All this week on Risky Regencies we’re going to discuss books we’ve read in the past year and books we plan to read in 2010.

It’s been a great year of “must-reads” for the Riskies, book-wise, Amanda’s and my (and Deb Marlowe’s) Diamonds of Welbourne Manor, Amanda’s High Seas Stowaway, Spirited Brides, The Winter Queen, The Maid’s Lover, my Gallant Officer, Forbidden Lady, The Unlacing of Miss Leigh; Janet’s A Most Lamentable Comedy, Carolyn’s Scandal, Indiscreet and her paranormal, My Forbidden Desire.

Even more exciting, this was the year I got my Kindle! As you might have heard me say, I LOVE MY KINDLE! I can take my Kindle anywhere. (Colleen Gleason aka Joss Ware even takes hers into the bathtub–in a ziplock bag)

Regency Historicals I’ve read on my Kindle include:
Lavinia Kent’s A Talent for Sin (nominated for Best First Historical by RTBook Reviews)
Mary Blayney’s Stranger’s Kiss (nominated for Best Innovative Historical by RTBook Reviews) – Way to go, Lavinia and Mary!

NonFiction books about the Regency that I’ve read on my Kindle include:
Regency England by John Plowright – a history about the life an times of Lord Liverpool.
Wedlock: The True Story of the Disastrous Marriage and Remarkable Divorce of Mary Eleanor Bowes, Countess of Strathmore by Wendy Moore – a fascinating story of a woman tricked into marriage and how she got out of it, pre-Regency, actually.
Waterloo Days by Charlotte Anne Waldie Eaton – a memoir that’s been very helpful in writing my Soldier books.

I’ve also been on a self-help kick. My Kindle Self-Help books include:
Finally Thin! How I Lost Over 200 Pounds and Kept Them Off–and How You Can, Too by Kim Benson – I love an inspirational weight-loss story
Breaking Murphy’s Law by Suzanne C Segerstrom PhD – a book about Optimism. I was sure it wouldn’t be good, but it was!
The Game of Life and How to Play It by Florence Scovel Shinn – a 1925 book foreshadowing The Law of Attraction.

For Christmas my sisters and I buy each other Gift Cards and I asked for Amazon.com gift cards. So now I have a tidy sum of $$ to purchase some 2010 books!

I’ve downloaded some samples to consider:
Last Lion: The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy by Peter S Canellos – a departure from my usual sort of book
The Ordeal of Elizabeth Marsh: A Woman in World History by Linda Colley – I think Janet (or Amanda? maybe Megan…) recommended this one, about a woman who lived in the 1700s
Fossil Hunter by Shelley Emling – about Mary Anning, who found the first ever dinosaur skeleton in 1811.

I’m just scratching the surface of possible books to buy. I’ll save some of the money for Romance books, more self-help (because I need a lot of it), and, of course, nonfiction, research books relating to the Regency.

I’m open to suggestions!

What books did you get for Christmas? If you got gift cards, what books are you planning to buy? And, most important, what books should I buy???

Come to my website. I’m about to pick a grand prize winner in my contest. There’s still time to enter!