Books I Read in 2010 - Part 1

This year I decided to keep track of the books I read by listing them in the sidebar. Now that the year is over, I thought that I'd give some of the highlights and lowlights of the books I read this year. All books have an Amazon link. There were a lot of books so I've split it up into two parts - Part 2 will be posted tomorrow (it's up now - here).


My Favorite Fiction Book: Storm Front by Jim Butcher

"Harry Dresden--Wizard
Lost items found. Paranormal investigations.
Consulting. Advice. Reasonable rates.
No Love Potions, Endless Purses, Parties, or Other Entertainment."

Yes! An urban fantasy series that's not a romance! No hot vampires! No sexy werewolves! And it's funny to boot - I want to read more!

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The Book I Wasn't Expecting to Like But Did: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

Two things made me think I would not like this book. First, it is completely written as letters from the characters to each other - when I started reading I thought that would be annoying but after a while I got used to it. Second, the title of this book reminded me of the cutesy books about ladies getting together over some sort of hobby (cooking, knitting, etc.), discovering themselves and whatnot but thankfully Guernsey is nothing like that! It's about the people on an isolated British island that was occupied by the Germans during WWII and what happens to them after war. But it's not dry at all - the characters are interesting and there is quite a bit of romance.

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The Book I Couldn't Finish: Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris

This book isn't officially on my list of books I read this year since I didn't actually finish it. It was another book club pick. It's supposed to be a workplace comedy which sounded perfect for us as we all met through a fansite for The Office television show. The book wasn't awful, exactly, but it was only mildly funny and the fact that the author writes page-long paragraphs made me give up on it before I came to the end (ha ha?).

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Here are some of the other books I read, each with a sentence or two summarizing my thoughts.

• The World According to Clarkson by Jeremy Clarkson
• Somehow I have become a fan of Top Gear (a BBC car show) and Jeremy is the show's lead presenter. He can be rude and offensive but also very funny.
• Tongues of Serpents by Naomi Novik 
• Dragons in Napoleonic England (or Australia in this book) - love this series!

• Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
• Interesting premise (ghosts), awesome local (Highgate cemetery in London), but the characters are dull and act unbelievably and the story just gets weird at the end.
• Unbearable Lightness by Portia de Rossi
•  Portia gives interesting insight into eating disorders; enjoyed it though the anorexia stuff made me squirm and I would've liked to know more about her life after the disorder.
• Mysterious America by Loren Coleman
• About "cryptids" - stuff like Bigfoot and skunk apes - in the US. Interesting if you are in to that sort of thing, though it does get a bit repetitive (What? Someone claims they've seen something but no one believes them?).
• The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

• Another book club book, about a mysterious English family and their long-lost daughter. I'm middle of the road on this one, it was good but way too long.
• Nightschool Vol 1-3 by Svetlana Chmakova
• Did I only read one graphic novel series this year? Guess so. This one was okay but not as good as Svetlana's other series, Dramacon.
• Fearless Fourteen by Janet Evanovich
• Standard Stephanie Plum but that's not bad. A quick, entertaining read.
• One for the Money by Janet Evanovich
• Went back to read the first Stephanie Plum for book club. We all loved it - it's still as good as it was a decade ago. I'm not a Katherine Heigl fan so I'm not looking forward to the movie.
• Not a Girl Detective by Susan Kandel
• Got this for a dollar at Walmart. It was worth the dollar.