This week’s Musing Mondays asks… “Now that we’ve come to the middle of the year, what do you think of your 2009 reading so far? Read anything interesting that you’d like to share? Any outstanding favourites?”

I was actually just starting to put together my June wrap-up post yesterday, which led to starting the end of year wrap-up post (because I wanted to do it before I got lazy again, and because it was good for procrastinating studying), so I can answer this question pretty easily!

My highest-rated (and, coincidentally, favorite) book of the year so far is Elantris, by Brandon Sanderson. I mentioned last week that I had actually returned this book to the library unread, so I’m very lucky that Scott read it while I had it the first time and coerced me into reading it. Sanderson writes some kick-ass female protagonists, so if that’s your cup of tea, you should check this one out.

I also want to pimp The Manual of Detection, a great book that I don’t think I’ve seen other reviews for outside of the one in BookPage that got me interested in the first place. This is a great mystery novel on so many levels and Berry just sucks you into this fantastical world he’s created with his brilliant writing.