Saturday, January 1, 2011

2010 Reading List

I thought I'd take a lesson from the alleged BBC list of books that made the Facebook rounds with the challenging (infuriating) claim that most people hadn't read them. As usual, I'm posting the list of books I read this past year, and this time I'd like you to do something similar to the BBC note: Delete all on my list but the ones you've read and post either in comments to my blog or post in a Facebook note (and tag me). I'd like to know which ones you liked best, etc. While you're at it, feel free to let me know some good books I missed.

(I realize now that I've not listed all the poetry collections and chapbooks I've read this year. That may be a separate post.)

Books I read in 2010:
Annie Proulx, Close Range
Victoria Vinton, The Jungle Law
Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall
Neil Gaiman, Anansi Boys
Gin Phillips, The Well and the Mine
Don DeLillo, The Falling Man
Phillipa Gregory, The Virgin Lover
Muriel Barbery, The Elegance of the Hedgehog
Norman Mailer, The Castle in the Forest
Ron Rash, Serena
David Small, Stitches
Michael Connelly, The Scarecrow
Helen Simonson, Major Pettigrew's Last Stand
Colum McCann, Let the Great World Spin
Billie Letts, Made in the USA
Barbara Kingsolver, Lacuna
Anita Shreve, A Change of Altitude
Anna Quindlen, Every Last One
Joanne Proulx, Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet
Francine Prose, Anne Frank
William Kamkwanba, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
Celia Rivenbark, You Can't Drink All Day if you Don't Start in the Morning
Gary D. Schmidt, The Wednesday Wars
Elizabeth Kostova, The Swan Thieves
Yann Martel, Beatrice and Virgil
Mary McDonagh Murphy, Scout, Atticus and Boo
Irene Latham, Leaving Gee's Bend
Benjamin Black, The Silver Swan
Donald Miller, A Million Miles in a Thousand Year
Nicholas Carr, The Shallows
Edward Dolnick, The Forger's Spell
Edward Bloor, Tangerine
David Mitchell, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
Bill Bryson, Notes from a Small Island
Amy Bloom, Where the God of Love Hangs Out
Ron Koertge, Shakespeare Makes the Playoffs
Stacy Morrison, Falling Apart in One Piece
Charles Portis, True Grit
Greg Iles, The Devil's Punchbowl
Kathryn Erskine, Mockingbird
Cathy Smith Bower, The Candle I Hold Up to See You
---. Book of Minutes
Adam Ross, Mr. Peanut
yoke Ogawa, The Housekeeper and the Professor
Jay Asher, Thirteen Reasons Why
Rebecca Wells, Ya-Yas in Bloom
Neely Tucker, Love in the Driest Season
Janet Evanovich, Finger Licking Fifteen
Louis Sachar, The Card Turner
Rebecca Skloot, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Tom Franklin, Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter
James Frey, A Million Little Pieces
Pat Conroy, My Reading Life
Nick Hornby, Juliet, Naked
Elizabeth Gilbert, Committed
Abraham Verghese, Cutting for Stone
Suzanne Collins, Hunger Games


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Location:Dateline: Hickory, NC


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2 comments:

Amber O said...

Our Overlaps: 13

Gin Phillips, The Well and the Mine (I read this one in 2009 and remember it felt like hearing my grandmother tell stories. It didn’t make my 2009 top ten, but it was awfully close.)
Muriel Barbery, The Elegance of the Hedgehog (Odd, but in a good way.)
Ron Rash, Serena (You introduced me to Ron Rash… literally! I haven’t found anything of his yet that I haven’t loved. This one is probably still my favorite of his. Just flat out creepy.)
Helen Simonson, Major Pettigrew's Last Stand (Definitely one of my favorites this year. Sweet without being sappy.)
Colum McCann, Let the Great World Spin (I enjoyed this one, but maybe not as much as Amazon and the rest of the world did. I think it made a whole bunch of “best of” lists.)
Barbara Kingsolver, Lacuna (It was a little slow in spots, but I still love me some Kingsolver.)
Anna Quindlen, Every Last One (Not a happy read, but I always enjoy Ms Quindlen.)
Celia Rivenbark, You Can't Drink All Day if you Don't Start in the Morning (I’m actually not sure I’ve read this one, but I know I’ve read a couple of hers, and she always makes me laugh out loud.)
Mary McDonagh Murphy, Scout, Atticus and Boo (A favorite, for obvious reasons.)
Donald Miller, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years (We’re no longer engaged, but I still love him.)
David Mitchell, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (LONG but good.)
Tom Franklin, Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter (This might be my favorite on this list. Possibly because I finished it only a week or two ago, so it’s fresh on my mind. Possibly because it's actually the best.)
James Frey, A Million Little Pieces (I read this years ago and loved it before the controversy. I don’t care if it’s flat out full of lies, it was still a great book. I loved the stream of consciousness thing and the intensity.)

Amber O said...

Oh yeah. Stuff you might've missed. I enjoyed Minrose Gwin's The Queen of Palmyra. (She's one of the authors I heard at the book fair in Nashville before we met up.) Alice I have Been by Melanie Benjamin is also worth reading. And I just finished Chad Gibbs' God and Football: Faith and Fanaticism in the SEC. While not a great literary work, it was a good read... both serious and laugh out loud funny at the same time.