginning and would have happily read the book over and over for the rest of the year.

1. The Whole World Over by Julia Glass. No surprise, as Glass' Three Junes is one of my favorite novels. Her storytelling style is so gentle and beautiful. In this one, she manages to write about the least gentle and beautiful event in recent history - the 9/11 attacks - with gentle beauty. And I swear, I'm not going to say "gentle" and "beautiful" one more time, so I'm just going to shut up. Perfect.